Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for September 29th: https://ko-fi.com/post/September-29-Michaelmas-Y8Y613Q6N4
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| September 29, 1925 |
Bummer September 29th
September 29, 1902: French writer Émile Zola dies of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked chimney flue in his home. The manner of his death may have been accident, assassination, or suicide. He’s 62 years old.
September 29, 1975: Singer Jackie Wilson collapses on stage. He’ll remain semi-comatose until his death in January 1984.
September 29, 1976: Entertainer Jerry Lee Lewis is allegedly firing a gun in his bedroom. He fires at a soda bottle, the bullet ricochets, and bass player Butch Owens is struck in the chest. Owens will survive, sue Lewis for damages in federal court, and win a judgement of $125,000.
September 29, 1982: 12-year-old Mary Kellerman, home sick from school in Elk Grove, Illinois, dies of cyanide poisoning after taking a tampered-with Tylenol capsule. The same day, 27-year-old postal worker Adam Janus dies similarly in Arlington Heights. His death isn’t initially connected to cyanide. Tragically, Adam’s 25-year-old brother Stanley and his wife Theresa each take two capsules out of the same bottle. Stanley dies within hours; Theresa will be taken off life support on October 1st.
That afternoon, 27-year-old Lynn (Mary) Reiner, who has just given birth to her fourth child, takes another fatal dose of Tylenol in Winfield, Illinois; she dies the next day. In all, at least seven people die of cyanide poisoning after taking Tylenol they purchased in the Chicago area. The crime remains unsolved, although a suspect is arrested in 2022. (The suspect is innocent until proven guilty.)
September 29, 2010: A 24-year-old man whose family says he suffers from mental illness pours gasoline on himself and sets himself on fire near the statue of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Longfellow Square in Portland, Maine. The man is critically injured but survives. Coincidentally, the date the statue was unveiled to the public was also September 29th, in 1888.
