The Living Dead Dolls Death Timeline

I'm not looking forward to boosting this post on Instagram, because there's no exciting imagery here. This project was able to be done entirely in text!

But I was interested, after analyzing the LDD deaths by date on a generic calendar, to see where the characters would land in a linear chronological timeline through history. The previous post didn't analyze year of death at all because that was extraneous, but this time, it was the point!

The timeline is typed out below, but a few notes of analysis beforehand. 

It's not common for LDDs to share the exact same death day, month, and year. If two characters are listed under a shared date with the format "[X] and [Y]", they were a duo set of characters designed by LDD as a paired release or outright two-pack and were released outside of the numbered series. If multiple singular characters are listed on a date but separated by a comma ("X , Y"), then they are solo dolls, and whether they are related to each other by sharing a precise death date will be discussed in commentary right underneath.

Vaguer death dates are marked with a ! and italics to reflect that they do not have complete death-date information, but unlike the previous generic-calendar organization of death dates, which is detached from year of death, the timeline allocation of data allows these vague deaths to be listed in context with the other characters because years are in consideration. As such, several characters who could not be tracked in the calendar array, which was focused only on the month and date, can be tracked here.

There were three characters who could easily be tracked in the calendar post, but cannot be tracked in the timeline post by virtue of having death dates and months, but not death years--Series 26's Samhain, Lammas, and Beltane. Their death dates correspond to the pagan holidays they are named for, but they have no assigned years, making them unable to be plotted in this arrangement of data.

The Series 27 dolls are unique in not having death dates per se, but they are each given a broad year's date of first report according to their folkloric history, which is functionally the same gimmick under a different concept. I will be adding the Series 27 years to this timeline, just with markers to note they are not functionally deathdates. Only Milu in Series 27 lacks both a death date and an origin date, so she has not been listed here.

Many LDDs do not adhere visually to the time period they died in, with several dolls having aesthetics from later periods of history than their death time, or having older-fashioned looks or embodying older archetypes than typical for their time. For the former, there are dolls like Dottie Rose, who has a solidly 1950s aesthetic despite dying in 1904. For the latter, there are dolls like Menard, a zombie in the older Haitian voodoo/vodou sense who is dressed in an old tattered robe, but died in 1980. For some of these dolls, like Menard, the death year is part of a reference to events on the day relating to a famous person or media release with a conceptual tie to the Living Dead Doll--Menard died the year the film Zombi 2 was released outside of Italy, explaining his dissonantly recent year. Other dolls offer no obvious explanation for their death year being so disconnected from their visual design, with no clear reference behind their date.

All of the dolls with no listed death dates are just as unplottable on this array as they were on the generic calendar. These dolls are Isaac, The Lost, Death, The Girl in Black, Ernest Lee Rotten, Galeras, Kiss of Death, Jack the Ripper, Sweet 16 Sadie, and the entireties of the Series 17, Series 24, Series 27, Series 31, Horseman of the Apocalypse, and Scary Tales collections. Sweet Tooth is reported as not having a death date on the LDD site, and Vesper is documented on neither the LDD site or the fan wiki. Based on the previous Halloween commemorative doll Jack O Lantern in 2016, who died on that year's Halloween, it would be safe to guess Sweet Tooth died on October 31, 2017, and Vesper on October 31, 2018, but I cannot verify those dates.

In cases where the LDD website archive and the printed toy death certificates disagree on death year, or the site lacks conclusive information, I have defaulted to the physical certificates as the "primary source" canon because I cannot know if they are misprints or errors. In cases where I have not seen the certificate of a doll, I default to the website first or fan wiki second. If at any point in the future of this hobby, I get a visual of a certificate new to me and it contradicts the site or my assumption derived from it, this post will be edited to match the printed certificate of the given doll.

Let the timeline begin.

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Before Common Era/BCE/BC

1603 BC

! Arachne (more specific date unknown)

Common Era/CE/AD

779

! Walpurgis, death month and day unknown

1300-1399

1347

! October: Grace of the Grave, recorded as dying on an unknown date in this month and year

1380

! Banshee (not a death date, but year first recorded in folklore)

1400-1499

1454

* June 25: Pixie

1476

* December 27: Lilith

1600-1699

1607

* September 20: Orchid

1614

* August 14: Countess Bathory

1644

! Hopping Vampire (not a death date, but cited as date of emergence in folklore)

1647

* May 26: Ember

1665

* April 12: Gretchen

1700-1799

1722

* October 8: Captain Bonney

** While Captain Bonney is based on the real pirate Anne Bonny, the real Bonny went missing, leaving her with no confirmed date of death. LDD seemed to just estimate a plausible time after her disappearance post-1720.

1773

* December 16: Agatha

1789

* August 11: Asa

1800-1899

1808

! Mephistopheles (not a death date, but cited as emergence in folklore; this date actually corresponds to the publication of Goethe's Faust play based on the older legend)

1815

* July 19: The Madame

1817

* February 13: Ash Lee, Tommy Knocker

* February 14: Coalette, Soot

* February 15: Canary 

** All of these five above characters are from Series 34, and their close death dates are the result of canonically knowing each other and dying together in a mining disaster in their town. 

1821

* August 24: Haemon

1822

* November 14: Eeriel the Fiji Mermaid

1830

! Morgana, recorded to have died in this year, but with no specific month and date

1837

! Spring-Heeled Jack (not a death date, but cited as date of emergence in folklore)

1840

* December 31: Frozen Charlotte

1849

* October 7: Edgar Allan Poe and Annabel Lee

** This death date is true to the real Poe, but Lee was the fictitious subject of his last poem, not a real person.

1858

* April 18: Dee K.

1865

* February 28: Luna

1870

* August 8: Edgrr

1876

* May 4: Absynth

1881

* June 15: Macumba

1886

* May 15: Tessa

1889

* December 13: The Silent One

1890

* April 11: Angus Litilrott

* December 25: Claret Winter

1893

* June 27: Jubilee

* October 30: Cracked Jack

1897

* August 30: Larmes de Sang

1900-1999

1900s

1903

August 20: Calico

1904

* February 26: Dottie Rose, Hollow

** These two characters are entirely unrelated as far as any material has stood.

* July 27: Jack and Jill

1905

* May 12: Ella Von Terra

1908

* April 5: Wrath (Bad Bette Jane)

1910s

1913 

* January 20: Savannah, Catrina

** Both of these dolls are reported to have the same exact death date and are from the same series (themed on Dia de Muertos). Whether this exact shared death date is an indication that the characters or their deaths are related is unclear. This date was the death date of José Guadalupe Posada, who illustrated and coined the Dia de Muertos character La Catrina, but for it to be used for two characters is unusual.

* February 9: Carotte Morts

* June 7: Jinx

1915

* February 27: Madame la Mort

* September 7: Rotten Sam and Sandy

1917

* December 2: Abigail Crane and Mr. Graves, Cookie

** Crane and Graves share a death date like most two-pack non-series dolls, but in this case, it may not make sense because Graves was a grave-robber killed by Crane, an undead ghoul whose grave he broke into. She almost certainly would have been dead on an earlier date. Cookie is unrelated to Abigail Crane and Mr. Graves, and her death date relates to the history of her Girl Scout theming and the organization's cookie sales.

1920s

1922

! Nosferatu and Victim: year recorded, not a month or day

1923

* April 22: Envy (Eve-A-Go-Go)

* November 13: Schitzo

1926

* October 31: Vincent Vaude, Ye Ole Wraith, Nicholas, Salem, Butcher Boop

** Vincent Vaude is disconnected from the other four, with his death date referencing that of Harry Houdini. The other dolls are all in Series 32, with the fifth doll in the series being the only one not to explicitly share the date, as his death date is left unknown. While all of them are Halloween deaths per the concept of the series, the significance of the year being shared is unknown.

1927

* June 1: Lizzie Borden

1929

* February 14: Bride of Valentine

* October 29: Isaiah

1930s

1932

* July 28: Patience Xero

1933

* November 23: Gabriella the Ghoul

1934

* December 14: Toy Soldier

* December 19: Wurm the Human Grub

1937

* June 26: Lydia the Lobster Girl

* December 21: Evangeline

1938

* July 20: Faith

1939

* November 1: Camilla

* December 15: Agana

1940s

1942

March 17: Cuddles

1944

* April 4: Alison Crux

1946

! Maggot, recorded as dying sometime in 1946, without a specific month or date.

* June 14: Greed (Miss McGreedy)

1947

January 15: Dahlia

October 28: Lucy the Geek

December 1: Inferno

1948

* August 16: Desmodus

1949

* September 7: The After

* December 3rd: Gypsy

1950s

! She Who Walks the Night, uncertain death date recorded as "sometime in the 50s".

1951

* March 17: Ezekiel

1953

* October 31: Mishka

1956

* July 14: GreGORY

* December 5: Krampus* (unverified, date reported on LDD fan wiki)

1957

* December 25: Nohell

1958

* August 29: Vanity (Madame Dysmorphic)

* October 16: Jacob

1959

* July 22: Peggy Goo

1960s

1960

* June 6: Revenant

1961

* October 31: Eleanor

1963

* February 11: Lottie

1964

* May 20: Iris

1966

* January 29: Eve

* April 30: Lou Sapphire
* June 6: Sin 

* October 27: Pumpkin

* November 24: Tina Black, Tina Pink

** Both of these dolls are inspired by a single person known to the LDD team, thus their shared first names and death dates.

* December 25: Sinister Minister and Bad Habit

1967

* March 17: Hayze

* June 29: Hollywood

* July 15: Eggzorcist

1968

* February 4: Purdy

* October 1: Roxie

* October 31: Squeak

1969

* March 18: Candy Rotten

* January 6: Hazel and Hattie

* January 30: Judas

* April 26: Sadie

* August 9: Died and Doom

* September 9: Penny

1970s

1970

* August 8: Posey
* October 4: Siren

* October 5: Misery

* October 31: Ingrid

1971
* October 31: Jingles

* December 20: Hush

1972
* February 29: Damien

1973

* March 13: Deadbra Ann

* December 26: Wolfgang

1974

* July 29: Gluttony

* December 26: Jennocide

1975

* March 5: The Great Zombini

* March 14: Viv

** These two above characters were a two-pack, and Zombini killed Viv. They're the only duo set of exclusive LDDs I found with separate death dates.

* March 16: Holle Katrina

1976

* April 5: Sloth (Bedtime Sadie)

* July 7: Ruby

1977

* August 12: Sospirare

1978

* August 17: Lulu
* December 21: Sybil

1979

* February 2: Romeo and Juliet

* April 20: Dawn

* May 24: Ava

* November 17: Sanguis

1980s

! She Who Can Not Be Named; incomplete death date recorded as "198?"

1980

* July 18: Menard

* August 15: Tenebre

1982

* March 4: Quack

1984

* February 4: El Luchador Muerto

* May 9: Demonique

* October 24: Flamingo

1985

* July 3: Santeria

* September 1: Teddy

1986

* April 25: Toxic Molly

1988

* January 8: Betsy

1990s

1993

* October 23: Dr. Dedwin and Nurse Necro

* December 12: Maitre des Morts

1994

* March 9: Jeepers

1996

* February 20: Elisa

* March 13: Goria

* May 31: Daisy Slae

* October 24: Schooltime Sadie, Tragedy

** These two characters have no apparent connection.

1997

* October 28: Kitty

1998

* January 19: Psycho Billies (Billy and Jilly) 

* April1: Killbaby

* April 24: Legion

1999

* January 29: Jezebel

2000-Present

Aughts

2001

* April 15: Sheena

2002

* April 22: Lust (Mistress Demonika)

* June 11: Ms. Eerie

2003

* October 31: Hemlock and Honey

2005

* February 21: Jasper

* February 22: Simone

* March 9: Blue

* October 8: Rain

* October 30: Isabel

2006

* May 3: Chloe

* June 6: Mildread 

2007

* July 20: Sunday 

** I had to check; July 20, 2007 was not a Sunday itself.

* October 31: Lamenta

* November 2: Calavera

2008

* November 21: Sabbatha Blood

2009

* February 14: Twisted Love (Rose and Violet)

New Tens

2010

* March 17: Onyx

2016

* October 31: Jack O Lantern

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So that's that!

Arachne is the very oldest death date, and the only one to land Before the Common Era, in BC times. This is because she is implicitly the original Greek mythological Arachne, transformed into a spider and having formed a symbiotic relationship with an undead girl millennia later, inhabiting her corpse. The Arachne doll depicts a 1950s girl with a spider dangling out of her eye, and that spider is hinted to be the true Arachne referred to by the doll's name. (Whether Arachne's host girl was from the same ancient time, or whether Arachne found her in the 1950s or later cannot be known since visual aesthetic is so often unrelated to time period here.) The latest confirmed death date I found was Sweet Tooth, dying on October 31, 2017, though I have strong suspicions her successor Vesper is a Halloween 2018 deathdate. I can't verify with the information available to me, but if that is the case, then Vesper would be the most recent death on October 31, 2018.

When death year is added to consideration, the most common death date is still a Halloween--October 31, 1926 in particular. All four Series 32 dolls with reported death dates use this one on their physical certificates, as well as Series 5's Vincent Vaude who died on the day for non-Halloween reasons (Vincent's death date is chosen to be the same as Harry Houdini's). The next most populous date in the timeline  was December 2, 1917, with Abigail Crane and Mr. Graves and Cookie dying on that day...though as mentioned, I seriously doubt the shared death date for Crane and Graves can truly apply to Crane, since she'd have to have been dead some time beforehand to suit the story of her being a ghoul who killed her grave-robber. So that date might have only two deaths depending on your outlook. 

1966 and 1969 were the most common death years, with eight deaths each.

And dang it, I don't even share a birth year with a Living Dead Doll. As it stands, the LDDs to die chronologically closest to my birthday are Jezebel (before my birthday) and Sheena (after my birthday). And I'm not ever going to be interested in either doll. Jezebel isn't exciting and I really dislike her visual reference to suicide, and Sheena is not my aesthetic at all. And closest to my birthday disregarding years is Candy Rotten...who also ain't for me. So I'll just keep collecting based on likes rather than arbitrary principles based on superficial relations! I have far more than enough on my wishlist already.