Death can reveal the most bizarre secrets. Join us as we explore shocking discoveries that only came to light after someone passed away, uncovering mysteries, hidden truths, and dark stories that remained buried until their final moments.
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00:00I've been advised to stand and let you take a photograph and then go away.
00:04And I'm sure you've had enough time to take a decent photograph.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at strange secrets uncovered as a result of an untimely death.
00:13I see things. I know, baby.
00:18Salvador Dali's potential children.
00:20Well, of course, we'll never know what Dali himself might have thought of this bizarre surrealist, you could say, court order.
00:29Salvador Dali, one of the world's most famous surreal artists, was the subject of an eight-month legal saga decades after his death.
00:36A Spanish tarot card reader named Pilar Abel claims to be his illegitimate daughter.
00:41Her paternity suit caused the painter's remains to be exhumed from his tomb in Catalonia.
00:46The man who was married with no kids now has a woman claiming she's his daughter.
00:51A Madrid court even ordering Dali's remains be exhumed for DNA testing.
00:56Dali was buried in a tomb located in a museum dedicated to his life and work.
01:01Oddly enough, the embalmer reported that Dali's famous mustache remained intact even after 30 years.
01:07A successful test would have netted Abel around one-fourth of the painter's sizable estate.
01:12Unfortunately, fingernail samples provided DNA, which ultimately disproved her claims.
01:18I want this exhumation to tell me who I am, she told Spanish TV, and to bring satisfaction at last to my mother.
01:25Joyce Vincent, dead for years.
01:28Then a couple of days later there was stuff on the internet like, must have been one miserable cow, deserved the domestic abuse, stuff like that.
01:35And I thought, is this her legacy that she becomes kind of urban myth?
01:38Joyce Carol Vincent was living in a small London apartment in 2003.
01:42She lived a solitary life, isolating herself from friends and family.
01:46She'd quit a promising career in finance to work odd jobs like cleaning a budget motel.
01:51She'd had some health issues and stayed for a long time in a women's shelter.
01:55After some Christmas shopping, Joyce died in her apartment, likely from an asthma attack or an ulcer.
02:01And I think my personal take on it is that she, you know, was in a situation she possibly didn't want people to know she was in.
02:10Her rent and bills were on auto pay, partially covered by benefits.
02:15As a result, her body sat in front of her running television for nearly three years before being discovered.
02:21Her tragic life and death were early reflections of a 21st century rife with isolation and loneliness.
02:27Flickering images of entertainment that reach out.
02:30A lot of isolated and lonely people watch the television to feel like they're connecting to the world.
02:36So I did find it incredibly poignant image.
02:38Albert Einstein's brain.
02:40He wanted to find out what made Albert Einstein tick.
02:45Albert Einstein's brain underwent a bizarre journey after his death in 1955.
02:50Hours after his passing, Dr. Thomas Harvey removed and dissected the brain into 240 pieces.
02:57His goal? To uncover the secrets of Einstein's genius.
03:00Preserved in jars and distributed to researchers, these fragments traveled across the U.S. for decades.
03:07Once Thomas Harvey had the brain, he didn't let it out of his sight.
03:13He left his position as chief of pathology at Princeton Hospital.
03:18And he headed out to the Midwest.
03:20Some segments were lost. Others were put on display.
03:24The dissection and fragmented storage of Einstein's brain have drawn more attention for their macabre handling.
03:30His remains morphed into a surreal relic of scientific curiosity.
03:34There are even rumors of Princeton students shaking off the formaldehyde from a piece they retained and pouring it into tequila shots as a hazing ritual.
03:43But there's a fine line between science and grave robbing.
03:49The secret room of Howard Elkins.
03:51When he broke the seal, Cohen was overcome by a terrible stench.
03:57Inside, he saw what appeared to be a human hand.
04:03Howard B. Elkins was a Long Island resident and owner of a small plastics company.
04:07Nearly three decades after moving to Florida with his family, his former home was the site of a shocking discovery in 1999.
04:14A 55-gallon drum was found in the crawlspace.
04:18It contained the mummified remains of Reina Marroquin, a Salvadorian immigrant who vanished in 1969 while pregnant.
04:26Marroquin had been having an affair with Elkins.
04:29She was allegedly killed after revealing the relationship to his wife.
04:32Investigators believe that Howard Elkins lured Reina to the factory one night shortly after she told Elkins' wife about their affair and Elkins beat her to death.
04:44DNA confirmed Elkins as the father.
04:47When confronted by police, Elkins took his own life.
04:50Investigators believe he hid Marroquin's body in the drum.
04:54The weight made it difficult to dispose of, so he hid it instead.
04:58The most recent owner said it had been in the crawlspace since the day he moved in, in 1990.
05:05The owner before that told police the same thing and said it never occurred to him to open the container since there were chemical labels on the side.
05:15Gauguin and the truth about Van Gogh's ear.
05:18But during his time here, he would also suffer a cataclysmic breakdown, culminating in an act of bloody self-mutilation.
05:28As he approached the end of his life, Paul Gauguin compiled his journals, hoping they would be published after his death.
05:34In 1921, the painter's wishes were fulfilled.
05:37The world was introduced to a shocking truth, the reason why Vincent Van Gogh cut off his own ear.
05:42Every time I would ever bring friends or family to Arles, the first thing they would always know about Vincent Van Gogh was, he was the man who cut off his ear.
05:50In 1888, Van Gogh invited Gauguin to Arles, hoping to create an art colony.
05:56Van Gogh idolized Gauguin, calling him master, but their clashing temperaments fueled tensions.
06:02One night, in the grip of mental turmoil, Van Gogh nearly attacked Gauguin with a razor.
06:07He fled in shame.
06:09The next day, he learned that Van Gogh had turned the razor on himself, likely out of guilt.
06:14Vincent was stressed and worried that Gauguin may leave, thoughts that may have pushed him over the edge.
06:21Add in Vincent's heavy drinking and his nervous character, and you start to get an idea of what might have caused the incident.
06:30Nikola Tesla's Death Ray
06:32The concept of Iron Beam is that it's essentially a high-energy laser that is designed to rapidly heat up the target that it's aimed at.
06:41After losing the War of the Currents to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla's star waned.
06:46In the last decades of his life, though, Tesla remained in the spotlight by hyping a superweapon, his Death Ray.
06:53He claimed it could shoot down planes from 250 miles away, but never provided proof.
06:59This is exactly the kind of technology that Tesla was talking about in the 1920s and 30s,
07:06of using these beam weapons to shoot down missiles and projectiles.
07:11His former homeland, Yugoslavia, was desperate to arm themselves with a device to protect themselves from Nazi invasion.
07:17After his death in 1943, U.S. officials rushed to confiscate his papers, fearing Nazi or Soviet acquisition.
07:25On review, government physicists deemed the ray a fantasy.
07:29Paranoia yet lingered, fueling Cold War beam weapon projects.
07:33Tesla's confiscated documents remained classified for decades.
07:37Many were eventually lost or destroyed, leaving lingering questions about his superweapon.
07:42Might Iron Beam be proof that plans for the Death Ray not only existed, but also may have even been confiscated and carried out by the United States government?
07:53The death of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes.
07:56How did he look? Did he look very bad?
08:00In my opinion, yes.
08:02When billionaire recluse Howard Hughes died in 1976, his home revealed the extent of his bizarre final years.
08:09Living in near total isolation, Hughes had turned his surroundings into a chaotic time capsule.
08:15Jars of his own urine, piles of rotting food, and meticulously labeled tissue boxes for makeshift footwear.
08:23Once a dashing aviator and Hollywood tycoon, he spent his last years battling severe paranoia, addiction to painkillers, and untreated OCD.
08:33Now, let's get a drink.
08:35Wait, wait, wait, honey. You can't move. You can't move. You're safe here. You're in the germ-free zone now. You understand?
08:42I'll take my chances.
08:44The strangeness didn't end there. Hughes left no clear will, sparking a fierce legal war over his massive estate.
08:51Fake wills emerged, including one leaving his fortune to a random gas station owner, and another leaving it to the Mormon church.
08:58The court battles dragged on for years, with hundreds fighting over his fortune.
09:02Run real ten again. I think we're duplicating the shot here. And tell Jimmy I want ten chocolate chip cookies.
09:08Alright? Medium chips, none too close to the outside. Got it?
09:12The extent of Harold Shipman's crimes.
09:15There's no question. He did nothing. He did nothing.
09:19If no one else would say any different, I can tell you that now.
09:23The horrifying extent of Dr. Harold Shipman's crimes came to light only after he died in 2004.
09:29Dubbed Dr. Death, Shipman had been convicted in 2000 for murdering 15 of his patients.
09:35The Greater Manchester GP, Dr. Harold Shipman, has been charged with another seven murders.
09:40Dr. Shipman is already accused of killing eight patients, and he'll face one of the largest murder trials in British history.
09:46Shipman exploited the trust of his elderly patients, administering lethal doses of painkillers and falsifying death certificates to cover his tracks.
09:54After he took his own life in prison, a public inquiry ensued.
09:58The inquiry revealed that Shipman likely killed over 200 of his patients throughout a 30-year career.
10:04Later estimates had the number even higher, making him one of history's most prolific serial killers.
10:10If you want to become a serial killer, become a doctor, because nobody will stop you, and nobody did.
10:15Francisco Goya's Black Paintings
10:18But then he got dark, dude. He got into some scary stuff.
10:22Unlike so many of the greats, Francisco Goya was celebrated in his time.
10:26He was a romanticist, known for his vibrant portraits and idyllic depictions of Spanish life.
10:32He earned fame as a court painter to royalty.
10:34After his death in 1828, a far darker side of the artist emerged.
10:40Hidden in his home, plastered directly onto the walls, were his infamous Black Paintings.
10:45This series of grim, nightmarish works featured macabre imagery like Saturn devouring his son.
10:51The Spanish master had clearly descended into despair, likely influenced by illness, war and isolation.
10:57Unlike his commissioned masterpieces, these were intensely private paintings, never meant for public consumption.
11:03The paintings were transferred to canvas decades later, and are today some of his most famous works.
11:09He did Saturn devouring his son.
11:12Well, I think that's what's happening right there.
11:14That's not the real one.
11:15It's a different one?
11:16Yeah, that's the one.
11:17Oh, God! Oh my God!
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11:37The deadly horde of Jeffrey Lash.
11:39Private investigator Scott Ross trying to unlock a mystery.
11:45Why would one man...
11:47$495 price tag.
11:49...have weapons like this?
11:51Jeffrey Allen Lash was known as a wealthy and eccentric fellow to those who knew him.
11:56He claimed to be a secret agent under constant surveillance.
11:59He had a fleet of a dozen cars, one of which he claimed was bulletproof.
12:03After being diagnosed with cancer, Lash convinced his fiancée that it was caused by chemical weapons exposure.
12:10His death revealed the true extent of his paranoia.
12:13It's just one box, and there are hundreds, hundreds, hundreds.
12:19Lash left behind an arsenal of 1,200 firearms and literal tons of ammunition and explosives.
12:27None of it was illegal, and most of it wasn't even touched after purchase.
12:31Half the neighborhood needed to be evacuated to safely remove unstable chemicals and ammunition.
12:37The bigger concern for them, Anderson, is this is a fire zone.
12:41All of California is. Imagine if there had been a fire with 6.5 tons of ammunition inside this home.
12:47Which discovery haunts you the most? Let us know in the comments below.
12:51Oh my God, that is so creepy! I know!
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