When a plane crashes we can often recover the black box to determine what happened. This box keeps a recording of any talk in the cockpit. Here we present the recordings of the final moments of 10 crashes as found on the black box. Due to the nature of the recording method, some of the audio is very difficult to hear, so listen very carefully. Some content may disturb. This list is courtesy of AircrashDB.com.

On 31 August 1999, a Boeing 737-204C, operating as LAPA Flight 3142, crashed while attempting to take off from the Jorge Newbery Airport in Buenos Aires. The crash resulted in 65 fatalities, 17 people severely injured and several people with minor injuries, making it one of the deadliest accidents in the history of Argentinian aviation.

As the aircraft started its take-off run, a warning sounded in the cockpit, indicating that the aircraft was not correctly configured for the maneuver. The crew continued the run, not realizing that the flaps were not at the required take-off position, and were instead fully retracted, thus preventing the aircraft from lifting off. The jet overshot the runway, breaking through the airport’s perimeter fence, crossed a road, hitting an automobile, and finally collided with road-construction machinery and a highway median. Fuel spilling over the hot engines, and gas leaking from a damaged gas regulation station, resulted in a fire that totally destroyed the aircraft.

On 19 February 1989, a Boeing 747-249F, operating as Flying Tiger Flight 66, was flying an non-directional beacon (NDB) approach to Runway 33 at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, Kuala Lumpur, after having flown half an hour from Singapore Changi Airport. In descent, the flight was cleared to “Kayell”, with a morse code of “KL”, which four separate points on the ground were commonly called by Malaysian ATC, albeit with different frequencies. Two separate radio beacons were identically coded “KL”, as well as the VOR abbreviation (Kuala Lumpur shortened to “KL”). The airport was also sometimes referred to as “KL” by local ATC (instead of the full “Kuala Lumpur”). The crew was unsure of which point they were cleared to.

ATC then radioed to the flight, “Tiger 66, descend two four zero zero [2,400 ft]. Cleared for NDB approach runway three three.” The captain of Tiger 66, who heard “descend to four zero zero” replied with, “Okay, four zero zero” (meaning 400 ft above sea level, which was 2,000 ft too low). Subsequent warnings triggered by the onboard Ground Proximity Warning System were cancelled as false alarms, and the aircraft hit a hillside 600 ft above sea level, killing all four people on board. The proper radio call from ATC, instead of “descend two four zero zero”, should have been “descend and maintain two thousand four hundred feet”.

On 1 January 2007, a Boeing 737-4Q8, operating as Adam Air Flight 574 (KI-574), was flying a scheduled domestic passenger flight between the Indonesian cities of Surabaya (SUB) and Manado (MDC). The plane was ultimately determined to have crashed into the ocean, from which some smaller pieces of wreckage have been recovered. The flight recorders (“black boxes”) were retrieved from the ocean on 28 August, 2007, while salvage efforts for some larger pieces of wreckage continued. All 102 people on board died.

A full national investigation was immediately launched into the disaster, uncovering multiple maintenance issues concerning the airline as a whole, including a large number concerning the aircraft. Another possibility, proposed by the families of some of the deceased, is that the crash was due to a faulty rudder valve, known to have caused previous accidents and incidents on Boeing 737’s. Debris location has indicated that the plane likely struck the ocean intact. The final report, released on 25 March 2008, concluded that the pilots lost control of the aircraft after they became preoccupied with troubleshooting the inertial reference system, and inadvertently disconnected the autopilot. Offical Crash Report.

On 8 June, 1982, a Boeing 727-212A, operating as VASP Flight 168, was flying a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Fortaleza. The flight departed Rio on its way to Fortaleza. As the flight approached its destination, it was cleared to descend from its cruising altitude of FL330 (approx. 33,000 feet Mean sea level) to 5,000 feet. Flying at night, with the lights of the city of Fortaleza in front, the Boeing 727 descended through its 5,000 feet clearance limit, and kept on descending until it crashed into a mountainside at 2,500 feet, killing all 137 on board.

Investigation revealed that the captain, possibly disoriented due to bright lights from the city ahead, continued the descent well below the 5,000 feet clearance limit, despite being warned twice by the altitude alert system, as well as by the co-pilot, of the terrain ahead. As the Boeing kept descending, it struck a wooded mountainside at 2,500 feet and crashed

On 13 January, 1982, a Boeing 737, operating as Air Florida Flight 90, was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight from Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C. to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with a stopover at Tampa International Airport, in Tampa, Florida. The aircraft crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River, killing all but 4 passengers and a single flight attendant.

The aircraft carried 74 passengers and five crew members, when it crashed during the failed takeoff attempt. When the aircraft struck the 14th Street Bridge, which carries Interstate Highway 395 between Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia. It crushed seven occupied vehicles on the bridge, and destroyed 97 feet (30 m) of guard rail, before it plunged through the ice into the Potomac River. The crash occurred less than two miles (3 km) from the White House, and within view of both the Jefferson Memorial and The Pentagon.

On 2 August 1985, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar, operating as Delta Air Lines flight 191, crashed while on a routine approach to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 8 of 11 crew members and 126 of the 152 passengers on board, and one person on the ground: a total of 135 deaths. This accident is one of the few commercial air crashes in which the meteorological phenomenon known as microburst-induced wind shear was a direct contributing factor.

On 16 August, 1987, a McDonnell Douglas MD-82, operating as Northwest Airlines Flight 255, crashed after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, killing all of the crew and passengers except for a 4-year-old girl, Cecelia Cichan, who sustained serious injuries. Flight 255 made its takeoff roll on Runway 3C at approximately 8:45PM EDT, with Capt. Maus at the controls. The plane lifted off the runway at 170 knots (195 mph), and soon began to roll from side to side at a height of just under 50 feet above the ground. The MD-82 went into a stall mode, and rolled 40 degrees to the left, when it struck a light pole near the end of the runway, severing 18 feet of its left wing, and igniting jet fuel stored in the wing. It then rolled 90 degrees to the right, and its right wing tore through the roof of an Avis rental car building. The plane, now uncontrolled, crashed inverted onto Middlebelt Road and hit vehicles just north of the intersection of Wick Rd. The aircraft then broke apart and burst into flames as it hit a railroad overpass, and the overpass of eastbound Interstate 94.

On July 19, 1989, a Douglas DC-10, operating as United Airlines Flight 232, was a scheduled flight from Stapleton International Airport, in Denver, Colorado, to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois. During flight the plane suffered an uncontained failure of its number 2 engine. Shrapnel was hurled from the engine with enough force to penetrate the hydraulic lines of all three of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. The hydraulic fluid from each system rapidly leaked from the aircraft, resulting in the inability of the crew to move the flight control surfaces. Only the thrust levers for the two remaining engines remained workable, so the crew had limited control by using only thrust modulation (symmetric thrust for pitch, differential thrust for yaw/roll). The aircraft was forced to attempt an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa. The plane broke up on landing, killing 111 of its 285 passengers and one of the 11 crew members.

On 12 August 1985, a Boeing 747-SR46, operating as Japan Airlines Flight 123, was a Japan Airlines domestic flight from Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) to Osaka International Airport (Itami). The aircraft suffered mechanical failures 12 minutes into the flight, and 32 minutes later crashed into two ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, 100 kilometers from Tokyo. The crash site was on Osutaka Ridge, near Mount Osutaka. All 15 crew members and 505 out of 509 passengers died, resulting in a total of 520 deaths and 4 survivors. The official cause of the crash according to the report published by Japan’s, then, Aircraft Accidents Investigation Commission is as follows:

The aircraft was involved in a tailstrike incident at Osaka International Airport, on 2 June, 1978, which damaged the aircraft’s rear pressure bulkhead.

The subsequent repair of the bulkhead did not conform to Boeing’s approved repair methods. The Boeing technicians fixing the aircraft used two separate doubler plates, one with two rows of rivets and one with only one row, while their procedure calls for one continuous doubler plate with three rows of rivets to reinforce the damaged bulkhead. This reduced the part’s resistance to metal fatigue by 70%. According to the FAA, the one “doubler plate” which was specified for the job (the FAA calls it a “splice plate” – essentially a patch) was cut into two pieces parallel to the stress crack it was intended to reinforce, “to make it fit”. This negated the effectiveness of two of the rows of rivets. During the investigation Boeing calculated that this incorrect installation would fail after approximately 10,000 pressurizations; the aircraft accomplished 12,318 take-offs between the installation of the new plate and the final accident.

When the bulkhead gave way, the resulting explosive decompression ruptured the lines of all four hydraulic systems. With the aircraft’s flight controls disabled, the aircraft became uncontrollable.

On 31 August 1988, a Boeing 727, operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 1141, was a commercial airline flight that flew from Jackson, Mississippi, to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Salt Lake City International Airport in Salt Lake City, Utah. The aircraft crashed after takeoff from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Two cabin crew members (out of four) and twelve of the 101 passengers on board lost their lives: a total of 14 deaths. One passenger, who sat in 29C and had exited the aircraft through the aft break in the left side of the fuselage, attempted to re-enter the aircraft, received burn wounds, and died 11 days later. FAA regulations require a sterile cockpit before takeoff. This means there is to be no conversation outside of talk pertaining to the plane and pending flight. (For example, reviewing Pre-Takeoff checklists.) The CVR tapes recorded extensive talk about the CVR itself, and how, on Continental Airlines Flight 1713, crew discussions were recorded about the dating habits of the flight attendants.

No one wants to be the last person killed in a war. Being that close to the end is no time to meet one’s end.

That’s where many find themselves right now, in the waning months of the war against COVID-19. With vaccines coming but a long, dark winter ahead, no one wants their names added to the soaring death tolls we’ll see before science finally conquers the worst pandemic in a century.

No one wants to die this close to the finish line – to be the least fortunate soul. Let’s look at some least fortunate soldiers.

10 Times War Was Declared For Really Stupid Reasons

10 Hundred Years’ War: John Talbot (and 4,000 others)

Talk about bad timing… try being the last to die in a century-long war.

The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflagrations from 1337 to 1453, waged between England’s two ruling parties – the House of Plantagenet and its male-heritage-line offshoot House of Lancaster – and the French House of Valois, for the right to rule France. Paused and recommenced over 116 years, the protracted war saw five generations of kings from the rival dynasties compete for the largest throne in Western Europe. No exacting figure of military fatalities exists, but historians place the Hundred Years’ War death toll at roughly 3.5 million lives, making it among the deadliest conflicts in history.

The final major engagement, 1453’s Battle of Castillon, put an exclamation point on a French victory in which England lost nearly all territory on mainland Europe. The battle resulted in only about 100 French casualties, while English losses eclipsed 4,000. Among the reasons for this lopsided result is that Castillon marked the first major battle in which field artillery – namely, cannons – played a decisive role.

Another reason for the bloodbath, though, was English commander John Talbot. Not realizing the cannon had made certain military tactics horrifically obsolete, Talbot stormed a fortified French position without reinforcements, then refused to withdraw even after realizing the dug-in French forces equaled or outnumbered his own. Defenseless and with no one coming to help, nearly the entire army was cut apart by cannon fire, Talbot included.^[1]

9 American Civil War: John Jefferson Williams

Even after April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Union general Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, skirmishes and even full-fledged battles continued for several weeks. Confederate president Jefferson Davis ordered various smaller, scattered rebel forces to continue the conflict. And though the largest remaining band of Confederates – Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee – instead chose to lay down its arms to general William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina, others fought on.

In southern Texas, Union and Confederate forces had sensed the war nearing an end for months, and had kept an unofficial truce for most of 1865. Enter Union colonel Theodore H. Barrett. Newly assigned to command an all-black unit and never having been involved in combat, on May 12 Barrett ordered an unprovoked attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown, on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Officially called the Battle of Palmito Ranch, Barrett’s two-day attack failed miserably. Confederate casualties were a mere half-dozen, including none killed. In addition to over 100 captured, Union casualties numbered over 115 with up to 30 killed; incredibly heavy losses considering only 500 Northerners participated.

On May 13, it’s generally believed that 22-year-old John Jefferson Williams, a private in the 34th Regiment Indiana Infantry, became the last soldier to die in the Civil War. While some argue the final death actually occurred six days later in Alabama, that fatality – corporal John W. Skinner – was caused by an ambush rather than anything resembling a battle.^[2]

8 Second Boer War: Ferdinandus Jacobus Potgieter

Fought from October 1899 through May 1902, the Second Boer War pitted British Empire forces – England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – against two independent republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. The latter two were known as Boer states: self-governed republics created by Dutch-speaking inhabitants of southern Africa in the latter half of the 19th Century.

Officially, the conflict was fought over the British Empire’s continued, yet somewhat waning, influence in South Africa. However, what really triggered the guns was the discovery of diamonds and gold. Outmanned and outgunned, the Boers resorted to guerrilla warfare that, for a time, was highly effective against their more conventional opponents. In fact, over the course of the war the British suffered more than 22,000 killed to the Boers 6,200.

But while uneven losses and homefield advantage may have won the day under business-as-usual conditions, the British would not be denied what proved among the world’s richest diamond reserves. The Empire brought in more men and more materiel and employed scorched-earth measures to smoke the Boers out of the brush.

The war came to a climax on April 11, 1902, during the Battle of Rooiwal. By this time, the British had their foes cornered, giving the Boers two options: surrender or charge an entrenched line. They chose the latter, gallantly storming the British guns on horseback. Their attack was easily repulsed. Fifty-one Boers were killed, including the engagement’s chief officer, commandant Ferdinandus Jacobus Potgieter. The aftermath of his death became one of the war’s most haunting images.^[3]

7 World War I: Lieutenant Tomas

Much has been made about American Henry Gunther, who is officially recognized as the last soldier killed in the first World War. With the armistice scheduled to take effect at 11:00am on November 11 (11/11 at 11), 1918, Gunther and a handful of other soldiers advanced on a German machine gun installment. The guns opened fire, and the Americans hit the deck. Realizing it was just a few minutes until 11, everyone stayed put.

Everyone, that is, except Gunther. He got up, charged and, refusing to stand down even after German gunners waved him off, got himself killed. The time was 10:59am. Oddly considering his seemingly stubborn stick-to-it-iveness, a year earlier Gunther had been demoted after military censors intercepted a letter he sent home criticizing the war.

Gunther was not, however, the last combatant killed that day. While Germany’s records are unclear about its final combat death, the last German – and last soldier overall – killed was likely an infantryman known only as Lieutenant Tomas. In the moments after 11:00, he approached some American soldiers to let them know that, since the war was over, he and his men were vacating a house and it would be available for their use. Unfortunately, no one had informed the Americans of the Armistice, so they shot and killed him.^[4]

6 World War I, Part II

The final day of fighting in World War I was so vicious that a second entry is deserved commemorating the final deaths from three other major Western players: England, France and Canada. Even while the world began celebrating the cessation of the “war to end all wars,” November 11, 1918 saw nearly 2,700 killed and 11,000 casualties – more than those killed, wounded or missing when, 27 years later, Allied forces stormed the shores of occupied France on D-Day.

British losses that morning were roughly 2,400, with 40-year-old private George Edwin Ellison the last to die at 9:30am. Ellison was scouting the outskirts of Mons – the same place where the first British soldier died at the war’s onset. Sadly, Ellison had survived four years in the trenches only to die 90 minutes before the ceasefire.

Some 88 minutes later, 25-year-old Canadian private George Lawrence Price nearly stole Henry Gunther’s unfortunate legacy. He was shot by a sniper at 10:58am. French losses that morning were around 1,200. Augustin Trébuchon became the last Frenchman killed when, at 10:50am, he was shot while carrying a message to the front lines. While it would be nice to believe this message was worth dying for, it stated that soup would be served to soldiers shortly after the 11:00 ceasefire.^[5]

10 Really Surprising Facts About Ancient Warfare

5 World War II: Anthony Marchione

Three days after Japan surrendered to Allied Forces on August 15, 1945, 19-year-old Army photographer Anthony Marchione and a small crew took off in two B-32 Dominator bombers on a routine reconnaissance mission. The photos they intended to take were meant to reassure Allied Forces that the Empire was respecting the cessation of hostilities.

Perhaps understandably considering Japan had just been devastated by two atomic bombs, the response to ground forces on mainland Japan was not welcoming. As the bombers approached Tokyo, first anti-aircraft guns and then fighter planes opened fire. One of the two American bombers was badly damaged, and radioed the other to slow down so that they could stick together.

The reply came not from the undamaged bomber but from a Japanese fighter pilot. “Yes,” said Saburo Sakai, an English-speaking Japanese ace who admits participating in the engagement, “please slow down so I can shoot you down, too.”

“While Japan did agree to the surrender,” Sakai said later, “we were still a sovereign nation, and every nation has the right to protect itself… we did not know of their intentions.”

Of the three U.S. airmen injured, two survived. Unfortunately Marchione, though conscious for some time following the incident, soon succumbed to his wounds, becoming the last of more than 407,000 Americans to die in World War II.^[6]

4 Vietnam War: Charles McMahon & Darwin Lee Judge

Before its current quagmire-at-best in Afghanistan, the Vietnam War was America’s longest-running conflict. And like the fight against the Taliban, the military misadventure in southeast Asia was defined by land unholdable once taken, and an enemy that melted back into its surroundings following ambush-style assaults.

The hit-and-run tactics employed by the North Vietnamese Army bought them something the Americans increasingly lacked: time. As US casualties mounted and draft numbers soared, sentiment in the US turned so strongly against the war that, by 1968, it prompted a highly unusual occurrence: an eligible incumbent president, Lyndon Johnson, not seeking reelection.

American troop levels decreased through the early 1970s, and a bogus peace accord let the US save face without saving the South Vietnamese. The capital, Saigon, fell on April 30, 1975, with a hastily orchestrated evacuation via helicopter initiated, of all things, by radio stations playing Christmas music.

Amid the scramble to leave, US armed forces guarded critical infrastructure, including securing Tan Son Nhat airport for rushed departures. It was here that on April 29 – one day before Saigon’s fall – two US Marines, 21-year-old Charles McMahon and 19-year-old Darwin Lee Judge, were killed in a rocket attack. They became the last in a lengthy list of US combat deaths spanning two decades. McMahon had been in Vietnam just 11 days.^[7]

3 Falklands War: Craig James

The Falklands War, a ten-week showdown in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina, was among the briefest and dumbest conflicts in modern history.

It was a classic territory dispute. Argentina claimed sovereignty over two island chains, the Falklands and the more far-flung South Georgia and South Sandwich islands. But the UK considered both British dependent territories – similar to Bermuda or the British Virgin Islands.

It’s one thing to claim a territory. It’s quite another to invade it when the other country has a far stronger military. Nonetheless, faced with crumbling popularity during an economic crisis, Argentina’s military junta hoped to shore up public support by a good ol’ fashioned war of distraction. You’d think a military junta would be better at picking fights they can win.

The inevitable result was a firm rogering courtesy of her majesty’s vastly superior armed forces. Though losing two destroyers at sea, the British – despite making amphibious landings against defended beachheads, a perilous prospect – suffered just 255 combat deaths. Some 650 Argentine soldiers were killed, 1,600 wounded and over 11,000 captured. Stick to football, chaps.

Still, war is hell and people die. And just one day before Argentina surrendered, a 20-year-old private named Craig James was engaged in the Battle of Mount Longdon, a brutal mix of mortar and close-range fighting that accounted for nearly 10% of all UK war casualties. Toward the conclusion of the battle – a British victory – James was struck by a shell and killed. Thirty years later, a nearby islet was renamed Craig Island in his honor.^[8]

2 Cold War: Arthur Nicholson Jr.

Fortunately, the Cold War never got hotter than lukewarm, with limited conflagrations rather than a nuclear exchange that could have cost hundreds of millions of lives. But it wasn’t without its share of military casualties.

During 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis, US U-2 spy plane pilot Rudolf Anderson was shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles while reconnoitering nuclear installments over Cuba. When the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the Americans not-so-covertly armed the mujahideen fighters, who killed enough Soviets to eventually force their withdrawal.

Then there were more direct, less publicized encounters. Nearly 400 American servicemen were killed in “direct enemy action” during the 45-year standoff. Some were military personnel, some government operatives. Others were… well, both. Military personnel often mixed official business with unofficial espionage. One such “official spy” was Arthur Nicholson, who in March 1984 was participating in a military liaison mission – an agreed-upon cross-verification that adversaries weren’t preparing for offensive actions – with Soviet counterparts in communist East Germany.

Nicholson’s mission was to photograph a Soviet tank storage building. But as he and a colleague approached the facility, a Soviet soldier opened fire, later claiming the Americans were in an “off limits” area. While the Soviets later insisted Nicholson died instantly, an autopsy indicated he bled to death over several hours.

The US response was irate, with Vice President George H.W. Bush calling Nicholson “an outstanding officer murdered in the line of duty.” Nicholson is officially regarded by the U.S. Department of Defense as the final victim of the Cold War.^[9]

1 Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan): Wyatt Martin, Ramon Morris & TBD

Officially, Operating Enduring Freedom, the coalition invasion of Afghanistan that began less than a month after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, ended on December 31, 2014. Unofficially, the conflict is still winding down to an unsatisfactory conclusion likely to leave the country in the same cruel hands as it was in 2001: The Islamist fundamentalist Taliban regime.

During the 13 year-span called Operation Enduring Freedom, about 1,850 Americans (and 450 Brits were killed in action – far more than any other nation in the coalition. Notably, the Afghan conflict marks the first and only time NATO’s mutual defense clause was invoked.

Officially, the final coalition force deaths were Americans Wyatt Martin, 22, and Sgt. 1st Class Ramon Morris, 37. Both combat engineers, they were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Parwan province, a remote area north of Kabul. Morris was a particularly decorated veteran whose honors included a Bronze Star for valor.

But of course, the story of the Afghan War didn’t end merely by announcing an arbitrary date. Coalition forces continue to die regularly. In February, two US soldiers were killed in an “insider attack” by men posing as friendly Afghan soldiers. A week later, British Army private Joseph Berry died from wounds sustained in a non-battle injury in Kabul – indicative of the outsized toll the war on terror has had on UK forces, who are more likely to die than their American counterparts.^[10]

Top 10 Historic Combat Vehicles That Changed The Face Of War

Drug lords must live by the proverbial sword. Often they die by it too. Cartel leaders and local drug runners know the nature of their business. Those at the top must be ruthless to retain power. When it all ends, many kingpins enter the afterlife on their own terms. With untold wealth earned during their lives, some of these smugglers spared no expense in death. Others entered the afterlife amid mystery and conspiracy. But they all left a mark as they left this realm.

So let’s look at how these drug lords met their end and where to find their final resting places—maybe.

Related: Top 10 Bizarre Ways People Smuggled Drugs

10 Felix Mitchell

Felix Mitchell was a street legend in Oakland, California. “Felix the Cat” turned a local heroin hustle into a drug empire that earned millions. By the 1980s, he was infamous for ruthless violence. Police claimed he killed or ordered the deaths of six people. Prosecutors caught up to him, though, and by 1985 he was imprisoned. The following year, Mitchell was stabbed to death by another inmate. His murder came two days before his 32nd birthday.

Mitchell’s funeral made headlines across the world. His two-hour funeral procession featured a horse-drawn carriage, Rolls Royces, and limousines. Ushers and attendees wore tuxedos. Mitchell’s coffin cost more than $6,000. City officials condemned the celebration, but nearly 2,000 people attended the funeral. Thousands more lined the streets to watch as Mitchell was taken to his resting place in the nearby city of Richmond.^[1]

9 José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha

José Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was brutal to his enemies but helpful to his hometown. The Colombian drug lord was beloved for funding various public projects in the city of Pacho. In 1989, the Medellin cartel underboss and his son were killed in a shootout with police. They were buried, but two days later, their bodies were exhumed and returned to Pacho. When Gacha’s body arrived home, 15,000 people took to the streets to mourn their local hero. After the public procession, the kingpin’s family held a private late-night funeral. Gacha was reportedly buried in an intricate wooden coffin.

Over the next few years, residents of Pacha started noticing a man in town who looked a lot like Gacha. The mystery man was said to have even attended the drug lord’s birthday memorial. Locals whispered that the funeral was suspicious for being held late at night and with a closed coffin. Ever since, many have wondered if Gacha faked his death.^[2]

8 Amado Carrillo Fuentes

Amado Carrillo Fuentes was known as the “Lord of the Skies” in his life. The drug runner was famous for using private jets to transport cocaine. The Juarez cartel leader’s sudden death in 1997 shocked the world: it came during plastic surgery.

Supposedly, the kingpin had been altering his appearance to escape justice. Fuentes’s final resting place in Mexico’s Culiacán state is incredible. The three-story mausoleum cost more than $415,000. It holds a 50-seat chapel and two burial chambers. But it may not hold Fuentes. Investigators have always wondered whether the secretive drug lord is really inside. Rumors swirl that one of his henchmen lies there instead. A few months after his funeral, the mystery deepened when the corpses of Fuentes’s plastic surgeons were discovered in barrels of concrete.^[3]

7 Ramón Arellano Félix

In life, Ramón Arellano Félix spent years on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitive List, right next to Osama bin Laden. But the long arm of the law found Félix by the end of 2002. That year, Mexican cops tracked down the Tijuana cartel boss and killed him in a shootout. At least they thought they killed the dangerous drug runner. The man thought to be Félix was carrying an ID card that claimed he was “Jorge Pérez Lopez.”

Authorities prepared to investigate further when someone claiming to be a family member of the deceased took the body from the funeral home. The corpse was quickly cremated before police could step in. Félix—or whoever—was lost to history. Police did the next best thing, testing DNA from blood left on the dead man’s clothes. When tests came back, cops announced they were “virtually certain” the dead man was Félix. But with no air-tight confirmation, the mysterious cremation continues to baffle.^[4]

6 Arturo Beltrán Leyva

Arturo Beltrán Leyva was known as “The Boss of Bosses” during his career smuggling cocaine from Mexico to the United States. His luck ran out in 2009 when he was killed by Mexican forces in a surprise raid on his compound near Mexico City. Distraught supporters hired a private jet to fly his body back home to Culiacán state. His funeral was an unusually low-key affair. To avoid police harassment, no men attended the event.

While Levya’s memorial may have been small, his trip to the afterlife was not. The drug lord’s two-story mausoleum is said to resemble a mansion. The tomb has two bedrooms and a kitchen. It is filled with Leyva’s memories, as well as guns, cars, and other things he owned in life. It even has satellite TV, air conditioning, and a Wi-Fi connection.^[5]

5 Heriberto Lazcano

Heriberto Lazcano was a Mexican Special Forces soldier who switched sides. He became a valuable assassin for the Gulf Cartel when he was killed in a shootout in 2012. Cops took fingerprints and DNA samples after his death. But days later, the corpse was stolen from a funeral home.

The Mexican government was adamant they killed Lazcano. They even dug up the graves of the hitman’s parents to confirm a DNA match. However, the results are sealed until 2024. If Lazcano really was the one killed, his path to the afterlife has been unique. The cold-blooded murderer reportedly rests in an exquisite three-story mausoleum with a “heavy religious theme” in his native Culiacán.^[6]

4 Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco was one of the most prolific cocaine smugglers ever. But a 15-year prison sentence in the United States followed by the 2004 deportation back to her native Colombia ended her trafficking career. Once back home, Blanco enjoyed retirement. But in 2012, she was assassinated in a local butcher shop by a passing motorcyclist. Ironically, it was Blanco who first pioneered the use of motorcycle assassins during her violent career.

Two days later, she was buried in the same cemetery as rival kingpin Pablo Guzman. Thousands of schoolchildren from across the city of Itagüí were bussed in for the funeral. Adult mourners shared bottles of liquor at her grave for hours. Everyone in town was there except her son, Michael Corleone—yes, named after The Godfather character—who was under house arrest for drug crimes of his own.^[7]

3 Nazario Moreno González

The Mexican government triumphantly announced that drug lord Nazario Moreno González was killed in a shootout in 2010. But the co-head of the La Familia cartel wasn’t dead. Four years later, authorities claimed he had been killed—again. They got it right the second time. The man known as “El Mas Loco” or “The Craziest One” had actually been shot and killed that time. Police held González’s body until it was confirmed to be him through forensic analysis. At that point, they released the corpse to family members.

During life, González was god-like. The cartel boss dressed in flowing white robes. Followers hung on to his every word. Some even venerated the drug lord as if he were a saint. But in death, he disappeared. Family members refused to say where they buried the kingpin. Rumors have persisted that he was cremated. His final resting place has never been confirmed.^[8]

2 Héctor Beltrán Leyva

Héctor Beltrán Leyva took over the family business after his brother Arturo was killed in 2009 (See #6). But while Arturo lived a notorious life and was given a flashy burial, Héctor’s end was less boastful. The younger Beltrán Leyva brother, known as “El H,” ran the family cartel until his 2014 arrest. In 2018, while in jail awaiting trial, the drug lord died of a heart attack.

Family members insisted on complete privacy after his death. Héctor’s body was flown back to his hometown of Hermosillo on a private jet. Once there, it was guarded by security personnel in a private wing of the city mortuary. From there, the burial story runs cold. The cartel boss’s final resting spot has never been revealed.^[9]

1 Frank Lucas

Frank Lucas served as the inspiration for Denzel Washington’s 2007 movie American Gangster. And the real-life crime boss’s life story was worthy of the silver screen. In the 1970s, Lucas became one of America’s most successful drug lords. He controlled the heroin market on the east coast, importing massive amounts of the drug from Southeast Asia. Against all odds, Lucas later left organized crime and lived well into his 80s.

Not long before Lucas died, he ordered a custom-made casket for his own burial. The design was based on a Cadillac CTS-V, with a sliding rooftop window and all the accessories. The custom coffin cost $12,000. When the ex-drug lord passed, he was buried in a well-attended ceremony. His nephew, a pastor, presided over Lucas’s funeral. The man of God acknowledged Lucas’s actions but commended the ex-gangster for working to help others avoid crime at the end of his life.^[10]

Criminals condemned to die are typically granted one last meal of their choice. The long-standing tradition invariably begs the question: what would your order be? While you decide, take a look at the selections of these notorious killers.

10.  Richard “Bruno” Hauptmann

The case would become known as “The Crime of the Century.” Richard Hauptmann, a German-born carpenter, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of aviation hero Charles Lindbergh. 

Although Hauptman maintained his innocence to the very end, the state of New Jersey saw things differently, handing him a death sentence in 1936. 

Last Meal: chicken, French fries, buttered peas, celery, olives, cherries, and a slice of cake

Method of Execution: Electric Chair 

9. Gary Gilmore

In the Summer of 1976, Gary Gilmore robbed and murdered two men in Utah. Gilmore then accidentally shot himself while disposing of the murder weapon, leaving behind a trail of blood which ultimately led to his arrest. 

The career criminal subsequently demanded to be executed. The request prompted several states to reevaluate a new series of statutes in which death sentences had been converted to life in prison. Gilmore’s story later became the subject of Norman Mailer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Executioner’s Song.

Last Meal: a hamburger, hard-boiled eggs, baked potato, coffee, and three shots of contraband Jack Daniel’s whiskey

Method of Execution: Firing Squad

8. John Martin Scripps

His grisly crimes while on holiday earned him the nickname “tourist from hell.” John Martin Scripps was an English serial killer who may have murdered as many as six people in several countries, including Thailand, Mexico, and the United States.

Originally from Hertfordshire in England, Scripps used his butchering expertise (skills he learned in prison) to dismember and dispose of dead bodies. Authorities eventually arrested him in Singapore in 1995 with six different passports and several stolen credit cards belonging to his victims. Additional items in his possession included a hammer, stun gun, knives, and handcuffs. 

Last Meal: pizza and hot chocolate

Method of Execution: Hanging 

7. Velma Barfield

On Nov 2, 1984, at 2:15 a.m., Velma Barfield made history. The 52-year-old grandmother received a dose of Pancuronium bromide, a powerful muscle relaxant that stopped her heart, making her the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

While on Death Row at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina, Barfield spent much of her time praying and knitting for her grandchildren. The devout Christian confessed to poisoning five people with arsenic, including her mother, but denied any malfeasance regarding the mysterious deaths of two former husbands.

Last Meal: Cheez Doodles, Coca Cola, and a Kit-Kat bar

Method of Execution: Lethal Injection

6. Adolf Eichmann

During the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the former SS officer refuted any remorse for his involvement in the Holocaust, stating he was simply “doing his job” and obeying orders. His indifferent demeanor would later introduce the phrase “The banality of evil.”

Following Germany’s defeat in WWII, Eichmann, like several other high-ranking Nazis, fled to South America. He was later captured in Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents and indicted by an Israeli court on numerous crimes against humanity and various war crimes.

Last Meal: a bottle of Carmel (dry red Israeli wine)

Method of Execution: Hanging

5. Timothy McVeigh

He wanted revenge for “what the US government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge” and would orchestrate what was then the worst terrorist attack on US soil. Timothy McVeigh, a decorated Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, killed 168 people and injured hundreds more when he detonated a bomb underneath a federal government building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

McVeigh constructed a homemade explosive device with a timed fuse mounted in the back of a rented truck parked in front. The bomb consisted of about 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate (an agricultural fertilizer) and nitromethane (motor-racing fuel). Among the victims were 19 children attending a daycare center located on the ground floor of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Last Meal: two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream

Method of Execution: Lethal Injection

4. Robert Alton Harris

In the span of only a few hours, Robert Alton Harris and his younger brother stole a car, abducted and murdered two teenage boys, robbed a bank, and were then apprehended by the police. Smith even managed to have lunch, allegedly eating the victims’ half-eaten cheeseburgers. 

The whirlwind crime spree occurred in the San Diego area in the Summer of 1978. During the ordeal, Harris executed both boys, telling them, “Quit crying, and die like men.” In a bizarre twist to the cold-blooded slaying, one of the arresting officers was the father of one of the murdered boys but didn’t realize his son had been killed until later.

Last Meal: 21-piece bucket of KFC, two large pizzas, ice cream, a bag of jelly beans, a six-pack of Pepsi, and a pack of Camel cigarettes (Harris had requested Domino’s Pizza but received Tombstone instead)

Method of Execution: Gas Chamber

3. Peter Kürten

Known as “The Vampire of Düsseldorf,” Peter Kurten committed a series of murders and sexual assaults in Germany before being sentenced to death in 1931. His macabre moniker derived from drinking the blood from his victims’ wounds — both human and animal.  

During Kürten’s sensationalized trial, he was placed in a special cage to prevent escape. The serial killer also candidly recounted his horrifying rituals to the celebrated psychologist Karl Berg, whose opus, The Sadist, became a highly influential study of criminological literature. 

Last Meal: Wiener Schnitzel, fried potatoes, and a bottle of white wine

Method of Execution: Guillotine

2. “Tiny” Davis

Allen Lee Davis weighed over 350 pounds, a morbidly obese condition that gave him the ironic nickname “Tiny.” He was convicted for the brutal murders of Nancy Weiler, who was three months pregnant at the time, and her two young daughters, aged 5 and 10. Davis had been on parole for armed robbery when the attacks occurred.

For his crimes, Davis was strapped to “Old Sparky” and died by electrocution on July 8, 1999. Witness accounts reported that “Tiny” bled profusely from the nose and suffered burns to his head, leg, and groin area. As a result of the botched punishment, Davis remains the last person executed by the electric chair in Florida.

Last Meal: lobster tail, fried potatoes, half-pound of shrimp, six ounces of fried clams, half-loaf of garlic bread, 32-ounce A&W root beer

Method of Execution: Electric Chair 

1. John Wayne Gacy

Among the crowded field of notorious serial killers, John Wayne Gacy ranks as one of the creepiest. The married father of two children frequently performed as a clown at hospitals and charity events and worked as a manager of three Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants before being convicted of murder and sexual assault. 

Between 1972 and 1978, Gacy’s heinous crimes involved at least 33 teenage boys and young men, several of whom he tortured and buried under his Chicago-area home. After spending 14 years on death row, during which time he created several controversial paintings, he was finally put to death at the Stateville Correctional Center in Illinois.

Last Meal: a bucket of original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken, french fries, 12 fried shrimp, and a pound of strawberries

Method of Execution: Lethal Injection