John Bowman
Most of the wills on this list are funny, or humorous, or just kind of strange. John Bowman’s will is for a different reason. You see, this tanning scion and Vermont socialite had a beloved wife and daughter who died before he did. Bowman left fifty thousand dollars behind to employ staff in his big 21-room mansion and mausoleum, just in case his wife and daughter came back to life and needed to be taken care of.
Servants and employees dutifully carried out this stipulation until 1950, when the trust money ran out. His family never rose from the dead, and neither did he.
Mickey Rooney
Famous actor and comedian Mickey Rooney – infamous for his portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi, but famous for roles in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World," "Babes in Arms," and even "Night at the Museum" – died without much in his bank account. A mere eighty thousand dollars waited for his wife and children when he passed away in 2014. But, according to his will, they were to get none of it.
The family was furious and ended up contesting the will, but lost. Only one member of the Rooney family got anything out of Mickey's death: his stepson and caretaker, Mark Aber. If you're wondering why Rooney didn't have much, it was due to a lack of royalty payments, as well as financial mismanagement and elder abuse by a different stepson.
Jeremy Bentham
You may not know who Jeremy Bentham is, but you should. This British lawyer and philosopher accomplished many things during his time on Earth, between the years of 1748 and 1832, but the thing that most people remember him for his incredible strange will.
While the will included all of the normal things, it also said that he wanted his body to be preserved, stuffed with hay, and put on display in the University College London. It was done, and incredibly his body is still on display. Dr. Thomas Smith, the executor of Bentham's will, personally stuffed Bentham. No, that's not a euphemism.
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw – famous author and playwright – had a b-e-e-f with the alphabet. He was thought to dislike it so much, that when he died in 1950, he left behind a significant sum, dedicated to the creation of a new alphabet. His few requirements were that it had to be phonetic, and be forty characters long. By the end of 1950, the Shaw Alphabet had been created.
It utilizes three types of letters: tall, deep, and short. Short letters are vowels, liquids (such as r and l), and nasals. Tall letters are voiceless consonants (save a few exceptions). Tall letters rotated a hundred and eighty degrees become a deep letter, representing a corresponding voiced consonant.
Mark Gruenwald
If you like Marvel comics, the MCU, or any of the Marvel characters, then you have Mark Gruenwald to thank. He was the executive editor of both Captain American and Iron Man, and held hundreds of smaller jobs within other sectors of Marvel during his time with the superhero comic giant.
So great was his love for the industry in general that when he died, he stipulated that he was to be cremated, and his ashes were to be mixed with the ink used to print comic books. This was done, and now Gruenwald is part of a paperback compilation of...Squadron Supreme. Come on, not even Fantastic Four?