Life is fleeting, and the clock ticks for everyone—even the greats of history. Yet some legendary figures manage to leave a mark that reverberates long after they’ve taken their final breath. In this top 10 fascinating roundup we dive into the bizarre, the macabre, and the downright astonishing ways dead icons continued to shape the world. From stolen coffins to brain dissection, each story proves that death isn’t always the end of the adventure.
Why These Top 10 Fascinating Stories Matter
10 Abraham Lincoln foiled the theft of Abraham Lincoln’s body
Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, also harbored a surprisingly nefarious underworld. In 1876 a gang of counterfeiters, led by the audacious “Big Jim” Kennally, concocted a scheme so outlandish it belongs in a caper novel: they plotted to steal Abraham Lincoln’s very coffin from his Springfield tomb and use it as leverage to free their imprisoned engraver, Benjamin Boyd. Their plan hinged on the belief that a president’s remains would be a priceless bargaining chip.
The plot unraveled when Kennally’s crew invited a government informant, Lewis Swegles, to assist in the heist. Swegles, instead of helping, tipped off the authorities. When the crooks attempted to hoist the 500‑pound coffin, a stray police gunshot startled them, and they fled empty‑handed. The ensuing investigation revealed a twist of irony: Swegles reported to the Secret Service—an agency originally created to combat counterfeiting, a cause championed by Lincoln himself. In fact, Lincoln signed the legislation that birthed the Secret Service, meaning the very institution he helped found indirectly thwarted the robbery of his own remains.
9 George Washington nearly lost his head because he didn’t leave Mount Vernon
George Washington’s post‑mortem fate was nearly as dramatic as his battlefield exploits. After his death in 1799, he was interred beside his family at Mount Vernon, exactly as he stipulated in his will. However, the fledgling federal government coveted a grand public memorial in the capital that bore his name, prompting plans to relocate his remains. Martha Washington approved, but congressional inertia stalled the move, leaving the first president to remain in a decaying family vault.
In 1830 a daring grave robber broke into the crypt, intent on pilfering Washington’s skull for unknown motives—some accounts suggest a disgruntled gardener who’d been dismissed by Washington’s heir, John Augustine Washington. The vault, however, was a morass of rotting coffins, and several Washington skeletons lay mingled on the floor. The thief, unable to identify the correct skull, was quickly apprehended. The incident spurred the family to transfer the president’s remains to a newly constructed tomb at Mount Vernon. Yet Congress persisted, still demanding a national tomb. When construction began on the Washington Monument in the Capitol, John Washington refused to surrender the body, leaving the intended Capitol tomb forever empty while Washington’s final resting place stayed at Mount Vernon.
8 A radical philosopher lived out his ideals, even in death
Jeremy Bentham, the English utilitarian whose mantra was “the greatest happiness of the greatest number,” was never one to shy away from controversy. His radical ideas on religion, criminal justice, and even early LGBTQ rights shocked his contemporaries. Yet his ambition didn’t stop at the grave. In his final will, written shortly before his death in 1832, Bentham detailed a peculiar request: his body should be publicly dissected, then preserved as a sort of anatomical curiosity for future generations.
After his death, Bentham’s corpse was indeed dissected, and his skeleton was subsequently mummified—a process he termed “auto‑iconography.” The exact motivation behind this macabre wish remains a mystery, though Bentham imagined his friends gathering around his preserved form for lively debates. Eventually, the remains found a home at University College London, where they are displayed in a glass case, a testament to a thinker who sought to maximize happiness even after his own demise.
7 An Ancient Roman politician made one last public “speech”
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the quintessential Roman orator, spent his life defending the Republic’s traditions against the tide of autocracy. After Julius Caesar’s assassination, Rome descended into chaos, with factions battling for supremacy. Cicero, ever the champion of senatorial authority, launched a series of fiery speeches denouncing Mark Antony and urging a return to Republican values.
Antony, infuriated by Cicero’s relentless attacks, ordered the senator’s assassination. The assassins were instructed not only to behead him but also to sever his hands—symbols of his eloquence and writing. In a grisly display, they nailed Cicero’s severed head and hands to the Senate’s speaker’s podium, turning his final “speech” into a stark warning to any who dared oppose Antony’s ambitions.
6 An exiled Italian poet never returned home
Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language and author of the timeless Divine Comedy, lived a life of exile after political turmoil forced him out of Florence. He died in 1321 in Ravenna, where he was interred. The Florentine authorities, recognizing his literary genius, later attempted to reclaim his remains for a grand homecoming.
In 1519, a papally‑authorized delegation journeyed to Ravenna, intent on exhuming Dante’s corpse and transporting it back to Florence. To their astonishment, the sarcophagus they opened was empty. The friars of the local monastery had secretly hidden his bones, thwarting the city’s plans. The delegation returned empty‑handed, and Dante’s remains stayed in Ravenna.
In 1781, Ravenna erected a magnificent mausoleum to honor its poetic resident, and his body still rests there. Yet Florence never gave up hope; an empty tomb in the Basilica di Santa Croce stands as a waiting chamber, quietly yearning for the poet’s final return.
5 Einstein’s brain continued making contributions to science, even after he died
Albert Einstein, the iconic physicist whose theories reshaped our understanding of the universe, left behind more than just groundbreaking equations. After his death in 1955, his brain was surgically removed during the autopsy, then sliced into numerous sections for scientific scrutiny. The procedure was carried out by Dr. Thomas Harvey, who, without immediate family consent, kept the organ for further study.
Although Einstein’s son, Hans Albert, initially protested, he eventually granted permission for the brain’s use in research. Over the following decades, scientists examined the tissue, publishing papers on its unique folds, neuron density, and other anatomical quirks. Yet many scholars argue that the brain’s structure alone cannot explain Einstein’s extraordinary intellect, leaving the debate alive and well within the scientific community.
4 The creator of Star Trek finally made it to the final frontier
Gene Roddenberry, the visionary behind Star Trek, spent his life dreaming of humanity’s future among the stars. Though he never personally set foot in space, his ashes achieved a celestial journey after his death. In 1992, a portion of his cremated remains rode aboard the space shuttle Columbia, later returning safely to Earth—a symbolic nod to his interstellar aspirations.
Five years later, another fragment of Roddenberry’s ashes was launched into orbit by a private aerospace venture. Unfortunately, the satellite’s orbit decayed, and the craft re‑entered Earth’s atmosphere in 2002, disintegrating upon re‑entry. While his physical remains never stayed among the stars, these post‑mortem flights honored his dream of exploring the final frontier.
3 The corpse of a medieval pope went on trial
Pope Formosus, a 9th‑century pontiff, found that death did not shield him from political intrigue. After serving as a cardinal under Pope John VIII, he fell victim to a bitter dynastic dispute, leading to his excommunication. Though later reinstated and eventually elected pope, his enemies persisted beyond his burial.
His successor, Pope Stephen VI, ordered the corpse to be exhumed, clothed in papal vestments, and placed on a literal trial. Declared guilty, Formosus’s papacy was retroactively nullified, his sacred garments stripped, and his body cast into the Tiber River. Subsequent popes oscillated between condemning and defending Stephen’s macabre act, underscoring the volatile nature of medieval church politics.
2 Christopher Columbus never stopped voyaging around the world
Christopher Columbus, the famed explorer who opened the Atlantic to European eyes, died in Valladolid, Spain, yearning for a burial in the New World. His remains were first interred in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, a fitting tribute to his voyages. However, geopolitical shifts forced multiple relocations: when Spain lost Santo Domingo in 1795, his body moved to Havana, Cuba; a century later, after Spain’s loss of Cuba, his remains were transferred back across the Atlantic to the Cathedral of Seville, Spain.
The mystery deepens in 1877, when workers uncovered a lead box labeled “Colón” in Santo Domingo, containing human bones. DNA analysis later confirmed that the Seville remains are indeed Columbus’s, yet the possibility remains that part of his skeleton stayed in the Caribbean. The notion of a dual burial—one in the Old World, one in the New—adds a poetic twist to his enduring legacy.
1 Captain James Cook was a sacred relic to the people who murdered him
Captain James Cook, the intrepid British navigator who charted vast swaths of the Pacific, met his end in Hawaii under dramatically violent circumstances. Initially welcomed as a deity by the Hawaiian people, the relationship soured after the death of a Hawaiian chief, leading to tensions that culminated in a violent confrontation. During a beach skirmish, Cook was brutally beaten and stabbed to death by the islanders.
In the aftermath, the Hawaiians, still reverent of Cook’s stature, performed a ritualistic removal of his flesh, believing that power resided within his bones. The body was stripped, and after about a week, Cook’s skeleton was handed back to his crew, who subsequently buried it at sea.
Rumors persist that some of Cook’s bones were retained on the islands, revered as sacred relics and possibly even fashioned into weapons. The legend of his skeletal remains continues to intrigue historians and anthropologists alike.
10 People Who Died Ridiculous Deaths
About The Author: Kyle D. Walter is a writer who loves to make his audience laugh, learn, and think. He is the author of the comedic novel, Six Days in the Life of David Vallejo, which can be found here.