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5 Famous People and Their Documented Burial Requests

By Weird Burial Stories Editorial Desk · 2026-10-05

Five burial requests you can trace to a will, a diary, or contemporary reporting, from Jeremy Bentham's Auto Icon to Ed Headrick's discs.

Strange burial requests make for good stories, and not every one passed around online can be traced. These five can. Each one is backed by a will, a diary, contemporary reporting, or the account of an organization involved, and each says something about the person who asked for it.

1. Jeremy Bentham asked to be seated in his own chair

Jeremy Bentham’s will, dated “Wednesday 30th May, 1832”, spells out what he wanted done with his remains: “The skeleton he will cause to be put together in such a manner as that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living … He will cause the skeleton to be clad in one of the suits of black occasionally worn by me … he will cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case”.

The result is the Auto Icon. UCL received it only in 1850, and it has been in the UCL Student Centre since 20 February 2020. (UCL Faculty of Laws, Extract from Bentham’s Will; UCL, Auto-Icon)

2. George Washington asked for a wait before his burial

As recorded in Tobias Lear’s diary account, Washington said: “Have me decently buried; and do not let my body be put into the vault in less than three days after I am dead.” The editors note that Lear’s original account and his letter of 16 Dec. say “two days”, and that his body was placed in the vault on 18 Dec. (Founders Online)

Mount Vernon puts it this way: “Per Washington’s instructions, his body was not placed into the tomb until at least three days after his death.” (Mount Vernon)

3. Fredric Baur went into a Pringles can

Fredric Baur designed the Pringles can. At his request, part of his ashes were buried in a Pringles can after his death in 2008, and his children chose the original flavor. Sources spell his first name both Fredric and Frederic. (NPR, June 3, 2008; TIME)

4. Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes were fired into the sky

Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes were fired from a 150 foot monument behind his home near Aspen on August 20, 2005. CBC reported that Johnny Depp was “funding much of the farewell party.” (CBC, Aug 20, 2005; BBC)

5. “Steady” Ed Headrick became a set of discs

“Steady” Ed Headrick, whom the PDGA calls “the Father of Disc Golf,” asked that his ashes be molded into flying discs. After his death, his widow, Farina Headrick, worked with Discraft to do it. (PDGA)

What these requests have in common

A philosopher asked to be seated in his own chair, a president asked for time before the vault, an inventor ended up in his own can, a writer’s ashes were fired from a monument, and a sports pioneer was molded into the discs of the sport he championed. The difference between these five and the stories that get passed around online is simple: each of these is on the record, with a source you can check.

Sources