Barney Hill

popular name: Lawnchair Larry

date_of_death: October 6, 1993

age: 44

cause_of_death: Suicide - Gunshot to heart

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Lawnchair Larry was an American truck driver who made a 45-minute flight in a homemade airship made of an ordinary patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft, named 'Inspiration I', and with a couple of sandwiches, a bottle of Coke, a radio transmitter and a BB gun, rose to an altitude of over approximately 15,000 feet (4,600 m). Lawnchair Larry floated from the point of takeoff in San Pedro, California, into and violating controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. Armed with a couple of sandwiches, a bottle of Coke, a radio transmitter and a BB gun,During the landing, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to safely climb down. The flight attracted worldwide media attention and inspired a later movie and imitators. Lawnchair Larry was awarded the title of "At-Risk Survivor" in the 1993 Darwin Awards.

popular name: Mary E. Hart

date_of_death: October 15, 1872

age: 47

cause_of_death: Unknown

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: As the story goes, at 48 years old Mary E. Hart, as she was known in life, “just drops to the floor” one day at midnight. Believing her dead, her family had her buried at Evergreen Cemetery the very next day. However, one night her aunt has a terrible nightmare that Mary’s not actually dead. The aunt eventually convinces the family to exhume the body, and when they open the coffin, they find Mary’s nails bloodied from scratching and a petrified look on her face as if she died of asphyxiation. Legend has it that she may of just suffered a stroke when she fell to the floor, her family not realizing she was still alive. So now urban legend has it that Midnight Mary haunts Evergreen Cemetery and will curse anyone with certain death if they are found in the graveyard at midnight or caught desecrating her grave.

popular name: Robert Wadlow

date_of_death: July 15, 1940

age: 22

cause_of_death: Wound infection

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Robert Pershing Wadlow, also known as Alton's Gentle Giant and the Giant of Illinois, was an American man who was the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. He was born and raised in Alton, Illinois, a small city near St. Louis, Missouri. His great size and his continued growth in adulthood were due to hypertrophy of his pituitary gland, which results in an abnormally high level of human growth hormone (HGH). By the time of his graduation from Alton High School in 1936, he was 8 feet 4 inches tall and measured almost 9 feet tall at the time of his death. Wadlow became a celebrity after his 1936 U.S. tour with the Ringling Brothers Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden in the center ring (never in the sideshow). During his appearances, he dressed in his everyday clothes and refused the circus's request that he wear a top hat and tails. In 1938, he began a promotional tour with the International Shoe Company, which provided him shoes free of charge, again only in his everyday street clothes. Wadlow saw himself as working in advertising, not exhibiting as a freak. He possessed great physical strength until the last few days of his life. He was buried at Alton Cemetery (aka Oakwood Cemetery) in Alton, Illinois.