Michael Malloy was an Irish homeless guy who lived in New York City in the early 1930s. A group of bad guys bought an insurance policy against him and would stand to get $50,000 by today’s values if he were to die an accidental death (not murder or suicide).

Here’s a summary of what they did to get him to die over the course of several weeks, of course, only the last one worked.

  • Gave him unlimited supply of alcohol to which he drank majority of the day, he lived on enjoying them.
  • Antifreeze substituted for liquor, he passed out but when he woke up, asked for more.
  • Fed him raw oysters soaked in wood alcohol, mixed with methanol (which would cause blindness even in small amount). Alive.
  • Fed him sandwich with spoiled sardines, carpet tacks and metal shavings. Still alive.
  • Took a passed out Malloy, dumped him in the snow under -14 degrees Fahrenheit and poured 5 gallons of water over his chest. Next day he was alive asking for another round of drink.
  • Hit him with a taxi running at 45 miles per hour. Admitted into hospital but was released 3 weeks later.
  • After passing out for the night, they took him into a room and stuffed a hose connected to gas into his mouth. Finally he died.

He was pronounced dead of pneumonia. However all the methods of killing him caused the members of the group to brag about it. And soon the word spread to the police who quickly exhumed Malloy’s body to check. 

It would be a great story if I would say Malloy was still breathing but he was really dead. 4 of the 5 guys were electrocuted on the chair and another sent to prison.

Malloy’s story has spawned a few songs and short movies, including Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.

Too bad for Malloy though, I guess he was just enjoying all the free drinks and food from the guys. I bet if he wasn’t drunk all the time, he’d probably figured out they were trying to kill him into their second try.

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