Unlucky farmer killed by bullet which missed his face in shooting 20 YEARS earlier

Henry Ziegland broke up with his girlfriend, which set of a strange set of events that would come back to haunt the Texan two decades later in the most unbelievable way

When a bullet screamed past Henry Ziegland and only grazed his face before embedding in a tree, he must have felt like the luckiest man alive.

It was 1893 and the Texan farmer had not long broken off his relationship with his then girlfriend, Maysie Tichnor, who didn’t take the news at all well.

He admitted to being unfaithful while they were together yet sadly she felt she could not live without him and took her own life.

Maysie’s brother blamed Henry fully for the loss of his sister and in an act of revenge, he went over to Henry’s house in Honey Grove and shot him before killing himself with the gun.

However, the bullet intended to finish off Henry narrowly missed its target and remained lodged in a tree, seemingly out of harm’s way forever more.

A wounded Henry had miraculously survived an assassination attempt – but fate had other plans.

He continued his life as normal, marrying and having a child, until one day 20 years after the near-miss incident.

While out in the forest with his son chopping firewood on his land for the family fire, he came across one bark that refused to fall under the weight of his axe.

Undeterred, Henry had the idea of placing dynamite inside the trunk to blow it up – a popular technique at the time.

After standing at least 50 yards away from the tree with his son the dynamite was ignited and tree exploded.

Unfortunately for Henry it happened to be exactly the same one the bullet had been sitting for the past two decades.

The silver slug dislodged and fired back out straight into his temple, killing him instantly while his son watched on.

With perhaps the most patient bullet in the world involved, it was unsurprising that the story of this freak accident and its dark history made the national press.

But more than a century later the validity of such an unbelievable story has been questioned.

To be sure, no one has corroborated the events but then again no one has denied they actually happened.

The first news report about it was thought to be in Mississippi’s Jackson Evening News in 1905 that described it as “a marvellous case of punishment on earth for the sins of the flesh,” and “twenty years ago Henry Ziegland, then a handsome, wealthy young man, jilted beautiful Maysie Tichnor, and the girl committed suicide.”

The same story then reappeared eight years later in various other papers, from New York to New Orleans, as if it was a current event but naming a different Texas location, Fort Worth.

One hoax theory is that a couple of teenagers devised the whole story in 1905 for a joke and managed to trick journalists into believing it took place.

Whether the story of Henry Ziegland came from the minds of impish adolescents or it really did happen, it makes for a tragically unlucky tale.