a man who confessed to faking his own
death is headed to federal prison
welcome to watch mojo and today we're
counting down our picks for the top 10
times famous people faked their deaths
and got caught think about it
he
falls off a ship by accident
but just a few days before he had
formally said goodbye
to his longtime love for this list we're
looking at the most intriguing cases of
people in the public eye who were
discovered to have staged their own
deaths which of these pseudo-sides do
you think was the sloppiest let us know
in the comments
number 10. patrick mcdermott
born kim chung nam in seoul south korea
patrick mcdermott moved to the united
states after he was adopted by an
american family at the age of two
mcdermott met australian music star
olivia newton-john in the 1990s and the
two struck up a nine-year on-and-off
relationship mcdermott met her during a
shoot he was behind the camera and they
were very close dated
for nine years
before he went
missing on june 30th 2005 mcdermott
boarded a fishing charter boat in
california and was never seen again
after his disappearance garnered
significant press attention many
speculated that it was all staged by
mcdermott to evade paying his debts
mcdermott had recently declared
bankruptcy and faced back child support
payments to his ex-wife csi actress
yvette napar another reason was to
secure a 150 000 life insurance payout
for his son mcdermott was allegedly
found to be living in mexico by private
investigators from nbc's dateline
although his ex-wife has publicly
refuted those findings mcdermott's
ex-wife believes he's dead and has
called the detective a serial liar who
is simply looking to be famous at the
expense of an unfortunate tragedy in our
lives number nine timothy dexter timothy
dexter was an affluent american
businessman who was born into a poor
household in the mid-18th century his
fortune changed when he married
elizabeth rothingham an older richer
widow and was able to invest in several
eccentric business ventures by this
point he was pretty confident in his
speculation skills so he started making
seemingly far-fetched ventures all by
himself dexter shipped bed warmers to
the tropics and exported cats to the
caribbean islands during a rat
infestation although he had amassed a
lot of wealth dexter was still rejected
by new england high society he faked his
funeral to see how many mourners would
show up and surprisingly over 3 000
people did i'm sure if you had a funeral
or memorial service tons of people would
come
exactly it was found to be alarus after
dexter miraculously rose from the dead
to flog his wife for not mourning his
loss enough
number 8 chandra mohan sharma unhappy
with his marriage indian social activist
chandra mohan sharma decided to run away
and start a new life with another woman
chandra mohan allegedly did this because
he was unhappy in his marriage and
wanted to live with a 25 year old woman
to stage his death convincingly sharma
befriended a man experiencing
homelessness in his area and set his own
car on fire with the man inside it he
moved to another city with his new
girlfriend whose family soon reported
her missing a few months later with the
financial burden now weighing him down
sharma called his girlfriend's family
from a public call center and gave them
her location but because he was trapped
for cash he then called the woman's
family who had been reported missing
from three different pcos claiming she
had been found the call was traced by
the police leading to sharma's arrest he
was returned home much to his family's
surprise and sentenced to life
imprisonment for the death of the
unhoused man
he was produced by noida cops at a press
meet where police said he had taken only
he had in fact faked his own death but
also killed a mentally unstable man
number seven marcus shranker in the face
of impending financial and legal doom
investment tycoon marcus schreinker
attempted to fake his death seriously
dad crashed an airplane and
we don't know where he is an
accomplished pilot shranker flew his
private plane himself from an airstrip
in indiana headed for florida at some
point during the flight shranker made a
pretend distress call and parachuted out
of the plane
over alabama he radioed a phony distress
call before parachuting from this plane
that would soon crash in a north florida
swamp after the dispatched military jets
found the planes still flying empty they
knew something was up this triggered a
three-day manhunt for schranker across
multiple states the fleeing financial
fellow was eventually captured on a koa
campground in florida after officials
traced an email he had sent to a friend
the previous night west marshals and
local law enforcement found the
38-year-old shranker huddled inside a
tent at a north florida campground they
caught him cbs news learned after
tracing this email he sent to a friend
number six jerry bialisock jerry
bialisock was a professional wrestler
whose career came to a screeching halt
after he was involved in a ghastly bike
accident he began managing a motorcycle
store where he wrote fraudulent checks
and was indicted by the fbi on multiple
counts of forgery
[Music]
bialostock went on the run just before
his trial began and adopted a new name
he lived for years undetected and
prosecutors dropped the charges against
him after they were convinced he had
died in the 1978 jonestown massacre
jonestown was supposed to be a paradise
in the south american jungle it was
anything but
bielsack could have gone on living
freely under his new identity but his
criminal tendencies never went away in
1989 he was arrested for attempted
murder and his true identity was
discovered the minute he was
fingerprinted number 5. david friedland
in an era rife with political corruption
former new jersey state senator david
friedland still managed to stand out in
1979 the crooked lawmaker was charged
with accepting bribes in exchange for
arranging fraudulent loans from the
teamsters union pension fund friedland
accepted a deal to avoid jail time in
exchange for becoming a government
informant but when it looked like he
might still be going to prison he faked
his death in a scuba diving accident in
the bahamas friedland then traveled the
world and ended up in the maldives where
he kept a high profile as the owner of a
chain of scuba diving shops this
ultimately led to his arrest and
extradition back to the u.s
number 4. arkady babchenko on may 29
2018 ukrainian officials announced that
russian journalist and kremlin critic
atkari babchenko had been shot and
killed in his home in kiev reports of
arkady babchenko's murder dominated the
news in ukraine
babchenko had written critically about
russian foreign policy that can be a
deadly profession under russian
president vladimir putin babchenko had
fled russia a year before and settled in
kiev with his family out of fear for his
life it was reported that his death was
possibly ordered by the russian
government but this was denied by the
country's officials confirming one man
was in custody the head of the ukrainian
security services said they told
babchenko of the threat a month ago when
they discovered a 40 000 bounty on his
head babchenko's death was actually
staged with makeup and pig's blood in an
attempt to foil a real assassination
plot against him and expose a number of
secret agents in ukraine he then made a
dramatic appearance at a press
conference the day after his supposed
death to the absolute shock of everyone
watching
number three ken keezy ken keezy was an
american writer most notable for his
debut 1962 novel one flew over the
cuckoo's nest the book was adapted into
the 1975 film which won all five major
academy awards tell me
do you think there's anything wrong with
your mind really
another thing doc
i'm a goddamn marvel of modern science
keysy formed merry pranksters a
collective that went on long road trips
in a colorful bus and through
psychedelic parties known as acid tests
such media coverage brought news of the
acid tests to the world and the san
francisco scene became a beacon to a
young generation that felt a new
consciousness was needed
it was the birth of the counter culture
after getting arrested for drug
possession kesey faked his own demise by
planting a farewell note in his truck
and parking it by a cliff he ran off to
mexico where he lived for eight months
without being detected on his return to
the u.s kizi was arrested by the police
and sentenced to six months in a
california jail kesey fled to mexico in
the back of a friend's car
only to return to the states eight
months later where he was promptly
apprehended by police number two philip
cessarego in 1991 a royal artillery
soldier named philip cesarego faked his
death by a supposed car bomb in croatia
and began living a new life in belgium
it's believed he did this to avoid
making mandatory payments to his
estranged wife under the pen name tom
carew cesarigo wrote a book titled jihad
the secret war in afghanistan which
became a best-seller after the september
11th attacks we think back to that day
20 years ago that the city and our world
changed forever the book detailed an
account of his experience training
afghan insurgents to fight soviet troops
which was later proven to be entirely
fabricated cesarigo as tom carew granted
multiple tv interviews after 9 11. the
worst case scenario is if we suddenly
decide okay lads we're going to go up in
the mountains for them because that is
what they're expecting and they are
experts in the mountains it was during
one such interview that he was
recognized by his family and his true
identity was revealed before we continue
be sure to subscribe to our channel and
ring the bell to get notified about our
latest videos you have the option to be
notified for occasional videos or all of
them if you're on your phone make sure
you go into your settings and switch on
notifications
number one john stonehouse british mp
john stonehouse was a rising star under
harold wilson's labour party-led
government it's a prison industry and
you've got to remember this you people
who haven't been inside yes must
remember that it's providing employment
for 18
700 men and women facing financial
trouble and suspicions that he was a
czechoslovakian spy stone house decided
to run away and start a new life he
disappeared in november 1974 leaving a
pile of clothes behind on a miami beach
to create the impression that he had met
his end in the water am i fine i thought
he was a czechoslovak agent
while his obituaries were being
published stonehouse had already fled to
australia with his mistress he was
caught just about a month later when he
opened a new bank account and the teller
observed some highly suspicious activity
stone house was deported back to the uk
where surprisingly he continued to serve
as an mp
the full resources of scotland yard
can only produce
charges of this character after all this
time
then i really don't have anything to
worry about did you enjoy this video
check out these other clips from
watchmojo and be sure to subscribe and
ring the bell to be notified about our
latest videos
you