The Reports Of My Alpaca's Death Are Greatly Exaggerated by VaccaD

In 1966, several sources reported the suicide of WHAT AUTHOR of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest? He actually faked the suicide attempt with the help of the Merry Pranksters and fled to Mexico in an (unsuccessful) attempt to avoid drug charges.

Author and publisher Titan Leeds was the subject of a dismissive 1733 obituary. WHAT AUTHOR, a commercial rival of Leeds, wrote that obituary and, until Leeds' actual death in 1738, publicly insisted that Leeds' subsequent output was the work of an inferior (but impressively determined) impostor?

On January 8, 2011, CNN and Fox News both reported that WHAT POLITICIAN had been assassinated? They were wrong, but not because of a lack of effort on the part of Jared Loughner.

WHAT INDUSTRIALIST was the subject of a mistaken obituary occasioned by the death of his brother Ludwig in 1888? The obituary was so scathing (referring to him as "the merchant of death"), that it famously inspired him to rewrite his will.

WHAT SINGER, known for his renditions of musical standards as well as original songs including "I'm Walkin'" and "Ain't That A Shame", was erroneously reported to have drowned when his house flooded during Hurricane Katrina?

In August 2014, an error on a Dutch newspaper's website resulted in the printing of a pre-written obituary for WHAT "TOTAL FOOTBALL" STAR, a three-time winner of the Ballon d'Or?

WHAT IRAQI OFFICIAL was reportedly killed in Basra in April 2003? While he had been seen entering a building just prior to its destruction in a Coalition air strike, he was still alive when arrested in Baghdad that August. You can give either his proper name, or the infamous nickname he earned during the Al-Anfal campaign.

A possibly apocryphal story has the Western Roman Emperor Honorius being stricken with despair upon hearing that Rome had perished, but perking back up upon being told that it meant that the Visigoths had sacked Rome, not that anything had befallen a beloved pet of his also named Rome. WHAT SPECIFIC SORT OF ANIMAL was Rome?

In 1816, London newspapers reported the suicide of WHAT AUTHOR AND POET, known for such works as Christabel, Kubla Khan, and Frost at Midnight? The reports were based on the suicide of an unidentified man who'd stolen one of the author's shirts, and was wearing it with the laundry tag still attached.

On April 23, 1998, fans at a Pittsburgh Pirates game were informed of the death of WHAT ACTOR, who in 1991 became the only person to ever win two acting Emmys in the same year? (For performances in Gabriel's Fire and Heat Wave, if it helps.) The announcer had confused him with a very different (but similarly-named) man, an infamous assassin.

On June 10, 1940, WHAT ANTI-COMMUNIST AND ANTI-COLONIALIST PHILOSOPHER AND SEGREGATIONIST died of a stroke after reading an issue of the Chicago Defender erroneously saying that he'd died of a stroke, "broke, alone, and unpopular"? While he was indeed unpopular with African-American leaders of his time, his reputation has seen posthumous rehabilitation in some circles. (edited at 7:59 pm, May 8, 2018 (EDT))

On September 8, 2015, Variety accidentally ran a pre-written obituary on their website claiming that WHAT DIRECTOR of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and 12 Monkeys had died? Variety's attempt to correct their mistake was complicated by the director issuing a statement, "I apologize for being dead, but Variety has announced my demise. Don’t believe their retraction and apology!”