32 Deathbed Confessions & Other Events You Didn’t Know About

Peter the Great allegedly wrote a note on his deathbed saying “Leave all to...” He was too exhausted to finish the note before he died of gangrene.

2. Popstar Adam Faith’s final words on his deathbed were “Channel 5 is all sh*t, isn't it? Christ, the crap they put on there. It’s a waste of space.”

3. Bill Wilson, the originator of AA (alcoholics anonymous) asked for whiskey on his deathbed, but the nurse wouldn't give it to him.

4. Christian Spurling, the man who took the most memorable photo of the Loch Ness Monster confessed to it being fake on his deathbed.

5. Robert I King of Scots on his deathbed asked a lieutenant to bring his embalmed heart on a crusade. James Douglas took the heart to join the Spanish reconquista where he died during the Battle of Teba. His flesh was boiled off of his bones and the rest of him was sent back to Scotland with the heart.

While on his death bed, the emperor Vespasian sarcastically remarked " Oh dear, I think I am becoming a God"

7. When Pope Innocent VIII was on his deathbed in 1492, his doctors bled three young boys, killing them, and had the pontiff drink their blood to restore his health.

8. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a true musical genius, composing his first piece at the tender age of five. His final piece, “Requiem”, was composed on his death bed, and he has been decomposing ever since.

9. Lewis and Clark owe their lives not just to Sacagawea, but also to the Nez Perce woman Watkuweis. On her deathbed, Watkuweis convinced her people not to kill Lewis and Clark because she had once been helped by white people whilst making a daring escape from her captors.

10. When billionaire hotelier Conrad Hilton (Paris Hilton’s grandfather) was asked on his deathbed if he had any final words, he said “Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub” and then died.

In the early 1960s, Bob Dylan traveled across the nation while Woody Guthrie lied on his deathbed in order to play “Song to Woody” to Guthrie before his death.

12. Arnold Rothstein established countless rackets and casinos and was one of the richest mobsters during Prohibition. He was shot during a poker game, but on his deathbed, he refused to snitch. He said "You stick to your trade. I'll stick to mine" and "My mother did it."

13. George Washington said "Do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead" on his deathbed because he was afraid he'd be buried alive.

14. On his deathbed, Steve Jobs refused to wear an oxygen mask as he felt it was poorly designed.

15. The Athenaeum in Boston holds the only known copy of the deathbed confessions of a 19th Century Massachusetts highway robber James Allen who ordered those memoirs to be printed, bound in skin taken from his back, and to be presented to the only man who ever stood up to him.

Napoleon III's defeat and surrender at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian War haunted him for the rest of his life. On his deathbed his last words were a question posed to his doctor: “We were not cowards at Sedan, were we?”

17. On his deathbed, French physicist Ampère ordered the inscription on his tombstone to be “Tandem Felix” (Happy at Last).

18. When Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was on his deathbed, an aide came into the room and asked if he was doing better. He answered, “on the contrary” and then died.

19. Private 1st Class Edward H. Ahrens during World War 2 was found clutching a sword surrounded by 13 dead Japanese soldiers. His final words to his commanding officer on his deathbed were “I guess they didn't know I was a marine.”

20. Epicurus, the father of hedonism, died from a painful urinary blockage. On his deathbed, he still declared that he was happy because his "philosophical recollections counterbalances all these afflictions"

Poisoned former KGB spy, Alexander Litvinenko converted to Islam on his deathbed.

22. While on his deathbed, Alexander Graham Bell's wife (Mabel Gardiner Hubbard) begged him not to leave her. Bell's last word was, "No."

23. Evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins has arranged for his final hour of life to be tape-recorded and to have witnesses present (as of March 2021). This is so nobody can say he had a death bed conversion to Christianity out of fear of burning in hell.

24. A man named Hiram Calder on his deathbed was discovered to have been born a woman, making him the first biological female to vote in Florida due to his participation in every election.

25. Not long before his death, Freddie Mercury, confined to his bed, got to see an advance copy of the "Wayne's World" scene with Wayne and Garth headbanging to "Bohemian Rhapsody". He loved it and approved of the song's use in the film. The movie, in part, helped launch Queen's comeback in the USA.