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Dead Pool 28th June 2026

Let’s congratulate Dave J. for scoring 50 points for the death of Alan Greenspan, which moves him up to fourth place as we hit halfway through the year. You’d have thought that the recent U.K. heatwave would have taken a few out though… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert says her “relentless” cancer has returned for a third time. The 71-year-old American was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2021 and says she is hopeful of making a full recovery. Evert, who won Wimbledon three times and a total of 18 Grand Slams, has been a regular television pundit for the BBC and other broadcasters since retiring in 1989. “I have always believed in being open and honest about my health journey,” she wrote on Instagram. “This past weekend, after undergoing CT and PET scans, I learned that my ovarian cancer has returned. I have already undergone surgery as the first step in my treatment and recovery, and will begin chemotherapy in the coming weeks. Because of this, I will not be attending Wimbledon this year, and I will step back from my professional commitments over the next few months to focus on my health. Ovarian cancer is relentless, but I will stay optimistic and determined in continuing to fight this battle. I am deeply grateful to my medical team, my family, friends, and everyone who has reached out with kindness and encouragement. I look forward to seeing everyone again soon.” Long-time rival and friend Martina Navratilova said “My friend Chrissie is a champion of champions and as such she will slay this monster again, we are all pulling for you, and know you will come out on the other side cancer free again.”   

Trevor Nelson has announced he’s taking time away from Radio 2 while he deals with a mystery health issue. The legendary broadcaster, 62, has been off the airwaves this week as he shared a statement on Instagram explaining that he would be extending the break to focus on his health. He wrote: “I wanted to let my followers, radio listeners and all my Soul Nation party-people know that I’m going to be taking a little break from my work commitments. Some of you may already have noticed that I’ve not been on my daily Radio 2 slot this week. After a routine check-up I was advised to have some follow up tests. As a result, I will be taking some further time off. As I’m sure you can appreciate with health issues it’s important to deal with facts and not speculate. So I’m concentrating on getting better, being back to 100% me and to getting back behind the mic and the decks. Radio 2 stablemate Vernon Kay paid tribute to Trevor in his show today and revealed his feeling positive. He said: “Everyone at BBC Radio 2, including the mid-morning show are sending Trevor all the very very best wishes, we absolutely love him to bits. He’s a stalwart broadcaster within the UK. I played golf with him a couple of weeks ago and he was in a buoyant mood. And I know that this challenge is something that Trevor is gonna face head on. So Trevor we are sending you all our love and hopefully see you on the Links very soon my friend.” The BBC will announce who will deputise for Trevor on Monday. Dad-of-two Trevor is a pioneer of British radio, having been on the airwaves since the 80’s.  

A convicted rapist who faked his own death and fled to the United Kingdom in a failed bid to to escape justice has died while serving his sentence. Nicholas Rossi, 38, died in a Utah hospital on Thursday night due to ‘complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment,’ a Utah Department of Corrections spokesperson said. It is unclear what that condition was and if Rossi decided to discontinue his care as a means of dying by suicide. Utah Department of Corrections added that Rossi’s family had been notified of his death. The Rhode Island native was last year sentenced to ten years behind bars for raping two women in northern Utah in 2008. Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, was first identified as the women’s attacker in 2018 when a decade-old DNA rape kit was investigated. But in February 2020, just months after he was charged in one of the cases, an obituary was published online claiming he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In fact, he had been living in Bristol, in the south-west of England, for some time before then – but the exact date he fled the States for Britain is unclear. He eventually ended up in Scotland, where he lived under the radar until December 2021, when he was arrested at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. While in hospital receiving treatment for Covid, staff had recognised his distinctive tattoos and reported him to authorities. Rossi said the wrong man had been caught, claiming he was an Irish orphan called Arthur Knight who was being framed. But in November 2022, it was concluded he was in fact Nicholas Rossi and after a long court battle, he was eventually extradited to the US in January last year. Rossi became known for his theatrical court appearances, where he would attempt an English accent while denying his true identity.  It eventually emerged he had used more than a dozen aliases over the years to escape detection. 

On This Day

  • 1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.
  • 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo, beginning the July Crisis and providing the casus belli of World War I.
  • 1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
  • 1997 – Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting off a piece Evander Holyfield’s ear.

Deaths

Last Meals

Dusty Ray Spencer was an American prisoner convicted of murdering his wife in Orange County, Florida. On January 18th 1992, Spencer, who was previously arrested in December 1991 for domestic violence, fatally stabbed his wife, 40-year-old Karen. Spencer went on the run before he was arrested days after the murder.  

Born in Pennsylvania in 1952, Dusty Ray Spencer completed his high school education at the Hopewell Area High School and graduated in 1972, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps for three years before being discharged in 1973. After leaving the military, Spencer moved to Florida and married his first wife. Within four years, he was arrested for delivering $1,600 worth of marijuana to an undercover drug agent. While awaiting the outcome of his case, Spencer attended Valencia Community College for nearly two years, earning a 3.5 grade point average. He later pleaded guilty and served approximately 10 months in jail. Following his release, Spencer divorced his first wife and, in 1980, restarted his career as a house painter, living frugally in a converted trailer. 

In 1988, Spencer met his second wife Karen Spencer after she hired him to paint her home. The two began dating, and Spencer admired Karen’s independence, business skills, and determination in raising her three sons alone. They married in 1989, and became both life and business partners, jointly building A-Plus Painting into a successful company that earned more than $200,000 in 1990. The couple’s marriage started off as a happy one, but eventually, the economic recession placed increasing strain on both their business and their marriage, and by late 1990, the financial issues led to frequent disputes between Spencer and Karen, up until early December 1991, when Karen asked for a divorce and told her husband to move out of their Orlando, Florida house, which marked the preceding event that led to her murder in January 1992. 

In December 1991, Dusty and Karen Spencer argued about the latter’s withdrawal of money from the company’s bank account, and the argument escalated into violence, with Spencer choking and hitting Karen and threatening outright that he would kill her. Spencer was arrested and charged with spousal abuse as a result of this incident, and while he was detained in prison, Spencer called his wife and warned her that he would finish what he had started. 

Subsequently, Spencer was released after the judge granted him bail at an amount of $5,000. Although Karen initially asked Spencer to come home for the holiday season, she reiterated that her husband should move out after Christmas, and on the New Year’s Day of 1992, during a drinking session, Spencer reportedly told a friend that he wanted to throw Karen overboard once he took her out on boat, although he told the same friend two days later that his wife would not go on the boat with him. By January 1992, despite Karen filing the injunction to prevent him from coming back to their house, Spencer entered the house and assaulted Karen, and while Spencer’s younger stepson tried to intervene, he was hit with an iron by his stepfather. Spencer fled the house after the assault, and Karen would seek treatment for her injuries, which she told the doctor were caused by an iron. 

On the morning of January 18th 1992, two weeks after the attack, Spencer once again returned to the house to attack Karen, which ultimately turned out to be fatal. Spencer used a brick to hit Karen on the head several times, and the commotion awakened and alerted his 17-year-old stepson, who witnessed the attack and in response, the youth grabbed a rifle from his mother’s bedroom and tried to shoot at his stepfather, but it jammed. The boy then struck Spencer’s head with the gun, but Spencer persisted and slammed Karen’s head onto the concrete wall of the house. Although the boy tried to carry his mother to safety, he was forced to leave his mother behind and escaped the house to seek help after Spencer came after them with a knife and threatened him. Karen was stabbed several times by Spencer, and she died as a result. 

By the time the police and Karen’s son arrived at the house, Spencer had already escaped the residence, leaving behind Karen’s corpse. According to an autopsy report, Karen died due to two stab wounds that penetrated her heart and lung. In total, Karen was stabbed four or five times in the chest, and she had cuts on her face and arms, and severe blunt force trauma to her head. The wounds on her arms were certified to be defensive injuries, suggesting that Karen tried to defend herself when Spencer attacked and stabbed her. 

In the aftermath of Karen Spencer’s murder, there were concerns regarding the systematic flaws that indirectly led to her murder, including the protective measures aimed to safeguard victims of domestic violence, due to Dusty Spencer’s attempts on Karen’s life while put on bail even after he was arrested and charged with spousal abuse. As a result of the case, many judges barred suspects charged with domestic abuse from getting bail, and a no-bail policy was proposed to better protect the victims and prevent potential cases of these suspects retaliating against their victims while on bail. 

Two days after the murder of his wife, Dusty Spencer was arrested after Polk County deputies traced his whereabouts to the house of one of his friends, where he sought refuge while on the run for the killing. After his arrest, Spencer was charged with first-degree murder for the death of Karen, and he was held without bond at the Orange County jail. 

On February 6th 1992, an Orange County grand jury formally indicted Spencer for his wife’s murder and attempted murder of her younger son, as well as aggravated battery and attempted murder for the attack on Karen and her  younger son.  By a majority vote of 7–5, the jury recommended that Spencer should be sentenced to death for murdering his wife. 

On May 26th 2026, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Dusty Spencer, scheduling him to be executed on June 25th 2026. 

During the final days leading up to his execution, advocates argued for the state to spare Spencer’s life. They raised the fact that Spencer was 74 years old and was in poor health at this point, suffering from cognitive decline, heart problems and cirrhosis and other health issues, and he could no longer pose as a threat to anyone, and it was therefore inappropriate to execute him. Since 1976, only 12 inmates aged 74 and above were executed of all the 1,669 people put to death in the United States. 

On June 25th 2026, 74-year-old Dusty Ray Spencer was put to death by lethal injection at the Florida State Prison. For his last meal, Spencer ordered a pizza, french fries and a milkshake, and in his final statement, Spencer said, “Sorry, sorry to the family. Into thy hands I commit my spirit and my soul. I’m on my way, Lord. I’m on my way. Amen.” Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10pm, within ten minutes after the drugs were administered for him.

Given his age of 74, Spencer became the oldest person executed in the state since 1924, surpassing both Samuel Lee Smithers and R. Charlie Gifford, who were both executed for murder at age 72 in 2025 and 1951 respectively. Another 74-year-old Florida prisoner, Dennis Sochor, is also scheduled to be executed on July 14th. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

John Cusack (60), Mel Brooks (100), Kathy Bates (78), Felicia Day (47), Alice Krige (72), Elon Musk (55), Tobey Maguire (51), Emma D’Arcy (34), Meera Syal (65), Nick Offerman (56), Ariana Grande (33), Mckenna Grace (20), Ricky Gervais (65), Sheridan Smith (45), Erin Moriarty (32), Peter Weller (79), Nancy Allen (76), Iain Glen (65), Joel Edgerton (52), Frances McDormand (69), Melissa Rauch (46), Selma Blair (54), Meryl Streep (77), Bruce Campbell (68), Tim Russ (70), Cyndi Lauper (73).

Posted by  |  28th June 2026 | Categories: 2026 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 21st June 2026

Quite a deadly week! Points need to be awarded too! Well done to me for correctly guessing that Roy Hattersley would die this year. 57 points!! Not only that, Neil G also guessed that Teddie Beverley would sing her last song; another 51 points!! 

Not sure what would happen if anyone theoretically went with the Major Oak, you’d probably end up with -850 points…. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

An 81-year-old pétanque player has been arrested after allegedly killing a 68-year-old rival with a metal boule in an apparent turf war. The alleged attack broke out in the usually peaceful resort of Mimizan in south-west France. Witnesses say a row erupted when a group who usually play at a nearby beach turned up at the local boulodrome looking for shade during a heatwave. “According to the evidence … it seems that it is the 81-year-old man who struck the victim, who is deceased, with a pétanque boule,” Alexa Dubourg, the public prosecutor in nearby Mont-de-Marsan, said. She said the incident occurred after “an argument which degenerated into a physical confrontation”. The prosecutor added that the row concerned “the use of the boulodrome habitually frequented by one of the groups”. Investigations are ongoing to “determine precisely the role played by each person”, she said. The victim and alleged attacker have not yet been named. Some reports suggest the man was hit in the face with the metal boule, while others suggest he was struck in the head. The 68-year-old victim suffered a cardiac arrest after being hit and died at the scene. The 81-year-old suspect was detained by the local Gendarmerie as soon as they arrived and put into police custody. He is due to appear before a judge as prosecutors look to bring formal charges. The petanque club in Mimizan has suspended operations and offered psychological support to the witnesses who have reportedly been left traumatised by what they saw.  

A weekend BASE jumping accident in a Utah canyon has killed two people, one of them a daredevil athlete best known for performing onstage with Madonna at the 2012 Super Bowl. The sheriff’s office in Grand County, Utah, confirmed one of the dead was Andy Lewis, an extreme athlete known for feats in dangerous sports. The victims had been conducting a tandem jump in which two people are harnessed together, according to a social media post by Aerial Arts Moab, an acrobatics company that described Lewis as “co-owner and best friend.” The business offered tandem jumps to inexperienced customers who would be harnessed to a guide wearing the parachute. Promotional videos on the company’s website show pairs of people stepping off the edges of towering cliffs and briefly plummeting before their parachutes open. In BASE jumping circles, Lewis had a huge following and a reputation for pushing the envelope — leaping into tighter spaces or deploying his parachute later than his peers would dare, said John McEvoy, a BASE jumping instructor in Twin Falls, Idaho, who has jumped with Lewis. “He had an incredible level of athleticism and skill that was developed over years of practice,” McEvoy said. “But then he would take an incredible amount of risk.” Grand County Sheriff Jamison Wiggins confirmed the other person who was killed was Danny Joe Kregle, a 68-year-old father and grandfather who was described by a family member as an accomplished businessman. Lewis was also a prominent figure in the niche sports of slacklining and tricklining, which combine elements of high-wire walking with aerial acrobatics, sometimes at perilous heights. In 2014, he walked a slackline suspended between two hot air balloons more than 4,000 feet above the Nevada desert. He went from obscure athlete to overnight celebrity when he appeared onstage in Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show. Dressed in a Roman toga, Lewis bounced and executed tricks on his inch-wide line like it was a trampoline while Madonna sang behind him.Though there’s no official tally of BASE jumping deaths, a list compiled by the website BASEaddict.com shows 540 total fatalities worldwide since 1981, including 30 people killed last year.  

Would be farmer and television presenter Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The news was announced in an  episode of the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm, released on Wednesday. It is not clear exactly when the footage was filmed, but the series was shot in 2024 and 2025, so it can’t be that bad as the fucker is still alive. Clarkson, 66, is seen telling series regulars Kaleb Cooper and Charlie Ireland of his diagnosis, both of whom were visibly shocked by the news. The former Top Gear presenter did not clarify what stage of cancer he had been diagnosed with, but described it as “aggressive” and that a portion of his prostate had been removed as part of his treatment. “I disappeared off the other week and I had a biopsy, and it is cancer, and it’s aggressive, but it’s really early,” he said. Clarkson added that he had known “since May”. “I promise I’ll be fine,” he told the two men, adding that he would be out of action “for a little while”. Cooper told Clarkson to “look after yourself” while Ireland added: “I wish you a very speedy recovery.” In a separate discussion with Cooper in the following episode, Clarkson confirmed the type of cancer, telling him: “The prostate, 10% of it is dead, the 10% where the cancer is.” Later, Clarkson told co-star Gerald: “I had the op, and just fingers crossed it’s worked, we don’t know yet.” The episode, and series, ended with Clarkson pictured in a hospital bed following treatment. “We started season five with me in a hospital bed, and here we are at the end of season five and I’m back in the hospital bed,” he said. “Some of the treatment’s gone a bit awry, let’s say, so I’m going to be here for a little while. I’m nil by mouth, I don’t know what’s going to happen. But if this is all successful,I’ll see you for season six, and if it isn’t, I wont.” He signed off: “Take care everyone.” 

On This Day

  • 1919 – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.
  • 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
  • 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

Deaths

Last Week’s Birthdays

Chris Pratt (47), Carrie Preston (59), Juliette Lewis (53), David Morrissey (62), Nicole Kidman (59), John Goodman (74), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (37), Miles O’Keeffe (72), Aidan Turner (43), Zoe Saldaña (48), Kathleen Turner (72), Richard Madden (40), Paul McCartney (84), Carol Kane (74), Will Forte (56), Jodie Whittaker (44), Arnold Vosloo (64), Andy Weir (54), John Cho (54), James Bolam (91), Helen Hunt (63), Courteney Cox (62), Neil Patrick Harris (53), Jim Belushi (72), and Ice Cube 57). 

Posted by  |  21st June 2026 | Categories: 2026 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 14th June 2026

Better late than never! This week we find Tinkerbell has died, along  with Britains most overrated artist. I wonder if Peter Pan will be next… 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

A man has died after reportedly using high-strength adhesive instead of a condom for contraception. Salman Mirza, 25, a drug user, is said to have sealed his cock with an ultra-strong epoxy resin during sex with his partner, with a mystery green liquid found in his abdomen. The couple were inhaling the glue “for a kick” before opting to use it as a contraceptive during a meet up at the Amber Hotel in Ahmedabad, a city in India’s western state of Gujarat. Within a day of checking into the hotel, Salman was discovered unconscious in the “shrubs” outside the hotel by an acquaintance. He was immediately rushed to hospital but sadly passed away shortly afterwards. The Flying Monkeys reported the pair decided to engage in sexual activity after consuming drugs. “Since they didn’t have any protection, they decided to apply the adhesive onto his dick to ensure that she didn’t get pregnant.” Following his death, Salman’s family alleges that it was his partner who applied the adhesive to his meat and two veg. They have lodged a complaint with the police accusing his partner of murder. Police have confirmed samples have been sent for forensic analysis to determine if this was indeed the case, and an autopsy is currently in progress. Police have declared the official cause of the 25-year-old’s death was due to “multiple organ failure”. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains a website listing different possible birth control methods. It divides them into different categories such as intrauterine contraception, hormonal methods, barrier methods, emergency contraception, and permanent methods of birth control. Notably, gluing your snake eye shut is not one of the methods listed.  

A 21-year-old woman died in Limera, Brazil, after a rope jumping crew failed to connect her to the safety rope used in the extreme sport, military police and witness accounts said. About six men were arrested following the woman’s death. Three of them were released following questioning. The other three will be investigated on charges of homicide with implied malice, local media reported. Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas, a graduate of physical education and sports management, had gone rope jumping with her fiancé at the Ponte do Esqueleto (Skeleton Bridge). According to military police, people on site reported that the safety equipment was not secured on to the woman before she was launched by two men off the platform. Two videos emerged of the incident. The videos also show that the rope was not secured to the woman before the men carried her to be thrown off the bridge. Right before she was launched off the platform, someone can be heard shouting, “Guys, the rope,” after realising the woman was not connected to the safety rope. The woman fell 40 meters and suffered multiple injuries. Paramedics confirmed her death on site. Before her death, Freitas posted photographs on her Instagram. In one of the captions, she joked, “Who was the crazy person who let me jump off a bridge?” Her profile was taken down after her death. Her social media showed that she was a recent graduate and was a resident of Jandira in Greater São Paulo, where she worked at a gym. The gym posted a message mourning Freitas’s death. The company that runs the rope-jumping business, Entre Cordas, deleted its page with 80,000 followers after the incident. The Limeira City Hall said Saturday that it will sue the Federal Government in court “due to the omission regarding the Ponte do Esqueleto”, after the death of a young woman at the site. In a statement, the City Hall claimed that the responsibility for the inspection, maintenance, and access control of the bridge lay exclusively with the Federal Government. They stated that since 2025, they had already sent official letters to the responsible bodies demanding security measures on the bridge, including a request to block access and place warning sites. Despite this activities continued. The three men who were arrested are 47,32 and 27 years old. One of them is a civilian firefighter, and the other two helped on-site with the jumping. The woman’s fiancé reportedly fell ill after her death and was given medical attention. In rope jumping, the practitioner jumps from an elevated location like bridges, buildings or rock faces while attached to climbing ropes connected to an anchor. The ropes used are less elastic, giving the person a feeling that they are free-falling for a longer time. Adventure sports require rigorous planning and calculations regarding height and equipment. The founder of rope jumping, Dan Osman, died in 1998 when his anchoring system failed during a jump in Yosemite National Park, California.

X-Men star Tyler Mane has revealed a “super rare” breast cancer diagnosis. This week, the 59-year-old, who starred as Sabretooth in X-Men and Deadpool & Wolverine, opened up about the “bad news” regarding his health. “Yep. I have breast cancer. And yep, it’s super rare. Only one per cent of breast cancers are men,” he shared on Instagram. “I’ll be honest, my first reaction was to keep it secret. I mean it’s kind of embarrassing. But then I found out that men are more likely to be diagnosed in advance stages BECAUSE it’s not talked about and not looked for. In fact, my doctors all dismissed it and it was only because my wife pushed me to get the lump removed that I got in early.” Breast cancer in men is rare and accounts for less than one per cent of all cancers in men. Mane, a former professional wrestler, promised to share his treatment journey on social media, hoping to raise awareness. He said breast cancer in men was normally detected later and therefore led to poorer prognoses than in women. In footage from his first chemotherapy session, Mane flipped the bird and quietly said “fuck cancer”. Mane said thankfully, the cancers had not spread to his lymph nodes and he would undergo four rounds of chemotherapy over 12 weeks.

On This Day

  • 1822 – Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
  • 1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first mammal and first monkey in space.
  • 2017 – The Grenfell Tower fire, a catastrophic fire in a high-rise apartment building in North Kensington, London, UK, leaves 72 people dead and another 74 injured.

Deaths

  • 1928 – Emmeline Pankhurst, English activist and academic (born 1857). 
  • 1946 – John Logie Baird, Scottish-English physicist and engineer (born 1888). 
  • 1949 – Albert II, rhesus macaque, animal astronaut, and first mammal in space. 
  • 1977 – Alan Reed, American actor, original voice of Fred Flintstone (born1907).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Will Patton (72), Donald Trump (80), Alan Carr (50), Stellan Skarsgård (75), Chris Evans (45), Ally Sheedy (64), Malcolm McDowell (83), Tim Allen (73), Richard Thomas (75), Simon Callow (77), Kathy Burke (62), Shia LaBeouf (40), Hugh Laurie (67), Joshua Jackson (48), Peter Dinklage (57), Adrienne Barbeau (81), Jane Goldman (56), Gina Gershon (64), DJ Qualls (48), Elizabeth Hurley (61), Bill Burr (58), Jürgen Prochnow (85), Johnny Depp (63), Natalie Portman (45), Michael J. Fox (65), Eddie Marsan (58), Griffin Dunne (71), and Ye (49).

Posted by  |  14th June 2026 | Categories: 2026 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th June 2026

Quite a deadly week, but no scoring though. Think I’ll go get a Nescafe and bother my next door neighbour…. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Jon Snow, the lead presenter of Channel 4 News for 32 years, has revealed he has Alzheimer’s disease. The 78-year-old journalist and his wife Precious Lunga will be seen navigating his diagnosis in a film that will receive its premiere next week. “At the beginning I wanted to hide it, there’s so much prejudice,” he says in the film. “Any sort of hint of mental decay, you’re sort of dead. There are moments when it pops up but it’s not an all day every day condition, and that’s what I cling onto.” Snow was the lead presenter on Channel 4 News from 1989 to 2021, after serving as ITN’s Washington correspondent and diplomatic editor in the 80s. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described him as “a true giant in journalism” who is now “helping others feel less alone and raising awareness of a condition that affects so many families”. In an interview with the Flying Monkeys to support an Alzheimer’s Society campaign, Snow said: “If I don’t speak out, who will?” Asked about the impact of the disease, he said: “I don’t know really. I don’t feel disabled in any way.” He said he still questions the diagnosis. “I mean sometimes I doubt whether I’ve really got it. I don’t know if it’s widespread knowledge.” Snow’s wife, an epidemiologist, told us he was initially reluctant to see a doctor, but he saw a specialist in 2023. “He was given what’s called a mini-mental state exam and he aced it. He got 29 out of 30,” she said. “It was only later, when they did a brain scan, that we got a diagnosis.”   

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant, the country’s royal household has said. Mette-Marit, who suffers from an incurable lung disease, has suspended official duties and will have the operation as soon as a donor becomes available, it said. The princess, who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, has been battling the illness while facing revelations about her association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the rape trial of her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby. Høiby, who denies the charges, has requested release from custody because his mother is seriously ill, Norwegian media report. Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that causes breathing difficulties and creates scar tissue that stiffens the lungs making it difficult to breathe and for oxygen to enter the bloodstream. It has repeatedly forced her to take sick leave or scale back official duties. In December, Mette-Marit told the Flying Monkeys that her illness had developed “faster than I’d hoped” and that activities she enjoyed with her husband – like hiking and skiing – were no longer possible. Over the past six months, her condition has deteriorated significantly, Prof Are Holm, a lung specialist at Oslo University Hospital, was quoted by the royal household as saying. “We can see that there has been a significant increase in scar tissue in her lungs over the past year – and lung function tests show that her lung function has declined considerably in the last three months alone,” Holm told reporters at a news conference on Friday. He said the deterioration was “dangerous”, which was why she has been placed on the transplant list. A successful transplant hinges on several factors, including finding the right match and ensuring the body does not reject the new organ once implanted. Holm explained that the process was viewed as a last resort, and that individuals must be considered significantly ill and have a limited life expectancy before a lung transplant could be deemed appropriate.  

Marion Fossett, a ringmistress who was known as “one of the best” in circus entertainment, has died at the age of 71. Her family said she died in hospital in Dublin last night after being ill for some time. “She loved what she did,” said her brother Eddie Fossett. “She was the face of Fossett’s Circus…we are so proud of her.” Her niece Sonya Fossett described her as a showgirl who loved her feathers and sequins. “She was a singer, an actress…she was a star to be shared,” Sonya said. The family-run Fossett’s Circus, which has been touring since the late 1880s, was set up by Marion’s great-grandfather after he returned from America. In her childhood, Marion made her debut in the ring at just 18 months old in a basket on an elephant. She went on to master many skills, becoming an aerialist, contortionist and a sword balancer. Marion was once quoted as saying “you can shake the sawdust from your feet, but you never shake it from your blood”. Her friend Charles O’Brien recalls a woman who was at the “top of her craft” and adored the enjoyment she provided to large crowds. “She was very much aware of the fact she brought a smile to people’s faces around the country,” he said. “Marion would stand in the middle of the ring twice a day, six days a week and she could see every single face. She effectively was born on the show as the entire family were,” said Mr O’Brien. “That was the heyday of circus.” He described how Marion made a “rare” move from the circus into mainstream entertainment in the 1970s. While living in London, she played all the main cabaret venues and featured on prime Saturday night television programmes including Seaside Special. Her broad career included acting in a feature film and on stage. For a certain generation she will be remembered for her part in the girl group Sheeba alongside Maxi and Frances Campbell. They represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981. “This predated the Spice Girls,” said Mr O’Brien. “They were the number one.”

On This Day

  • 1975 – Sony launches Betamax, the first videocassette recorder format.
  • 1977 – Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.
  • 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.

Deaths

  • 1329 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (born 1274).
  • 1937 – Jean Harlow, American actress and singer (born 1911).
  • 1954 – Alan Turing, English mathematician and computer scientist (born 1912).
  • 1970 – E. M. Forster, English novelist, short story writer, essayist (born 1879).
  • 1980 – Henry Miller, American novelist and essayist (born 1891).
  • 2015 – Christopher Lee, English actor (born 1922).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Liam Neeson (74), Karl Urban (54), Michael Cera (38), Anna Torv (47), Bill Hader (48), Helen Baxendale (56), Bear Grylls (52), Tom Jones (86), Jason Isaacs (63), Paul Giamatti (59), Robert Englund (79), Sandra Bernhard (71), Mark Wahlberg (55), Mel Giedroyc (58), Noah Wyle (55), Oona Chaplin (40), Angelina Jolie (51), Bruce Dern (90), Russell Brand (51), Sean Pertwee (62), Bradley Walsh (66), James Purefoy (62), Imogen Poots (37), Suzi Quatro (76), Morena Baccarin (47), Jewel Staite (44), Justin Long (48), Awkwafina (38), Zachary Quinto (49), Dominic Cooper (48), Liam Cunningham (65), Dana Carvey (71), Tom Holland (30), Brian Cox (80), Morgan Freeman (89), Jennifer Coolidge (65), Jonathan Pryce (79), Robert Powell (82), Amy Schumer (45), Heidi Klum (53), and Alanis Morissette (52).

Posted by  |  7th June 2026 | Categories: 2026 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st May 2026

We have points to give! Unbelievably, Dave guessed that Ilie Ciocan would be a wiki notable death, so 38 points!!! Obviously none of would have heard of him, but in todays celebrity culture, not dying for a long time makes you famous. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Barry Manilow has offered new insight into his lung cancer diagnosis and recovery. The 82-year-old “Copacabana” crooner revealed his diagnosis in December, saying it was “found early.” He underwent surgery to remove a spot on his left lung, postponing his Las Vegas residency and several planned tour dates to recover. But part of his post-surgery recovery was a seven-day ICU stay during which he unknowingly had pneumonia. “I didn’t know about pneumonia,” the singer told the Flying Monkeys “I was in the ICU for seven days, because they couldn’t grasp this pneumonia that was just about killing me.” However, Manilow says he’s on the mend. “I’m doing good. I’m doing good,” Manilow said when asked about his health. “It took longer than I thought it was gonna take to get past this lung cancer thing.” Since the start of the year, Manilow has announced multiple rounds of show postponements as he continues his recovery. He described a February visit to the surgeon ahead of his anticipated return to the stage as “very depressing.” Despite “using the treadmill three times a day” to prepare for his upcoming arena tour dates, his surgeon advised against him resuming the previously postponed concerts. The entire ordeal has forced Manilow to take stock of his life. “This made me stop and think about: Have I done what I wanted to do, and have I made people happy? Have I been a good friend?” he mused. “All of those cornball things that I’ve read for all of my life, I started to think about that, too. It really did stop me in my tracks. And the answers are yes. And as a matter of fact, there are more yeses than I ever thought.” 

Lord Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, has announced he is taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords following the recurrence of his cancer. The Labour peer was initially diagnosed with non-aggressive prostate cancer in March 2023, from which he later received the all clear. However, the former minister, who served under both Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, revealed in a Substack post on Friday that he was informed earlier this year that the disease had returned. While initial tests have suggested this second bout of cancer has “gone”, Lord Watson is scheduled to undergo further checks later this summer. His announcement comes as the government recently advised against a population-wide prostate cancer screening programme, instead recommending testing for only a “few thousand” high-risk men. In his Substack post, Lord Watson, who previously resigned as a minister under Sir Tony Blair, also detailed his renewed struggle with weight. He had previously shed more than 125 pounds but admitted to regaining weight in recent years after ceasing exercise following his initial diagnosis. The former MP for West Bromwich East wrote: “I knew the weight was piling on because my clothes no longer fitted me. Not only was I obese again, but the cancer came back earlier this year. Is it weird to say this was the wake-up call I needed to choose life again? Perhaps it is. But it is true. So I have taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords for treatment and recuperation. Initial tests suggest the cancer has gone, though I will not know for certain until more tests in the summer. Despite the uncertainty, I feel good. Chipper, in fact.”  

Police responding to reports of a shotgun blast at a convenience store sounds like the opening of countless American crime movies, but when cops in Nebraska responded to a recent such call they found an unusual culprit: a dog. Local TV station KNOP News 2 reported that police in the town of Scottsbluff were called out to a local store recently after reports of a blast involving a shotgun. Upon arrival they found a truck with blast damage in one of its doors and a woman who had been struck in the arm by a pellet from a shotgun. However, investigation showed a canine cause behind the shooting when it was revealed the blast happened as the vehicle had pulled up to the store as a dog had been moving from one side of its back seat to another. Somehow, the dog had triggered the shotgun – which had a live round chambered – to fire, damaging the vehicle and striking a female passerby. The victim was taken to hospital though not seriously injured, she’s now probably bankrupt. Surprisingly, it is illegal in Nebraska to drive with a loaded shotgun in your vehicle. As of the first quarter of 2026, there have been 3,103 shooting deaths in the United States. Amazingly, this figure represents the lowest number of shooting deaths recorded for that period in the last twelve years! 

On This Day

  • 1859 – The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, which houses Big Ben, starts keeping time.
  • 2003 – Air France retires its fleet of Concorde aircraft.
  • 2005 – Vanity Fair reveals that Mark Felt was “Deep Throat”.

Deaths

  • 2009 – Danny La Rue, Irish-British drag queen performer and singer (born 1927).
  • 2016 – Carla Lane, English television writer (born 1928). 
  • 2024 – Robert Pickton, Canadian serial killer (born 1949).

How would YOU choose to be executed?

Late one Friday afternoon in March last year, the curtain in the ‘witness room’ of South Carolina’s state execution chamber opened to reveal convicted murderer Brad Sigmon strapped to a chair.

A large metal basin had been fitted underneath it to collect his blood and he was dressed all in black to hide the bloodstains that would soon soak through his clothes.

With straps around his ankles, lap, waist and even his chin, he could barely move an inch. A black-and-white target had been Velcroed to his clothes over his heart.

A black hood was then placed over his head, before another curtain was pulled back to reveal three square gun ports cut into a wall 15ft away from him. Standing behind each was a volunteer prison guard holding a loaded rifle.

Without any countdown, they suddenly fired together, the three special bullets, designed to fragment as much as possible on impact – opening up a fist-sized hole where his heart once was. Sigmon, 67, was pronounced dead three minutes later.

He had been sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke, with a baseball bat in 2001.

He’d had the dubious privilege of becoming the first US death row inmate in 15 years to be executed by firing squad, choosing it over lethal injection and the electric chair. Sigmon didn’t pick the chair because it would ‘burn and cook him alive’, said his attorney Gerald King, adding that lethal injection was ‘just as monstrous’.

Convicted Alabama murderer Kenneth Eugene Smith, on the other hand, became the first American prisoner ever to be executed by nitrogen asphyxiation in 2024. Two years earlier, three executioners had spent 90 awful minutes trying to kill him by lethal injection but had given up after they couldn’t find the two veins they needed. 

When I interviewed him a few months before he died, Smith, who had languished on death row for three decades, said he was ‘terrified’ at the prospect of being executed a second time and felt he’d been punished enough.

His protests were in vain. He was strapped to a bed wearing a full-face mask that forced pure nitrogen into his lungs. Witnesses said he thrashed violently in panic and terror before losing consciousness, suffocating some five minutes after the deadly gas began to fill his airways.

An autopsy later revealed that his lungs had been  flooded with ‘dark maroon blood’ – a sign of a so-called ‘negative-pressure pulmonary oedema’. Experts believe that, because he hadn’t been sedated, he automatically panicked when he couldn’t breathe.

The authorities had given both Smith and Sigmon the grim choice of how they would die and both rejected lethal injection – for decades America’s de facto execution ‘protocol’.

Now many more death row residents face the same grisly decision. Donald Trump’s administration has just revealed plans to add firing squads, nitrogen gas and electrocution as permissible ways of executing people convicted of the most serious federal crimes.

Some US states already have these alternative execution methods on their books to punish state crimes but rarely use them.

The President, who has reportedly even mused about broadcasting executions live, is keen to expand not only the methods available but also the number of criminals meeting their end in these ways.

To some, this will signal a chilling return to a more barbaric age. To others, it is merely fitting retribution for the worst of the worst criminals.

Trump has long been an enthusiast for the ultimate sanction. In the final six months of his first term, he hastily signed the death warrants of 13 federal inmates by lethal injection – more than had been executed by the previous ten presidents combined.

His successor, Joe Biden, then placed a moratorium on federal executions, commuting (or reducing to life imprisonment) the death sentences of all but three of the 40 people on death row. (The remaining trio were 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; Dylann Roof, convicted in 2016 of killing nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church; and Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at a synagogue in Pennsylvania in 2018.) 

Trump is not quite so merciful, and a new report from the Department of Justice (DoJ), which ultimately reports to him, not only says that it is clearing the way for firing squads, electrocutions and lethal gas for federal crimes but, with many death row cases taking decades to complete every permissible appeal, it is intent on ‘streamlining internal processes’ to ‘expedite’ the killings.

Trump has reportedly even considered trying to introduce the guillotine (which has never been used in the US), hold ‘group executions’ and ‘mused about televising footage of executions, including showing condemned prisoners in the final moments of their lives’, according to Rolling Stone magazine.  

A White House official said: ‘Trump has a particular affinity for the firing squad, because it seemed more dramatic, rather than… putting a syringe in people and putting them to sleep’, adding that the ‘eye-for-an-eye’ President enjoyed fantasising publicly about ‘lining up criminals and drug dealers before a firing squad’.

At a campaign rally in 2022, Trump won roars of approval when he suggested copying hardline leaders in China, Iran – and, it might be added, Nazi Germany – in sending the executioner’s bullet to the condemned’s family along with a bill for it.

Trump also considered a ‘flashy, government-backed video ad campaign that would accompany a federal revival of these execution methods’, including ‘footage from these new executions’, said Rolling Stone.

An administration official said: ‘The President believes this would help put the fear of God into violent criminals.’ A Trump spokesman denied the claim. The law as it stands is  messy, patchy and inconsistently applied.

It’s further complicated by the fact that some capital crimes are federal offences, over which Trump and the DoJ have jurisdiction, and others are state offences.

Some 27 states theoretically carry out capital punishment, although six of them have passed moratoriums on the practice. Nine US states authorise the electric chair, nine permit death by gassing, five allow inmates to be executed by firing squad, while three states allow hanging – a method that went out of fashion in America in the 19th century.

The 48-page DoJ report stresses that the move to expand execution methods for federal crimes has been driven by difficulties obtaining the drugs needed for lethal injections – which remain by far the most common execution method in the US, authorised in all death penalty states. 

Experts have argued that Trump’s ‘favourite’ method – firing squad – may, somewhat ironically, be by far the most humane. Doctors say that almost everyone shot in the heart loses consciousness in seconds.

In 2010, Deborah Denno, a law professor at New York’s Fordham University who had studied various execution methods, called the firing squad a ‘dignified execution’ despite ‘its brutal image and roots’.

Four years later, Court of Appeals judge Alex Kozinski echoed that view, adding that while the guillotine was ‘probably best’ [that is, most reliable], it was ‘inconsistent with our national ethos’.

‘The firing squad strikes me as the most promising,’ he said. ‘Eight or ten large-calibre rifle bullets fired at close range can inflict massive damage, causing instant death every time. There are plenty of people employed by the state who can pull the trigger and have the training to aim true.’ 

Indeed, America’s last recorded botched execution by firing squad dates all the way back to 1879, when Utah riflemen missed murderer Wallace Wilkerson’s heart entirely. He hadn’t been tied down and stiffened at the last moment, dislodging the target pinned to his chest.

Wilkerson reportedly leapt up, screaming: ‘Oh my God! They’ve missed it!’ and then took 27 minutes to die. Anti-death-penalty campaigners claimed that sadistic shooters missed his heart on purpose to prolong his agony.

Utah has since attempted to prevent similar mishaps by ensuring the inmate’s head is immobilised by a strap and the chest, shins and arms similarly held in place. Sandbags are stacked around the chair and wooden boards erected behind it to prevent the bullets from ricocheting around the room. Ceiling lights glare down on the prisoner to further guide the riflemen’s aim while a small square of white cloth, bearing a black target, is placed over the heart.

In Utah, one of the Winchester rifles used by the firing squad is usually loaded with a wax round so nobody knows if they fired a fatal shot. (Experienced shooters insist they can tell the difference as a dummy round produces less recoil.)

Until Brad Sigmon was shot dead last year in South Carolina, the firing squad had been used only three times since 1976 and always in Utah. Many dismissed it as barbaric and even a former Utah governor, Gary Herbert, conceded it was ‘a little bit gruesome’.

Killer Gary Gilmore, the first person to be executed after the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, famously growled ‘Let’s do it’ before he was shot by a firing squad in 1977. His words are said to have inspired the creator of the Nike slogan ‘Just do it’.

The US remains the only country in the world to retain the use of the electric chair, or ‘Old Sparky’, but South Carolina is the only state that still prefers it as the default execution method.

The inmate is usually shaved and strapped to a wooden chair. A metal electrode in the shape of a skullcap is attached to the scalp, another to an ankle. The inmate receives a blast of up to 2,000 volts for 30 seconds and, if their heart is still beating, another one.

Although death should be almost instantaneous, it is a notoriously grisly spectacle – sometimes with flames leaping from the condemned’s mask-covered head as their overheating body swells and turns scarlet. Experts say it isn’t painless, either, because the current sends the muscles into uncontrollable and agonising spasms. 

Nine states permit inmates to be gassed. Before the introduction of nitrogen, the condemned were usually dispatched by having a pail of sulphuric acid placed under the execution chair, with crystals of sodium cyanide then released into the pail. The prisoner slowly loses consciousness as they breathe in the gas and eventually die from hypoxia, the cutting off of oxygen to the brain.

Experts say it is unquestionably painful and nerve-racking, comparing it to the experience of having a heart attack. A former prison warden recalled: ‘At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain and strangling. The eyes pop, the skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool.’

And as for the time-honoured tradition of permitting inmates to choose their last meal, this hasn’t survived the attention of money-conscious officials. In Oklahoma, the cost is now limited to $25, compared with $40 in Florida.

In 2011, Texas – by far the biggest executioner of any state – stopped the practice after racist killer Lawrence Russell Brewer requested a vast feast including two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, three fajitas, a ‘meat lover’s’ pizza, a pint of ice cream and peanut butter fudge. He didn’t eat any of it.

Then again, who would have much of an appetite nowadays when facing the daunting execution alternatives on offer in Trump’s America?

Last Week’s Birthdays

Clint Eastwood (96), Colin Farrell (50), Brooke Shields (61), Lea Thompson (65), Tom Berenger (77), Colm Meaney (73), Stephen Tobolowsky (75), Keir Dullea (90), Harry Enfield (65), Ted Levine (69), Annette Bening (68), Laverne Cox (54), Sarah Millican (51), Carey Mulligan (41), Kylie Minogue (58), Michelle Collins (64), Joseph Fiennes (56), Paul Bettany (55), Jack McBrayer (53), Helena Bonham Carter (60), Pam Grier (77), Bobcat Goldthwait (64), Lenny Kravitz (62), and Stevie Nicks (78).

Posted by  |  31st May 2026 | Categories: 2026 | Leave A Comment »