Most Famous Penises

The most famous penises through history – both factual and fictional. The penis. Without it, none of us would be here. It has been the source of pleasure and pain since time began and controversy in modern history.

David

This is perhaps the most viewed penis in all of history. When the Victorians ran about cutting penises off statues for reasons of propriety, David fortunately survived mutilation, but the cast of David at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), had a detachable plaster fig leaf, added for visits by Queen Victoria and other important ladies, when it was hung on the figure using two strategically placed hooks; it is now displayed nearby. David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture sculpted by Michelangelo from 1501 to 1504.

The 5.17 meter (17 ft) marble statue portrays the Biblical King David in the nude. Unlike previous depictions of David which portray the hero after his victory over Goliath, Michelangelo chose to represent David before the fight contemplating the battle yet to come. Commentators have noted David’s apparently uncircumcised form, which is at odds with Judaic practice, but is considered consistent with the conventions of Renaissance art.

John Holmes

John Curtis Holmes (August 8, 1944 – March 13, 1988) better known as John C. Holmes or Johnny Wadd, was one of the most prolific male porn stars of all time, appearing in about 2,500 adult loops, stag films, and pornographic feature movies in the 1970s and 1980s. He was best known for his exceptionally large penis, which was heavily promoted as being the longest in the porn industry, although no definitive evidence of Holmes’ actual penis length exists. Holmes’ first wife recalled him claiming to be 10 inches (25.4 cm) when he first measured himself.

Holmes himself once claimed his penis to be fifteen inches (38.1 cm) long and his manager said: “I saw John measure himself several times, it was 13 and a half inches” (34.3 cm). Another longstanding controversy regards whether or not Holmes ever achieved a full erection. A popular joke in the 1970s porn industry held that Holmes was incapable of achieving a full erection because the blood flow from his head into his penis would cause him to pass out. Holmes’ co-stars have stated that his penis was never particularly hard during intercourse, likening it to “doing it with a big, soft kind of loofah.”

John Wayne Bobbitt

John Wayne Bobbitt’s penis became so famous when his wife cut it off, that it spawned a new verb: “to bobbitt: to cut off a person’s penis”. On the night of June 23, 1993, John Wayne Bobbitt arrived at the couple’s Manassas, Virginia apartment highly intoxicated after a night of partying and, according to testimony by Lorena Bobbit in a 1994 court hearing, raped his wife.

Afterwards, Lorena Bobbitt got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a drink of water. In the kitchen she noticed a carving knife on the counter and “memories of past domestic abuses raced through her head.” Grabbing the knife, Lorena Bobbit entered the bedroom where John was asleep; and she proceeded to cut off more than half of his penis which she fled with and proceeded to toss into a field. It was later recovered and re-attached and John went on to star in a number of extremely tacky porn movies.

Rasputin

Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916) was a Russian mystic believed by some to be a psychic and faith healer having supernatural powers. He was seen as having greatly influenced the later days of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra. When Rasputin was murdered by a group of noblemen in 1916, some accounts say he was also sexually mutilated and his penis was severed. Since then, a number of people claiming to be in possession of his severed penis have come forth, although none of them have been able to prove it definitively. Witnessed described the penis thus:

One woman confessed that the first time she made love to him her orgasm was so violent that she fainted. Perhaps his potency as a lover also had a physical explanation. Rasputin’s assassin and alleged homosexual lover, Felix Yusopov, claimed that his prowess was explained by a large wart strategically situated on his penis, which was of exceptional size.

Lili Elbe

What is this? A woman on a list of penises? Well, Lili Elbe happens to be the first documented case of a transexual. Einar Wegener (born in Denmark) was a leading artist in late 1920’s Paris. One day his wife Grete asked him to dress as a woman to model for a portrait. It was a shattering event which began a struggle between his public male persona and emergent female self, Lili. Einar underwent a series of experimental operations in which his penis was removed. The surgeon attempted to implant ovaries and a uterus but was unsucessful. When the experimentation was finally over, Einar became Lili Elbe. The government annulled her marriage and she even managed to get a new birth certificate listing her as a female.

Bart Simpson

Everyone knows Bart Simpson from the popular cartoon series “The Simpsons”. In the The Simpsons Movie, viewers of all ages (due to the low rating) were surprised to see a full-frontal image of a naked, skateboarding Bart. Its inclusion was surprising considering number nine on this list. The scene involves Bart eagerly accepting Homer’s dare to skateboard at high speed to Krusty Burger, stark naked. After a series of fortuitous cover-ups, there is a fleeting glimpse of the 10-year-old’s modest, but distinctly yellow, penis. Fortunately audiences around the world took it for what it was: a humorous drawing.

Dirk Diggler

Boogie Nights is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Set in Southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during the Golden Age of Porn, the screenplay focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher (Dirk Diggler) who becomes the popular star of pornographic films and finds himself slowly descending into a nightmare of drug abuse when his fame draws him into a crowd of users and abusers. Dirk’s success in the porn industry is due to his enormous manhood which is frequently referred to throughout the film but only shown in the last scene. This is essentially a film about Dirk’s penis but it does everything possible to conceal it from the viewers.

1/2mm Banned Penis

It is rare that a German book generates any interest in the United States. And children’s books are usually completely off the radar. So it came as quite a surprise to many when the huge scandal arose over the German children’s book by Rotraut Susanne Berner. A request was made for a US publishing house to print English translations of the book for distribution in the US – and then the shit hit the fan: “It was really a sensation,” said Berner, “At first. As it turned out, there were a couple of changes that had to be made before the books could be unleashed on the America public.

First off, smokers had to be removed from the illustrations. But that wasn’t all. One image shows a scene from an art gallery — and for realism’s sake, there is a cartoonish nude hanging on the wall along with a tiny, seven-millimeter-tall statue of a naked man on a pedestal.” The publisher said: “American kiddies, obviously, could never be expected to handle such a depiction of the human body.” The series, which playfully follows the daily life of children and adults through the four seasons, is already a bestseller in 13 countries from Japan to the Faroe Islands. The United States is the only country to kick up a stink and the books are still unpublished there.

Juan Baptista dos Santos

Juan Baptista dos Santos was born in Portugal around 1843 in the town of Faro. As a child, Juan was considered quite handsome, fit and well proportioned – except for the two distinct penises and third leg he possessed.

Santos’ third leg was actually two legs which were fused together and while it lacked motor control, it could be moved freely by hand. Both penises functioned perfectly. An 1865 report stated that Santos used both penises during intercourse and, after finishing with one he would continue with the other. It also stated that he had a ravenous sexual appetite.

People Who Died By Drowning

Famous people that lost their lives by drowning. Please be careful in the water.

Carol Wayne

Profession: Actress
Date of Birth: 09/06/1942
Date of Drowning: 01/13/1985
Age at Death: 42

Anyone who is a Johnny Carson fan is familiar with Carol Wayne. She, of course, played the funny and sexy matinee lady in the tea time movie skits. She was also in many TV shows throughout her career.

This is one item where the more I learned about the circumstances surrounding her drowning; the more suspicious it seemed. Carol Wayne and her companion, Edward Durston, were vacationing in Mexico and apparently she had an argument with him. It was reported that she left to take a walk on the beach. Her body was found three days later by a local fisherman. After the discovery of Wayne’s body, authorities discovered that Durston had checked out of the resort the day the couple argued, leaving Wayne’s luggage at the airport. An autopsy performed in Mexico later revealed no signs of drugs or alcohol in Wayne’s body.

But wait, there’s more… Edward Durston was also the friend and only person with Diane Linkletter (daughter of Art Linkletter) when she jumped to her death on 10-4-1969 from the kitchen window of her high rise apartment.

Joe Delaney

Profession: Football player, Kansas City Chiefs running back
Date of Birth: 10/03/1958
Date of Drowning: 06/29/1983
Age at Death: 24

Of all the drownings on this list this is certainly the most heroic. Delaney dived into a pond in Louisiana and tried to save three children who were screaming for help. The children were in a water hole left by recent construction work. Delaney did not know how to swim very well but dove in anyway. He managed to save one child while two of the other children and Delaney died by drowning. Delaney always had a history of helping others. Three thousand people attended his memorial service.

Natalie Wood

Profession: Actress
Date of Birth: 07/20/1938
Date of Drowning: 11/29/1981
Age at Death: 43

If you ask people if they can name a well known person who drowned, Natalie Wood’s name would probably come up first 9 out of 10 times.

She would also be at the top or near the top of any most beautiful women in Hollywood list. It’s hard to believe she has been gone for over 30 years. The circumstances concerning her drowning are still puzzling to this day.

After Thanksgiving, she and her husband Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken, whom she was working with on a film, went on to Catalina Island for the weekend. Apparently Natalie Wood tried to either leave the yacht or secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. Later it was discovered a witness nearby heard calls for help at around midnight. She said the cries lasted for about 15 minutes and were answered by someone else who said, “Take it easy. We’ll be over to get you. “It was laid back,” the witness recalled. “There was no urgency or immediacy.” An investigation by Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning. Noguchi concluded Wood had drunk several glasses of wine and was intoxicated when she died. There were marks and bruises on her body that could have been received as a result of her fall.

Dennis Wilson

Profession: Musician, Drummer for the Beach Boys
Date of Birth: 12/04/1944
Date of Drowning: 12/28/1983
Age at Death: 39

Wilson was on a friend’s yacht and after several drinks announced he was going for a swim. His friends thought he was nuts, because the water was so cold, he dove in, and decided to swim near the spot where his old yacht used to be docked. He emerged from the water holding a picture of his ex wife that he threw from his yacht years before. Wilson dove in again for more treasures but this time he didn’t resurface. Wilson was known for practical jokes so his friends thought he was playing around. They even checked the local bars to see if Wilson was hiding there. It took four divers working in the dark with a pole, probing the ocean floor, 45 minutes to find Wilson’s body in 13 feet of water.

Brian Jones

Profession: Musician one-time Rolling Stone
Date of Birth: 2/28/1942
Date of Drowning: 7/3/1969
Age at Death: 27

This is another drowning under suspicious circumstances. At around midnight, Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Hartfield, Sussex, England. His girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, said he was alive when they took him out of the pool, insisting he still had a pulse. However, when the doctors arrived, it was too late and he was pronounced dead. The coroner’s report noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse. Some felt it was suicide, blaming Jagger and Richards for his mental state. His girlfriend Wohlin claimed in 1999 that Jones had been murdered by a builder who had been renovating the house the couple shared. The builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones’ driver, Tom Keylock; however, there were no other witnesses.

John Jacob Astor IV

Profession: Businessman, Inventor, Writer
Date of Birth: 7/13/1864
Date of Drowning: 4/15/1912
Age at Death: 49

This is obviously the most famous of circumstances on this list surrounding a notable person drowning. John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on board the Titanic and came from one of the richest families in the United States.

After the accident Astor left his suite to investigate, he quickly returned and reported to his wife who was pregnant at the time that the ship had struck ice. He reassured her that the damage did not appear serious. Even as the boats were loaded Astor appeared unbothered; he ridiculed the idea of trading the solid decks of the Titanic for a small lifeboat. He changed his mind by 1:45AM when Second Officer Charles Lightoller arrived on A deck to finish loading Lifeboat 4. Astor helped his wife to climb onto the lifeboat and then asked if he might join her, as she was in ‘a delicate condition’. Lightoller told him that no men could enter until all the women & children had been loaded.

Astor’s body was recovered on Monday April 22 by the cable ship McKay-Bennett. Reports say his body was covered in soot and blood, thus it is assumed he was struck by the first funnel when it collapsed as the Titanic made its final plunge.

Josef Mengele

Profession: Nazi Camp Doctor at Auschwitz
Date of Birth: 3/16/1911
Date of Drowning 02/07/1979
Age at Death: 67

If there were a list of people you would most like to drown, Mengele would be on it. He is on this list because he really did but most would say not soon enough. While swimming in the sea, Mengela accidentally drowned possibly from a stroke in Bertioga, Brazil, where he was in hiding and going by the name of “Wolfgang Gerhard.”

Jessica Savitch

Profession: News correspondent and anchorwoman
Date of Birth: 02/01/1947
Date of Drowning:10/23/1983
Age at Death: 36

Jessica Savitch was a very skilled reporter and anchorwoman with a great future ahead of her. What made it worse is the way she died.

Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice-president of the New York Post, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After the meal, they began to drive home (around 7:15 PM). Fischbein was behind the wheel and Savitch was in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Apparently Fischbein missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the Pennsylvania Canal on the side of the Delaware River. The car veered over the edge into the shallow water of the canal.

The car landed upside down, and sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. When the car was discovered Fischbein’s body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. After the subsequent autopsies, the coroner ruled that both had died from asphyxiation (by drowning). He noted that Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.

Art Porter

Profession: Jazz Saxophonist, Son of legendary jazz musician Art Porter, Sr.,
Date of Birth: 08/03/1961
Date of Drowning: 11/23/1996
Age at Death: 35

Porter traveled to Thailand to appear at the Thailand International Jazz Festival. After the festival he went boating on the Kratha Taek reservoir. Tragically, the boat Porter was traveling on overturned, and Porter, along with several others, drowned. Porter was survived by his wife and two sons. In 1998, the album For Art’s Sake was posthumously released in his honor.

Jeff Buckley

Profession: Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist, Son of singer/songwriter Tim Buckley
Date of Birth: 11/17/1966
Date of Drowning: 5/29/1997
Age at Death: 30

On the day he was scheduled to reunite with his band members to resume work on an album, Buckley spontaneously decided to take a swim, fully-clothed, in the Mississippi river; he was caught in the wake of a passing boat and disappeared. Despite a determined rescue effort that night, Buckley remained missing. On June 4, his body was discovered. An album was released posthumously in 1998 under the title Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk; 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s death. His life and music were celebrated in May and June 2007. There were tributes in Australia, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, Iceland, Ireland, Macedonia, France and the USA.

Joe Flynn

Profession: Actor
Date of Birth: 11/08/1924
Date of Drowning: 07/19/1974
Age at Death: 49

Anyone who watches “McHale’s Navy” will know who Joe Flynn is. He also appeared in a bunch of Disney films.

This is another drowning under odd circumstances. Shortly after completing voiceover work for the Disney animated feature, The Rescuers (1977) the 49-year-old Flynn was discovered by family members in the swimming pool of his Beverly Hills home. Apparently, he had gone into the pool with a cast on his broken leg. His body was found at the pool’s bottom, held down by the weight of the cast. Some celebrity friends including Merv Griffith expressed concern about the unusual circumstances surrounding Flynn’s death, though authorities found no evidence of foul play. Many believe Flynn suffered a heart attack while swimming.

Robert Maxwell

Profession: British media mogul
Date of Birth: 06/10/1923
Date of Drowning: 11/05/1991
Age at Death: 68

Maxwell is presumed to have fallen overboard from his luxury yacht while cruising off the Canary Islands. His body was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The official verdict was accidental drowning. It came to light in early 2006 that, before his death, Maxwell was being investigated for possible war crimes in Germany in 1945. This led to renewed speculation that his death was a suicide.

Maxwell’s death triggered a flood of revelations about his business dealings and activities. It was discovered that, without prior authorization, he had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds to finance his corporate debt and his lavish lifestyle. Thousands of Maxwell employees lost their pensions.

Celebrities And Technology

Whether it's the inner gadget geek, the urge to start a company, an interest in a quick-flip investment, a hope to be an hip early adopter, or just an interest in schmoozing with the next Ev Williams, celebrities seem to have a strong attraction to tech.

Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal joined Twitter in November 2008 and helped draw mainstream users to the service. He also used web video service 12seconds.tv, drawing massive traffic to that website. He still records spots regularly on video iPhone app Tout.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga invested in Backplane, a social networking start-up, along with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Tomorrow Ventures.

Will.i.am

Will. i.am of the Black Eyed Peas in January was named director of creative innovation at chip giant Intel. (What that means exactly is unclear.) His geek cred was solidified in December 2010 when he wrote and performed a song about cloud computing for Salesforce.com at CEO Marc Benioff's keynote.

Curt Schilling

Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling is a founder of gaming start-up 38 Studios.

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is an investor in companies including Stipple, a photo advertising start-up, and Miso Media, a music education start-up.

Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is a co-founder of online subscription shoe company ShoeDazzle.com, which has reportedly raised $60 million in total venture financing. The founder of the company is Brian Lee, a serial entrepreneur whose first company, LegalZoom is expected to go public soon.

Tim Ferris

Bestselling author Tim Ferris (The 4-Hour Workweek) has also been an active angel investor in tech start-ups. His investments include Twitter, Reputation.com, DailyBurn and SimpleGeo. He's also an advisor for companies including Evernote, StumbleUpon and Uber.

Chamillionaire

Chamillionaire has become a regular at Silicon Valley tech conferences, where he says he wants to learn more about how new technology can affect the music industry. Most recently he attended the July 29 TechCrunch Crunchup at AOL in Palo Alto, Calif. He also has been a judge at a TechCrunch start-up conference.

MC Hammer

MC Hammer, a.k.a. rapper Stanley Kirk Burrell has been a frequent guest at tech events in Silicon Valley with the likes of Ron Conway. Hammer also was an advisor to start-up DanceJam.com. Hammer here is seated with Conway in the audience during a town hall meeting with President Barack Obama, Wednesday, April 20, 2011, at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher is better known for his acting career. But he has invested in tech companies including Skype, Airbnb, Likealittle and Milk. He recently started a tech investing fund called A Grade with Ron Burkle and Gary Oseary. Kutcher recently attended a Demo Day for incubator Y Combinator in Mountain View, Calif., drawing a crowd of wide-eyed entrepreneurs eager to talk to him.

Strange Products By Their Nature

Lists of ridiculous products, but they are more about commonly owned popular goods.

Giant Remote

If you keep losing your remote down the side of the sofa then you know there’s only one solution: buy a remote that’s bigger than your children – you never lose them… right? This giant, and apparently extremely basic, remote can also be used as a small coffee table or for attacking burglars. It is cheap as chips too – only $19.95 to own the ugliest piece of technology equipment ever made, iPad notwithstanding.

Jingle Jugs

Are you sick of those boring deer heads stuck to your wall? Lucky for you there is now an alternative! Jingle Jugs can be mounted on any wall and will provide years of pleasure to the man who has no girlfriend or wife or, generally, respect for women.

Nigger Hair

Nigger Hair tobacco was a tobacco product from the 1950s. The advertising material for the product said: “Our grandfathers knew this tobacco and gave the brand its name, NIGGER HAIR, because it was cut in those long, curly strands that make it such a wonderful, satisfactory pipe tobacco – slow burning, cool and fragrant. That distinctive cut caused the old-time smokers to call it “NIGGER HAIR” and so it got its name.”

Mary Jane Buns

I am not sure if this is meant to be subtle pro-marijuana propaganda or just a brand name thought up by someone who has no idea what “maryjane” may also mean. These buns are enriched – presumably to make them appeal to parents who are buying them for their children. According to the marketing, these buns are “old fashioned enriched” – I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that in the old days, food was natural and not pumped full of gimmicky chemicals to make parents buy them.

Hufu
For the cannibals amongst us

Hufu was touted as “the healthy human flesh alternative” for “cannibals who want to quit”, as well as a product for anthropology students studying cannibalism. According to its website, hufu is also “a great convenience food for cannibals. No more Friday night hunting raids! Stay home and enjoy the good healthy taste of hufu.” Mark Nuckols (founder and CEO of Hufu, LLC)—then a student at Tuck School of Business—claimed that the concept of Hufu occurred to him when he ate a tofurkey sandwich while reading “Good To Eat: Riddles of Food and Culture”, a book on cannibalism by anthropologist Marvin Harris. Hufu was a non-existent spoof product, supposedly a soy-based food product designed to resemble human flesh in taste and texture. The Hufu website was in existence from May 2005 to June 2006.

Gay Fuel

Gay Fuel was an energy drink marketed by Florida-based Specialty Spirits, LLC towards the gay community, using the slogan “GET FIRED UP.” Some refer to it as a “graphite smoothie”. Gay Fuel was similar to Red Bull, except the liquid was dyed bright pink and elderberry flavored. Its makers claimed Gay Fuel contains a blend of sexual stimulant herbs and immune system boosters. The can was silver with several rainbow stripes. As of 2008, the official website has gone offline.

Urinal Cake Candle

The product website says it all: “Bring the industrial chemical freshness of a public restroom right to your home. We’re often asked if THE URINAL CAKE CANDLE smells like pee. It doesn’t. It’s a cinnamony floral smell that’s modeled after a urinal cake our founder once relieved himself on at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. This candle covers both number 1 and number 2 odors and has become a regular contributor in the HOTWICKS world headquarters bathroom. This is the perfect gift for anyone that likes tacos, asparagus, and really hot chicken wings.”

Hitler Bacon
Is it Kosher?

Hitlerszalonna or Hitler-szalonna (Hungarian “Hitler bacon”) is a dense fruit jam, although there is debate about how much fruit was actually in it and how edible it was, that was eaten by Hungarian troops and civilians during World War II. It was made from mixed fruits such as plum and sold in brick shaped blocks held in a piece of paper rather than in a jar. These slabs were sliced, a bit like szalonna (bacon). Soldiers kept it in a case and it could be cooked with other foods. The term itself is considered slang and defined as something like “tough fruit”.

Boneless Fish
Why oh why?

The Boneless Fish is a fish-based frozen food invented by Dairei Corporation of Japan in 1998. It is essentially a fish that has been scaled, gutted and deboned by a skilled worker before being reassembled to look like a dressed fish (gutted and with its head and fins removed). The fish is then flash frozen and packaged. It remains uncooked. The production of the Boneless Fish is labor intensive. Dairei set up HACCP-certified factories in Thailand, China and Vietnam. The workers cut open the fish and use a pair of tweezers to remove the bones. The end product is then examined to make sure that it is free of bones and then “glued” together using a food-grade enzyme produced by Ajinomoto.

Darkie Toothpaste
Racism in a tube

Darkie (now known as Darlie) is a toothpaste brand of the Taiwan-based company Hawley & Hazel, which was acquired in 1985 by the US corporation Colgate-Palmolive. Darky, or darkie, is a term used primarily in the United States and Britain to refer to black people. The package featured an image said to have been inspired by an Al Jolson performance, that of a wide-eyed, smiling dark-skinned black male wearing a top hat, monocle and bow-tie. Because of the contrast with very dark skin, it was a common perception that the teeth of people of African descent were exceptionally white. Due to changing sensibilities regarding race and racism and efforts by certain interest groups, blatantly racist branding practices common in earlier decades began to end in the 1950s.

Related Death in One Way

Random facts that have one thing in common: they all relate to death in one way or another.

Maschalismos

Maschalismos is the practice of physically rendering the dead incapable of rising or haunting the living in undead form. It comes from the Ancient Greek word and was also the term for procedural rules on such matters in later Greek customary law. The term maschalismos has widened to include the customs throughout the different cultures of the world in ritually mutilating their dead to prevent their wrath from affecting the living.

In the Moluccas, a woman who has died in childbirth is buried with pins stuck through the joints, and an egg under the chin and or armpits; believing that the dead fly like birds and the presence of eggs will bring out maternal instincts which make the ghost not leave the eggs and thus stay with its former body. In Europe, it was sometimes common that suicides were buried with a stake driven through the heart, the body buried upside down, or the head cut off and placed between the legs; still practiced in many parts of Britain as well as the continent is tying together the feet or large toes of the dead.

The Omaha, a tribe of American Indians, slit the soles of the feet of those killed by lightning; the Basuto and Bechuana slit the sinews and spinal cord of their dead; the Herbert River aborigines of Australia beat the body enough to break its bones and fill incisions made in the body with stones. Further forms of maschalismos are equally common among peoples the world over.

Lal Bihari

Lal Bihari (born 1961) is a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, India who was officially dead between 1976 and 1994. He founded Mritak Sangh or the Association of the Dead in Uttar Pradesh, India. He fought Indian government bureaucracy for 18 years to prove that he is alive. When Lal Bihari tried to apply for a bank loan in 1976, he found out that he was officially dead: his uncle had bribed a government official to register him as dead, so that he would get the ownership of Bihari’s land.

Bihari discovered at least 100 other people in a similar situation, being officially dead. He formed Mritak Sangh in the Azamgarh district. He and many other members were in danger of being killed by those who had appropriated their property. Nowadays the association has over 20,000 members all over India. By 2004 they had managed to declare four of their members alive (including Bihari).

London Necropolis Railway Station

The London Necropolis railway station was a special railway station constructed by the London Necropolis Company for funeral trains, specifically to serve their Brookwood Cemetery. The station opened on 13 November 1854 just outside London’s Waterloo station on the London and South Western Railway. Three-carriage trains took coffins and mourners from the station — located between York Street (now Leake Street) and Westminster Bridge Road — directly to platforms within the cemetery.

The station was rebuilt a short distance away at 121 Westminster Bridge Road in 1902 when the mainline station was reconstructed. Prior to 1900 funeral trains usually ran once each day, but after this only operated “as required”, until by the mid-1930s they only ran twice each week; much of their traffic having moved to the road network. On the night of 16 April 1941 the station was hit by bombs and never rebuilt or re-opened. However, the entrance to the station still stands in Westminster Bridge Road.

Republican Marriage

Republican marriage (French: mariage républicain) was a form of execution that allegedly occurred in Nantes during the Reign of Terror in Revolutionary France and “involved tying a naked man and woman together and drowning them”. This was reported to have been practiced during the noyades massacres that were ordered by local Jacobin representative-on-mission Jean-Baptiste Carrier between November 1793 and January 1794 in the city of Nantes.

Most accounts indicate that the victims were drowned in the Loire River, although a few sources describe an alternative means of execution in which the bound couple is run through with a sword, either before, or instead of drowning. While the murders of men, women and children by drowning in the noyades is not generally disputed, the factuality of the “republican marriages” in particular has been doubted by several historians who suspect it to be a legend.

Lazarus Syndrome

Lazarus syndrome is the spontaneous return of circulation after failed attempts at resuscitation. Its occurrence has been noted in medical literature at least 25 times since 1982. Also called Lazarus phenomenon, it takes its name from the biblical story of Lazarus, who was raised from the dead by Jesus. In one case, a 66-year-old man was suffering from a suspected abdominal aneurysm.

During treatment for this condition, the patient suffered cardiac arrest and received chest compressions and defibrillation shocks for 17 minutes. Vital signs did not return; the patient was declared dead and resuscitation efforts ended. Ten minutes later, the surgeon felt a pulse. The aneurysm was successfully treated and the patient fully recovered with no lasting physical or neurological problems.

Walking Ghost

The walking ghost phase of radiation poisoning is a period of apparent health, lasting for hours or days, following a dose of 10–50 sieverts of radiation. As its name would suggest, the walking ghost phase is followed by certain death. The phase of apparent recovery is due to the lag time of the effects of radiation poisoning to surface. While the irradiation has resulted in bone marrow destruction and death of many rapidly multiplying cells, the surface effects do not become apparent until later.

For example, irradiation kills the rapidly dividing cells of the gastrointestinal tract, however diarrhea is not apparent until the cells begin to slough off, coming out in bloody excrement. Loss of this protective lining exposes the body to bacteria within the gut causing sepsis. Also, this causes an inability to absorb nutrition from food. This is the same with the rapidly proliferating cells of the immune system. Irradiation essentially halts white blood cell production by destroying bone marrow, however the remaining white blood cells within the body are still temporarily working, until they are “used up”.

Death Erection

A death erection, angel lust, or terminal erection is a post-mortem erection, technically a priapism, observed in the corpses of human males who have been executed, particularly by hanging. The phenomenon has been attributed to pressure on the cerebellum created by the noose. Death by hanging, whether an execution or a suicide, has been observed to affect the genitals of both men and women. In women, the labia will become engorged and there may be a discharge of blood from the vagina.

In men, “a more or less complete state of erection of the penis, with discharge of urine, of mucus, or of the prostatic fluid, is a frequent occurrence … present in one case in three.” Other causes of death may also result in these effects, including fatal gunshot wounds to the brain, damage to major blood vessels, or violent death by poisoning. Forensically, a postmortem erection is an indicator that death was likely swift and violent.

Safety Coffin

A safety coffin or security coffin is a coffin fitted with a mechanism to prevent premature burial or allow the occupant to signal that he has been buried alive. A large number of designs for safety coffins were patented during the 18th and 19th centuries and variations on the theme are still available today.

The first recorded safety coffin was constructed on the orders of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick before his death in 1792. He had a window installed to allow light in, an air tube to provide a supply of fresh air, and instead of having the lid nailed down he had a lock fitted. In a special pocket of his shroud he had two keys, one for the coffin lid and a second for the tomb door.

Disenfranchised Grief

Disenfranchised grief is a term describing grief that is not acknowledged by society. Examples of events leading to disenfranchised grief are the loss of a pet, an aborted/miscarried pregnancy, a mother’s loss or surrender of a child to adoption, the death of a celebrity, or even a fictional character. This is compared to more traditional forms of grief, such as loss of a spouse, parent, or child.

Traditional forms of grief are more heavily recognized even in nontraditional living situations. Disenfranchised grief, when legitimate, can create problems with bereavement leave with work. There are few support systems, traditions, or institutions, which normally help the grieving process.

Gregory Biggs

Gregory Biggs, a homeless man in Fort Worth, Texas, was struck by a car being driven by Chante Jawan Mallard, who had been drinking and taking drugs that night. Biggs’ torso became lodged in Mallard’s windshield with severe but not immediately fatal injuries. Mallard drove home and left the car in her garage with Biggs still lodged in her car’s windshield. She repeatedly visited Biggs and even apologized for hitting him. Biggs died of his injuries several hours later. Chante Mallard was tried and convicted for murder in this case and received a 50-year prison sentence. The film Stuck is loosely based on this unusual death.