20 Most Disturbing Deathbed Confessions in History

20 Most Disturbing Deathbed Confessions in History

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining the most shocking times in history when someone confessed to a terrible crime to clear their conscience before they believed they would pass away.

Michael Lee Wilson

In 2014, Michael Lee Wilson took part in the 1995 slaying of Richard Yost in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his colleague at a store, earning him the death penalty. The execution was carried out in 2014. However, shortly before, Wilson told officials that he was part of a group that fatally shot Karen Lashawn Summers in 1994 at a Tulsa house party. With no forensic evidence besides eyewitness accounts that were later recanted, De'Marchoe Carpenter and Malcom Scott, teenagers at the time, had been convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. In 2016, the duo were finally released from jail and were later found to be innocent at the hearing.

Sharron Diane Crawford Smith

In 2008, Sharron Diane Crawford Smith received the news that her kidney and heart disease were terminal. Before she met her demise, she had something to tell the police that she’d kept buried for decades. In 1967, Smith was working at the High's Ice Cream shop in Staunton, Virginia, where Constance Smootz Hevener and Carolyn Hevener Perry teased her for her sexuality. Smith eventually snapped and shot her colleagues. Before criminal proceedings took place, she passed away. She also alleged that a detective on the case, David Bocock, helped her cover it up by getting rid of the firearm. However, he died in 2006.

James Brewer

In 2009, Michael Anderson suffered a stroke. Believing his life was coming to an end, he and his wife Dorothy sold their belongings in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and travelled to meet the police in Hohenwald, Tennessee. Anderson revealed that his real name is James Brewer, and that he’d fatally shot his neighbor Jimmy Carroll in 1977 in the belief that he was trying to seduce Dorothy. After being arrested for the crime at the time, he jumped bail and fled the state, changing his name to hide. When Brewer wound up surviving the stroke, he was arrested and convicted of murder.

Unidentified Man

In 1946, Margaret Cook, who went by several other names as a sex worker, was fatally shot outside the Blue Lagoon nightclub in London. While there were witnesses, they lost sight of the murderer as they escaped in a crowded tube station. The killer was never found. In 2015, an unidentified 91-year-old man, dealing with terminal cancer in a care home in Canada, confessed to ending Cook’s life after she stole money from him. UK police sent officers to speak to the man and discuss extradition to face criminal charges. However, due to his advanced age and illnesses likely making him unfit to stand trial, the Canadian authorities were hesitant to agree to the extradition.

Larry Sherrard

In 1989, four explorers were looking inside the Great Saltpetre Cave in Kentucky when they came across a grisly discovery. The group had found the remains of Thomas Jones Jr., who’d vanished in 1988 shortly after leaving prison. In 2014, Pamela Rhinehart was caring for her uncle Larry Sherrard as he was dying from aspiration pneumonia. Yet hours before he succumbed, he confessed to her that he was part of a group that murdered Jones. Rhinehart got Sherrard to write a letter, which she took to the police after he passed away. He also detailed that he was involved with another murder, disposing of the body at a residence where he lived during the 1990s. Investigators soon excavated the site and found fragments of bone.

James Washington

Already in jail after being sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder in 2006, James Washington further got into trouble following a seizure in 2009. As he was taken to the hospital, he didn’t believe he had long left. So, Washington told the guard watching over him that he killed Joyce Goodener and left her body at an abandoned house in Nashville in 1995. In all that time, the police had no idea who’d done it. Washington’s belief in his demise turned out to be greatly exaggerated when he recovered. He tried to recant his confession, which didn’t work out too well. He was found guilty at the trial and convicted of Goodener’s murder.

Paul Branch

In 1974, high school student Amy Billig vanished as she hitchhiked to her father's art studio in Coconut Grove, Florida. For decades, the police and her family had no idea what had happened on that fateful day. In 1997, Paul Branch, a former high-ranking member of the Pagan's Motorcycle Club, was approaching his death when he detailed to his wife what happened to Billig. Branch claimed that the Pagans had abducted her and taken her to a party, where she was assaulted and forcefully given substances, leading to her death. They then disposed of her body in the Everglades. While Branch did name one killer, who was already in jail for murder, he denied any involvement when questioned by police.

Roy Heath

In 2010, after getting a tip-off, police searched a residence in London. With the aid of radar technology, investigators discovered human remains buried beneath concrete in the property’s backyard. The police traced the whereabouts of the previous occupant, Roy Heath, who was staying at a hospice with a terminal illness. After several interviews, Heath confessed. The body belonged to Mohammed Taki, who was last seen in 1998. Heath admitted he’d fatally strangled Taki. Thirteen days after revealing he was a killer, Heath passed away before charges could be issued and before a motive could be discovered.

Henry Alexander

In 1957, Black driver Willie Edwards Jr. vanished in Montgomery County, Alabama. Several months later, his body washed up on the Alabama River shore. However, decomposition made it difficult to figure out what caused his death. In 1976, the case was reopened, and members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter were suspected of having been involved. Yet with a lack of evidence and an unknown cause of death, nothing was proven. But that changed in 1992, when one of the accused was dying from lung cancer. Henry Alexander admitted to his wife that he had lied to his Klansmen that Edwards had made a pass at a White woman, leading to them forcing him to jump off a bridge to his demise.

Satoshi Kirishima

In 2024, construction worker Hiroshi Uchida checked himself into a hospital in Fujisawa, Japan, as he received care for terminal cancer. Yet he then told staff that, since he didn’t have long left, he wanted to live under his real identity, Satoshi Kirishima. For 49 years, he was a wanted fugitive after being involved with the extremist group East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front, which killed targets with explosives. By 1975, the majority of the group had been arrested, and they were disbanded. However, Kirishima had managed to avoid capture under a pseudonym. Within days of his arrest, he passed away. However, DNA tests compared to relatives posthumously confirmed that Uchida was, in fact, Kirishima.

Margaret Gibson

The 1922 murder of prolific silent film actor and director William Desmond Taylor remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in Hollywood history. Even with multiple suspects being considered, the investigation was botched, leaving the case officially unsolved to this day. More than four decades after the crime, however, Margaret Gibson, a Hollywood actor who had worked with Taylor early in his career, made a shocking confession. After suffering a heart attack, the then-70-year-old owned up to shooting and killing Taylor, as she slowly passed away on her kitchen floor. With zero physical evidence left from the case and a lack of an apparent motive, there was no way to verify Gibson’s sensational claim.

Mark “Chopper” Read

One of the most notorious criminals to ever come out of Australia, Mark “Chopper” Read lived a large chunk of his adult life in prison. The infamous gang member spent time behind bars for crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping and arson, but always somehow evaded a murder conviction. While serving his time, Read contracted Hepatitis C and years later, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Perhaps realizing that his time on Earth was slowly coming to an end, he sat for an interview with “60 Minutes Australia” just 16 days before he died. During the interview, Read casually admitted his involvement in the deaths of 19 people, describing the details with an astounding lack of remorse.

Naaman Diller

The most expensive heist in Israeli history occurred in 1983, when the Museum for Islamic Art was robbed clean of items worth tens-of-millions of dollars. One of these was a custom-made pocket watch for Marie Antoinette estimated at about $30 million. The dastardly heist was carried out by Israeli criminal Naaman Diller. Diller had fled Israel after the crime and settled in the U.S., where he died in 2004. Just before his death, he confided in his wife about everything and left the rest of the stolen collection in her possession. The 25-year-old case was finally solved after Diller’s widow tried selling some of the items back to the museum and the authorities were tipped off.

Christopher Smith

Between 1975 and 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper claimed the lives of thirteen women in the English areas of Manchester and West Yorkshire. When 26-year-old Joan Harrison was killed in 1975, her murder was initially attributed to the notorious killer. But after his arrest in 1981, he was eliminated as a suspect. From there, it would take 30 years for the case to come to a resolution. In 2008, Harrison’s death was linked to 60-year-old Christopher Smith. Smith had terminal lung cancer and recently had his DNA sample taken after he was arrested for drunk driving. With his impending death looming, Smith penned a rambling letter in which he confessed to Harrison’s murder and pleaded for forgiveness. He passed on a few days later.

Hannah Quick

In 1980, Hannah Quick was the landlord of a townhouse in Brooklyn, New York that got burned to the ground in February of that year. The fire led to the unfortunate deaths of some of the tenants. When she was interviewed by police, Quick claimed to have seen three men walk out of the house around the time of the fire. The three men - Raymond Mora, Amaury Villalobos and William Vasquez - were convicted. Mora died in prison, whereas the other two spent over thirty years incarcerated for the incident. Years later, on her deathbed, Quick confessed to her daughter that she had lied about seeing the men. The case was overturned and the men were exonerated of the crime.

Christine Kett

The death of 18-year-old Christine Kett in her Dayton, Ohio home was a mystery that lingered for years. In January 1867, Kett’s body was found by her brother who immediately alerted their neighbors and the authorities. While police sorted through the crime scene, Kett’s mother, whose name was also Christine, arrived at the house and was inconsolable. Too inconsolable, as many onlookers noted. The case remained unsolved until years later when Mrs. Kett became sick and was at the point of death. On her deathbed, she admitted to killing Christine in a fit of rage. Mrs. Kett swore her son to secrecy until his own time came, but after her death, he notified the police.

Frank Thorogood

On July 3rd 1969, Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones was found dead in the swimming pool of his Sussex home. His death was ruled by the authorities as an accidental drowning, but that didn’t stop multiple theories from popping up in the following days. One of the more credible ones involved construction worker Frank Thorogood, who was recommended to work in Jones’s house by the Stones’ chauffeur Tom Keylock. Thorogood, who last saw Jones alive, allegedly told Keylock on his deathbed that, “It was me that did Brian. I just finally snapped.” With both men now dead, and Keylock later denying the confession, there’s likely no way of knowing if Jones’s death was really an accident.

Alice Mock

In November 1986, 70-six-year-old Alice Mock made a confession to her neighbor as she lay on her deathbed. Mock recounted that in 1975, a false allegation she made had sentenced a man to jail for fifteen years. The man, Wayman Cammile Jr., stayed over at Mock’s apartment after a drunken night out. Mock robbed Cammile when he passed out, but then she cried out for help, alleging that he had robbed and assaulted her. She claimed to have been afraid Cammile would find out about her theft. Mock’s confession exonerated Cammile, who was released after spending twelve years out of his fifteen-year sentence.

Geraldine Kelley

Geraldine Kelley lived with her husband, John, in Ventura, California, where they worked as motel managers. In 1992, Kelley told their two estranged children that John had been struck and killed in a car accident. With no reason to question her story, they accepted it. It wasn’t until Kelley was dying of cancer in 2004 that the truth was revealed. On her deathbed, Kelley confessed that she had killed John, reportedly because he was violent towards her. She kept his body in a storage unit and even shipped it along with her when she moved from California to Massachusetts. An official in the latter state described the entire situation as “very bizarre,” and frankly, we couldn’t agree more.

Christiaan Bonkoffsky

The Brabant Killers were a notorious gang of armed robbers who terrorized Brabant, a former province of Belgium. Their violent activities resulted in the deaths of twenty-eight people from 1982 to 1985. The group usually comprised three core members - “the Giant,” who was thought to be their leader, “the Killer,” and a getaway driver called “the Old Man.” After the Brabant killers suddenly vanished in 1985, police were unable to officially charge anyone with the crimes. In 2017, a man came forward claiming that his brother, a retired policeman named Christiaan Bonkoffsky, had confessed to being “the Giant” on his deathbed two years earlier. While it initially seemed like a breakthrough in the case, the claim was later disproved through forensic DNA.

Are there any other disturbing deathbed confessions that we missed? Let us know below.