Dead Pool 16th May 2021

With the passing of Norman Lloyd, I’d better hand out some points! Well done Paul C for listing him as a Cert, 144 points!!! Also congratulations to Gwenan for also listing him, 44 points! 

The new Telegram group has half of us on there now and seems to have settled down nicely. We have split the group into two chats, one for klaxons and deathly chat and another for general chats, so you can be assured that you won’t be disturbed by Leicester scoring a goal once you join. It would be lovely to see you there! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

As you may have seen, good old Fred & Rose West are back in the news as police are searching for a body at a cafe linked to a girl feared to have been murdered by the serial killers. Mary Bastholm, 15, went missing in Gloucester on 6th January 1968. She has never been found. Although if you live in Gloucestershire, it was just a few years ago and people still do take offence when you crack a Fred West joke! It seems that Trevor McDonald has single handedly figured it out with the aid of a dog, which casts a dim light on the Gloucestershire Constabulary, especially since Mary worked as a waitress there and Fred laid a concrete floor in the basement around the time she went missing. Trevor’s documentary-makers called officers to The Clean Plate last Friday where Fred West was a regular customer in the 1960s. City journalist John Hawkins said the disappearance was “one of the biggest stories Gloucester’s ever had”, forgetting about the numerous other murders and disappearances that have happened locally. Mr Hawkins started working in the city as a 16-year-old “cub reporter” a few months before Ms Bastholm disappeared. He said he was “absolutely amazed” to hear that police were searching the cafe after being asked to previously and refusing each time, knowing full well what a pain in the arse it would be to dig up a tiny cellar. The film crew told police last week they had found evidence that a body could be buried within the property. Gloucestershire Police have said officers could be at the site “for a number of weeks” and excavation work is yet to begin, but luckily bacon sandwiches and mugs of tea are literally a stones throw away. Miss Bastholm’s family are aware of recent developments and have asked for privacy, because after 53 years they are still amazingly close to their dead relative. In 1994, Fred West admitted murdering his daughter, Heather, as police started to search 25 Cromwell Street, where the bodies of nine girls and young women were found. West and his wife, Rose, were jointly charged with nine murders and he was charged with a further three.  

Frontbench Labour MP Wes Streeting has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. The 38-year-old Ilford North MP – who was promoted last week to shadow child poverty secretary – said the news came as “an enormous shock”. But he said the cancer had been “caught early” and his prognosis was “very good”, adding he would take time off work until he made “a full recovery”. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the “thoughts of the entire Labour Party” were with Mr Streeting and his family. Posting a video on his Twitter feed, Mr Streeting said he discovered the diagnosis after going into hospital for a kidney stone in March. “At the time, a scan identified a lump on the same kidney,” he said. “Around a month later, in April, unfortunately that lump was diagnosed as kidney cancer.” The former head of the National Union of Students added: “While receiving a cancer diagnosis at the age of 38 has come as an enormous shock, the good news is because of that kidney stone the cancer has been caught early, my prognosis is very good, and I should make a full recovery. “But it does mean I have to take time off work for treatment.” Mr Streeting thanked his family, friends and colleagues for their support, as well as Labour candidates and activists who he joined during last week’s election campaign. The MP’s team will carry out his constituency work while he “follows doctors’ orders”. He added: “My family have made it very clear – and actually so has Keir – that I will not be coming back until I’ve made a full recovery. “Hopefully that won’t be too long, but in the meantime, bear with me and thank you very much in advance for your support.”  

Tiger King star Joe Exotic has revealed he has prostate cancer. Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, shot to fame after appearing as the main subject in Netflix’s Tiger King docu-series. He is currently in prison after being convicted on a number of charges, including a murder-for-hire plot against his rival, Big Cat Rescue boss Carole Baskin. Posting on Twitter on Friday, he told his followers: “John Phillips has received my medical records from FMC Fort Worth and my PSA count came back very high for prostate cancer. The prison has approved testing to verify what stage it is in. My body is tired, I have lost a tremendous amount of weight, the mouth sores are out of control.” In a string of follow-up tweets, he said he is continually vomiting and begged to be let out of prison. He urged US president Joe Biden to “sign that pardon that Trump left behind so I can go home and get proper medical care and proper food”. While Exotic is currently due for release in 2037, he previously sought clemency from former president Donald Trump, but his appeals were ignored. Last month, Exotic issued another plea to be let out of prison, claiming that he is the victim of “conspiracy”.

On This Day

  • 1770 – The 14-year-old Marie Antoinette marries 15-year-old Louis-Auguste, who later becomes king of France.   
  • 1929 – In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards ceremony takes place. 
  • 1988 – A report by the Surgeon General of the United States C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine.  

Deaths

  • 1938 – Joseph Strauss, American engineer, co designed The Golden Gate Bridge (b. 1870). 
  • 1957 – Eliot Ness, American federal agent (b. 1903).   
  • 1985 – Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902). 
  • 1990 – Sammy Davis Jr., American singer, dancer, and actor (b. 1925). 
  • 1990 – Jim Henson, American puppeteer, director, created The Muppets (b. 1936). 

Children who kill

Following on from last week, we have another kid who kills for you to read about. 

Eric M. Smith is an American incarcerated for the murder of four-year-old Derrick Robie in 1993 in Steuben County, New York. Smith was convicted of second-degree murder at the age of thirteen in 1994 and sentenced to the maximum term then available for juvenile murderers: a minimum of nine years to life in prison.     

During his early life Smith enjoyed spending time with his grandparents, Red and Edie Wilson; Red said “He would always come in and give us hugs and kisses. He liked being a clown.” However, Eric Smith was diagnosed by a defence psychiatrist with intermittent explosive disorder, a mental disorder causing individuals to be violent and unpredictable, but the prosecution’s expert said it was a rare disorder that was rarely seen at Smith’s age. Smith was subjected to extensive medical testing from specialists on both sides. They examined brain function, hormone levels and found nothing to explain his violent behaviour. According to court documents, Smith was a loner who was often tormented by bullies for his protruding low-set ears, thick glasses, red hair and freckles.  

On August 2nd, 1993, when Smith was thirteen years old, he was riding his bike home from summer camp in a local park day camp after being told to leave due to “bad behaviour” and 4-year-old Derrick Robie was walking alone to that same camp. Smith saw Robie and lured him into a nearby wooded area. There, Smith strangled him and dropped a large rock on the boy’s head. The cause of death was determined to be blunt trauma to the head with contributing asphyxia. Around 11:00 a.m., Robie’s mother, Doreen, went to the park to pick up her son, only to find that Robie had not arrived. After four  hours of investigation, Robie’s body was found. The murder case made national headlines, largely due to the age of the killer and of the victim. On August 8th, 1993, Eric Smith confessed to his mother that he killed Derrick. The Smith family informed law enforcement later that night. In his 2014 parole hearing, Smith said that he had been bullied by older children at school, and also by his father and older sister. He confessed that he took his rage out on Robie, so he killed him. Smith said that he sodomised Robie with a stick in order to ensure his death.      

On August 16th, 1994, Smith was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to the maximum term then available for juvenile murderers: a minimum of nine years to life in prison. While in jail, Smith wrote an apology letter to Robie’s family; he read it on public television: “I know my actions have caused a terrible loss in the Robie family, and for that, I am truly sorry. I’ve tried to think as much as possible about what Derrick will never experience: his 16th birthday, Christmas, anytime, owning his own house, graduating, going to college, getting married, his first child. If I could go back in time, I would switch places with Derrick and endure all the pain I’ve caused him. If it meant that he would go on living, I’d switch places, but I can’t.” At the end of this statement, Smith states that he cannot bear the thought of “walls, razor wire, and steel metal bars” for the rest of his life. He has also apologised to Derrick Robie in interviews.

Smith has been denied parole ten times since 2002, most recently in January 2020. He will next be eligible for parole in October 2021. After the failed 2012 hearing, the parole board cited a concern for public safety in its decision, and Robie’s parents opposed his release. At that hearing, he told a parole board he would not return to Savona if released, and would go to a shelter or halfway house instead.

Smith was held in a juvenile facility for three years and was then transferred to an open prison for young adults. In 2001, he was transferred to the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, a maximum security prison. As of November 30th, 2019, he was listed as incarcerated at the Woodbourne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Megan Fox (35), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (31), Danny Trejo (77), Pierce Brosnan (68), David Boreanaz (52), Debra Winger (66), Stephen Mangan (53), Janet Jackson (55), Cate Blanchett (52), Tim Roth (60), George Lucas (77), Francesca Annis (76), Danny Huston (59), Siân Phillips (89), Greg Davies (53), Martine McCutcheon (45), Zoë Wanamaker (72), Robert Pattinson (35), Samantha Morton (44), Iwan Rheon (36), Harvey Keitel (82), Mark Heap (64), Stephen Colbert (57), Rhea Seehorn (49), Malin Akerman (43), Rami Malek (40), Emilio Estevez (59), Gabriel Byrne (71), Ving Rhames (62), Jason Biggs (43), Catherine Tate (53), Jeffrey Donovan (53), Pam Ferris (73), Tim Blake Nelson (57), Holly Valance (38), Coby Bell (46), and Bono (61). 

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