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  MARIE ANTOINETTE, 21, Queen of France

  1777

  THOMAS JEFFERSON, 45, U.S. Ambassador to France

  SALLY HEMINGS, 16, slave, half-sister to Jefferson’s dead wife

  1788

  NAPOLÉON BONAPARTE, 26, general in command of the French

  “Army of Italy”

  JOSÉPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS, 33, his wife

  FORTUNÉ, 4, her dog

  1796

  BENJAMIN, 23, field slave

  HANNAH, 17, house slave

  1855

  JOHN WILKES BOOTH, 24, actor

  CATHERINE WINSLOW, 26, actress

  1863

  ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 54, President of the United States

  MARY TODD LINCOLN, 44, First Lady

  1863

  MARTHA JANE “CALAMITY JANE” CANARY, 24, frontierswoman

  JAMES BUTLER “WILD BILL” HICKOK, 39, gambler and gunfighter

  1876

  WALT WHITMAN, 64, poet

  OSCAR WILDE, 28, poet and playwright

  1883

  SIGMUND FREUD, 42, psychiatrist

  MINNA BERNAYS, 33, his sister-in-law

  1898

  LIZZIE ANDREW BORDEN, 44, acquitted murderer

  NANCE O’NEIL, 30, actress

  1904

  JAMES JOYCE, 24, writer

  NORA BARNACLE, 22, his wife

  1906

  PABLO PICASSO, 24, artist

  FERNANDE OLIVIER, 25, model

  1906

  GERTRUDE STEIN, 36, writer

  ALICE B. TOKLAS, 33, her companion

  1910

  VICTOR DE SATODE PEÑASCO Y CASTELLANA, 18, of independent

  means from Madrid

  MARIA JOSEFA PEREDEZE SOTO Y VALLEJO

  PEÑASCO Y CASTELLANA, 17, his newly wed wife

  1912

  MATA HARI, 37, exotic dancer and courtesan

  JACK JOHNSON, 35, world heavyweight boxing champion

  1913

  GEORGE HERMAN “BABE” RUTH, 21, baseball player

  JOSEPHINE RUGGLES, 24, prostitute

  1916

  ERNEST HEMINGWAY, 23, writer

  CÉLINE GAUTHIER, 34, prostitute

  1922

  JOSEPHINE BAKER, 19, dancer

  GEORGES SIMENON, 22, writer

  1926

  JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, 24, recent graduate in philosophy from

  the École Normale Supérieure

  SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR, 21, recent graduate in philosophy

  from the Sorbonne

  1929

  MILTON BERLE, 23, comedian

  AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON, 40, evangelist

  1930

  CLYDE BARROW, 25, outlaw

  BONNIE PARKER, 23, outlaw

  1934

  ADOLF HITLER, 46, Reichskanzler and Führer

  INGA ARVAD, 22, journalist

  1935

  INGA ARVAD, 29, journalist

  JOHN F. KENNEDY, 24, ensign, U.S. Navy Intelligence

  1942

  J. EDGAR HOOVER, 53, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

  CLYDE TOLSON, 48, Associate Director

  1946

  ALBERT EINSTEIN, 66, physicist

  MARGARITA KONENKOVA, 51, Soviet spy

  1945

  RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON, 40, Vice President of the United States

  THELMA CATHERINE “PAT” NIXON, 41, his wife

  1953

  JOSEPH R. MCCARTHY, 44, U.S. Senator

  JEAN KERR MCCARTHY, 29, his wife

  1953

  ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 36, Attorney General of the United States

  MARILYN MONROE, 35, actress

  1962

  WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON, 24, law student

  HILLARY DIANE RODHAM, 23, law student

  1971

  ELVIS PRESLEY, 42, singer

  HOLLY SINGLETON, 20, admirer

  1977

  DIANA, 25, Princess of Wales

  CHARLES PHILIP ARTHUR GEORGE, 37, Prince of Wales and Earl

  of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick and Baron

  of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, heir

  apparent to the British throne

  1986

  ROOSTER, 2, stud

  CHICKEN, 1, roaster

  2000

  KEVIN SMITH, 32, advertising copywriter

  JULIA HANSON SMITH, 30, graphic designer

  2001

  GEORGE W. BUSH, 57, President of the United States

  LAURA BUSH, 57, First Lady

  2004

  ROBERT OLEN BUTLER, 62, writer

  MISS X, 36, hotel desk clerk

  2007

  KEVIN SMITH, 38, advertising executive

  JULIA HANSON, 36, art gallery manager

  2007

  SANTA CLAUS, 471, philanthropist

  INGEBIRGITTA, 826, elf

  2008

  First published in the UK in 2015

  by No Exit Press, an imprint of Oldcastle Books

  P O Box 394,

  Harpenden, AL5 1XJ, UK

  noexit.co.uk

  Some of the stories in this book originally appeared in Playboy, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Weber, New Letters, Vestal Review, and on Nerve.com and NarrativeMagazine.com.

  All rights reserved

  © Robert Olen Butler, 2015

  The right of Robert Olen Butler to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN

  978–1–84344–753-5 (epub)

  978-1-84344-754-2 (kindle)

  978-1-84344-755-9 (pdf)

  Typeset by Geethik Technologies, Madurai