Five Famous People Who Died By Drowning
The act of drowning is a terrible way to die. It is caused from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury related deaths. Drowning itself is quick and silent, although it may be preceded by distress which is more visible. Most drownings occur in fresh water (lakes, pools, and rivers). Drownings don't usually make the news, but occasionally a famous person dies this way. If you were to ask most people about people who drowned, they might make mention of the people upon the Titanic. However, most of those people died of exposure to the cold or from blunt form trauma. The people on this list are of famous people who died by drowning. In the following cases, these drownings made worldwide news.
NATALIE WOOD
Natalie Wood was a famous actress back in the 1950s and 1960s. She began acting at the age of four and starred in some most memorable films as: Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), West Side Story (1961), and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). In 1981, she fell overboard off a yacht owned by her husband, actor Robert Wagner. On board was fellow actor, Christopher Walken, with whom Natalie Wood was co-starring in a film. When Wood drowned, the case was initially ruled an accidental death, but this year, it was reopened following additional information. According to the captain of the yacht, Woods and Wagner had been fighting about a possible relationship with Christopher Walken. After her disappearance, Wagner acted "suspiciously" - telling the captain not to report the incident and seemingly not worried about her missing. Her body was found the next day. Robert Wagner is not considered a suspect.
BRIAN JONES
This founding member of the Rolling Stones died in 1969 in his backyard swimming pool. He was originally the leader of the Rolling Stones, playing a multitude of instruments, but was overshadowed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. He left the band one month prior to his death due to a drug problem. Brian Jones was found at the bottom of his pool by his girlfriend. At the time, she claimed that he was still breathing, but the doctors pronounced him dead. Rumor exists that he may have been murdered since many expensive items of his were missing from his home and would show up in auction houses some months later. Though the murder theories continue to exist, the case was never reopened. Brian Jones was dead at the age of 27 and is a member of the infamous 27 Club.
JOSEF MENGELE
This German SS Officer and physician was known as "The Angel of Death". He was the chief doctor at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mengele was known for his grisly experiments on people, including children. His experiments were mainly done on twins, dwarves, and people he considered "the abnorm". They were absolutely hideous in design and makes most slasher films, today, look tame by comparison. After the war, Mengele fled to Argentina where he went into hiding. For years he evaded capture from Israel for his war crimes, but in 1979, while swimming in the Atlantic, he accidentally drowned. He was buried in Embu das Artes under the name "Wolfgang Gerhard", whose ID card he had used since 1976. He never showed remorse for his actions and was actually surprised that people felt the way they did about Nazi Germany.
DENNIS WILSON
This drummer and founding member of the Beach Boys was often considered the black sheep of the Wilson family, even though he wrote some of the Beach Boys' songs and did lead vocals on some of their music. Even though the Beach Boys were based upon the California surfing scene during the 1960s, Dennis was the only member of the group who was actually a surfer. He was also the person in the group that suggested that they write and sing surfing songs (with the urging of cousin and lead singer, Mike Love). For a short period of time, Dennis shared his home with the Manson family. Charles Manson impressed Wilson with his song writing ability. Wilson even introduced Manson to his music friend Terry Melcher, whose home on Cielo Drive would later be rented by director Roman Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. Tate and several others would later be murdered at the home by Manson "family members." Towards the end of his life, Dennis started to abuse alcohol and drugs. In addition, smoking was ruining his voice. On December 28, 1983, shortly after his 39th birthday, Wilson had been drinking the whole day at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, Dennis decided to dive into the water to recover some items he tossed off his yacht three years earlier. He never resurfaced.
JESSICA SAVITCH
Jessica Savitch was the anchor of the NBC Nightly News in the early 1980s. She was also the host of PBS' Frontline. On Sunday, October 23, 1983, Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice-president of the New York Post, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After the meal at Odette's Restaurant, they began to drive home about 7:15 pm, with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Canal's Delaware Division on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the canal. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein's body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.
