While the vast majority of anecdotes in this book feature stupid people doing stupid things, you also get a number of curious newspaper headlines, ironic acts by people with notable names (such as a fellow named Perry Mason suing over his expulsion from law school), some examples of extremely bad luck and even the rare "there is justice in the world after all" pick-me-up. As an example of the latter, take the despicable man who parked his car in front of an oncoming train and bailed out, leaving his girlfriend inside to die -- she somehow survived, and he was killed by a piece of flying debris.

Yes, I suppose there is a degree of reveling in the misery of others, but one must admit that it is quite fascinating to discover some of the bizarre ways in which humans meet their deaths or suffer grave injuries. I don't pity any of the dumb criminals here (not even the Japanese woman who complained to the police that the hit man she hired was taking too long to get the job done), as most of them actually deserve worse than they got, but I do feel sorry for some of their victims (such as the man who was stabbed for humming a Megadeth song so loudly that his attacker couldn't enjoy her Celine Dion music). Frankly, though, I'm not sure how to feel about someone who choked to death while biting the calluses off his feet or fell out of a moving car after opening the door to relieve himself. And you wouldn't believe some of the things people have argued and killed over.

There's very little in the way of original content here, which is fortunate given the fact that Leland Gregory's occasional little comments and bad jokes are not nearly as funny as he probably thinks they are. The guy deserves credit for scouring news reports of several years to find all of the stories included here, but he really just edits that material down into short summaries. All too often, he doesn't offer up nearly as much information as I would have liked, compelling me to periodically search the web for details he left out. Some of these stories are absolutely fascinating, and almost all of them are interesting. Obviously, this isn't high-brow literature, but Cruel & Unusual Idiots certainly makes for entertaining reading.