- Watch out for the yellow herald of slippery doom.
A person steps on a banana peel, slips, and falls down. Everybody laughs. It’s the height of comedy.
But there was a time when slipping on a banana peel was no joke.
These days, you’ve probably only seen a person slip on a banana peel if they do it on purpose for TikTok. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, banana peels were a real public health hazard.
America had just developed a taste for bananas, but public trash collection wasn’t really a thing yet. So, people would simply throw their banana peels on the streets — often with decidedly unfunny results.
Here are 10 true (more or less) stories of weird historical cases when people slipped on a banana peel.
1. The First Slip
The first documented person to slip on a banana peel in America was one Mary E. Brown. Others may have slipped before her, but her story was the first to make the papers.
On May 27, 1867, Mrs. Brown was walking down the street in Jersey City when a treacherous banana peel stole her footing. The 52-year-old fell down and broke her leg in the tumble.
Frankly, there’s not too much to the story. But this first reported banana fall is an ominous prelude to things to come.
2. Slipping into Custody
Not everyone who slips on a banana peel is completely undeserving. In 1872, Charles Bogart was accused of blackmailing the Delmonico’s restaurant in New York.
As the police were escorting him out of the restaurant, Bogart took his chances and escaped. He didn’t get far, though.
After running for 10 blocks, Bogart stepped on a banana peel, slipped, and was promptly arrested again.
3. First Banana Death
Falling from any height can be fatal, so it’s not that surprising that banana peels have claimed a number of lives. The first reported banana-related death, however, wasn’t directly caused by the peel.
In 1888, Will H. Willis of Galveston, Texas, was roused from his sleep by strange noises on the first floor of his home. Thinking it was a burglar, Willis grabbed his pistol and started sneaking downstairs.
Unfortunately, he slipped on a banana peel that was sitting in the stairwell for some reason. As he fell, his gun went off, and Willis accidentally shot himself in the head with tragic results.
4. Mann’s Double Whammy
The year was 1889 and bricklayer Richard Mann was walking down the street in Wheeling, West Virginia. He stepped on a banana, slipped, and fractured his right arm in the fall.
Fast-forward a few weeks, and Mann was recovering well. He was out on a stroll on the very same street when he stepped on another banana peel.
He fell again and fractured the same arm in another place.
5. Fatal Argument
In 1892, an argument started by banana peel slippage ended in violence. Locomotive brakeman Charles Gardner slipped on a peel in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
For reasons unknown, he blamed his colleague Robert Williams of throwing the banana at his feet to injure him on purpose. Incensed, Williams drew a revolver and shot Gardner.
The latter died on the spot and Williams earned a trip to prison. All because of a banana peel.
6. Mario Karting
Banana peels on the road are a hazard in Mario Kart but not in real life, right? Well, in 1893, inventor William Sanders proved that wrong.
He had loaded his “steam road wagon,” which we assume is an early automobile, with some of his best inventions. Sanders got on the road to drive to the Chicago World’s Fair to showcase his genius, when he drove over a banana peel.
Somehow, the peel sent Sanders’ wagon completely out of control and into a ditch. Sadly for the inventor, the crash broke all of his gadgets — including the steam wagon.
7. Mother-Daughter Fraudsters
People quickly realized that slipping on a banana peel could be used to scam money out of companies whose job it was to keep public places clean. Among the early fraudsters was Mary Freeman and her daughters, Jenny and Fannie.
The trio would drop a banana peel on the train platform and purposefully “slip” on it. They’d then pretend to have become paralyzed from the waist down and collect compensation money from the railway company.
Their plot worked twice in 1897, fooling even seasoned doctors who examined the “paralyzed” woman. However, on the third try, their plan fell through and all three were arrested.
The reason for the failure? The doctor examining one of the women was the same one who had examined them on their first con.
8. The 40-Foot Fall
In 1949, Edward McGilvray of Pittsburgh slipped on a banana skin in his third-story apartment. Somehow, he managed to tumble out through an open window and fall 40 feet to the street.
However, McGilvray must have some cat blood, because he landed on his feet — completely unharmed. He only suffered a burst blood vessel in his leg and one in his head.
The latter resulted in a nasty bruise and the second in a nosebleed. All things considered, the got away from the accident scot-free.
9. Banana Anna
The Freeman family weren’t the only ones running banana peel scams in turn-of-the-century America. But the most successful of the fraudsters was Anna Sturla, better known as Banana Anna.
Over several years, Anna and an accomplice pulled off multiple successful scams on railway companies. The partner would warn a station attendant of a dangerous mess on the platforms, and a few minutes later, Anna would slip on a banana skin (which she dropped herself).
A crucial part of the plot was an old leg injury that Anna could always show as proof that she got hurt in the fall. The duo swindled thousands of dollars out of railway companies — a stupendous amount of money for the time.
In 1910, however, an insurance adjuster discovered the plot and Anna confessed to her crimes. Yet, even then, the insurance agent couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of her scam.
10. William Lytle’s Incredible Story
Finally, we have the — frankly — unbelievable story of William Lytle, a serial banana slipper from San Francisco. This story is very long, so to make it short, let’s just say that over a period of two years, Lytle slipped on banana peels over and over, injuring himself multiple times.
He eventually became paranoid and convinced someone was purposefully trying to hurt him by leaving banana peels all around him. That was too much for his fiancée, who broke off their engagement because Lytle was constantly getting hurt.
The couple eventually got back together when Lytle’s fiancée saw him fall due to a banana peel and figured that he wasn’t insane after all. Yet, they never got to enjoy marital bliss.
That was because Lytle slipped and fell on a banana peel as he was walking down the aisle. At that point, the two mutually agreed that he was cursed, and she should find a man who is not tormented by bananas.
We doubt that this story is true. But hey, it made it to newspapers.
Want some more unbelievable accident stories? Check out our list of 6 fatal accidents that people somehow survived.