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Atheist and agnostic

Cases about people recorded as atheist and agnostic. A religion appears where Wikidata or the person's Wikipedia biography records one, for the person the case is about. Each case shows its source. A case with no record shows none.

78 casesEvery religion

Every case, newest first

  1. 2024Warren Buffett's will once named the Gates Foundation; he removed it in 2024 and stopped his lifetime gifts to it in 2026wowt.com and 4 more
  2. 2022A Miami businessman burned a drawing he said was Frida Kahlo's to sell 10,000 NFTs, and Mexico investigated because her work is a national monumentSmithsonian Magazine and 2 more
  3. 2021Larry King's handwritten 2019 will left his estate to five children, two of whom died before him, and his estranged wife Shawn contested itwsbtv.com and 3 more
  4. 2018Stan Lee's last manager was charged with elder abuse after the Marvel creator diednbclosangeles.com and 2 more
  5. 2015Lee Kuan Yew's will asked that his house be demolished, and Singapore made it a national monument over his son's objectionmccy.gov.sg and 3 more
  6. 2012Gore Vidal changed his trust in 2011 to leave everything to Harvard, and his half-sister and nephew suedwashingtonian.com and 3 more
  7. 2012Maurice Sendak's foundation and the Rosenbach Museum fought for two years in a Connecticut probate court over his rare-book collectionSmithsonian Magazine and 3 more
  8. 2008George Carlin's estate sued a podcast over an AI-made comedy special and won its removalThe New York Times and 2 more
  9. 2008Michael Crichton's son was born after his death and left out of his will; in 2024 his estate sued Warner Bros., calling The Pitt an ER rebootNBC News and 5 more
  10. 2008Britney Spears's father ran her money for 13 years on $16,000 a month, a judge removed him, and she paid to end the fightNPR and 4 more
  11. 2005Arthur Miller kept his son Daniel with Down syndrome out of public view and left him an equal share of the estate six weeks before he diedNPR and 3 more
  12. 2004Stieg Larsson's partner of 30 years got nothing from the Millennium fortune because they never marrieddagensps.se and 2 more
  13. 2004Theo van Gogh was killed on an Amsterdam street on 2 November 2004, and Mohammed Bouyeri was sentenced to life without parole as a terroristAl Jazeera and 3 more
  14. 2002Ted Williams's will asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea, two of his children had him frozen in Arizona, and an ex-employee said his head was severedInternet Archive and 14 more
  15. 1996François Mitterrand's secret daughter walked behind his coffin after the state had paid to hide herfr-academic.com and 3 more
  16. 1995Patricia Highsmith left her whole estate, over $3 million, to the Yaddo artists' colony, and her papers went to the Swiss Literary Archiveshelveticarchives.ch and 3 more
  17. 1994Kurt Cobain left no will; his widow sued his bandmates for Nirvana, sold a quarter of his songs, and his Unplugged guitar went to his daughter's ex-husbandThe Seattle Times and 7 more
  18. 1993Gail Zappa left two of her children control of Frank Zappa's estate, and Dweezil was told he could not use his own surname for his bandRolling Stone and 2 more
  19. 1992Marlene Dietrich's daughter sold her estate to Berlin in 1993, about 300,000 pages, 16,500 photographs and 3,300 garmentsdeutsche-kinemathek.de and 6 more
  20. 1991Miles Davis's will left nothing to two of his sons, and the eldest wrote a book blaming his aunt and sisterdigital.bentley.umich.edu and 6 more
  21. 1990Sammy Davis Jr. died owing the IRS about $7 million, and his widow lost the rights to his name and musicDeseret News and 6 more
  22. 1989A Madrid judge had Salvador Dalí exhumed for a paternity test 28 years after his death, and the DNA said noThe Art Newspaper and 4 more
  23. 1987James Baldwin's estate sold his papers to the Schomburg Center in 2017, with part of his correspondence reported sealed for 20 yearsinfodocket.com and 3 more
  24. 1986Borges left everything to the woman he married seven weeks before he died; she died without a willThe New York Times and 3 more
  25. 1985Philip Larkin's secretary shredded his 30 volumes of diaries after he died, on an instruction his will did not spell outprod.archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk and 3 more
  26. 1985Orson Welles's daughter Beatrice sued his partner Oja Kodar, fought her over The Other Side of the Wind, and lost her claim to the Citizen Kane copyrightFindLaw Caselaw and 5 more
  27. 1984Truman Capote's ashes were divided, stolen at a party, returned in a garden hose, and auctioned in 2016Wikipedia (English)
  28. 1982Ayn Rand's heir kept the first and last pages of The Fountainhead manuscript; the Library of Congress took them from his home in January 2002peikoff.com and 2 more
  29. 1980Sartre adopted Arlette Elkaïm and made her his heir, so Simone de Beauvoir had no legal say over his work and adopted a daughter of her ownjffp.pitt.edu and 3 more
  30. 1979The FBI planted a false story about Jean Seberg's pregnancy in 1970, admitted it in 1979, and she was found dead in her car in Parisneh.gov and 3 more
  31. 1977Two men stole Charlie Chaplin's coffin for ransom, and his widow refused to payhistory.co.uk and 3 more
  32. 1977Groucho Marx's companion lost the fight over his estate, and his heirs lost the rights to his actCaselaw Access Project, Harvard Law School and 2 more
  33. 1977Nabokov told his wife to burn his last novel; it sat in a Swiss bank vault for 32 years before their son published itmg.co.za and 2 more
  34. 1973Picasso died with no will and about 43,000 works, and the French state took its tax in paintingsInternet Archive and 3 more
  35. 1969Ho Chi Minh's will asked for cremation and his ashes split three ways; the Politburo embalmed him, cut the request from the published will and moved his death date by a dayInternet Archive and 3 more
  36. 1968A jury awarded John Steinbeck's stepdaughter more than $13 million against his son's family for blocking films of his novelsusatoday.com and 3 more
  37. 1968Marcel Duchamp worked in secret for 20 years on Étant donnés; it was moved to Philadelphia under his 1966 instructions after he died in 1968duchamparchives.org and 3 more
  38. 1967Bolivian officers cut off Che Guevara's hands in 1967, a minister had them smuggled toward Cuba in a jar, and his body was found under an airstrip 30 years laterpagina12.com.ar and 3 more
  39. 1966Monet's last heir died in a car crash on 3 February 1966 and left Giverny and his father's paintings to the Académie des Beaux-Artsacademiedesbeauxarts.fr and 3 more
  40. 1966Lenny Bruce died broke in 1966 with an appeal pending, and New York pardoned him in 2003Internet Archive and 4 more
  41. 1965Somerset Maugham tried to disinherit his daughter in 1962 to adopt his secretary Alan Searle; a 21-month case in British and French courts barred the adoptionspectator.com and 3 more
  42. 1963A Lewis scholar says he saved C. S. Lewis's papers from a bonfire; a critic charged in 1988 that the story and an unfinished novel were a hoaxchristianitytoday.com and 2 more
  43. 1962Marilyn Monroe's executor told tax officials she lived in New York, so a court barred her estate's company from claiming California image rightsCourtListener and 8 more
  44. 1960Bhopal's heiress left for Pakistan, her sister's line took the palaces, and in 2025 a court reopened Saif Ali Khan's inheritanceLiveLaw and 4 more
  45. 1960A yardman burned Zora Neale Hurston's belongings after she died in a county welfare home in 1960, and a deputy sheriff put out the firearchive.news.ufl.edu and 3 more
  46. 1960Richard Wright died in a Paris clinic in 1960; his daughter and friends said the US government may have had him killedfbeyes.wustl.edu and 3 more
  47. 1955Charlie Parker's wife, his partner and his mother fought over his body, and he was buried where he asked not to beInternet Archive and 3 more
  48. 1955Einstein gave his Nobel money to his first wife and asked to be cremated in secret, and the pathologist kept his brain for decadesnationalgeographic.com and 3 more
  49. 1955Albert Einstein's publicity rights ended in 2005, a judge ruled, defeating Hebrew University's suit over a GM ad with his face on a muscled bodycacd.uscourts.gov and 5 more
  50. 1954Diego Rivera locked Frida Kahlo's bathroom after she died, and her clothes and papers stayed sealed for 50 yearsgetty.edu and 3 more
  51. 1953Beria was shot half an hour after his verdict in 1953; his son lived as Sergo Gegechkori and died five months after Russia's Supreme Court refused to clear his fatherarchive.kyivpost.com and 4 more
  52. 1950George Orwell married Sonia Brownell in a hospital in October 1949 and died in January 1950; his estate's accountant ran his rights until she sued in 1979washingtonmonthly.com and 3 more
  53. 1946W.C. Fields paid his son's mother $20,000 to deny he was the father, and his will's orphan college lost to the wife he never divorcedThe New York Times and 2 more
  54. 1945Béla Bartók's New York estate was in court for 22 years, and the trustee claimed his manuscriptsCourtListener and 4 more
  55. 1940Stalin's agents killed Trotsky and members of his family; he sealed his exile papers at Harvard until 1980, and the grandson who survived kept his house as a museumguides.library.harvard.edu and 5 more
  56. 1938Bukharin made his wife memorise his last letter before his arrest, and she carried it through 20 years of camps and exile until he was cleared in 1988colinshindler.com and 2 more
  57. 1937H. P. Lovecraft's literary executor died in 1951, his papers went to August Derleth, and no court has settled who owns his copyrightsfindingaids.library.tamu.edu and 3 more
  58. 1930Arthur Conan Doyle's heirs charged licence fees for Sherlock Holmes until a court ruled the character was free to uselaw.justia.com and 2 more
  59. 1924Kafka told Max Brod to burn his papers; Brod saved them, and the fight over them ended in a Swiss bank vault in 2019historynewsnetwork.org and 3 more
  60. 1924Lenin's widow opposed embalming him and gave the party his letter asking it to remove Stalin; the party put the body on display and kept the letter from the congress floormarxists.org and 5 more
  61. 1922Proust's sister-in-law burned his papers after her husband died in 1935, and a perfume heir bought his furniture for 1,500 francsbnf.fr and 3 more
  62. 1916Jack London left nearly his entire estate to his wife Charmian in 1916; she kept the ranch, evicted a biographer, and her 1938 will turned it into a state parkparks.ca.gov and 3 more
  63. 1914Ambrose Bierce vanished in Mexico in 1913 or 1914, and a priest put a plaque in a Sierra Mojada cemetery in 2004 for the grave a witness describeddonswaim.com and 1 more
  64. 1911Alma Mahler held Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony for decades and first demanded a veto over Deryck Cooke's completionmahlerfoundation.org and 2 more
  65. 1905Ernst Abbe gave the Zeiss works to a foundation, and after 1945 a western and an eastern Zeiss sued each other over the name for 17 yearscarl-zeiss-stiftung.de and 2 more
  66. 1904Herzl's testament asked for his children to lie beside him; Israel buried his suicide son and his daughter there 76 years after their deathshnn.us and 2 more
  67. 1902A 1953 newspaper said a chimney sweep blocked Émile Zola's flue in 1902, and the Panthéon ceremony for his remains ended with a gunman wounding Dreyfushistorytoday.com and 3 more
  68. 1900Nietzsche's sister took control of his papers while he was insane, published The Will to Power, and Hitler came to her funeralWikipedia (English)
  69. 1896Alfred Nobel gave 94 percent of his fortune to prizes, and his relatives and the King of Sweden tried to stop itnobelpeacecenter.org and 3 more
  70. 1890Richard Burton's widow burned his manuscript of The Scented Garden and his diaries after he diedgrolierclub.omeka.net and 2 more
  71. 1832Jeremy Bentham willed his body to be dissected and displayed, and students stole his head in 1975ucl.ac.uk and 3 more
  72. 1831Stephen Girard left $7.5 million for "poor white male orphans", and courts fought over the word "white" until 1968Cornell Law School, LII and 3 more
  73. 1821Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne were published in 1878 over objections and sold at Sotheby's in 1885 for £543 17slibrary.harvard.edu and 3 more
  74. 1814The manuscript of Sade's 120 Days of Sodom was smuggled into Switzerland in 1982, sold for 7 million euros in 2014, and bought by France for 4.55 million euros in 2021thelocal.ch and 3 more
  75. 1778Voltaire was refused a Paris burial in 1778, buried in secret, moved to the Panthéon in 1791 with his heart kept apart, and a legend says his bones were thrown away in 1814jackboulware.substack.com and 3 more
  76. 1598Hideyoshi took over Nobunaga's house by backing a two-year-old heir, and after he died Tokugawa Ieyasu did the same to his own five-year-old sonkotobank.jp and 5 more
  77. 1593Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford house on 30 May 1593 by a man later pardoned in 28 days, and the inquest record was found in 1925archive.spectator.co.uk and 3 more
  78. 1519Leonardo da Vinci's legitimate half-brothers cut him out of their father's estate, and his will still left them money and landTreccani and 2 more