Amazing People Who Cheated Death

Death can cause howling and screaming or a calm transition into the mysterious hereafter, and sometimes “The Slayer” just seems to ignore what is most obviously a bulls eye. The following list contains ten unbelievable but amazingly true accounts of human beings that beat death. Some of these “cheaters of death” are still among us (as of this posting).

Phineas Gage

On September 13, 1848, Gage (a railway worker) was packing a hole with gunpowder, adding a fuse and sand, and then packing the charge down with a large tamping iron. The gunpowder ignited and the iron bar shot through his left cheek bone and exited out the top of his head, and was later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident. Within minutes he was up and walking. A few days later he had fungus of the brain. A couple of weeks after, 8 fluid ounces of pus from an abscess under his scalp was released. Damage to Gage’s frontal cortex had resulted in a complete loss of social inhibitions, which often led to inappropriate behavior. He was no longer the same Gage that his friend’s and family knew. Today his skull and the iron bar that shot through it are on display at Boston’s Warren Anatomical Museum.

Ben Carpenter

When crossing the street in Paw Paw, Ben Carpenter, 21 years old and wheelchair bound, was “picked up” accidentally by a truck. He was pushed by the semi-truck for 4 miles at 50mph, after the arms of his wheelchair got stuck in the grill. The story goes that the driver had stopped at a red light, and couldn’t see Carpenter crossing in front of him. The light changed and Carpenter ended up having the ride of a lifetime. “What I learned is that I never would want to be a Hollywood celebrity,” he said after all the fuss being made by TV and newspapers. “I don’t know how they do it with the TV cameras and people taking their picture all the time. I went through it, and it was OK for a while, but a couple days was enough.”

Ann Hodges

Sylacauga, Alabama 1954. While Hodges was napping on her living room couch, a grapefruit-sized meteoroid crashed through her roof and ricocheted off her large wooden console radio, before it struck her on the arm and hip. She was badly bruised but able to walk. The Air Force arrived and took the meteorite from her. Ann’s husband, Eugene, hired a lawyer to get it back. Then the landlord claimed it, wanting to sell it in order to cover the damage done to the roof. By the time the meteorite was returned to Ann and Eugene (over a year later) public attention had diminished and they were unable to find a buyer willing to pay much for the 8.5 pound alien chondrite rock. Against her husband’s wishes, Ann donated it to the Alabama Museum of Natural History, where it can be seen today.

Roy C. Sullivan

The chances of being struck by lightning are very slim; the chances of being struck by lightning twice (on different days) is seemingly impossible; so what are the odds of being struck by lightning seven times? With our world record holder, Roy Sullivan, the events happened as follows:

1942 – Sullivan was hit for the first time when he was in a lookout tower. The lightning bolt struck him in a leg and he lost a nail on his big toe.
1969 – The second bolt hit him in his truck when he was driving on a mountain road. It knocked him unconscious and burned his eyebrows.
1970 – The third strike burned his left shoulder while in his front yard.
1972 – The next hit happened in a ranger station. The strike set his hair on fire. After that, he began to carry a pitcher of water with him.
1973 – A lightning bolt hit Sullivan on the head, blasted him out of his car, and again set his hair on fire.
1974 – Sullivan was struck by the sixth bolt in a campground, injuring his ankle.
1977 – The seventh and final lightning bolt hit him when he was fishing. Sullivan was hospitalized for burns in his chest and stomach.

His “lightning hats” are on display in New York’s and South Carolina’ s Guinness World Exhibit Hall.

Shannon Malloy

Shannon Malloy was in a car crash that caused her to be internally decapitated; her spine was separated from her skull and all connecting ligaments and tendons were cut loose. Despite this, she managed to survive. Shannon had to endure several surgeries, one “fusing her skull to her spinal cord; she suffered nerve damage that made her eyes constantly cross and limited her speech ability. Her pelvis and ankle were severely broken, but could not be repaired until swelling in the brain and spinal cord reduced” (Associated Content).

Ludger Sylbaris

On the day before the Pelee eruption, Sylbaris was locked in a single-cell, partially-under ground with stone walls, ventilated only through a narrow grating in the door which faced away from Pelee. His prison was the most sheltered building in the city, and it was this fact which saved his life.

On the day of the eruption, it grew very dark. Hot air mixed with fine ashes entered his cell through the door grating, despite his efforts in urinating on his clothing and stuffing it in the door. The heat lasted only a short moment, enough to cause deep burns on his hands, arms, legs, and back, but his clothes did not ignite, and he avoided breathing the searing-hot air.

Superheated steam and volcanic gases and dust, with temperatures reaching over 1000 °C. flattened the buildings in the city and the entire population burned or suffocated to death. When I visited beautiful Martinique in 1989, and saw the jail cell, which still stands, Sylbaris was said to be the only survivor, but in fact there was one other man and possibly two children.

Vesna Vulovic

It was 26 days into 1972, when 22 year old flight attendant, Vesna Vulovic found herself at 33,000 feet in the air and quickly descending to the earth without a parachute. JAT Flight JU 367 had been cruising over Srbska-Kamenice (now the Czech Republic) when an explosion occurred (The terrorist group, Croatian National Movement was named as responsible for the deaths of all but one) and as astonishing as it sounds V.V. survived with a “fractured skull, two broken legs and three broken vertebrae, which left her temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. She regained the use of her legs after surgery and continues to fly sporadically” She holds the Guiness World Record for the highest freefall.

Ahad Israfil

“I try to appreciate things a lot more. You never know what moment you won’t be there.” In 1987, an accidental discharge of a gun blew half of 14 year old Israfil’s brains away, yet he survived and later graduated with honors.

Doctors were able to fill the hole with a silicone block, “the flap of skin was pulled over and hair grew back, giving him a fairly normal appearance.” Cranioplast was used to put the “icing on the cake” (Dayton Daily News)

Richard Blass

In 1968, the first mafia attempt against this canadian gangster took place. Two hired gunmen entered a bar where he was enjoying some drinks. Although shot at multiple times, Blass was able to escape unscathed.

Two weeks later, Blass was tracked by the mafia in a motel named “Le Manoir de Plaisance”, in a Montreal suburb. The motel was set on fire and three people died, but Blass escaped the blaze. Police investigation indicated arson as the fire’s cause.

In October, Richard Blass was injured by shots to the head and back after being ambushed with his partner inside a garage. The two were able to save their lives by driving through the garage door. Blass required hospitalization for his wounds.

In January, 1969, a bungled bank robbery and a shot cop, put Blass in jail. Within the first year of serving four consecutive terms of ten years in jail, Blass managed to escape. He was caught, thrown back in the slammer, and escaped a second time. With a spurt of freedom, and blood in his eyes, he set out and killed two co-conspirators in a bar, that had testified against him. Everyone else in the bar was locked in and the place set on fire. Three days later, Blass’ death finally came when he was shot 23 times.

During his life Blass was given the nickname, “The Cat”, because of his luck in evading death.

Isidro Mejia

He’s nail free today, but in 2004, Mejia was doing construction work on the roof of a house when he fell. The fall didn’t kill him, but the six 3 1/2 inch nails that accidentally shot into his neck and skull certainly should have. He survived because the nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord.

Scientists who Committed Suicide

In many cases this has lead to self-murder.

Alan Turing

Alan Turing was an English scientist, mathematician, logician, and cryptographer, and arguably the greatest British scientist of the 20th century.

Often considered to be the father of modern computer science, Turing provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. With the Turing test, he made a significant and characteristically provocative contribution to the debate regarding artificial intelligence: whether it will ever be possible to say that a machine is conscious and can think. He later worked at the National Physical Laboratory, creating one of the first designs for a stored-program computer, although it was never actually built. In 1948 he moved to the University of Manchester to work on the Manchester Mark I, then emerging as one of the world’s earliest true computers.

During the Second World War Turing worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s code-breaking centre, and was for a time head of Hut 8, the section responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. He was largely responsible for the breaking of the German Enigma code.

In 1952, he was convicted of ‘Acts of Gross Indecency’, after admitting a sexual relationship with another man. He was given a choice between 18 months prison time (which considering his crime, was not exactly wise), or chemical castration, which included side effects such as breast enlargement. He chose the latter.

On the 8th June 1954, unable to endure the humiliation and pain of his punishment, Turing took his own life by eating an apple laced with cyanide. Despite this, it would take another 13 years for homosexuality to be decriminalised in the Britain.

Wallace Carothers

Wallace Hume Carothers was an American chemist, credited with the invention of Nylon.

Carothers was a group leader in DuPont’s Experimental Station laboratory, near Wilmington, Delaware, where most polymer research was done. In addition to first developing nylon, also helped lay the groundwork for Neoprene. After receiving his Ph.D, he taught at several universities before he was hired by the DuPont Company to work on fundamental research.

After his monumental discovery, Carothers suffered depression stemming from ‘inventor’s block’, which coupled with the sudden death of his sister, caused him to take his own life by poisoning in 1937. He was 41 at the time.

George Eastman

George Eastman, born in Waterville, New York in 1854, founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream, and setting the seeds for the invention of motion picture film in 1888.

In 1874, Eastman became intrigued with photography, but was frustrated by the awkward method that required coating a glass plate with a liquid emulsion that had to be used before it dried. In 1884, he patented a photographic medium that replaced fragile glass plates with a photo-emulsion coated on paper rolls. The invention of roll film greatly speeded up the process of recording multiple images. On September 4th 1888 Eastman registered the trademark Kodak.

In 1932, Eastman committed suicide, leaving a note that read, “My work is done. Why wait?” He is buried in Rochester, New York.

Nicolas Leblanc

Nicolas Leblanc was a French chemist and surgeon, famed for being the first person to manufacture soda from common salt.

Born in 1742, Leblanc developed an interest in medicine at a young age and enrolled in the Paris College of Surgeons in 1759. In 1780, he became private physician to the household of Louis Philip II, Duke of Orleans.

In 1775, the French Academy of Sciences offered a prize for a process whereby soda ash could be produced from salt. The French Academy wanted to promote the production of much-needed sodium carbonate from inexpensive sodium chloride. By 1791, Nicolas Leblanc had succeeded in producing sodium carbonate from salt by a 2-step process. The prize was awarded to Nicolas Leblanc for a process which used sea salt and sulphuric acid as the raw materials. Later, a plant of his own was in operation producing 320 tons of soda ash per year.

Two years later the plant was confiscated by the French revolutionary government, which refused to pay him the prize money he had earned ten years earlier.

In 1802, Napoleon returned the plant (but not the prize money) to him, but by then Leblanc was so broke he could not afford to run it. He killed himself in 1806.

Edwin Armstrong

Edwin Armstrong, born on December 18th 1890, was an American electrical engineer, who invented FM radio. He first began work on the idea of FM radio at university, and patented his idea in 1914.

However numerous patent disputes, and a blocking attempt by the Radio Corporation of America, who thought it would destroy AM radio, halted its advancement.

Determined that FM radio would never succeed, Armstrong jumped from the 13th floor of his apartment in 1954. He was 63 at the time.

Hans Berger

Hans Berger, born in Neuses, Germany in 1873, is best known as the first person to record electroencephalograms (EEGs) from human subjects and is the discoverer of the rhythmic Alpha brain waves.

Berger studied medicine, neurology, psychiatry and psychology at the University of Jena. He concentrated on neurology, and following the pioneering work done by British scientist Richard Caton on animals, successfully recorded the first EEG from a human in 1924. This allowed him to discover the alpha wave and described, for the first time, the effect epilepsy had on the brain.

Disturbed by the rise of Nazism and the effects of the Second World War, Berger hanged himself on June 1st 1941.

Valeri Legasov

Valeri Alekseevich Legasov was a prominent Soviet scientist in the field of inorganic chemistry, a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He is most famous for his work as the chief of the investigation committee of the Chernobyl disaster on April 26th 1986.

After the Chernobyl disaster, Legasov became a key member of the government commission formed to investigate the causes of the catastrophe and to plan the liquidation of its consequences. In August, 1986 he presented the report of the Soviet delegation at the special meeting of International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. His report struck the Western colleagues with the depth of analysis and full honesty in discussing the extent and consequences of the tragedy.

Legasov’s open and firm stance, however, caused a lot of trouble for him at home: the Soviet government was very uncomfortable with the frankness and rigor of his position. As a result, when in 1986-1987 his name was twice entered into the list for those to be awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor in recognition for his work, both times it was rejected: the second time his name was crossed out by Gorbachev himself.

Having exposed himself to the radiation on the ground of Chernobyl, Legasov’s health began to rapidly deteriorate, which coupled with his depression over his lack of recognition, led him to take his own life on April 27th 1988.

On September 20, 1996 Russian President Boris Yeltsin conferred to Legasov the honorary title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously) for his “courage and heroism” shown in the course of the liquidation of the after-effects of Chernobyl disaster.

Ludwig Boltzmann

Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist famous for his founding contributions in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics. He was one of the most important advocates for atomic theory when that scientific model was still highly controversial.

Born in Vienna, February 20th 1844, Boltzmann attended the University of Vienna, gaining a PhD degree at age 22, and becoming Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Graz at age 25. In 1893, he achieved his goal of becoming Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Vienna, succeeding his old mentor, Joseph Stefan.

Most likely suffering from bipolar disorder, Boltzmann took his own life while on holiday with his family. He is buried in Vienna in a tombstone that reads S=k*logW.

David Kelly

David Christopher Kelly was an employee of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MoD), an expert in biological warfare and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq.

His doubts about the veracity of the WMD dossier compiled by the Blair Government caused a political scandal, and he was forced to attend a Parliamentary committee hearing about the remarks. A modest man, David Kelly was savagely grilled by the Committee, and spoke in a voice so soft that the air conditioning had to be turned off so that his words could be heard.

On July 17th 2003, Kelly went on his daily walk through the Oxfordshire country, and, according to the official report, swallowed up to 29 painkillers and slashed his wrist.

However, many figures, including MPs and paramedics, continue to raise doubts over the exact cause of Kelly’s death, with some going to so far as to say it was murder.

Viktor Meyer

Viktor Meyer was a German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic chemistry. Born in Berlin in 1848, he is best known for inventing an apparatus to measure vapour densities, the Viktor Meyer apparatus, and for discovering thiophene.

A hugely gifted chemist, Meyer was a workaholic whose taxing lifestyle took tolls on his nervous system. After a series of mental breakdowns, he killed himself by taking cyanide in 1897, at the age of 49.

Things You Didn't Know About Steve Jobs

For all of his years in the spotlight at the helm of Apple, Steve Jobs in many ways remains an inscrutable figure — even in his death. Fiercely private, Jobs concealed most specifics about his personal life, from his curious family life to the details of his battle with pancreatic cancer — a disease that ultimately claimed him on Wednesday, at the age of 56.

Early life and childhood

Jobs was born in San Francisco on February 24, 1955. He was adopted shortly after his birth and reared near Mountain View, California by a couple named Clara and Paul Jobs. His adoptive father — a term that Jobs openly objected to — was a machinist for a laser company and his mother worked as an accountant.

Later in life, Jobs discovered the identities of his estranged parents. His birth mother, Joanne Simpson, was a graduate student at the time and later a speech pathologist; his biological father, Abdulfattah John Jandali, was a Syrian Muslim who left the country at age 18 and reportedly now serves as the vice president of a Reno, Nevada casino. While Jobs reconnected with Simpson in later years, he and his biological father remained estranged.

College dropout

The lead mind behind the most successful company on the planet never graduated from college, in fact, he didn't even get close. After graduating from high school in Cupertino, California — a town now synonymous with 1 Infinite Loop, Apple's headquarters — Jobs enrolled in Reed College in 1972. Jobs stayed at Reed (a liberal arts university in Portland, Oregon) for only one semester, dropping out quickly due to the financial burden the private school's steep tuition placed on his parents.

In his famous 2005 commencement speech to Stanford University, Jobs said of his time at Reed: "It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5 cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple."

Fibbed to his Apple co-founder about a job at Atari

Jobs is well known for his innovations in personal computing, mobile tech, and software, but he also helped create one of the best known video games of all-time. In 1975, Jobs was tapped by Atari to work on the Pong-like game Breakout.

He was reportedly offered $750 for his development work, with the possibility of an extra $100 for each chip eliminated from the game's final design. Jobs recruited Steve Wozniak (later one of Apple's other founders) to help him with the challenge. Wozniak managed to whittle the prototype's design down so much that Atari paid out a $5,000 bonus — but Jobs kept the bonus for himself, and paid his unsuspecting friend only $375, according to Wozniak's own autobiography.

The wife he leaves behind

Like the rest of his family life, Jobs kept his marriage out of the public eye. Thinking back on his legacy conjures images of him commanding the stage in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans, and those solo moments are his most iconic. But at home in Palo Alto, Jobs was raising a family with his wife, Laurene, an entrepreneur who attended the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton business school and later received her MBA at Stanford, where she first met her future husband.

For all of his single-minded dedication to the company he built from the ground up, Jobs actually skipped a meeting to take Laurene on their first date: "I was in the parking lot with the key in the car, and I thought to myself, 'If this is my last night on earth, would I rather spend it at a business meeting or with this woman?' I ran across the parking lot, asked her if she'd have dinner with me. She said yes, we walked into town and we've been together ever since."

In 1991, Jobs and Powell were married in the Ahwahnee Hotel at Yosemite National Park, and the marriage was officiated by Kobin Chino, a Zen Buddhist monk.

His sister is a famous author

Later in his life, Jobs crossed paths with his biological sister while seeking the identity of his birth parents. His sister, Mona Simpson (born Mona Jandali), is the well-known author of Anywhere But Here — a story about a mother and daughter that was later adapted into a film starring Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon.

After reuniting, Jobs and Simpson developed a close relationship. Of his sister, he told a New York Times interviewer: "We're family. She's one of my best friends in the world. I call her and talk to her every couple of days.'' Anywhere But Here is dedicated to "my brother Steve."

Celebrity romances

In The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, an unauthorized biography, a friend from Reed reveals that Jobs had a brief fling with folk singer Joan Baez. Baez confirmed the the two were close "briefly," though her romantic connection with Bob Dylan is much better known (Dylan was the Apple icon's favorite musician). The biography also notes that Jobs went out with actress Diane Keaton briefly.

His first daughter

When he was 23, Jobs and his high school girlfriend Chris Ann Brennan conceived a daughter, Lisa Brennan Jobs. She was born in 1978, just as Apple began picking up steam in the tech world. He and Brennan never married, and Jobs reportedly denied paternity for some time, going as far as stating that he was sterile in court documents. He went on to father three more children with Laurene Powell. After later mending their relationship, Jobs paid for his first daughter's education at Harvard. She graduated in 2000 and now works as a magazine writer.

Alternative lifestyle

In a few interviews, Jobs hinted at his early experience with the psychedelic drug LSD. Of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jobs said: "I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."

The connection has enough weight that Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who first synthesized (and took) LSD, appealed to Jobs for funding for research about the drug's therapeutic use.

In a book interview, Jobs called his experience with the drug "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." As Jobs himself has suggested, LSD may have contributed to the "think different" approach that still puts Apple's designs a head above the competition.

Jobs will forever be a visionary, and his personal life also reflects the forward-thinking, alternative approach that vaulted Apple to success. During a trip to India, Jobs visited a well-known ashram and returned to the U.S. as a Zen Buddhist.

Jobs was also a pescetarian who didn't consume most animal products, and didn't eat meat other than fish. A strong believer in Eastern medicine, he sought to treat his own cancer through alternative approaches and specialized diets before reluctantly seeking his first surgery for a cancerous tumor in 2004.

His fortune

As the CEO of the world's most valuable brand, Jobs pulled in a comically low annual salary of just $1. While the gesture isn't unheard of in the corporate world — Google's Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt all pocketed the same 100 penny salary annually — Jobs has kept his salary at $1 since 1997, the year he became Apple's lead executive. Of his salary, Jobs joked in 2007: "I get 50 cents a year for showing up, and the other 50 cents is based on my performance."

In early 2011, Jobs owned 5.5 million shares of Apple. After his death, Apple shares were valued at $377.64 — a roughly 43-fold growth in valuation over the last 10 years that shows no signs of slowing down.

He may only have taken in a single dollar per year, but Jobs leaves behind a vast fortune. The largest chunk of that wealth is the roughly $7 billion from the sale of Pixar to Disney in 2006. In 2011, with an estimated net worth of $8.3 billion, he was the 110th richest person in the world, according to Forbes. If Jobs hadn't sold his shares upon leaving Apple in 1985 (before returning to the company in 1996), he would be the world's fifth richest individual.

While there's no word yet on plans for his estate, Jobs leaves behind three children from his marriage to Laurene Jobs (Reed, Erin, and Eve), as well as his first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs.

Source: Yahoo

Remain Unsolved Murders

Servant Girl Annihilator

Mollie Smith is presumed to be the first victim of the “Servant Girl Annihilator”, a serial killer who was active in the Austin, Texas area in 1884 to 1885. Pre-dating Jack the Ripper’s killing spree by almost 4 years, the viciousness of his attacks left the public hysterical, and some even tried to tie the two series of murders together as the work of one killer. At least 7 young women’s deaths are attributed to the Annihilator, who not only raped his victims, but bludgeoned or slashed them to death. Sometimes the murder weapon was an axe, and several victims were stabbed by some sort of spike in the ears or the face. The killers habit was to drag his victim from her bed while she slept, and because of this method on at least two occasions the victim’s male bed mate was attacked as well, resulting in the bludgeoning death of Orange Washington. Numerous arrests were made up to this point, but lack of evidence or airtight alibis lead to the release of all suspects.

By September of 1885 The Servant Girl Annihilator had attacked 8 people, leaving 5 dead. Things were quiet for a few short months, then a change of M.O. On Christmas Eve, 1885, not 1 but 2 well to do white women were dragged from their respective beds, raped and axed to death. The husbands of each of these women were arrested and placed on trial. Through the infantile beginnings of forensic science, each man was proven innocent of the crimes and acquitted. The murders stopped and no one was ever convicted for them.

Back to the Ripper murders, which took place in Whitechapel, London, England in 1888. One suspect, who rarely gets mentioned by Ripperologists, was a Malay cook calling himself Maurice, a man who had threatened to kill Whitechapel prostitutes but who had then disappeared. In 1885 he had been employed at the Pearl House, a small hotel, in Austin, Texas. The information was confirmed, and it was ascertained that the cook had left the premises in January 1886. The Servant Girl murders had ended just weeks earlier and most of the victims resided not far from the Pearl House.

Lake Bodom Murders

Lake Bodom is a freshwater lake near the city of Helsinki in Finland. It is also the site of a grisly mass murder that happened on June 6, 1960. Early in the morning a group of four teenagers, 2 18 year old young men and 2 15 year old girls were savagely attacked by knife and bludgeon, while sleeping in a tent at the lake. The attack left three dead at the scene and a sole survivor, Nils Gustafsson, who was severely injured with a concussion and a broken jaw. He recovered from his injuries and went on to live a healthy life. Despite the fact that there was a survivor, there were no leads that could provide an arrest for the deadly attack.

Twelve years later, to the day, a man left a suicide note confessing to the murders. He said he was a lemonade vendor at the lake and later that night killed the young teens. But police investigation into this written confession proved that the man had not committed the crime, as he was asleep with his wife at the time of the murders. Another lead came in 2003, when Professor Jorma Palo published his account of a man he had treated in his hospital on the night of the murders. The man’s name was Hans Assmaann, and he was treated for “suspicious injuries”. Palo alleges that the man was the murderer but the crime was covered up because of Assmaan’s ties to the KGB.

The most confusing twist to the story is the arrest of Nils Gustafsson, the survivor of the attack, in 2004. It was 44 years after the crime and Gustafsson was now 62 years old. According to the official statement, “Gustafsson erupted in jealous anger over his feelings for his new girlfriend. She was stabbed multiple times after the fatal blow, while the two other teenagers were killed less savagely”. Despite having come to trial, blood evidence could not be linked to Gustafsson, and he was acquitted in 2005. In the name of fairness, Finland awarded Gustafsson a large monetary settlement “for mental suffering caused by the long remand time.”

Mary Pinchot Meyer

A New England socialite that was raised in full stereotypical fashion, Mary Pinchot Meyer is another one of the many women who has died because of an association to the Kennedys. A graduate of Brearly School and Vassar College, Mary took an early interest in communism and was a member of the American Labor Party. Working as a journalist for Mademoiselle magazine kept Mary in the finest of company among the political comers and the ingenues that they spent their time with. Nobody was surprised when she married Cord Meyer, a U.S. Marine lieutenant who was on his way up the ladder, in 1945. By 1947 she was happy to leave her job as editor of Atlantic Monthly, to become a stay at home mother to her three children. Meanwhile, Cord Meyer was able to secure a position with the CIA, and the fact that he was a member of the communist party was not an issue. In the early 50′s Cord Meyer became one of the primary operatives in “Operation Mockingbird”, a covert mission to sway public opinion, using mass media. Mary’s communist leanings may also have been useful to the CIA, but they deemed her many love affairs left her too “unreliable”.

In 1956, the death of Mary’s middle son paved the way for a divorce, and opened the door for a more adventurous love life, and Mary had no problem turning a long time friendship with John F. Kennedy into something more illicit. Now comes the weird part. It seems that at this point in time there was an underground plot among a small circle of upper socialite women to influence the decision making processes of high political figures (men) by using sex and LSD. Mary was one of this little group, and her target was JFK himself. Considering their affair occurred during the Bay of Pigs fiasco, it is quite possible she DID have some influence on his policies.

Mary Pinchot Meyer was killed on 12 October, 1964, eleven months after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and two weeks after the Warren Commission report was made public. Mary’s body had two bullet wounds, one at the back of the head and another in her heart. FBI forensics stated that the wounds were made at close range, possibly point blank range. Upon her death those closest to her frantically searched for Mary’s diary and it was eventually found and burned. The burning was witnessed by two family members, who say that the affair with JFK was documented, but there was no further information that would shed light upon his assassination.

In 2001 Cord Meyer was asked if he knew who had killed Mary. He responded “The same sons of bitches that killed John F. Kennedy.”

Catrine da Costa

Prostitution is hardly a safe way to earn a living and it proved deadly to Catrine da Costa in the spring of 1984. Working just north of Stockholm, Sweden, her dismembered body was found in two different sites in the city of Solna. Reported missing on June 10th, the first bag of body parts wasn’t discovered until July 18th. A second bag was discovered at Karlbergs beach in Solna on August the 7th, though her head, internal organs, one breast and genitalia have never been found. It’s the lack of these particular body parts that is the primary reason that no one has been brought to justice for the crime.

Two doctors, a pathologist who worked in between the two dump sites, and a general practitioner, whose very young daughter recalled memories of her father committing the crime were both arrested and sent to trial. But since there was no evidence of the method of murder, due to the missing body parts, there was no way to determine if the victim had “died of natural circumstances” and the Swedish legal system was forced to acquit the two men. Not to worry, the two doctors had their medical licenses rescinded and are no longer able to pursue a career in their trained fields. That hasn’t stopped them from suing for wrongful loss of income, and after almost a decade of legal maneuvering their suit has been denied as of February, 2010.

Tupac Shakur

Born Tupac Amuru Shakur, he was also known as 2Pac and sometimes, Makaveli. American born rapper and actor, Tupac has been featured in quite a few lists here at ListVerse, and now one more. The night that Tupac was fatally shot is quite well documented. He was never alone, being in the company of Marion “Suge” Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records the whole evening. On September 6, 1996 Tupac started his evening ringside at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada with such company as Louis Gossett Jr., Charlie Sheen and baseball great Reggie Jackson to watch Mike Tyson demolish Bruce Seldon in two minutes flat. After a brief scuffle with Orlando Anderson in the lobby of the MGM, Tupac then accompanied Suge to his home in a suburb of Las Vegas. About 10 PM the pair and their entourage left Suge’s home to go Club 662, where Tupac was scheduled to perform with the rap band Run DMC. They never arrived. Stopped at a red light, their car was boxed in on three sides by other vehicles and a fourth car rolled up on the left and started shooting. Out of the 13 bullets shot into Suge’s BMW, Tupac took three, one to his chest, one to his hip and one in the hand.

Two tires had been flattened in the shooting and on the way to the hospital a third tire blew out, and help had to be called. Paramedics were able to get Tupac to University Medical Center, where emergency surgery was performed. But to no avail, after three surgeries and the removal of one of his lungs Tupac succumbed to his injuries six days later.

Some say Tupac was killed due to his ties with gangs, others say he was killed because his mother was once a Black Panther. Maybe it was because of the feud between Death Row Records and New York based Bad Boy Records, run by Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. There was also another ongoing rivalry with Christopher Wallace, AKA the Notorious B.I.G. Regardless, the only witness who agreed to testify in the event of an arrest, Yafeu Fala, was killed two months later in New Jersey, leaving no other witnesses able to help with the case.

Amber Hagerman

Unsolved murders are disturbing enough, but the thought that there is a child killer still roaming free has to be one of the worst realities that can be thrust upon the members of a community. Amber Hagerman was a beautiful little 10 year old girl from Arlington, Texas. On January 13,1996 a young playmate was able to provide to police a description of the man who quickly and forcibly pushed Amber into his black van and sped away. A search for the van was immediately organized, but it was four days before her little body was found. A man walking his dog found Amber’s body in a creek bed. Her throat was cut, but not until two days after her abduction.

In 2007 Terapon Adhahn, of Tacoma, Washington was arrested in connection to a series of child abduction rapes in the Washington state area, and he is the only suspect to date for the murder of Amber, although no charges for her murder have been able to be served. There is still a $75,000 reward offered for information that might lead to her killer.

Amber leaves behind a legacy. The Amber Alert is a public notification system adopted in the U.S. as a quick response effort to help expedite the safety and return of missing or kidnapped children. In April 2003, President George W. Bush signed the AMBER Alert legislation, making it a national program. Other legislation generated by Amber’s murder has since resulted in a national sex offender registry, and both of Amber’s parents were present when Bill Clinton signed the bill into law.

Julie Ward

Julie Ward, a 28 year old wildlife photographer from Ipswich was visiting in Kenya, and was found dead in the Masai Mara Game Reserve in 1988, after her friends reported that she hadn’t attended a farewell dinner the night before they were to depart Africa. Her dismembered and burned body was found deep within the reserve’s boundaries a week after she was reported missing. The original theory put forth by the Kenyan officials was that she had been eaten by lions and struck by lightning, but they later accepted that she was murdered after her father’s efforts uncovered further evidence. It was discovered that coroner’s reports had been altered to mask evidence of human participation in Julie’s murder.

There have been two trials regarding this case, one in 1992 and one in 1998, but all three suspects were acquitted. The case has reached international attention due to the efforts of Julie’s father, John Ward. He has traveled to Africa over 100 times and invested over 1 million pounds in his attempts to bring the killer(s) to justice, but since the involvement of high power officials like former President Daniel Moi and concerns for the safety of the Kenyan tourism industry there have been no killers convicted to this day.

Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey came to the world’s attention for her pioneering studies with gorillas in Africa, and her subsequent efforts to stop the poaching of the creatures she came to love. In 1967 Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center, the base of operations for her studies, located deep within the Virunga Mountains, Rwanda. Her photograph was featured on the cover of National Geographic Magazine in January 1970, and photographs showing the gorilla “Peanuts” touching Fossey’s hand depicted the first recorded peaceful contact between a human being and a wild gorilla. Her book, Gorillas in the Mist, remains the best-selling book about gorillas of all time, and she sold the rights to Universal Studios for one million dollars so she could continue to fund her research and conservation efforts.

In 1985 Fossey was found dead in her bed at the Karisoke site. She was found with the machete she had confiscated from poachers and hung upon her wall, buried in her skull. Evidence found at the scene incriminated employees of the research center and the entire staff was arrested. They were subsequently released. No one has ever been prosecuted for her murder, though many theories abound, concentrating upon the illicit black market and the poaching of gorillas and other protected wildlife. Chances are no one will ever be prosecuted.

Fossey is buried next to her cherished gorilla friend Digit, at the Karisoke Research Center, in the special graveyard she constructed for the gorillas that she spent the better part of her life studying.

Bob Crane

Robert “Bob” Crane was an American TV actor best known for his portrayal of Col. Hogan from the comedy series “Hogan’s Heroes”. The series ran for 6 years (1965-1971) and Crane became beloved for his manly good looks and engagingly roguish demeanor in his attempts to sabotage the Nazi war effort from the confines of a POW camp. What the public didn’t know about Crane was his private battle with sex addiction, which destroyed two marriages. This addiction not only involved innumerable sexual encounters with young women, and heavy activity in the underground sex scene, but developed into an obsession with cameras, sex films and the newly developed world of video.

On June 29, 1978 Crane was discovered bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona apartment. Primary suspect–John Carpenter. No, NOT the famous director, this Carpenter was a fellow sex addict who introduced Crane to the use of video in their sexual activities. Carpenter admits that he was with Crane his last night alive, but denies that he was the one who killed Crane with multiples blows to the head with a video tripod, even though brain matter was found in the rental car that Carpenter was driving. Unfortunately the case was handled poorly from the beginning by the Scottsdale and Phoenix police departments, and because of botched forensics as well as political maneuverings within the district attorney’s office that had little to do with the case itself, Carpenter remains free today.

The Seewen Murders

The Seewen murders took place during Pentecost weekend in 1976 and remains one of Switzerland’s biggest unsolved murder cases. Five members of the Siegrist family ranging in ages from 45 to 80 years old were found dead in a weekend home in the protected forest of Seewen. Police suspect that only two of the family members were the targeted victims, while the other three just had the unfortunate luck to be in the home as well. The cause of death was obvious, 13 rounds from a Winchester type shotgun. What was a little more surprising was the accuracy of the rounds fired. 11 shots to the head, 2 shots to the upper chest.

To this day the majority of the Swiss public believes the likely murderer to be Carl Doser (pictured above), In 1996, an Italian made Winchester shotgun was found hidden in the walls of the Doser home. Forensic testing determined that this was indeed the murder weapon, but no motive, nor documentation of any meetings between Doser and the victims has ever been verified and he remains only a suspect.

A second theory revolves around Johnny Siegrist, a family member to the victims, who may have been assisted by Doser. Johnny was the likely purchaser of ammunition at Basler Steinenvorstadt, and the clerk recalls being asked if the Kal. 38 Spez ammunition would fit an “Italian made Winchester”. Upon searching Johnny’s residence, stryrofoam heads that had been shot through were discovered. Possible motive…Being belittled by the family. Johnny Siegrist was temporarily jailed, but his death in the early 80′s has left no one to be held accountable for the murders.

The World's Geniuses People

Are genius people born with extra ordinary mind or is it the result of their hard work?

Some people don't work very hard but they always get good results some people are like howsoever hard they work they do not remember things.

Albert Einstein
IQ: 160

After 1905, Einstein achieves what no one since has equaled: a 20-year run at the cutting edge of physics. For all the miracles of his miracle year, his best work is still to come:

In 1907, he confronts the problem of gravitation, the same problem that Newton confronted and solved (almost). Einstein begins his work with one crucial insight: Gravity and acceleration are equivalent, two facets of the same phenomenon. Where this "principle of equivalence" will lead remains obscure, but to Einstein, it offers the first hint of a theory that could supplant Newton's.

Before anyone else, Einstein recognizes the essential dualism in nature, the coexistence of particles and waves at the level of quanta. In 1911, he declares resolving the quantum issue to be the central problem of physics.

Even the minor works resonate. For example, in 1910, Einstein answers a basic question: "Why is the sky blue?" His paper on the phenomenon called critical opalescence solves the problem by examining the cumulative effect of the scattering of light by individual molecules in the atmosphere.

Then, in 1915, Einstein completes the general theory of relativity, the product of eight years of work on the problem of gravity. In general relativity, Einstein shows that matter and energy—all the "stuff" in the universe—actually mold the shape of space and the flow of time. What we feel as the "force" of gravity is simply the sensation of following the shortest path we can through curved, four-dimensional space-time. It is a radical vision: Space is no longer the box the universe comes in; instead, space and time, matter and energy are, as Einstein proves, locked together in the most intimate embrace.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IQ: 210

Goethe, German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, critic, and amateur artist, is considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era. Goethe is the only German literary figure whose range and international standing equal those of Germany’s supreme philosophers (who have often drawn on his works and ideas) and composers (who have often set his works to music). In the literary culture of the German-speaking countries, he has had so dominant a position that, since the end of the 18th century, his writings have been described as “classical.” In a European perspective he appears as the central and unsurpassed representative of the Romantic movement, broadly understood.

Leonardo Da Vinci
IQ: 205

Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime and that, filtered by historical criticism, has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and behaviour.

Emanuel Swedenborg
IQ: 205

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish scientist, Christian mystic, philosopher, and theologian who wrote voluminously in interpreting the Scriptures as the immediate word of God. Soon after his death, devoted followers created Swedenborgian societies dedicated to the study of his thought. These societies formed the nucleus of the Church of the New Jerusalem, or New Church, also called the Swedenborgians.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
IQ: 205

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (also Leibnitz or von Leibniz (July 1 (June 21 Old Style) 1646 – November 14, 1716) was a German philosopher of Sorbian origin who wrote primarily in Latin and French. Educated in law and philosophy, and serving as factotum to two major German noble houses (one becoming the British royal family while he served it), Leibniz played a major role in the European politics and diplomacy of his day.

He occupies an equally large place in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. He discovered calculus independently of Newton, and his notation is the one in general use since. He also discovered the binary system, foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures. In philosophy, he is most remembered for optimism, i.e., his conclusion that our universe is, in a restricted sense, the best possible one God could have made.

John Stuart Mill
IQ: 200

John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, economist, and exponent of Utilitarianism. He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a logician and an ethical theorist. Mill was a man of extreme simplicity in his mode of life. The influence that his works exercised upon contemporary English thought can scarcely be overestimated, nor can there be any doubt about the value of the liberal and inquiring spirit with which he handled the great questions of his time. Beyond that, however, there has been considerable difference of opinion about the enduring merits of his philosophy.

Blaise Pascal
IQ: 195

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal’s law of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God through the heart rather than through reason. The establishment of his principle of intuitionism had an impact on such later philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Bergson and also on the Existentialists.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
IQ: 190

in full – Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-born English philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Wittgenstein’s two major works, Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung (1921; Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922) and Philosophische Untersuchungen (published posthumously in 1953; Philosophical Investigations), have inspired a vast secondary literature and have done much to shape subsequent developments in philosophy, especially within the analytic tradition. His charismatic personality has, in addition, exerted a powerful fascination upon artists, playwrights, poets, novelists, musicians, and even filmmakers, so that his fame has spread far beyond the confines of academic life.

Bobby Fischer
IQ: 187

Bobby is the byname of Robert James Fischer, an American chess master who became the youngest grandmaster in history when he received the title in 1958. His youthful intemperance and brilliant playing drew the attention of the American public to the game of chess, particularly when he won the world championship in 1972. Fischer learned the moves of chess at age 6 and at 16 dropped out of high school to devote himself fully to the game.

In 1958 he won the first of many American championships. In world championship candidate matches during 1970–71, Fischer won 20 consecutive games before losing once and drawing three times to former world champion Tigran Petrosyan of the Soviet Union in a final match won by Fischer. In 1972 Fischer became the first native-born American to hold the title of world champion when he defeated Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a highly publicized match held in Reykjavík, Iceland. In doing so, Fischer won the $156,000 victor’s share of the $250,000 purse.

Galileo Galilei
IQ: 185

Galileo was Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. His formulation of (circular) inertia, the law of falling bodies, and parabolic trajectories marked the beginning of a fundamental change in the study of motion. His insistence that the book of nature was written in the language of mathematics changed natural philosophy from a verbal, qualitative account to a mathematical one in which experimentation became a recognized method for discovering the facts of nature. Finally, his discoveries with the telescope revolutionized astronomy and paved the way for the acceptance of the Copernican heliocentric system, but his advocacy of that system in support of his view that the Bible contained errors, eventually resulted in an Inquisition process against him.

Madame De Stael
IQ: 180

In full – Anne-Louise-Germaine Necker, Baronne (baroness) de Staël-Holstein, byname Madame de Staël. Madame de Stael was a French-Swiss woman of letters, political propagandist, and conversationalist, who epitomized the European culture of her time, bridging the history of ideas from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. She also gained fame by maintaining a salon for leading intellectuals.

Her writings include novels, plays, moral and political essays, literary criticism, history, autobiographical memoirs, and even a number of poems. Her most important literary contribution was as a theorist of Romanticism. Madame de Stael is on an equal level with René Descartes but I chose to include her rather than him in order to put at least one woman on this list.