Dead Pool 26th May 2019

Nil points this week, and a lacklustre week for news too. Definitely time to send out the flying monkeys I feel… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Andrew Hall, 65, English actor (Butterflies, Casualty, Coronation Street).
• Niki Lauda, 70, Austrian racing driver and airline owner, Formula One world champion (1975, 1977, 1984).
• Judith Kerr, 95, German-born British writer and illustrator (The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mog).
• Bobby Joe Long, 65, American convicted serial killer and rapist, execution by lethal injection.

 In Other News

Broadcaster Bill Turnbull has spoken of living with cancer, declaring it is “out to get him”, but that since he finished chemotherapy “just feeling normal feels fantastic”. Bill, 63, was on steroids last year after having several rounds of chemo. He said: “I’ve had a holiday from it now for 10 months. I still have bad days, but I get through.” The Classic FM host was speaking at the Chelsea Flower Show, where he met up with weather presenter Carol Kirkwood, his old BBC Breakfast colleague. He said: “My hair has grown back and I’m letting my hair grow long just to celebrate. I know I looked awful last year. “I saw pictures of myself and I was, ‘Oh Lord, that was just ghastly’. I was in the middle of the treatment.” In November 2017, he was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer, which had spread to his pelvis, hips, legs and spine. He said: “I’m keeping it at bay is the best way to put it. The first prognosis I got was 10 years, then I went to a different doctor and he said 12 to 14, but his ambition was to get me to 80. “But the boundary keeps getting pushed back. You can never tell, but looking at the horizon, the horizon is getting further away with treatments and stuff, so you have to stay positive.”  

Comedian Freddie Starr lived as a recluse in Spain after falling on tough times which left him single, drowning in debt and battling health troubles. The funnyman died alone at his home in Feungirola at the age of 76 and his body was found by his carer. Subsequent reports suggest Starr had become housebound and stopped talking to his friends and neighbours after racking up massive debts in the years before his death. He’s believed to have spent most of his time alone at the two-bed £170,000 townhouse in the hills above the town of Mijas. Starr got himself into thousands of pounds-worth of debt from unpaid water bills and community fees. Also his health had been causing him troubles over the last few years and he went into a downward spiral after his appearance on I’m A Celeb back in 2011. After leaving the jungle, he was caught up in Operation Yewtree after an allegation of sex abuse but was later told he would not be prosecuted. It emerged yesterday that Starr – real name Frederick Fowell – faced being made homeless over a £500,000 debt to the woman who accused him of groping her. Lawyers acting for Karin Ward had reportedly secured a “freezing order” on his Spanish home. They had obtained a preventative embargo from a Costa del Sol court in January 2017 for £380,000. Starr had sought damages in the High Court in July 2015 for alleged slander and libel over her claims that he groped her as a 15-year-old but failed and amassed nearly £1 million legal bill.  

A convicted offender accidentally shot himself in the testicles while having drugs hidden in his anus, say police and prosecutors in Washington state. Cameron Jeffrey Wilson, 27, was forced to seek treatment at a Wenatchee city hospital after the pistol in his front pocket discharged sending a bullet through his groin. He is accused of trying to hide the gun in the aftermath of the violent mishap. A balloon full of marijuana was seen falling out of his anus while doctors operated on his gunshot wound, according to the Wenatchee World News. Police called to the hospital to investigate the unusual 5th April shooting searched Wilson’s car and discovered a bag of methamphetamine inside a pair of blood-stained jeans he had been wearing while shot, Chelan County authorities have claimed. Later that month – while Wilson was being strip-searched by police at Chelan County Regional Justice Centre following his arrest on initial drugs charges – a second balloon full of marijuana slipped out of his anus. After being booked at the county jail on 18th April, he called his girlfriend from jail to tell her to keep silent about the accidental shooting and its aftermath – a call recorded by the authorities. Wilson had allegedly told his girlfriend to hide the pistol at a friend’s house before they drove to the hospital on 5th April. The 27-year-old has been charged with unlawful drugs possession, unlawful weapons possession and tampering with a witness. Reportedly convicted 13 times, he has been detained in jail on a $110,000 (£100,000) bail. He due in court to face the charges on 18th June.

On This Day

• 1293 – An earthquake strikes Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, killing about 23,000.
• 1897 – Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
• 1986 – The European Community adopts the European flag.
• 2004 – Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing.

Deaths

• 1703 – Samuel Pepys, English politician (b. 1633)
• 1904 – Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French physician and neurologist (b. 1857)
• 2008 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1934)
• 2013 – Jack Vance, American author (b. 1916)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Doug Jones (59), John C. Reilly (54), Jim Broadbent (70), Alfred Molina (66), Priscilla Presley (74), Gary Burghoff (76), Tommy Chong (81), Bob Dylan (78), Eric Cantona (53), Cillian Murphy (42), Octavia Spencer (46), Mike Myers (55), Ian McKellen (79), Frank Oz (74), Joan Collins (86), Melissa McBride (54), Ginnifer Goodwin (41), Naomi Campbell (49), Judge Reinhold (62), Noel Fielding (46), Mr. T (67), Jack Gleeson (27), Cher (73), Louis Theroux (49), Grace Jones (71), and James Fox (80).