Beauty, Thrills, Death - the Busy Season Begins at Niagara Falls

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) - The body was spotted by a tourist at 6:46 p.m. May 15, spinning in the Whirlpool.

That Monday evening, two things were clear to the rescuers and anyone else who knows Niagara Falls well: Getting to the scene would be difficult, and the victim probably would turn out to be a suicide. For most of the 10 million people swarming around Niagara Falls this summer, it will be enough to simply gaze, feel the mist, smile for a photograph with the water rushing behind. But a handful of others see the deluge and must become part of it, either to seek out death or to defy it.

It is the busy season here - for tourism, suicide and heading off the daredevils. Converging on the churning waters were boats of the Coast Guard, the Niagara County Sheriff's Marine Patrol, the Lewiston No. 1 Fire Rescue Boat, and helicopters from Erie and Niagara Counties.

The body in the Whirlpool would be the second recovered from the lower river in three days. The boats hung back, ill-equipped to navigate the vacuum-like quality created by hundreds of thousands of gallons of water coiling and pooling before passing through the Great Gorge. "It's kind of like a drain effect, when you fill your sink and pull the plug," explained Capt. Bruce Wright of the Niagara County Sheriff's Marine Unit, who responds to these calls about a dozen times a year.

"It just continuously swirls and usually anything that's caught up in there, for the most part, stays there until it's retrieved." Niagara Falls vies with San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge for the dubious title of most popular place to end it all. The number of Niagara suicides rises steadily through the summer and peaks in September. An accurate count is difficult because some bodies are never recovered, but the experts put the number at about 20 a year.

According to Wright, the feelings recorded by Harriet Beecher Stowe are not unusual. "It seems that Niagara Falls somewhat hypnotizes people," he said. "They look at the water and the next thing you know they're wading out and over they go."

Finally a jet boat roared into the Whirlpool, and a metal basket was lowered over its side. But engine problems arose, and a helicopter had to pick up the body. It was brought ashore and turned over to Canadian authorities. The next step would be determining who the man was. Niagara Parks Police confirmed that he and the one found two days earlier were suicides, but would add only that both men were in their 40s, and from Ontario.

Jet boats run by private tour operators have brought a touch of high-tech to the retrieval of bodies, but until about six years ago, the task often fell to the Hills, a prominent Niagara Falls family with thrill-seekers of its own. Red Hill Sr., a consummate riverman, three times rode a barrel through the Whirlpool Rapids below the Falls. His son, Red Jr., died in 1951 going over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in a contraption of inner tubes and fishnet he called "The Thing."

The Hills estimate they pulled more than 500 corpses from the lower Niagara River over some 90 years. "The body would be in the center of the Whirlpool and it would go round and round," Wes Hill, brother of the unfortunate Red Hill Jr., recalls. "We had to wait until it came close enough to shore, maybe 100 to 150 feet, then swim out and put a rope on it."

Paul Gromosiak, a Niagara Falls historian, has written "Niagara Falls Q & A: Answers to the 100 Most Common Questions About Niagara Falls" after logging questions from 40,000 tourists. He has spent years counting the suicides from 1856 to 1995. His statistics show that the favorite timing is Monday at 4 p.m., mostly from the upper rapids but also off bridges over the Niagara River. Then there are the daredevils.

Jean Francois Gravelot, the Frenchman better known as "The Great Blondin," made the first tightrope crossing in 1859, only to be caught up in a celebrated rivalry with New York-born William Hunt, aka Signor Guillermo Antonio Farini. Whatever one did - cycle across, carry his agent across piggyback, stop midway to fry an omelet - the other matched and more.

In 1901 Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor went over and survived, but declared upon emerging from her wooden barrel: "No one ought ever do that again." English circus stuntman Bobby Leach survived the plunge in a steel barrel in 1911, only to slip on an orange peel 14 years later. His fractured leg became gangrenous and he died.

George Stathakis, a chef from Buffalo, died trapped in the water, but his pet turtle survived the fall. A 7-year-old boy wearing a life preserver is the only person to have survived a plunge over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls without a barrel or other contraption. He had been thrown into the water in a 1960 boating accident. No one has ever survived a trip over the narrower and rockier American falls.

-- Niagara Is (Barrels@of.fun), June 24, 2000

Answers

im jus wondering if anyone knows anything about the death that occured yesturday in front of a hotel right near clifton hill, a woman jumped out of her hotel room window, i was there i was just wondering if there had been any new updates , thank you

-- dee m (cali@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

previous))) im jus wondering if anyone knows anything about the death that occured yesturday in front of a hotel right near clifton hill, a woman jumped out of her hotel room window, i was there i was just wondering if there had been any new updates , thank you

-- dee m (cali_diseaz69@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

Hi, saw your post about the girl who died in front of Brock Plaza. I was staying in the Brock on the sixth floor, and happened to be looking out the window at the right time (or wrong time, however you want to look at it), and saw her fall past. If I had been leaning out far enough, I probably could have touched her. Its been confirmed by authorities that she jumped from her room on the eight floor. If you are a family member or a friend, you may or may not want to read any more.

On the way down, I heard her scream very shortly and quietly, and she didnt sound scared. To describe it, I would say she sounded happy, relieved, excited. I think I was the only one who heard it.

That's all I know. If you have any more information about it, I would appreciate it. Thanks, Scott

-- Scott (vampriter@hotmail.com), May 20, 2002.

I work in the hotel and the information that has been found out is that she was a 22 year old woman from hamilton. She wasn't staying with anyone. A maid went to the room and knocked on the door to be greeted by the woman saying, "I'll be down in two minutes." Then she locked the door and jumped. There was no note and she was not pushed but did indeed jump. She was given CPR on the ground but was said to have died on impact. People had to be directed around the accident and it was cleaned up soon.

-- dameon (dameon@hotmail.com), May 21, 2002.

When I visited Niagara Falls on the Canadian side, I went up to see the view from the tower almost right away. I was delighted to discover how beautiful the falls are from there, and later I stood at the edge of Horseshoe Falls. Like many another visitor, however, I suppose I was expecting to be visually overwhelmed from at least some perspective by the height of the falls and its volume of water, but it's not really about that at all - even if they allowed more water to flow.

And it's all very romantic at night when the many colored lights are on, and glorious by day with that dependable rainbow that sits out in front of Horseshoe Falls.

My father left me all the postcards that he purchased at Niagara back around 1931, and he once told me the story of the daredevil who later killed when he slipped on a peel. And who would not be emotionally touched by all the stories about suicides. It's all so moody and fascinating, and anyone planning to visit will be g

-- Hamilton Barrett (Mimereader@aol.com), October 23, 2002.

Lon, i think we have someone else who has hungry gremlin trouble. :-)

Thanks for the commentary, Hamilton.

-- tricia the canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 25, 2002.

With the opening of another Casino in Niagara Falls, I wonder if the body count over the falls will increase.

-- Jeff Pink (jeff.pink@att.net), January 02, 2003.

I have been trying to get some information about someone who was pretty close to me that committed suicide at Niagara Falls on October 21st, 2001. His name was Michael Wright and he went to college with me at SUNY Oneonta. When we graduated in 2001, the last memory I have of him was a smile on his face and his laugh since we sat together on the stage to receive our diplomas. When I heard of his death, it was a month after it already happened since we lived far apart and he stayed in school. The news was obviously shocking to me and I just wanted to find out if anyone was there or heard anything. Thanks

-- Joshua (lonestar316@hotmail.com), January 02, 2003.