Robert Wadlow

popular name: Ed Warren

date_of_death: August 23, 2006

age: 79

cause_of_death: Complications from a stroke

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Ed Warren was a world renowned paranormal researcher and ghosthunter and was half of the husband and wife team of Ed and Lorraine Warren, Seekers of the Supernatural. The team was often asked to assist in numerous police investigations involving satanic ritualistic murders, and were in high demand by hundreds of colleges and universities to speak on the subject of the supernatural. Ed and his wife, Lorraine, have co-authored ten books on the subject of the supernatural. Two of the books were made into made for television movies, The Demon Murder Case and The Haunted. They were among only a handful of investigators asked to investigate the Amityville Horror Case, and were consultants on the first Amityville Horror film. At his passing, Ed Warren was one of only seven religious demonologists in the nation.

popular name: Amelia Maggia

date_of_death: September 12, 1922

age: 25

cause_of_death: Radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Amelia ‘Mollie’ Maggia was the middle child of seven Maggia sisters; listed in order of age: Louise, Clara, Albina, Mollie, Quinta, Irma and Josephine. Children of Italian immigrants, Albina, Mollie, Quinta and Irma all worked in the radium-dial factory. Mollie was an exceptional dial-painter – but paid the price. She was the first dial-painter to die in September 1922. The initial effects of radium seemed harmless, and the substance was popular amongst the younger girls in the factory. They would go home from a day of painting with their clothes glowing from the radium exposure. Some would even paint the buttons on their dresses or their nails, but the joy of the radium glow was short lived. Long-term radiation sickness symptoms soon became present among many of the women who worked with radium paint. Common issues included bone cancer, anemia, lesions, and sores. These problems were exhibited in Amelia Maggia, the first dial painter to die from radiation sickness. Amelia worked in the factory for almost a decade and was known to be a diligent employee. Amelia had initially gone to the doctor complaining of a toothache and got an extraction. However, the ache in her jaw continued. During a routine exam, when the doctor gently probed here jaw, her jawbone literally fell out of her mouth into his hands. Upon closer examination he found extensive deterioration of her lower jaw bone and tissue damage from the radiation. Most of her jaw was removed and she developed severe anemia and lesions with massive infections. Amelia passed away in September of 1922 at the age of 25 when the radiation caused a jugular vein to rupture and she bled to death in front of her family. Her death was wrongly attributed to syphilis.

popular name: Charles Blondin

date_of_death: February 22, 1897

age: 72

cause_of_death: Diabetes

claim_to_fame: The Odd and the Interesting

best_know_for: Charles Blondin was a French tightrope walker and acrobat. During the winter of 1858, a 34-year-old French acrobat traveled to Niagara Falls hoping to become the first person to cross the “boiling cataract.” Noting the masses of ice and snow on either bank and the violent whirls of wind circling the gorge, Blondin delayed the grand event until he would have better weather. He always worked without a net, believing that preparing for disaster only made one more likely to occur. Known for his numerous crossings of the 1,100 ft (340 m) Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, he added a touch of showmanship - once stopping midway to cook an omelette and once carrying his manager on his back. Believe it or not, he died in bed at the ripe age of 72.