A falling baby, saved two times
by the same man. Twin
brothers, killed in along the
same road, two hours apart.
The world is filled with
astonishing occurrences of
coincidence and synchronicity
that defy explanation. Are
these incredible true stories of
mere coincidence... or the
hand of fate?
1 James Dean's car curse
In September 1955, James Dean
was killed in a horrific car
accident whilst he was driving
his Porsche sports car. After
the crash the car was seen as
very unlucky.
a) When the car was towed
away from accident scene and
taken to a garage, the engine
slipped out and fell onto a
mechanic, shattering both of
his legs.
b) Eventually the engine was
bought by a doctor, who put it
into his racing car and was
killed shortly afterwards,
during a race. Another racing
driver, in the same race, was
killed in his car, which had
James Dean's driveshaft fitted
to it.
c) When James Dean's Porsche
was later repaired, the garage
it was in was destroyed by
fire.
d) Later the car was displayed
in Sacramento, but it fell off
it's mount and broke a
teenager's hip.
e) In Oregon, the trailer that
the car was mounted on
slipped from it's towbar and
smashed through the front of a
shop.
f) Finally, in 1959, the car
mysteriously broke into 11
pieces while it was sitting on
steel supports.

2 A falling baby, saved
twice by the same man
In Detroit sometime in the
1930s, a young (if incredibly
careless) mother must have
been eternally grateful to a
man named Joseph Figlock. As
Figlock was walking down the
street, the mother's baby fell
from a high window onto
Figlock. The baby's fall was
broken and both man and
baby were unharmed. A stroke
of luck on its own, but a year
later, the very same baby fell
from the very same window
onto poor, unsuspecting Joseph
Figlock as he was again
passing beneath. And again,
they both survived the event.
(Source: Mysteries of the
Unexplained)
3 A bullet that reached
its destiny years later
Henry Ziegland thought he had
dodged fate. In 1883, he broke
off a relationship with his
girlfriend who, out of distress,
committed suicide. The girl's
brother was so enraged that he
hunted down Ziegland and
shot him. The brother,
believing he had killed
Ziegland, then turned his gun
on himself and took his own
life. But Ziegland had not been
killed. The bullet, in fact, had
only grazed his face and then
lodged in a tree. Ziegland
surely thought himself a lucky
man. Some years later,
however, Ziegland decided to
cut down the large tree, which
still had the bullet in it. The
task seemed so formidable that
he decided to blow it up with a
few sticks of dynamite. The
explosion propelled the bullet
into Ziegland's head, killing
him. (Source: Ripley's Believe
It or Not!)

4 Twin Boys, twin lives
The stories of identical twins'
nearly identical lives are often
astonishing, but perhaps none
more so than those of identical
twins born in Ohio. The twin
boys were separated at birth,
being adopted by different
families. Unknown to each
other, both families named the
boys James. And here the
coincidences just begin. Both
James grew up not even
knowing of the other, yet both
sought law-enforcement
training, both had abilities in
mechanical drawing and
carpentry, and each had
married women named Linda.
They both had sons whom one
named James Alan and the
other named James Allan. The
twin brothers also divorced
their wives and married other
women - both named Betty.
And they both owned dogs
which they named Toy. Forty
years after their childhood
separation, the two men were
reunited to share their
amazingly similar lives.
(Source: Reader's Digest,
January 1980)

5 Just like Edgar Allan
Poe's book
In the 19th century, the
famous horror writer, Egdar
Allan Poe, wrote a book called
'The narrative of Arthur
Gordon Pym'. It was about
four survivors of a shipwreck
who were in an open boat for
many days before they decided
to kill and eat the cabin boy
whose name was Richard
Parker. Some years later, in
1884, the yawl, Mignonette,
foundered, with only four
survivors, who were in an
open boat for many days.
Eventully the three senior
members of the crew, killed
and ate the cabin boy. The
name of the cabin boy was
Richard Parker.

6 Twin brothers, killed
on the same road, two
hours apart
On 2002, Seventy-year-old
twin brothers have died within
hours of one another after
separate accidents on the same
road in northern Finland. The
first of the twins died when he
was hit by a lorry while riding
his bike in Raahe, 600
kilometres north of the capital,
Helsinki. He died just 1.5km
from the spot where his
brother was killed. "This is
simply a historic coincidence.
Although the road is a busy
one, accidents don't occur
every day," police officer
Marja-Leena Huhtala told
Reuters. "It made my hair
stand on end when I heard the
two were brothers, and
identical twins at that. It came
to mind that perhaps someone
from upstairs had a say in
this," she said. (Source: BBC
News )
NOTE: our reader Linus wrote
us after reading local
newspaper Helsingin Sanomat:
"Your story about the Finnish
twins is missing some details:
The first brother was killed by
a lorry while riding his bike
and crossing highway 8. He
apparently didn't notice the
lorry in the snow blizzard. The
second brother was killed by a
lorry only two hours later while
riding his bike and crossing
highway 8. The second brother
couldn't have been aware of the
first brother's death, as the
police was still trying to
identify the victim."

7 Three suicide
attempts, all stopped
by the same Monk
Joseph Aigner was a fairlly
well-known portrait painter in
19th century Austria who,
apparently, was quite an
unhappy fellow: he several
times attempted suicide. His
first attempt was at the young
age of 18 when he tried to
hang himself, but was
interrupted by the mysterious
appearance of a Capuchin
monk. At age 22 he again tried
to hang himself, but was again
saved from the act by the very
same monk. Eight years later,
his death was ordained by
others who sentenced him to
the gallows for his political
activities. Once again, his life
was saved by the intervention
of the same monk. At age 68,
Aiger finally succeeded in
suicide, a pistol doing the
trick. His funeral ceremony
was conducted by the same
Capuchin monk - a man whose
name Aiger never even knew.
(Source: Ripley's Giant Book of
Believe It or Not!)

8 Poker winnings, to the
unsuspected son
In 1858, Robert Fallon was
shot dead, an act of vengeance
by those with whom he was
playing poker. Fallon, they
claimed, had won the $600 pot
through cheating. With
Fallon's seat empty and none
of the other players willing to
take the now-unlucky $600,
they found a new player to
take Fallon's place and staked
him with the dead man's $600.
By the time the police had
arrived to investigate the
killing, the new player had
turned the $600 into $2,200 in
winnings. The police
demanded the original $600 to
pass on to Fallon's next of kin -
only to discover that the new
player turned out to be
Fallon's son, who had not seen
his father in seven years!
(Source: Ripley's Giant Book of
Believe It or Not!)

9
A novel that
unsuspectedly
described the spy next
door
When Norman Mailer began
his novel Barbary Shore, there
was no plan to have a Russian
spy as a character. As he
worked on it, he introduced a
Russian spy in the U.S. as a
minor character. As the work
progressed, the spy became the
dominant character in the
novel. After the novel was
completed, the U.S.
Immigration Service arrested a
man who lived just one floor
above Mailer in the same
apartment building. He was
Colonel Rudolf Abel, alleged to
be the top Russian spy working
in the U.S. at that time.
(Source: Science Digest)

10 Mark Twain and
Halley's Comet
Mark Twain was born on the
day of the appearance of
Halley's Comet in 1835, and
died on the day of its next
appearance in 1910. He
himself predicted this in 1909,
when he said: "I came in with
Halley's Comet in 1835. It is
coming again next year, and I
expect to go out with it."

11
Three strangers on a
Train, with
complementary last
names
In the 1920s, three Englishman
were traveling separately by
train through Peru. At the time
of their introduction, they
were the only three men in the
railroad car. Their
introductions were more
surprising than they could
have imagined. One man's last
name was Bingham, and the
second man's last name was
Powell. The third man
announced that his last name
was Bingham-Powell. None
were related in any way.
(Source: Mysteries of the
Unexplained)

12 Two brothers killed by
the same taxi driver,
one year apart
In 1975, while riding a moped
in Bermuda, a man was
accidentally struck and killed
by a taxi. One year later, this
man's bother was killed in the
very same way. In fact, he was
riding the very same moped.
And to stretch the odds even
further, he was struck by the
very same taxi driven by the
same driver - and even
carrying the very same
passenger! (Source:
Phenomena: A Book of
Wonders, John Michell and
Robert J. M. Rickard)

13 Swapped Hotel
Findings
In 1953, television reporter Irv
Kupcinet was in London to
cover the coronation of
Ellizabeth II. In one of the
drawers in his room at the
Savoy he found found some
items that, by their
identification, belonged to a
man named Harry Hannin.
Coincidentally, Harry Hannin -
a basketball star with the
famed Harlem Globetrotters -
was a good friend of
Kupcinet's. But the story has
yet another twist. Just two days
later, and before he could tell
Hannin of his lucky discovery,
Kupcinet received a letter
from Hannin. In the letter,
Hannin told Kucinet that while
staying at the Hotel Meurice in
Paris, he found in a drawer a
tie - with Kupcinet's name on
it! (Source: Mysteries of the
Unexplained)

14 Two Mr. Brysons, same
hotel room
While on a business trip
sometime in the late 1950s,
Mr. George D. Bryson stopped
and registered at the Brown
Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky.
After signing the register and
being given his key to room
307, he stopped by the mail
desk to see if any letters had
arrived for him. Indeed there
was a letter, the mail girl told
him, and handed him an
envelope addressed to Mr.
George D. Bryson, room 307.
This wouldn't be so odd, except
the letter was not for him, but
for room 307's just-previous
occupant - another man named
George D. Bryson. (Source:
Incredible Coincidence, Alan
Vaughan)

15 Twins brothers, same
heart attack
John and Arthur Mowforth
were twins who lived about 80
miles apart in Great Britain.
On the evening of May 22,
1975, both fell severely ill from
chest pains. The families of
both men were completely
unaware of the other's illness.
Both men were rushed to
separate hospitals at
approximately the same time.
And both died of heart attacks
shortly after arrival. (Source:
Chronogenetics: The
Inheretance of Biological Time,
Luigi Gedda and Gianni
Brenci)

16
A novel that predicted
the Titanic's destiny,
and another ship that
almost followed
Morgan Robertson, in 1898,
wrote "Futility". It described
the maiden voyage of a
transatlantic luxury liner
named the Titan. Although it
was touted as being
unsinkable, it strikes an
iceberg and sinks with much
loss of life. In 1912 the Titanic,
a transatlantic luxury liner
widely touted as unsinkable
strikes an iceberg and sinks
with great loss of life on her
maiden voyage. In the Book,
the Month of the Wreck was
April, same as in the real
event. There were 3,000
passengers on the book; in
reality, 2,207. In the Book,
there were 24 Lifeboats; in
reality, 20.
Months after the Titanic sank,
a tramp steamer was traveling
through the foggy Atlantic with
only a young boy on watch. It
came into his head that it had
been thereabouts that the
Titanic had sunk, and he was
suddenly terrified by the
thought of the name of his ship
- the Titanian. Panic-stricken,
he sounded the warning. The
ship stopped, just in time: a
huge iceberg loomed out of the
fog directly in their path. The
Titanian was saved.

17 A writer, found the
book of her childhood
While American novelist Anne
Parrish was browsing
bookstores in Paris in the
1920s, she came upon a book
that was one of her childhood
favorites - Jack Frost and Other
Stories. She picked up the old
book and showed it to her
husband, telling him of the
book she fondly remembered
as a child. Her husband took
the book, opened it, and on the
flyleaf found the inscription:
"Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber
Street, Colorado Springs." It
was Anne's very own book.
(Source: While Rome Burns,
Alexander Wollcott)

18 A writer's plum
pudding
In 1805, French writer Émile
Deschamps was treated to
some plum pudding by the
stranger Monsieur de Fortgibu.
Ten years later, he
encountered plum pudding on
the menu of a Paris restaurant,
and wanted to order some, but
the waiter told him the last
dish had already been served
to another customer, who
turned out to be de Fortgibu.
Many years later in 1832 Émile
Deschamps was at a diner, and
was once again offered plum
pudding. He recalled the
earlier incident and told his
friends that only de Fortgibu
was missing to make the
setting complete — and in the
same instant the now senile de
Fortgibu entered the room.


19 King Umberto I'
double
In Monza, Italy, King Umberto
I, went to a small restaurant
for dinner, accompanied by his
aide-de-camp, General Emilio
Ponzia- Vaglia. When the
owner took King Umberto's
order, the King noticed that he
and the restaurant owner were
virtual doubles, in face and in
build. Both men began
discussing the striking
resemblances between each
other and found many more
similarities.
a) Both men were born on the
same day, of the same year,
(March 14th, 1844).
b) Both men had been born in
the same town.
c) Both men married a woman
with same name, Margherita.
d) The restauranteur opened
his restaurant on the same day
that King Umberto was
crowned King of Italy.
e) On the 29th July 1900, King
Umberto was informed that
the restauranteur had died that
day in a mysterious shooting
accident, and as he expressed
his regret, he was then
assassinated by an anarchist in
the crowd.

20 The 21st, a bad day for
King Louis XVI
When King Louis XVI of France
was a child, he was warned by
an astrologer to always be on
his guard on the 21st day of
each month. Louis ws so
terrified by this that he never
did business on this day.
Unfortunately Louis was not
always on his guard. On June
21st 1791, following the
French revolution, Louis and
his queen were arrested in
Varennes, whist trying to
escape France. On September
21st 1791, France abolished
the institution of Royalty and
proclaimed itself a republic.
Finally on January 21st 1793,
King Louis XVI was executed
by guillotine.

My favourite is the falling baby saved twice by same man.
The scariest is the 'car curse'. That car must really be cursed.

I think the monk only succeeded in delaying Joseph Aigner's death, he couldn't stop the inevitable which was Aigner's suicide.
But then, they are all incredible!

Wao :oWao

The scary one is the killer car. Talk about buying your own death certificate (Car) without you realizing it.
It's great to read books.