Talk:Roy Sullivan

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So after cheating death seven times, he just shoots himself? Surviving seven lightning strikes and living a happy life would have made a wonderful story, until it ends with a worthless suicide. BirdValiant 08:22, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

This isn't a forum BTW:I would like to see this article longer --NFAN3 00:18, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
If being struck by lightning seven times is all this guy is known for, then I don't see what else can be done to make the article longer. --Darren Lee 04:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)
Yes, how selfish of him to deprive you of a happy ending :). Seriously, we don't know for sure about the circumstances that led up to his death. He probably he had some issues to deal with. Not that I'm condoning suicide as a means of solving one's problems. --Darren Lee 04:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] That's Incredible!

I recall he was featured in the 1980 pilot episode of That's Incredible! actually showing the 7 individual locations around the park where he was struck. Seemed like a nice guy. He speculated that his body was abundant in "some form of mineral" that attracted the lightning, and that he couldn't stand near any family or loved ones while outdoors. I was going to add this to the main article, but it's so sparse that any other info would look out of place! Perhaps someone could post the segment on youtube and link it here...Richiestern 18:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright infringement?

A lot of this article is simply copy and pasted from here: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/061201.html I think it needs to be changed or removed. Witchzenka 03:40, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evidence

Being struck by lightning seven times just sounds absurd. Is it beyond any doubt that Sullivan didn't fake some or all of the strikes? I mean, the guy shot himself - why shouldn't he be capable of electrocuting himself?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.237.107.120 (talk • contribs) 2007-05-27T19:25:26

Got any sources to back up your claim that Sullivan was a faker? No one can prove beyond any doubt that the strikes really did happen, but there is evidence that they did happen (see references in the article) and none of these sources express any sort of skepticism towards the fact. --Darren Lee 16:44, 28 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Wording

quote: It came after he tried unsuccessfully to outrun a cloud he thought was following him. This doesn't make a lot of sense. If he only thought it was chasing him, then it wouldn't make sense that he could or couldn't get away. If it was actually chasing him, then he didn't just think it was following him, which is implied by the word thought. Superdupergc 15:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Is this a reply for the "Evidence" topic? If not, add a heading above your message to indicate a new topic. Anyway, that statement is unsourced and I just tagged it as such. Feel free to rewrite it to something that does make more sense. Also, I am a little confused by your statement "If it was actually chasing him, then he didn't just think it was following him, which is implied by the word thought." To me, what he was thinking does not necessarily affect what was really going on with the cloud. --Darren Lee 19:48, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

What I meant was that by saying that he thought it was chasing him, it is implied that it was not actually chasing him. Maybe I'm inferring it, but this is the same sort of language people usually use to talk about crazy people, "He thought he could fly," etc. No one says "thought" when it was true or successful; for instance, you rarely hear someone say something like "The Wright Brothers thought they could build a flying engine, and they did." (And yes, the heading was incorrect. It should be fixed now.) Superdupergc 16:16, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

nevermind, i changed it to "A cloud was moving in his direction which he thought was following him. He tried to run away from it, but was struck." Superdupergc 20:52, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Okay come on now guys is it not a joke that he thought the cloud was following him anyway? I was bent over double laughing when I read that. The whole article is hilarious; man, that poor dude. I like the idea too that it would have been nice if he had lived on and had a happy life, suicide at seventy one is kind of lonely and miserable - I guess it's a reminder that he was a real guy with real feelings in the real world. Getting hit by real bolts of lightning.

[edit] Probability of being struck seven times?

The article says that ignoring Bayesian probability you have a probability of 1 in 1.6 x 1025 of being struck seven times. This figure presumably comes from 1 in 40007. The probability of an American being struck during their lifetime is about 1 in 4000 [1], so if you assume the probabilities combine independently, then you come up with the figure above for being hit seven times. The trouble is that this calculation is very naive, and an accurate figure would have to look at the local weather (does Virginia have lots of thunderstorms?) and his occupation (did he spend most of his time on lookout towers on the top of mountains?). Without doing this, the figure is pretty much meaningless, and ought to go. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.147.74.107 (talk • contribs) 11:23, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Suicide reason cite

Does anyone else think that Paul Majendie might have learned that Sullivan might have killed himself over unrequited love from this article? The statement was uncited since April 2007 and Majendie's article was posted only a few days ago. It would not be good if the citations were going in circles. Does anyone know how to find out for sure? --Darren Lee 05:37, 29 September 2007 (UTC)