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Robert Emmett Odlum

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Daredevil

The Resume

    (August 31, 1851-May 19, 1885)
    Born in Ogdensburg, New York
    Swimming instructor and lifeguard
    First person to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge (1885)
    Later died from injuries sustained from hitting the water

Why he might be annoying:

    He risked his life for a moneymaking publicity stunt.
    He once chased a wild duck that had been shot through the wing and was unable to fly seven miles down the Mississippi River.
    He ran a traveling museum dedicated to President Garfield's assassin Charles Guiteau (disclaimer: it failed).
    He performed stunts like holding his breath underwater for minutes at a time and challenging any man in the United States to swim him in a race for from $250 to $500.
    He was killed after a gust of wind turned him slightly in the air causing him to hit the water at an angle, bursting his organs upon impact.
    His last words as he was pulled into the rescue boat were allegedly: 'Is it all over?...Did I make a good jump?' and 'Am I spitting blood?'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He popularized swimming as a hobby and a professional sport.
    He briefly worked as a journalist and as a railroad conductor.
    When he moved to Washington D.C., he opened the city’s first indoor pool (Aug. 20, 1878).
    On the Wednesday before the Potomac River rowing race between Ned Hanlan and Charles E. Courtney, he swam the entire course.
    He jumped 90 feet from the wooden bridge at Occoquan Falls (July 4, 1881).
    As a lifeguard at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, he once rescued a young Ulysses S. Grant.
    He worked to support his mother financially. She would later blame his business manager for misleading him into doing the dangerous stunt.
    Part of his motivation for the stunt was to show people who found themselves trapped in high-rise fires that it was safe to jump into the nets held by firemen.
    He was proof that dropping from a great height could not alone cause death (it was hitting the water that killed him).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying