The title of the list is "5 Math Battles That Ended in Death," but that is a little misleading. Yes, there were math battles during the 16th century, but the consequences of those were more on the level of betting, they weren't deadly. The accounts of the five deadly incidents include one duel that may or may not have anything to do with math (but left a talented young mathematician dead), one possibly natural death, and three tragic cases of gifted mathematicians who suffered from obvious mental illness. One killed his family because it was the mathematically logical thing to do. One was so paranoid that he wouldn't eat anything unless his wife prepared it, and when she was hospitalized, he starved to death. Another committed suicide because he was afraid he would lose his math abilities due to cancer. Read all these mathematically sad tales from history at Cracked.
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i wouldn't rule out sad + crazy
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Now that I think about it, we really don't have enough information on the mathematician with cancer. You honestly don't have to be mentally ill to consider the implications of the disease and decide to skip the painful part if you are terminal. Sad, but not necessarily crazy.
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