# Deaths that sort of define a person **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999 "2023-07-13T19:14:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2023, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/201 "2023-07-15T23:21:35Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > > [@dtilque](#): > > > > As far as JFK’s death, if it weren’t for Ruby offing Oswald a couple days later, there likely would not have been any conspiracy therories about it. > > You grossly underestimate how eager some people are to make dumb theories. Nowadays, yes they are. Back in the 60s-70s, not so much. I’m not sure when the first JFK CT was invented, but it was at least a couple years after the fact. Today, they invent them before the gun barrel of the shooter has cooled. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/202 "2023-07-16T04:03:28Z")
I had to look him up to find his name. [He’s the artist who made the big blue Mustang statue at the Denver Airport.](https://www.cpr.org/2019/11/04/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-blucifer-the-demon-horse-of-dia/) The story is that the statue killed him by falling on him. According to the linked article, it didn’t crush him. Not sure if the difference is an improvement, though. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/203 "2023-07-16T05:11:37Z")
Around the same time, there was a very promising band called For Squirrels (this name ranks right up there with The The as being very difficult to find with a search engine) that also ended tragically; IIRC something like 3 of the 5 band members died in a van crash. The Minutemen’s D. Boon also died in a freak car accident in the mid 1980s, just as the band was on the cusp of the big time. He was headed into Tucson to meet the parents of a woman he was planning to marry; he was in a sleeping bag in the back of a van because he wasn’t feeling well and she was driving, and IIRC she fell asleep at the wheel and went off the road, and the van’s back door popped open, he slid out, and died instantly when he hit his head on the pavement and his neck snapped. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/204 "2023-07-16T05:15:23Z")
My mother was 6 months pregnant with me when JFK was assassinated. My father, whose degree is in secondary history education, has raised all of us kids to not believe the party line about it. (On a not totally unrelated note, some years back, my sister showed up at their house wearing a T-shirt that said “FRANZ FERDINAND” on it. She explained to him that it was also the name of a band.) ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/205 "2023-07-16T11:21:20Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > (On a not totally unrelated note, some years back, my sister showed up at their house wearing a T-shirt that said “FRANZ FERDINAND” on it. She explained to him that it was also the name of a band There is a meta thread here, of bands named after people who are defined by their death. Franz Ferdinand Brian Jonestown Massacre (twofer there) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/206 "2023-07-16T12:15:38Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > There is a meta thread here, of bands named after people who are defined by their death. > > Franz Ferdinand > Brian Jonestown Massacre (twofer there) I can’t be the only one who thought Death Cab For Cutie got their name from a Daily Mail headline about Princess Diana. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/207 "2023-07-16T12:38:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Around the same time, there was a very promising band called For Squirrels (this name ranks right up there with The The as being very difficult to find with a search engine) that also ended tragically; IIRC something like 3 of the 5 band members died in a van crash. That happened as well to a up-and-coming Atlanta indy band called The Jody Grind in 1992; the band dissolved after a drunk driver killed two of its members. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/208 "2023-07-16T13:41:22Z")
The Dead Kennedys. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/209 "2023-07-16T13:59:38Z")
Mary Surratt, the Lincoln conspirator. Despite what a movie might lead you to believe, she was in it up to her eyeballs. But famous for being a female being hanged. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/210 "2023-07-16T18:05:40Z")
Yeah, she was a pretty reprehensible person, not the innocent some have claimed. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/211 "2023-07-16T19:52:46Z")
I remember that band too. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/212 "2023-07-16T20:14:06Z")
I happened to be walking outside the 40 Watt Club in Athens, Georgia on night in 1991, and heard this amazing voice that was so mesmerizing that I had to go in to listen. It was Kelly Hogan. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/213 "2023-07-16T20:40:37Z")
Scott of the Antarctic. Easily the most famous of the Antarctic explorers, not despite but because his incompetence got him and his team killed. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/214 "2023-07-16T21:10:57Z")
They wanted horses instead of dogs. Is that true? It’s what’s lodged in my memory. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/215 "2023-07-16T22:32:50Z")
Ms. Hogan was not in the vehicle that was wrecked, and still performs to this day. > **[Kelly Hogan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Hogan)** > > Kelly Hogan (born January 11, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, often known for her work as a member of Neko Case's backing band, as well as for her solo work. > Hogan was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of a Vietnam War Army veteran helicopter pilot who went on to become a policeman. Hogan's parents divorced, with her mother later remarrying and relocating to Rutledge, Georgia while her father still lived in Douglasville, Georgia as of 2012. > Hogan is the oldest sister in her famil... ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/216 "2023-07-16T22:54:55Z")
I know. Hoping I get a chance to hear her live again. ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/217 "2023-07-17T10:38:45Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > On a not totally unrelated note, some years back, my sister showed up at their house wearing a T-shirt that said “FRANZ FERDINAND” on it. She explained to him that it was also the name of a band.) I was going to nominate Franz Ferdinand (the person, not the band) for this thread on the assumption that “Arch Duke” counts as famous. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/218 "2023-07-17T16:43:45Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Bob Crane - found beaten to death in a hotel room. He had a hobby of taking photos and video of himself having sex with various women, and it’s surmised perhaps an angry husband or pimp or some underworld type killed him because of it. My money is on John Henry Carpenter. The Scottsdale Police Department had no homicide division in 1978 so was unable to process the evidence gathered properly, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/219 "2023-07-17T23:39:05Z")
Captain Smith of the Titanic. Sure, many successful crossings and nobody notices, but hit one little iceberg… ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2023, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999/220 "2023-07-17T23:56:31Z")
“Elvis, Mama Cass, Hendrix. I call this my Greatest Pukes album… all great artists that asphyxiated on their own vomit! You can’t get this in stores, man!" [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deaths-that-sort-of-define-a-person/986999.md?page=12)