Talk:Roy Sullivan

A fact from Roy Sullivan appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 27 August 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in his lifetime, Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times, but died from a gunshot?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/August.

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Height 10.7?

In the box on the side it says "Height: 10.7". What is this? It is too short to have been his height in centimeters, and too tall to have been his height in feet. So what is it then? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.210.210.227 (talk) 07:40, 14 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Mortal?

I'm unsure of the use of 'mortal' in the statistics section of the article ("The odds of being struck by lightning for an ordinary mortal over the period of 80 years have been roughly estimated as 1:3000"), and what to replace the word with. Should this be "the odds of being struck by lightning for an ordinary person/man/human"? Putting mortal there seems to suggest that there are recorded statistics for immortals being struck by lightning and that they have a different conductivity than everyone else.

Thanks, those are simple probability arguments, and "mortal" shouldn't be there. Changed to person. Materialscientist (talk) 00:48, 26 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Suicide

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)[reply]

This isn't a forum BTW:I would like to see this article longer --NFAN3 00:18, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Yes, he committed suicide. Seeing him on TV in the 1970s, and hearing him tell the stories of how he was hit, I have always felt he embellished some of the stories. I think he deliberately got hit by lightning, especially the fourth and fifth times. I think he chased the cloud; the cloud didn't chase him. It's possible that was already somewhat suicidal, and was seeking death and/or the rush of beating death. Randall Bart Talk 20:47, 7 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Sorry but burden of proof is on whoever claims such an unlikely thing. I am not at all convinced by you listing said media sources as proofs of truth either because it is beyond obvious that those are just second hand accounts. Where are the countless medical opinions on why he is being struck so often you’d think he would seek out multiple opinions so he wouldn’t endure more strikes. I really think this is a case of a story that was tied up real well and wasn’t questioned too much for social reasons. I am not saying he wasn’t struck once but it is possible. There are absolutely 0 hard facts to document even a si for strike let alone witnesses aside from his wife (highly biased) 2600:1700:FD60:1A80:1997:B0DB:DFF4:812F (talk) 16:56, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

This article is written neutrally, although its subject matter seems to be one that is difficult to be partial about. The story of Roy Sullivan's life, with an emphasis on his lightning strikes, gives little room for ambiguity.

Most of the sources are very well-known (e.g. The New York Times, National Weather Service, Guinness World Records, Discovery Channel). The only one of these sources that seems questionable is the Discovery Channel, because I have seen them purport staged footage to be authentic, along with other fabricated scenarios used to “enhance” history. One source is by Barbara Watson, but the link does not work properly, so I can only speculate as to her credibility. There is also the St. Petersburg Times, which is a reputable source. The other sources are in scholarly journals, which are not exempt from bias. However, I have no reason to suspect that these journals in particular are biased. Barnardandy1 (talk) 03:31, 28 October 2016 (UTC)Andy Barnard[reply]

I've heard this story since I was a kid and like everyone else back then I just accepted it as fact. But now I don't believe for a second that it is true. Maybe he was struck by lightning once or twice and then he just kept making up stories to get attention. The journalists defaulted to believing his stories without any evidence. And now that they have been published in reputable sources they get accepted as fact. But no one ever bothered to verify anything when it happened. 108.247.173.121 (talk) 18:03, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Leaves ambiguity for reader to decide if clouds actually have a will and chase people lol. It’s stupid and probably directed at the religious 2600:1700:FD60:1A80:1997:B0DB:DFF4:812F (talk) 16:58, 20 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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.

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

I think Guinness noted his reason for suicide. Hut 8.5 11:24, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

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Pop culture section uncited

The only citation in the pop culture portion is to a cdbaby and does not mention anything related to this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.151.103.9 (talk) 15:05, 31 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The a South African dairy producer and the South Arican subsidiary of the Swedish packaging company, TetraPak, has made a TV advert that uses man. You can find it by searching the web for 'Clover Tetrapak advert' 85.229.187.168 (talk) 20:18, 7 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Guiness Record?

The Guiness Record website http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/ does NOT seem to support the claim. Search for "Sullivan" or "lightning": nope. So i deleted the GR claim in the article. Cheers, JMMuller (talk) 19:36, 10 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sullivan does appear in several printed editions of Guinness World Records, including the 2001 edition (and several earlier editions). I suspect Guinness do not include all records on their website. Hut 8.5 19:46, 10 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics

Unless I'm misreading it, the statistics section quotes two probabilities that are exactly the same - 10,000. Not sure what the correct number is for either of them, but they shouldn't be the same number for "likelihood of being struck once" and "being struck 7 times". Witty lama 14:20, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There is a power of 7 added to the second one (maybe your browser hides it), meaning A*A*A ... seven times. Materialscientist (talk) 22:33, 29 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, of course. Silly me. I read that superscript 7 as "footnote number 7" but didn't think about the fact that it wasn't blue. Thanks, Witty lama 02:11, 30 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Eight Strikes

I read that he was struck by lightning an eighth time that he told no one about. True? 173.87.57.157 (talk) 23:59, 8 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Firewatch

I found out about him because he was apparently mentioned in the game firewatch. Don't know if that is in any way notable. This is basically just a question. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.107.54.171 (talk) 18:25, 4 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]