I See Dead People
Part 2: Bill Gates, cont. / Steve Irwin
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According to a report allegedly filed by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, Bill Gates was in fact murdered on December 2, 1999 by a lone assassin named Alek Hidell (hmm... name sounds familiar). A research group called Citizens for Truth disputes that version of events, suggesting there may have been a conspiracy, but does not question the claim that Gates is dead. A documentary film on the subject is expected to blow the case wide open later this year.
Unless, of course, it's all just some sort of publicity stunt - which would explain how a very alive-looking Bill Gates managed to appear on television just this week.
Steve Irwin
(See important update below)
Two or three times a year I receive some variation of the following:
My wife and I have been hearing disturbing rumors for over 6 months that Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter," was killed in some horrible accident. We checked some Internet bulletin boards and we noticed that this rumor has been circulating since 1997 (or before!). However, we can find no official rebuttal. Is the Croc Hunter alive or dead?
Irwin has had to deny this rumor for years. On his Discovery.com Website he writes: "I've never been bitten by a venomous snake, and I recently heard that I'd been killed. Ha ha! I've been killed by crocodiles, venomous snakes, spiders. I've even had a beetle crawl in my ear and kill me once. Nah! I'm here to tell you Steve Irwin lives!"
The rumor has taken on a certain irony since January 2001, when Irwin came closer than ever to buying the farm for real. While moving a 176-pound female crocodile from one pen to another at his zoo in Australia, Irwin's attention was distracted and the beast sank its teeth into his leg - to the tune of 12 stitches. According to news reports, proof that Irwin survived the attack was captured on videotape.
2006 Update: Steve Irwin Dead at 44
I regret to report that an urban legend came true on Monday, September 4, 2006 when Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while shooting a TV show off the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44. Read more...
The Final Tally:
- Bill Gates - NOT dead
- Bill Nye - NOT dead
- Eminem - NOT dead
- Steve Burns - NOT dead
- Scott Baio - NOT dead
- Mark Twain - dead, and that's no exaggeration.
Take the Celebrity Urban Legends Quiz
Did Fidel Castro once try out for the Washington Senators baseball team? Was Frank Zappa the son of Captain Kangaroo's Mr. Green Jeans? What famous movie star was also an inventor and holder of a patent on a torpedo guidance system?
