Fraternities will continue to be a social tradition as long as society involves adolescents, alcohol, sex & drugs. Sorry for partying. And maybe a few networking opportunities for those who don’t party. We don’t like to talk about them. Anyways, there are always the cases of pledgeship that go haywire. Serious shit can happen, and these top 10 moments prove just that:
10. Tyler Cross. Tyler Cross, pledging Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Texas in 2006, fell from a fifth-story apartment. The night Cross died he had been given large amounts of alcohol and was physically hazed. Reportedly, the pledges were beaten with bamboo. Other allegations include sleep deprivation and shocking with cattle prods. Cross’ parents sued the fraternity and won a $16.2 million settlement they filed in the hopes that the legal case would serve to prevent another hazing-related death…
9. Matthew Carrington. In 2005, Matthew Carrington and a friend were pledging the Chi Tau fraternity at California State University Chico. One February night they were doused with gallons of cold water while powerful fans blew cold air on them. They were forced to do calisthenics while standing on one foot and made to drink several gallons of cold water. Carrington collapsed as a result of hypothermia and brain swelling from water intoxication. He died about two hours later from water intoxication. Carrington’s death was the impetus for stricter penalties for hazing. The Chi Tau fraternity was suspended.
8. Walter Dean Jennings III. At the State University of New York in March of 2003, Walter Dean Jennings III was pledging Psi Epsilon Chi. Jennings was involved in a hazing ritual that lasted ten days and included drinking numerous pitchers of water–sometimes through a funnel and often to the point of vomiting. Eventually, Jennings was forced to drink so much water that his brain swelled, and he died from water intoxication. 21 students were punished by the university over Jennings’ death and 13 were charged with, and plead guilty to, crimes that included criminally negligent homicide.
7. Benjamin Klein. Benjamin Klein was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau at Alfred University in 2002. He had been speaking out about hazing practices within the fraternity when four fellow fraternity members bound him with duct tape and held him in a hotel room. They beat him and kept him, still tied up, in the shower until he promised not to leave the room. The fraternity members were fearful he would get the fraternity into trouble over the hazing practices. Three days later, Klein’s bruised and cut body was found in a creek behind the fraternity house. Klein had killed himself with a drug overdose. One month after Klein’s death, Alfred University’s board of trustees voted to eliminate all fraternities and sororities from the campus.
6. Chad Meredith.Chad Meredith was pledging the Kappa Sigma fraternity at the University of Miami in November of 2001 when he and two of the officers of the fraternity began drinking heavily after a concert they attended. After several hours of drinking and with a blood alcohol level of .13, the officers encouraged Meredith to swim across Lake Osceola, where he drowned 34 feet from shore, unable to swim due to alcohol, fatigue, and the cold. Meredith’s death lead to the passage of the Chad Meredith Act, which expanded the definition of hazing and imposed harsh penalties on hazing at both the high school and college level.
5. Michael Davis. The beating death of Michael Davis in 1994 at Southeast Missouri State University uncovered a horrendous tradition of hazing at the school. The pledges of Kappa Alpha Psi underwent two weeks of physical battery that culminated on a Valentine’s Day event of multiple beatings where fraternity members set up “stations,” each of which issued physical and emotional abuse. Davis was beaten so badly that he was left with broken ribs, a lacerated liver and kidney, multiple bruises all over his body, and the bleeding in his brain that killed him. The state of Missouri made hazing a felony after this incident. The university presents a lecture each year in observance of Davis’ death.
4. Chuck Stevens.Chuck Stevens pledged the prestigious fraternity Klan Alpine at Alfred University in New York. One February night in 1978, with temperatures around zero degrees, Stevens was awakened from his bed, stripped to his underwear, and given a pint of Jack Daniels, a six-pack of beer, and a bottle of wine to drink while locked in the trunk of a moving car. When the trunk was opened, Stevens’ body was ashen and he was dumped in a dorm room. Several hours later he was taken to the emergency room, but Stevens never awoke. The combination of massive amounts of alcohol and the frigid temperatures caused Stevens’ lungs to fill with fluid. Stevens’ mother, Eileen Stevens, became a tireless activist speaking out against hazing for 25 years.
3. Donna Bedinger. A 1970 incident at Eastern Illinois University proves that Greek hazing doesn’t happen just to men. Donna Bedinger and another woman pledging the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority were taken three miles away from campus on a back road in the countryside and left. As the other women drove away, Bedinger attempted to throw herself on the back of the car. She missed, hit her head on the ground, and died days later from her injuries. Sororities now condemn this type of activity, known as “pledge sneaks” as dangerous.
2. Richard Swanson. In 1959, the pledges of Kappa Sigma were taking part in a hazing ritual that involved the young men to stand before a buffet table where a tray with raw liver was presented. The pieces of liver, each about the size of a club sandwich, were soaked in oil. Six pledges before Swanson were made to swallow the liver without chewing it. Swanson attempted to swallow the liver three times without success. On the fourth time, the liver lodged in his throat. An ambulance was called, but the attendant was not told about the liver, so Swanson died at the hospital less than two hours after he began choking. The incident was inspiration for the movie Fraternity Row.
1.Isaac William Rand. One of the first hazing incidents that set off 100 years of horrific Greek hazing happened at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1912. Isaac William Rand fell from a barrel on which he was standing. He landed on a broken bottle that pierced his jugular vein, and Rand bled to death. The four students associated with the hazing incident were expelled from the university. One was acquitted and the other three were found guilty of manslaughter.
Pledging sucks. It’s a statement. Now look, these cases are one in a million. Shit happens when you party, and shit happens when you pledge. Bottom-line is this: you signed the papers, and you knew what you were getting into as a pledge. As much as each of these events goes above and beyond what hazing should be, each pledge knew he could always walk away. Thanks to OnlineColleges.net for the info.
It’s not hazing. It’s brotherhood.
Comment all you’d like. If you’re feeling generous, submit a story for consideration. You’ll stay anonymous, and your story might end up as the next post of the PledgeMaster.
each pledge knew he could walk away?
is that a fucking joke?
every brother that was responsible for these deaths ought to be shot.
“He had been speaking out about hazing practices within the fraternity when four fellow fraternity members bound him with duct tape and held him in a hotel room”.
Yea he could totally walk away.
easily could have walked away
On an unrelated note, isn’t it mildly hilarious that the one woman on this list died because she JUMPED ONTO A MOVING CAR! 100% her fault.
yeah. what a dumb bitch. She should have known better..
Around 1960 when I was a student at USC, a pledge at Sigma Nu choked to death on a chunk of liver. The pledge had to swallow it and then pull it out with a string that was tied to it. Sigma Nu was shut down by the university. I was not a member of that frat so I don’t know the details.
Bottom-line is this: you signed the papers, and you knew what you were getting into as a pledge.
Yeah, I read it right there in the contract. “Our highly trained team of closet sadomasochists who get a jolly out of locking naked dudes in trunks will be preparing you for physical trauma that may kill you and stuff.”
you frat guys are assholes. end of story. christ.
Y’all need to grow some nut sacks. That’s what pledging is all about
No, sorry Steve-o, that is not what pledging is all about. It is about going through trials and tribulations that have a purpose…”bonding” and sadistic pleasures are excuses to do some pretty messed up things. No story up there should be a natural occurence in your fraternity therefore it is NOT what it is “all about”.
yall gay
This is ridiculous. You think you’re cool? Get over yourself. Your mommy and daddy pay thousands of dollars a year for you to go to college and partake in an idiotic establishment where you torment others and think you’re ‘badass’ because of it. Frat guys who do this are nothing but meathead jocks going no where in life who will drop out of college most likely within the next year, and will have nothing to put on their resume but “I can chug a bottle of Jack in 90 minutes and traumatize people simultaneously.” If I could give the makers of this website a slow clap and punch in the face, I would. But, hopefully your other cell mates will do that for me when karma eventually bites you in the ass.
Well now we know not to swim across lakes, miss jumping on a car, fall off barrels, o.d. on drugs we took on our own, or fall off an apartment building. That being said, some of those kids took that hazing way too far.
fraternities are so gay haha. “brotherhood” hahaha such fags.
^fucking this
Some of the pledges could have walked away, honestly. Not all of them could but at least 3 could have said, “No, I’m not doing this garbage anymore.”
I dont know why you guys bash fraternities like this. You obviously dont understand the things that we accomplish within our organization and the people we create; those same people who go on to become leaders of society. Im not saying that what these groups did was right, but not all fraternities nor chapters are like that and some of these instances are INDIVIDUALS going too far. Dont you dare begin to bash the entire fraternal system unless you have been through it and completely understand what it means to become a fraternal brother. You can walk away from ALL of these circumstances INCLUDING the one who was tied up and beaten. Dont drink the alcohol, dont kill yourself 3 days later, dont give in to peer pressure. I have avoided situations like this numerous times as a pledge by thinking SMART. What you people fail to realize is that every one of these individuals made choices to end up where they are, unfortunately they paid the price with their lives, but with that price came stricter rules and laws to improve our system as a whole. So dont begin to judge on a few individuals mistakes and dont hate the system when you can clearly tell that most of the haters have never given themselves to an organization that will have your back NO MATTER WHAT.
Yall mather fuckers are stupied i want do that shit so u got probly with want i said suck a gaint fat cock
When you sign your bid, you do NOT sign up for hazing in FACTFACTFACT it says boldly always everywhere and probably more than once, hazing at so and so university is strictly forbidden please sign here if you understand. So I GUARANTEE that is not what you sign up for.
this is ridiculous. risking your life for peer pressure to be socially accepted… when I was in college. these frat kids were drunk playing with a pistol at 5am until it blew one of their brothers heads off. Frat kids are morons. This means a loaded gun was pointed at someone’s face… They live in the moment of selfishness with complete disregard to life. They really don’t do squat to change the world. It’s all about binge drinking, campus power, sex and self righteousness.
There’s something really pathetic and vaguely homosexual about needing to be in a frat. What, you can’t make friends or get girls on your own? Always struck me as nothing more than a crutch for socially awkward kids.
WCU, call it a frat again you stupid geed. I hope you know that fraternities are like this, from the outside looking in, there is no understanding it, and from the inside looking out, there is no explaining it.
can’t understand greek life unless your in it. Bunch of GDIs.
This is the extreme of what could go on in a fraternity. Please go on and use a few incidents to justify hating the Greek system. How many geeds have died driving back from shitty dorm parties? By all means keep pretending you understand what we are about. Sorry you didn’t get a bid.