Famous strange willsFamous strange wills

List of 10 the strangest last List of 10 the strangest last

wishes...wishes...

• While most wills are left in order to make certain

that our financial affairs are taken care of after

our death, some people have use them to make

political points, or just for a bit of a laugh. This is a list of 10 of the strangest last

wishes of famous people.

1. VIRGIL1. VIRGIL• Died: 10 BC• Last Wish: Burn the

Aeneid• Virgil is the great

Roman poet best known for his Aeneid (the national poem of Rome)

• Prior to his death he had completed only 12 books (as opposed to the 24 of the epic poems of Homer)

• Because it was incomplete, he left instructions that it has to be destroyed by fire after his death

• When his friends found out, they managed to convince him to remove the request from his will- he agreed and the poem was published to great acclaim

2. WILIAM 2. WILIAM SHAKESPEARESHAKESPEARE

• Died: 1616• Last Wish: That his

wife receive his “second best bed”.

• This last request of Shakespeare has caused much speculation about his relationship with his wife Anne Hathaway

• Leaving a bed to someone was not itself an unusual thing at the time – as a good quality bed with no fleas or vermin was a highly prized – and very expensive – thing

• Adding further to the debate was the epitaph that Shakespeare left on his grave:

“Blest be the man that spares these stones, and cursed by he that moves my bones.” (While some say that Shakespeare meant it to frighten grave robbers, the words were taken so seriously that when his wife died 7 years later, it was not allowed to place her body with his)

Shakespeare’s willShakespeare’s will

25th of March 1616It is signed 3 times

3. CHARLES DICKENS3. CHARLES DICKENS• Died: 1870.• Last Wish: That

mourners “who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such revolting absurdity.”

- He also requested an inexpensive and simple funeral with only three plain “mourning coaches”

• His requests were ignored – on a grand scale! • He was honored with a huge funeral cortege, with

all members present in full funeral regalia. His funeral was a national event. The man who was used to getting what he wanted in life, did not get what he wanted in death.

4. GEORGE BERNARD 4. GEORGE BERNARD SHAWSHAW

• Died: 1950• Last Wish: He ordered

no religious service and that his tombstone not “take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.”

• Shaw was hard on religion and his will included a section that gave his support to “Darwin’s millennial saga of creation” over the Bibles “six day synopsis”. Shaw had always been fascinated with the idea of a reformed English spelling.

• He created a 40 letter phonetic alphabet to make spelling much simpler. As part of his will he left a sizeable portion of his estate to promote the new alphabet – this was overruled by a court as it was “impossible” and the money was distributed to 3 organizations: The British Museum, The National Gallery of Ireland, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

5. BENJAMIN 5. BENJAMIN FRANKLINFRANKLIN

• Died: 1790• Last Wish: That in a

democracy, his daughter not engage in “the expensive, vain and useless pastime of wearing jewels.”

• Benjamin Franklin was one of the most admired men in the Western world in the late 18th century.

• The reason for his odd request was that as former ambassador of France, Franklin was given a portrait of King Louis XVI in a frame with 408 diamonds

• He left this picture and frame to his daughter Sarah with the above condition to prevent her from removing the diamonds from the frame to make jewelry

6. JOHN B: KELLY6. JOHN B: KELLY• Died:1960• Last Wish: That the

clothing bills of his daughter, Princess Grace, not bankrupt the principality of Monaco.

• Kelly was a multimillionaire contractor who was a triple Olympic Gold Medal winner. His daughter (Grace Kelly) married into the royal family of Monaco. His will was his last laugh at the good- humored expense of his family

• Some of the various amusing sections are:

• “To my son John- all my personal belongings, such as trophies, rings, jewelry, watches, clothing and athletic equipment, except the ties, shirts, sweaters and socks, as it seems unnecessary to give him something of which he has already taken possession.”

• He left nothing to his son in law, Prince Rainier of Monaco, stating:

“ I don’t want to give the impression that I am against sons-in-law. If they are the right type, they will provide for themselves and their families, and what I am able to give my daughters will help pay the dress shop bills, which, if they continue as they started out, under the able tutelage of their mother, will be quite considerable.”

7. HARRY HOUDINI7. HARRY HOUDINI• Died: 1926• Last Wish: That his

wife hold an annual seance so he could reveal himself to her.

• Houdini became very interested in spiritualism and seances because of the great loss he felt upon the death of his mother.

• After a number of years trying to communicate with her through spiritualists, he gave up – deciding the whole thing was bunkum

• In order to prove it, Houdini left his wife a secret note with 10 randomly selected words that he would communicate to her after his death- for 10 years his wife held a seance on Halloween; Houdini never appeared

8. NAPOLEON 8. NAPOLEON BONAPARTEBONAPARTE

• Died: 1821• Last Wish: That his

head be shaved and the hair divided up amongst his friends.

• In a strange twist to the tale, a recent analysis of some of the hair that was kept by his friends, it was discovered that it contained large amounts of arsenic

• His symptoms prior to death (vomiting dried blood) is consistent with arsenic poisoning

• There is some speculation that the walls of his room contained arsenic (not uncommon at that time) and that it was his environment that killed him, but others believe that he was being slowly poisoned by the English

9. WILIAM HEARST9. WILIAM HEARST• Last Wish: That

anyone who could prove “that he or she is a child of mine [receive] the sum of one dollar. I hereby declare that any such asserted claim [...] would be utterly false.”

• Hearst was an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher.

• The son of self-made millionaire George Hearst, he became aware that his father received a northern California newspaper, The San Francisco Examiner, as payment of a gambling debt

• He asked his father to give him the paper to run and he eventually built for himself a multi-million dollar empire

• Hearst was the grandfather of Patty Hearst – the heiress who suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.

10. JOHN BOWMAN10. JOHN BOWMAN• Last Wish: That

dinner has to be prepared every night after his death in case he came back to life.

• Bowman’s wife and two daughters had died before him and he became convinced that when he died, his entire family would be reincarnated together

• Driven by this odd belief, he set up a trust worth $50,000 to pay servants to keep up the housework in his 21 room mansion

• He also requested that a daily meal be prepared in case the family returned hungry- the will was honored until the trust ran out of funds in 1950

Last Will Of Michael Joseph JacksonLast Will Of Michael Joseph Jackson

• his mother - guardian of his three offspring

• the will lists three executors

• "contingent remainder beneficiaries"

• Jackson's estate exceeds $500 million

Online willsOnline wills

IntroductionBefore you start you'll need to gather some information. • You'll need the names and addresses of your Executors

and Beneficiaries.• If you have young children you may want to nominate a

Guardian for them.We have set up a number of pre-formatted wills for particular

situations. All you have to do is select the one most appropriate for your circumstances.

Online willsOnline willsI want to ...

Leave everything to my spouse, or if I outlive my spouse, to my kids.

 I want to leave everything to just one person or charity.

 I want to leave everything split equally to my children.

 I want divide up my estate using percentages.

 I want divide up my estate using fractions.

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