History Main / DeadGuyOnDisplay

* Open casket funerals count as a nice version of this, as the point isn't to scare people but more out of respect as mentioned above, as well as to give their loved ones a chance to say a final goodbye, and possibly to create the illusion that the person is [[BeautifulDreamer just sleeping peacefully]] rather than being dead.

->'''Tywin Lannister:''' And if he gets so much as a whiff of treason from any of the rest--\\

-->-- ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''

* Jeremy Bentham, one of the founders of University College London, willed his body to the University. They had to put his head in storage due to drunk freshers stealing it but the rest of him is on display, in the front entrance of the main building. (They used to abide by a somewhat ghoulish condition in his will that his body be present at every board meeting in exchange for willing a large portion of land to the college, which resulted in them carrying the body into faculty meetings, where it was listed on the minutes as "Present but not voting.")
** It was actually stolen by KCL students of unverifiable age and sobriety and ransomed for a charity donation. The urban legend is that the raiding party then used the head as a football but given the head survived this is unlikely.

->'''Tywin Lannister:''' And if any should defy you--\\

* Gawkers take pictures of Jesse James's body on display at the climax of ''Film/TheAssassinationOfJesseJamesByTheCowardRobertFord''.

* In ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'', Richard kills one of Emperor Jagang's life-long friends and his closest advisor during the climax of one book. During the next book, he sends the head to his allies up north, magically enchanted to stay preserved. It ends up on a pike right in front of the Confessor's Palace, where Jagang gets to watch it rapidly decompose in front of him. Needless to say, he's [[VillainousBreakdown a little angry about it]].
* In ''Franchise/TolkiensLegendarium'', various sides display (parts of) their dead enemies. A notable example is Sauron having the dead body of Celebrimbor carried before his armies as a standard during the war in Eriador.

* The back cover photo of Music/TheEagles album, ''Desperado'', is of the band portrayed as recently-killed outlaws.

* Featured in a number of adventures in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge''.
** One time it involves Legion Martien soldiers staked out to die in the sun.
** Another involves Nazi heads put on display by Venusians.

* In the initial battle of ''Theatre/HenryVI, Part 3'', the Lancastrians capture Richard, cut his head off, and put it over the gates of York wearing a paper crown.

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "A Dying Art", the killer places the bodies of their victims as parts of sculptures on display in a sculpture park.

* In ''The Guns of Pluto'' by Creator/AllenSteele, the native kuiperans on Pluto are notorious for being cannibals after they were [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty required to eat their own dead]] to [[ColdEquation survive a spacecraft disaster]]. Their reputation is played up to deter anyone from escaping the PenalColony--those that do end up as skeletons put on display outside the prison with a sign inviting the inmates to dinner. However when Literature/CaptainFuture meets the kuiperans he's told these escapees actually [[DeadlyEnvironmentPrison died of exposure]], as their diet is mostly vegetarian, and cannibalism is only practiced to make maximum use of resources.

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* ''Manga/VinlandSaga'': After a few of Canute's soldiers disobey his standing orders to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil not have their way with English civilians]] who are being displaced by his military campaign, "[[DeliberateValuesDissonance traditions]]" be damned, he orders that [[OffWithHisHead they be beheaded]] and their heads lined up along the road as a warning to the rest of his men.