When socks attack: It turns out footwear can be fatal!

They might seem innocent, but the simple sock can be deadly.

Check out these shocking real life stories. Here’s what happens when socks ATTACK! Warning, some of these stories are not for the faint-hearted.

Smell of death

James Steen had a fetish for sniffing snocks, but this was only the start of his troubles.

The 23-year-old from the UK suffered respiratory failure when one of the socks that caught his fancy blocked his airway when he partially swallowed it at the home of a doctor he’d met on a night out.

Dr James Morgan, 29, invited James and two other friends back to his home and then gave James the party drug meow meow as well as common date-rape drug GHB.

The court heard that the drugs were a direct contributor to James’ tragic sock-related death.

Morgan was jailed for six months for supplying Class B and Class C drugs.

Revenge on the snitch

Notorious mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was killed when fellow inmates stuffed a lock inside a sock and pummelled him to death.

The wheelchair bound 89-year-old, who was serving a life sentence for 11 murders, had transferred to a new prison less than 24 hours before the attack.

He was rolled into a corner of the common area, out of view of CCTV before the attackers struck.

Bulger’s death certificate revealed that he died from blunt force injuries to the head.

His brutalised body was found wrapped in a sheet in his cell 12 hours later by prison guards who said he looked unrecognisable.

Prison officers believe he was killed because he’d become an FBI informant.

Stinky socks

A dad’s addiction to smelling his own socks landed him in hospital after he developed a fungal infection.

The 37-year-old from China named only as Peng was admitted as an emergency case and given an X-ray after he developed chest pains and a cough.

Through their investigations, medics discovered that Peng was obsessed with sniffing the socks he’d worn all day.

A fungal infection on his feet was transferred to his lungs through his purposeful deep inhales.

It’s unclear why he’d formed this strange addiction, but it is believed he made a full recovery from the infection.

WATCH: Contouring your feet is now a thing. Post continues after video…

Deadly pair

Liam Humphreys, 27, was found face down on his bed at his home in Wales, by a friend he’d invited over.

He’d told his mate Carl Howard he wanted to be alone.

But when Carl returned, Liam was unresponsive.

He flipped him over and found the sock in his mouth.

Paramedics arrived and desperately tried to save Liam but he was later pronounced dead.

Police attended the scene and discovered two socks, a bottle of relaxants and a tin of chloroethyl spray.

The sock contained alcohol and ethyl chloride.

A post mortem found Liam’s cause of death was exposure to the substances on the sock as well as an upper airways obstruction.

Something sinister’s afoot

Avid coin collector, Anthony Bubbins, 57, was found dead at the home of serial burglar Paul Paget.

He was discovered by police officers who were trying to visit the assailant.

Anthony was tragically laying half on and half off the bed deceased, a 22cm long sock forced into his mouth and a pillow over his face.

A pathologist later found the sock had forced his tongue deep into the back of Anthony’s throat, obstructing his airway.

What’s more, Paget had stolen some of Anthony’s prized coins and sold them following his death.

Paget was convicted of manslaughter and handed a total prison term of 15 years and six months for the offences.

Terror in our homes

Did you know that staying at home is even more dangerous than going out.

A study on risk by British academic John Adams found that there are over 3,000 deaths a year as a result of home accidents.

Half of these are people falling over and of these, between five and ten a year are while people are trying to put on their socks.

In 2003, more than 11,000 people were taken to hospital following accidents while putting on socks, tights or stockings.