Strange departures

A Wikepedia article provides a lengthy list of unusual deaths. Here are just a few:

NO THANKS:

• In ~ 620 BC, the Athenian law-maker Draco smothered to death when appreciative citizens showered him with gifts of cloaks.

BE KIND TO ANIMALS:

• In 207 BC, the Greek philosopher Chrysippus laughed himself to death after giving his donkey wine.
• In 162 BC, Eleazar Maccabeus was crushed to death by a war elephant after he rushed beneath the elephant and stabbed it with a spear; the elephant then fell dead on top of him.
• Carl Hulsey died in 1991 after his pet goat butted him to death. Hulsey frequently hit the goat with a stick to make it more aggressive so it could serve as a “guard goat”.
• Earlier this year, Jose Lius Ochoa, who was attending a cock-fight, died after he was stabbed in the leg by a bird that had a knife attached to its limb.

LOVE CAN BE DANGEROUS:

• In 882, King Louis III of France rode off on his horse in amorous pursuit of a woman who fled into a building. He pursued on his horse and died when he struck his head on the top of the door frame.
• In 1667, James Betts asphyxiated when Elizabeth Spencer sealed him in a cupboard in order to hide him from her father, John Spencer.

DON’T TAKE THE ROLE TOO SERIOUSLY:

• French actor and playwright Molière died in 1673 during a violent coughing fit which he experienced while playing the lead role in Le Malade Imaginaire (The Hypochondriac).

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING:

• In 1771, the king of Sweden, Adolph Frederick, died of digestion problems after eating a meal which consisted of lobster, caviar, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne followed by 14 servings of semla served in hot milk. Semla is a popular dessert in Sweden.
• Basil Brown, a 48-year-old health food advocate, drank himself to death with carrot juice in 1974.

TOO LITTLE OF A GOOD THING:

• Kurt Gödel, who suffered from paranoia and thus refused to eat anything not prepared by his wife, starved to death in 1978 when his wife was hospitalized.

TAKING THINGS TOO LITERALLY CAN BE LETHAL:

• In 1871, Clement Vallandigham was the defense attorney for a man accused of murder. He was showing the jury that the victim could have accidentally shot himself while drawing the gun. Vallandigham’s gun discharged, killing him. The client was acquitted.
• Marcus Garvey died as a result of strokes he suffered in 1940 after reading a rather uncomplimentary (and premature) obituary of himself.
• Toronto attorney Garry Hoy died in 1993 while demonstrating that the glass in his 24th floor office was “unbreakable”. He hurled himself against the window and fell to his death when the window (which, indeed, did NOT break) popped out of the window frame.

BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH:

• 76-year-old Edward Juchniewicz died of a head injury in 1991 after the stretcher on which he was strapped rolled down the hill and overturned while the ambulance attendants spoke to the physician’s staff.