Dead Pool 6th September 2020

A fairly standard no scoring week, thankfully Nickie kept me abreast of the news as I was taking a busman’s holiday in North Wales, where I noticed first hand the lack of social distancing and mask wearing that holidaymakers seem to be entitled to. I suppose those who feel the real urgent need to go on a holiday are the ones who are most likely to transmit and die of the covids.  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Bill Oddie has been suffering from an “almost fatal” condition throughout the summer.  The British TV personality and former member of The Goodies revealed the news to his Twitter followers. He told them he has been “very ill” with “lithium toxicity”. “Just so you know, I have been very ill most of this summer. Lithium toxicity. Almost fatal!” he wrote on social media. “I am still here but very confused about most things! But then aren’t many of us. He added: “It fuddles my brain. Confusion. Will I return? I Really dunno. I do hope so. Please wish me luck. XX.” Lithium is a type of medicine known as a mood stabiliser. According to the NHS, too much of it in the blood can trigger serious side effects, including a loss of appetite and the feeling of confusion. Oddie – a known conservationist and birdwatcher – first shot to fame as a member of the comedy trio The Goodies. Earlier this year, his co-member Tim Brooke-Taylor died from Covid-19, aged 79.   

As you saw above, DJ Erick Morillo — best known for his 1993 hit, “I Like to Move It” — has died. Law enforcement sources tell us the DJ and music producer’s body was found on Tuesday morning in Miami Beach, the circumstances surrounding his death are currently unclear. Best known for his work in international house music, Morillo produced his biggest hit in the ’90s with the electro-dance track “I Like to Move It”, which he put out under the stage name Reel 2 Real. He’s a 3-time winner of the DJ Awards’ Best House DJ and a 3-time winner of Best International DJ, including his most recent win in 2009. Morillo’s death comes a few weeks after he was arrested in Miami on sexual battery charges. The alleged victim claims she and Morillo went to his place after they were both DJing. She alleges she resisted his sexual advances, and then went to sleep at his place, but woke up nude … with Morillo standing next to her, also nude. He’d turned himself in on August 6th.   

Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor star Ian Royce has died aged 51 following a health battle, with the tragic news announced on his Twitter account on Tuesday evening. A statement was shared on his verified Twitter account with his 68,100 followers which read: “It is with our greatest regret that we have to tell you all that Ian has passed away today from severe pneumonia and multiple organ failure. “He was in no pain and was surrounded by friends and family. He put up a good fight but is in a better place now. Roxanne.” The tweet was immediately inundated with well wishes to Ian’s family from fans, friends and former colleagues. One said: “Incredibly shocking and sad news. Hugs to you Roxy and the rest of the family. Ian was one of those unsung legends, he never gave up and despite his own struggles his outspoken outlook helped others. RIP Ian.” Last year, aged 50, Ian’s showbiz pals including Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Simon Cowell, Olly Murs and Robbie Williams rallied behind him as he opened up about his rehab stint. In an emotional statement, the ITV favourite said: “I just wanted to let you all know that my first 28 days of treatment have come to an end and I will now be going abroad for the next three months to continue my treatment and really work on me and issues that have been buried deep for 40 years.” He continued: “As well as my alcohol addiction I have also surrendered to my sex and love addictions stemming from my past which have affected my relationships greatly. Ian was best known as the warm up guy for ITV shows Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor.

On This Day

  • 1620 – The Pilgrims sail from Plymouth, England on the Mayflower to settle in North America. 
  • 1901 – Leon Czolgosz, an unemployed anarchist, shoots and fatally wounds US President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. 
  • 1952 – A prototype aircraft crashes at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England, killing 29 spectators and the two on board.  
  • 1972 – Munich massacre: Nine Israeli athletes die (along with a German policeman) at the hands of the Palestinian “Black September” terrorist group after being taken hostage at the Munich Olympic Games. Two other Israeli athletes were slain in the initial attack the previous day.  
  • 1997 – The Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales takes place in London. Well over a million people lined the streets and 2 12 billion watched around the world on television.

Deaths

  • 1998 – Akira Kurosawa, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1910)  
  • 2007 – Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (b. 1935)  
  • 2012 – Terry Nutkins, English naturalist, television presenter and author (b. 1946)  
  • 2018 – Burt Reynolds, American actor, director and producer (b. 1936)   
  • 2019 – Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean politician, 2nd President of Zimbabwe (b. 1924)

Last of The Khmer Rouge?

The Khmer Rouge’s chief jailer, who killed 16,000 Cambodians, ordered babies to be beaten to death and carried out medical experiments on live prisoners has died peacefully in hospital aged 77. Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, had been serving a life prison term for war crimes and crimes against humanity having locked up and abused thousands of men, women and children seen as enemies of the regime or who disobeyed its orders. Under his rule, torturers beat and whipped prisoners and shocked them with electrical devices, before their children were then also killed to stop any fears of the next generation taking revenge. When he finally faced a trial over the regime’s crimes, some 30 years on from the atrocities, he called himself ‘criminally responsible’ for babies’ deaths, with many infants having their young bodies battered against trees. Duch died at Cambodian Soviet Friendship Hospital on Wednesday, having developed breathing difficulties at the Kandal provincial prison he was being held two days earlier. The body is now to be examined for a cause of death before being handed to his family.   

Duch, whose trial took place in 2009, was the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face the U.N.-backed tribunal that had been assembled to deliver justice for the regime’s brutal rule in the late 1970s, which is blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people – a quarter of Cambodia’s population at the time. The communist Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 was accused of genocide for causing the deaths of so many of their countrymen from executions, starvation and lack of medical care due to its radical policies. Only after neighbouring Vietnam pushed the Khmer Rouge from power did the scale and barbarity of their rule become absolutely clear.  

As commander of the top-secret Tuol Sleng prison code-named S-21, Duch was one of the few ex-Khmer Rouge who acknowledged even partial responsibility for his actions, and his trial included his own wrenchingly graphic testimony of how people were tortured at the prison. The site in Phnom Penh, which had been a secondary school before the Khmer Rouge came to power, is now a museum with stunning evidence of the cruelty with which the Khmer Rouge persecuted even its own members they accused of disloyalty. Men, women and children seen as enemies of the regime or who disobeyed its orders were jailed and tormented there, and only a handful survived. ‘Everyone who was arrested and sent to S-21 was presumed dead already,’ he testified in April 2009. The tribunal since Duch’s trial has convicted two top echelon Khmer Rouge leaders, while two other defendants died before their trials could be completed.

Youk Chhang, head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected voluminous archives about the country’s tragedy, said Duch’s death ‘is a reminder to us all to remember the victims of the Khmer Rouge. And that justice remains a difficult road for Cambodia.’ 

Like many key members of the Khmer Rouge, Duch was an academic before he became a revolutionary. The former maths teacher joined Pol Pot’s movement in 1967, three years before the U.S. started carpet-bombing Cambodia to try to wipe out Northern Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong inside the border. The Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975 and immediately attempted a radical transformation of Cambodia into a peasant society, emptying cities and forcing the population to work on the land in the country they renamed Democratic Kampuchea. They backed up their rule with ruthless elimination of perceived enemies, and by 1976, Duch was the trusted head of its ultimate killing machine, S-21. Tribunal judges said he signed off on all executions there and was often present when interrogators used torture to extract confessions, including pulling out prisoners’ toenails, administering electric shocks, and waterboarding. Despite his denials, the judges said he had at times taken part in the torture and executions himself. The torture and executions that took place at Tuol Sleng were routinely recorded and photographed, and when the Khmer Rouge were forced from power in 1979, the thousands of documents and film negatives left at the prison became proof of the regime’s atrocities. Duch fled, disappearing for almost two decades in northwestern Cambodia and converting to Christianity until a chance discovery by a British journalist in 1999 led to his arrest. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Idris Elba (48), Naomie Harris (44), Michael Winslow (62), Mathew Horne (42), Rose McGowan (47), Michael Keaton (69), Raquel Welch (80), Carice van Houten (44), Paddy Considine (47), Bob Newhart (91), George Lazenby (81), Damon Wayans (60), Beyoncé (39), Michael Berryman (72), Charlie Sheen (55), Keanu Reeves (56), Salma Hayek (54), Keith Allen (67), Zendaya (24), Burn Gorman (46), Lily Tomlin (81), Steve Pemberton (53), Craig McLachlan (55), Gloria Estefan (63), Richard Gere (71), and Chris Tucker (49).

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.