Pseudocidal Tendancies – 8 People Who Faked Their Own Deaths

Connie Franklin

Connie Franklin, better known as the “Arkansas Ghost” may be one of the only men in history who was called as a witness at his own murder trial. In March of 1929 the Arkansas farmhand disappeared, and despite a local investigation there was no body, motive or evidence beyond a blood stained hat that some claimed was his. Months later Connie’s girlfriend came forward with a sordid and terrible tale of rape, torture and murder, naming four local men as having assaulted her and killed her man as they set out to elope one night. A pit of ashes and charred bones suddenly turned up, and the four men found themselves facing charges of murder.

The case took a twist when people started reporting seeing Connie Franklin after he was supposed to have been tortured and then turned into southern barbeque. Since dead men don’t often go around asking for work, police took a good look around and found the supposedly dead man working as a farm hand not too far from the site of his murder. 8 months after his murder, Connie Franklin was taken into custody by police. Witnesses for the defense swore he was Connie Franklin, while others, including Connie’s sixteen year old sweetheart, swore he wasn’t. The identity crisis grew again when it was determined Connie was actually Marion Franklin Rogers, a married man with 4 kids who had escaped from a state hospital for “Nervous Disorders.”  Without fingerprints, photographs or a CSI crew to wrap up the saga in 55 minutes, the whole circus wound up in court. After a deadlocked jury and $8000 of the taxpayer’s money spent, the final verdict came down, “Not Guilty” for the men charged with the murder of the man who had not one life, but two.