Today’s Demonstrable Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Salesman Rico Vogt choked to death in Pisa, Italy, when his tie got tangled around the blades of a food mixer he was demonstrating to a crowd in a shopping center.
Culled from: Strange Deaths
Vintage Smash-Up Du Jour!
The following is culled from Strange Days Dangerous Nights: Photos From the Speed Graphic Era.
March 02, 1953
“This startling image may well be the definitive photograph of the Speed Graphic area in the Twin Cities. In its blunt, bloody simplicity it demonstrates the visceral wallop that the best news pictures of the time delivered. The photographer, Dick Magnuson, was thought by his colleagues to have perhaps the best eye of anyone on the staff, but he also had something better – the knack of being in the right place at the right time.
“In this case, he was driving home with his family one day in March 1953 when he pulled up behind a semitrailer rig climbing the long hill out of the Minnesota River Valley near Shakopee on old Highway 169. Magnuson was quoted in the Pioneer Press as saying he edged over to pass the truck but pulled back in when he saw a car coming in the opposite direction. Seconds later, the truck’s trailer suddenly broke loose from the cab and swerved across the highway into the path of the oncoming car, driven by a man identified as E.A. Krusemark of Bloomington. Here, Krusemark, blood streaming down his face, staggers from his crumpled car while behind him his wife lies injured in the front seat.
“The story that accompanied this extraordinary picture can only be described as amazingly blasé about the Krusemarks’ fate, with nary a word about how serious their injuries might have been. Instead, it began as follows: ‘When news photographers say their prayers, they usually include a fervent plea to be at the scene when a big story breaks. Pioneer Press photographer Dick Magnuson got that wish Sunday morning. He was so close to the story, he had a narrow escape himself, but he got a dramatic picture.’ There was no further mention of the Krusemarks.”
I did some additional digging on Newspapers.Com and found the following article suggesting that Mrs. Krusemark suffered serious internal injuries. I couldn’t find an obituary or any further mention of the accident, so let’s hope she recovered.
