Five years later, a Usenetter send a story about an ex-pilot to all his friends by e-mail. The unlucky pilot attached an aircraft jet engine to his car and made his way through the Arizona desert. He hurtled against the cliff at 900 km/h. Only ill-starred pilot’s teeth could be found on the scene of the crash.

In 1990 this story was not a great success, but in 1995 anyone who will take the trouble sent it each other. The poor devil was adjudged Darwin Awards that very year. However, it became evident pretty soon that there had never been a car with jet engine. Specialists in urban legends, a very popular genre of American folklore, found out that this joke was known in the middle 1960. Arizona police officials complained thirty years after when journalists and tourists haunted them and wanted to see that very unsuccessful pilot’s cliff.

First e-mail messages containing stories about the most stupid deaths appeared back in 1991. A couple of years later first Darwin Awards websites appeared. It was the site owner who chose which stories to publish. There was no single award committee, and all the stories were rather doubtful.

Wendy Northcutt, an enterprising American woman, changed the course of events in 1994. She was only 21 when she decided to create DarwinAwards.Com website where her own list of nominees was published. As Wendy was quite busy with her academic career at Stanford University, this site was something like a hobby at first. But soon it proved to be very popular in comparison with its competitors. Wendy understood that the new site was a real gold mine, gave up science and got into the Darwin Awards. She patented this word combination as a trade mark.

From the very beginning anyone could adjudge the award, now Wendy (or Miss Darwin, as she names herself sometimes) has everything at hands. She has already published four best sellers, established an e-shop with Darwin Awards souvenirs, and Darwin Awards feature film was released in 2006. By the way, a notorious tale about rocket-car is reflected in this film.

Nowadays Wendy has become a mass media star, her business is prospering, leading American newspapers are always eager to interview her. So, she regrets not a bit that she traded science for Darwin Awards.

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