Category:
Death

Questo/Touch Fabric from Allied Chemicals

I'd love to know exactly what this miracle fabric was made of, but can't find any description of it.

The ad reminds me of the famous Monty Python skit where a man is executed by a running pack of topless women. See beyond the jump.





More in extended >>

Posted By: Paul - Tue May 09, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Fashion, Advertising, 1960s, Women

RIP Yon Zircle Bowlin

Yon Zircle Bowlin died last week at the age of 94. His weird claim to fame was that he was the final-born member of the Bowlin "alphabet family."

His parents, Allen and Sarah Bowlin, named all their kids in alphabetical order (first and middle names). They ended up having 13 kids, completing the alphabet.

The 13 kids: Audie Bryant, Curtis Drue, Era Faye, Grady Hampton, Ida Jeanette, Knola Leantha, Millard Nathan, Olivia Penelopi, Quincy Ruth, Sarah Thelma, Ulysses Vinson, Wilson Xava, and Yon Zircle.

Yon Zircle's obituary: Brown Funeral Home

Montgomery Advertiser - Feb 15, 1950

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 27, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Death, Odd Names

Death by metric system

1976: Leonard Dodge "hung himself — because he could not cope with the change-over to metrication, it was suggested at the inquest on him."

Devon Herald Express - Oct 9, 1976

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 20, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Suicide, 1970s

The Mole Torpedo

Weapon tunnels through the earth to the enemy. Why is this not in constant use today? Too easy nowadays to sense seismic activity?


Full patent here.




Posted By: Paul - Mon Apr 10, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Death, Inventions, Patents, War

Biggest gratuity ever?

In 1941, when Dolores Moran was 15, she worked as a waitress at a drive-in restaurant in San Jose, California. One day she served a local farmer some coffee and hamburger. The next year Moran left San Jose and moved to Hollywood where she achieved brief fame as an actress.

Dolores Moran. Image source: wikipedia



By the 1960s her acting career had ended. But then, in 1968, Moran learned that the farmer she had served at the drive-in 27 years ago had died, leaving her his apricot orchard valued at around $300,000 (or $2.5 million in today's money).

Moran had no memory of serving the farmer, whose name was Anthony Ponce. Nor had the two ever communicated since then. She said, "for the life of me I can't remember the man." But evidently she had made a big impression on him.

Monroe News Star - Dec 18, 1968



Ponce's relatives contested the will, arguing that he was not of sound mind when he made it. I haven't been able to find out how the case was settled, but I'm guessing Moran got to keep the orchard since it's usually fairly difficult to invalidate a will.

If she did get to keep it, then that would have to count as one of the biggest gratuities of all time. Perhaps the biggest? Especially for an order of coffee and hamburger.

Peninsula Times Tribune - Feb 19, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 06, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Law, Restaurants, Actors

Deathbed Wedding




Source.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 01, 2023 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, 1900s, Weddings

Robin orders sparrow to be shot

Aug 1979: Frustrated by a sparrow that was chirping in his church when a guitar recital was going to be recorded, Rev. Robin Clark ordered the bird to be shot.

I'm sure that, after that, no one made a sound during the recital.

The Vancouver Columbian - Aug 8, 1979



I couldn't find a recording of the sparrow-death recital, but here's some music by Konrad Ragossnig.

Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 31, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Animals, Death, Music

Unlikely Reasons for Murder No. 13



Source: The News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)03 Apr 1912

Posted By: Paul - Thu Mar 23, 2023 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Money, Teenagers, 1910s

The Hurricane Party of 1969

Based on the press coverage from 1969, it sounds like the couples who remained in the path of Hurricane Camille to have a "hurricane party" certainly deserved to become Darwin Award winners (bestowed on them in 2000 by Wendy Northcutt in her Darwin Awards book).

At least 15 persons died at Pass Christian. The victims included five couples who were having a hurricane party in a three-story apartment. Police Chief Jerry Peralta couldn't make them leave.

"The last time I went up to try to get them out, the water was just over the sea wall. They were having a good time and they wouldn't leave. That's the last anybody saw of them," he said.

Orlando Evening Star - Aug 19, 1969



But digging deeper into the story, thirty years after the hurricane people began challenging the tale of a "hurricane party." According to the debunkers, there was no party, and the people who stayed had been told by the apartment manager that the building could withstand a hurricane because it was a designated Civil Defense shelter.

One apartment resident who survived the hurricane continued to insist that the people on the third floor had been having a party. But this woman also claimed insanity as the reason she killed her 11th husband. So not the most credible witness.

More info: Hurricane Camille party in 1969: Fact or fiction? -- Hurricane Party

image source: Acts of God: the Old farmer's almanac unpredictable guide to weather and natural disasters

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 21, 2023 - Comments (6)
Category: Death, Dinners, Banquets, Parties, Tributes, Roasts and Other Celebrations, 1960s, Weather

Running Bear

The singer's Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 18, 2023 - Comments (8)
Category: Death, Music, 1960s, Native Americans

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Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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