Memories of the 28th Century

I am not considering suicide but trying to do a small favor for people who may be. This came to mind, because Robin Williams hanged himself yesterday. I have never been a fan of Mr. Williams, but I think it is horrible that anyone would die by that method. If you really want to kill yourself, then use a better method; there are many, but some of the alternatives are worse.

The best alternative is to fake your death and disappear. Andy Kaufman may have done that. He was officially dead in 1984, but many people are convinced that he is alive and working as a clerk in a convenience store in Albuquerque, N.M. I didn’t pay close attention to his passing, but I think that the idea is excellent, whether he is alive now or not. That reminds of something that James S. Upton, III told me. When Upton drove a cab in Lowell, Massachusetts, he once had a fare who claimed to be Errol Flynn. Upton reported that Mr. Flynn ordered him to drive to a massage parlor and on the way said that he had faked his death. Upton claimed that the guy looked like one would have expected of Errol Flynn about fifteen years after he had faked his death. I questioned Upton, but he kept to the story, and I will admit that the story is plausible. Flynn was getting old enough that he wasn’t getting good parts, and he had a reputation to live up to. It is a simple matter to set up a bank account in another name, and he could have gotten identify papers in that name; gotten an unclaimed body from a morgue; claimed the body was his, and that was the end of Errol Flynn.

Over the years, a fair number of people have disappeared, and faking one’s death is a good way for well-known people to work it. Ken Kesey faked his death to duck a drug charge, but he didn’t play dead long enough and was arrested when he returned from Mexico a few months later.
And this guy faked his death to see the mourners, and he surely sent coals to Newcastle, and he made money at it, because he did it during a strike. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Dexter

This is a very interesting attempt to flee by faking one’s death. Apparently he was just the slightest bit too casual. He held on to his political offices even after the conviction for fraud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse

Rather than flogging this too far, let us just say that faking one’s death is not impossible, and many people have done it. (See links below) The more I think about it; the more I like the idea. I just wish that I had assets that I could transfer to my new self. For obvious reasons I would not fake my own hanging, but I might think about giving the appearance that I drowned. Like John Stonehouse and his secretary I would move to a distant country, but I would remember to minimize the number of fake names. It is much easier to simply claim that you are one person. And I would avoid doing anything that was likely to attract attention to me.

I have never seen official figures on it, but a large percent of missing persons have simply fled their lives. Whether they adopted new names is unknown, but ones that are never found again must find some way to survive, and that is difficult without a name and a legal existence. Even Dan Cooper of that famous drop is said to have been seen alive since then, but he had a different name. It can’t be easy to stay in the U.S.A. or any other highly organized country, but I for one would stand out, if I moved to the Central African Republic, as one example.

Yes, faking one’s own death is a great deal better than suicide. In fact, it is much better than death by any means at all.


Alleged daughter at Andy Kaufman awards claiming that Andy is alive
http://www.extratv.com/2013/11/14/fa...till-be-alive/
Article about Kaufman’s continued life.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.1352616
Andy’s website
http://andykaufmanreturns.blogspot.com/
On the other hand, he did give the impression of dying.
http://andykaufman.jvlnet.com/final.htm
And Snopes.com thinks he’s dead.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/kaufman.asp
Faked his death
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Da...ppearance_case
An interesting attempt to flee by faking one’s death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse
How to
http://www.wikihow.com/Fake-Your-Own-Death
10 cases, including a woman who attended her own funeral
http://www.oddee.com/item_98303.aspx
Another set
http://listverse.com/2010/11/08/top-...-their-deaths/
D. B. Cooper case solved
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ngerprint.html