The Top 10: Fake Deaths

A list of people who didn’t die – or, at least, not at the time it was claimed that they did

Blame the kayak (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Inspired by this “splendid” article in The Independent by Len Williams, “Faking death: why people seek the ultimate escape”, itself inspired by the TV drama about no 1, The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, and which also considered nos 2 to 5, Robert Boston suggested this list and nominated no 6.

1. John Darwin. It was a kayak.

2. Arafa Nassib. British woman whose son claimed her life insurance in 2016, after producing a death certificate saying she had been killed in a car accident in Zanzibar; she was arrested after flying to Canada on her own passport.

3. Timothy Dexter. Eccentric Massachusetts business person who, shortly before his actual death in 1806, wanted to see how many people would attend his funeral. The answer was 3,000.

4. Arkady Babchenko. Russian journalist and critic of Vladimir Putin, exiled to Ukraine, who faked his own assassination in 2018, including make-up gunshot wounds and a pool of pig’s blood – allegedly a Ukrainian intelligence sting to identify the hitman who was out to get him. He appeared the next day at the press conference to announce his death.

5. John Stonehouse. He has already featured in Top 10 ministers who did the job they were responsible for (aviation and posts and telecommunications; he passed secret aircraft plans to Czech spies); Top 10 real stories remembered for a vivid detail that isn’t true (he didn’t leave his clothes on the beach; they were in a hut) and Top 10 MPs alleged to be spies.

6. Grace Oakeshott. A women’s rights activist who, in 1907, with the knowledge of her husband, left her clothes on a Brittany beach and disappeared to New Zealand with her lover, Dr Walter Reeve. The families were apparently aware, but the authorities were none the wiser in their lifetimes, including about the first husband’s bigamy when remarrying, and the ruse was only uncovered after research by Jocelyn Robson, a writer, helped by various descendants. Thanks to Robert Boston.

7. Adolf Hitler. His death in the 20 July 1944 plot was in effect faked by Claus von Stauffenberg in that he refused to believe anyone could have survived the explosion of the bomb he had planted, and he informed his fellow plotters that the Fuhrer was dead. From Paul T Horgan.

8. Mark Twain. What he actually wrote in 1897, after a journalist contacted him to check if the rumours of his death were true: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Nominated by John Chester and Richard K.

9. Juliet. Thanks to John Chester and Hot in Cleveland.

10. Ken Kesey. After the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1965, he faked his death by leaving his truck on a cliffside road in California with a suicide note, and fled to Mexico. He returned eight months later and served his sentence. Nominated by the Tin Boonie.

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Next week: Songs on the wrong album (“Houses of the Holy” by Led Zeppelin isn’t on Houses of the Holy but on Physical Graffiti).

Coming soon: Things you would expect to see more of based on childhood comics, such as anvils, people shaking their fists and quicksand.

Your suggestions please, and ideas for future Top 10s, to me on Twitter, or by email to top10@independent.co.uk