Death, there’s no coming back from it… or is there? Turns out a lot of people have faked their own deaths. For some it was a means of avoiding prosecution for a crime, or even real life death. But some people faked their own deaths it was just a bit of fun. For example, there was the Austrian composer Gulda, who in 1999 staged his own death, later reappearing at a concert dedicated to his legacy. He really did die one year later at the age of 69, and predictably, almost no one believed it. That’s the problem with faking your death for fun – you can only do it once.
Jerry Balisok
So if you’re going to do it, you might as well go all the way. And one person who went all the way was Jerry Balisok. Otherwise known as Mr. X, he was a pro wrestler in the American south, and that’s actually the least interesting thing about him. Despite having a large frame, he was primarily a jobber, meaning he was hired to lose matches and make his opponent look good.
It’s a tough way to make a living, and things got even more tough in 1977, when Jerry was involved in a horrific motorcycle accident. Luckily he didn’t die – and as it would turn out, Mr. X wouldn’t die easy. But it did kill his wrestling career, leaving him with a bad hip. So he did what any man would when out of a job, he began forging checks.
It’s the kind of crime you can only do for so long before being found out. Sooner or later, the bad checks lead back to the person who wrote them. So in 1977 Jerry Balisok was indited on 13 counts of fraud – and since he was facing 10 years in prison per count, he decided to go on the run and live as a fugitive. Hard to blame him – life on the run is better than 130 years in jail. But joining him was Deborah Kindred, the married woman Balisok had been having an affair with.
Flight And Survival
So they took her young son, stole her cousins birth certificate, and fled to Puerto Rico. There, he began using the name on the birth certificate, marrying Deborah and scamming his way into employment. They bounced around the Caribbean before returning to mainland America, where he lied his way into an aerospace engineering job with Boeing. But no matter where they went, they knew the FBI would eventually follow. So to get around this, Jerry conceived of a way to con investigators into thinking he was dead.
The opportunity to do so came with an international tragedy. In 1978 almost a thousand people died in what’s known as the Jonestown massacre. Part mass suicide, part mass murder, it unfolded when a cult leader ordered his followers to consume cyanide. Some refused, and were injected against their will. When news of the tragedy broke, images of corpses blanketing the grounds of their compound shocked the world – and it was in these images that Jerry Balisok found hope.
At his suggestion, Balisok’s mother approached the FBI, claiming he and Deborah died in Jonestown. As proof she brought a photo showing two victims who somewhat resembled them. The FBI at first did not believe her – and since the Jonestown corpses were cremated before being identified, there was no proof. But the lengths she went to sold the lie. In the most petty move known to man, she claimed one of said unidentified bodies, buried it as her son Jerry – and on the headstone, had the words “Damn The State Department” inscribed.
Downfall
Several years passed and the FBI began to actually believe Jerry and Deborah might be dead. With no luck in the manhunt, all charges against them were dropped in 1984. Meanwhile, Jerry Balisok had scammed his way into Seattle real estate business, earning a fortune and buying hotels. But he just couldn’t stay out of trouble. In 1988 he was arrested for arson, having burned down his own hotel. In 1989 he was arrested for attempted murder, and in 1990 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Marcus Schrenker
Someone else who faked their own death was Marcus Schrenker, a highly successful financial advisor. In the lead up to the 2008 crash, he was living it large, owning large houses, cars, and his own plane. But when the global economy took a nosedive, he was exposed for being a naughty boy. On top of misappropriating his clients funds, his wife divorced him for having an affair, creating the perfect storm of financial trouble. So like every man in that position, he had two options – either rage out and kill everyone in sight, or fake his own death and move to North Korea. He chose the latter.
Going into 2009, he was facing 8 lawsuits from angry former clients – so one morning he took his plane for a flight. Then, having flown across the border to Alabama, he made a distress call, claiming his windshield had shattered and cut him badly. Before help could arrive though, he put the plane on autopilot and parachuted to safety. Rescue teams eventually found the wreckage, but there was no sign of Schrenker. Yet as even a child could tell you, it’s not that easy to evade justice – otherwise every criminal would just pretend to be dead.
Downfall
For police it was a simple case of tracing his steps up to his flight. Soon they found a motorcycle he’d used to flee the scene – and just 2 days later, found him hiding in a tent, severely dehydrated. In a matter of months he’d gone from being a millionaire to a loser dying in a tent. That same day he was charged with 11 crimes, had his bail set at 4 million dollars – was facing decades in prison, and had former clients trying to get 20 million out of him. So in other words he might as well have stayed in the plane.
William Grothe
Some people even fake their deaths for no apparent reason. They aren’t in legal or personal trouble, and have ordinary, safe lives. It’s like they just wake up one day and decide to do the funniest thing ever. But even among these people, William Grothe stands out. Not only did he fake his own murder, but he actually framed himself for the crime. Until not too long ago he was a respected entertainment lawyer in Nashville – but after getting fired in 2008 he decided to make a change – a big change. On the 19th of November he just up and left, abandoning his car, phone and credit cards in various areas of his neighborhood.
To investigators it was as if he simply vanished into thin air – But when they found out he had a million dollar life insurance policy, it began to make sense. Then one day they received a strange phone call. From an anonymous source, a muffled voice claimed responsibility for the murder of William Grothe. Naturally, they did not believe this – and soon the voice was positively matched to Grothe’s. So murder was off the table. In fact he was hiding in Montana – which, in his defense, is as bad as actually being dead. The most amazing part of the story was his criminal penalty. On finally being arrested, all he got was probation. So not only was him faking his own death pretty pointless, the entire police operation to find him was too.
Others Who Faked Their Own Deaths
And there are many more people who faked their deaths – like the nun Joan of Leeds – who in the early 1300s did so to get out of her vows. Or there was the Spanish spy who faked a heart attack after getting exposed for stealing government funds (Francisco Paesa). But most impressive are the people who got away with it. By definition, it’s impossible for us to know how many living people have successfully faked their own deaths. But that does not mean it’s not an option. Try to remember that. It’s never too late to fake your death.