Timothy Treadwell: The “Grizzly Man” Who Met A Grisly Death At The Hands Of A Bear
Lions Gate PicturesTimothy Treadwell had been warned several times that his bear encounters would one day turn deadly.
To earn the nickname “Grizzly Man,” you need one of two things: a deep enthusiasm for grizzly bears or immense amounts of gray hair.
Timothy Treadwell had the former.
Starting in the late 1980s, Treadwell rose to notoriety through his documentary films chronicling the lives of grizzly bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. He spent several summers in the park, claiming to feel more at home in nature with the bears than he did in human society.
The Grizzly Man filmed himself approaching the bears, touching them, and occasionally even playing with the cubs, attributing his closeness with the grizzlies to a sense of trust and mutual respect. Park rangers and the National Park Service disagreed, frequently warning Treadwell that his interactions with the bears would eventually turn deadly.
But nothing would deter Treadwell from spending time with his beloved grizzlies — not even a citation from park rangers for leaving food in his tent and for his failure to follow other established camping rules.
And after 13 summers with the bears, the rangers’ prediction came true.
Willie Fulton/Alaska MagazineTimothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were both mauled to death by a bear in 2003.
In October 2003, 46-year-old Treadwell and his 37-year-old girlfriend Amie Huguenard once again found themselves in Katmai National Park. It was a good bit later in the season than Treadwell usually stayed.
By autumn, the bears were usually storing up food for the winter and preparing for hibernation, but Treadwell was determined to track down a favorite female bear of his. On October 5th, Treadwell and Huguenard prepared to be picked up by a chartered floatplane the next morning.
But when the pilot arrived as scheduled, he was unable to find the couple anywhere near their campsite. Instead, according to The Mirror, he saw the “meanest looking bear” feasting on what appeared to be a human ribcage.
When park rangers arrived, the bear attacked them, forcing them to kill it. Human body parts were later discovered in its stomach. And there were also some uneaten human remains left behind in the general area.
But as gruesome as this scene was, the true horror emerged after Treadwell’s video camera was uncovered at the couple’s campsite. At first, it appeared as if the tape was blank, but the rangers quickly realized that it wasn’t — the video was just too dark to see anything. But the audio was crystal clear. And it had captured Treadwell and Huguenard’s final moments.
On the tape, which has never been released to the public, Treadwell reportedly screams that he’s “being killed out here” as the bear rips him apart. Huguenard first urges him to “play dead” and then to “fight back.” But just moments later, she meets the same grisly fate as her boyfriend.
Doug McKay: The Man Who Suffered One Of The Worst Amusement Park Deaths In History
Paradise Amusements/FacebookBefore his death, Doug McKay co-owned Paradise Amusements with his wife Sherry.
Doug McKay had only recently been handed the reins of his family carnival business by his father when he was killed by one of his own rides.
Forty-year-old Doug and his wife Sherry McKay co-owned Paradise Amusements, a family-owned and operated outdoor carnival based in Idaho. In 2003, they were in the middle of a three-year contract with the Whidbey Island Fair — located on an island just north of Seattle, Washington. But on August 16th, Doug noticed something wrong with one of their rides.
The Super Loop 2, a small roller coaster that involved a single vertical loop, needed lubrication along a portion of its track. As the Whidbey News-Times reported, Doug made the fateful decision to climb onto the ride’s platform — while the ride was still in operation — to fix the issue.
According to the Seattle Times, Sherry explained that Doug had been around carnival rides for most of his life and was experienced in maintaining them. He even had experience working on rides that were in motion before.
But this time was different. As Doug was spraying lubricant onto the track, he suddenly slipped and fell. Doug then became entangled with a passenger cart, likely because his long hair got caught on it. Horrified park visitors watched as Doug was dragged 40 feet in the air before he was dropped.
During his final fall, he struck the ride multiple times before finally landing over a metal fence. He was immediately pronounced dead at the scene. And although law enforcement quickly tried to hide Doug’s mangled body from view, the damage had already been done to dozens of witnesses.
No one had a worse view than those on the ride — which was packed with children at the time of Doug’s death. Many of these kids were splattered with the carnival operator’s blood. And some of the children’s parents later criticized the police officers who rounded up the kids after the ride to question them before they had the chance to clean the blood off.
After the accident, the Whidbey Island Fair was dead quiet. But the silence lasted less than an hour, and soon enough the fair continued its busy Saturday night. The next day, it opened as usual — except the Super Loop 2.
Sherry later said that she had promised her husband that if anything ever happened to him, she would “keep the show going.” She kept her word.
