The papers reported on January 4, 1935, that 56-year-old Summit, Tennessee resident James Beasom had died. Certainly nothing unusual about a death being reported in the newspaper on any given day, but how Beasom died was.

It all started when he was stabbed by a woman.  An ambulance picked Beasom up to take him to the hospital in Chattanooga. Along the way, the ambulance crashed into a car, so another ambulance was sent to pick him up.  It never arrived because it had caught on fire. A third ambulance was dispatched and successfully delivered Beasom to the hospital.

Medical staff were able to stop the bleeding, patched him up, and discharged Beasom from the hospital.

As Beasom began the 6-mile (9.5 km) walk back to his home, he was struck and killed by an automobile.