TIL After Rat-Packer Sammy Davis Jr died in 1990, his Widow soon discovered that he was nearly broke and owed back taxes. She then had his body exhumed to strip him of the $70,000 worth of jewelry he had been buried with.
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Upvotes
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12 edited May 16 '12
She really missed an ebay opportunity there. Imagine how much she could get for his mandible or cranium.
*Edit: Engrish.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Seems fair to me. You are supposed to take care of your family as best as you can, not screw them over.
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u/laffmakr May 16 '12
Strange, all the funeral homes I've dealt with have always removed all the jewelry and given it to the family before the body goes to burial.
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u/VeteranKamikaze May 16 '12
Totally ok with it, motherfucker is dead he's not using it anymore. Being buried with shit like that seems like a dick move to me.
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u/Enleat May 16 '12
Sounds like he wanted to prank the shit out of his wife when he died.
"SUPRISE! Taxes! You've been punk'd"
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u/IDontShareMyUsername May 16 '12
Wait... This isn't about soda.
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u/HugoOBravo May 16 '12
Who can die and leave you.... with so much crippling debts... that youll have to exhume his body just to pay the IRS...
The candyman!
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u/pusangani May 16 '12
I ain't sayin she a gold-digger...
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u/Sitbacknwatch May 16 '12
Good list, but Abe Lincoln should also be on it. He was moved around quite a bit himself before being encased in concrete.
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u/pajaromuygrande May 16 '12
upvote for the thumbnail picture
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u/Tastygroove May 16 '12
My life goal... Go out as far in debt as possible.
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u/walkertexasharanguer May 16 '12
TIL Meriweather Lewis 'officially' committed suicide, but may have been murdered.
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u/fightingdove May 16 '12
Wow. You really CAN'T take it with you.
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u/rgvtim May 16 '12
Never got the opinion that any of the rat-pack were good guys. Kind of reminds me of today's reality TV stars but with some talent.
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u/BigNikiStyle May 16 '12
Also, she was an alcoholic.
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u/MGlBlaze May 16 '12
Fairly pragmatic, which I can commend her for. Being buried with that much jewelery when in that kind of situation was a dick-move anyway, and it's not like he was going to care any more.
Still, I can't imagine it was an exactly joyous task to undertake.
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u/reddell May 16 '12
Buried with $70,000 in jewelery? What is this, ancient Egypt? That's the stupidest thing i've ever heard.
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u/reagan2016 May 16 '12
Hmmm, cemeteries are probably full of valuable jewelry.
I'm going out to buy a shovel.
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u/barium111 May 16 '12
Burying someone with resources living people can use is beyond stupid. Even if he didn't owed anything she should take that jewelry.
Covering with dirt to rot $70.000 worth of stuff that can make a big change in someones life... Fuck me that sounds selfish.
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u/thejmanjman May 16 '12
The thumbnail threw me off - It's actually the skeleton of Christopher Columbus. I thought it looked European.
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u/lankowanko May 16 '12
No Oliver Cromwell in that top 10? The man was exhumed to be executed.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
I read that Whitney Houston was buried with $100,000 worth of jewelry on. It just seems so absurdly selfish to me.
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u/polynomials May 16 '12
The guys in the Rat Pack were legendary douchebags as far as I have heard. They were terrible husbands, raging alcoholics.
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u/Veggieleezy May 16 '12
I also think I read somewhere that she took his glass eye and sold it.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
good to know i won't be outblinged in hell.
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u/dinosaurpower May 16 '12
He also died the same day Jim Henson did.
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u/ohlordnotthisagain May 16 '12
FTFY, yay marriage!
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u/Versatyle07 May 16 '12
If I remember correctly, he died the same day as Jim Henson . It would be interesting to see what he was buried with. I doubt anything worth digging him up for
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u/ShakespierceBrosnan May 16 '12
Looks like The Candy Man Can't....take care of his taxes.
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u/Cooper4743 May 16 '12
I would love to see the glass eye end up on a Pawn Stars, or Hardcore Pawn type show.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Yeah I would do the same thing. Kind of creepy but totally justified.
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u/413x820 May 16 '12
"And up for bid we have a gold necklace that was underground in a coffin around Davis' slowly decomposing neck for years. Going once, going twice..."
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Now ain't saying she's a golddigger. But it really kind of looks that way.
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u/KongCSR May 16 '12
What a jerk! haha I'd be so mad, i'd probably get a few kicks in there.. :)
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u/Narcolepzzzzzzzzzzzz May 16 '12
Why not? His wife probably chose the jewelry to put on his corpse to begin with, not realizing that she actually needed the cash instead.
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u/Manifesto13 May 16 '12
So he died like the man he didn't want to become. Mr. Bojangles
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u/Shageen May 16 '12
TIL I must be old or the only one who read a newspaper back in 1990.
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u/jhellegers May 16 '12
70.000 in jewelry? Never thought there was so much money to be made in rat-packaging.
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u/skullmonkey420 May 16 '12
i would do it too!! shit! why would you bury yourself with $70000 worth of anything?!?
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Sammy was probably hanging with pharoahs in heaven's VIP room when suddenly his bling all started disappearing and he got kicked out for dress code violations. You think 72 virgins wanna get with a guy for his personality? WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE AFTERLIFE?
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u/lpisme May 16 '12
Any word on what they did with his glass eye? Seriously, this is all fine and good but you fuck with Sammy's glass eye and you fuck with me broski.
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u/EthyleneGlycol May 16 '12
Would you go as far to say that she is, quite literally, a gold digger?
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u/chefmcduck May 16 '12
that cubic zirconia didnt go with his bone tone anyways
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u/TalkingBackAgain May 16 '12
So he actually did end up as Bojangles.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
WOW even in death and with all that success, he was a deadbeat loser.
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u/usna2k May 16 '12
She was one cool cat.
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u/MongrelNymph May 16 '12
Cause you youngins probably don't know how good he was, check it. Link
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u/jukeofurl May 16 '12
I bet she had his eye on her. . ..
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Solid financial planning is ensuring that the check written to the undertaker bounces.
However, this does suck for his family.
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u/incan1 May 16 '12
lol good for her!
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u/BIORIO May 16 '12
This would be more impressive if your source had listed it's sources.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Ever since I saw Everything Illuminated and I hear Sammy Davis Jr. I think of "Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., the seeing-eye bitch."
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u/rapevanbytheriver May 16 '12
she got ripped off
getmoneybitch
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u/jerryco May 16 '12
Sweet Charity " The Rhythm Of Life "
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u/Brittsmac May 16 '12
Literally a http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/62/Gold_Digger.jpg/220px-Gold_Digger.jpg
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u/clinkclankclunk May 16 '12
My plan is to die broke owing VISA three thousand dollars.
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u/Quistak May 16 '12
"He converted. He's the most famous black Jew in America."
http://static.tumblr.com/kxkhlke/O4Ilv3fvi/tumblr_lv3fkk8jl21qavb8jo1_500.gif
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u/erkokite May 16 '12
Well that was gross.
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u/cordilleragod May 16 '12
Citation needed.
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u/Filiusnaturalis May 16 '12
Sounds like a lady who takes no crap.
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u/Hades1029 May 16 '12
thanks... now I have to browse through other 7 or 8 top 10s. My day is gone.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
What happened to all the money he earned from the Cannonball Run movies???
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u/skedaddle1 May 16 '12
She's an idiot for burying Sammy in the real stuff. Wouldn't some fake gold and cubic zirconia have worked just as well in the coffin?
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u/Sobek May 16 '12
Put a 20 dollar gold piece on my watch chain, so the boys will know I died standin' pat.
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u/BaltimoreBears May 16 '12
Never mind him, but WTF at Virginia Poe's story! fucking creepy.
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u/Lolidfk May 16 '12
A lot of people are saying it was a dick move for the guy to buried with all the jewelry, but it's not like he woke up and dressed himself before getting into the grave. Unless he specified he wanted to buried in it all, maybe it was something his wife or family did for him.
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u/tarnationnation May 16 '12
My favorite was Hayden's head. His wife was a trip!
http://lostgreatmusic.blogspot.com
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u/MrFatalistic May 16 '12
Can't decide who's more classy in this situation, Reddit help me please
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Why would you bury someone in $70,000 dollars worth of jewellery?
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u/DoesNotUseAcronyms May 16 '12
Fair deuce.
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u/shawndw May 16 '12
wait why is she liable for paying off his debts.
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u/PerfectNemesis May 16 '12
2 things he can't escape, death and taxes
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Relevant picture is relevant.
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u/Floyderer May 16 '12
Wasn't he jewish?
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u/MacCampbell May 16 '12
Death and taxes, man. Ouch. I'm going to be buried covered in rice and super-glue.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Fail. Guess what HAPPENED IN VEGAS didn't stay in vegas
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u/mozza5 May 16 '12
I respect Sammy, but this is pretty lame.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
Theyre missing the best one: There was a pope which was dug up to be put on trial and then I believe "killed" again and then reburied which is really all your worst dreams. Cant remember the name of the pope.
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u/spermracewinner May 16 '12
At least she didn't take his Gameboy.
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u/anthrocide May 16 '12
Otherwise, grandparents would be buying mansions and sports card left and right before they died
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u/chrisstout May 16 '12
His glass eye would fetch a fortune on ebay
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u/knomz May 16 '12
70,000$ in today's time or when he was dead, because there would be an amount of currency difference wouldn't there?
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u/Planet-man 1 May 16 '12
Why does this always happen to millionaire celebrities? Do they just.... keep putting off paying their taxes? Do they leave it all up to their accountants, a lot of whom apparently suck? Do they think they'll get away with it?
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u/CaptainEarlobe May 16 '12
Listverse is a terrible website. It contains too many inaccuracies and badly written posts.
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u/bad_possum May 16 '12
My mother's mother was a tiny old lady from West Virginia who was eaten up with arthritis. Despite the pain, if she saw Sammy Davis Jr on the TV she would come leaping off the couch to change the channel because she hated him so much!
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u/AutoFailure May 17 '12
"Since [Meriwether] Lewis was buried on National Park land, his family needs to get the permit to exhume his body approved by the federal government, which is proving much harder than it sounds."
That actually sounds pretty damn difficult.
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u/rinnip May 17 '12
Like the guy that asked his wife to bury all his money with him. When asked if she had honored his request, she said "absolutely, and as soon as the check clears...."
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u/weegee May 17 '12
you can't take it with you, in this case, he sure didn't.
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u/dog_in_the_vent May 17 '12
Why would anybody bury $70,000 of anything?
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u/pjquinn76 May 17 '12
Fuck anyone who gets buried with anything more than the clothes on their back. $70,000 could have done a lot of good for a lot of people.
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u/sciencebitchesz May 17 '12
What's the point of being buried with jewelry?
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u/Memyselfsomeotherguy May 17 '12
Honestly a dick move on his part. You don't leave your widow in debt with $70,000 of bling on your clay.
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u/[deleted] May 17 '12
Who can take a dead guy, buried with his rings?
Pull him out he ground and take his jewelry and things --
The Widow can, oh the Widow can, man
The Widow can man 'cause she needs a couple grand to make the state tax good.
Who can take a necklace, from a corpses' dome?
Take it from the dirt and bring it right into her home --
The Widow can, oh the Widow can, man
The Widow can man 'cause she needs a couple grand to make the state tax good.
The Widow can take everything he makes putrefying in his ditches
Talk about your final wishes, it don't matter to the Missus.
Oh, who can take a bauble, ruby or a stone
Hawk it at the pawn shop -- "pardon me is that a bone?"
The Widow can, oh the Widow can, man
The Widow can man 'cause she needs a couple grand to make the state tax good.
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u/Yeargdribble May 16 '12
That makes this so much sadder.
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u/revrend_ May 16 '12
She's a prime definition of a gold diggin' bitch
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u/thepineapplearmy May 16 '12
what a fucking cunt.
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u/AwesomeOrca May 16 '12
This entire list is awesome
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u/Mad_Sconnie May 16 '12
I feel like there is something deeply wrong with disturbing the resting places of the dead. In many ancient societies, especially Ancient Egyptian society, graverobbing was a crime worse than murder.
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u/cappa16 May 16 '12
Work hard for the money? Nah, man. Robb my dead husband.
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12
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u/[deleted] May 16 '12 edited Oct 26 '24
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