Bizarre Death: George Plantagenet

George Plantagenet was the 1st Duke of Clarence, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, the 1st Earl of Warwick, the brother of King Edward IV and the brother of King Richard III, who became king of England after George's death. His royal status did not save him from death. In fact, it was the very reason for his death.

George was found guilty of treason when his brother King Edward IV suspected him of vying for the throne. Like other treasonous royals before him, he was held in the Tower of London until his execution. It is not this macabre, yet interesting, path to death that makes George Plantagenet's death bizarre. It is the rumors that sprung up around his death that make the story so strange.

George Plantagenet was led to his death on February 18, 1478. The typical means of demise for executed royals was public beheading. In some cases, it was a private execution, as it was in George's case. After his death, it was suspected that he was not beheaded at all. An exhumation of the body supposed to be his reportedly turned up his head intact, though there is much speculation about whether the body belonged to him or not. Whether or not it was his body, it is believed that George Plantagenet was killed by forced drowning in a vat of wine -- Malmsey wine, to be precise.

Shakespeare's play Richard III about George's brother, who came to the throne later, holds to this rumor. The character of Plantagenet is drowned in wine. Because his manner of death was never verified, there is still the possibility that the rumors are true and Shakespeare's play is accurate in that regard.

The Lead Masks Case

Among the most bizarre topics in the world are countless deaths. The saying, "Dead men tell no tales." describes the reason for this quite clearly. Without a witness or clear forensic evidence, anything odd at the scene of death is relegated to the ranks of the bizarre and unexplained. Such was the case the death of two electronic technicians in Brazil in 1966. The circumstances of their deaths are unknown. Objects found near their bodies are strange and unexplainable.

On August 20, 1966, Jorge da Costa Alves found two dead men on Vintem Hill in Rio de Janeiro. Later investigation ascertained that the two men were last seen by a bartender who sold them a bottle of water on August 17. They are presumed to have died later that day, meaning they were on the grassy hill for roughly three days when Jorge found them. There are rumors that UFOs were seen over the hill that night, but there is no evidence of such, apart from alleged witness testimony.

Naturally, Jorge contacted the police who did a search of the area and the bodies. The two men were dressed in suits and wore raincoats. They were also wearing lead masks, which would have protected them from radiation. These masks were not full-face masks, but more the shape of a masquerade mask, with no eyeholes, of course. There was also a notebook that contained the following notes, translated from Portuguese: Be at the agreed place at 16:30 [4:30 p.m.], 18:30[6:30 p.m.] swallow capsules, after effect protect metals wait for mask signal. There was also an empty water bottle and two towels near the bodies, which were next to each other.

There were no injuries at first glance and no injuries found during autopsy. Some sources say that the organs were too far gone for toxicology. Others say that testing was done, but turned up nothing. Others still say that radiation testing was done and found nothing at first, but that radiation turned up during a second round of testing. What all sources agree upon is the outcome of the investigation. The cause of death is unknown.

The evidence at the scene leaves us more questions than it answers. Why were these men on the hill? Was this the specified location or is it where their bodies were dumped? What substance did they consume? Were these capsules the cause of death or were they meant to protect them from something? Why in the world were they wearing protection from radiation? Were they conducting an experiment that went wrong? Were they part of a larger team that wrote them off as collateral damage? Were they meeting aliens up on the hill? No one knows and it is likely that we never will.