Real deaths.
No fictional filler.

A growing selection from the historical record: famous people, lesser-known lives, different countries and different centuries.

What earns a case file?

• A documented real death and an unusual, avoidable or baffling chain of decisions.
• A clear death date and location, with uncertainty labelled when records disagree.
• Original writing with credible linked sources, rather than copied articles.
• Background, the event, the consequence and a short quiz.

What stays out?

Invented stories, invented quotations, unsupported legends passed off as fact, graphic death imagery and sensational claims unsupported by the record. A public-domain portrait can illustrate a person; an original illustration is labelled as artwork.

Humour with context

The title is deliberately blunt, but the people were real. Our interest is in the decisions and historical circumstances. Fame is not a requirement, and we do not assume that an unusual death makes someone unintelligent.