The 1998 nominees are:
NOMINEE No. 1 [San Jose Mercury News]:
An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former
girlfriend's windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the
gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.
NOMINEE No. 2: [Kalamazoo Gazette]
James Burns, 34, (a mechanic) of Alamo, Mich., was killed in March
as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm-type truck."
Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung
underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns'
clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped
in the drive shaft."
NOMINEE No. 3: [Hickory Daily Record]
Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in
December in Newton, N.C. Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside
his bed, he reached for the phone but grabbed instead a Smith & Wesson .38
Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.
NOMINEE No. 4: [UPI, Toronto]
Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a
downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and
plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell
into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as
he was explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting
law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstrations of window
strength according to police reports. Peter Lawyers, managing partner of the
firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one
of the best and brightest" members of the 200-man association.
NOMINEE No. 5: [Bloomburg News Service]
A terrible diet and room with no ventilation are being blamed for
the death of a man who was killed by his own gas. There was no mark on
his body but an autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system.
His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple of
otherthings). It was just the right combination of foods. It appears that
the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was
hanging over his bed. Had he been outside or had his windows been opened, it
wouldn't have been fatal. But the man was shut up in his near
airtight bedroom. According to the article, "He was a big man with a huge
capacity for creating "this deadly gas." Three of the rescuers got sick and
one was hospitalized.
NOMINEE No. 6: [The News of the Weird.]
Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously. He had
spent several years awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder
conviction before having his sentence reduced to life in prison.
Whilst sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his
small
TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.
NOMINEE NO. 7: ["The Indianapolis Star"].
A cigarette lighter may have triggered fatal explosion - Dunkirk,
Indiana.
A Jay County man using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a
muzzleloader was killed Monday night when the weapon discharged in
his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in
his parents' rural Dunkirk home about 11:30 p.m. Investigators said
Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzleloader that had not been firing
properly.
He was using the lighter to look into the barrel when the gunpowder
ignited.
NOMINEE No. 8: [AP, St. Louis]
Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St. Louis
market. When the clerk threatened to call police, Puelo grabbed a hot dog,
shoved
t in his mouth, and walked out without paying for it. Police found
him unconscious in front of the store; paramedics removed the six-inch
wiener from his throat, where it had choked him to death.
NOMINEE No. 9: [Unknown]
To poacher Marino Malerba, who shot a stag standing above him on an
overhanging rock-and was killed instantly when it fell on him.
NOMINEE No. 10: [Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA]
Blasting Cap Explodes in Man's Mouth at Party. A man at a party
popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion
that blew off his lips, teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday.
Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during a
party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D.Payne. "Another man had it in an
aquarium, hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it," Payne
said. "It wouldn't go off" and this guy said, "'I'll show you how to set
it off."
NOMINEE No. 11: [Reuters, Mississauga, Ontario]
A man cleaning a birdfeeder on the balcony of his condominium
apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death. Stefan
Macko, 55, was standing on a wheeled chair when the accident
occurred, said Inspector D'Arcy Honer of the Peel regional police. "It appears
the chair moved and he went over the balcony," Honer said.
NOMINEE No. 12: [UPI, Portland, OR]
Doctors at Portland's University Hospital said Wednesday that an
Oregon man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive,
and will be released soon from the hospital. Tony Roberts, 25, lost his
right eye during an initiation into a men's rafting club, Mountain Men
Anonymous, in Grants Pass, OR. A friend tried to shoot a beer can
off his head, but the arrow entered Roberts' right eye. Doctors said had the
arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have cut
and Roberts would have died instantly. Neurosurgeon Dr. Johnny Delashaw
at the University Hospital in Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10
inches of brain, with the tip protruding at the rear of his skull, yet
somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said that if
Robert had tried to pull the arrow out he surely would have killed himself.
Roberts admitted afterwards the and his friends had been drinking
that afternoon. Said Roberts, "I feel so dumb about this."
NOMINEE No. 13 The Calgary Sun Saturday, December 28, 1996 VANCOUVER
(CP)
A man arguing over a love triangle accidentally shot himself in the
groin, taking off his testicles and part of his penis. Police said the man
was waving a .357 Magnum revolver around during the shouting match early
yesterday. But when he stuffed it back in his pants the gun went
off. Police were called to the hospital after friends brought in the man
in his 20s. Charges are pending against the victim, who is expected to
survive.
AND FINALLY, NOMINEE No. 14!!!: [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]
Two local men were seriously injured when their pick-up truck left
the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early
Monday morning. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident
shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray
Wallis, 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition at
Baptist Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were returning
to Des Arc after a froggigging trip. On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's
pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the
headlight fuse on the older model truck had burned out. As replacement fuse
was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his
pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel column. Upon
inserting the bullet, the headlights again began to operate properly
and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge.
After traveling approximately twenty miles and just before crossing the
river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the
right testicle. The vehicle swerved sharply to the right exiting the
pavement and striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions
from the accident, but will require surgery to repair the other wound.
Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God
we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his nuts off or we might
both be dead" stated Wallis. "I've been a trooper for ten years in this part
of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those
two would admit how this accident happened," said Snyder. Upon being
notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife asked how many frogs the boys
had caught and "did anyone get them from the truck.
