After making history by cheating death at Niagara Falls nearly 15 years ago, an infamous daredevil recently attempting the feat once more and was not nearly as lucky.
Kirk Jones made worldwide headlines back in 2003 when he somehow managed to go over Niagara Falls unprotected and survived the ordeal.
Suffering only a few broken ribs as well as some cuts and scratches, he earned a dubious place in history as the first person to ever live through such an experience.
Fined $3,000 and permanently banned from Canada for the stunt, Jones enjoyed his requisite 15 minutes of fame through TV appearances and planned to write a book about the misadventure.
However, it would appear that any hoped-for riches to be garnered from the stunt never came to fruition.
This may have led to Jones' decision to revisit the legendary location and attempt to recreate what must have felt like the highlight of his life and, perhaps, claim some of the lost glory from the moment.
Alas, it was not to be as authorities say that his body was recovered from a river around 12 miles from the falls earlier this month.
And in a somewhat ironic twist, investigators believe that Jones may have tried to achieve the plunge from inside of a giant inflatable ball.
According to police, he had been in the area at the same time that a boat recovered the 10-foot device, which contained no one inside, back in April.
This had led authorities to surmise that Jones' 'reimagining' of the stunt somehow went awry and led to his demise.
One can only wonder why, after surviving the fall unprotected the first time, he would opt to use the ball for the second plunge.
While we may never know the answer to that question, it's clear that Jones could not tempt fate twice at the falls and paid a steep price for his hubris.
Source: Syracuse.com