People Killed by Musical Instruments
It is shocking to learn that musical instruments can actually kill or lead to death. We have listed the seven people who took their own lives /were killed by musical instruments. If you are fond of music or love playing musical instruments you should know why people face death by musical instruments.
1) Elizabeth Jackson – Flute
On March 25, 1751, David Mills was rehearsing with his flute during the time he began an argument with his servant Elizabeth Jackson. As a result, she threw a candlestick at Mills when Mills said something rude. Mills reacted by striking Elizabeth’s left temple with his flute before the porter and the footman tried to separate them. She lived for four hours after the incident; she could walk but couldn’t share her speech. Her fellow members took her for treatment, sadly it was ineffective to cure her. “Her s[k]ull was remarkably thin,” said the surgeon during Mill’s trail.
2) James “Jimmy the Beard” Ferrozzo –Piano
Getting crushed by a piano, this kind of situation you might have seen in cartoons. As reported by the AP, after the 1983 incident, “A nude, screaming dancer found trapped under a man’s crushed body on a trick piano pinned against a nightclub ceiling was too drunk to remember how she got there.” The dancer was joined recently at San Francisco’s Condor Club. The club’s bouncer was her boyfriend. The piano was a part of James’ death. When Ferrozzo’s had a meeting with the dancer, the piano’s switch was activated unknowingly, and when he lifted the piano, it hit the ceiling that sent him the rest of the way.
Is Sophia Rasch a Pianist?
- A. Yes
- B. No
3) Louis Vierne- Exhausted by an Organ Concert
More than 67-year-old Louis Vierne was known as the king of instruments. On June 2, 1937, he fainted after performing the last chord of a piece. For the best performance, the organ should have athletic endurance. One concertgoer mentioned in the piece, “bears a title which, given the circumstance, seems like fate and takes on an oddly disturbing meaning: ‘Tombstone for a dead child’!” Vierne fell upon the pedalboard “a low whimper was heard from the admirable instrument, which seemed to weep for its master,” the concertgoer described in his writing.
4) Linos- Killed with a Lyre
Linos is one of the best music teachers of mythic Ancient Greece. He allowed Herakles as a student. As stated by the historian Diodorus Siculus “was unable to appreciate what was taught him because of his sluggishness of soul.” Out of rage, Herakles killed Linos with lyre.
5) Charles Ratherbee-the Trumpet
In 1845, a trumpeter named Charles Ratherbee got into a fight with Joseph Harvey who borrowed space in a garden from Charles. Joseph started sowing seeds whereas Charles wanted to plant potatoes. The moment Charles confessed the plan, Joseph was upset and hit Charles to the ground with his elbow. After two weeks he died.
Joseph was in prison for Charles’ death, but a physician revealed another killer that was an undiagnosed lung disease made worse by playing Trumpet
6) Marianne Kirchgessner-the Glass Armonica
In 176, Benjamin Franklin created the glass harmonica or armonica. According to music historian Karl Pohl in 1862, “It was forbidden in several countries by the police.” “It’s not just the gentle waves of air that fill the ear, but the charming vibrations and constant strain of the bowls upon the already delicate nerves of the fingers that combine to produce diseases which are terrible, maybe even fatal.”
Europe’s premier glass armonica expert Marianne Kirchgessner died at the age of 39. Many people believed that her nervousness during the performance played a major role in her death.
7) Sophia Rasch- Piano
Sophia’s neighborhood friend stated that Sophia Rasch banged the piano and “I heard no hallooing.” She strangled while playing the Piano which muted her screams.