Sherwood Anderson – Death by Toothpick

Sherwood Anderson was a notable American novelist who achieved fame in the early 1900s and had a hand in helping literary luminaries like Hemingway and Faulkner launch their careers.

Then he had a hand in getting himself killed.

While on a cruise to South America, Anderson drank a martini and apparently enjoyed the olive a bit too much. The autopsy after his mysterious death showed that he'd swallowed the toothpick that once held the olive -- perforating his colon and causing a fatal case of inflammation.