Obits are not typically a subject for this board, but here are excerpts frsm an AP report from London. I gather that the European papers are reporting even more of the interesting details. Can our Brits share?

Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schonhausen

LONDON -- Count Gottfried von Bismarck, whose life of privileged excess as a descendant of Germany's "Iron Chancellor" was clouded by two deaths at his decadent parties, has died at age 44. Count Bismarck, great-great-grandson of Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, had been found dead at his $10 million apartment in London's Chelsea district Monday.

Gottfried Alexander Leopold Graf von Bismarck-Schonhausen attend[ed] Oxford University in England. As an undergraduate, he was known for his extravagant appearance -- which at times involved dressing in fishnet stockings or traditional Bavarian lederhosen -- and his lavish parties. At one, guests were greeted by a pair of severed pigs' heads on the dinner table.

At Oxford, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club -- a dining society known for its raucous upper-class membership -- and the Piers Gaveston Society, a 12-member club with a reputation for drunken excess and sexual shenanigans. In 1986, Olivia Channon, the 22-year-old daughter of a Conservative government minister, died of a drug overdose in Count Bismarck's bed at Oxford after an end-of-term party. Count Bismarck -- who was not in the bed at the time -- was not implicated in the death.

Dr. Paul Knapman, presiding over an inquest, said one room of the apartment contained a "bizarre" assortment of items including a large rubber tarpaulin on the floor, towels, lubricants, bottles of vodka and buckets of sex toys. Police concluded Casey's death was an accident, and the coroner's verdict was "death by misadventure," meaning no one was to blame.

I am not sure why this is particularly sad. It seems to be the end of an outrageously decadent existence either intentionally or fecklessly thrown away. It sounds like possibly self asphyxiation gone wrong in a similar manner to Michael Hutchens and many other bored single men seeking sexual gratification in the absence of a longterm committed relationship.
One night stands and knee tremblers and quickies can not be satisfying.
Perhaps sorry or tragic may be more linguistically accurate than the generic sad.

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Originally posted by .,,:
I am not sure why this is particularly sad.
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I'd say it was a happy event for his heirs... whoever they are.

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I gather that the European papers are reporting even more of the interesting details.

Possibly, but I'd not heard of this before now. I can't say that I am deeply distressed by either the death or the fact I'd missed hearing about it. I do vaguely remember some fuss about the death of Olivia Channon, although I am surprised that it was as long ago as that.