NOMINEE #1
[San Jose Mercury News] An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a 
club to break a former girlfriend's windshield, accidentally shot 
himself to death when the gun discharged, blowing a hole in his gut.

NOMINEE #2
[Kalamazoo Gazette, 4-1-95] James Burns, 34, of Alamo, Mich., was 
killed in March as he was trying to repair what police described as 
a "farm-type truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a 
highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the 
source of a troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, 
however, and the other man found Jim Burns "wrapped around the drive 
shaft." 

NOMINEE #3
[Hickory Daily Record 12/21/92] Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally 
shot himself to death in December in Newton, N.C.. When awakening to 
the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the 
phone, but grabbed instead a Smith&Wesson .38 Special, which 
discharged when he drew it to his ear. 

NOMINEE #4
[UPI, Toronto] Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of 
windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane 
with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death. A police 
spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the 
Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was 
explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting 
law students. Hoy previously had conducted demonstrations of 
window strength according to police reports. Peter Lawyers, 
managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto 
Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest" members 
of the 200-man association. 

NOMINEE #5 
[Bloomburg News Service, 25 March] A terrible diet and room with no 
ventilation are being blamed for the death of a man who was killed 
by his own gas. There was no mark on his body, but an autopsy showed 
large amounts of methane gas in his system. His diet had consisted 
primarily of beans and cabbage (and a couple of other things). It 
was just the right combination of foods. It appears that the man 
died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was 
hanging over his bed.  If he had he been outside or had his windows 
been opened, it wouldn't have been fatal. But the man was shut up in 
his near airtight bedroom.  According to the article, "He was a big 
man with a huge capacity for creating "this deadly gas." Three of 
the rescuers got sick and one was hospitalized. 

NOMINEE #6
[1/29/96 The News of the weird.] Michael Anderson Godwin made News 
of the Weird posthumously in 1989. He had spent several years 
awaiting South Carolina's electric chair on a murder conviction 
before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. In march 1989, 
sitting on a metal toilet in his cell and attempting to fix his 
small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.

NOMINEE #7
["The Indianapolis Star", Wed., Dec. 4, 1996]. Cigarette lighter may 
have triggered fatal explosion Dunkirk, Indiana. A Jay County man 
using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a muzzle loader was 
killed Monday night when the weapon discharged in his face, sheriff's
investigators said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' 
rural Dunkirk home about 11:30 p.m. Investigators said Pryor was 
cleaning a .54 caliber muzzle loader that had not been firing 
properly. He was using the lighter to look into the barrel when the 
gunpowder ignited.

NOMINEE #8
[AP, St. Louis] Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in 
a St. Louis market. When the clerk threatened to call police, Puelo 
grabbed a hot dog, shoved it in his mouth, and walked out without 
paying for it. Police found him unconscious in front of the store: 
paramedics removed the six-inch wiener from his throat, where it had 
choked him to death.

NOMINEE #9
[Unknown] To poacher Marino Malerba, who shot a stag standing above 
him on an overhanging rock-and was killed instantly when it fell on 
him.

NOMINEE #10
[Associated Press, Kincaid, W. VA] Blasting Cap Explodes in Man's 
Mouth at Party. A man at a party popped a blasting cap into his 
mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his Lips, 
teeth and tongue, state police said Wednesday. Jerry tromyer, 24, of 
Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during a party late Tuesday 
night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. 'Another man had it in an aquarium, 
hooked to a battery, and was trying to explode it,"Payne said. "It 
wouldn't go off and this guy said, 'I'll show you how to set it off."

NOMINEE #11!!!
[Arkansas Democrat Gazette], July 25, 1996: Two local men were 
seriously injured when their pick-up truck left the road and struck 
a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday morning. 
Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly 
after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc and Billy Ray 
Wallis, 38, of Little Rock are listed in serious condition at Baptist
Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were returning 
to Des Arc after a frog gigging trip. On an overcast Sunday night, 
Poole's pick-up truck headlights malfunctioned. The two men concluded
that the headlight fuse on the older model truck had burned out. As 
a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 
caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next 
to the steering wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet, the 
headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded 
on east-bound toward the White River bridge. After traveling 
approximately twenty miles and just before crossing the river, the 
bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the 
right testicle. The vehicle swerved sharply to the right exiting the 
pavement and striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and 
abrasions from the accident, but will require surgery to repair the 
other wound. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and 
released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot 
his balls off or we might both be dead" stated Wallis. "I've been a 
trooper for ten years in this part of the world, but this is a first 
for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident 
happened", said Snyder. Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, 
Poole's wife asked how many frogs the boys had caught and did anyone 
get them from the truck.