The Curse Of Ötzi The Iceman

[WickedSmurf]

Scientist seen as latest 'victim' of Iceman

Barbara McMahon
Wednesday April 20, 2005
The Guardian

He had lain in his icy tomb on an Alpine glacier in northern Italy for 5,300 years, a perfectly preserved Stone Age warrior, complete with fur robes, leather shoes and bow and arrow.
But since being found 14 years ago, five of the people who came in close contact with Oetzi the Iceman have died, leading to the inevitable question: is the mummy cursed?

Konrad Spindler, head of the Iceman investigation team at Innsbruck University, died on Monday, apparently from complications arising from multiple sclerosis. But that has not stopped his name being linked to a string of strange deaths related to the mummy.

He had spent years studying the remains of the frozen warrior, who was discovered in the melting Similaun glacier, on the border between Italy and Austria in 1991. The 66-year-old scientist had been aware of curse theories, built around the supposition that the Iceman was angry at having been disturbed after 53 centuries, and used to joke: "The next victim could be me."
The other "victims" of the mummy include the forensic expert Dr Rainer Henn, who placed the cadaver in a body bag with his bare hands, and who died in a road accident on his way to a conference to discuss his famous subject.

The Alpine guide Kurt Fritz organised the transportation by helicopter of the mummified remains, and was killed by a snowslide in an accident in the mountains, in an area he knew well. He was the only one of a party of climbers to die.

Then there was journalist Rainer Hoelz, who filmed the recovery of the Iceman, and who died of a brain tumour.

The fourth death was that of Helmut Simon, the German tourist who spotted the Iceman in 1991 while on a walking trip with his wife. He became bitter that he was not recognised or financially compensated for his discovery.

Last October he failed to return from a mountain hike and was found dead eight days later, the victim of a 300ft fall. Local newspapers recorded that his body was found frozen, under a sheet of snow and ice.

A possible sixth victim has also been named, that of Dieter Warnecke, the man who helped find the missing 69-year-old and who died of a heart attack after attending his funeral.

Like all good curse theories, natural death, accidents and sheer bad luck have been compressed into a single sinister hypothesis and with all this doom and gloom, there is only one piece of good news. Visitors to the museum in the Italian town of Bolzano specially constructed for the Iceman, where he is on display in a hi-tech refrigerated casket chilled to a glacial -6C, are expecting an increase in curious visitors.

Spooky...

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Some bacteria or virus trapped with him that has infected the finders, perhaps?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Reminds one of 'Tut's curse' on his modern discoverers...

 

[WickedSmurf]

Bacteria? Virus?

Dr Rainer Henn, who placed the cadaver in a body bag with his bare hands, and who died in a road accident

Kurt Fritz organised the transportation by helicopter of the mummified remains, and was killed by a snowslide

 

[carlosMM]

what utter nonsense!


let's e.g. take the Diplodocus O. marsh found and that is displayed (as casts) all over the world - all people connected to the discovery subsequently died


Well, it was found over 100 years ago, so.......

 

[thetrooper]

Sheer bad luck.

DJ Ötzi is still alive and kicking.

 

[Winner]

Coincidence, nothing more.

 

[Halcyon]

What a curse, eh? It kills a mountaineer in an avalanche. It kills a cancer sufferer with a tumour. It makes a nervous, distracted guy crash his car. It pushes a bitter old hiker off a cliff, and viciously kills a weak-hearted man by giving him a heart attack at his friend's funeral. All that, and now it kills an MS sufferer with... MS. All in the short space of fourteen years, too. Terrifying.

 

[CurtSibling]

Sheer bad luck.

I argee, 100%!

DJ Ötzi is still alive and kicking.

Sadly, this is true!

 

[Yom]

Coincidence, of course.

 

[E-Raser]

The most sucsessful way of committing suicide is:

touch Oetzi, say three times his name, turn counterclockwise three times and spit over your right shoulder seven times. 13 Weeks after you'll die.

Plain rubbish. Only coincidence. If he would really have supernatural power he'd for sure kill the DJ misusing his name. Don't you think so?

 

[Dann]

...If he would really have supernatural power he'd for sure kill the DJ misusing his name. Don't you think so?

Funniest post thus far in this thread.

 

[thetrooper]

@E-Raser: Hey, Hey Baby - Uh, Ah...

 

[Grisu]

DJ Ötzi is still alive and kicking.

..which is the real curse of ötzi....

 

[Scrimshaw]

I think if you grabbed any dozen or so senior citizens and follow them for 14 years, you'd find similar results. Heart attacks, cancer and other diseases amongst seniors don't make a curse. Car accidents are relatively common (as sad as that is) and avalanche deaths and mountain falls aren't the rarest either for people who do that all the time.

It is kind of odd that two guys who were involved in the discovery of the iceman ended up dying in the same fashion as the iceman. But if you go hiking in the mountains your whole life, that's the risk you take.

 

[Xen]

@Scrimshaw- actually, they didnt; I've seen evidence that the iceman was i[]killed[/i]; that is to say murderd, and thuslly left in place, since he was dead.

 

[Babbler]

This is typical of the human species: seeing patterns where none are to be found.

I file this with the 'face of Mars' and the virgin Mary toast.

 

[Scrimshaw]

@Scrimshaw- actually, they didnt; I've seen evidence that the iceman was i[]killed[/i]; that is to say murderd, and thuslly left in place, since he was dead.

I know. I just meant that they ended up in the same way. Buried under ice in the mountains.

Technically all three died differently. One died in a fall and froze, one was murdered as you say and then was frozen and the last was the only one who was buried under snow and ice that caused his death.

End result for all three bodies was the same though. Of course that'll happen to anyone who dies there.