Franz Richelt - Darwin Award WINNER!!

"Franz Reichelt was a tailor who was convinced that the next big thing was a coat that doubled as a parachute. So he got busy sewing and developed just that. To test the coat/parachute, Reichelt climbed up to the first deck of the Eiffel Tower. He told authorities that he was going to use a dummy to test the invention, but at the last minute he strapped himself in and jumped to his death in front of a large crowd of spectators."

The YouTube video above is a live video of the event; it's comprised of a minute of soundless boring posturing, followed by the fatal plunge, followed by an unintentionally humorous final image of spectators measuring the depth of the hole he created in the ground (!!)

(Credit to Neatorama for posting this as part of their "Five People Killed by their own Inventions)