Mental Floss

DEATH

Basilica of St. John Lateran, where the Cadaver Synod was held

It's been called "one of the grisliest events in papal history"—for good reason.

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Fearing attacks on his corpse, the Secret Service guarded Lee Harvey Oswald well into the afterlife.

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Among those who don't believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing JFK, the same names keep popping up.

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Dickens believed humans could spontaneously combust—and he had Cornelia di Bandi's death as proof.

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Apple pie, anyone?

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A lot of people say it's illegal to die in the world's most northerly town. Incidentally, a lot of people are wrong.

Abraham Lincoln's top hat, worn the night of his assassination

Here's where to see the top hat Abraham Lincoln wore on his final night, and more.

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Dealing with death all day isn't as depressing as you might think.

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The Haunted Mansion is the most common final resting place, according to employees.

The facades of Le Ciel and L'Enfer Cabarets in Montmartre, Paris

Get your cholera-themed beverages right here!

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It started with the plague, but it's no longer accurate.

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The graceful game was responsible for enough royal deaths to make an executioner jealous.

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As if cemeteries weren't spooky enough.

Melissa Moore as a girl with her father, Keith Hunter Jesperson

Melissa Moore wondered—could she share a trace of her father's evil?

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A shocking number of sloths die while trying to poop—but not for the reason you might think.

A drawing of dancing at Enon Chapel from George Walker's "Lectures on the metropolitan grave-yards"

Enon Chapel was separated from its burial pit by just a thin layer of creaky floorboards.

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If you really want to be remembered, it's best to die on a Friday.

The grave of the Somerton Man in Adelaide, South Australia

The victim's identity is just one of the story's many mysteries.

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Sometimes it can create "soapy" corpses.

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Better late than never.