Jon-Erik Hexum appreciation thread
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Jon-Erik Hexum
No homo — 6 years ago(October 19, 2019 10:05 PM)
Jon-Erik Hexum, died 35 years ago yesterday at the age of 28. During a break during filming of the TV show "Cover Up" he was bored and to pass the time decided to play mock Russian roulette with a gun that was being used in a scene. He took 5 of the blanks out, leaving one in the cylinder, spun it, pointed it at his head and fired. The blast fractured his skull and caused massive brain hemorrhaging. He died 6 days later. He was unaware that a blank could be fatal. Thanks to being an organ donor his death helped save the lives of multiple people.
His his heart was transplanted into a 36-year-old Las Vegas man at California Pacific Medical Center. Hexum's kidneys and corneas were also donated: One cornea went to a 66-year-old man, the other to a young girl. One of the kidney recipients was a critically ill five-year-old boy, and the other was a 43-year-old grandmother of three who had waited eight years for a kidney. Skin that was donated was used to treat a 3½-year-old boy with third degree burns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum
No homo. -
Lilith — 6 years ago(October 19, 2019 10:43 PM)
I agree that it was a senseless death that could have been avoided. But this wasn't a cap gun, and it doesn't take an expert in ballistics to understand the consequences, but rather just some good old fashioned common sense. This act was sheer stupidity.
I don't care how bored someone gets. Pointing a gun at your head and pulling the trigger is something that is never even done in jest.
People are often misled by the term "blank" and assume nothing's exploding.
Things get tragic when people attempt to put the guns right up to their bodies and fire. Because they're used for show, and because the show has to be impressive,
blanks are sometimes loaded with more gunpowder than regular bullets.
The edges of the casing are also bent inwards, to hold the paper more securely and let more pressure build up as the gas pushes from behind. This massive amount of gas comes shooting out of the gun very fast. Once it's out of the gun it expands in all directions and is harmless,
but if a human skull is pressed directly to the barrel, the gas, and whatever is propelled in front of it, hits fast enough to shatter bone
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