Some of the rarest pictures of famous personalities, taken just before death!

1)The last picture of Adolf Hitler, 1945

Allegedly the last picture of Adolf Hitler before he committed suicide on . Hitler (right) and his adjutant Julius Schaub looking at the ruins of the Reich chancellery, April 28, 1945.

This last known picture of Hitler was taken approximately two days prior to his death as he stands outside his Berlin bunker entrance surveying the devastating bomb damage. With Germany lying in ruins after six years of war, and with defeat imminent, Hitler decided to take his own life. But before doing so, he married Eva Braun and then penned his last will and testament. The next day in the afternoon on April 30, 1945 Braun and Hitler entered his living room to end their lives.

Later that afternoon the remaining members of the bunker community found Hitler slumped over, and blood spilled over the arm of the couch. Eva was sitting at the other end. Hitler had killed himself by biting down on a cyanide capsule while shooting him self in the head. Eva only used the cyanide capsule. Hitler committed suicide two days before the surrender of Berlin to the Soviets on 2 May, and just over a week before the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May.

Hitler’s will

As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people. 

What I Possess belongs - in so far as it has any value - ti the Party. Should this no longer exist, to the State; should the State also be destroyed, no further decision of mine is necessary. My pictures, in the collection which I have bought in the course of years, have never been collected for private purposes, but only for the extension of a gallery in my home town of linz in Donau.

It is my most sincere wish that this bequest may be duly executed. 

I nominate as my Executor my most faithful party comrade, martin Bormann. He is given full legal authority to make all decisions. He is permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life, for my brothers and sisters, also above all for the mother of my wife and my faithful co-workers who are well known to him, principally my old Secretaries Frau Winter etc. who have many years aided me by their work.

I myself and my wife - in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation - choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of a twelve years' service to my people.

Given in Berlin, 29th April 1945, 4:00 a.m. Signed: A. Hitler

Signed as witnesses: Dr. Joseph Goebbels Martin Bormann Colonel Nicholaus von Below

Interesting facts

• When Hitler asked his physician to recommend a reliable method of suicide his doctor suggested combining a dose of cyanide with a gunshot to the head.
• On the morning of 1 May, thirteen hours after the event, Stalin was informed of Hitler’s suicide. General Hans Krebs had given this information to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov when they met at 04:00 on May 1st, when the Germans attempted to negotiate acceptable surrender terms.

2) Last picture of Nikola Tesla, 1943

According to “Tesla – Master of Lightning” this is the last photograph taken of Tesla before his death.

By the end of his brilliant and tortured life, the famous physicist, engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla was penniless and living in a small New York City hotel room. He had become a vegetarian at that point in his life and lived on only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices. Tesla spent days in a park surrounded by the creatures that mattered most to him—pigeons—and his sleepless nights working over mathematical equations and scientific problems in his head.

On 7 January 1943, at the age of 86, Tesla died alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. His body was later found by maid Alice Monaghan after she had entered Tesla’s room, ignoring the “do not disturb” sign that Tesla had placed on his door two days earlier. Assistant medical examiner H.W. Wembly examined the body and ruled that the cause of death had been coronary thrombosis. Tesla’s remains were taken to the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home at Madison Ave. and 81st St. A long-time friend and supporter of Tesla, Hugo Gernsback, commissioned a sculptor to create a death mask, now displayed in the Nikola Tesla Museum.

Two days later the FBI ordered the Alien Property Custodian to seize Tesla’s belongings, even though Tesla was an American citizen. Tesla’s entire estate from the Hotel New Yorker and other New York City hotels was transported to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company under the Office of Alien Property (OAP) seal. John G. Trump, a professor at M.I.T. and a well-known electrical engineer serving as a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee, was called in to analyze the Tesla items in OAP custody.

After a three-day investigation, Trump’s report concluded that there was nothing which would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands, stating: “[Tesla’s] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results”.

On 10 January 1943 New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia read a eulogy written by Slovene-American author Louis Adamic live over the WNYC radio while violin pieces “Ave Maria” and “Tamo daleko” were played in the background. On 12 January, two thousand people attended a state funeral for Tesla at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. After the funeral, Tesla’s body was taken to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, New York, where it was later cremated. The following day, a second service was conducted by prominent priests in the Trinity Chapel in New York City.

3) The last picture of Freddy Mercury, 1991

This is the last picture taken of Freddy Mercury in 1991, before he died of bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.

4) The last picture of  Tupac Shakur, 1996

Tupac Shakur sits with his manager Suge Knight before he was shot to death in a drive-by on September 13, 1996.

5) The last picture of  Abraham Lincoln, 1865

Accounts of Abraham Lincoln’s last photograph are varied. This picture was taken before his assassination in 1865 and was found in General Ulysses S. Grant’s photo album.

6) The last picture of Steve Jobs, 2011 

Steve Jobs days before succumbing to pancreatic cancer after a fight that spanned several years.

7) The last picture of Michael Jackson, 2009

 Michael Jackson rehearsing for his sold out show at the Los Angeles Staples Center two days before his death.

8) The last picture of Vladimir Lenin, 1923

 Vladimir Lenin's last known photo. He had three strokes at this point and was completely mute, 1923.

9) The last picture of Jackass star Ryan Dunn, 2011

Jackass star Ryan Dunn was drinking with his friends hours before the high speed crash that killed him and his passenger.

10) The last photograph of Mahatma Gandhi, 1948

 The last photograph of Mahatma Gandhi after his assassination.