Dead Pool 12th July 2020

Such a busy week, loads to catch up on, and yet, no points scored. Also having to bring back the newly infected section is rather saddening. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, 68, American sideshow attractions and documentary subjects, world’s oldest conjoined twins.  
• Nick Cordero, 41, Canadian actor and singer (Bullets Over Broadway, A Bronx Tale, Waitress), COVID-19.  
• Charlie Daniels, 83, American country singer-songwriter and musician (“The Devil Went Down to Georgia“), hemorrhagic stroke. 
• Ennio Morricone, 91, Italian film composer (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Hateful Eight), complications from a fall. 
• Mary Kay Letourneau, 58, American teacher and convicted rapist, cancer.
• Alex Pullin, 32, Australian Olympic snowboarder, snowboard cross world champion, drowned. 
• Jack Charlton, 85, English football player (Leeds United, national team) and manager (Republic of Ireland national team), world champion (1966), lymphoma and dementia.  
• Lara van Ruijven, 27, Dutch short track speed skater, Olympic bronze medallist (2018) and world champion (2019), autoimmune disease.

The Newly Infected

• Kimberly Guilfoyle, 51,  the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. who also worked on President Donald Trump‘s campaign has tested positive for coronavirus.  
• Rihanna‘s dad Ronald Fenty, 66, revealed that he contracted the coronavirus and thought he was doing to die.  
• Jair Bolsonaro, the President of Brazil, has said in a television interview that he has tested positive for coronavirus.  
• Amitabh Bachchan, 77. the Bollywood megastar has been admitted to hospital with coronavirus.

In Other News 

The world’s oldest set of conjoined twins, Ronnie and Donnie Gaylon, 68, died on July 4, in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Ronnie and Donnie Galyon have been turning heads since they were born on October 28th 1951 to parents Eileen and Wesley Gaylon, who were not expecting twins, much less conjoined twins. They were born healthy, weighing 11 pounds, 11.5 ounces, but they spent the first two years of their life in the hospital as doctors struggled to figure out a way to safely separate them. When they were told there was no guarantee that both boys would survive the surgery, Wesley and Eileen refused to operate on their sons. For 68 years, the brothers lived face-to-face, fused from the sternum to the groin with one set of lower digestive organs. They were each born with separate hearts and stomachs and had their own set of arms and legs. When the boys turned three, their father made the decision to take them on the carnival circuit as a way to support his growing family of nine children. They were managed by Ward Hall, the legendary carnival impresario, and traveled around Canada and the United States in Hall’s infamous ‘World of Wonders’ sideshow under the marquis: ‘Alive in person – Galyon Siamese twins!’ According to Ward Hall’s biography, the twins mother rejected them when they were born – leaving them primarily to be raised by their father, Wesley and later their stepmother Mary. Burdened by colossal medical bills that racked up from the twins first two years spent in the hospital and pressure to raise his family, Wesley decided to enter Donnie and Ronnie in the carnival where they had a lucrative career until they retired in 1991. Donnie and Ronnie were denied from attending the local school because officials said they would be too distracting to other students. ‘It was a different era,’ said their brother Jim. Their IQs were determined to be in the average range, but according to J. David Smith’s book, Psychological Profiles of Conjoined Twins, they seemed slower due to a lack of formal education. The twins exhibited themselves in an air-conditioned trailer for most of their carnival show careers. They lounged about watching television while spectators paid to peer in the window to observe them conduct daily life. Old advertisements read: ‘Still a sensation! The Gaylon Siamese twins, the U.S.’s most visited attraction on any Midway.’

Chang and Eng Bunker, born in Thailand in 1811, became famous as ‘the Siamese Twins’ were the previous record holders as the longest living conjoined twins. They eventually settled in North Carolina, bought slaves, married local sisters, and fathered 21 children before they died at the age of 62.

Though Donnie and Ronnie mastered the art of compromise over the years, it wasn’t always easy. Some arguments even escalated to fisticuffs, especially when they were teenagers. At the age of 14, one twin broke his foot after kicking a trailer in a fit of anger. The physical blows stopped when the brothers began taking blood thinners and realised that a fight could easily turn fatal. The brothers always insisted they were best friends. They both shared a love for fishing, camping, collecting baseball cards, the Dallas Cowboys and the  Cincinnati Reds. Never married, Donnie did most of the cooking, dishes and laundry while Ronnie cleaned the bathroom and did most of the talking. The brothers cast two votes, had two Social Security numbers but traveled under only one passport. The survival rate for conjoined twins can be anywhere between 5-25%. For the Gaylon twins, the biggest health scare they suffered happened in 2009 and 2010. Ronnie developed blood clots in his lungs as the result of a viral infection. Donnie too was infected and both were left weak. They also began to suffer from debilitating arthritis that made it difficult and  unsafe for them to live alone in their Dayton home. In 2014, Donnie and Ronnie celebrated their longevity when they became the oldest living set of conjoined twins in the Guinness Book of World Records. The prior record holders were Chang and Eng Bunker, Chinese brothers that were born in Thailand in 1811 and lived to the age of 62. Despite their unconventional life, Donnie and Ronnie were clear that they lived their life with no regrets. ‘We had fun when we were growing up,’ said Ronnie. Donnie echoed the sentiment, ‘We’ve had a nice life.’

The ex of former EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth was shot confronting gangsters threatening to burn her house down while he was on bail over a huge £850,000 cannabis factory. Dave Fairbairn, 64, who is stable in hospital after being gunned down in the stomach, had been arrested three months ago over a drugs farm found in Arrington, Cambridgeshire, by police. He was detained by officers at the time on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis and handling stolen goods. Two other man aged 32 and 37 attempted to run off when police arrived but were stopped and arrested on suspicion of cultivation as well as immigration offences. Authorities confirmed to Dead Pool Towers that all three have now been bailed until later this month. Fairbairn was shot on Sunday at close range near a Toby Carvery car park in Enfield, North London, but the bullet missed his major organs. Ms Taylforth, 64, is said to be in shock following news of the shooting. She and Fairbarn have remained close despite calling off their wedding in December. Ms Taylforth split from fiancé Fairbairn after six years together in late 2019 after their relationship came under strain following a ‘string of disagreements’, reports at the time claimed. The pair were together since 2013 and Ms Taylforth, who is best known for playing Kathy Beale in EastEnders, originally parted ways with Dave two years earlier due to ‘fiery rows’ between the pair, but later rekindled their romance. 

The search for Glee actress Naya Rivera continues, after she went missing on a California lake that is known for rip currents and having cold, deep waters that at least eight people have drowned in but that she’d been visiting for years. The Glee star and her son Josey rented a pontoon boat on Lake Piru, which is 60 miles from Rivera’s Los Angeles home and around 20 miles from where she grew up in Valencia, on Wednesday afternoon. They were alone and their car was parked nearby. Three hours after they took the boat out, another boater saw their pontoon drifting. When they approached it,  they found Josey on board, asleep, but there was no sign of Rivera. Josey was wearing his life-vest but an adult life-vest was found on the boat, suggesting Rivera was not wearing hers. The boy later told investigators that he climbed back on the boat and his mother did not, but the circumstances are unclear and cops say it is ‘challenging’ to interrogate a toddler. According to the boy, his mother ‘jumped in the water and didn’t come back up’. Ventura County Deputy Sheriff Chris Dyer said on Thursday that Lake Piru was a ‘sanctuary’ for Naya, she was familiar with the lake and has been going there for years. He added: ‘We’re not presuming her dead and right now it’s still a search and rescue operation, we’re searching not only the water but the shoreline. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.’

Alex Zanardi has had a third operation to treat severe head injuries sustained in a hand cycle accident last month. The 53-year-old Italian, a former Formula 1 driver turned four-time Paralympic gold medallist, had a five-hour operation to reconstruct and stabilise his injuries. Zanardi collided with a lorry during a race in Pienza, Italy, on 19th June. His neurological condition remained “severe” and he is sedated and ventilated in intensive care. Zanardi’s cardio-respiratory and metabolic condition is “stable”, a hospital statement said. The statement described the cranial and facial fractures Zanardi had suffered as “complex”. The operation “required careful programming that made use of computerised, digital and three-dimensional technologies, made to measure for the patient,” according to Professor Paolo Gennaro, director of maxillofacial surgery at Siena University Hospital. The statement added that the next update on Zanardi would be “issued as soon as there are significant changes in the athlete’s clinical picture”. Zanardi has become a global sporting icon for the strength of will and determination he has shown in overcoming adversity in his career, after he lost both legs in an accident while racing in a Champ Car event in Germany in 2001.    

A 30-year-old man died of coronavirus in Texas this week after attending a “Covid party”. Dr Jane Appleby, chief medical officer for Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, said that the unidentified man’s last words were: “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.” In a recorded statement, Dr Appleby said that the patient told nurses about the party which she said was hosted by someone diagnosed with coronavirus. “The thought is people get together to see if the virus is real and if anyone gets infected,” she said. Dr Appleby decided to share the story with other stupid Americans to get the message across that the virus can affect anyone. Dr Appleby said that while some patients can be treated and discharged, others become seriously ill and she wants everyone, especially young people, to realise that they are not invincible. 

On This Day

• 1543 – King Henry VIII of England marries his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr, at Hampton Court Palace.  
• 1961 – Indian city Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, killing at least two thousand people.
• 1963 – Pauline Reade, 16, disappears in Gorton, England, the first victim in the Moors murders.  

Deaths

• 1910 – Charles Rolls, English engineer, co-founded Rolls-Royce Limited (b. 1887)  
• 1973 – Lon Chaney, Jr., American actor (b. 1906)  
• 2013 – Alan Whicker, Egyptian-English journalist (b. 1925)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Anna Friel (43), Michelle Rodriguez (41), Cheryl Ladd (68), Tamsin Greig (53), Bill Cosby (82), Stephen Lang (67), Caroline Quentin (59), Craig Charles (55), Sofía Vergara (47), Chiwetel Ejiofor (42), Peter Serafinowicz (47), Tom Hanks (63), Pamela Adlon (53), Kelly McGillis (62), Fred Savage (43), Scott Grimes (48), Courtney Love (55), Richard Roundtree (77), O.J. Simpson (72), Richard Wilson (83), Kevin Bacon (61), Billy Crudup (51), Anjelica Huston (68), Jaden Smith (21), Jeffrey Tambor (75), Pauline Quirke (60), Shelley Duvall (71), Jack Whitehall (32), Ringo Starr (80), Eva Green (40), Sylvester Stallone (74), Kevin Hart (41), Geoffrey Rush (69), Jennifer Saunders (62), Ned Beatty (83), 50 Cent (45), and Burt Ward (75).