People Who Destroyed Their Lives Trying To Get Famous

A Maryland couple, Mike and Heather Martin, made their claim to fame on the internet playing pranks on their kids and posting them on YouTube under the channels "DaddyOFive" and "MommyOFive." One particular video that had viewers fuming showed the YouTubers pranking one son by blaming him for a mess he didn't create. The video has since been taken down, but the New York Post quoted the parents using harsh language telling the 9-year-old boy to "Get your f–king a– up here!" and asking him "What the f–k did you do?! What the f–k?!" Viewers were so alarmed that a petition to get Child Protective Services to investigate the family was created.

The Martins are a mixed family, as both Mike and Heather have children with exes. The biological mother of two of Mike's children, Rose Hall, got involved when she saw the video and obtained emergency custody of her two kids. The couple has been said to show signs of "gross immaturity" and have been accused of "exploiting the kids for fame and money" according to a report on Good Morning America. While the "DaddyOFive" channel has had most of its videos taken down, possibly for legal reasons, Heather's channel "MommyOFive" still holds several of the couple's videos including a disturbing prank where Mike pulls a gun out on one of his kids.

A young Minnesota couple made an attempt at fame with a YouTube channel devoted to sharing their lives with their fans as well as a few stunts and pranks. Wanting more followers, Monalisa Perez and Pedro Ruiz III came up with an idea for a dangerous stunt, which Perez tweeted about prior to the incident. According to CNN, Ruiz's idea for the stunt was to hold a book to his chest while Perez shot him, thinking the book would stop the bullet. Ruiz had convinced his girlfriend, who was 7 months pregnant at the time, that the stunt would be successful after showing her a book that he'd practiced on, where a different book had be able to stop the bullet.

Using a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun, Perez shot her boyfriend and the father of her two children from just a foot away. Ruiz was pronounced dead on the scene at just 22-years-old. Valley News Live reported that Perez was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Currently out on $7,000 bail, the 19-year-old must wear a GPS monitor and faces over ten years in prison and a $20,000 fine. None of her social media sites have since been updated with her feelings on the situation, and there's no report as to whether or not the couple's toddler, who appears in most of their other videos, was watching. Perez did, however, get the fame she was seeking after all.

The corn drill challenge seemed innocent enough with people timing themselves eating corn off of a spinning drill, but like most of these viral challenges, it turned out to be more dangerous than entertaining. One woman attempting this challenge made the mistake of leaving her hair down. The video shows the woman's hair getting caught in the drill and being ripped from her scalp. Since the woman hardly reacted in the video, appearing to be more in shock than in pain, people began to speculate that it was staged.

To prove the incident was in fact real, the woman released another video where she shows a close up of her scalp and tugs at her remaining hair to prove the skin around the scalp is real. "I have some red spot on my hair, you see, it is real, it is my scalp," the woman says in the video as translated by Daily Mail. Most unfortunate, her bald spot is front and center making it nearly impossible to hide.

Deleese Williams was all set to appear on Extreme Makeover, and had already gone through an extensive amount of the process when the show decided to drop her just hours before her first procedure. Interviews with Williams' family members had already been done where everyone was asked to talk about how ugly they thought she was, leaving her sister Kellie McGee especially guilty after Williams was sent home without her makeover. So guilty, in fact, that she committed suicide just four months later, resulting in a lawsuit against ABC and The Walt Disney Co.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the lawsuit stated that McGee and her other family members were pressured by producers into videotaping "hurtful and horrific statements" about Williams' looks to add to the drama of the show. When they returned home, Willaims was so ashamed to be going home looking the same that she became a recluse, too ashamed to show her face in public. ABC network expressed their condolences for the family, but said producers had told Williams and the other contestants repeatedly that their makeover wasn't guaranteed.

While reality shows based on competition don't typically lead to stardom, they can result in enough cash to make it worth giving it a go. What's the worst that can happen? Thirty-two year old Saad Khan would be able to answer this question, if he were still alive that is. As a contestant on a Pakistani reality show, Khan drown while swimming across a lake with a 15-pound backpack on, according to Daily Mail. The report states that Khan was able to call for help before disappearing under water. Other contestants and crew members all jumped into the lake to help him, but the lake water was too murky for anyone to be able to find him. Divers were able to find the body later.

The National reported that the show wasn't Khan's first moment in the spotlight, as he had modeled in the past and was always interested in being on television. Khan was seen as the star of the show, thought most likely to win until he was eliminated in the third round after failing to complete a challenge. Rather than sending him home, the show's producers decided to keep him around and surprise the other contestants with his return several days later. His first challenge upon his return led to his death where he was required to run through fire, swim across a lake, and climb a rope all while wearing the weighted backpack. Since the show won't release the footage captured by cameras, it's impossible to say if they should be held responsible.

Like so many with pop-stardom in their eyes, Paula Goodspeed took her talents to the judges of American Idol. During her interview, Goodspeed spoke to Ryan Seacrest about what a huge fan fan she was of Paula Abdul, who was judging at the time. She was clearly nervous during her performance, however, it seems that this poor woman had been singled out as a potential target long before she stood before Abdul, Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson. After singing Tina Turner's hit "Proud Mary," the insults began, not only calling her performance "horrible" but also having a lengthy conversation over the fact that all that metal in her mouth (she was wearing braces) must be effecting her vocals.

Even though Goodspeed seemed relatively okay about her dismissal, she was found dead in her car not far from Abdul's home. According to Daily Mail, she was found in a car surrounded by prescription medication, with a photo of Abdul in her rear-view window. Even Goodspeed's license plate read "ABL LV," presumed to stand for "Abdul Love," which contributed to the media speculating that Goodspeed was some kind of stalker or super fan. Goodspeed's brother Charles McIntyre disputed these claims saying,"'She was not obsessed. She was a fan. She adored Paula Abdul since she was a teenager." Her family also said that Goodspeed had gone to Hollywood to see if she could make a career out of her voice, and when she was humiliated on television, it was all over.

Martina Adams, AKA "Martina Big," is best known for her extreme plastic surgery decisions and her desire to become some kind of version of a live Barbie doll. Adams left her job as a flight attendant to become a glamour model according to Daily Mail, and her transformation progress will pop up in a news story every now and then. Her modeling career may not have taken off, but she certainly has managed to get the public's attention.

With a 32S cup size and a substantial amount of plastic surgery done to her face, perhaps Adams ran out of ways to drastically change her appearance and keep her name relevant in the media. She made enough of a stir to appear on several talk shows as well as Botched, where the doctors felt her breasts were too big to operate on. Now Adams has taken things way too far, and has begun her transformation into a black woman. The naturally white German woman used chemicals to increase the melanin in her skin and announced on her Facebook page (via Cosmopolitan) "I had done the next step in my transformation to a black woman. Yesterday I was with an African hairdresser and got a hair extension with curly, African hair." She's going to continue her transition by changing, "my hair structure, my facial features and enlarge my buttocks." If attention was what she was after, then she sure has gotten it as people are outraged by her sheer ignorance surrounding the situation.