Skip to main content

The Court Jester Whose Wit Saved His Life

How a court jester slapped the king's butt, then brilliantly convinced him not to kill him Triboulet served as court jester under King Francis I, who ruled France from 1515 to 1547 . Triboulet's quick humor rescued him from Francis I's deadly wrath, not once, but twice. Court jesters hold a unique place in history. Playing the fool for kings and queens meant they were always in close proximity to royalty, but so very far from their rank and station. Comedians often like to push boundaries, but that can be a dangerous business when your job is to entertain the peope who have executioners at their beck and call. Especially when you forget your place—or purposely ignore it, as the case may be—and playfully smack the reigning monarch square on the behind. That little whoopsie was the claim to fame of Triboulet, a court jester who served King Francis I in 16th-century France. But it was how he got away with slapping the king on the butt and living to tell about it that earne
Post a Comment

Frank Hayes The jockey who won a race despite being dead

Frank Hayes The jockey who won a race despite being dead



A fact stranger than fiction, the Jockey who rode a winner while dead.

In the weird and wonderful history of horse racing, Frank Hayes holds a unique place.

On June 4, 1923 at New York’s Belmont Park, the 22-year-old (or 35, according to some newspaper reports at the time) won the only race of his career on the horse Sweet Kiss.

He also became the only man to ever win a race despite being dead.

On June 4, 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won Belmont Park's steeplechase on the horse, Sweet Kiss, after suffering a fatal heart attack during the race.

Brooklyn’s Hayes, a stable hand turned stand-in jockey, achieved the unthinkable and rode the 20-1 shot to a surprise victory over fan favorite Gimme. While that in itself shocked the crowd, what was to come would be even more shocking.

After Hayes crossed the finish line, he tumbled from the saddle.

Reports at the time said track doctor John A. Voorhees rushed over to examine Hayes but pronounced him dead immediately and said he had suffered a heart attack.


Belmont Park in Elmont, New York opened in 1905.


“The grim reaper paid a sensational visit to the Belmont Park track yesterday,” wrote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

“The exertion and excitement proved too great,” said the New York’s Daily News, which also described Hayes as “well-liked … favorite in the saddling room and stable and took a great pride in his calling.”

It’s believed Sweet Kiss never raced again. In fact, lore says it earned the nickname “Sweet Kiss of Death.”

According to Keeneland Library, the years for which it had race statistics for the horse, Sweet Kiss won a total of $1775 in earnings.

More than 95 years later, and it’s still not clear when exactly Hayes died.

“Our documentation for Hayes is limited,” Roda Ferraro, head librarian at Keeneland Library, told CNN.

“The fact that we have a photograph of Hayes on Sweet Kiss mid-jump that day is pretty incredible as the photographers of that period for which we are the repository of record did not specialize in steeplechase coverage.”

The Guinness World Records claims the jockey died during the actual race.

“Despite his sudden death, Hayes somehow remained in the saddle long enough for the 20-1 long shot to jump the final fence and cross the finish line in first place,” it says.

There were conflicting reports at the time surrounding the cause of the jockey’s death. While some said it may have been from the excitement of the race, other reports pointed to heart failure as a result of having to reduce his weight to 130 pounds.

“He was confronted with the task of taking off nearly 10 pounds in 24 hours,” the Buffalo Morning Express wrote. “This morning he spent several hours on the road, jogging off surplus weight. He strove and sweated and denied himself water and when he climbed into the saddle at post time he was weak and tired.”

A week later, Hayes was buried in the same riding silks he wore during his first win – which was also his last.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Tragic Death of Margaret Schilling

The Tragic Death of Margaret Schilling: The Ridget’s Mystery Margaret Schilling at The Ridges during the 1970s. A strange stain discovered in an abandoned room of a psychiatric hospital leads to the discovery of a mysterious death and an alleged haunting. On the concrete floor of an abandoned mental hospital known as The Ridges, there is a stain in the shape of a human body. The stain marks the spot where a patient, a woman named Margaret Schilling, died, after lying undiscovered for several weeks. The stain was created in 1979 and has drawn much speculation as well as curious visitors. Forensic scientists recently tested the stain and determined it was caused by human decomposition. Athens Mental Health Center (AKA: The Ridges) Athens Mental Health Center in 1981. The Ridges was originally known as The Athens Mental Health Center. Located in Athens, Ohio, it first opened in 1874. Large asylums like this were common in America during this period because treatment mostly involved se
Post a Comment
Read more

Terry Cottle

Transplant tragedy: 2 men, 2 suicides, 1 heart, 1 widow Terry Cottle, left, and Cheryl Sweat were married on May 13, 1989, in South Carolina On an overcast spring morning in southeast Georgia, Sonny Graham drank some coffee and headed out the door for another day in the family landscaping business and to take his 9-year-old stepson to the dentist. But Graham made a detour to the backyard shed that he'd built. There, the 69-year-old picked up the 12-gauge Remington shotgun he'd taken on so many quail- and dove-hunting trips, pointed the muzzle at the right side of his throat and pulled the trigger. It was April Fools Day, almost exactly 13 years since another man's suicide gave Graham a second chance at life. That man was Terry Cottle. When he ended his life, Graham got his heart. Sonny Graham, center, with his daughter Michelle Graham Crozier (left) and his son Gray Graham. But it was not just an organ that connected Graham and the 33-year-old donor. Nearly a decade aft
Post a Comment
Read more

Winthrop experiment

In 1931, a baby and a chimp were raised together as part of a bizarre experiment - the end was tragic for both When treated as a human, the baby chimp acted like one—until her physiology and development held her back On June 26, 1931, comparative psychologist Winthrop Niles Kellogg and his wife welcomed a new arrival home: not a human infant, but a baby chimpanzee. The couple planned to raise the chimp, Gua, alongside their own baby boy, Donald. As later described in the Psychological Record, the idea was to see how environment influenced development. Could a chimp grow up to behave like a human? Or even think it was a human?  Since his student days, Kellogg had dreamed of conducting such an experiment. He was fascinated by wild children, or those raised with no human contact, often in nature. Abandoning a human child in the wilderness would be ethically reprehensible, Kellogg knew, so he opted to experiment on the reverse scenario—bringing an infant animal into civilization.  For
Post a Comment
Read more