Passing Post

Galileo famously deduced that the earth went round the sun rather than vice versa – and was put under house arrest by the Catholic church as a result of this outrageous heresy. 95 years after his death, his middle finger was removed and is now on display in a glass case in the Florence History of

The Spanish conquistadors famously had a thirst for gold from The Americas. In the 16th Century, returning conquistadors horrified Spain with reports of their captured companions being tied up and having molten gold poured down their throats (shown here in an engraving by Theodor de Bry) with the word “Eat, eat gold, Christian!” After the

Was it the lead piping in the billiard room or the candle stick in the library? No, it was the stone frog in the garden  Leigh Ann Sabine murdered her husband by inflicting (to quote the police) “blunt force head trauma” with a stone frog. She then wrapped his corpse in 41 layers of plastic

Human remains are mostly carried on cargo flights  Generally, if the deceased has been embalmed, an ‘air tray’ is used to protect and conceal the coffin. This is not actually a tray, but an outer container that meets the airline’s regulations. If the body has not been embalmed – or has died of a contagious

The average time prisoners spend on Death Row in the US is 15 years. A quarter of them die of natural causes while awaiting executionThe current record is held by jointly held by Thomas Knight (executed after 39 years on death row) and Gary Alvord (died of a brain tumour after 39 years on death

Prince Philip’s will may never be published. The law to seal Royal wills was devised after the amorous gambler Prince Francis – brother of Queen Mary – died in 1910 and left valuable Royal emeralds to a society beauty he had been dating. The Queen applied for his will to be sealed – and it

Fancy becoming a vinyl record after you die? A Scarborough company will press a teaspoon of your ashes into a vinyl record as a memorial to your loved one. You can record audio from your loved one or whatever you like🎧 Frank💀 wants “𝑩𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒂 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝟒𝟓” by Cornershop… any other recommendations? #bemorefrank

He made $100m and Jonny Depp played him in a film. George Jung (📸by Nish) was a famous cocaine smuggler who died this year aged 78. He started selling a portion of the marijuana he used himself to break even. Within a few years, he was making $1.7m a month flying cocaine from Mexico in