# Has anyone (moderately well-known) successfully faked their own death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961 "2013-11-15T02:58:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/21 "2013-11-17T20:07:48Z")
Blockbuster Video was believed by a lot of people to be completely dead for years, only to pop up recently and tell people that it is in fact still alive, but will now actually go ahead and die. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/22 "2013-11-17T23:04:11Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#): > > Death was real, rebirth was fake. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/23 "2013-11-18T06:18:52Z")
If they were successful, we’d never know about it. Its like saying, how many people were able to successfully travel 1,000,000 years into the future but were unable to return. ---
**Author:** ![Cognoscant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Cognoscant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cognoscant)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/24 "2013-11-18T15:44:06Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > If they were successful, we’d never know about it. Its like saying, how many people were able to successfully travel 1,000,000 years into the future but were unable to return. The most obvious way we’d find out is if they were identified after their (eventual) real death. One case was Leo Khoury, who was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. Some years after he’d disappeared from Virginia a hospital in California reported an unidentified patient who’d passed away from natural causes. A routine fingerprint check revealed that he was Leo Khoury, who’d checked in under an assumed name. Now although the FBI was still under the impression that Khoury was alive (they don’t usually keep dead people on their Ten Most Wanted list), there were a number of law enforcement agencies who assumed he’d passed on. So that’s one way of finding out about someone’s successful faked death. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/25 "2013-11-18T21:52:53Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Jesus? The Missing Years? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961/26 "2013-11-19T02:20:10Z")
> **[Faked death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faked_death)** > > A faked death, also called a staged death or pseudocide, is the act of an individual purposely deceiving other people into believing that the individual is dead, when the person is, in fact, still alive. People who commit pseudocide can do so by leaving evidence, clues, or through other methods. In fandom slang, pseuicide is faking a suicide. Death hoaxes can also be created and spread solely by third-parties for various purposes. > Committing pseudocide may be done for a variety of reasons, such... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-moderately-well-known-successfully-faked-their-own-death/673961.md?page=1)