Irony is a cruel and harsh mistress, as former daredevil Bobby Leach would find out to his dismay. Leach had initially been a member of the Barnum and Bailey travelling circus, and so was pretty comfortable with the idea of doing ridiculously stupid things and surviving the consequences...barely. His most famous stunt came as he became only the second person to survive a barrel ride over Niagara Falls, picking up two broken knee caps and a fractured jaw along the way. So when I say that Bobby Leach, fearless conqueror of the mighty Niagara Falls was effectively killed by an orange peel, you may be slightly surprised. Leach was working on a publicity tour in New Zealand when he slipped on the fruit peel in question, causing him to fall and injure his leg. As this was not a time where modern medicine had quite caught up to a truly decent level, Leach was unlucky enough to gain an infection in his wound, which ultimately turned gangrenous, forcing doctors to amputate the limb. But despite the drastic action taken, Leach still ended up dying two months after the procedure, due to complications regarding the injury.
