User:DanielCM/Sandman deaths

This is a list of deaths in the 1989 comic book series Sandman.

Original series

Preludes & Nocturnes

Sandman #1: "Sleep of the Just"

• A dead man was mentioned when Roderick Burgess was performing the spell supposed to summon and imprison Death. One of the items used was a stick that Burgess had stuck through a dead man's eye.
• A cat was implied to be killed by Roderick Burgess with a dagger, as part of an attempt to kill Ruthven Sykes with a magic spell. The cat died in Wych Cross, England, at some point after Sykes got his protective amulet in December 1930. This spell failed to kill Sykes because his amulet kept him safe.
• In 1936, Ruthven Sykes died, after Ethel Cripps stole his protective amulet and Roderick Burgess successfully used a magic spell to make his head explode. This spell worked, even though Burgess was in England, and Sykes was in San Francisco, USA. It is not clear if any other cat was killed this time as well.
• In 1947, Roderick Burgess died while lamenting that he should not have grown so old while Dream still looked young after decades. Burgess also lamented that Dream never gave him any special powers, including the power to stay young. Burgess's headstone had the words "Not dead, only sleeping".

Sandman #3: "Dream a Little Dream of Me"

• Rachel (John Constantine's lover) died after Dream took back his sand pouch, which was keeping her alive in a dream state.

Sandman #4: "A Hope in Hell"

• Some souls of dead people were seen confined in Hell, including Nada. Some other dead people were seen merged with walls. There were some spikes with disembodied heads, including one head of a man that talked to Dream.
• In Hell, some people were transformed into trees at the Wood of Suicides, because they killed themselves. One tree remarked that it killed itself in order to make the suffering stop, but it had not stopped. These woods used to be a tiny grove, but it had grown to a large forest; this implied that a large number of people killed themselves.
• Some deaths were seen in the game played between Dream and Choronzon.
  • A wolf (Choronzon) was stabbed by the spear of a hunter (Dream) on horseback; the horse was then stung by a horsefly (Choronzon).
  • The horsefly (Choronzon) was consumed by a spider (Dream).
  • The spider (Dream) was devoured by a snake (Choronzon).
  • The snake (Choronzon) was crushed by an on (Dream).
  • The ox (Dream) was destroyed by anthrax (Choronzon).
  • A world filled with life (Dream) was cremated by an exploding nova (Choronzon).
  • The universe (Dream), encompassing all things, was ended by anti-life (Choronzon), the dark at the end of everything. After this, Dream won the game by becoming hope, because Choronzon was unable to think of something to defeat hope.
• Ethel Cripps died. This was revealed when a security guard in Arkham Asylum told her son John Dee (one of the inmates at the asylum) about her death. John Dee also received the protective amulet that Ethel had stolen from Sykes decades before.

Sandman #5: "Passengers"

• A night security guard was hanged by Scarecrow. The guard had a "kick me" sign behind his back. John Dee saw the dead guard when he was escaping from Arkham Asylum.
• Rosemary Kelly was killed by John Dee with a gun. This happened after he entered the and and made her drive at gunpoint.

Sandman #6: "24 Hours"

• Kate had a dream in which Garry was seen dead out of revenge for his infidelity. In the dream, Kate was holding Garry's head on a platter.
• There were some unseen deaths as a result of John Dee using the power of the ruby and driving people insane around the world. The deaths were whispered to him by the ruby itself, and were also mentioned on the TV news.
• John Dee killed a fly and ate it.
• Bette Munroe, Johnny Carson, Judy, Marsh, Garry, and Kate were killed by John Dee at the 24 hour diner. Before killing them, John Dee used the power of the ruby to control their minds and torture them.

Sandman #7: "Sound and Fury"

• Some people were shown to become insane as a result of the ruby used by John Dee.
  • Elderly people were implied to die when the nurse Maude Carillon started a fire on the geriatric ward.
  • A plane crashed and caught fire. It was not clear if any people died in this place crash.
  • A dog was beheaded by a man.

Sandman #8: "The Sound of Her Wings"

• Death visited some recently deceased people, together with her brother Dream:
  • Harry, an elderly man, died at his house in New York, when he was playing violin.
  • Esmé died from an electric shock when she was doing a stand-up show about Batman.
  • A baby died when her mother was taking care of him.
  • A man died taking pills.
  • A dead man was seen lying face-down on the street.
  • An elderly woman was seen dead at the hospital bed.
  • A man was shot at the stomach.
• The teenager Franklin died when he was chasing a soccer ball and was hit by a car.

The Doll's House

Sandman #9: "Tales in the Sand"

• As part of Nada story that happened thousands of years ago, she transformed into a gazelle, and Dream killed the gazelle with a spear. This caused her to become human again.
• At the end of this story, Nada died by throwing herself off the mountaintop, when Dream was insisting that they should be lovers. After Nada's death, Dream sentenced her to Hell because she rejected him.

Sandman #10: "The Doll's House"

• Davy was implied to be killed by the Corinthian.

Sandman #11: "Moving In"

• Burt Paulsen (Rose Walker's father) died at some point in a two-car smash-up, which was mentioned on a newspaper.
• Ezra Paulsen (Rose Walker's grandfather) died when he drowned four years before the current events. He was 82 years old.
• Two young men had their eyes removed by Corinthian, and were implied to be killed by him as well.

Sandman #12: "Playing House"

• Two men attacked Corinthian in a dark alley, but they were implied to be killed by him.
• It was revealed that Hector Hall had already been dead for two years, even though he remained as a ghost and was unaware of his own death. Eventually, Dream sent him away to the realm of the dead. Hector's wife Lyta Hall accused Dream of killing him.

Sandman #13: "Men of Good Fortune"

• In 1389, it was mentioned that Ball and Tyler died. Additionally, Hob Gadling said he lost half his village to the black death, and that he also fought in the war.
• In 1589, Hob that at some point in the past, he killed people for white bread.
• In 1689, Hob mentioned that at some point his wife Eleanor and his son Robyn died.
• In 1789, Hob said that at some point, a man named Jack Constantine died.

Sandman #14: "Collectors"

• In the Little Red Riding Hood story as told by Gilbert, the wolf killed the grandmother. The wolf also poured the grandmother's blood in a bottle, and sliced her meat on a plate. Little Red Riding Hood unwittingly drank the blood and ate the meat. At the end of the story, the wolf killed Little Red Riding Hood as well.
• There was a convention of serial killers. They talked to each other about their victims. Most of them appeared to take pleasure in murdering people, without any guilt. It was later revealed that the Corinthian had influenced to behave this way.
  • Nimrod had four chest freezers which were implied to be filled with dead people.
  • At the convention, Nimrod told a joke about a woman being "reaped" with a scythe.
  • The Bogeyman was a serial killer as well. According to Corinthian, the Bogeyman died three years ago.
  • A killer called himself a merciful and just god, and said he murdered men, women, and children to release them from the suffering and torment of their lives.
  • Another killer said that God told him to do it.
  • Philip Sitz was pretending to be the Bogeyman at the convention. His lie was discovered by the Corinthian, then Philip was kidnapped and murdered by the serial killers.
  • A killer said he killed 170 people, most of them by drowning.
  • The Connoisseur said he killed only eight people, because he specialized in murdering "preoperative transsexuals".
  • Fun Land said that he had been going to a certain place (implied to be an amusement park) with many children. He mentioned that he had been friendly with the children and playing with them. This had the implication that he murdered those children. Fun Land also mentioned that the people who ran that place knew about him but kept it a secret, because they did not want people to stop going there.
  • A man said that his first victims were cats. He used to behead cats with a knife when he was a kid. When he got older, he started to have violent fantasies about women, and followed women around with a knife, "just to see how it felt". Eventually, he started to murder women.
• Corinthian died when his creator Dream "uncreated" him.

Sandman #15: "Into the Night"

• It was revealed that the raven Matthew used to be a man. At some point when he was a man, he died and became a raven.

Sandman #16: "Lost Hearts"

• Unity Kinkaid died in place of her granddaughter Rose Walker. Dream was going to kill Rose because she was a vortex (which means she had the power to merge all dreams and eventually destroy the universe). However, Unity willingly became the vortex in her place and died, so that Rose would continue living.

Dream Country

Sandman #17: "Calliope"

• Erasmus Fry was last seen alive in 1987. Years later, it was revealed that he died.
• Richard Madoc mentioned stories with an holocaust and a child sacrifice. This was a result of Dream using his power to force Richard to have ideas for several new stories.

Sandman #18: "A Dream of a Thousand Cats"

• Some newborn kittens were murdered. They were the litter of the female cat owned by Paul and Marion. Paul drowned the kittens by placing them in a bag tied to a rock, and throwing them into a lake. He did this because the mother was a purebred blue-point Siamese cat and the father was a stray cat, and as a result the kittens were not worth much money. Paul attempted to justify himself, and stated that the mother cat did not understand what happened. Marion said that she felt "a little guilty" but agreed with Paul.
• The cat mother went through the Wood of Ghosts in a dream, which was said to be populated with the dead and the lost. They whispered promises to her if she would stop to play with them. She also heard her dead children calling her.
• Some small humans were hunted and eaten by giant cats. This happened in the distant past, when cats ruled the world. However, this past had since been erased and replaced by a new reality where humans had always ruled the world instead.
• A rat was killed and eaten by a cat.

Sandman #19: "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

• William Shakespeare's son Hamnet died in 1956. He was eleven years old.

Sandman #20: "Façade"

• Algon died in a volcano. He was 2,000 years old.
• A woman died when she was changing the light bulb in her child's room, and the stepladder slipped. This happened in the same building where Element Girl lived.
• Death mentioned that somewhere there were old and young people dying at this moment, as well as innocent and guilty, people who died together, and people who died alone. Death mentioned that she appeared whenever someone is dying, including cars, boats, planes, hospitals, forests, and abattoirs.
• Death said that at this moment in West Africa, people were dying because a village was being massacred by mercenaries ordered by their own government. She also said that in a distant galaxy, a planet was being ripped apart by internal stresses, which caused crystal intelligences described as "calm and fine and beautiful" to die as well.
• Death mentioned that she was there waiting when the first living thing existed, and that she will be there when the last living thing dies.
• Death said that the "serpent that never dies" died 3,000 years ago.
• Element Girl tried to kill herself several times in the past, but was unable to die due to her powers as a Metamorph, which were originally given to her by the Egyptian god Ra. Eventually, Death advised her to look at the sun and talk to Ra. Element Girl asked Ra to take away her powers, and she died.

Season of Mists

Sandman #21: "Prologue"

• A pair of butterflies created by Delirium died, because Desire used their power to make the butterflies attracted to the fire. Death took the butterflies with her, and Delirium looked upset with their death.

Sandman #22: "Chapter 1"

• Some people were seen punished in Hell after their death.

Sandman #23: "Chapter 2"

• Breschau lived in Livonia and died 11,000 years ago. Breschau was seen bonded with chains in Hell for his multiple crimes. He was the last dead person to leave Hell, once Lucifer expelled everyone from it.

Sandman #24: "Chapter 3"

• According to a prophecy, the Ragnarok will eventually happen, at which point the Norse gods Loki and Heimdall will fight each other and die. A ship made of dead men's nails was also mentioned in the prophecy.

Sandman #25: "Chapter 4"

• Several ghosts appeared at the St. Hilarion's school. Most of these ghosts were boys that used to study there. They had been in Hell, but they came back to the world of living because everyone had been expelled from Hell.
  • In 1914, the young boy Edwin Paine was killed by Cheeseman, Barrow, and Skinner. They wanted to sacrifice him to the Devil, so they performed rituals and drank his blood. But once they died as well, nobody in Hell cared about their rituals. Barrow and Skinner died of diphteria. At some point later, Cheeseman died in the war when he was seventeen years old. Cheeseman's name is listed in a memorial with several names of former students who died in the war between 1914 and 1918. Edwin returned as a ghost; Cheeseman, Barrow, and Skinner returned as ghosts as well.
  • The current headmaster's mother returned as a ghost as well. She had died in January 1942.
  • Parkinson, an elderly former headmaster, returned as a ghost and resumed his duties as headmaster with the ghost boys.
  • A mother was with the ghosts of her two dead children: the young baby Veronica who died as a cot death, and an unborn fetus that died when the mother was sixteen yeard old and had German measles.
  • The ghost of Simon Mould said that he died by hanging himself in 1955. He apologized to the headmaster Parkinson for killing himself.
  • The ghost of Peter Hinchcliff said that he choked on his own vomit in 1977, because of "booze and pills".
• Charles Rowland was the only living boy at school with the ghosts. He eventually died in December 1990 and became a ghost as well. When he was alive, he was tortured by Cheeseman, Barrow, and Skinner and fell ill, and then Edwin Paine took care of him. When Death came to take Charles, he refused because he wanted to stay with his friend Edwin.
• Charles Rowland's mother died at some point.