Poltergeist Curse

Many people are convinced that the Poltergeist films have been cursed, causing the deaths of several cast members.  Whether the series was cursed or not, the deaths are real.  Two of the stars from the first film died at young ages and two cast members from the second film also died.  22-year-old Dominique Dunne, who played Dana Freeling, died on November 4th, 1982 after she had been choked into a coma by her boyfriend.  12-year-old Heather O’Rourke died in 1988 of septic shock.  What her doctors thought was the flu turned out to be a bowel obstruction that created a deadly sepsis.  She died while waiting to undergo surgery to remove the obstruction.  Her death occurred in the period between filming and release.  60-year-old Julian Beck, who played the evil preacher Kane in the second film, died of stomach cancer in 1985.  Like O’Rourke, he also died in the period between filming and the release of the movie.  53-year-old Will Sampson, who played Taylor in the second film, died in 1987 after receiving a heart and lung transplant six weeks earlier.  The cause of his death was unclear, but it’s suspected that pre-operative malnutrition was a huge contributer, as well as post-operative kidney failure and a fungal infection.  Ok, so these could be nothing more than coincidences.  These deaths aren’t exactly violent, mysterious and rare occurrences, but the unusually high death rate among cast members was enough to create rumors about the “evil” content of the movie that was supposedly causing these deadly incidents.

Outlaw’s Corpse Becomes Side-Show Attraction

In 1976, a Univeral Studios camera crew arrived at the Nu-Pike Amusement Park in Long Beach, CA, to set up in anticipation of filming a new episode of an action show called The Six Million Dollar Man.  While preparing the set, a worker attempted to move one of the props, the so-called “hanging man,” when one of his arms snapped off.  Inside of it, he noticed it was a human bone.  The body is rumored to be that of Elmer McCurdy, a bandit who, in 1911, had robbed a train of $46 and two jugs of whiskey in Oklahoma.  When he announced to the posse in pursuit of him that they would never take him alive, he was shot and killed in a shoot-out.  His body was subsequently embalmed and used as a side-show attraction.  The undertaker used the corpse as his main source of income, allowing on-lookers to drop coins inside his open mouth.  The undertaker would later collect the money.  No one ever showed up to claim the body of Elmer McCurdy, so the undertaker continued to use him as a money-maker.  In 1915, two men showed up and, claiming they were McCurdy’s brothers, took him, claiming they would give him a decent burial.  In actuality, however, the “brothers” were actually carnival promoters, looking to make money off the corpse just as the undertaker had done.  He was exhibited throughout Texas and showed up in fun houses and amusement parks all over the country.  By the time the Universal Studios crew discovered McCurdy in 1976, the corpse had already been in the possession of the Nu-Pike Amusement Park for four years.  In April, 1977, McCurdy was finally laid to rest in Guthrie, Oklahoma.  To prevent grave robbing, however, the medical examiner ordered that McCurdy’s coffin be covered in two cubic yards of cement before being buried.

Diver in a Tree

There was something like this in an episode of CSI, but this story goes a little differently.  While assessing the damage done by a forest fire, authorities found a corpse in a tree in a burnt-out section of forest.  The body was wearing a full wetsuit, complete with a dive tank, flippers, and face mask.  An autopsy revealed that the diver had not died from burns, as would be assumed, but rather from massive internal injuries.  Once they realized the cause of death, investigators set out to understand how a diver ended up in a tree.  They discovered that on the day of the fire, the diver had set out on a diving expedition off the coast, 20 miles from where he was found.  The firefighters had called in several helicopters equipped with large buckets to assist in getting the fire under control.  The buckets were then dipped into the ocean and brought to the fire successively.  From what investigators can deduce, the diver was apparently scooped up in the large bucket during a filling cycle, carried to the fire, and dropped into the tree.  It was estimated that he extinguished about 1.78 meters of the fire.

Deadly Game of Hide and Seek

During the wedding reception of a young couple at the bride’s grandmother’s home, the guests decided to play hide-and-seek.  The game was a long-standing tradition in the bride’s family, so it seemed an appropriate and entertaining game to play with her new husband’s family.  The groom was “it” and all the other guests hid.  Knowing the perfect hiding place, the bride immediately ran up to the attic.  The groom eventually found everyone in the wedding party…except his new bride.  The groom and the guests searched tirelessly for the bride.  Hours went by and eventually a rumor went around that she had had second thoughts about the wedding and took off.  Dejected, the groom eventually gave up his fruitless search for his bride, finally accepting that he needed to move on.  Nearly a decade later, the grandmother had died.  So the bride’s sister was in the process of cleaning out her grandmother’s attic.  There she found a very large, old chest.  Curious to see what trinkets were within, she opened it.  There lay the decayed body of her sister, still in her wedding dress.  Apparently, when she had crawled in the trunk to hide, the lid had slammed down on her and latched shut, forever trapping her within.  It is unclear whether she had suffocated or died from dehydration, but it is clear her last hours of life were full of terror.  Her fingernails were lodged on the inside of the trunk and her face was frozen in a scream.

Drug Baby

A couple and their 4-year-old son were exploring the Mexican border town of Tijuana.  As they perused the local shops, their attention was diverted just long enough for their toddler to be stolen.  The couple searched frantically for their baby or the kidnappers, but couldn’t locate either.  Even the local police came up with nothing.  Eventually, they were forced to leave the town without their son.  While crossing the border back into the U.S., the mother spots her child in a truck several vehicles over.  She gets out of the car and runs to her son, making a scene and getting the attention of the border police.  When she reaches him, however, she realizes that he’s dead.  The kidnappers had killed, disemboweled, and stuffed his little body with illegal drugs, intending to smuggle them into the U.S.

Bra Infestation

I’ve heard a few variations of this story, and most sources claim this isn’t true, but I think there could be some possibility of something like this occurring.  After returning from an expedition to South America, anthropologist Susan Mckinley noticed a very strange rash on her left breast.  She quickly dismissed it as a minor irritation, believing it would resolve itself on it’s own.  After she started developing an intense pain in her breast, she decided to see a doctor.  The doctor was unsure of the problem, deciding that oral and cream antibiotics.  As time lapsed, the pain did not subside and her breast became inflamed and often bled.  She wrapped her wounds in bandages to prevent further infection and decided to consult with a specialist by the name of Dr. Lynch.  However, he was also stumped by Susan’s mysterious disease and referred her to one of his colleagues, a dermatologist.  Unfortunately, she had to wait two weeks to see the doctor as he was on vacation.  When she finally got into the doctor’s office, she unwrapped her bandages exposing living bot fly larvae, squirming and growing within the pores and wounds of Susan’s breast.  The holes were much deeper than she first imagined, allowing the larvae to thrive off the fat, tissue and even the milk canals of her breast.  While this particular story may not be true, myiasis, or the infestation of fly larvae (maggots) in living flesh, is a real medical condition, so it’s very likely that a majority of this story holds true.  People claim that myiasis can occur when clothes are hung out to dry, but not ironed before being worn.  Others claim that wearing a new bra without washing it also puts you at risk for larvae infestation, since it’s theorized that maggots infest the bra wherever it’s made (usually in a third world country).

Karma?

In 1994, Richard Opus attempted suicide by jumping off a 10-story building.  At his autopsy, however, the medical examiner found that he had died from a shotgun wound to the head.  It turns out that as Richard was falling past the ninth floor, shotgun pellets went through a window and killed him instantly.  Richard was unaware that a safety net had been installed on the building in case of such incidents, so it’s likely that he would have lived through the fall had he not been shot.  Because Richard had set out to kill himself, and ultimately succeeded, though not through the way he had intended, his death ordinarily would have still been considered a suicide.  However, the medical examiner thought that his death should be ruled as a homicide because Richard would have otherwise survived the fall.  Upon investigation, he found that the room on the ninth floor was occupied by an elderly couple who often argued vigorously.  The husband explained that he often threatened his wife with the shotgun, but he never loaded it.  During this argument, however, the gun had been loaded and, because he was so upset, he pulled the trigger and completely missed his wife, aiming the pellets out the window instead and striking Richard Opus.  When faced with the murder charge, the husband and wife were appalled.  It was a long-standing habit that the husband threaten the wife with the unloaded shotgun and that he had no intention to murder her.  Therefore, the murder of Richard Opus appeared to be an accident.  After further investigation, a witness claimed he saw the couple’s grown son loading the shotgun six weeks before the accident.  His mother had apparently cut him off financially and he was looking for revenge.  He knew his father often threatened his mother with the shotgun, so he loaded it, thinking that this time he would finally kill her.  It now appeared that the son was Richard Opus’ murderer.  The real twist in this story?  Upon further investigation, it was revealed that the couple’s grown son was, in fact, Richard Opus.  After becoming despondent over the failure to kill his mother, he decided to take his own life by jumping off the building his parents lived in.  The medical examiner decided that Richard Opus had actually murdered himself, so the case was closed as a suicide.

Overkill

Jacques LeFevrier left no room for error in his suicide plot.  He tied a noose around his neck, tied the other end to a large rock, and stood at the top of a sheer cliff overlooking the sea.  He ingested poison and lit his clothes on fire.  At the last moment, he shot himself with a pistol.  The bullet completely missed Jacques, and instead sliced through the rope strung around his neck.  He plunged into the sea, extinguishing the flames and causing him to throw up the poison.  He was then rescued by a fisherman and immediately taken to the hospital…where he died from hypothermia. 

Tractor Death

In 2002 in Wichita, Kansas, a 21-year-old farm boy was harvesting his family’s winter wheat.  The harvester he was driving had huge rotating blades that cut down the wheat stalks and collected the crop.  While he was harvesting, a gust of wind blew the cowboy hat off his head and near the blades of the machinery.  Sure that the harvester was moving too slowly to be a danger, he jumped off the machine to grab his hat.  He ventured too close to the blades, however, and he became entangled in the huge blades.  His body was found scattered across the field after authorities were alerted to a harvester crossing the highway without a driver.

Gas Attack

An obese man was found dead in his bedroom.  Since there were no physical marks on his body, the cause of death was unclear.  An autopsy, however, revealed that the most likely cause of death was death by extreme gas attack.  Large amounts of methane were found dissolved in his blood stream.  His diet consisted mainly of gaseous foods, such as beans and cabbage; just the right combination to create a deadly poison.  His room had been virtually air-tight; according to the medical examiner, had the windows been open, the gas would have been diffused.  It appears the man had died in his sleep after breathing in his own poisonous fumes hovering above his bed.  Three of the rescuers who attempted to come to his aid also got ill from the fumes and one was even hospitalized.

Head Explosion

During a chess tournament in Moscow, Nikolai Titov’s head suddenly exploded.  Doctor’s claim that Titov suffered from a rare electrical balance in the brain, called Hyper-Cerebral Electrosis, or HCE.  The violence of the explosion caused blood and brain matter to spray four of the players and three of the officials.  Titov’s opponent claims that “he was deep in concentration, with his eyes on the board.  Suddenly his hands flew to his temples and he screamed in pain.  Then, as if someone had put a bomb in his cranium, his head popped like a firecracker.”  Five people with HCE in the last 25 years have experienced the same fate as Titov.  The condition causes the brain to become overloaded with it’s own electrical currents.  Explosions are most likely to occur during periods of intense mental activity.  The victims are generally very intelligent people, such as chessmaster Titov, who often keep their cerebral circuits overloaded.  Doctors warn that while death from HCE is rare, HCE itself is not as rare since many people are unaware of the condition and go undiagnosed.