The Morbidly Fascinating Page
This Month's Subject:
Famous Deaths
FROM THE MORBID ARCHIVES:
Dissections
Early Fake Ghost Photos
Bone Church
Black Dahlia
Permanent Halloween Costumes
Dr. Ochi
Victorian Post-Mortem Photography
Flesh-Eating Bacteria
All of the details about the photographs below are listed on the right side of this webpage.
1. Marilyn Monroe
2. David Carradine
Photo released by Bankok newspaper
After the autopsy
3. Bob Crane
4. President John F. Kennedy
5. Lee Harvey Oswald
6. Two victims of the Charles Manson Family murderers
Abigail Folger
Sharon Tate (8 month's pregnant with Roman Polanski's child)
Murderer Susan Atkins of the Manson Family died of brain cancer on September 24, 2009, at the Central California Women's facility in Chowchilla.
Photo of Susan Atkins at the time of the Manson murders:
Photo (below) taken in bed right before Susan Atkins died in 2009.
6. Elvis Presley
7. Ted Bundy
8. Jesse James
Photo information in order of appearance on this webpage:
1. Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was found dead in the bedroom of her Brentwood home by her psychoanalyst Ralph S. Greenson after he was called by Monroe's live-in housekeeper Eunice Murray on August 5, 1962. She was 36 years old at the time of her death.
Her death was ruled to be "acute barbituate poisoning" by Dr. Thomas Noguchi of the Los Angeles County Coroners office and listed as "probable suicide."
The death of Marilyn Monroe is one of the most debated conspiracy theories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries because some believe she was murdered.
More about Marilyn HERE.
2. David Carradine
David Carradine is best-known for his role in the 1970s TV series Kung Fu.
On June 4, 2009, David Carradine was found dead in his room at the Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel on Wireless Road, near Sukhumvit Road, in central Bangkok, Thailand. He was in Bangkok to shoot his latest film, Stretch. A police official said Carradine was found hanging by a rope naked in the room's closet, causing immediate speculation that his death was suicide. However, reported evidence suggested that his death was the result of autoerotic asphyxiation. Two autopsies were conducted and concluded that the death was not caused by suicide. The cause of death became widely accepted as "accidental asphyxiation."
Immediately following his death, two of his former wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson, stated publicly that his sexual interests included the practice of self-bondage.
3. Bob Crane
During the run of Hogan's Heroes, sitcom costar Richard Dawson introduced Crane (a photography enthusiast) to John Henry Carpenter (NOT the Carpenter who directed Halloween 1) who was of the video department at Sony Electronics and who could acquire early video cassette recorder/VCRs.
On the night of June 28, 1978, Crane is alleged to have called Carpenter to tell him that their friendship was over. The following day, Crane was discovered bludgeoned to death with a weapon that was never found (but was believed to be a camera tripod) at the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona.
John Henry Carpenter went to trial for murder almost twenty years after Crane's death but was acquitted in 1994 for lack of evidence.
You can see a letter from Crane's wife to the New York Times in which she disputes rumors HERE.
4. John F. Kennedy
On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was mortally wounded while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. His apparent assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby before standing trial. The Warren Commission was called to investigate Kennedy's death and found that Oswald had acted alone to kill Kennedy. Many argued, however, that there was more than one gunman, a theory upheld by a 1979 House Committee investigation. The FBI and a 1982 study disagreed. Speculation continues to this day.
Arguments for and against the consipiracy theories can be found HERE.
5. Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (born Oct. 18, 1939, New Orleans, La., U.S.—died Nov. 24, 1963, Dallas, Texas) is the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. He himself was fatally shot two days later by Jack Ruby (1911–67) in the Dallas County Jail.
You can see video clips HERE.
6. The Charles Manson Family Murders
Abigail Folger and Sharon Tate were two of the victims of the famous Charles Manson cult murders. Shortly after midnight on August 9, 1969, the Charles-Manson-instructed Family members Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Linda Kasabian, and "Tex" Watson pulled up in front of the Bel Air residence of actress Sharon Tate (wife of director Roman Polanski), who was famous at that time for her recent role in the movie Valley of the Dolls. In all, four victims were murdered that night, including Sharon Tate and her coffee-heiress friend Abigail Folger.
Details of that night can be found HERE.
7. Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley died at his home Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee on August 16 , 1977. He was found on the floor of his bedroom's bathroom ensuite by girlfriend Ginger Alden who had been asleep in his bed. He was transported to Baptist Memorial Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead at 3.30pm. He was only 42 years old.
The autopsy report can be found HERE.
8. Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was the notorious serial killer of countless women in many states. He refused to accept his guilty verdict and his knowledge of the law enabled him to be granted many stays of executions. Bundy’s delaying tactics finally came to an end on 24 January 1989, and he was executed at 7 am, taking the secret of his actual victim count with him. His body was cremated and his ashes were spread over the same Washington State mountain area that had served as his favorite dumping ground for the bodies of his victims.
You can read Bundy's biography HERE.
9. Jesse James
Jesse James had married his own first cousin, named Zerelda after his mother, after a nine-year courtship. They had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary. She and Frank James' wife tried to get the brothers to take on a more normal life, and with a $10,000 reward on his head, Jesse and his wife moved to Saint Joseph, Missouri to hide out, where he lived under the assumed name of Tom Howard and rented a house for $14 a month.
In April 1882, Jesse James recruited Robert and Charles Ford to help him rob the Platte City bank. While James stood on a chair in his home in St. Joseph to straighten and dust a picture, the Ford brothers drew their guns. Robert Ford's shot hit James in the back of the head, ending his outlaw days for good. Ford hoped to claim the $10,000 offered for James's capture but received only a fraction of the reward and was charged with murder. Ford did, however, secure himself a place in Western outlaw lore which lives on in literature, song, and film.
James' epitaph, selected by his mother, read: IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY BELOVED SON, MURDERED BY A TRAITOR AND COWARD WHOSE NAME IS NOT WORTHY TO APPEAR HERE.
Information about Jesse James can be found HERE and HERE