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By KARLA JACKSON
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA Friday the 13th was no big deal until biblical times, when Christians began to detect a pattern.
Adam and Eve were kicked out of Paradise on a Friday. The Great Flood started on a Friday. Solomon’s temple was destroyed on a Friday. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, after an ill-fated dinner party attended by 13 people.
Jump ahead a couple of millennia. One of America’s first natural disasters, the Johnstown Flood, happened on a Friday. The stock market crash that plunged the country into the Great Depression was on a Friday. The Apollo 13 lunar module nearly became space junk after an oxygen tank ruptured on April 13 (although that was not a Friday). Some of the most damaging computer viruses to hit the Internet were launched on Friday the 13th.
Coincidence? Probably. But even if you’re not paraskevidekatriaphobic (a psychological term for people who are paranoid about Friday the 13th), you can see how the date earned its rep.
In recognition of this most-jinxed day of the year, we’ve compiled a completely subjective and much debated list of the 13 unluckiest people ever. Feel free to knock on wood as you read it.
Ron Goldman. He tries to be a nice guy by returning Nicole Simpson’s sunglasses and winds up getting slashed to death on her front steps, proving that no good deed goes unpunished.
Steve Irwin. The Crocodile Hunter survives countless attacks by wild animals — and some vicious publicity for carrying his infant son into a gator pit — only to die in a freak accident with a normally harmless stingray. Crikey!
Roy Sullivan. A U.S. forest ranger struck by lightning on seven different occasions, Sullivan earns the nickname The Human Lightning Rod. He ends up killing himself in 1983 over an unrequited love.
Pete Best. He is replaced by Ringo Starr as The Beatles’ drummer just before the Fab Four go on to make rock ’n’ roll history. He says he’s not bitter. Who wants to be rich and famous anyway?
The Reeve Family. Christopher Reeve, aka Superman, is paralyzed in a fall from a horse. He rebuilds his life and career while in a wheelchair and on a ventilator, then winds up dying from complications from an infected bedsore. Seventeen months later, his devoted wife, Dana Reeve, a nonsmoker, dies of lung cancer, leaving their teenage son, Will, an orphan.
Ritchie Valens and Stevie Ray Vaughan (tie). Rockers at the height of their careers finagle the last seats on aircraft that crash, killing everyone on board. Valens flips a coin to win his seat on the plane with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Vaughan persuades his brother to give up his spot on a helicopter that was also carrying several members of Eric Clapton’s entourage.
Mary Decker Slaney. In the biggest race of her life — the 3,000 meters in the 1984 Olympics — she collides with British rival Zola Budd and takes a header into the infield, ruining her chance for a medal. She becomes known as the best runner to never win an Olympic medal.
Amelia Earhart. “I have a feeling that there is just about one more good flight left in my system, and I hope this trip is it,†the famed aviator says before the infamous round-the-world flight from which she never returns.
Job. His oxen are slaughtered, his sheep burned up, his camels stolen and his servants murdered. His 10 children are crushed when a house falls on them. His wife and friends turn on him, and he contracts leprosy. But it all works out in the end.
Vaughn Meader. Arguably the most popular comedian in America in 1963, when his comedy album “The First Family†sells 7.5 million copies — the best-selling comedy album ever at the time. Unfortunately, his whole act consists of impersonations of John F. Kennedy. After the president’s assassination, Meader becomes a pariah, sinking into depression, alcohol and drugs.
Tupac Shakur. One of the original “thug rappers,†Shakur survives being shot five times during a 1994 robbery only to get ambushed during the East Coast-West Coast rapper feud. He dies on Friday, Sept. 13, 1996.
Jorge Arantes. The Portuguese journalist leaves J.K. Rowling pregnant and penniless just before she writes the Harry Potter series and becomes one of the richest women in Great Britain.
Christa McAuliffe. The grade school teacher beats out thousands of applicants to be the first civilian in space. She gets to live the dream for only 73 seconds before space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing all seven aboard.
Reporter Karla Jackson can be reached at (813) 259-7606 or
Now, we want your submissions. Who would you nominate as one of our 13 unluckiest people?
In August 1990, fear paralyzed the UF campus. Parents came to pick up their children and the students who stayed huddled together thinking they were safer in numbers. What are your memories of the time? Share your thoughts.
Do you think food, drinks and headphones really are safety issues on school buses? Should headphones and drinks be banned? Tell us what you think.
The race for Florida’s 5th District, which pits a two-term Republican incumbent against a Democratic newcomer, is being fought along the political fault lines that divide America.
North Korea said Monday it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test and the blast had been successfully set off underground with no radioactive leakage from the site.
U.S. and South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the report.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the alert level of the military had been raised in response to the claimed nuclear test.
Some charities work wonders on a bare-bones budget. Others raise millions, then use it to pay for-profit fundraisers.
It can be hard for potential donors to tell which charities are legitimate. Have you ever donated to a charity, only to find that your money never reached people in need? How do you decide which charities deserve your help? Share your experiences here.
Angilo Freeland’s family say they don’t condone killing police, but they want to know why it took 68 bullets to stop one man.
The list of those seeking compensation for wrongdoing on the part of the state runs to 32 - victims, their relatives or heirs, all the subjects of so-called claims bills proposed for the spring legislative session.
But those bills might not be considered. The state protected itself from such suits, and the Legislature carves out individual exceptions in the claims bill process. Dismayed by the influence of politics, influence-peddling and money in the process, lawmakers have put the brakes on claims bills for the past two years.
What do you think of the victims’ long road to compensation, and the state’s efforts to protect itself from claims? Share your thoughts here.
Skyrocketing property tax increases in Florida are having a big impact on rental properties, since they don’t qualify for homestead exemptions or the Save Our Homes cap that limits increases in assessed property values to no more than 3 percent a year.
So, renters, tell us how those tax increases are affecting your rents.
And landlords, tell us about your property tax bills and how you feel about having to pass along those much-higher increases to your tenants.
LAKELAND - The signs of a city in mourning remained Monday: Flags flew at half-staff, and some business marquees bore messages honoring slain Deputy Matt Williams and his police dog, Diogi.
State lawmakers have declared that school can start no earlier than Aug. 20, saving Hillsborough County School Board members from having to make a politically charged decision about religious holidays. Tell us what you think.
Read the entire editorial.
For 15 months, Tampa Bay Water has been working to fix its desalination plant, which developed problems in 2003. Do you think desalination is the answer to the ever-expanding need for water in Florida? Or is the whole process still too expensive? Tell us what you think.
TAMPA - Tamika Lane-Gardner’s life completely changed when she was accused of molesting a 6-year-old girl this summer.
She couldn’t go anywhere alone. She couldn’t take her two girls to the movies or even go grocery shopping, her cousin said.
Her felony capital sexual battery charge quietly was dropped early last month by the state attorney’s office, but her life has been changed.
Do you have a tale to tell of spooky Bay area locale? We’ll get you started with this article written and published in 2002.
Who Ya Gonna Call? GHOST HUNTERS
By Kevin Walker/Tampa Tribune
Originally published Oct 31, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG — Last Halloween, a Pinellas County art dealer decided to take photos of her new home.
She had closed the purchase earlier in the day and wanted pictures of the 68-year-old house before she started a remodeling project.
She started in the dining room, zooming in on a pass-through to the kitchen.
She started to push the shutter button.
Without warning, the camera flew from her hand, hit the floor, slid across the room and smashed into a wall.
“I’ve dropped a camera before,” says the art dealer, who asked that her name and the house location not be used. “But to have it slide across the room and hit the wall so hard it broke the zoom mechanism?”
After she moved in, things kept happening. Her computer repeatedly malfunctioned, but only when used in her first-floor home office. Doors mysteriously unlocked on their own. She sometimes saw movement out of the corner of her eyes.
Earlier this month, she started feeling anxious, a “feeling of being watched all the time, a feeling of fear.”
In short, she was freaking out.
Who’s she gonna call?
Ghost Detectives
On Oct. 5, Brandy Stark, 27, leads a five-member ghost-hunting team in an investigation of the art dealer’s home.
Two carry zone electromagnetic field detectors. Another — Denise Schmidt, 37, on her first investigation — carries a micro-scanner infrared thermometer and a 35 mm camera. “I’ve been wanting to do something like this my whole life,” says Schmidt, an ex-police officer.
Others carry cameras, constantly snapping shots. They make note of “spikes” in electromagnetic activity or rapid temperature fluctuations.
Stark constantly jots down the team’s observations.
Most come from Sandy Bard, 37, and Susan Granby, 36. Both are “sensitives,” people who believe they have the ability to sense and sometimes communicate with ghosts.
On the second-floor staircase landing, Bard stops.
“Heavy, heavy,” she intones, waving her hands in front of her chest, indicating the heavy feeling she often gets when sensing a ghost.
Bard then reports seeing an image of an elegant woman, wearing a stylish dress.
In the downstairs office, Bard sees a man, arms folded, unhappy they are there. Granby picks up something unclear about theft and gets an image of a man laughing at them.
They comb the house for three hours, then meet with the art dealer, who shares her experiences. Turns out there was a theft of art pieces from the previous homeowner, a woman who lived in the house for more than 60 years until her death in 2000.
The ghost detectives sum up their findings: The ghost upstairs is benevolent, perhaps the original homeowner. The one downstairs is mischievous, possibly the thief.
Stark advises the art dealer to contact a priest to perform a blessing of the home. But the group warns that taking steps to get rid of the troublemaking ghost might also drive out the benevolent spirit upstairs.
The art dealer seems relieved. The ghost hunters are excited about their findings.
They’re all nuts, right?
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