Curious and Unusual Deaths

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Curious and Unusual Deaths
Genre
Created byAndrew Kaufman
Marlo Miazga
Written byCarl Knutson
Directed byJohn Paizs and David Weaver (season 1)
Aaron Woodley (season 2)
Narrated by
Steve Herringer
Music byGreg Johnston
Country of originCanada
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes19
Production
ProducerMarlo Miazga
Production locations Ontario, Canada
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesLamport-Sheppard Entertainment
New Road Media (season 2)
ROGERS Telefund
Passion Distribution
Original release
Network Discovery Channel Canada
Investigation Discovery
ReleaseOctober 31, 2009 (2009-10-31) –
June 8, 2012 (2012-06-08)

Curious and Unusual Deaths is a Canadian historical documentary anthology television series aired on Discovery Channel Canada and Investigation Discovery from October 31, 2009 to June 8, 2012. [1] The show features real cause of strangest deaths based on events and incidents around the world. This show was similar to the American television series 1000 Ways to Die that was premiered on Spike in 2008.

Contents

At Work (Season 1, Episode 1)

Air date: October 31, 2009

A bible salesman is struck by lighting under a cloudless sky, a nuclear scientist accidentally explodes his research, and a lawyer tests a glass window on the 24th floor – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 40-year-old bookseller named Hailu Kidane Marian in Miami, Florida got fatally struck by lightning and died on July 8, 2007. He later died in the hospital.
  • Segment 2: A 24-year-old American physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. died of radiation poisoning in a critical mass experiment on September 15, 1945 in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
  • Segment 3: A 39-year-old Canadian lawyer Garry Hoy who fell from the 24th floor of his office building of the "unbreakable" window at the Toronto-Dominion Centre, died on July 9, 1993.

At Home (Season 1, Episode 2)

Air date: November 7, 2009

A pet lover falls into a cat dish filled with less than three-inches of water, an impatient man finds a way to make his Lava Lamp work faster, and a brick-layer is provoked to laugh for 25 minutes straight – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 28-year-old man named Peter John Robinson from Reefton, New Zealand died after he fell on ice and drowned in his cat's water bowl on August 15, 2001.
  • Segment 2: A 24-year-old man named Philip Quinn died when a lava lamp exploded in a stove penetrating his heart at Kent, Washington on November 28, 2004.
  • Segment 3: A 50-year-old man named Alex Mitchell from King's Lynn at Norfolk, England died of over 25 minutes of non-stop laughing, causing heart failure on March 24, 1975.

In a Contest (Season 1, Episode 3)

Air date: November 14, 2009

Engineering students see who can spit the furthest, a woman places second in a water-drinking competition, and a couple endures 86 hours of holding each other close – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 20-year-old unidentified man died after falling off a sixth-floor balcony during a party at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 21, 2004.
  • Segment 2: A 28-year-old woman named Jennifer Strange died of apparent water intoxication after participating in a contest by local radio station KDND 107.9 on January 12, 2007.
  • Segment 3: A 27-year-old man named Homer Morehouse collapsed and died of heart failure after dancing from a dance marathon for 87 consecutive hours at North Tonawanda, New York on April 14, 1923.

From the Deep (Season 1, Episode 4)

Air date: November 21, 2009

An arrogant artist eats a poisonous fish, a daredevil challenges Niagara Falls with a barrel and an anvil, and a sunbather gets personal with a giant stingray – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 68-year-old Japanese kabuki actor named Bandō Mitsugorō VIII visited a restaurant in Kyoto with his friends, He ordered four portions of puffer fish liver (Japanese: フグの肝/Hepburn: Fugu no Kimo); the liver of the puffer fish is mostly toxic and the sale is prohibited by local ordinaries and banned nationally in 1984. He ate one puffer fish liver and he initially survived the fish's poison; he ate the livers of the remaining puffer fish and he died following 8 hours of gradual paralysis and breathing difficulties at Kyoto, Japan on January 16, 1975.
  • Segment 2: A 58-year-old man named Charles Stephens died while attempting to go over Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, leaving his severed arm in a barrel on July 11, 1920.
  • Segment 3: A 55-year-old Michigan woman named Judy Kay Zagorski died of blunt force injury when an eagle ray jumped out of the water at Vaca Keys, Florida on March 20, 2008.

Against the Clock (Season 1, Episode 5)

Air date: November 28, 2009

An unemployed man plays an on-line video game for 50 hours, two stowaways try to fly to China in a wheel well, and famous whisky man Jack Daniels loses his toe – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 61-year-old American distiller Jack Daniel died of sepsis infection or blood poisoning in his right foot after trying to open the vault but kicked it painfully at Lynchburg, Tennessee on October 9, 1911.
  • Segment 2: In Paris, France located at Air France Flight 112/Boeing 777, Two unidentified men died of hypothermia and one fell on approach to Pudong International Airport on January 23, 2003.
  • Segment 3: A 28-year-old South Korean man named Lee Seung-seop who played a non-stop online game for nearly 50 hours, died of starvation, dehydration and heart failure on August 5, 2005.

By Their Own Invention (Season 1, Episode 6)

Air date: December 5, 2009

A hoarder booby-traps his brownstone, a French tailor tests an experimental glider off the Eiffel Tower, and famous scientist, Marie Curie is radiant about her discovery – all with fatal results.
  • Segment 1: A 66-year-old Polish-French physicist and chemist named Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia on July 4, 1934.
  • Segment 2: A 33-year-old Austrian-French inventor Franz Reichelt died falling off the Eiffel Tower, "flying," at Paris, France on February 4, 1912.
  • Segment 3: The Collyer brothers such as their names 65-year-old Homer and 61-year-old Langley Collyer, ultimately died inside their cluttered home of hoarded items at Harlem, New York on March 21, 1947.

Deaths in New York (Season 2, Episode 1)

Air date: March 16, 2012

The infrastructure of a city the size of New York needs daily repairs. When servicing systems that big and complex, you better know what you're doing. A steam explosion below ground kills a woman several stories above ground & a woman is electrocuted stepping on a metal grating on the street.
  • Segment 1: A 43-year-old city worker named Archie Tyler died after going down the drain in The Bronx, New York on March 2, 2001.
  • Segment 2: In New York, The Gramercy Park asbestos steam exploded and fatally killed a con ed worker in the 3rd floor and injured 24 people, But unfortunately a 28-year-old mother tragically died on August 19, 1989.
  • Segment 3: A 30-year-old architect and pedestrian named Jodie Lane got electrocuted while walking through New York's East Village with her two dogs. Her dogs were shocked first; when she tried to help them, she stepped onto the electrified metal cover of a utility box on January 16, 2004.

Rich and Famous Deaths (Season 2, Episode 2)

Air date: March 23, 2012

Unusual deaths don't happen only to usual people. Brandon Lee, Rasputin and Isadora Duncan died in curious ways. Though in Rasputin's case he had even more curious cases of surviving death.
  • Segment 1: A 28-year-old American actor Brandon Lee died on a set of The Crow on March 31, 1993 in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was posthumously cast when the movie was released in 1994 after his death.
  • Segment 2: A 47-year-old Russian mystic and faith healer Grigori Rasputin tried failing assassination attempts but unfortunately died of gunshot wounds and killed at Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 30, (O.S. December 17,) 1916.
  • Segment 3: A 50-year-old American dancer and choreographer Isadora Duncan died of strangulation by her scarf on September 14, 1927 in Nice, France.

Death by Sports (Season 2, Episode 3)

Air date: March 30, 2012

Today's lessons to help you stay alive: From baseball - don't try to predict an unpredictable pitch. From fishing - don't turn your back on the ocean. It will get in ways you'll never expect. From a professional tennis player - almost safe isn't safe.
  • Segment 1: A 29-year-old baseball player named Ray Chapman died from blunt-force trauma from a baseball targeting at his head at Polo Grounds, New York on August 17, 1920.
  • Segment 2: A 37-year-old beach visitor and a fisherman named John Raymond Wilson died trapped in quicksand at Crystal Beach, Galveston, Texas on May 23, 2005.
  • Segment 3: A 40-year-old Lithuanian-American professional tennis player named Vitas Gerulaitis died by carbon monoxide gas poisoning from an improperly installed heater, causing it to seep into the guesthouse until the maid discovered the body at Southampton, New York on September 17, 1994.

Death by Handiwork (Season 2, Episode 4)

Air date: April 6, 2012

Thinking that doing your own repairs isn't dangerous is almost as stupid as what these people did. These do it yourselfers do it to themselves with a home-made sauna, electric chair and microwave oven.
  • Segment 1: An incident occurred when one man died of hypothermia and heart failure while one woman survived in the sauna being stuck at Hamburg, Germany on June 24, 1994.
  • Segment 2: A 43-year-old inmate named Charles Justice at the Ohio State Penitentiary when he was executed by electric chair improves the prison's electric chair only to be put to death in the same chair on October 27, 1911. His criminal career reportedly began at age 22, when he was found guilty of burglary and theft in Greene County. He was arrested for robbery and murder.
  • Segment 3: A 65-year-old man named Clarence Aarons got electrocuted by a microwave at his home at Nicholas County, Kentucky and died tragically on January 5, 1998.

Death by Security Measures (Season 2, Episode 5)

Air date: April 13, 2012

As if it's not embarrassing enough to die in a freak accident, how about being killed by your own security system. These victims are killed by a home-made electric fence, his own booby trap and an electronic hotel door lock.
  • Segment 1: An accident occurred where an unidentified man died after fatally electrocuted by plucking a tomato from the electric fence at Denver, Colorado on April 22, 2000.
  • Segment 2: A 79-year-old former chemical engineer named Louis Dethy died after being shot on the booby traps at Charleroi, Belgium on October 6, 2002.
  • Segment 3: A 18-year-old woman named Milka Sloan died after pushing the door key which caused a defect on the air conditioner or the cord caused an electrical charge to travel through the concrete walk outside her room and to the metal door frame, Which the electrical charge passed through the door key and electrocuted her to death on June 24, 1995.

Killed by a Remedy (Season 2, Episode 6)

Air date: April 20, 2012

You wouldn't expect your wardrobe to hold you captive in a closet for a week. And following you doctor's instructions when combining medical treatments is a given because a quick tan shouldn't feel like a day in the Sahara.
  • Segment 1: A 48-year-old English scientist named Basil Brown died drinking 10 gallons of carrot juice which caused his skin to be colored orange at Croydon, England on February 17, 1974.
  • Segment 2: A 51-year-old man at Cambridgeshire, England named Ronald McClagish died trapped inside his bedroom cupboard for a week, and he was stuck in the closet and unfortunately succumbed to bronchitis before he was found. The paramedics pronounced McClagish dead on February 15, 2004.
  • Segment 3: A 45-year-old woman named Patsy Campbell from Portage, Indiana, died of sepsis and suffered second-degree burns covering 70% of her body at the tanning bed on May 24, 1989.

Death by Innocent Pastimes (Season 2, Episode 7)

Air date: April 27, 2012

  • Segment 1: A 25-year-old chemistry student named Viktor Likhonos died after chewing gum using citric acid many times but he inadvertently dipped a gum of phosphorus until it explodes damaging his jaw and mouth on December 5, 2009.
  • Segment 2: A 40-year-old woman named Janet Parker at Birmingham, England died of smallpox virus after a laboratory accident while Henry Bedson took his own life while in quaratine at a garden shed on September 6 and the victim on September 11, 1978.
  • Segment 3: A fisherman in his 20s died after fatal electrocution at the stormy sea at Queensland, Australia on November 28, 2001.

Death by the Great Outdoors (Season 2, Episode 8)

Air date: May 4, 2012

  • Segment 1: A 30-year-old kite launching director named Steve Edeiken (or Ivan Lester McGuire) died of multiple injuries when his ankle got entangled in the lines of the Jalbert parafoil kite. He plunged 100 feet to the ground, dying at Long Beach, Washington on September 24, 1983.
  • Segment 2: A group of campers tragically died after consuming a keg of beer containing the dead copperhead snake which occurred at an outing camp in the mountains at Welch, West Virginia on July 31, 1907.
  • Segment 3: A 16-year-old golfer named Jeremy T. Brenno died from hitting a bench with his golf club out of frustration and piercing his heart, killing him instantly at the Kingsboro Golf Club in Grovesville, New York on July 9, 1994.

Death by Routine Maintenance (Season 2, Episode 9)

Air date: May 11, 2012

  • Segment 1: An 18-year-old man named Ricardo Alberto Martinez died in a car wash entangled by wires and automatic brushes at Wyoming, Michigan on August 31, 2007.
  • Segment 2: An 43-year-old playwright named Margo Jones died after was reportedly unaware of the danger and spent several hours working in the apartment while the toxic fumes lingered and she inhaled the colorless, sweet-smelling vapors, which led to acute kidney failure but after cleaning the rug filled with carbon tetrachloride poisoning at Dallas, Texas on July 24, 1955.
  • Segment 3: An incident occurred when two couples died after inhaling from the hydrogen sulfide gas seeped into their motel unit at Rotorua, New Zealand on September 24, 1987.

Death by Mechanical Breakdown (Season 2, Episode 10)

Air date: May 18, 2012

  • Segment 1: An incident occurred when a 56-year-old unidentified woman died of the cooking pot pressure cooker exploded before cooking beet stew at Winslow, Indiana on July 29, 2008.
  • Segment 2: A 21-year-old man named Jeff Reese died of rapid overweight loss, heart malfunction, and kidney failure following the deaths of Billy Jack Saylor and Joseph LaRosa at Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 9, 1997.
  • Segment 3: A 33-year-old Léa Guilbeault was tragically killed when a 270 kg (600 lbs) concrete slab detached from the 18th floor of the Marriott Residence Inn in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada on July 16, 2009.

Trapped in Death (Season 2, Episode 11)

Air date: May 25, 2012

  • Segment 1: A 18-year-old man named Matthew Gauruder died after falling off the large dried hole in the sands at Hartford, Connecticut on June 1, 2001.
  • Segment 2: A 26-year-old man named John Edward Jones died when stuck for more than 24 hours at Nutty Putty Cave in Utah County, Utah on November 24, 2009.
  • Segment 3: A 24-year-old Soviet fighter pilot named Valentin Bondarenko died in a fire burning by an oxygen-rich atmosphere by an accidental death at Moscow, USSR on March 23, 1961.

Death by Hardware (Season 2, Episode 12)

Air date: June 1, 2012

  • Segment 1: A 17-year-old man named Jason Findley died of electrocution of cause of a lightning strike using the telephone in his grandparents' house in Scotch Plains, New Jersey on May 21, 1985.
  • Segment 2: A 41-year-old man named Paul Gauci died using a butterfly bomb as a mallet as he welded in Rabat, Malta as the butterfly bomb exploded and killed him on October 1, 1981.
  • Segment 3: An incident occurred when a 56-year-old unidentified man died after inhaling hydrogen cyanide poisoning from the fatal fire by the lithium-ion battery caused by the overheating and ignition of a laptop battery, One woman survived was able to escape from the residence at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on February 26, 2009.

Death by Mechanical Breakdown (Season 2, Episode 13)

Air date: June 8, 2012

  • Segment 1: A 16-year-old woman named Tanya Nickens died by drowning in the hot tub at a prom party at Wall Township, New Jersey on May 25, 1996.
  • Segment 2: An accident at the Byford Dolphin oil rig, located in the North Sea off the coast of Norway, cost five people their lives in a particularly horrifying way. The five fatalities identified as Edwin Arthur Coward, Roy P. Lucas, Bjørn Giæver Bergersen, William Crammond, and Truls Hellevik. One who survived at the accident was Martin Saunders, The incident shocked the public and led to more stringent safety regulations for those diving at inhospitable depths of the controversy on November 5, 1983.
  • Segment 3: A 79-year-old man named John Oram died after suffering violent sneezes which causes him minor brain trauma and died at Devon County, England on July 16, 2009.

Seasons

SeasonEpisodesPremiere dateFinale date
1 6October 31, 2009December 5, 2009
2 13March 16, 2012June 8, 2012

Series overview

SeasonEpisodesOriginally released
First releasedLast released
16October 31, 2009 (2009-10-31)December 5, 2009 (2009-12-05)
213March 16, 2012 (2012-03-16)June 8, 2012 (2012-06-08)

Season 1 (2009)

The first season of Curious and Unusual Deaths aired from October 31 to December 5, 2009 by Discovery Channel Canada and Investigation Discovery.

No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date


Season 2 (2012)

The first season of Curious and Unusual Deaths aired from March 16 to June 8, 2012 by Discovery Channel Canada and Investigation Discovery.

No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date

Foreign names

See also

Further reading

References


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