People die all the time, but sometimes the way they go out is just too heartbreaking. Throughout history, there have been all kinds of tragic deaths that have left an impression on the world. Here, we’ll look at the top 10 most tragic deaths in history that still have us talking about today.
10. Sean Doyle
Sean Doyle fell down a manhole in New York City during the holiday season of 2002. He dove into litres of boiling water with a temperature of above 148°C. Due to the heat, the rescue workers could not remove his body and were forced to listen to him cry as he burned to death. Later, when he was brought to the hospital, his body temperature was 125 degrees; the medical examiners assumed it was much higher, but thermometers don’t go any higher. According to coroners, his blood pressure soared, prompting him to have a heart attack. A heated froth developed as his insides began to boil, searing his neck and eventually choking him. His entire outer layer of skin had peeled away, and his inside organs had been roasted to death. He didn’t have any broken bones or brain damage, so he was completely in his senses as he boiled to death.
9. William Wallace
The death of William Wallace occurred on August 23, 1305. After being found guilty of treason, Wallace was transported to the Tower of London, where his clothes were removed, and he was bound to a hurdle and carried through the streets by horses. As if that wasn’t horrible enough, people who were watching flung faeces and debris at the Scottish hero along the voyage. He was thrashed with rods and whipped by the mob as he passed by. As if Wallace’s predicament wasn’t awful enough, he was also found guilty of robbery and murder and was condemned to death for both crimes. Unfortunately, Wallace did not find rest when he was strung up with a rope around his neck — he wasn’t allowed to die. The testicles and penis of William Wallace were chopped off as the following phase of this horrible process. His intestines were then removed and burned right in front of his eyes. And we’re not even close to being done. The pulling of Wallace’s heart from his chest was the next step in this agonising ordeal. Wallace’s heart was removed from his body, but we don’t know if it was still beating. The final stage was to hack Wallace’s head off with an axe for completeness.
8. Deborah Gail Stone
Debbi was a new Disneyland employee when she was crushed to death between a spinning wall and a stationary stage wall at the “America Sings” attraction in 1974. The recent Santa Ana High School graduate had accepted a job as a hostess at the attraction to supplement her income before heading off to college in the fall. Her sudden death, which devastated her town and prompted enhanced safety procedures at Disney theme parks, was known for her beauty and generosity.
7. Byford Dolphin accident
It is regarded as one of the worst offshore drilling disasters in history. On November 5, 1983, five persons were killed while working on a Norwegian semi-submersible oil rig in a gas area in the North Sea. They were in a decompression chamber system when the chamber decompressed explosively. The pressure in the chamber dropped from nine atmospheres to one atmosphere in a millisecond. The men were all murdered quickly. However, the one closest to the entrance died the most violently. He blew up. According to several who witnessed it, it looked like someone was shaking a pop bottle and opening the cap.
6. György Dózsa
György Dózsa is executed as a penalty for a failed revolt in a perverse twist of a royal coronation. Dózsa had led an unsuccessful peasant uprising against the Hungarian nobles. Dózsa’s sentence made a mockery of his ambition to rule. He was stripped practically nude and seated on a scorching iron throne, wearing a fiery iron crown and wielding a red-hot sceptre. Strips of his flesh were ripped from him as he was being cooked to death and given to some of his followers, who were also taken, prisoner. If the followers refused to consume the flesh of their former leader after being famished for several days, they were slain.
5. Balthasar Gerard
Balthasar Gerard is the only person on this list who may be said to have deserved what he received. Still, it wasn’t a great way to go. After shooting William I of Orange twice with a handgun, Gerard murdered the Dutch independence leader. He was later apprehended, tried, and executed — a terrible death even by today’s standards. Gérard was suspended from a pole and beaten with a whip on the first night of his detention. His wounds were then covered with honey, and a goat was brought in to suck the honey from his skin with its sharp tongue. After this and other torments, he was left to spend the night with his wrists and feet bound together in a ball, making it difficult to sleep. He was constantly insulted and hung on a pole with his hands bound behind his back for the next three days. Then, for half an hour, the weight was placed on his big toes. He was subsequently forced to wear dog-skin shoes that were two fingers too small for his feet, further injuring them. He was placed in front of a fire while in this state. The heat made his shoe contract further, turning his feet like stumps. His half-broiled flesh was removed with his shoes when they were removed later. He was then branded at the armpits as if that wasn’t bad enough. Gérard was executed on July 14, 1584.
4. Giles Corey
Giles Corey was stoned to death during the Salem Witch Trials for refusing to submit a plea to the accusations of witchcraft levelled against him. Sheriff George Corwin, charged with extracting a plea, led Corey to a pit beside the jail, stripping him naked and forcing him to lie down in the hole. Six men put huge stones atop a board placed on top of him over three days. “More weight,” the old man informed the sheriff each time he returned to seek Corey’s plea. Giles died as a result of the rocks’ weight.
3. David Allen Kirwan
David Allen Kirwan was a 24-year-old man from La Canada, California who died on July 20, 1981, after attempting to rescue his friend’s dog from a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park. The dog had jumped into the Celestine Pool, a hot spring with water temperature measured at over 200°F 3. Despite warnings from bystanders, Kirwan dove head-first into the boiling spring to rescue the dog. He suffered third-degree burns on over 100 percent of his body and died the next day. The dog, named Moosie, did not survive. Its body was never recovered from the pool.
2. Hisashi Ouchi
Hisashi Ouchi, 35, worked as a technician at a nuclear power plant. Tokaimura, a Japanese nuclear fuel conversion company, owns it. The date was September 30, 1999. Hisashi was subjected to the most radiation that any human has ever been exposed to in recorded history. Hiroshi Ouchi was subjected to the most heinous torture imaginable. He was kept alive for three months by Japanese medics who wanted to observe the effects of radiation after getting a fatal dosage of radiation during work. Hiroshi’s skin and muscles began to fall apart a few days later, and his stomach began to melt. It’s difficult to conceive such anguish.
1. Junko Furuta
Junko Furuta, a 16-year-old Japanese girl, was raped and tortured for 44 days before succumbing to death. A random boy assaulted Junko while she was riding her bicycle home from her part-time job on November 25, 1988. She had no idea that he and three other high school boys were plotting to kidnap her. Junko’s darkest and final days on earth came 44 days later. She had been beaten and malnourished for a long time. Her internal organs had been brutalised to the point where she lost control of her urination and bowel movements. They urinated on her, hung her from the ceiling and used her as a punching bag, crushed her stomach with dumbbells, smashed her face against the cement floor, beat her with golf clubs and iron rods, forced her to eat live cockroaches and drink her urine, made her sleep on the cold balcony, stuck her in a freezer for hours, and twisted off one of her nipples with pliers because it was winter. The guys challenged her to a mahjong game on January 4, 1989. Even though she was traumatised, she still beat them to the game, and enraged them. They doused her in gasoline and lit her on fire. She passed away just a few hours later.
These are just some of the many unfortunate deaths that have happened throughout history. While some of these were accidents or natural occurrences, others were caused by humans being cruel or violent. We may never know how much pain these people went through, but their stories can be a reminder to us all that life is precious and to not take any moment for granted.