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Death is an inevitable fate for everyone, including world leaders, monarchs, artists, and celebrities. But what occurs after we pass away? While most bodies are buried, cremated, or otherwise laid to rest, some postmortem tales take a darker turn. From theft and misplacement to mutilation, the strange occurrences surrounding the deceased, especially the famous, are both chilling and captivating.
10. John F. Kennedy
Regardless of whether you believe in a lone shooter or a grand conspiracy akin to an Oliver Stone film, the JFK assassination remains shrouded in mystery. With anomalies like the magic bullet theory and last-minute changes to the parade route, the event is riddled with peculiarities. Yet, one of the most baffling aspects is the unexplained disappearance of JFK’s brain.
Naturally, there wasn’t much brain matter left to disappear. One of Oswald’s bullets struck Kennedy in the head, scattering fragments of skull and brain tissue. Upon arrival at the hospital, doctors observed Jackie Kennedy holding something in her hands—later identified as a portion of the President’s brain. But the fate of the remaining brain matter remains a mystery.
Following the autopsy, the brain was stored in a stainless steel container, secured by the Secret Service in a White House cabinet. In 1965, Robert Kennedy moved the brain to the National Archives, along with other autopsy materials such as blood samples and bone fragments. A year later, during an inventory check, officials discovered that several items, including the tissue locker and the President’s brain, were missing. Despite questioning over 30 individuals, no one could explain the disappearance.
The brain’s absence remained concealed until 1978, when the House Select Committee on Assassinations disclosed that JFK’s brain had been misplaced. This revelation fueled numerous conspiracy theories. Many speculate that the government intentionally “lost” the brain to obscure details about the number of bullets that struck Kennedy or their trajectories.
Another theory suggests Robert Kennedy took his brother’s brain to hide potential health issues or drug use. While Kennedy did rely on medication for chronic back pain, Kent Sepkowitz of The Daily Beast argues against this idea. Sepkowitz notes that a 1966 analysis of the brain would have provided limited insights into Kennedy’s physical health, and even modern science couldn’t confirm drug abuse solely through brain examination.
To this day, the brain remains missing. Whether due to a conspiracy or bureaucratic incompetence, the incident underscores the unreliability of Washington in handling sensitive matters.
9. King Tut
King Tut, what made you so fascinating—and so charred? This question intrigued archaeologist Christ Naunton. While reviewing Howard Carter’s notes—the discoverer of Tutankhamun’s tomb—Naunton stumbled upon a peculiar claim. Carter suggested the young pharaoh had been set ablaze. Intrigued, Naunton contacted Robert Connolly, an Egyptologist with samples of Tut’s remains. After analyzing bone and muscle tissue under an electron microscope, Naunton confirmed Carter’s theory.
How did Tut end up burnt? The likely culprit was a rushed burial. While experts debate Tut’s cause of death—some suggest malaria, others suspect foul play, and Naunton proposes a chariot accident—most agree his funeral was hastily arranged. The tomb’s paint hadn’t even dried before his sarcophagus was sealed. In their hurry, the embalmers made a critical mistake.
The mummification process involved highly flammable substances. Embalmers removed bodily fluids and preserved the corpse using plant oils and resin. Naunton believes the rushed process led to oil spilling onto Tut’s burial shroud. Over time, oxygen likely triggered a chemical reaction, igniting the linen and scorching the pharaoh’s body. The fire may have reached temperatures of nearly 200 degrees Celsius (390 °F), leaving Tut’s remains thoroughly charred.
8. Mata Hari
Margarethe Zelle, famously known as Mata Hari, has been a frequent topic on Mytour. As one of the 20th century’s most renowned spies, she began as an exotic dancer before being recruited by the French to extract secrets from German officials. Accused of being a double agent, she was executed by firing squad in 1917. While historians argue her guilt, one undeniable fact remains—her body has vanished.
After her execution, with no one claiming her remains, the Museum of Anatomy in Paris took possession of her corpse. What followed was a scene straight out of a horror story. Curators decapitated her, preserved her head in wax, and displayed it in their gallery dedicated to infamous criminals.
In 2000, the French government closed down the anatomy museum, prompting the director to inventory its collection. Among the prized exhibits were the preserved heads of notorious figures, but upon inspection, Mata Hari’s head was missing. Worse, her entire body had vanished, along with all records of its acquisition. Some believe her remains were misplaced during the museum’s relocation in the 1950s, while others speculate a macabre collector stole her skull. Regardless, Mata Hari’s body is lost forever, leaving only mystery in its wake.
7. Pope John Paul II
Even after his death in 2005, Pope John Paul II’s remains have had a restless journey. Initially buried in the Grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, he was moved to the main church area following his beatification in 2011. While his body has remained there since, his blood has mysteriously become a target for theft.
In 2013, Father Augusto Baldini was traveling near Rome when his backpack was stolen. The priest was likely horrified, as it contained one of three preserved samples of John Paul II’s blood, collected after the 1981 assassination attempt. The vial was meant for a church near Rome. After alerting authorities, the backpack was found hours later, abandoned in the grass with the relic intact.
This wasn’t the only theft of the Pope’s blood. In 2014, intruders broke into the Church of St. Peter of Ienca and stole a container holding a cloth stained with his blood. While some speculated a Satanic motive, others believed it was stolen for its potential value after the Pope’s canonization. It was later revealed that the thieves were likely more interested in the gold and glass casing than the sacred relic itself.
6. Alistair Cooke
For more than two decades, Alistair Cooke graced PBS’s Masterpiece Theater, opening each episode with his iconic, “Good evening, I’m Alistair Cooke.” He was equally renowned in the UK for his BBC radio show, Letter from America, offering a British perspective on American affairs. Diagnosed with lung cancer in his later years, Cooke passed away in 2004. However, his story took a dark twist just before his cremation.
Michael Mastromarino, a former dentist, ran a gruesome operation trafficking human body parts. Collaborating with funeral homes, he paid undertakers $1,000 per corpse to harvest bones, skin, and heart valves. These parts were sold to tissue companies for use in medical procedures. To conceal their actions, Mastromarino’s team replaced removed bones with PVC pipes, amassing millions in profit.
Following Cooke’s death, Mastromarino acquired his body and sold his cancer-affected bones for $11,000. Unaware of the bones’ condition, buyers were deceived by falsified documents claiming Cooke died of a heart attack, as using cancerous tissue is illegal.
This wasn’t Mastromarino’s first instance of falsifying death certificates. Many of the bodies he handled carried diseases like hepatitis and HIV, putting unsuspecting patients at risk. He even adjusted Cooke’s age from 95 to 85, as companies are prohibited from purchasing remains from the elderly.
Mastromarino’s crimes were uncovered in 2005. To avoid severe penalties, he and seven funeral directors admitted guilt for their horrific actions. Mastromarino, however, never completed his 15–30 year sentence, as he passed away in 2013 from metastatic liver cancer. Cooke’s remains were likely used in 15–20 individuals across the US, Canada, and Europe, meaning someone reading this might unknowingly carry a part of Alistair Cooke within them.
5. Mary Bateman
Mary Bateman was a notorious figure in her time. Born in Yorkshire in 1768, she was a known criminal by her early teens, earning a reputation as a thief. Working as a housemaid, she stole anything she could. But it was her side hustle as a fortune-teller and spellcaster that earned her the title “The Yorkshire Witch,” preying on the superstitions of locals.
Beyond her magical scams, Mary offered abortions and devised elaborate cons, such as the Prophet Hen of Leeds. She owned a chicken that supposedly laid eggs bearing the apocalyptic message “Christ is Coming.” This sparked religious hysteria, drawing crowds willing to pay to see her prophetic bird. Her scheme unraveled when skeptics discovered Mary was writing the messages herself and reinserting the eggs into the hen.
Bateman’s deceitful nature led to her downfall. Rebecca Perigo, suffering from heart palpitations, believed witchcraft was to blame. She and her husband, William, sought Mary’s help to break the spell. Bateman exploited their fears, selling them bizarre charms. To cover her tracks, she poisoned the couple with mercury-laced honey. While William survived, Rebecca died painfully, and Bateman was hanged for her crimes.
Even after death, Mary captivated the public. Her body was displayed for paying onlookers, then dissected by doctors who studied her organs. They went further, skinning her corpse and selling strips of her preserved skin as protective charms. Her skeleton eventually found its way to the Thackray Museum, where it remains a macabre attraction for visitors.
4. Richard The Lionheart
Despite being the King of England, Richard the Lionheart spent little time in Britain. He primarily lived in continental Europe, visiting England briefly after his coronation. Fluent in Occitan, his realm included areas like Normandy, Touraine, and Aquitaine. As previously noted, he died in France from a crossbow wound to the shoulder.
Richard’s tale didn’t conclude with his death. His entrails were buried in Chalus, where he died, while his body was transported to Fontevraud Abbey to rest beside his parents. However, he was buried incomplete—his heart was removed from his chest and preserved using a blend of myrtle, daisy, mint, frankincense, and mercury. Encased in a special container, it was sent to the Church of Notre Dame in Rouen.
While it may seem bizarre, dismembering kings was a medieval tradition. Their body parts were distributed across their territories as symbols of power and ownership. The heart, being the most significant, was placed in Rouen, the capital of Normandy, Richard’s most crucial domain. It remained there for over six centuries until 1838, when a historian discovered the lead box. By then, time had reduced the Lionheart’s heart to dust.
3. Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven, despite gifting the world with timeless music, led a troubled life that ended mysteriously in 1827. Diagnosed with pneumonia, he exhibited unusual symptoms like a swollen abdomen, a darkened spleen, and a shrunken liver. Strangely, his remains were scattered globally due to relic hunters and careless physicians.
During Beethoven’s autopsy, the surgeon carelessly fractured his skull, scattering bone fragments. The skull was left in disarray, with missing pieces, uneven temples, a misaligned jaw, and absent ear bones. The surgeon removed the ossicles to study the cause of Beethoven’s deafness, but these bones vanished without a trace.
In 1990, Paul Kauffman discovered a box labeled “Beethoven” in an attic. Inside were fragments of a skull. Kauffman learned his ancestor, a doctor, had exhumed Beethoven’s body in 1863 and possibly taken the skull. Skeptical, Kauffman had experts at San Jose State University analyze it. DNA tests confirmed the skull was likely Beethoven’s.
Experts compared the skull to Beethoven’s hair, which had been widely collected. For instance, one lock was transformed into a diamond valued at $202,700. Other strands are held by institutions like the Library of Congress and the Beethoven-Haus. The most intriguing tale involves the Guevara Lock, a strand with a remarkable history.
After Beethoven’s death, composer Ferdinand Miller cut a lock of his hair. In 1883, Miller passed it to his son, after which it disappeared until 1943. It resurfaced with Danish doctor Kay Fremming, who allegedly received it from a Jewish refugee as payment for aiding their escape from Nazi-occupied Denmark. Later, it was auctioned at Sotheby’s for $7,300 and donated to the Beethoven Center in San Jose, completing its extraordinary journey.
2. Johannes Brahms And Johann Strauss
Even if you can’t distinguish a symphony from a sonata, you’ve likely encountered the music of Johannes Brahms and Johann Strauss. Strauss’s “The Blue Danube” has appeared in everything from Looney Tunes to *2001: A Space Odyssey*, while Brahms’s “Lullaby” is a bedtime staple. Beyond their musical legacies, the Austrian composers were close friends and were laid to rest side by side in Vienna’s Central Cemetery.
Unfortunately, their eternal rest was short-lived. In 2002, Ondrej Jajcaj, a Slovak man, broke into the cemetery, opened their tombs, and extracted their teeth using pliers. His motive? Adding their dentures to his macabre collection. For years, this deranged collector amassed hundreds of skulls and teeth from Viennese graves, intending to showcase them in a private museum. In 2012, he even uploaded a video to YouTube, proudly displaying his illegal collection of dental artifacts.
Authorities aim to charge Jajcaj with burglary and “disturbing the peace of the dead,” but legal hurdles may prevent his prosecution. As a non-Austrian, trying him could prove challenging. Additionally, since his crimes occurred in 2002, the statute of limitations may have expired. With little recent news on the case and Jajcaj’s last YouTube upload in 2013, it appears he remains free. If charges aren’t pursued, Strauss and Brahms may forever remain toothless.
1. Thomas Paine
As Harvey Dent famously said, “You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.” This perfectly encapsulates Thomas Paine’s life. Paine’s *Common Sense* was instrumental in America’s independence, yet he later fell out of favor, criticized by the government for challenging the elite and labeled an atheist for his critiques of organized religion. In his final years, Paine lived in poverty and despair, turning to alcohol before his lonely death in 1809.
Paine did have one devoted admirer: William Cobbett, a radical writer. Cobbett believed America was unworthy of Paine’s remains and thought England, where Paine had lived for 37 years, was a more fitting resting place. He hoped Paine’s bones and a memorial would inspire England’s democracy movement. In 1819, Cobbett dug up Paine’s grave in New Rochelle, New York, and took the remains.
Cobbett successfully smuggled Paine’s bones to England, thanks to lax customs officials. However, his plans for a memorial fell flat, and Paine’s skeleton remained in Cobbett’s attic until his death. After Cobbett passed, his children were left to deal with the remains, and the fate of Paine’s bones remains a mystery.
The fate of Thomas Paine’s remains remains shrouded in mystery. Some speculate he was buried in Cobbett’s backyard, while others believe his bones were sold piece by piece. In the 1850s, an English pastor claimed possession of Paine’s right hand, and in the 1930s, a woman from Brighton insisted she had his jawbone. There are theories that his rib found its way to France, and some even suggest his bones were turned into buttons for English coats. In 1987, an Australian named John Burgess alleged he purchased Paine’s skull in London, though his claim remains unverified. The only confirmed remnants of Paine are his brain stem, buried on his farm, and a lock of his hair, securely stored away from obsessive admirers.
