Dead Pool 19th April 2020

Last week we saw three Doctors of the Who variety have their birthdays and a few well loved celebrities meeting their makers. I was due to work with Tim Brooke-Taylor next month, but along with all kinds of events it was cancelled due to the virus, sadly now that particular event will never be rescheduled. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Peter Bonetti, 78, English footballer (Chelsea, Dundee United, national team), world champion (1966). 
• Tim Brooke-Taylor, 79, English comedian (The Goodies) and panellist (I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue), COVID-19.  
• Brian Dennehy, 81, American actor (First Blood, Tommy Boy, Cocoon), cardiac arrest due to sepsis.  
• Eddie Cooley, 87, American songwriter (“Fever“) and singer (“Priscilla“).  
• Howard Finkel, 69, American Hall of Fame professional wrestling ring announcer (WWE). 
• Norman Hunter, 76, English football player (Leeds United, Bristol City, national team) and manager, world champion (1966), COVID-19.

In Other News

Chadwick Bosemen’s appearance in a recent Instagram video has left fans concerned about the Avengers star. The actor, who plays the Black Panther, showcased a much slimmer physique as he shared a charity message about a new initiative to help battle the current coronavirus pandemic. Fans immediately flocked to the comments to note the change in how Chadwick, 42, appeared on screen as he rocked a purple cap and displayed a slightly scruffy beard. One fan asked, ‘Did you loose weight for a movie role ?????’ before another wrote: ‘Anyone in shock by how he look?’ While another concerned fan added: ‘I hope your okay, your appearance has changed.’ Chadwick’s weight loss may be down to his latest role in the TV series The Black Child, based on the book of the same name in which he plays a slave.   

Gogglebox star Jonathan Tapper was left “fighting for his life” as he battled coronavirus, his wife has revealed. The patriarch of the Tapper family, who appeared on the series for five years, struggled to breathe and was unable to move after being struck by the illness. Jonathan’s wife Nikki said: “One night Jonathan came home from work and was unable to move. He had a cough and high temperature. He laid down on the sofa and – with no exaggeration – he stayed there for two weeks in our lounge room.” She continued: “We tended to him as best we could, but at times he seemed unable to breathe. Having spoken to the doctors, they urged us to stay home, but they said to quickly get an oxygen monitor, which fixed to his finger.” 52-year-old Jonathan was particularly at risk for coronavirus due to his age, as well as underlying health conditions. In 2019, he lost three stone in 12 weeks to combat a diagnosis of diabetes. Two weeks after first coming down with the illness, Jonathan is said to still be resting, and his health is improving.  

Broadway star Nick Cordero is to have his leg amputated after suffering complications from coronavirus, his wife has confirmed. Yesterday, Cordero’s wife Amanda Kloots explained on her Instagram Story that she and her husband had received “difficult news”. She said that blood thinners doctors were using to help clotting in Cordero’s leg had sparked internal bleeding in his intestines. “We took him off blood thinners but that again was going to cause some clotting in the right leg, so the right leg will be amputated today,” Kloots said. The actor, who is best known for his work in Broadway productions of Waitress and Bullets Over Broadway, was initially diagnosed with pneumonia, before testing positive for coronavirus. While being treated in intensive care for a lung infection and fever, which caused a dangerous drop in blood pressure, he was placed on life support. He has remained unconscious in recovery since. 

A pensioner who was given a surprise flight in a £70million fighter jet as a retirement present was flung out at 2500ft after grabbing the ejector seat handle to  ‘steady himself’. The astonishing drama is outlined in a newly released report by French aviation investigators who have stern words for their country’s Airforce and government throughout. At times, it reads like a dark comedy film script, as it describes how the unidentified 64-year-old panicked and screamed with fear during his first flight in the Rafale-B which took off from Saint-Dizier airforce base, in north-west France last March. Then he shot out at high speed, losing his helmet that had not been fastened round his chin properly, before landing in a field close to the German border. His anti-g force suit, worn by aviators who are subject to high acceleration forces and designed to prevent a blackout, had also become loose around the trousers. It was only through good fortune that the pilot was not ejected by his passenger’s actions too – which could have led to a very serious crash. The pensioner had ‘never expressed a desire to take part in a flight like this, and especially not in a Rafale,’ reads the report by the Paris-based BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis). Despite this, his colleagues at the defence contractor where he had worked for most of his career set up the flight. ‘The need to keep the surprise until the moment of the flight,’ had hugely risky consequences, especially as regards ‘preparation for the flight,’ reads the report. It continues: ‘This situation generated a feeling of stress for the passenger, and this was particularly felt during the ejection seat briefing where he had to assimilate a large amount of information in a very short time. ‘The passenger said he had a complete lack of knowledge of the aeronautical environment and its constraints, having never flown  on a military aircraft.’ Four of the pensioner’s colleagues had turned up with a professional photographer, and they placed a Go-Pro camera on their friend’s helmet to film the afternoon flight. ‘Faced with a fait accompli on the day of the flight, it was very difficult for him to refuse to participate in the flight,’ says the report. The flight had also been authorised by the French Air Force staff at the request of the Defence Ministry, which also piled pressure on the pensioner. The pensioner, had expected a gentle ascent, but the plane ‘climbed at 47 degrees’, compared to around 10 to 15 degrees for a standard passenger plane. This was when the Frenchman reached out to hang on to anything he could, and pulled the ejector handle. There was then a loud bang, with the force of the ejection tearing his unsecured mask and oxygen mask from his face. The Rafele-B’s command ejection system is meant to fire both seats at once – meaning the pilot feared his seat would fly out at any moment. Analysis of radio recordings show that the pilot was in control of the situation. Once informed that his passenger had ejected, the pilot realises that he should have been ejected too. ‘He then demonstrated a certain calm following the loss of the rear seat and the canopy.’ The pensioner managed to land with the use of his parachute and ended up in a field, shocked and with minor injuries. 

The Newly Infected

• DJ Jazzy Jeff: says coronavirus-like symptoms caused him to forget 10 days of his life.  
• John Taylor: Duran Duran’s bassist, tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago. 
• Danny Burstein: The Moulin Rouge! star admitted to “coughing up blood for two to three days,” before being going to hospital.
• Sam Smith: Despite never getting tested, the Grammy-winner is convinced that it had coronavirus.
• Kalie Shorr: The country music singer has been diagnosed with coronavirus, despite being in quarantine for three weeks. 
• Sinitta: The singer said she felt like she’d ‘swallowed a packet of razor blades’ after contracting the virus.

On This Day

• 1770 – Captain James Cook, still holding the rank of lieutenant, sights the eastern coast of what is now Australia. 
• 1927 – Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.  
• 1943 – Albert Hofmann deliberately doses himself with LSD for the first time, three days after having discovered its effects.  
• 1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for conspiracy in the Tate–LaBianca murders.  
• 1987 – The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with Good Night.  
• 1993 – The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. 76 Davidian’s, including eighteen children under the age of ten, died in the fire.

Deaths

• 1824 – Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet and playwright (b. 1788)  
• 1881 – Benjamin Disraeli, English journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804) 
• 1882 – Charles Darwin, English biologist and theorist (b. 1809)  
• 1906 – Pierre Curie, French physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)  
• 1989 – Daphne du Maurier, English novelist and playwright (b. 1907)  
• 1992 – Frankie Howerd, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1917)  
• 2004 – Norris McWhirter, English author and activist co-founded the Guinness World Records (b. 1925)

Last Meals

Peter Kürten was a German serial killer known as “The Vampire of Düsseldorf” and the “Düsseldorf Monster“. He committed a series of murders and sexual assaults between February and November 1929 in the city of Düsseldorf. In the years before these assaults and murders, Kürten had amassed a lengthy criminal record for offences including arson and attempted murder. He also confessed to the 1913 murders of a nine-year-old girl in Mülheim am Rhein and a 17-year-old girl in Düsseldorf. Described as “the king of the sexual perverts,” Kürten was found guilty of nine counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder for which he was sentenced to death by beheading in April 1931. He was executed in July 1931 at age 48. Kürten became known as the “Vampire of Düsseldorf” because he occasionally made attempts to drink the blood from his victims’ wounds, and the “Düsseldorf Monster” both because the majority of his murders were committed in and around the city of Düsseldorf, and the savagery he inflicted upon his victims’ bodies.  

On the evening of 1st July 1931, Kürten received his last meal. He ordered Wiener Schnitzel, a bottle of white wine, and fried potatoes. Kürten devoured the entire meal before requesting a second helping. Prison staff decided to grant his request. At 6 o’clock on the morning of 2nd July, Peter Kürten was beheaded by guillotine in the grounds of Klingelputz Prison, Cologne. He walked unassisted to the guillotine, flanked by the prison psychiatrist and a priest. Shortly before his head was placed on the guillotine, Kürten turned to the psychiatrist and asked the question: “Tell me…  after my head is chopped off, will I still be able to hear, at least for a moment, the sound of my own blood  gushing from the stump of my neck? That would be the pleasure to end all pleasures.” When asked whether he had any last words to say, Kürten simply smiled and replied, “No.” 

Following Kürten’s 1931 execution, his head was bisected and mummified; the brain was removed and subjected to forensic analysis in an attempt to explain his personality and behaviour. The examinations of Kürten’s brain revealed no abnormalities. Shortly after World War II, Kürten’s head was transported to the United States. It is currently on display at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Hayden Christensen (38), James Franco (41), Tim Curry (73),  Kate Hudson (40), Maria Sharapova (32), David Tennant (48), Hayley Mills (73), Edgar Wright (45), Rick Moranis (66), Eli Roth (47), James Woods (72), Conan O’Brien (56), Rooney Mara (35), Sean Bean (61), Jennifer Garner (48), David Bradley (78), Victoria Beckham (46), Claire Foy (36), Martin Lawrence (55), Ellen Barkin (66), Emma Watson (30), Luke Evans (41), Seth Rogen (38), Emma Thompson (61), Maisie Williams (23), Samantha Fox (54), Sarah Michelle Gellar (43), Adrien Brody (47), Robert Carlyle (59), Julie Christie (80), Peter Capaldi (62), Ron Perlman (70), William Sadler (70), Erick Avari (68), Edward Fox (83), and Peter Davison (69).