The Most Daring Escape of All? The “Faked Deaths” of Celebrities

Philippe de Champaigne, Still Life with a Skull, 1671

Whether it’s to escape the law, rabid fans, or tax problems, faking your own death—or pseudocide—is a sure way to put people off the case.

Or is it?

For the five famous people below, the finality of death hasn’t been quite so final, with people continuing to question whether these people are actually alive or actually dead.

Kenneth Lay

The name “Enron” is now synonymous with corrupt businessmen who get rich by scamming the everyman. Kenneth Lay was a major player in the Enron scandal, which has led people to think that his death just three months before his sentencing hearing was too convenient to be believable.

Because of Lay’s great position of power, conspiracy theorists say he escaped the US with the help of his equally powerful friends and is now living somewhere in Mexico.

Elvis Presley

It’s been 40 years since Elvis died, and yet the sightings of the super famous singer continue to this day. When you’re as famous as Elvis, it can all become too much, so the only way to escape it is to make your fans—and the entire world—think you’re dead. It all adds up, right?

Where does the now-anonymous Elvis live these days? Bermuda, of course.

2Pac

Another incredibly famous musician who is said to have faked his own death to escape his fame is Tupac Shakur. The reason fans are so sure he’s still alive is because of the rapper’s adopted stage name of Makaveli near the end of his career. The philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, as it turns out, suggested that people should fake their own deaths in order to manipulate their enemies.

Paul McCartney

In the exact opposite scenario of Elvis and 2Pac, there’s a conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney—who we see walking and talking and performing with Kanye at the Grammys—is actually dead. The theory goes that Paul died in 1966 in a car accident and was replaced with a lookalike so as not to upset the wave of Beatlemania that had overtaken the world. As long as the fans are happy, right?

Ken Kesey

Here is one legitimate faked death that can be proven beyond doubt. Why? Because writer and famous psychedelic flower child Ken Kesey was actually put in jail for his shenanigans.

When he was arrested for possession of marijuana, Kesey decided faking a suicide was the best way to deal with the charges. His abandoned car was left on the side of the road along with a suicide note, while Kesey hightailed it to Mexico. When he returned home to the US a few months later, he was sentenced to six months in jail.

While there aren’t any opportunities to fake your own death at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, you can try more realistic measures of escape in any of our four themed escape rooms. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

5 Cryptography-centric TV Shows to Bend Your Escape-Game-Loving Mind

The four codebreakers of The Bletchley Circle

If there’s one thing all escape game fans can agree on, it’s their love of ciphers, codes, and the amazing feeling that comes with cracking one. A few television producers out there share that feeling, too.

While only one of these shows is still on the air, luckily we live in the age of streaming! And, who knows, if we all put in the effort and get the numbers just right, they might just bring them back for encore seasons. We have the power, cryptography-loving escape room fans!

1. The Bletchley Circle (2012–14)

Yep, that Bletchley, the same one where Alan Turing and his team cracked the “unbreakable” Enigma Code in WWII. This series is set after the end of the war in the early ’50s, centering on a group of women—former Bletchley codebreakers, of course—who take the solving of complex crimes into their own hands after the police fail to get the job done.

2. Numbers (2005–10)

FBI Special Agent Don Eppes skips the wiretapping and intimidation and goes straight for the numbers to solve a variety of crimes. His secret weapon? His super math genius brother, Charles, who uses equations (yes, equations!) to help find and apprehend the criminals. Yay, math!

3. Gravity Falls (2012–16)

In this animated series, Mabel Pines (Kristin Schaal) and her brother Dipper (Jason Ritter) spend their summer at their uncle’s house running “The Mystery Shack.” (The town of Gravity Falls happens to be full of paranormal creatures, so it’s sort of necessary.) At the end of every episode, there’s a different cipher to crack, introducing kids—and kids at heart!—to the Caesar, Atbash, and Vigenère ciphers, among others.

4. Touch (2012–13)

Former reporter Martin Bohm (played by Kiefer Sutherland) realizes his young son, Jake, who has been diagnosed as autistic, is an ace when it comes to numbers and patterns. So good, in fact, that he can predict the future based on what he sees within them. Jake uses his skills to decipher a number of codes that lead to the pair saving the day, naturally.

5. The Numbers Game (2013–)

Unlike the other shows in this list, The Numbers Game isn’t a drama or cartoon, but shows how numbers work in our everyday lives. Host Jake Porway (who looks like he could be Bill Nye’s long lost son, incidentally) delves into the history of codes and other brain-melting puzzles. Get ready for some codebreaking and silly skits to keep you entertained along the way.

Get your hands on all the ciphers and codes Krakit has to offer by booking a game in one of our four themed escape rooms, steps away from Lougheed SkyTrain in Burnaby. Book here.

Can’t Escape the Mystery: The Shugborough Inscription

The Shugborough Inscription -- Krakit Vancouver Escape Game

We’re willing to bet that most escape game fans are also big mystery fans—we know all of us here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game sure are. And what’s better than a mystery? A real-life mystery. Especially one that involves ciphers, shepherds, a famous artist, and an even more famous scientist.

In the relatively unassuming county of Staffordshire in the English Midlands, there stands a Shepherd’s Monument from the eighteenth century. The sculpture at its centre is an adaptation of the painting The Shepherds of Arcadia by the famous Baroque artist Nicolas Poussin. But that’s not what’s most interesting about the monument.

Beneath the sculptural relief, there is a sequence of eight letters—O U O S V A V V—positioned between two more: D and M.

Photo: Edward Wood (CC BY-SA 3.0)

For more than 250 years, the meaning of these letters—this cipher—has been a mystery.

While some people are convinced these letters are nothing more than old-school graffiti (chiseled very finely, we might add!), other, greater minds have taken the code more seriously. Among the would-be codebreakers who have visited the Shugborough Monument are Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens—neither of whom was able to figure out what exactly the Anson brothers, who commissioned its creation, were trying to say.

Along with the mysterious cipher, there are a few other clues to deepen the mystery. A handful of details from Poussin’s original painting have been changed for the sculpture, including the addition of two faces, one of which appears to be the horned god Pan, and—get this—an extra sarcophagus. Weird, to say the least.

However, even with these extra clues, it appears there is no escape from the mystery of the Shugborough Inscription. It remains unsolved, making it one of the world’s greatest enigmas.

Although some of the mysteries at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game are hard, rest assured they are at least designed to be solved! Test out your codebreaking skills by booking a spot for you and your friends here: http://bookeo.com/krakit