Who hasn’t heard of them: Famous folks who fake their deaths, then live out their lives in secret obscurity? In past decades, much was made of Billy the Kid. No, not the Kid who was killed in 1881 by Pat Garrett in New Mexico, but the Billy who survived and lived to be an old man.
A few years back, similar stories played out in Texas and Oklahoma. These “mysteries” involved Jesse James. Here was yet another case of some crusty old coots at death’s door reaching out to grab a little gusto because fame had passed them by. These desperate men announced to a gullible public that they were the real outlaw; the one buried originally at the James family plot near Kearney, Missouri, and the same which had been identified by his mother, brother and wife, was a fake, they insisted. I vividly recall a photo from the 1950s in which two wide-eyed and suspenseful men (themselves perhaps a part of the scam) were huddled around the bedside of the latest Jesse, just before his departure from this mortal coil. And so it goes.
The most lame hoax of the litter is the bizarre belief that Elvis faked his own death and is still alive somewhere gorging himself on food and pills. Now, one must wonder: Why would the “King of Rock,” a millionaire many times over, voluntarily step down from his hard-won throne, fake his own death, then slip away secretly to live out his remaining years in quiet anonymity mowing his lawn and shoveling snow in Dirtville, Ohio, like the rest of us snooks?
Speaking of the “Sooner State”: The assassin of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, also supposedly staged his own death and quietly passed his time in Enid, Oklahoma. Additionally, many claim that the assassin of the assassin, Boston Corbett, also ended his days in Enid (the EPA had better check the levels of lead in the Enid water supply).
Afterthought: Now, just because the above are too illogical and fantastic to be believed, one should not dismiss out-of-hand the next such tale that comes bounding along. There may be some lesser lights who do indeed successfully stage their own deaths to escape something, be it a bad marriage, a brutal mother-in-law or “tough economic times.” But when nonsensical scenarios like Billy, Jesse or Elvis come along, these are easy to clobber. I suppose some folks back then thought that Abe Lincoln too had rigged his own assassination in Ford’s Theater because he was tired of all the adoring attention he was receiving for being a victorious American President who was worshipped by all the world. Old Abe just couldn’t cope and one day he decided to secretly slip away to Horse Creek, Iowa, where he could feed his chickens and split his rails in peace.
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