Pseudocide is an American term for a serious (rather than joke) attempt to fake one's own death. It is usually carried out by people who want to escape legal, financial or marital difficulties and start a new life elsewhere, but may also be carried out for financial gain. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Pseudocides often consist of fake drownings, presumably because this explains the absence of a dead body. An uncredited study given passing mention in the UK press rather unbelievably makes claim that as many as 26% of "suicides" from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in which no body was found, were conceivably pseudocides.[1] Yet the lack of reference to the authorship or location of this study makes such a citation useless at best in establishing the prominence of this practice. The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. ...

There are several books about how to commit pseudocide, including Get Lost!, How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, How to Create a New Identity, and The Heavy Duty New Identity.[2]

Notable pseudocides include:

• John Stonehouse, a British politician who faked his own suicide by drowning in order to escape financial difficulties and live with his mistress. He was discovered in Australia - where police initially thought he might be Lord Lucan - and jailed.
• Graham Cardwell, a Lincolnshire dockmaster who disappeared in September 1998 and was assumed drowned. Eight months later he was discovered living in secret in the West Midlands. He claimed he had thought he was suffering from cancer (though had not sought medical attention) and wanted to spare his family the trauma of it. He was not prosecuted.
• Alan Kirk Wolford, an American funeral home director who forged his own death certificate in order to evade significant debts.^[1]
• Steven Chin Leung, who faked his death in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in order to evade a charge of passport fraud.^[2]
• Dorothy Johnson, an American woman who allegedly faked her death in the September 11 attacks in order to collect on insurance claims allegedly filed by her daughter, Twila McKee. Johnson and McKee were charged in 2003 with insurance fraud.^[3]
• Ken Kesey, an American author who in 1966 faked his death and fled to Mexico in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid imprisonment on marijuana charges.^[4]

Link title===Fictional cases include:=== Private Eyes take on the matter John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 1925 - 14 April 1988) was a British politician and minister under Harold Wilson. ... For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation). ... Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (born 18 December 1934) was or is a British peer who disappeared on 8 November 1974 after his childrens nanny was found murdered. ... Graham Cardwell (b. ... Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... The West Midlands is an official Region of England, covering the western half of the Midlands. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced nine eleven or nine one one) consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist[1] suicide attacks upon the United States, predominantly... Insurance, in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. ... Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a counter-cultural figure who, some consider, was a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. ...

• Den Watts, from Eastenders faked his owned death by jumping in the canal and getting the corpse of Vinnicombe to resemble him.
• Reginald Perrin, a character from the 1970s British book and sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, who tries various increasingly eccentric ways of changing his mundane life.
• In the Family Guy episode, I Take Thee Quagmire, Peter, Joe, and Cleveland try to help Glenn Quagmire escape from a clingy woman by faking his death, which doesn't work too well.
• Mr Polly, a character from the comic novel The History of Mr. Polly by H.G. Wells.
• The title character of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• Grampa in the play "You Can't Take It With You"
• The main character of 24, Jack Bauer
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson fakes his death by tossing a dummy of himself over a waterfall; this sets the whole episode's plot in motion. Another episode had Krusty the Clown faking his death to escape an IRS investigation.
• Josh Swensen/Larry from the book The Gospel According To Larry fakes his own death to avoid media attention.
• Ben Finney, in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Court Martial," whose fake death leads to the murder trial of Captain Kirk.
• James Bond, main character in the James Bond film series, fakes his death in the film 'You Only Live Twice'. He does this in order to fall off the radar and investigate a criminal organization being led by supervillain Ernst Blofeld
• Alex Meade of Ugly Betty faked his death in a skiing accident to undergo a sex change.
• MiNa Nam of What I Did for Love faked her death by drowning in order to find her love, Jin Woo.
• Joan Porter, protagonist of the novel Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood.
• Harry Potter,in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry dies then comes back but pretends to still be dead by keeping his eyes closed to help defeat Lord Voldemort.

Dennis Den Watts was a fictional character in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by actor Leslie Grantham. ... EastEnders is a popular BBC television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 on 19 February 1985[4] and continuing to date. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ... The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. ... Family Guy is an Emmy award winning American animated television series about a nuclear family in the fictional town of Quahog (IPA or ), Rhode Island. ... “I Take Thee Quagmire” is an episode from the fourth season of FOX animated television series Family Guy. ... Glenn Quagmire (sometimes spelled Glen) is a character on the animated series, Family Guy, best known for his sexual deviancy. ... The History of Mr. ... H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ... Mark Twain Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) by Mark Twain is commonly accounted as one of the first Great American Novels. ... For other uses, see 24 (disambiguation). ... Jack Bauer is the fictional protagonist of the American television series 24, in which he has trained and worked in various capacities as a government agent, including US Army Delta Force, LAPD SWAT, and finally the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Los Angeles. ... Mother Simpson is the eighth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ... Simpsons redirects here. ... Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons voiced by Dan Castellaneta. ... Bart the Fink is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. ... Herschel Pinkus Yerucham Krustofski (‎, born c. ... Seal of the Internal Revenue Service Tax rates around the world Tax revenue as % of GDP Part of the Taxation series        “IRS” redirects here. ... The Gospel According to Larry is a comedic political fictional novel by Janet Tashjian. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... Court Martial is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ... James Tiberius Kirk, played by William Shatner, is the main character in the original Star Trek television series and the films based on it. ... Flemings image of James Bond; commissioned to aid the Daily Express comic strip artists. ... You Only Live Twice is the twelfth novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series. ... Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character in the James Bond universe. ... Information Gender Female, Male Age 38 Occupation Former editor of Hudson magazine Title Editor-in-chief of MODE magazine Family Bradford Meade (father) Claire Meade (mother) Daniel Meade (brother) Portrayed by Elizabeth Penn Payne (As The Mystery Woman) Rebecca Romijn Created by Silvio Horta Alexis Meade (born Alexander Spencer Meade... Ugly Betty is a American television comedy-drama series starring America Ferrera, Rebecca Romijn, Vanessa Williams, and Eric Mabius. ... A clownfish Sex change in animals Some species are known to change sex, including reproductive functions, in special circumstances, such as the clownfish. ... Lady Oracle cover Lady Oracle is a 1976 novel by Margaret Atwood. ... Margaret Eleanor Atwood, OC (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian writer. ... This article is about the Harry Potter series of novels. ... “HP7” redirects here. ...

References

1. ^ Colorado Springs Gazette article on Alan Wolford
2. ^ BBC story on Steven Leung
3. ^ WBAY story on the McKee case
4. ^ The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe

• Pseudocide: Doing a Reggie Perrin from BBC News