# Public figure faking his own death **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 19, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123 "2013-04-19T12:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![goatsinthemachine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@goatsinthemachine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goatsinthemachine)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/1 "2013-04-19T12:05:50Z")
The British Labour Party politician and junior Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse faked his suicide by drowning, leaving a pile of his clothes on a Miami beach in 1974. He was in financial trouble, cooking the books and was under investigation. He started a new life in Australia with his lover and secretary Sheila Buckley, assuming the identity of Joseph Markham, the dead husband of one of his constituents. He was discovered because of suspicions that he was the ‘disappeared’ Lord Lucan. Full story here: [John Stonehouse - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse) * * * LINK TO COLUMN: [Has any famous person ever succeeded in faking his own death? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2317/has-any-famous-person-ever-succeeded-in-faking-his-own-death) ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/2 "2013-04-19T12:12:41Z")
Crikey mate, that’s a rum yarn and no mistake. Funnily enough I did hear that Harold Holt and Lord Lucan have been living the life of Riley in an Albanian palace with Enver Hoxa. Its a funny ol’ world. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![JimR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@JimR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimR)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/3 "2013-04-19T15:04:52Z")
Um - wouldn’t pulling this off “successfully” imply that nobody knew about it? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/4 "2013-04-19T19:12:08Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **goatsinthemachine** , we’re glad you found us. For future ref, when one starts a thread here, it is helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column in question. No problem, I’ve added one at the bottom of your post, and you’ll know for next time. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/5 "2013-04-19T21:35:55Z")
Huh. And the first episode of Reginald Perrin was in 1976…funny, that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/6 "2013-04-21T22:40:46Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Huh. And the first episode of Reginald Perrin was in 1976…funny, that. But only coincidence—the original Reggie Perrin _novel_ was written before the Stonehouse affair, though not published until 1975. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/7 "2013-04-22T12:09:23Z")
Interesting. I wonder if the Stonehouse story was part of what inspired Eric Idle’s joke in _The Rutles_ (produced, I think, in 1974) to have the pseudo-Brian Epstein character “move to Australia” (=“die”). Also, interesting how Britain has (or had) a crime of “wasting the police department’s time.” I wonder if there’s such a thing in the US. ---
**Author:** ![genefleeger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e480ec/32.png) [@genefleeger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/genefleeger)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/8 "2013-04-22T13:48:42Z")
One would think that if someone were successful in faking their own death, that nobody would know about it. Jus’ sayin’ :smack: ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/9 "2013-04-22T14:27:56Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Interesting. I wonder if the Stonehouse story was part of what inspired Eric Idle’s joke in _The Rutles_ (produced, I think, in 1974) to have the pseudo-Brian Epstein character “move to Australia” (=“die”). > > Also, interesting how Britain has (or had) a crime of “wasting the police department’s time.” I wonder if there’s such a thing in the US. IANAL, but “Filing a False Police Report” suggests itself. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/10 "2013-04-22T15:02:25Z")
[Patrick McDermott](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_McDermott), not famous in his own right but instead as the boyfriend of Olivia Newton John. Successful at faking his death for a while, later found to be, and still in hiding. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/11 "2013-04-22T15:28:23Z")
> [@genefleeger](#): > > One would think that if someone were successful in faking their own death, that nobody would know about it. Jus’ sayin’ :smack: I had the same thought. I guess the nearest answerable question is something like: “Has any celebrity faked their death such that a death certificate was issued and there was virtually no police suspicion that they might still be alive (until the point where they were exposed)?” Or…I suppose if a celeb was only exposed posthumously, that might fit the bill of a successful fake death that nonetheless we know about. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_Cello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Clark\_Cello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_Cello)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/12 "2013-04-22T15:58:48Z")
If I had to name one person who was the likeliest to have successfully faked his or her own death, that name would be Butch Cassidy. I don’t know if it counts, as I would say that, if true, he didn’t fake his death as much as take advantage of reports of it to fade out of sight. Also, I am not convinced it is true, but find it much more plausible that the cases of JFK, Elvis, etc. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/13 "2013-04-22T16:03:18Z")
> [@Clark\_Cello](#): > > If I had to name one person who was the likeliest to have successfully faked his or her own death, that name would be Butch Cassidy. > > I don’t know if it counts, as I would say that, if true, he didn’t fake his death as much as take advantage of reports of it to fade out of sight. > > Also, I am not convinced it is true, but find it much more plausible that the cases of JFK, Elvis, etc. Ditto for Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Kind of hard to prove these things now, and even back then. (don’t know the latest on both those guys, maybe they’ve been resolved). ---
**Author:** ![Scholar\_Beardpig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Scholar\_Beardpig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scholar_Beardpig)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/14 "2013-04-22T16:31:49Z")
When I think of this, I can only think of the story of Alexander I of Russia. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/15 "2013-04-23T01:10:30Z")
Ambrose Bierce disappeared under suspicious circumstances at a point in his life where his celebrity was possibly more of a burden than an asset. > **[Ambrose Bierce | Disappearance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Bierce#Disappearance)** > > In October 1913, Bierce, then age 71, departed from Washington, D.C., for a tour of his old Civil War battlefields. According to some reports, by December he had passed through Louisiana and Texas, crossing by way of El Paso into Mexico, which was in the throes of revolution. In Ciudad Juárez he joined Pancho Villa's army as an observer, and in that role he witnessed the Battle of Tierra Blanca. > It was reported that Bierce accompanied Villa's army as far as the city of Chihuahua. His last known ... And let us not forget “Mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria. While wikipedia lists several theories that contradict the official story of his death, they omit theories that the recovered body was not in fact his. I’d certainly like to think that he gave up an unhappy kingship to assume the identity of a common immigrant to America, and that his detractors were aware and fine with him not being actually dead so long as he were permanently gone. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/16 "2013-04-23T01:40:27Z")
> [@Scholar\_Beardpig](#): > > When I think of this, I can only think of the story of Alexander I of Russia. Hmm. Hadn’t known that: [Alexander I of Russia - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia#Death) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/17 "2013-04-24T00:22:59Z")
At least the Mayerling incident gave us a Broadway musical. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/18 "2013-04-24T15:38:01Z")
> [@genefleeger](#): > > One would think that if someone were successful in faking their own death, that nobody would know about it. Jus’ sayin’ :smack: Well, then the question becomes pointless because the only answer can be “we don’t know”. I’d say if someone was able to pull it off for a year or more before being accidentally discovered then I would consider it successful. By that criteria Stonehouse doesn’t qualify but McDermott likely would. ---
**Author:** ![Grinfranklin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dbc845/32.png) [@Grinfranklin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grinfranklin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/19 "2013-04-25T00:40:51Z")
Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders had somebody prop him up, flesh falling off and all, for years. Many dead corpses looked better than he did. ---
**Author:** ![thetruthisinhere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@thetruthisinhere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thetruthisinhere)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123/20 "2013-04-25T10:24:28Z")
> **[Ken Kesey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Kesey#Legal_trouble)** > > Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. > Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 after completing a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was... “Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend’s car. When he returned to the United States eight months later, Kesey was arrested and sent to the San Mateo County jail” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-figure-faking-his-own-death/656123.md?page=2)