Greed may be a deadly sin, but the lure of buried riches continues to captivate treasure hunters worldwide, even when the odds are stacked against them.

10 Willie And Frank McLeod

What These Treasure Hunters Sought

The Naha tribe once roamed the Northwest Territories of Canada, but the arrival of European gold‑hunters saw the tribe vanish without a trace. In 1908, brothers Willie and Frank McLeod set out for the same gold‑rich lands that now form Nahanni National Park, a place named after the vanished Naha.

Two years passed with no word from the brothers, prompting rumors that they had struck it rich and vanished to start anew. Their uncle, Charlie McLeod, grew worried and trekked into the wilderness to investigate. He found the brothers’ skeletons beside a creek, still nestled in their sleeping bags—only their heads were missing.

A hastily scrawled note read, “We have found a fine prospect.” Nothing was taken from the site, and the eerie spot earned the moniker Headless Creek in Deadmen Valley.

9 Phil Powers

After the McLeod brothers’ grisly fate, the Deadmen Valley earned a reputation for curses, hauntings, and possible retribution from the Naha tribe. Undeterred, professional fur trapper Phil Powers ventured into the valley in 1931, confident his wilderness skills would keep him safe.

Phil never returned. When authorities arrived, his cabin was reduced to ash, and his skeleton lay nearby. His gun rested a few feet away, its six bullets pointing at an unseen assailant, suggesting a violent end.

8 Dr. Maurice Dametz

In 1981, Dr. Maurice Dametz, a theology professor with a penchant for mineral hunting, teamed up with friend David McSherry to explore Topaz Point in Colorado’s Pike National Forest, near the ominous Devil’s Head lookout.

Dametz, frail from age, needed assistance to reach a small sandy pit he’d identified. After McSherry dug his own pit about 45 metres away, he returned to check on Dametz. The doctor had vanished without a trace—no blood, no struggle, nothing. A five‑day search with dogs turned up empty, and the case was closed.

Thirty years later, former police officer and missing‑persons researcher David Paulides spotlighted the mystery, prompting Colorado officials to reopen the investigation.

7 Billy Murray

In the scorching summer of 1908, Billy Murray and his unnamed companion—let’s call him Bob—set out to pan for gold near the Norris Ranch in Arizona. They brought along dogs and donkeys to haul supplies, planning to camp for several days.

After a hard morning’s work, the duo took an afternoon nap. When Bob awoke hours later, Billy was nowhere to be found. Billy’s jacket lay on the ground, his equipment untouched, and his camp remained undisturbed.

Night fell, and Billy never resurfaced. The following morning, Bob reported his friend missing, and Billy’s fate remained a mystery.

6 Randy Bilyeu

When former art dealer Forrest Fenn, then 80, hid a multimillion‑dollar treasure somewhere in New Mexico, he claimed the hunt would inspire people to explore the outdoors. In January 2016, 54‑year‑old Randy Bilyeu set out with his dog, hoping to claim the prize.

After a few days of trekking, Randy’s wife reported him missing. His remains weren’t recovered until seven months later, and the elusive treasure remains unfound.

Fenn expressed no personal responsibility for Bilyeu’s disappearance, merely offering to aid the search. The mystery endures.

5 Venezuelan Gold Miner Massacre

In 2016, 28 gold miners from Bolívar, Venezuela, vanished after heading into the jungle to extract precious metal. Their families suspect a violent gang takeover of the mine.

The regional governor dismissed the incident as political agitation, refusing to acknowledge a massacre. A search team combed the surrounding jungle, yet the miners’ bodies were never recovered.

4 James Kidd

James Kidd, a 70‑year‑old professional treasure hunter from Phoenix, Arizona, vanished in 1949 after driving off in his car. He owned a copper‑mining firm and held gold‑mining claims.

His will revealed a bizarre bequest: anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul would inherit his fortune. This sparked the “Great Soul Trial” of 1967, where scientists raced to demonstrate a soul’s departure at death.

After multiple legal battles, only $175,000 remained, which was donated to Phoenix’s Barrow Neurological Institute. Kidd’s story continues to inspire books and artworks.

3 Missing Prospectors Of The California Gold Rush

During the 1849 California Gold Rush, over 30,000 hopeful miners streamed westward. Unbeknownst to many, a cholera outbreak in New York City had contaminated the water supply, and infected newcomers carried the disease to the gold fields.

Within six months, roughly 20 percent of these prospectors succumbed to cholera and other illnesses. Families were left without word, as communication was limited, effectively erasing thousands of lives from history.

2 Jesse Capen

Obsessed with the legend of the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine, 35‑year‑old Jesse Capen spent a decade devouring every book on the subject while working night shifts as a bellhop. In 2009, he finally took a month off to chase the myth in Arizona’s Superstition Mountains.

After his disappearance, hikers found a tin can on a cliff edge that read, “Jesse Capen was here.” A single boot, driver’s license, and camping gear were recovered, but the man himself was missing.

Three years later, his body was discovered 11 metres above ground inside a crevasse, seemingly caught on a ledge. The recovery required a helicopter, and his parents believe he fell, his body miraculously preserved for years.

1 Curtis Merworth, Ardean Charles, And Malcolm Meeks

In 2010, three Salt Lake City friends—Curtis Merworth, Ardean Charles, and Malcolm Meeks—embarked on a road trip to hunt for the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. They left their car at a trailhead and set out into the Superstition Mountains on an sweltering 46 °C (115 °F) day, without cell phones.

Local lore warns that the heat can be deadly, yet the trio pressed on. A year later, after an extensive search, all three bodies were recovered. One wallet was found near a set of remains, but authorities never clarified where or how the bodies were located, leaving the case shrouded in mystery.

When you think of “10 famous people” who have left a mark on history, you probably picture their achievements, not the hair‑raising moments when they almost didn’t make it. Below we walk through ten astonishing near‑misses that could have reshaped the world in a heartbeat.

How These 10 Famous People Cheated Death

From a daring British soldier releasing a captured patriot to a teenage Caesar dodging malaria, each story shows how a single twist of fate kept a legend alive. Read on for the full, pulse‑pounding details.

10 Frightened British Troops Release A Captured Paul Revere

Paul Revere’s midnight ride is etched into American folklore, but before the Revolution he ran the colonies’ first spy network, feeding intel to the Patriots while meeting in a tavern to swap reports.

On the night of April 18, 1775, his mission went sideways. After warning Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, Revere was seized by British troops en route to Concord. The soldiers pressed a pistol against his chest, demanding the militia’s hideout and threatening to shoot him if he tried to flee.

The British convoy trudged toward Lexington, where the sound of clanging bells and shouting filled the air. Suddenly, gunfire erupted—the opening shots of the Revolutionary War. Terrified and confused, the British soldiers broke ranks, letting Revere go and even handing him a horse. Had he tried to run or if his espionage work had been uncovered, the outcome would likely have been a hanging.

9 Little Abraham Lincoln Was ‘Apparently Killed For A Time’

At ten years old, Abraham Lincoln faced a deadly encounter with a horse. While delivering corn to a nearby gristmill, he grew impatient with the animal and gave it a harsh whiplash, shouting, “Git up, you old hussy. Git up, y—!”

The horse, startled by the harsh command, reared and delivered a brutal kick to Lincoln’s head. The blow knocked him unconscious, and he bled heavily. Onlookers, believing the boy dead, left him for the night. He lay motionless until dawn, when he finally awoke, swearing once more, “—you old hussy!”

8 Two‑Year‑Old Eleanor Roosevelt Sets Sail On The Britannic

When Eleanor Roosevelt was just a toddler, her parents hoped a European cruise would smooth over their crumbling marriage. They booked a passage on the White Star Line’s SS Britannic, a sister ship to the infamous Titanic.

On May 19, 1887, thick fog cloaked the evening as the Britannic collided with another White Star vessel, the Celtic. Of the 450 souls aboard, six perished instantly, six more vanished, and hundreds sustained injuries. The Celtic suffered no fatalities.

Two‑year‑old Eleanor miraculously survived. While many children suffered horrific injuries—one losing an arm, another being beheaded—Eleanor clung to crewmen before being lowered onto a waiting lifeboat where her father awaited. The trauma left her with a lifelong fear of heights and open water.

7 Qin Shi Huang Di Nearly Died before Completing China’s Unification

In 227 B.C., six years before he would crown himself the First Emperor of a unified China, King Ying Zheng of Qin faced a lethal plot. The Prince of Yan dispatched the assassin Jing Ke, who entered the royal audience chamber bearing a fugitive general’s head and a map promising land.

Jing Ke unfurled the map, revealing a concealed dagger, then lunged at the king. He managed only to tear the sleeve from Ying Zheng’s robe; the courtiers, forbidden from bearing weapons, could not intervene, and the guards were barred from entering without a summons.

In the chaos, a court physician struck Jing Ke with his medicine bag, buying the king a brief respite. When Ying Zheng finally drew his sword, he wounded Jing Ke’s thigh, then, after a missed dagger throw, slew the would‑be murderer. The aftermath saw Yan’s prince executed and the state eventually annexed.

6 Martin Luther King Jr. Had A Nightmare Of A Day

On September 20, 1958, five years before his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was signing books in Harlem. During the event, a deranged woman named Izola Curry thrust a letter‑opener into his chest, piercing his sternum and skirting his aorta by a mere inch.

Curry, convinced that King and “communists” were out to get her, shouted hysterically as she was restrained, proclaiming, “I’ve been after him for six years! Dr. King ruined my life! The NAACP is no good, it’s communistic!” While waiting for medical aid, a well‑meaning bystander tried to yank the blade out—an action that would have sliced the artery and killed King instantly. Another witness stopped the attempt, buying the doctor time.

King survived after surgeons removed the weapon. In later years, he recounted the episode, noting doctors warned him never to sneeze because a sudden jerk could drive the blade deeper. Fortunately, he wasn’t congested that day, sparing the civil‑rights movement a premature loss.

5 Henry V Was An Adventurer Like You Until He Took An Arrow To The Face

Young Henry V, son of Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV), would later become England’s celebrated king and the hero of Shakespeare’s play. Before his royal glory, he fought alongside his father against a rebel army at the Battle of Shrewsbury on July 21, 1403.

During the melee, a volley of arrows rained down. One arrow struck Henry squarely in the face. The wooden shaft was pulled out, but the iron head remained lodged in his skull, threatening a fatal infection.

Enter John Bradmore, a pre‑modern surgeon of remarkable skill. He fashioned a specialized instrument on the spot, allowing him to extract the arrowhead fragments. He then applied honey as an antiseptic—a common medieval practice. Henry survived, though the scar left him forever depicted in profile portraiture.

4 Alexander’s First Great Battle Could Have Been His Last

In 334 B.C., Alexander the Great led his Macedonian forces toward the River Granicus in Asia Minor, intent on confronting the Persian army. He ordered his Companion cavalry, light horsemen, and lancers to wade across the river under a hail of arrows and javelins.

During the clash, Alexander found himself in a life‑or‑death grapple with Persian commander Spithradates (some accounts name his brother Rhoesaces). Spithradates landed a crushing axe blow that shattered Alexander’s helmet and left the Macedonian king dazed.

Before the Persian could deliver a fatal second strike, Cleitus “the Black,” Alexander’s trusted bodyguard, lunged with a spear and stabbed the attacker. The Macedonians rallied, routing the Persians. Alexander survived by mere inches, allowing his later conquests to unfold.

3 A Teenage Caesar Was Hunted And Near Death From Malaria

In 82 B.C., the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla wielded absolute power, issuing proscriptions that listed enemies of the state with bounties on their heads. Young Julius Caesar, then eighteen, was the nephew and son‑in‑law of two of Sulla’s most bitter opponents.

When Sulla demanded Caesar divorce his wife, the future leader defiantly refused, earning himself a spot on the proscription list. Forced to flee, he hid in the mountains, moving nightly to elude bounty hunters. A desperate encounter led him to bribe a pursuer with his entire savings—about $1,000 in modern terms.

Adding to his peril, Caesar contracted malaria, a disease that would later plague Rome itself. Homeless, penniless, feverish, and marked for death, his fortunes changed when his family and allies pleaded with Sulla. Impressed—or perhaps amused—by Caesar’s boldness, Sulla eventually relented, sparing the teenage future dictator.

2 A Falling Dead Guy Saves Adolf Hitler

On the night of November 8, 1923, the nascent Nazi Party launched the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, attempting to overthrow the Bavarian government. Hitler and his followers surrounded a beer hall where officials met, firing pistols into the air and shouting, “The national revolution has begun!”

The next day, Bavarian police confronted the marchers. A gunfight erupted, leaving sixteen Nazis and three police officers dead. Among the fallen was Max Erwin von Scheubner‑Richter, a close confidant of Hitler.

As Scheubner‑Richter fell, he was locked arm‑in‑arm with Hitler. His body slammed onto Hitler, pulling the future dictator to the ground and dislocating Hitler’s shoulder. This accidental tumble saved Hitler from the bullets that would have otherwise struck him, allowing his rise to power to continue.

1 Winston Churchill’s Capture And Daring Escape

In 1899, a young Winston Churchill travelled to South Africa as a war correspondent covering the Boer War. While riding an armored train on November 18, his carriage was ambushed by Boer soldiers. A rifle was pointed at him, demanding surrender.

Churchill fumbled for his pistol—only to discover he had left it on the train. With no weapon, he surrendered and was taken prisoner.

About a month later, on the night of December 12, Churchill escaped from a Pretoria POW camp. He hid in a train car, evading a £25 bounty on his head. After wandering the tracks, he found refuge in a nearby mine operated by Scots and English miners, who concealed him until the search cooled. He eventually slipped back to England, hailed as a hero.

Years later, Boer generals visited Britain. Churchill recounted his capture to General Louis Botha, who replied, “Don’t you recognize me? I was that man; it was I who took you prisoner.” Had Churchill’s pistol been in his hand, the course of British and South African history might have been dramatically altered.

The following rundown of the top 10 bizarre incidents of untimely diarrhea is not for the faint‑hearted. If your stomach is already on edge, you might want to grab a snack before you read on. Yet the brave souls featured here have endured far worse than a simple bathroom emergency.

Why These Top 10 Bizarre Stories Matter

10 Kim Jong Un’s Upgraded Menu

In 2016 a monstrous typhoon named Lionrock hammered North Korea’s Hamgyong Province, wiping out the bulk of the nation’s harvests. When officials trekked into the devastated area, they reported that the border‑guard troops were surviving on a meager diet that left them hungry and demoralized.

In response, the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong Un, decreed that the soldiers should receive a “upgraded” ration so they would no longer envy the well‑fed Chinese. The new menu was meant to boost morale, but the execution went horribly awry.

The freshly‑prepared meals turned out to be contaminated. Reports described a Japanese sandfish with a “weird smell,” and, more disturbingly, iron powder and stray training‑camp threads had somehow been mixed into the food supply.

Consequently, the already‑undernourished troops were struck by violent bouts of diarrhea, adding a fresh layer of misery to their lives and prompting a surge in emergency underwear production for the beleaguered soldiers.

9 The Moment The Music Died

A supposedly joyous three‑day field trip in the summer of 2016 turned into a pungent nightmare for a group of 68 eighth‑graders from Isaac E. Young Middle School in New Rochelle, New York. On the second night of their excursion, the class was dining aboard a boat on the Potomac River, dancing and laughing under the night sky.

At around 9:00 PM, the celebration came to a sudden, wet halt as dozens of students began to lose control of their bowels. The music stopped, the dance moves froze, and the boat’s deck was suddenly awash with chaos.

Students quickly turned to social media to document the ordeal, posting pictures and updates well into the early morning. Health officials later traced the outbreak to a severe case of food poisoning, which left 22 of the teens with stained shorts and forced ten of them into the hospital for dehydration treatment.

8 War Etiquette

During the American Civil War, an unwritten rule of chivalry forbade soldiers from firing on a comrade who was “attending to the imperative calls of nature.” Modern combat offers no such courtesy, prompting many service members to pre‑emptively take Imodium or antibiotics before deployment.

Recent data reveal that roughly 32 % of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered from diarrhea while on the battlefield, a figure that doubles for Special Operations forces. Even in the 19th century, disease claimed more lives than bullets: about 95,000 Civil War soldiers died from diarrheal illnesses.

The Mexican‑American War of 1848 saw U.S. soldiers succumbing to gastrointestinal disease at a rate seven times higher than battlefield injuries. Despite advances in medical care, intestinal ailments continue to jeopardize mission success.

One dramatic example occurred during a flight over Taliban‑controlled Afghanistan. The sole crew member capable of operating the aircraft’s defensive systems found himself glued to the toilet seat. A faulty seal caused the lavatory to overflow, spewing a “blue‑brown precipitation” into the cabin and severely hampering the navigator’s ability to focus on his duties.

7 Trapped In The Sky

Long‑haul flights are rarely pleasant, but in 2015 a British Airways service to Dubai turned into a moving nightmare when a passenger’s over‑use of the lavatory released a noxious stench that quickly filled the cabin. The captain elected to turn the aircraft around and return to London, sparing the remaining passengers a full‑flight fiasco.

Two years earlier, a Qantas flight from Chile to Australia faced a far grimmer scenario. Mid‑flight, 26 passengers were struck by explosive diarrhea, igniting a frantic scramble for the plane’s eight tiny toilets.

Upon landing in Sydney, health officials quarantined the afflicted travelers, and 16 were rushed to hospital on stretchers. The outbreak was linked to a tour group infected with norovirus, an extremely contagious stomach bug. The aircraft required a thorough decontamination, and Qantas warned remaining passengers to monitor their health closely.

6 Vandalism Or Incontinence?

In 2013, Ronald Strong, a 50‑year‑old from Maine, appealed a one‑week jail sentence after being convicted of creating a hazardous condition and willfully damaging federal property. The incident involved a courthouse bathroom that had been drenched in feces, with roughly 75 % of the floor coated in waste and the mess extending nearly two feet up the walls.

Strong insisted that the episode was an unintended side effect of medication prescribed for a heart condition. Nevertheless, the court focused on the sheer scale of the contamination, which suggested a deliberate act rather than an accidental slip.

During the hearing, Strong offered a bizarre analogy: “I don’t know if you’ve ever spilled spaghetti sauce and there’s meat, you’re trying to get it up as quick as you can.” The judges ultimately upheld the original ruling, concluding that the extensive damage indicated intentional vandalism.

5 A Dream Vacation

What should have been a sun‑kissed cruise turned into a nightmarish saga aboard the Carnival Triumph in 2013. An engine fire left the 4,200‑passenger vessel adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, depriving guests of power, food, water, and functional toilets.

Passengers endured days of darkness, with hallways slick with a mixture of water, feces, and urine. One plaintiff testified that the experience inflicted severe psychological trauma, describing the ship as a “floating turd” where every step felt like slipping on a sludge‑filled runway.

To make matters worse, the limited number of operational toilets forced travelers to resort to makeshift solutions, turning a romantic getaway into a desperate search for any semblance of dignity.

Eventually, after days of limbo, the crippled ship docked, leaving its survivors with scarred memories and a newfound appreciation for a functioning bathroom.

4 The White House

Mid‑19th‑century historians suspect that the White House’s water supply became tainted by a nearby depository that collected human waste from cesspools and outhouses. This contamination is believed to have contributed to the sudden deaths of three presidents: William Henry Harrison (1841), James K. Polk (1849), and Zachary Taylor (1850).

All three men reportedly suffered from relentless, “explosive” bouts of diarrhea while residing in the Executive Mansion, to the point where they were frequently immobilized. Contemporary accounts attribute their suffering to gastroenteritis, likely stemming from the polluted water source.

Further evidence suggests that Thomas Jefferson also fell victim to the same foul water after moving into the White House, enduring chronic diarrhea that left him dehydrated and bedridden until his death in 1826.

3 Norway’s Poop Scoundrel

Although not a classic diarrhea case, the bizarre saga of Norway’s long‑standing “poop scoundrel” demands attention. For more than a decade, an unidentified individual has been defecating in the holes of a local golf course, leaving the groundskeeper, Kenneth Tennfjord, perpetually on clean‑up duty.

The offender appears to follow a strict routine: he only strikes on weekdays, favors a couple of specific holes, and has left tire tracks suggesting he rides a bicycle. Moreover, investigators believe the culprit is male, noting that the size of the deposits far exceeds what a woman could produce.

Attempts to capture him have failed. Even after floodlights were installed on the course, the miscreant dismantled them, preserving his privacy for further “business.” To this day, the mystery remains unsolved, and the golf course continues to endure his clandestine contributions.

2 Arius

In fourth‑century Alexandria, Libya‑born priest Arius sparked a theological firestorm by arguing that while Jesus was divine, He was not co‑equal with God. This heretical stance made Arius wildly popular among the masses, but it earned him the fierce enmity of the city’s bishop, Alexander.

Bishop Alexander condemned Arius as a heretic and ultimately exiled him. Legends claim that Arius met a gruesome end on his way to a meeting with the bishop and the emperor, succumbing to a divinely‑inflicted intestinal catastrophe.

Medieval chroniclers describe his death as more than a simple bout of diarrhea. According to their accounts, Arius violently expelled both waste and his own intestines from his mouth and anus, a horrifying scene that served as divine retribution for his blasphemy.

The graphic description of his demise, allegedly occurring in a public latrine, cemented his legacy as a cautionary figure in ecclesiastical history.

1 A True ‘Scumbag’

Perhaps his childhood lacked affection, or maybe he simply revels in chaos. Either way, 42‑year‑old Ekwan Hill found himself facing Manhattan’s Special Victims Unit after assaulting two women in a disturbingly intimate fashion.

The saga began in 2016 when Hill hurled his own feces at a 33‑year‑old woman, striking her face and torso. Hours later, he stalked another woman, slipping his waste into her pants before groping her buttocks.

Grossed out yet? It only gets stranger. After flinging the leftover excrement at a witness, Hill fled on foot, only to be apprehended at a Brooklyn homeless shelter for the mentally ill.

When questioned, Hill claimed “God did it,” later describing his act as “a Farrakhan thing.” Fellow shelter residents recalled Hill’s foul odor and his habit of spreading fecal matter across mirrors, walls, and bathroom floors, reinforcing his moniker as a true “scumbag.” He was ultimately charged with sexual abuse and assault.

Adam is just a hubcap trying to hold on in the fast lane.