Dead Pool 28th February 2016

Not much to report this week, no points awarded due to a lack of notable deaths. However, plenty to read and comment upon if you wish.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Douglas Slocombe, 103, British cinematographer (Indiana Jones, The Lion in Winter, Jesus Christ Superstar), complications from a fall.
• Johnny Murphy, 72, Irish musician and actor (The Commitments, Into the West, Angela’s Ashes), respiratory failure.
• Ramón Castro Ruz, 91, Cuban farmer and quartermaster (Cuban Revolution).
• Tony Burton, 78, American actor (Rocky, Assault on Precinct 13, The Shining), pneumonia.
• Frank Kelly, 77, Irish actor (Father Ted, Emmerdale).

In Other News

The artist Yoko Ono, the widow of the late former Beatle, John Lennon, has been admitted to a New York-area hospital after complaining of severe flu-like symptoms, her West Coast-based spokesman, Elliot Mintz, said on Friday. But Mintz denied US media reports that Ono, 83, had suffered a possible stroke or heart attack. He said he understood she would be released from the hospital on Saturday. Ono, 83, was married to former Beatle John Lennon until he was murdered in 1980 outside New York’s Dakota Building, where she still lives. An ambulance was called to the building at 21:00 on Friday, a Fire Department spokesman said. Her son Sean Ono Lennon also tweeted that his mother was doing well. Ono, also an experimental musician and film-maker, was once described by Lennon as “the world’s most famous unknown artist: everybody knows her name but nobody knows what she does.”

Golfer Jason Bohn is in a stable condition in hospital after suffering a mild heart attack during the second round of the Honda Classic in Florida. The 42-year-old American, a  two-times PGA Tour winner who is ranked 71 in the world, called for a doctor when he experienced chest pains after putting out on the 18th hole at PGA National. A report on pgatour.com said: “He was taken by ambulance to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, where tests revealed a mild heart attack. Bohn was in stable condition and will remain hospitalised overnight before undergoing more tests on Saturday. His wife was home in Atlanta but his in-laws joined him at the hospital, as did fellow player George McNeill, who said Bohn was “in good spirits”. Who knew that golf was so demanding!!

Benidorm institution Sticky Vicky has announced she is retiring after 35 years entertaining British tourists with her risqué magic show. The 72-year-old who has appeared in the hit ITV show named after the resort, was intending to return to the stage after a hip operation but decided to call it a day after being diagnosed with cancer. Grandmother Vicky, who used to perform a series of X-rated tricks in front of stupefied holidaymakers with ping-pong balls, razor blades and beer bottles, announced her decision on Facebook. ‘Just to let everyone know that the Legend Sticky Vicky Leyton and her real daughter Demaria Leyton have both retired from sexy magic shows. ‘Vicky at the age of nearly 73 has retired to spend more time with her family and her daughter has other projects that have nothing to do with sexy magic shows.’ She was once described by a guide to Benidorm as such a ‘must-see’ that leaving without experiencing her show would be like buying fish without chips or turning on the TV to see Ant without Dec.

Pauline Cafferkey, the do-gooder British nurse who contracted Ebola in west Africa, is being transferred to the specialist unit at the Royal Free hospital in London for the third time since her return. Cafferkey, 39, who is said to be in a stable condition, had been admitted to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University hospital but on Tuesday afternoon an RAF aircraft landed at Glasgow airport to transport her to London at a vast cost to the NHS. A spokesman for the Royal Free said: “We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey is being transferred to the Royal Free hospital due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus. She will now be treated by the hospital’s infectious diseases team under nationally agreed guidelines. Cafferkey was infected while working with victims of the virus in Sierra Leone in December 2014. She spent almost a month in an isolation unit at the Royal Free, where she was treated with a survivor’s plasma and an experimental antiviral drug. She fell ill again in October last year and was readmitted to the same hospital with meningitis caused by the lingering virus. After coming close to dying, she was discharged in November and transferred to Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University hospital to continue her recovery before returning home to be forever known as the new Typhoid Mary.

On This Day

• 1784 – John Wesley charters the Methodist Church.
• 1935 – DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
• 1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature.
• 1954 – The first color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public.
• 1983 – The final episode of M*A*S*H airs, with almost 106 million viewers. It still holds the record for the highest viewership of a season finale.
• 1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group’s leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.
• 2013 – Pope Benedict XVI resigns as the pope of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope to do so since 1415.

Deaths

• 468 – Pope Hilarius
• 2011 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tyne Daly (70), Kelsey Grammar (61), Williams Baldwin (53), Jennifer Love Hewitt (37), Ellen Page (29), Jonathan Demme (72), Kyle MacLachlan (57), Jeri Ryan (48), Thomas Jane (47), Drew Barrymore (41), James Blunt (42), Peter Fonda (76), Kelly MacDonald (40), Dakota Fanning (22), Edward James Olmos (69), Billy Zane (50), Tia Leoni (50), Carrot Top (51), Sean Astin (45), Fats Domino (88), Michael Bolton (63) and Adam Baldwin (54).

The ‘Ghost Weddings’ of China

Grave robbers in rural China are stealing women’s corpses to feed a new demand for “ghost weddings”, an ancient ritual whereby elderly bachelors are given a “bride” to be buried with when they die. Under a rural tradition that began nearly 3,000 years ago, families in rural China consider it bad luck for a single man to pass into the afterlife without a female companion at his side. One way to prevent his spirit becoming restless is to provide a female corpse for him to be buried with. While the ghoulish practice has long been outlawed under communism, it has now revived as newly-wealthy country dwellers pay up to £10,000 per “bride”.

The village of Dongbao in China’s northern Shanxi province, which has suffered 15 corpse thefts in the last three years alone. At least 15 others have vanished from other hamlets across the region. “Who knows where they took my mother?” said Li Fucai, 53, standing over a tomb where his father now rests alone. “She is now ill-gotten gains for thieves.”

Ancestor worship is deeply-rooted in China, and many people will burn fake money and other tributes to the dead at this year’s annual Tomb Sweeping Festival in April. For those who have been the victims of grave robbers, the yearly festival visit to the family tombs can be a difficult one.

“My grandmother must now be wandering other villages, experiencing a painful afterlife,” said 43-year-old Jiang Chaohui, who also had the remains of his great aunt and great-grandmother stolen.

‘Ghost Weddings’ are said to date back to the 17th Century BC in China, and the superstition has persisted despite more than half a century of effort by the Communist authorities to stamp it out. The ritual involves the extra body being reburied and placed along the deceased in their tomb, usually with gongs and drums being played as relatives look on. Brides are more commonly sought by families because of China’s gender imbalance towards males. A deceased single man is also seen as making a family tree incomplete in the traditional Chinese social order. Some families will give such a man a “wife” in a form of a silver statuette or a dough mould of a woman, using black beans for eyes. But a handful of communities in inland backwaters still believe that if they fail to provide a real corpse, the dead relative could return to haunt the family and bring misfortune.

The black market in selling human remains is believed to have grown in recent years as China’s economic boom has seen the rural wealthy pay large sums to meet the needs of their deceased loved ones. Last October, police in Shanxi detained three people suspected of stealing a corpse which they aimed to sell as a bride. In 2013, a gang of four men were jailed after they made £240,000 yuan from the sales of 10 corpses in Shanxi and neighbouring Shaanxi. Remains of younger women and those who have recently died are more expensive on the black market, but decomposed female skeletons can be reinforced with steel wires before they are clothed and buried, according to Chinese media. Matchmaking agents provide the ghoulish service of pairing dead bachelors with the bodies of women from consenting families – which appears to be more tolerated by authorities than the illegal corpse trade.

The Last Word

All is lost. Monks, monks, monks! – Henry VIII, King of England, d. 1547

Next week peeps!

28th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st February 2016

Welcome all to a points ridden edition of the Dead Pool. Good old Harper Lee has decided to finally kick the bucket, which means that Toby, who listed her as a Cert, gets 111 points! Millie, Ashley, Sarai and John C, each get 61 points!! Well done all of you!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Kenny Easterday, 42, American actor and “man with half a body” due to sacral agenesis.
• Nathan Barksdale, 54, American heroin dealer, dramatised in The Wire.
• George Gaynes, 98, Finnish-born American actor (Police Academy, Punky Brewster, Tootsie).
• Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, Egyptian politician and diplomat, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1992–1996), complications from a fall.
• Brendan Healy, 59, English actor and musician, cancer.
• Harper Lee, 89, American author (To Kill a Mockingbird).
• Umberto Eco, 84, Italian philosopher and novelist (The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum).

 In Other News

Magician and entertainer Paul Daniels, 77, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, his family has said. A statement on his website says: “We can confirm that one of our greatest magicians and entertainers of all times, Paul Daniels, has sadly been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour. “On behalf of Paul, Debbie and their families, we thank you for your kind concerns and support at this sad time and ask that their privacy continues to be respected. There will be no further comments at this time.” Daniels launched his career by performing at parties, youth clubs and to fellow servicemen during his national service. He later began performing at evening shows in clubs, where it is said that he first developed his long-running catchphrase, “You’ll like this … not a lot, but you’ll like it,” to deal with a heckler. The Paul Daniels Magic Show regularly attracted audiences of 15 million in the UK, and was sold to 43 countries. In addition to performing magic, Daniels also hosted popular quiz shows for the BBC including Every Second Counts, Odd One Out and Wipeout. He also narrated the children’s TV show Wizbit.

Denise Robertson, resident agony aunt of ITV’s This Morning, has been diagnosed with cancer. The 83-year old explained: “A persistent health issue has turned into something quite a lot bigger. I’ve been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” Robertson added that she is due to start chemotherapy soon. Ruth Langsford, one of the presenters of the mid-morning show, said the team were in a “state of shock”. “After almost 30 years of providing comfort to millions of viewers, agony aunt Denise Robertson is in need of a lot of love herself today,” Langsford said. Denise Robertson has been with the programme since it began in 1988. She said the diagnosis had “come as a surprise to me and my family” but added: “We know that many others have suffered and dealt with this condition and I don’t plan to give up without a fight.” She also thanked viewers of This Morning who had sent in messages of concern in recent weeks. She lost her first husband Alex Robertson to lung cancer in 1972, but kept his surname when she remarried. In 2006 her stepson, John, also died of cancer, at the age of 44.

Shane Warne has been bitten by an anaconda after plunging head first into a tank of snakes on the Australian reality television show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. The episode, which aired on Thursday night on Channel Ten, required Warne to dunk his head into boxes filled with African clawed frogs, scorpions, Madagascan hissing cockroaches and rats as part of the show’s “Tucker Trial”. He was then presented with a Perspex tank of snakes – reportedly his biggest fear. “Aw, no, come on,” the spin legend said. “A little warning, Shane,” the show’s host, Chris Brown, said. “You were just in with those rats for a long period of time. They may see you as being food.” Brown’s caution proved prophetic – Warne was struck on the head by the non-venomous anaconda. News Corp Australia reports that the bite was treated with antiseptic fluid and that a medic is monitoring Warne for signs of infection. “Shane has made no secret that snakes are one of his greatest fears so it’s amazing that after being bitten he bravely continued with the trial,” an executive producer of the show told News Corp Australia. “When Shane puts his mind to a task, he won’t let anything stop him.” Warne is believed to have been paid about A$3m to appear on the show.

Japanese police say an actor has died after getting stabbed in the stomach during a rehearsal with what is believed to be either a real or mock samurai sword. Daigo Kashino, a  33-year-old theatre group actor, was rehearsing with several people at a Tokyo studio on Monday when the incident occurred. He was rushed to a hospital, but died hours later. Media reports indicated nobody was watching exactly how it happened. Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported that other members of the theatre group rehearsing with Kashino said they saw him hunched over as they turned around after hearing him groan. Tokyo police said on Tuesday they were investigating whether the death was criminal or accidental.

Michael Schumacher’s manager hopes that the seven-times Formula One world champion “will be here again one day”. It is more than two years since Schumacher, 47, sustained brain injuries in a freak accident while skiing in the French Alps, and updates on his condition have been infrequent. Earlier this month the former Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said news regarding Schumacher’s condition “is not good”. However, speaking at the opening of an exhibition of Schumacher’s career in Marburg, Germany, his manager Sabine Kehm said: “Of course Michael is missing on days like today. Of course it is a great shame that he cannot be here, and no one should regret it more than him. “Unfortunately, however, we cannot change what has happened. We have to accept it – and patiently hope, supporting him with everything that we have, that he will be here again one day.” Kehm’s words will provide some hope to Schumacher’s fans that he may yet recover from the injuries he sustained in his skiing accident in December 2013.

On This Day

• 1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.
• 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.
• 1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera“, the Polaroid Land Camera.
• 1952 – The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to “set the people free”.
• 1958 – The peace symbol, commissioned by Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.
• 1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
• 1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Deaths

• 1437 – James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
• 1938 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and academic (b. 1868)
• 1965 – Malcolm X, American minister and activist (b. 1925)
• 2002 – John Thaw, English actor and producer (b. 1942)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Meg Tilly (56), Jane Seymour (65), Matt Groening (62), LeVar Burton (59), Elizabeth Olsen (27), Ice-T (58), John McEnroe (57), Hal Holbrook (91), Rene Russo (62), Lou Diamond Phillips (54), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (35), Michael Jordan (53), Paris Hilton (35), Yoko Ono (83), Cybill Shepherd (66), John Travolta (62), Matt Dillon (52), Dr. Dre (51), Molly Ringwald (48), Smokey Robinson (76), Jeff Daniels (61), Seal (53), Benicio Del Toro (49), Sidney Poitier (89), Brenda Blethyn (70), Cindy Crawford (50), Rhianna (28), Ivana Trump (67), Mike Leigh (73) and Patty Hearst (62).

The Last Word

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis. – Humphrey Bogart, actor, died January 14th 1957

Next week peeps!

21st February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th February 2016

Welcome all to a special ‘Fuck Off to Valentines Day Special Edition’ of The Dead Pool, where there will be no further mention to said consumer holiday. Alas no points to award, in fact we’re very thin on the ground this week for deaths. However we have plenty of deathly news for you to read and plenty of gruesome facts.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Dan Gerson, 49, American screenwriter (Monsters, Inc., Big Hero 6, Chicken Little), brain cancer.
• Margaret Forster, 77, English novelist (Georgy Girl) and biographer, cancer.
• Wayne England, English artist (Magic: The Gathering).
• Christopher Rush, 50, American illustrator (Magic: The Gathering).
• Antonin Scalia, 79, American judge, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (since 1986).

 In Other News

Barry Manilow is out of surgery and is “doing well” after being rushed to hospital “due to complications from emergency oral surgery”. The 72-year-old singer was taken to a Los Angeles hospital after playing a sold-out show on Wednesday evening. In a message posted on Manilow’s Facebook page, his management team said it was due to complications arising from an operation he had on Monday. “For the next 48 hours, Manilow has been instructed not to talk, sing, or rap,” an updated posting on the singer’s Facebook page said. Manilow is due to attend Monday night’s Grammy awards – it’s not yet known whether he will still be able to make it. He has suffered a series of health scares over his career – having to undergo regular dental treatment after a benign tumour ruptured in his mouth in 1986.

Richard Dawkins has had a stroke on the eve of his tour of Australia and New Zealand. Management for the 74-year-old author of The God Delusion said he had suffered a “minor  stroke” in the UK last Saturday but had already returned home from hospital. Management for the 74-year-old author of The God Delusion said he had suffered a “minor stroke” in the UK last Saturday but had already returned home from hospital. “On Saturday night Richard suffered a minor stroke, however he is expected in time to make a full or near full recovery,” the statement said. “He is already at home recuperating.

Ken Watanabe has revealed he is suffering from stomach cancer. The illness has forced the 56-year-old Japanese actor to delay his return to the Broadway musical The King and I in order to have treatment. The Oscar-nominated actor has had endoscopic surgery and is recuperating in a hospital in Japan, his agent said. Watanabe, who has previously battled leukaemia, was diagnosed “almost miraculously early” with stomach cancer last month and underwent surgery, he said. “I was really shocked, my wife and daughter pushed me to have a health check and the cancer was found. It was a very early stage and they operated immediately,” he added. The actor was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 1989 but resumed acting while still undergoing chemotherapy. He became ill again in the early 1990s and, following further treatment, has been in remission since.

Rapper DMX is recovering after being found unconscious in a hotel car park and resuscitated. A representative of the rapper whose real name is Earl Simmons said he had suffered an asthma attack, although one source told the media it was actually a drug overdose. Police in Yonkers, New York, were first alerted to the report of an unconscious man in a Ramada Inn parking lot on Monday night. Lt Patrick McCormack of the Yonkers Police Department told CNN that officers escorted Simmons to the nearby Saint Joseph’s Medical Center, administering chest compressions and oxygen in the ambulance.

Britain’s most successful gymnast is walking unaided after neck surgery following a fall during training for Channel 4 show The Jump. Beth Tweddle, who won bronze at the London Games in 2012, could only walk a few steps assisted by medics after the operation, which involved having a piece of bone taken from her hip. In a statement, she said: “The medical staff here in Austria have been fantastic and I couldn’t have wished for better people to be around me at this time. I’ve started to feel a lot better in the past 24 hours and I’ve begun walking by myself. It’s still a case of taking one day at a time.” Surgeons took a bone from her hip and used it with pins to fuse together two fractured vertebrae in her neck. The number of injuries on the third series of The Jump – five celebrities have been forced to pull out – has prompted Channel 4 to review safety procedures on the show.

Hugh Jackman has appealed to people to wear sunscreen and get regular skin checks by posting a picture of himself on social media after having a fifth skin cancer removed. The picture shows his nose covered in a dressing after the removal of a basal cell carcinoma, a common and usually non-invasive type of skin cancer. The 47-year-old Australian actor, who starred as the Wolverine in the X-Men film series, says he had his first skin cancer removed in 2013 after his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, suggested he should get a mole on his nose checked. Basal cell carcinomas are relatively common, accounting for about 70% of all non-melanoma skin cancers. They are not invasive, but can require treatment as some may develop into more aggressive skin cancers. About 95% are caused by UV exposure from sunlight.

The world’s longest-surviving heart transplant patient has died, 33 years after his life-saving operation. John McCafferty was told he had only five years to live when he received the transplant at Harefield Hospital in west London, on 20 October 1982. His widow Ann said: “The last 30 years we had together were brilliant. We’ve travelled the world.” Mr McCafferty, from Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, died aged 73 on Tuesday at Milton Keynes Hospital. He was officially recognised as the world’s longest surviving heart transplant patient by Guinness World Records in 2013. At the time he said: “I want this world record to be an inspiration to anyone awaiting a heart transplant and to those who, like me, have been fortunate enough to have had one.”

And finally, we’re wondering if everything okay with the Queen? The only reason we ask is that the Arts Council have just sent out a document entitled “Advice And Guidance: Category ‘A’ Death” which lets organisations know how they should conduct their affairs in the event of the death of a senior member of the Royal Family. Although they do try to broaden the advice out for other “notable persons”, they return to the theme of Queeny carking it regularly. The most interesting part? We learned that while Charles, Camilla, Wills and Kate all classify as a ‘Category A’ member of the Royal Family, Harry doesn’t, perhaps further fanning the fires that he’s Hewitt’s son, not Charles’.

On This Day

• 1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.
• 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
• 1849 – James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.
• 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.
• 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
• 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
• 1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone‘s gang, are murdered in Chicago.
• 1966 – Australian currency is decimalised.
• 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
• 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.
• 2005 – YouTube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.

Deaths

• 1400 – Richard II of England (b. 1367)
• 1744 – John Hadley, English mathematician, invented the octant (b. 1682)
• 1779 – James Cook, English captain and explorer (b. 1728)
• 1975 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and eugenicist, co-founded the World Wide Fund for Nature (b. 1887)
• 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English author and poet (b. 1881)
• 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919)
• 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920)

Why Are So Many Unnatural Deaths Not Investigated? 

The UK’s most prolific murderer, Harold Shipman, would have been 70 this year had he not killed himself 16 years ago in Wakefield Prison. He managed to kill at least 250 women without alerting suspicion. The whistle was blown by a relative of one of the victims. So why wasn’t the case picked up by a coroner and how many more unnatural deaths are officially missed?

What do coroners do? A coroner is an an independent judicial officer, appointed and paid for by the relevant local authority. He or she is usually a solicitor or doctor of five years standing, although all new appointments now have to be legally qualified. Their job is to investigate deaths that are violent, unnatural or of unknown cause with a view to determine who the deceased was, when and where they died and, crucially, how they died. There are about 507,000 deaths every year in England and Wales, of which about 45% will be reported to coroners. And there are currently 96 separate local coroner areas, each with their own senior coroner.

The coroner has three main decisions to make when a death occurs. First, should they accept the death for investigation? The general principles are that if the death was violent, unnatural or of unknown cause, it should be investigated. However, local reporting rules mean that what’s considered violent or unnatural varies from one area to another.

Second, once investigated, the coroner must decide whether to open an inquest. An inquest is opened when the original reason for accepting the death for investigation – violent, unnatural, or unknown cause – still holds after initial enquiries. Data for the same period showed that deaths advancing to inquest ranged from 6% in some areas to 29% in others.

The third and final decision for the coroner is to determine the appropriate verdict for the death. There are six common verdicts (now known as  “conclusions”): natural causes, accidental death, suicide, industrial disease, open verdict, and the increasingly used “narrative” verdict where the circumstances of the death are recorded in a brief story.

You might think that coroner areas would have a fairly similar profile of verdicts but, in fact, these too vary widely. For example, narrative verdicts for the period 2000-2010 ranged from almost zero in some areas, such as Carmarthenshire in south-west Wales, to 46% of all verdicts returned in another (Birmingham and Solihull). And in South Shropshire, just 3% of inquest verdicts were recorded as natural deaths, while that verdict accounted for an incredible 52% of all inquest conclusions in Sunderland. Suicide rates ranged from 4% to 27%.

Does this matter? Widely varying outcomes across the country prove that not all coroner areas can be striking the appropriate balance between the needs of the state and the rights of the bereaved. This is how Harold Shipman was able to kill people without anybody batting an eyelid. Had he been practising in another area he would have been caught much sooner or perhaps not at all!!!

Last Week’s Birthdays

James Spader (56), Garth Brooks (54), Chris Rock (51), Ashton Kutcher (38), Nick Nolte (75), Mary Steenbergen (63), John Grisham (61), Seth Green (42), Joe Pesci (73), Mia Farrow (71), Greg Norman (61), Glenn Beck (52), Laura Dern (49), Elizabeth Banks (42), Chloe Grace Moretz (19), Robert Wagner (86), Burt Reynolds (80), Taylor Lautner (24), Damien Lewis (45), Jennifer Aniston (47), Sheryl Crow (54), Darren Aronofsky (47), Arsenio Hall (60), Josh Brolin (48), Christina Ricci (36), Mena Suvari (37), Peter Tork (74), Jerry Springer (72), Peter Gabriel (66), Charles Yeager (93) and Robbie Williams (42).

The Final Word

Actress Joan Crawford yelled at her housekeeper, who was praying as Crawford died. Crawford said, “Damn it! Don’t you dare ask God to help me!”

Next week peeps!

14th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th February 2016

Alas, no points to be awarded today, which is somewhat of a surprise after the glut of celebrity deaths we’ve been seeing lately. Either famous people are dying exponentially or you lot are getting clued up as to how to play this game!

A quick note about contributions towards the newsletter; I know you have all been enjoying Ceri’s excellent pieces of writing and you probably feel that you could manage a few paragraphs from time to time too. Don’t be shy, email in a short piece, if only to give the us a break from time to time as writing on the same subject on a weekly basis gets very difficult very quickly, as some of you might remember when you took over the Dead Pool when I took a vacation ;P

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Joe Alaskey, 63, American voice actor (Looney Tunes, Rugrats, Casper), cancer. 
• Benoît Violier, 44, French-Swiss chef, suicide by gunshot.
• Katie May, 34, American model (Playboy, Sports Illustrated) and online media personality (Snapchat), complications from a stroke.
• Kristine Miller, 90, American actress (I Walk Alone, Jungle Patrol, Too Late for Tears).
• Dave Mirra, 41, American BMX rider, suicide by gunshot.
• Edgar Mitchell, 85, American astronaut (Apollo 14).
• Axl Rotten, 44, American professional wrestler (ECW).
• Maurice White, 74, American songwriter and musician (Earth, Wind & Fire), complications from Parkinson’s disease.
• Raphael Schumacher, 27, Italian actor, hanged during performance.

In Other News 

The news on Michael Schumacher’s health is “not good”, according to Luca di Montezemolo, the former Ferrari president, in an unusual intervention which only added to the speculation and mystery surrounding the Formula One legend’s condition. What is known is that Schumacher is still receiving treatment in Switzerland after sustaining severe head injuries in a skiing accident in December 2013 in the Alpine resort of Meribel. The 47-year-old was put in an induced coma following the crash and has been recovering with a specialist medical team at home on the shores of Lake Geneva since September 2014. The seven-time world champion’s family have retained a dignified silence throughout, with updates few and far between. Sabine Kehm, the 47-year-old’s manager, declined to respond to Di Montezemolo’s comments when contacted by the media. “I have news and unfortunately it is not good,” Di Montezemolo told reporters on Thursday, refusing to elaborate in any way. “Life is strange. He was a fantastic driver and only had one accident with Ferrari in 1999 (Schumacher broke his leg in an accident during the British Grand Prix).” Very few people are known to have visited the former Ferrari and Mercedes driver, who won five straight championships from 2000 to 2004.

Talking about Schumacher’s, an Italian actor who was left in a coma after he accidentally hanged himself during a live theatre performance has been pronounced clinically dead. Raphael Schumacher, 27, was performing in a production of Mirages at the Teatro Lux in Pisa, Italy, when the incident occurred. He was taken to hospital on Saturday night and has been in a coma since. Doctors say his condition has worsened and that he was not responding to treatment. The BBC reports that following a six-hour procedure to establish brain death on Thursday, the hospital issued a statement: “The family and the prosecutor’s office have both authorised that his organs be donated, but their removal will be subject to a medical assessment to be performed in the course of the night.” Mirages is a six-scene immersive performance staged in different parts of the theatre, with audience members walking between them. At the time of the incident, Schumacher was reciting a monologue from Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening alone in a courtyard in front of just one spectator. The actor reportedly changed the ending of the scene by placing his head in a noose instead of using a gun. He was discovered unconscious by a second spectator, reportedly a medical student, who rushed to his aid. While it is assumed that the incident was accidental, an investigation has been launched into the theatre’s safety procedures. That investigation has shifted from grievous bodily harm to culpable homicide, or manslaughter, according to the BBC. Schumacher’s mother has rejected the theory that he may have tried to commit suicide. “My son recently lost his father and had ended a relationship but had found his serenity again,” she said. “He didn’t leave a suicide note and had no reason to kill himself.”

More than 40 years after Lord Lucan disappeared from a blood-soaked London crime scene, the high court has finally cleared the way for his only son to inherit the earldom. A presumption of death certificate was granted by Mrs Justice Asplin on Wednesday following a hearing that lasted less than an hour. George Bingham, 48, can now assume the family title as the eighth earl of Lucan. The hearing at the Rolls Building in central London had been scheduled to last three days but Neil Berriman, Rivett’s son, withdrew his objections to a death certificate being issued under the 2014 Presumption of Death Act. The judge made the declaration on the basis that she was satisfied Lucan had not been known to be alive for a period of at least seven years. The death certificate can be revoked if the peer, who would now be aged 81, reappears. The hearing was told that police had confirmed there were no live lines of inquiry into Rivett’s murder, although the case had not been closed.

Frank Bruno’s death wish of returning to the ring have been dashed after he was told his application for a licence would be declined. The 54-year-old former heavyweight boxing champion posted on Twitter that the British Boxing Board of Control had informed his agent that “should I apply for a licence this would not be granted”. His agent, Dave Davies, confirmed on Monday the board had been in touch, saying: “Frank, like many other former sports stars, misses the good times when he was in the boxing ring and watching his son train has reignited his wish to return to the ring. “However we have had confirmation today … that should an application for a boxing licence be received from Frank it would be declined. As agents for Frank we must respect and accept their decision.” Bruno, who has bipolar disorder, acknowledged he had “certainly set Twitter talking” after he announced on ITV’s This Morning that he was “coming back into boxing” to help him cope with the effects of his medication. Asked how drugs had affected him, he said: “They made me suicidal – mess up your head, mess up your clock – you can’t sleep. I’m walking around break-dancing I’ve got so much energy. Asked how drugs had affected him, he said: “They made me suicidal – mess up your head, mess up your clock – you can’t sleep. I’m walking around break-dancing I’ve got so much energy!”. Almost enough energy to die in the ring!

Gone With The Wind actress Olivia de Havilland, who –  at 99 – is the oldest living Oscar winner, is honoured by satirical magazine The Oldie. However she was unable to travel from her home in France to collect her Oldie of the Year award in person at Tuesday’s ceremony in London. But in a recorded message she said she was “utterly delighted” the judges deemed there was “sufficient snap in my celery” to win the accolade. The tongue-in cheek awards are given out annually by The Oldie, set up by former Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams to take an irreverent stand against ageism. De Havilland said: “It is deeply gratifying to thus find myself in the company of the Queen Mother, whose record I have long wanted to match as well as that of so many other distinguished recipients.” She shared her Oldie of the Year award with 101-year-old former barrister and member of the House of Lords, Jeremy Hutchinson.

A father of three choked to death as he tried to eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger in one mouthful, an inquest heard. Darren Bray, 29, blacked out when he attempted to fit the 99p burger into his mouth whole following a night out with friends. Cardiff Coroner’s Court heard that Mr Bray, of Barry, South Wales, had been drinking cans of beer, but not enough to affect his judgement, although eating a McDonald’s would be considered bad judgement in our book! He died from a food blockage to his airway and a coroner recorded a conclusion of death by misadventure. The hearing was told that Mr Bray had told friends to “watch this” as he picked up the burger, “rolled it into a ball” and put it in his mouth. However, Mr Bray went “blue” in front of two friends and started choking. Friend Sam Bisgrove told the inquest: “I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises. I tried to hit his back to help him clear his airway.” Paramedics arrived and performed CPR on Mr Bray, who was at a friend’s house in Barry, but were unable to restart his heart and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Dr Rhiannon Trefor told the hearing there was a 3in by 1.9in (8cm by 5cm) ball of food stuck at the back of his neck. The moral of the story, avoid McDonalds at all costs!

And finally, Antonio Docampo García, who died last week at the grand old age of 107, attributed his longevity to his drinking habits – four bottles of red wine a day, and no water. Mr Docampo liked to have two bottles of wine with lunch, and another two with dinner, his family told reporters. “He could drink a litre and a half all at once,” said his son Miguel Docampo López. “When we were both at home we could get through 200 litres of wine a month. He never drank water.” Mr Docampo, of Vigo in north west Spain, owned his own vineyard and was founder of the wine company Bodegas Docampo. (A cynic might suggest that tales of the wine’s life-giving properties could contain a teensy trace of marketing spiel.) Mr Docampo’s nephew Jerónimo Docampo, who now runs the vineyard, told La Voz de Galicia: “He sold the majority of the wine he produced, but still kept a decent amount back for himself.” “If he produced 60,000 litres a year he would keep 3,000 litres for himself. He always said that was his secret to living so long.”

On This Day

• 1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.
• 1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.
• 1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
• 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
• 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
• 1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.

Deaths

• 1871 – Henry E. Steinway, German-American businessman, founded Steinway & Sons (b. 1797)
• 1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone, American businessman, founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (b. 1868)
• 1979 – Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (b. 1911)

Why Do OAP’s Die Every Seven Minutes During the Winter?

Over the last four winters, according to the latest official figures, nearly 120,000 people in England and Wales have died of cold weather, or factors associated with cold weather such as a virulent strain of influenza. But campaigners argue that these excess winter deaths, defined as the difference between the number of deaths that occur each winter (from December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding four months (August to November) and the subsequent four months (April to July), have more to do with poverty than freezing temperatures.

And excess winter deaths seem to be increasing: despite last year’s mild winter, an estimated 43,900 excess winter deaths occurred – a rise of 140% on the previous year and the worst statistics since 1999-2000.  Female deaths leapt nearly 150% in a single year, from 10,250 to 25,500 between 2013-14 and 2014-15. Poverty rates for women remain higher than for men, which compounds health problems.

Weather seems to be a minor factor in explaining these deaths. Across Europe, England and Wales have some of the highest rates of excess mortality in winter months. All Nordic countries have far lower winter mortality rates, despite much harsher weather. Norway’s rate is a quarter that of England and Wales, while Finland reports no difference in mortality rates between the summer and winter months. In contrast, Spanish and Portuguese climates are milder than Britain’s, yet excess winter deaths are far higher.

“The UK has an appalling record on cold-related deaths, with one older person dying every seven minutes from the winter cold. Colder countries like Sweden are better at protecting older people from the cold,” says Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK. Abrahams argues the issue is not so much cold weather as increasing fuel poverty, where people cannot afford to heat their homes adequately.

“Cold homes are a bigger killer across the UK than road accidents, drug abuse or alcohol abuse,” says Maria Wardrobe, director of National Energy Action. She agrees that the key to tackling winter deaths is to make sure older people have a well-insulated, warm home and the income needed to pay the fuel bills. The NPC wants a fuel poverty inquiry, and more suitable homes built specifically for older people, extra money for insulation and winter fuel payments.”

Of course, fuel poverty isn’t the only reason for excess winter deaths. The main problem with these statistics is that the measure itself is simplistic. The myriad factors that exacerbate illness, vulnerability or susceptibility aren’t collated. Inequality levels, access to hospitals and social care, loneliness and poverty worsen physical and mental health, and increase people’s vulnerability to dying during the winter months.

So keep all this in mind when you’re hoping for a rich celebrity death during the Winter!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Carol Channing (95), Johnny Rotten (60), Minnie Driver (46), Justin Timberlake (35), Brent Spiner (67), Lisa Marie Presley (48), Michael C. Hall (45), Stephanie of Monaco (51), Graham Nash (74), Shakira (39), Morgan Fairchild (66), Rebel Wilson (36), Isla Fisher (40), Alice Cooper (68), Natalie Imbruglia (41), Charlotte Rampling (70), Christopher Guest (68), Bobby Brown (47), Cristiano Ronaldo (31), Michael Sheen (47), Zsa Zsa Gabor (99), Rip Torn (85) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (54).

The Final Word

Murderer James W. Rodgers was put in front of a firing squad in Utah and asked if he had a last request. He replied, “Bring me a bullet-proof vest.”

Next week peeps!

7th February 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »