Curious and Unusual Deaths

From the Deep (1x4)

Air date: Nov 21, 2009

Poison Pill: Bando Mitsugorio was one of Japan's most revered Kabuki actors from the 1930s until his death in January 1975. However, for all his fame during his life, Bando is probably best-known for his legendary death. At age 68, he visited a Kyoto restaurant with friends and ordered four livers of the fugu fish, which is widely-known to be extremely toxic. Claiming that he could survive their poisons, he ate the livers and, after seven hours, died of paralysis and convulsions. Sting Judy: In the Florida Keys, giant eagle stingray flew 6 ft. out of the water and landed on the face of a female sailor, killing her instantly. However, it was not the poisonous sting that took her life, but in fact the blunt force trauma of the eagly ray's hit. Over a Barrel: In 1920, 58 yr old part time daredevil, Charles Stephens, constructed what he believed was a foolproof vessel to carry him over Niagara Falls. He accounted for buoyancy, oxygen and impact, and made it safely over the falls. However, Stephens was remiss in devising his exit strategy and drowned inside the barrel.