5-year-old Kathy Tongay shot to fame with her 6-year-old brother, Russell “Bubba” Tongay, as the “Aquatots.” The brother-sister duo performed swimming and diving feats around the world.
Their father, Russell Tongay had an obsession with forcing his children to become super swimmers and started training them at a very young age. They would be dunked in the shower from 6-months-old and then in a swimming pool. It was reported that by 10-months-old, Kathy could swim 20 feet and by 17-months-old, the two were swimming a quarter of a mile each day. In 1950, Russell staged a performance in the Mississippi River wherein he followed his two children, then aged 2 and 5, in a boat as they swam up the river. Kathy swam 2 miles while Bubba swam the entire length of the river.
Following this feat, Russell saw a career opportunity and started to promote his children as an entertainment act called the “Aquatots.” During promotion by Russell, he would brag that his children’s diet consisted only of baby food. During one performance, he tied Bubba’s hands and feet and forced him to jump off a diving board. In 1951, they toured around Europe. However, their so-called act was considered more abusive than entertainment and both the British and French government banned Russell from forcing his children to preform in the English Channel and they returned to the states.
In May of 1953, 5-year-old Kathy was being forced to complete a one-and-a-half layout dive from a 33 foot diving board. Ah failed the jump and ended up bellyflopping into the water. Afterwards, she complained that she had hurt her back and that she wanted to go home. Instead, Russell took Kathy to a nearby swimming pool. The lifeguard recollected how Kathy was extremely bruised and looked seriously unwell. Nevertheless, Russell fed her some baby food and forced her into the water.
Kathy was heard crying: “Please, daddy, don’t make me swim no more.” Shortly afterwards, Kathy went into convulsions and died. The autopsy determined she had died of a ruptured intestine, internal bleeding and an infection, presumably caused when falling from the diving board. Russell Tongay was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to ten years. He was released in March of 1961 on good behaviour.
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