Pseudocidal Tendancies – 8 People Who Faked Their Own Deaths

Samuel Israel III

In 2008 billionaire financial wizard Samuel Israel III had it all, money, a beautiful girlfriend, the anger of the clients he swindled out of millions and an appointment at a federal penitentiary to arrive and begin a 20 year sentence for fraud.  His scheme to cheat his investors out of $450 million dollars had failed, leaving the 48 year old man facing a prison term that would not see him free again until he was collecting an old age pension. Instead of donning the orange jumpsuit of a convict, Samuel decided it was time to fake his death and go into hiding. Only hours before he was expected to begin his sentence, he parked his SUV on a bridge outside New York, scrawled “Suicide is Painless” onto the dust of his hood, and disappeared. Not the brightest of crooks, Samuel had chosen a bridge well covered with video cameras, and not one of them showed him plunging to his death. A massive investigation ensued, with Police searching the Hudson River while United States Marshals, the F.B.I and the U.S attrney’s office all joined forces.

Life on the run didn’t suit Samuel though, and after a month of hiding in an RV park in Massachusetts and living off what he could buy from the campground store, he turned himself in. He and his girlfriend had planned the fake suicide and organized the motorhome he was living in. While he is serving out his time plus two more years for what the judge referred to as “one of the stupidest crimes out there.” his girlfriend Debra was convicted for her part in the whole scheme.