Death is often a mysterious intrigue. Especially when there are obvious questions left unanswered. There are so many historical and famous figures over time, whose death leave the mind wondering? If you're a Dateline aficionado you know there is ALWAYS more to the story. And once time starts to accrue, that lessens the likelihood that answers will be found. And when it's the death of a well know person we all feel like we're a part of the investigation, like we can solve it.
Redditor u/Beardedrugbymonster wanted to discuss the most interesting life endings by asking.... What celebrity death is shrouded in the most mystery?
Poe.
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Edgar Allen Poe. Died mysteriously at the age of 40. Went missing when traveling from Virginia to New York city, then was found in a bad state in a bar in Baltimore a week later, filthy, uncharacteristically wearing a really shabby mismatched outfit of someone else's clothes, which was weird as he was very particular about wearing very smart tailored clothes. He was apparently ranting and raving unintelligibly. His personal physician arrived shortly after he was found, and took him to a poor house hospital and had him locked in a barred room, and barred any visitors from seeing him. Poe died mysteriously a few days later, apparently yelling the name 'Reynold' over and over, although his physician was the only person to see him in the days before his death, and his accounts of what happened kept changing, including the dates of Poe's discovery, death and last words. His death certificate also went missing.
His arch nemesis and biggest critic, named Rufus Grisworld, somehow managed to become executor of Poe's estate and money. Griswold basically made it his primary aim in life to destroy Poe's reputation, and wrote a memoir about him funded by Poe's money, and described him as a 'depraved, arrogant drug addled madman.'
Its been suggested Poe was the victim of an election fraud racket, called 'cooping' where people would be 'shanghied' or kidnapped and drugged, forced to wear disguises and vote for a specific presidential candidate. There was an election the day before his reappearence, but Poe was a famous local celebrity, at the time of his death, so it has been suggested he would have been too well known in the area for a cooping to take place.
Poe was slandered by the temperance movement at the time, who claimed that Poe died of alcohol consumption, but his physician said he had smelled no alcohol on him or his clothes, and remained in a delirious raving state for days. Others suggested he had overdosed on opium, but numerous close friends revealed Poe was not a habitual drug user and hadn't used opium for years. hansolosdead
Rudolf.
Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine.
On the evening of 29 September 1913, Diesel boarded the GER steamer SS Dresden in Antwerp on his way to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in London, England. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word to be called the next morning at 6:15 a.m.; but he was never seen alive again. In the morning his cabin was empty and his bed had not been slept in, although his nightshirt was neatly laid out and his watch had been left where it could be seen from the bed. His hat and neatly folded overcoat were discovered beneath the afterdeck railing. pjvincentaz
Agatha.
Not death but the disappearance of Agatha Christie. Danvik03
Soooo she went missing in 1926, before her final Poirot novel was published. Eleven days later her husband tracked her down at the Harrogate Hydro Hotel. She said she'd gotten in a car crash and had amnesia, but that seemed unlikely and she refused to speak about the incident for the rest of her life. The two main theories are that the whole thing was a publicity stunt for her books or she was punishing her husband, who had just decided to leave her for his mistress. A good piece of evidence for the latter is that she checked into Harrogate under said mistress's name! here2makefriendz
Hoffa.
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Jimmy Hoffa
I mean, it's not hard to see why someone would want to kill him, but who did it and how? VVillyD
Natalie.
Natalie Wood. Bigleonard
"And why was Christopher Walken on that boat" -Jerry Seinfeld HonkiesInTheYonder
Richey.
I was always curious about the guitarist from Manic Street Preachers, Richey Edwards. He disappeared in 1995 and has never been found. It was speculated he committed suicide in a way where the body would never be found, but I like to think he's out there somewhere. dssonic
Bobby.
Bobby Kennedy is an interesting case. We know exactly who killed him - his assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, did it in front of hundreds of witnesses and was caught red-handed.
What we don't know is why. While Sirhan originally claimed that he killed RFK due to the latter's support of Israel, he has changed his story several times throughout the years, sometimes claiming he was drunk, other times that he had been hypnotized, and even professing to have no recollection of the incident. The last has been cited as the main reason he hasn't been paroled - due to his insistence that he doesn't remember killing RFK, parole boards have felt that he isn't expressing adequate remorse for his crime. KinneySL
George.
George Reeves
The original Superman.
"Committed suicide" but missed his own head a time or two There was a movie about the whole thing staring Ben Affleck. TheVoicesSayHi
Robert.
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Robert Johnson. Did he really make a deal with the devil at a crossroads for all that blues talent? He died at 27 possibly making him one of the founding members of Forever 27. Unless of course, he's just one of the first modern examples... ooooo spooky. F_Boas
Harold.
Harold Holt went for a swim never came back also has a swimming centre names after him. daibz
The US navy named a ship after him and sunk it it as part of an exercise in the Pacific. Reading that again that sounds worse than it is. They built and named the ship in 1968 and sank it in 2002. They didn't just name a ship the Harold Holt with the purpose of sinking it. But still a bit questionable. Samopal_Vzor58
Fuller.
Bobby Fuller (famous for the first big recording of I Fought the Law), was called a suicide or an accident, but the autopsy report literally had question marks on it. BZH_JJM
Wasn't it something like, he was found dead in his car, which was then set on fire, so no one could tell definitively what happened? I could be wrong. mooncritter_returns
No, he likely died from inhaling gas fumes, which can cause bleeding. The cops were less than cooperative though, one of them straight up just tossed the gas canister in the garbage. Petunio
Dorothy.
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Dorothy Kilgallen. A major voice of the 40s-60s. She held a permanent spot on America's Longest Running Contest show, Who's line? She was an extremely well credited writer, investigator and just an all around badass. She died in 1965 of by a fatal combination of alcohol and barbiturates. Which is just the beginning of why this was strange. Barbiturates were a popular medication in the 50s-60s to aid in sleep. Dorothy had been taking barbiturates for years prior to her death, understood their effects, and definitely knew not to mix them with Alcohol.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Dorothy was in the middle of writing a book based on her investigation of the JFK assassination. She notified her friends and family not a week earlier about how she had a found a major find and couldn't wait to share it with them... She never had the chance to tell them and there was speculation that her research had vanished. Dorothy was found dead in the bed of a guest bedroom within her apartment. A bedroom she claimed she would never step in after discovering her husband had an affair in that room a couple years prior, and she definitely wouldn't be found in the bed.
On top of all of this Dorothy had died in the afternoon which is not a time she would have taken her sleep medication and she was found in her day clothes, with a book in her hand. However, yes, however once again, her more than necessary reading glasses were downstairs, so she probably could not read the book she was found to be holding. There's a lot of strange stuff here, especially with her mob connections and connection to the Kennedy family. gingyfangs
Jill.
Jill Dando. A lot of speculation about whether she was assassinated because she knew too much about goings on at the BBC, before the Savile stuff came to light. Reignbeaus
Louis.
Louis Le Prince. Disappeared from a train on his way back to Paris. His body, nor his suitcase, were ever found. His suitcase is thought to have contained plans for the first movie camera which he was weeks away from exhibiting. Many believe that his death was linked to Thomas Edison, who later tried to monopolize the industry with a gangster-like hold that almost killed cinema. Jimiheadphones
Olof.
As a Swedish person I feel obligated to say prime minister Olof Palme. So many suspects, so few clues. Roddoman
Weirdly enough, my mom told me about this case a few years ago. We were discussing something random about my childhood and she mentioned a Swedish friend she and my dad had when we lived in a coastal California town when I was young. Apparently soon after Olof Palme's murder he was essentially extradited back to Sweden to be interrogated for his suspected involvement or knowledge of the crime. She ended the story by laughing about how she has pictures of him holding me when I was a baby (I would have been 2 when Palme was killed). Hilarious, mom. TriChick84
Johnny.
Johnny Gosch - although they are not 100% certain he's dead.. His disappearance has all kinds of theories and later sightings. Case isn't closed yet and it's been almost 37 years now. pm_me_racecars
I remember watching a Netflix documentary on this. When the mom sat on the stand and said 'yes I think I've met my son again and he is a sex slave,' I wanted to strangle her. Your kid came back and you didn't do anything in your power to keep him?
But, I think he's dead. Statistically, kids that age who end up with pedophiles/murderers, are usually dead in a couple of days. blackday44
The 'Did Johnny Visit?' question is argued from time to time in crime fanatic circles. Most people think she lied about it and has at least partly managed to convince herself to believe her own lie. Other people think it was a screwed up prank. A very small number think he actually did come visit her.
Personally, I believe she dreamed it. People grieving loved ones often have incredibly vivid dreams about the people they've lost, so it isn't completely ridiculous to think that a woman who's never gotten the chance to properly mourn the loss of her child might conjure that child in a dream to come assure her that he's safe. And she's just totally unwilling to accept that it WAS just a dream.
You feel bad for her. She lost her child and is actively preventing herself from going through a healthy grieving process. Sustaining herself for decades on nothing more than the overwhelmingly powerful desire for her theories to be true. SoldMySoulForHairDye
JonBenet.
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JonBenet Ramsay! When I can't sleep I have a habit of obsessively reading about her case, as if I in all my mediocrity am the one who will finally solve her murder.
Honestly though I dearly hope it's solved one day, I'm dying to know. Medesikaste
Ludwig.
King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
Shortly after he was deposed, his body and the body of his psychiatrist were found in shallow water with their head and shoulders exposed in a Lake Starnberg near the castle where he was residing at the time. The two had gone for a walk and disappeared. Ludwig was known to be fairly athletic and a strong swimmer. There was no water in their lungs. The doctor's body showed signs of trauma to the head and strangulation on the neck. Ludwig's watch had been broken and stopped about a half hour after he was last seen. Ludwig's death was ruled a suicide although there wasn't really a theory as to how he did it and no indication he was suicidal. Ballardinian
Oli.
Oli Herbert's is pretty mysterious.... PM_me_your__guitars
It seems that his wife did it and she's doing a horrible job of hiding it. The bands frontman Phil called the wife a "garbage human being" in an interview and said she was the only wife/spouse not allowed to be on tour with the band and that he tried to get Oli to divorce her for years. It's a shame. ohiolifesucks
Sri.
Bollywood actress Sri Devi. Many suspect foul play based on the circumstances. When they first announced her death they said it was cardiac arrest, then they revealed she was found dead in the bathtub and that she likely drowned. It was very strange because there wasn't that much alcohol found in her system and it would have been very difficult for her to just drown in that size bathtub. She didn't hit her head, or anything like that. Plus the fact that they first announced it was cardiac arrest made it seem like they were covering it up.
Bollywood is such a corrupt business with connections to the underworld. SoniSoni67432
