The truth comes out—sometimes, through people's last breaths. Deathbed confessions have long fascinated both psychologists and the public, offering glimpses into guilt, fear, and the pursuit of closure.
However, while these last-minute revelations might bring solace to those who want to take less baggage to the afterlife, they can also deeply agitate the ones left behind.
A few days ago on r/AskReddit, a user named Youreanouch said, "What is the most disturbing deathbed confession you've ever heard?" and the thread quickly spiraled, drawing 11,000 upvotes and more than 2,700 comments, many haunting, and some unforgettable.
#1
My wife, a geriatrician, told me this story. She had a patient who was considered just the loveliest by all those who knew her and all of her children. Now her children and their families are also successful individuals here in Melbourne, Australia. Lawyer, doctor, university Dean etc. A group of very neatly presented people if you know what I mean.
As the matriarch’s dementia worsened she began having extremely violent hallucinations and began sharing unfiltered tales of great violence. The family was very confused but after she died, the oldest son explained to his siblings that mum was actually “taken” as a young teen in East London by a g**g leader and was forced into being his “wife” for many years. Throughout this ordeal, the woman actually studied and learned how to be a gangster and eventually found herself influential enough to stage a coup against him, take all of his money, and end his g**g. She then escaped to Australia with the money to start over and managed to lead and nurture a life of privilege for herself and for generations to come.
I admire this woman greatly.
As the matriarch’s dementia worsened she began having extremely violent hallucinations and began sharing unfiltered tales of great violence. The family was very confused but after she died, the oldest son explained to his siblings that mum was actually “taken” as a young teen in East London by a g**g leader and was forced into being his “wife” for many years. Throughout this ordeal, the woman actually studied and learned how to be a gangster and eventually found herself influential enough to stage a coup against him, take all of his money, and end his g**g. She then escaped to Australia with the money to start over and managed to lead and nurture a life of privilege for herself and for generations to come.
I admire this woman greatly.
161points
#2
I work as an er nurse, and a couple months ago there was a massive crash on the highway with around 20 cars. It was apparently a mystery who caused it but because so many people were hurt people and people didn't know who's fault it was they didn't know who's insurance was going to pay for everything. Because the treatments were super expensive for many of the patients most insurances would only partially cover the bills. There was one older man who was in the car with his wife and his wife died on impact. In his last moments he told me to put the blame on him, to tell everyone he confessed to causing the crash. He did it because his insurance was top tier and he knew it would help people. Not very disturbing but I think it's pretty interesting.
161points
The tricky part with these stories is that when you hear someone admitting guilt, there's a chance the act might not have even happened.
Working on children's fabricated memories, cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus gave a group of volunteers the rudimentary outlines of a childhood experience: getting lost in a mall and being rescued by a kindly adult.
She told the subjects, falsely, that the scenario was real and had taken place when they were young. (Loftus asked their parents for biographical details that she could "plant" in each case.) Then she debriefed the subjects twice, with the interviews separated by a week or two.
By the second interview, six of the twenty-four test subjects had internalized the story, weaving in sensory and emotional details of their own. Loftus and other researchers have since used similar techniques to create false memories of near-drownings, animal attacks, and encounters with Bugs Bunny at Disneyland (impossible, since Bugs is a Warner Bro).
#3
When I was 10 or 11, my grandfather passed away from cirrhosis of the liver (he was a happy, functioning alcoholic). I was in his hospital room alone with him the day he passed, scared because of how different he looked from the man I'd always known (he'd lost like half his body weight, and looked skeletal).
He held my hand, and told me that his father (my great grandfather) k**led 4 men in their beds with an icepick because they'd "r***d a colored girl" and the law wouldn't do anything about it. He went into gory detail that bordered on t*****e p**n. I still have mental scars 35 years later.
I didn't understand all of that at the time, and it wasn't until years later telling my mom about it that she confirmed and explained it in a more gentle detail. Apparently, my great grandfather and his brother may have also been professional (or maybe serial) k**lers, and supposedly k**led upwards of 25 K*K members across Alabama, Georgia, and Northern Florida.
He held my hand, and told me that his father (my great grandfather) k**led 4 men in their beds with an icepick because they'd "r***d a colored girl" and the law wouldn't do anything about it. He went into gory detail that bordered on t*****e p**n. I still have mental scars 35 years later.
I didn't understand all of that at the time, and it wasn't until years later telling my mom about it that she confirmed and explained it in a more gentle detail. Apparently, my great grandfather and his brother may have also been professional (or maybe serial) k**lers, and supposedly k**led upwards of 25 K*K members across Alabama, Georgia, and Northern Florida.
133points
#4
Context: my mom was the last person I really had in my close family.
Sort of a deathbed confession.
My mom, after she died, left me her will - and a letter.
In that letter, she told me I was adopted.
After I’d asked repeatedly over the years if I were adopted. Functionally everybody that knew my parents - knew.
That f****d me up pretty good, not gonna lie.
So if you, my dear redditors - have adopted a child.
Please tell them before you die - and don’t lie to them.
Because that was an immensely s****y way to find out. .
Sort of a deathbed confession.
My mom, after she died, left me her will - and a letter.
In that letter, she told me I was adopted.
After I’d asked repeatedly over the years if I were adopted. Functionally everybody that knew my parents - knew.
That f****d me up pretty good, not gonna lie.
So if you, my dear redditors - have adopted a child.
Please tell them before you die - and don’t lie to them.
Because that was an immensely s****y way to find out. .
96points
#5
My grandma told my sister and I that our Uncle (her oldest) was not actually our grandpa’s son.
She was r***d by her brother in law’s brother and met my grandfather soon after. He didn't care that my uncle wasn’t his, he raised him just like he was his own.
She asked us to never tell anyone. We never have.
She was r***d by her brother in law’s brother and met my grandfather soon after. He didn't care that my uncle wasn’t his, he raised him just like he was his own.
She asked us to never tell anyone. We never have.
91points
A decade ago, forensic psychologists Julia Shaw, of the University of Bedfordshire, and Stephen Porter, of the University of British Columbia, went even further.
They tested a method for implanting false memories, not of getting lost in childhood but of committing a crime in adolescence.
They modeled their work on Loftus's, sending questionnaires to each of their participants' parents to gather background information. (Any past run-ins with the law would eliminate a student from the experiment.)
Then, Shaw and Porter divided the students into two groups and told each a different kind of false story. One group was prompted to remember an emotional event, such as getting attacked by a dog. The other was prompted to remember a crime—an a*****t, for example—that led to an encounter with the police. (At no time during the experiments were the participants allowed to communicate with their parents.)
#6
My Grandmother confessed to me that her oldest brother was the product of incest. My Great grandmother had him when she was 14. To be clear her dad, my great great grandfather r***d her.
I was 17 when she told me this and I said I wouldn't have been able to raise that baby.
She said, "She had no choice".
And d**n if that didn't scare the ever livin s**t outta me in 1997.
I was 17 when she told me this and I said I wouldn't have been able to raise that baby.
She said, "She had no choice".
And d**n if that didn't scare the ever livin s**t outta me in 1997.
85points
#7
My gran was on her deathbed and was convinced she was going to hell because she stole money from the church rectory 50 years earlier to help feed her 10 young children. I think gran saying that was more upsetting to my aunts than her actual death. Not because of the stealing, because we all agree that a decent God wouldn't care when someone stole to feed children, but just how adamant Gran was that she was going to hell because of it. Made for some drama before she passed, for sure. RIP Grandma.
84points
#8
I watched a video and this super old granny in Alaska talked about how she l**led her a*****e husband in Tennessee or wherever. So she thought about it for months, was abused during and before that, then she asked him to fix something up high in the barn, hid some rakes under hay, and straight up pushed the ladder and made him fall on the rakes, k**ling him.
So she calls the police (I think it was like 1940-1950’s times) and they investigate it and find he fell on accident, she moves to Alaska and lives a loooonnnngg fulfilling and happy life.
So she calls the police (I think it was like 1940-1950’s times) and they investigate it and find he fell on accident, she moves to Alaska and lives a loooonnnngg fulfilling and happy life.
83points
What Shaw and Porter found was astonishing. "We thought we'd have something like a thirty-percent success rate, and we ended up having over seventy," Shaw told Douglas Starr. "We only had a handful of people who didn't believe us."
After three debriefing sessions, seventy-six percent of the students claimed to remember the false emotional event; nearly the same amount—seventy percent—remembered the fictional crime.
So if you hear a hard-to-believe confession, fact-check it. There might not be a reason to.
#9
My great-grandpa came home from WW1 and his family had a great big party. He noticed his 13 year old sister was missing so he went and looked for her. He found their neighbor r**ing her. He yanked the man off of her and told her to go to their mom.
We don't know if he beat him or k**led him immediately but on her death bed, my grandma said she hid his bloody clothing buried in the front yard from that night and the body is long gone. Where the clothing is supposedly buried there is a beautiful patch of iris's that grows.
We don't know if he beat him or k**led him immediately but on her death bed, my grandma said she hid his bloody clothing buried in the front yard from that night and the body is long gone. Where the clothing is supposedly buried there is a beautiful patch of iris's that grows.
80points
#10
A nurse once shared that an old man confessed to sabotaging his brother’s parachute during WWII because they were in love with the same woman. His brother died, and the woman married someone else anyway. He said he lived with the guilt every single day.
79points
#11
My grandpa on his death bed. Hardened WWII vet, never cried in his life, finally broke down to my dad and my uncles, saying that ‘he’s always felt sorry for k**ling those German boys.’ That’s so sad to think that he had to bottle up those feelings for seventy years.
77points
#12
When my country was suffering a civil war, one little girl (around 6 years old) who lived near my grandmother got bit by a dog with rabies.
They could not vaccinate her and the girl started to show symptoms. As the disease is deadly in this stage, the doctor and the family decided that the most humane solution was to mercy k**l her.
My grandmother, who was a teenager then, still remembered that the whole family was crying while walking down the street to the doctors office. The father was holding the little and she was trying to eat bread but could not swallow it and had a little bit of foam in the corners of her mouth. She was haunted by the little girls story for her whole life.
They could not vaccinate her and the girl started to show symptoms. As the disease is deadly in this stage, the doctor and the family decided that the most humane solution was to mercy k**l her.
My grandmother, who was a teenager then, still remembered that the whole family was crying while walking down the street to the doctors office. The father was holding the little and she was trying to eat bread but could not swallow it and had a little bit of foam in the corners of her mouth. She was haunted by the little girls story for her whole life.
74points
#13
Not quite a confession, but near the end of my mom’s life, she asked, “where are my boys?” My twin and and I thought she meant “girls,” so we told her we were there.
After she died, the day before the funeral we got a call from a PI asking if they could speak to my mom. I told them she had just passed away and the PI shared that they represented a client looking for their biological mother. I was seriously thinking it was someone that somehow heard my mom had passed and was trying to get money. At the time I was grieving so it seemed that plausible.
I decided to hear her out and she was absolutely describing my mother and parts of her life that no scammer would have known. Come to find out, our mother had two boys from two different men prior to marrying our father. One of the men was from her hometown, the other was from Japan. So much of her life before our dad was an enigma suddenly. Both her sisters had Alzheimer’s so no information was ever shared with us.
After she died, the day before the funeral we got a call from a PI asking if they could speak to my mom. I told them she had just passed away and the PI shared that they represented a client looking for their biological mother. I was seriously thinking it was someone that somehow heard my mom had passed and was trying to get money. At the time I was grieving so it seemed that plausible.
I decided to hear her out and she was absolutely describing my mother and parts of her life that no scammer would have known. Come to find out, our mother had two boys from two different men prior to marrying our father. One of the men was from her hometown, the other was from Japan. So much of her life before our dad was an enigma suddenly. Both her sisters had Alzheimer’s so no information was ever shared with us.
73points
#14
Before my grandma passed, she acknowledged that in 1949 at the age of 17, and a senior in high school, she became pregnant with my mom. Obviously not married to my grandpa… until 4 months later. I told her that we all could do the math, already knew her secret, and loved her anyway.
73points
#15
That old white lady admitting she'd lied as a teen about a black boy assaulting her. The boy was k**led and he was innocent.
88963416:
Emmett Tills entire story is horrible. I’ve seen the pictures of him, I don’t know how anyone could do that to another person. The people that were involved (somewhat excluded the other black people forced to be there, but not much) are evil and despicable people.
Edit: just a warning because I mentioned the picture. Don’t look at them.
88963416:
Emmett Tills entire story is horrible. I’ve seen the pictures of him, I don’t know how anyone could do that to another person. The people that were involved (somewhat excluded the other black people forced to be there, but not much) are evil and despicable people.
Edit: just a warning because I mentioned the picture. Don’t look at them.
68points
#16
Had a 80 year old something patient tell me when his wife was dying, she admitted to having multiple affairs through out their long a*s ~60year marriage. She went as far to say she never loved him and his only son wasn't his. I was transporting him to ED, he likely only had months left to live, wanted to share with me. Still think about this often.
63points
#17
My patient told me to tell her daughter she was right the whole time, so when she came in, I did. The patient had just passed. The daughter stared at me and became upset and yelled that I was lying so I just stood quiet and left the room.
Apparently the lady wasn't her biological mom and she had kidnapped her. The daughter did a 23 and me and found out about some relatives and the mom never admitted it. I wish I could've found out more.
Apparently the lady wasn't her biological mom and she had kidnapped her. The daughter did a 23 and me and found out about some relatives and the mom never admitted it. I wish I could've found out more.
62points
#18
Ours is a bit roundabout.
My dad passed away last year, and a month later, one of his cousins did. But, before she did, she informed my mom that my paternal grandfather had a secret second family. She was the last person who knew and felt that SOMEONE should know.
Turns out dad knew, and intended to take it to the grave. He'd been told HIS mom, when she was on her deathbed and swore him to secrecy.
The cousin only knew, because in the 50's, Grandaddy made a stop to drop off some cash with said other family, on the way home from my aunt's funeral and said cousin was in the car.
My mom and I managed to piece things together and track down this other, previously unknown, branch of the family. We've established contact and they were surprised as we were. Good folks, turns out my half cousin is a fairly successful gospel singer.
Not exactly dark, but it's my new exhibit A when I explain to people that Southern families are built on secrets and lies.
My dad passed away last year, and a month later, one of his cousins did. But, before she did, she informed my mom that my paternal grandfather had a secret second family. She was the last person who knew and felt that SOMEONE should know.
Turns out dad knew, and intended to take it to the grave. He'd been told HIS mom, when she was on her deathbed and swore him to secrecy.
The cousin only knew, because in the 50's, Grandaddy made a stop to drop off some cash with said other family, on the way home from my aunt's funeral and said cousin was in the car.
My mom and I managed to piece things together and track down this other, previously unknown, branch of the family. We've established contact and they were surprised as we were. Good folks, turns out my half cousin is a fairly successful gospel singer.
Not exactly dark, but it's my new exhibit A when I explain to people that Southern families are built on secrets and lies.
61points
#19
A few years ago, my mum knew a woman who was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Before she passed away, she made a shocking confession to her husband. She told him that all three of their sons were not his biological children. Their real father was actually her own father.
The boys were around 10, 8, and 7 years old at the time. After she died, the husband had DNA tests done, which confirmed that he was not the biological father. The tests also showed that the boys’ biological father was indeed their maternal grandfather.
The woman's father, who was in his seventies, was arrested and later sent to prison, where he eventually died. Despite learning the truth, the husband decided to raise the boys as his own. He said he had noticed early on that there was something different about them. For example, they didn’t seem to feel pain the way other children did. At the time, he didn’t think much of it, but looking back, it stood out more clearly.
The boys were around 10, 8, and 7 years old at the time. After she died, the husband had DNA tests done, which confirmed that he was not the biological father. The tests also showed that the boys’ biological father was indeed their maternal grandfather.
The woman's father, who was in his seventies, was arrested and later sent to prison, where he eventually died. Despite learning the truth, the husband decided to raise the boys as his own. He said he had noticed early on that there was something different about them. For example, they didn’t seem to feel pain the way other children did. At the time, he didn’t think much of it, but looking back, it stood out more clearly.
59points
#20
My grandfather looked at me when I was 16 and apologized for the sexual a*****t he committed against my mother when she was a child. Still f***s with me to this day that he did that and thought I’d be the person to forgive him.
52points