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The fatal cost of gangster fashion
Jemima Lewis struggles to find sympathy for a gangster tripped up by his own baggy pants.

Here's a story to round off the year: a murderous New York gangster tripped over his own baggy trousers last week and fell to his death. Hector Quinones, 44, was in the middle of an apparently drugs-related killing spree when his low-slung trousers fell down and tripped him up. One of his would-be victims fled on to the fire escape of her apartment block; Quinones yanked up his trousers and struggled after her, but no sooner had he reached the fire escape than they fell down again, and he toppled overboard.

One would not, of course, wish such an undignified death upon anyone – not even someone as nasty as Quinones appears to have been. Yet there is a certain satisfaction in seeing the most ludicrous craze in men's fashion since petticoat breeches so graphically exposed.
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Man killed by shards of glass after hurling girlfriend through shop window
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:58 AM on 11th August 2009

A man bled to death when he was impaled on a large shard of glass after throwing his girlfriend through a shop window in a street row.
The 30-year-old victim was seen arguing with the woman in the Regent Street area of London's West End shortly after 2am today.
Witnesses told police he hurled the woman against the window of a branch of Banana Republic up to three times.
Street row: A police officer outside clothes store Banana Republic in Regent Street, where a man was killed by shards of glass after throwing his girlfriend at a window
After several blows, the glass shattered and the couple fell through, leaving the man fatally wounded.
He is believed to have suffered injuries to an artery and bled to death.

Members of the public flagged down a police patrol who went to the shop, at the junction of Regent Street and Great Marlborough Street.
Paramedics arrived at the scene but were unable to save him. A post-mortem examination will take place today.
The woman, also 30, was taken to hospital for treatment to multiple cuts, none of which are thought to be life-threatening.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said that shortly before 2.15am, officers on patrol were informed by a member of the public of an altercation in Great Marlborough Street.
'When officers arrived at Great Marlborough Street, they found a male, believed to have gone through the window of a shop. A woman was also found at the scene, suffering cuts.
'London Ambulance Service attended but the man, aged 30, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police believe they know who the dead man is but are trying to contact his next of kin before releasing his name.


And the ulimate:

The legends surrounding the death of Rasputin are perhaps even more mysterious and bizarre than his life. According to Greg King's 1996 book The Man Who Killed Rasputin, a previous attempt on Rasputin's life had failed: Rasputin was visiting his wife and children in Pokrovskoye, his hometown along the Tura River in Siberia. On June 29, 1914, after either just receiving a telegram or exiting church, he was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva, a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor.
Iliodor, who once was a friend of Rasputin but had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!"

After intensive surgery, however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body." His daughter, Maria, pointed out in her memoirs that he was never the same man after that: he seemed to tire more easily and frequently took opium for pain relief.

On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich, apparently lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace[, by intimating that Felix's wife, Princess Irina would be present and receiving friends (In point of fact, she was away at the Crimea). The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. According to legend, Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men. Conversely, Maria's account asserts that, if her father did eat or drink poison, it was not in the cakes or wine, because after the attack by Guseva he suffered from hyperacidity and avoided anything with sugar. In fact, she expresses doubt that he was poisoned at all. It has been suggested, on the other hand, that Rasputin had developed an immunity to poison due to Mithridatism.

Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and attempted to strangle him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and castrated him. After binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, but drowned in the river.

Three days later, the body of Rasputin, poisoned, shot four times, badly beaten, and drowned, was recovered from the Neva River. An autopsy established that the cause of death was drowning. His arms were found in an upright position, as if he had tried to claw his way out from under the ice. It was found that he had indeed been poisoned, and that the poison alone should have been enough to kill him. There is a report that after his body was recovered, water was found in the lungs, supporting the idea that he was still alive before submersion into the partially frozen river.

Subsequently, the Tsaritsa Alexandra buried Rasputin's body in the grounds of Tsarskoye Selo, but, after the February Revolution, a group of workers from Saint Petersburg uncovered the remains, carried them into the nearby woods and burnt them. As the body of Rasputin was being burned, he appeared to sit up in the fire. His apparent attempts to move and get up thoroughly horrified bystanders. The effect can probably be attributed to improper cremation; since his body was in inexperienced hands, his tendons were probably not cut before burning. Consequently, when his body was heated, the tendons shrunk, forcing his legs to bend, and his body to bend at the waist, resulting in it appearing to sit up. This final happenstance only poured fuel on the fire of legends and mysteries surrounding Rasputin, which continue to live on long after his death.