Arguably the most badass and also outright astoundingly ridiculous death in recorded history is that of politician and lawyer Clement Vallandigham in 1871. Vallandigham was an extremely tough character, having campaigned during the Civil War as well as flip flopping between camps in the slavery debate, but it was in the courtroom where he proved his willingness to fight for a cause. Vallandigham was defending a man charged with having shot Tom Myers in a barroom brawl, and was arguing that the victim had in fact shot himself whilst trying to retrieve his pistol whilst in a kneeling position. The lawyer's way of proving his theory was to grab an unloaded gun and enact the situation himself, and it worked like a charm. However, the unloaded gun was a very much loaded firearm, which got snagged on Vallandigham's clothing, triggering the weapon. The pistol shot Vallandigham in the stomach, and caused the man to die of peritonitis the following day. The amazing part, however, was that as Vallandigham had genuinely shot and accidentally killed himself by snagging his pistol, the judge and jury were left with no other option but to believe him. So the defendant was set free, thanks to the accidentally enormous amount of commitment shown by his lawyer. Do you know of any other ridiculous deaths? Let us know in the comments section below.
