Damn… just when I thought that I could nominate the Darwin candidate for the day, we get a new and improved Darwin candidate - who actually met his maker. A snake-handling preacher dies from rattlesnake bite in West Virginia.

The Washington Post Magazine had profiled Wolford in a story in November about the snake-handling faith. The Post said adherents cite Mark 16:17-18: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Snake-handling is legal in West Virginia, and Wolford was trying to keep it alive there and in neighboring states where it is not, the Post reported.
The Daily Mail reported that Wolford was bitten Sunday by a yellow timber rattlesnake — named Sheba — that he had often handled.