The Two Friends Who Died Trying to Get into a Metallica Concert and Earned a Darwin Award–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
This is a hard-to-believe story of two Metallica fans who tried to crash a concert in the state of Washington. It’s a series of disasters that results in both of their deaths.
The Truth:
This is an urban legend and has never been honored with a Darwin Award. The Darwin Award website at www.darwinawards.com lists it as an urban legend and says no proof of this story has ever been found. The original version was in the form of what was supposed to look like a police report, but feel short of that.
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
THIS YEAR’S WINNER.
(The late) John Pernicky and his friend, (the late) Sal Hawkins, of the
great state of Washington, decided to attend a local Metallica concert at
the George Washington amphitheater. Having no tickets (but having had 18
beers between them), they thought it would be easy to “hop” over the nine
foot fence and sneak into the show. They pulled their pickup truck over
to the fence and the plan was for Mr. Pernicky (who was 100-pounds heavier
than Mr. Hawkins) to hop the fence and then assist his friend over.
Unfortunately for (the late) Mr. Pernicky, there was a 30-foot drop on the
other side of the fence. Having heaved himself over, he found himself
crashing through a tree. His fall was abruptly halted (and broken, along
with his arm) by a large
branch that snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree with a
broken arm, he looked down and saw some bushes below him. Possibly
figuring the bushes would break his fall, he removed his pocket knife and
proceeded to cut away his shorts to free himself from the tree. Finally
free, Mr. Pernicky crashed into holly bushes. The sharp leaves scratched
his ENTIRE
body and now, without the protection of his shorts, a holly branch
penetrated his rectum. To make matters worse, on landing, his pocket
knife penetrated his thigh. Mr. Hawkins, seeing his friend in
considerable pain and agony, threw him a rope and pull him to safety by
tying the rope to the pickup truck and slowly driving away. However, in
his drunken haste/state,
he put the truck into reverse and crashed through the fence landing on his
friend and killing him. Police arrived to find the crashed pickup with
its driver thrown 100 feet from the truck and dead at the scene from
massive internal injuries. Upon moving the truck, they found John under it
half-naked, scratches on his
body, a holly stick in his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and his shorts
dangling from a tree branch 25-feet in the air.
Congratulations gentlemen, you win…