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10 People Who Just Wouldn't Die
NUMBER 10: FIDEL CASTRO
Fidel Castro, the socialist dictator of Cuba between 1959 and 2008, is notoriously difficult
to kill.
During his 49 years of leadership, there were a staggering 638 failed attempts on Castro’s
life, many of which were arranged by the CIA. Plots included replacing his cigars with exploding
ones, poisoning his chocolate milkshake, and placing explosives under his speech podiums.
The failure of the assassinations has been attributed to a combination of poor planning
and effective Cuban security.
In August 2016 Castro will celebrate his 90th birthday.
Sources: The Guardian, Reuters, New Republic, Biography.com.
NUMBER 9: HUGH GLASS
The survival story of Hugh Glass, explorer and hunter, is legendary.
In 1823 Arikara warriors attacked the fur-trading expedition that Glass was a member of. They
shot him in the leg, causing the venture to divide along different routes.
Glass’s trauma did not, by any means, end there. He was then so viciously mauled be
a grizzly bear that his companions were convinced that he couldn’t possibly survive. He was
eventually left abandoned, with no weapons, a broken leg, and wounds exposing his bare
ribs.
Glass was adamant that he wouldn’t succumb to his devastating injuries. He limped and
crawled for over 100 miles and two months, before the Cheyenne [Shy-en] River carried
him to safety on a raft.
He survived on wild berries and roots, once placing his leg on a maggot-infested log to
allow the creatures to eat his rotting skin.
Sources: History Net, Britannica, Roosevelt Inn.
NUMBER 8: BETTY LOU OLIVER
On July 28th 1945 thick fog caused a US Air Force bomber plane to crash into the 79th
story of the Empire State Building, killing 14 people.
The impact threw elevator attendant Betty Lou Oliver into the air. She received severe
burns and broke her pelvis, back and neck. Miraculously, she survived. First aiders put
Betty in an elevator to send her to the ground floor for medical help.
In a further cruel twist of fate, the elevator cables suddenly snapped. Betty was sent plummeting
75 stories to the basement.
How Betty survived is a mystery, and her descent still stands as the longest non-fatal elevator
fall ever recorded.
Betty Lou Oliver returned to work just 5 months later.
Sources: Survivor Story, National Public Radio, Smithsonian Magazine.
NUMBER 7: GABRIEL GARCIA MORENO
The assassination of 19th century Ecuadorian President Gabriel Garcia [gar-see-ah] Moreno
was brutal and beyond belief.
In August 1875 assassin Faustino Rayo used a machete to cut deep into Moreno’s skull.
This did not subdue the dictatorial leader, who turned to fight his assailant. Rayo cut
off Moreno’s left arm and right hand, but still the president kept on fighting. He was
shot 6 times before finally collapsing.
Allegedly, Moreno used his last breath to gasp the phrase ‘God does not die’. Some
reports even claim that he wrote the words on the floor using his own blood.
Sources: Britannica, New Advent, Tradition In Action.
NUMBER 6: JIM BOWIE [Boh-ee]
During an infamous brawl in 1827 Louisiana, American pioneer Jim Bowie demonstrated a
superhuman level of resilience.
The fight against former sheriff Norris Wright and his supporters looked all but lost for
Bowie. He had been shot in the hip, struck in the face, stabbed twice in the chest, and
then shot again. Evidently, this was not enough to kill Bowie.
Struggling to stay conscious, Bowie grabbed for his large knife and succeeded in killing
Wright.
Bowie recovered from his wounds and lived for another 9 years, and the distinctive type
of knife he used became known as the ‘Bowie Knife’.
Sources: Latin American History, The Past Whispers, Britannica.
NUMBER 5: GRIGORI RASPUTIN
Russian ‘mad monk’ Rasputin was notoriously difficult to kill. He astonishingly recovered
from a brutal attack in 1914, when a woman thrust a knife into his abdomen, claiming
he was the antichrist.
Two years later, assassins laced his food with cyanide, but even this appeared to have
little effect on the mystic healer. They then beat him with clubs, stabbed him, and shot
him at close range, before wrapping his body in carpet and dumping it in the frozen waters
of the Malaya Nevka River.
Historic rumor states that the monk was still able to sit up and continue fighting his attackers,
even as they tried to dispose of his body. However, forensic reports indicate that this
is unlikely to be true, as he most probably died from a bullet wound to his temple earlier
in the attack.
Sources: History.com, History1900s, Biography.com.
NUMBER 4: LACHHIMAN [Latch-ee-man] GURUNG [goo-roong]
In December 1945 Gurkha [ger-ka] Lacchiman Gurung was awarded the Victoria Cross for
his ‘extreme devotion to duty’ during World War II.
Gurung’s resolution to survive was demonstrated when his trench was attacked by 200 Japanese
soldiers launching grenades.
The British-Indian soldier caught and returned 2 grenades. However, a third exploded in his
grasp, destroying his right arm and severely wounding his face, body, and leg. Still, Gurung
refused to give up.
Single-handedly, he spent 4 hours killing off 31 enemy soldiers with his rifle, ignoring
the excruciating agony of his wounds and the overwhelming odds he faced.
Gurung died in 2010 at the age of 92.
Sources: The Guardian, MMA Playground, The Telegraph, Victoria Cross, The London Gazette.
NUMBER 3: LEON TROTSKY
Marxist revolutionary Leon Trotsky was the target of numerous assassination attempts.
In May 1940, 20 armed men stormed his Mexican house with grenades and machine guns. Amazingly,
Trotsky survived by huddling under the bed, only receiving a couple of light scratches
from shattering glass.
He was eventually killed by Stalinist Ramón Mercader [Mur-car-der] on August 20th 1940,
who plunged a mountaineers’ ice pick into Trotsky’s brain.
But even this barely impeded him at first. According to some witnesses, Trotsky was able
to fight off - and even spit on - his attacker.
Amazingly Trotsky survived for more than a day with his brutal injuries, until he eventually
died of surgical complications.
Sources: The Guardian, History Today, IB Times, Spectator.
NUMBER 2: BECK WEATHERS
In 1996 mountaineer Beck Weathers’ situation was so dire that he was given up for dead...
twice.
During a group ascent of Mount Everest, a severe blizzard struck and halted the expedition.
Weathers and others were knocked almost unconscious by the bitter storm. They were so close to
death that guides had little option but to leave them and return to safety themselves.
By the time help arrived, Weathers had succumbed to a hypothermic coma. A doctor at the time
said his condition was beyond salvation. Again, the guides left him, and informed his family
of his demise.
After a night with his skin exposed to temperatures of less than -30°C, Weathers - unbelievably
- woke up. He somehow dragged himself the 300 yards to base camp. Although he lost his
arm and nose to frostbite, Weathers was extremely lucky to survive the 1996 disaster, which
claimed 12 other lives.
Sources: LA Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Texas Monthly.
NUMBER 1: TSUTOMU [Soot-oh-moo] YAMAGUCHI
Tsutomu Yamaguchi gained infamy as the only person known to have survived both the Hiroshima
and Nagasaki atomic bombings.
Yamaguchi was visiting Hiroshima on business when it was bombed on August 6th 1945. He
was temporarily blinded, seriously burned, and his eardrums were ruptured.
Despite his extreme wounds, he returned to work in Nagasaki just 3 days later, the day
that the second city was devastated. He was only 3 km away from the atomic detonation,
but this time he was uninjured.
However, because he was now unable to receive treatment for his previous injuries, he suffered
a severe - and nearly fatal - fever for almost a month.
In spite of Yamaguchi’s astronomical bad luck, he recovered and lived well into old
age, dying in 2010 aged 93.
Sources: IB Times, Independent, Telegraph, History.com, The Guardian.