![\"Franz](\"https:\/\/www.france-hotel-guide.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/franz-reichelt-coat-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Eiffel Tower is Paris\u2019s most famous landmark, sparkling at night and attracting millions of visitors each year. But since it opened in 1889, the Iron Lady has also been the scene of astonishing tragedies. The seven true stories below show the tower\u2019s darker side, where daring bets, desperate acts, and fatal mistakes have all unfolded.<\/p>\n
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Early on August 23, 1891<\/b>, guards found a Parisian mechanic hanging inside the tower\u2019s north leg.<\/p>\n
He was completely naked. Next to the body lay his folded coat, trousers and three lit candles<\/b>.<\/p>\n
In one pocket he had tucked a brief will asking that his \u201cfortune\u201d \u2013 the clothes on the floor \u2013 be given to engineer Gustave Eiffel<\/b>.<\/p>\n
It was the tower\u2019s first recorded death, barely two years after the grand opening.<\/p>\n
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Tailor-inventor Franz Reichelt<\/b> dreamed of a coat-parachute that could save pilots.<\/p>\n
He got police permission to drop a dummy<\/i> from the first platform<\/b> (57 m up) but changed his mind.<\/p>\n
On February 4, 1912<\/b> he climbed the stairs wearing the bulky suit, posed for reporters, hesitated 40 seconds, then jumped.<\/p>\n
The cloth never opened. Legend says that he died of a heart attack before crashing, but it was never confirmed.<\/p>\n
Cameras filmed everything, and newspapers nicknamed him \u201cthe Flying Tailor.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reserve aviator L\u00e9on Collot<\/b> boasted he could fly his Breguet-19 under the tower after an American friend teased French pride.<\/p>\n At 9:10 a.m. on February 24, 1926<\/b>, he lined up in fog, slipped neatly between the north and west arches, but on the climb-out struck a radio-antenna wire.<\/p>\n The plane cartwheeled onto the Champ-de-Mars and burst into flames.<\/p>\n Photographers kept cranking their movie cameras while Collot, still strapped in, died in the fire.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just after 7 p.m. on May 14, 1961<\/b>, 40-year-old Albert Dufourmentelle<\/b> jumped from the second floor.<\/p>\n Police who searched his apartment on Rue Ch\u00e2teaudun discovered his wife L\u00e9onie<\/b> stabbed to death.<\/p>\n Friends said Albert had been out of work for a year and suffered severe depression (then called \u201cneurasthenia\u201d).<\/p>\n The double tragedy shook Paris and prompted new calls for higher safety railings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A year earlier, a 24-year-old typist<\/b> climbed the tower alone.<\/p>\n She was due to meet her fianc\u00e9\u2019s family that week and had battled the same nervous illness noted in Albert\u2019s case.<\/p>\n Overwhelmed, she stepped off the edge and fell to the plaza, canceling her wedding in the saddest way possible.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On February 9, 1963<\/b>, Spanish immigrants Francisco Toledo Pernia<\/b> (31) and Dolor\u00e8s<\/b> (28) argued on the first floor.<\/p>\n Dolor\u00e8s toppled over the rail and died instantly.<\/p>\n Two tourists swore they saw Francisco push her.<\/p>\n He first called it suicide, then admitted he had lifted her \u201cjust to scare her.\u201d<\/p>\n A court later gave him five years for involuntary manslaughter<\/b>, but many still doubt the fall was her idea.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Safety nets added in the 1960s did not stop thrill-seekers.<\/p>\n![\"Franz](\"https:\/\/www.france-hotel-guide.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/franz-reichelt-fall.jpg\")
3 \u2013 A dare that burned a pilot alive<\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.france-hotel-guide.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/leon-collot-plane.jpg\")
4 \u2013 A murder-suicide in 1961<\/h2>\n
5 \u2013 The secretary who feared her wedding<\/h2>\n
6 \u2013 Did a husband \u201caccidentally\u201d drop his wife?<\/h2>\n
7 \u2013 Modern stunts that ended in lunch-time silence<\/h2>\n
![\"Eiffel](\"https:\/\/www.france-hotel-guide.com\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/tour-eiffel-2-1-1.jpg\")
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