Anyone who is considering faking their death needs to plan out how to escape and also create a new identity with a false background. John Stonehouse is a great example of someone who did just that. He is a famous Labor MP who faked his own death in the ocean off Miami Beach in 1974. He left a pile of his clothes on the beach and made it seem as though he had drowned in the water, when in reality he fled the United States with his mistress. This followed the collapse of a series of fraudulent businesses he had established. John’s psychologist stated that he had rehearsed his new identity so frequently that he had actually come to believe that he was the person on his new passport, Joseph Markham, due to a mental lapse. John was later found in Australia with his new passport and was then sentenced to seven years of prison after being found guilty of 18 counts of fraud, deception, and theft.
Face to the Name (Click on pictures for more info)
Fraud isn’t the only reason people would want to fake their death, the famous author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s situation was different. He wanted to flee because he was caught with a large amount of marijuana twice and was sentenced to jail time in 1965. Kesey took a different approach when faking his death than John Stonehouse. Kesey had his friends leave his truck on a Cliffside road, along with an elaborate suicide letter. The note said: “Ocean, ocean, I’ll beat you in the end”. No one could decipher his letter and they assumed that he had a mental breakdown and gave up on himself. Ken Kesey fled to Mexico where he was met by his wife and kids a few months later, but his fantasy life only lasted so long. Kesey returned to the United States eight months later and was arrested and sent to San Mateo jail for only five months. Both of these criminals would have had a smaller jail sentences if they would have admitted to their wrong doings from the beginning instead of fleeing.