Month: September 2026

Halloween is a night of ghosts, séances, locked doors, and things that refuse to stay buried. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate day for Harry Houdini to have died. On October 31, 1926, Harry Houdini died at age 52. He had escaped from handcuffs, chains,...

William Shakespeare gave the world Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, and some of the most famous words ever written in the English language. When it came time to make his own last statement about what should happen to his property, however, Shakespeare...

O.J. Simpson was once one of the most famous athletes in America. He won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Southern California, became an NFL superstar, and later built a successful second career as an actor, television personality, and advertising spokesman....

Most wills distribute property. Alfred Nobel’s will created something much larger. When Nobel died in 1896, the Swedish inventor and industrialist left most of his enormous fortune not to his family, but to a fund that would reward people whose work provided the...

Most unusual wills create family disputes. Peter Thellusson’s will did something much more remarkable: it helped cause the English Parliament to change the law. Thellusson was an extraordinarily wealthy eighteenth-century merchant and banker. When he died in 1797,...