Most famous persons to have died of erotic asphyxiation

Did David Carradine, 72 die of erotic asphyxiation (EA), or more accurately auto-erotic asphyxiation (AEA)? We might never know, but if he did, he could be the most famous person ever to have done so.

He was found dead 4th June 2009 in his hotel room in Bangkok, hanging by a rope in the closet. Apparently no other persons were involved. A highly controversial photograph published by Thai Rath, a local tabloid, showed his hands apparently bound together above the head. Then not one but two of his ex-wives, Gail Jensen and Marina Anderson revealed that he liked self-bondage.

According to Go Ask Alice!, it’s estimated that between 500 and 1,000 deaths due to EA/AEA occur annually in the United States alone, and exactly how many people engage in AEA is unknown, because the practice almost always remains a secret until someone dies accidentally.

The first recorded case of death from EA is of the Czech composer Frantisek Kotzwara who died in 1791, when he tied a ligature around the doorknob of the room in a prostitute he visited, while the other end was fastened around his neck, then had sex with her. When it was over, he was well… dead.

Arguably even more controversial is AEA, which is basically committing suicide… almost.

Sometimes, it goes wrong, and you’re dead, and if you’re a public figure, it’s explosive.

Possibly the most lurid AEA case involving a politician was that of Stephen Milligan, then 45, who was a British Conservative Member of Parliament. His corpse was reportedly found draped across a kitchen table at his London home in 1994 by his secretary Vera Taggart, who let herself in when she became worried he had missed his appointments.

He was found almost naked, save for suspenders and women’s stockings which he wore, with an electrical cord tied from around his neck to his ankles, a plastic trash bag over the head and a segment of orange in his mouth.

Three days later, it was determined that he died due to suffocation by that cord.

Then of course there’s the case of Michael Hutchence, then 37, lead singer of INXS, who *might* have died from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1997, although officially, suicide was cited as the cause of death.

INXS was in the final leg of a world tour and was in Australia. On the morning of 22nd November 1997, Hutchence, was found dead and in the nude in his hotel room in Sydney. There was a belt found at the scene suggesting that he had died by hanging.

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