You know who faked their death? Bond, James Bond, in the opening to the movie You Only Live Twice (1967), with the able assistance of MI6. This high-profile example may have given some people the impression that this was a straightforward process. Because Hollywood action flicks provide extremely reliable guides to viable life choices.
The screenplay author Roald Dahl (of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame) based his work loosely on the 1964 novel by Ian Flemming. Very loosely. There was no fake assassination in the novel. James Bond, still grieving after the brutal killing of his wife Tracy Bond, was sent to Japan on a diplomatic mission: it was suppose to be a cake walk. He ends up receiving a tip that the killer of his wife and arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld was currently residing in a Japanese castle on the sea (these don’t really exist, by the way). Some killing and various explosions later, Bond is struck with amnesia, and hooks up with his paramour, former Japanese film star Kissy Suzuki, who hides his past from him so they can live happily ever after. Alas, it was not to be…
That’s the, “Living twice” part in the novel: it’s Hollywood amnesia, not Hollywood faked death.
So how does one fake a death? NPR has the goods:
Apparently people do it for money more often than love. Many get caught which is unsurprising considering that insurance investigators have been aware of such scams for well over a century. Greenwood’s book has a number of tips for would-be Elvis/Morrison imitators. Recommended. No, I haven’t read it or cracked it open. Also, the stuff above about James Bond was taken from wikipedia.
Deanna Durbin was a huge movie star as a teenager and young adult in the 1930s and 1940s, but by 1950, when she was almost 30, she walked away from all this and lived out her life in France with her second husband, where she also used her real name, Edna Mae David.
While I don’t seriously believe Enron founder Ken Lay managed to fake his death while awaiting sentencing, the little gremlin who sits on my shoulder loves to whisper the possibilities of off-shore accounts being accessed, young doctors with massive student loans being approached by proxy, closed-casket funerals, a falsified passport and some hair dye…
I need to get my gremlin a hobby. Or a girlfriend. Or a girlfriend with a hobby.
Where are any of you still encountering this particular brand of nuttery? I haven’t seen any “Elvis is alive” on the supermarket tabloids for at least a decade.
Well, it has a plausibility that the Elvis example does not: a number of people have tried and failed to fake a death in order to escape prosecution for various crimes. See my first Aug 29 post…
I remember reading a few years ago that the owner of the “is Elvis alive” museum and an author of a book of the same name finally closed the museum and donated the space to a charitable organization because He didn’t have much longer to live and well the moment had passed. No one was interested enough to take over …
the headline was "The end of a minor era the Elvis lives museum is closing "
heres two of the main characters that kept the theory going :
A different author wrote the book than the museum owner like I thought an interesting fact according to Wiki she caused such a stir that it delayed the Elvis Stamp by almost 10 years
here’s the museum info
the YT link is a 10-minute tour and he explains the rationale behind it
The story of James Hodges Ellis, who I’d never heard of before, is fascinating.
He sounded like Elvis and so was paid at times to record covers of Elvis songs to trick people into thinking they were the real thing, and he was also asked to dress and style himself like Elvis and sing with a mask after Elvis died. No wonder there were rumors of Elvis still being alive, it was actively being encouraged with those shenanigans.
Then tragically, years later the guy was murdered by a robber at a pawn shop he owned, along with his ex-wife who worked for him there. Crazy shit.
I don’t know anything about the Police Gazette (whether it was considered serious or not) But they had an article explaining how easy it would have been for Hitler to escape and live in Argentina.
Wiki has an article on the Police Gazette. It’s a tabloid publication founded in 1845, a lad magazine. No, it’s not a reliable source but I suspect it’s a cut above Weekly World News. Meaning they traffic in the dubious as opposed to the wholly fabricated.
It ceased publication in 1977, though it still survives as a company, managing past trademarks and sanctioning bare knuckled boxing fights. The tagline at its website reads, “Covering crime, sports, celebrities, and all things sensational since 1845.”
