While most wills are left in order to make certain that our financial affairs are taken care of after our death, some people have used them to make political points, or just for a bit of a laugh. This is a list of 10 of the strangest last wishes of people famous, and not so famous.

10
Virgil
Died: 10 BC

Last Wish: Burn the Aeneid

Virgil is the great Roman poet most renowned for his Aeneid - once the national poem of Rome. Prior to his death he had completed only 12 books (as opposed to the 24 of the epic poems of Homer). Because it was incomplete, he left instructions that it be destroyed by fire after his death. When his friends found out, they managed to finally convince him to remove the request from his will. He consented and the poem was published to great acclaim. I think we can all safely say that we owe Virgil’s friends a great debt.

9
William Shakespeare
Died: 1616

Last Wish: That his wife receive his “second best bed”.

This last request of Shakespeare has caused much speculation about his relationship with his wife Anne Hathaway. Not only was it an unusual request, it was tacked on to the document as if it were an afterthought. Leaving a bed to someone was not itself an unusual thing at the time - as a good quality bed with no fleas or vermin was a highly prized - and very expensive - thing. Adding further to the debate was the epitaph that Shakespeare left on his grave: “Blest be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed by he that moves my bones.” While some say Shakespeare meant it to frighten grave robbers, the wording was taken so seriously that when his wife died 7 years later, they would not allow her body to be placed with his.

8
Charles Dickens
Died: 1870

Last Wish: That mourners “who attend my funeral wear no scarf, cloak, black bow, long hatband, or other such revolting absurdity.”

In addition to the above, Dickens also wrote that he was not to have a public funeral and the place and time of his funeral were not to be made public. He also requested an inexpensive and simple funeral with only three plain “mourning coaches”. His requests were ignored - on a grand scale! He was honored with a huge funeral cortege, with all members present in full funeral regalia. His funeral was a national event. The man who was used to getting what he wanted in life, did not get what he wanted in death.

7
George Bernard Shaw
Died: 1950

Last Wish: He ordered no religious service and that his tombstone not “take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.”

Shaw was hard on religion and his will included a section that gave his support to “Darwin’s millennial saga of creation” over the Bibles “six day synopsis”. Shaw had always been fascinated with the idea of a reformed English spelling. He created a 40 letter phonetic alphabet to make spelling much simpler. As part of his will he left a sizeable portion of his estate to promote the new alphabet - this was overruled by a court as it was “impossible” and the money was distributed to 3 organizations: The British Museum, The National Gallery of Ireland, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

6
Benjamin Franklin
Died: 1790

Last Wish: That in a democracy, his daughter not engage in “the expensive, vain and useless pastime of wearing jewels.”

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most admired men in the Western world in the late 18th century. The reason for his odd request was that as former ambassador to France, Franklin was given a portrait of King Louis XVI in a frame studded with 408 diamonds. He left this picture and frame to his daughter Sarah with the above proviso to prevent her from removing the diamonds from the frame to make jewelry.

5
John B Kelly
Died: 1960

Last Wish: That the clothing bills of his daughter, Princess Grace, not bankrupt the principality of Monaco.

Kelly was a multimillionaire contractor who was a triple Olympic Gold Medal winner. His actress daughter (Grace Kelly) married into the royal family of Monaco. His will was his last laugh at the good-humored expense of his family. Some of the various amusing sections are:

[To my son John,] all my personal belongings, such as trophies, rings, jewelry, watches, clothing and athletic equipment, except the ties, shirts, sweaters and socks, as it seems unnecessary to give him something of which he has already taken possession.

He left nothing to his son in law, Prince Rainier of Monaco, stating:

I don’t want to give the impression that I am against sons-in-law. If they are the right type, they will provide for themselves and their families, and what I am able to give my daughters will help pay the dress shop bills, which, if they continue as they started out, under the able tutelage of their mother, will be quite considerable.

4
Harry Houdini
Died: 1926

Last Wish: That his wife hold an annual seance so he could reveal himself to her.

Houdini in his later life became very interested in spiritualism and seances because of the great loss he felt upon the death of his mother. After a number of years trying to communicate with her through spiritualists, he gave up - deciding the whole thing was bunkum. In order to prove it, Houdini left his wife a secret note with 10 randomly selected words that he would communicate to her after his death. For 10 years his wife held a seance on Halloween; Houdini never turned up.

3
Napoleon Bonaparte
Died: 1821

Last Wish: That his head be shaved and the hair divided up amongst his friends.

In a strange twist to the tale, a recent analysis of some of the hair that was kept by his friends, it was discovered that it contained large amounts of arsenic. His symptoms prior to death (vomiting dried blood) is consistent with arsenic poisoning. There is some speculation that the walls of his room contained arsenic (not uncommon at the time) and that it was his environment that killed him, but others believe that he was being slowly poisoned by the English. In fact, due to his stomach cancer, his doctor was also prescribing him another type of poison which contributed to his final demise.

2
William Hearst

Last Wish: That anyone who could prove “that he or she is a child of mine [receive] the sum of one dollar. I hereby declare that any such asserted claim […] would be utterly false.”

Hearst was an American newspaper magnate and leading newspaper publisher. The son of self-made millionaire George Hearst, he became aware that his father received a northern California newspaper, The San Francisco Examiner, as payment of a gambling debt. He asked his father to give him the paper to run and he eventually built for himself a multi-million dollar empire. Hearst was the grandfather of Patty Hearst - the heiress who suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.

1
John Bowman
Died: 1891

Last Wish: For dinner to be prepared every night after his death in case he came back to life.

Bowman’s wife and two daughters had died before him and he became convinced that when he died, his entire family would be reincarnated together. Driven by this odd belief, he set up a trust worth $50,000 to pay servants to keep up the housework in his 21 room mansion. He also requested that a daily meal be prepared in case the family returned hungry. The will was honored until the trust ran out of funds in 1950.

Bonus
T M Zink
Died: 1930

Last Wish: That a womanless library be created.

Zink left some $50,000 in trust for 75 yeas, at the end of which time he hoped the fund would have swelled to $3 million, enough to found the Zink Womanless Library. The words No Women Admitted were to mark each entrance. No books, works of art, or decorations by women were to be permitted in or about the premises. “My intense hatred of women,” he explained in the will, “is not of recent origin or development nor based upon any personal differences I ever had with them but is the result of my experiences with women, observations of them, and study of all literatures and philosophical works.” His family successfully challenged the will. Zink was a lawyer from Iowa.

   雖然我們的遺囑大部分是為了確保在我們死后我們的財產分配問題，但是仍然有些人用他們來表明政治觀點，或者只是為了一個笑話。這里是10個名人或者非名人的最奇怪的遺囑的列表。

10
維吉爾（Virgil)
死于公元前10年（Died: 10 BC）

遺愿:燒毀埃涅伊德（Virgil 作的敘事詩）

維吉爾因為埃涅伊德這首詩成為了羅馬最著名的詩人--這首詩曾經是羅馬的民族詩歌。在他死前，他只完成了12本書（都是關于反對河馬的24史詩）。由于他認為這些書是不完整的，所以他命令在他死后燒毀這些書。當他的朋友們發現的時候，他們最終成功的說服了他把這個要求從遺囑中刪除了。維吉爾同意后，這個詩集被順利出版并贏得了強烈的反響。我想我們i確實欠維吉爾的朋友一個很大的人情。

9
威廉 莎士比亞（William Shakespeare）

Shakespearepa 449X600-1

遺愿：把他家中第2好的床留給她的妻子。

莎士比亞的遺愿讓人對他和他妻子安妮海參崴的關系引起了很大的猜想。不僅僅是因為這是個不尋常的要求，而且這個要求被加入到了遺囑文件上好像是再三思量的結果。在那個時候，留下一張床給別人這件事本身是很正常的，因為一張沒有跳蚤或者蟲子的高質量的床是非常值錢，非常貴的一樣東西。使爭論更加激化的是在莎士比亞的墓志銘：保佑那些不會動這些骨頭的人，詛咒那些會動我的骨頭的人。當時有人說莎士比亞是想嚇走那些盜墓賊，這個措詞十分嚴謹，直到7年后她妻子死了，人們竟然發覺墓碑上的墓志銘不允許她妻子的骨灰和他的放在一起。

8
查爾斯 狄更斯（Charles Dickens）
死于1870年

遺愿：來參加我葬禮的哀悼者不能穿著圍巾，斗篷，黑領結，長緞帶，或者其他這類讓人厭惡的東西。

除了上述要求，狄更斯還要求他不想要一個公開的葬禮，他葬禮的時間和地點不允許對外公開。他同時要求只要三輛普通的悼念馬車隊的節儉喪禮。他的要求完全被無視了，他的葬禮變得十分盛大。他被尊重的放在一個巨大無比的葬禮隊伍中，所有隨行的人都身著喪服。他的葬禮成為了一個國家的盛事。狄更斯--當他活著的時候總能得到他想要的，但是在他死后不能得到他想要的。

7
喬治 伯納德 肖(George Bernard Shaw)
死于1950年

遺愿：他不要任何宗教禮儀，他的墓碑不能是十字架形狀或者任何其他代表犧祭奠或者折磨的樣子。

肖對宗教十分厭惡，他的遺愿包括他給與達爾文的千年創世傳奇的支持而不是圣經里的六日創世說。肖對改革新的英文拼寫的想法非常著迷。他創造了1個含有40個音標發音的字母表來使拼寫更為簡單。他遺囑中寫到他相當大部分的遺產是用來促進新字母表的發展，但是這被法院以不可能而駁回。然后錢被分給了3個機構組織：大不列顛博物館，愛爾蘭國家藝廊和皇家戲劇學院。

6
本杰明 富蘭克林（Benjamin Franklin）
死于1790年

遺愿：在民主主義統治下，他的女兒不得佩戴昂貴的，虛榮的，無用的消遣時間的珠寶。

本杰明 富蘭克林是18世紀后期西方國家最尊崇的人之一。而他這奇怪的要求是由于作為前任的駐法大使，富蘭克林曾經被賞賜了衣服鑲滿了408顆鉆石的路易十六世的肖像。他把這幅畫和以上條款留給了她的女兒薩拉是為了防止她從那個上面拿寶石來做成珠寶，

5
約翰 B 克利（John B Kelly）
死于1960年

遺愿：他女兒格蕾絲公主做衣服的花費不能使得摩納哥公國破產。

克利是一個擁有三個奧運金牌的千萬富翁。他的演員女兒（格蕾絲 克利）嫁給了摩納哥的皇室。他的遺愿是他最終的笑聲能是由于家庭的和諧愉快。有些不同的有趣的部分：

給我兒子約翰我所有的死人產物比如獎章，戒指，珠寶，手表，衣服和運動器械除了領帶，T恤，外套和襪子，因為這些給他這些他已經有了的東西似乎沒有必要。

他沒有給他的女婿摩納哥的Rainier王子留任何東西，因為：

我想給人的印象是我不重視我的女婿。如果他們是健全的人，他們將會能夠養活自己和家人，我所能給予我女兒的能夠支付他們做衣服用的錢，如果她們像以前一樣在她們母親的監督下，已經將是很多的一筆開支了。

4
哈利 霍迪尼（Harry Houdini）
死于1926年

遺愿：要求他妻子每年舉辦一次悼念會使得他能出現在她面前。

霍迪尼晚年時期開始由于他母親的死使他感到非常痛苦，然后開始癡迷上了唯心論和降神會。在嘗試和母親用精神交流一些年后，他放棄了--認為這整件事是騙人的。為了證明這個，霍迪尼留下了一張只有十個隨意選擇的單詞的紙條，他將會用這些單詞在他死后和他妻子交流。10年了他的妻子一直在萬圣節前夕舉辦了降神會，但是霍迪尼從未出現過。

3
拿破侖 波拿巴（Napoleon Bonaparte)
死于1821年

遺愿：他死后頭被割下來，然后把頭發分給他的朋友。

十分曲折的一個故事，最近一個分析表明他朋友所保留的頭發中里面含有大量的砒霜。他死前的癥狀（大吐干血）是和砒霜中毒一致的。有些人猜想他房間的墻壁可能含有砒霜（在那個時候很平常），他是死于環境原因的，但是其他人相信他是被英國人慢性下毒害死的。事實上，由于他有胃癌，他的主治醫生也給他開了另一種導致他喪命的毒藥。
2
威廉 赫斯特（William Hearst）

遺愿：任何能證明是我孩子的人將會得到一美元。據此我聲明任何這類的斷言都是完全的欺騙人的。

赫斯特是美國報紙巨頭也是主要的報紙出版商。他是白手起家的百萬富翁喬治赫斯特的兒子，他意識到他父親接受加利福尼亞北部的一份叫舊金山主考官的報紙的印刷來清償賭債。他要求他父親把這份報紙讓他經營，最終他為他自己賺的了數百萬美元。赫斯特是派帝 赫斯特的祖父--派帝是患有斯德哥爾摩綜合癥（Stockholm Syndrome）的繼承人。

1
約翰 伯爾曼（John Bowman）
死于1891年

遺愿：在他死后每晚都要為他準備晚飯以防他復活。

伯爾曼的妻子和2個女兒在他之前就已經死了，他堅信當他死時，他所有的家人將會一起重生。受到這樣奇怪念頭的驅使，他用了5萬美元來請能信賴的仆人來維持他的21間大房子。他同時要求每天要準備一頓飯以免全家人回來的時候餓肚子。這個遺囑一直都被履行著直到1950年信托的資金全都用完。

額外補充

T M Zink
死于1930年
Library Of The National Palace Of Mafra

遺愿：建立一個沒有女人的圖書館

Zink 將5萬美元留給信托保留75年，他希望最終這筆資金能膨脹到3百萬美元足夠建立Zink沒有女的圖書館。在每個入口都會有禁止女人入內的通知。就像前提一樣，任何女人所寫的書籍，藝術品或者裝飾都不允許進入圖書館。他在遺囑中解釋說他對女性強烈的憎恨不似乎最近才有或者發展成這樣的也不是基于我所相處過的任何個人差異而是我和女人的經歷，對她們的觀察，對文學作品和哲學著作的研究，導致了這個結果。他的家人成功的實現了他的遺囑，Zink曾是來自愛荷華州的一名律師。