Dead Pool 16th August 2026

A few tragic deaths this week, alas no points. I think it may be time to send out the Flying Monkeys to reap a big name for next week! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Highlander actor Christopher Lambert suffered a medical emergency while attending the Steel City Comic-Con in Pittsburgh. At the annual convention on Saturday, the French actor, 69, was signing autographs for fans when he “suddenly collapsed,” a witness the Flying Monkeys. Lambert was then placed in an ambulance and transported to a local hospital. The Steel City Con also released a statement about the incident, saying Lambert “had to leave the event due to a personal issue.” The comic book and pop culture convention also announced that Lambert’s photo op was canceled. A rep for star told us that he is “perfectly ok” and resting in his hotel room. The spokesperson claimed that Lambert did not get enough sleep the night before the convention and hadn’t eaten much during the day, which prompted his blood sugar to drop. It’s unclear whether Lambert will attend the convention on Sunday; however, the outlet was told that he will be well enough to make his scheduled appearance at FAN EXPO in Chicago next week. Last year, Lambert suffered a health scare when he injured his back after falling down a flight of stairs at his hotel. Due to the severity of the injury, the Highlander star had to drop out of an appearance at the Swedish festival SciFiWorld last March. “As an actor, filming and promoting his films are an absolute priority and has always been, and while he has the highest respect for people organising events and fans who attend,” his reps said at the time. “Unfortunately this time he will not be able to attend the comic con,” they added.  

The Office star Lucy Davis has revealed she has been diagnosed with “incurable” stage four breast cancer. The 53-year-old actor, who is the daughter of comedian Jasper Carrott, played the role of receptionist Dawn Tinsley in the BBC’s mockumentary The Office. Her character’s will-they-won’t-they romance with Martin Freeman’s office slacker Tim Canterbury contributed to the show’s global success, becoming the blueprint for similar relationships in international versions. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, Davis said she had been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer a year and a half ago but it has since “metastasised to my bones, specifically to my spine, right hip, and my ribs. The cancer is incurable, and too late for chemo,” she continued. “The initial lump that I felt, wasn’t a ‘lump’ as such; rather a kind of hard spot. Really tiny. I almost didn’t bother getting it checked. So I guess I’m saying don’t ignore anything – get everything checked out. As of now, I’m trying to live out whatever might be left of my life in as fun a way as I possibly can. I always like to find the teachable moments in anything negative that happens. And cancer has not disappointed in that regard; there’s a lot I have learned from it, and I’m grateful for that..” Davis also said that she sometimes needs to use a wheelchair as “standing and walking for too long a time can be hard” due to the pain. “If you see me toddling around in one, feel free to give me a push!” she continued. “The thing that has been most vital to me is humour. I asked my friends and family to make fun of me as much as possible (which they’re really good at, and most importantly of all to not treat me like a sick person. There’s nothing that will make you feel more unwell than being treated as if you’re unwell… I’m not scared of whatever comes next. I’m at peace with it.” Davis added that she’ll see her late dog Gracie “sooner than expected” and that leaving her “physical body just means going home”. “Any and all grieving is for my family; it’s far harder for them than for me,” she continued. “I’m still going to keep up all my work for animal rights. It’s so important to me. And I still would like to keep working. I’m perfectly able to do so, and acting is one of the biggest joys in my life… For those of you on a similar journey to mine, I do wish you well. Cancer asks a lot from us, physically and mentally. And we all get to do it however we choose… Much love to you all.” Davis, who also appeared in 2017’s Wonder Woman, shared her diagnosis alongside a video of her ringing a hospital cancer treatment bell and reciting a rhyme common in many cancer treatment centres to celebrate the end of treatment. 

Jeanne Gibson, one of the women who came to represent the enduring legacy of the Rosie the Riveter campaign during the Second World War, has died at the  age of 100. Gibson was recognised for her work as a shipyard welder during the war, helping construct United States Navy destroyers at a time when millions of women stepped into industrial jobs to support the Allied war effort. Her death marks the passing of another member of a remarkable generation whose contributions reshaped both the workforce and the role of women in American society. In 2024, Gibson and thousands of fellow women who served as Rosie the Riveter workers were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the United States’ highest civilian honours, in recognition of their extraordinary service during the war. During the Second World War, labour shortages created by military enlistment opened opportunities for women to work in factories, shipyards and other industries traditionally dominated by men. More than six million American women answered that call, manufacturing aircraft, ships, weapons and military equipment that proved essential to the Allied victory. Gibson became one of those workers, serving as a welder in a shipyard where she helped build destroyers for the United States Navy. Welding required precision, physical endurance and technical skill, making the work both demanding and critical to wartime production. Her efforts formed part of the enormous industrial mobilisation that allowed the United States and its allies to sustain military operations across multiple fronts. 

Former gangster and Krays rival Eddie Richardson has died at the age of 90. Richardson, part of the notorious Richardson mob in Sixties London, was one of the last surviving villains of his generation. Eddie’s sister Elaine Richardson said her brother died in the Princess Royal University Hospital, Bromely, south London, having been admitted with pneumonia a few days ago. She said: “We are all very sad. He had his 90th birthday in January. Eddie was a family man and he had a lot of friends, he was very loyal to his friends. “We know he was 90 but we are all going to miss him.” Asked if Richardson had remained involved in criminality in his old age, a source said: “He was such a staunch old fella that he could have been up to something but you would never have known.” With his older brother Charlie, Eddie led the south London “Torture Gang” which feuded with the east London Kray twins more than 60 years ago. In 2015 Richardson, then 79, described the twins as “like lost sheep” in jail and added: “We never even considered them to be rivals.” He said: “They were small-timers who played up to the gangster image. They were not hard enough to take us on until we were all banged up. The Krays had watched too many US gangster films. They wanted to be like Al Capone but didn’t have the brains to do anything major league. It amazes me how much interest there is in them. They just wanted to play at being gangsters. It was all acting. There was nothing glamorous about it and by no stretch of the imagination were they ever legends.” But Eddie, who hired “Mad” Frankie Fraser as his enforcer, added: “There was no war between us, that’s a myth. The truth is they didn’t fancy us at all. The Krays didn’t dare take us on until we were all under lock and key — then they started taking liberties.” Eddie served a total of more than 23 years in jail, in two stretches, before his final release in 2002. Born in Camberwell, south London, on January 21, 1936, he used a scrap metal business and fruit machine company as fronts for a criminal empire involving drug dealing, protection and extortion rackets. But his criminal empire came crashing down on July 30, 1966, the day England won the World Cup, when the Richardson gang were rounded up during mass police raids. The following “Torture Trial” made headlines as rival criminals told how they were beaten and electrocuted. Anyone who crossed the Richardsons were said to be subjected to a kangaroo court, with Charlie presiding and then handed over to Mad Frankie for punishment. He pulled out teeth with pliers and nailed people to the floor using six-inch spikes. His specialism was torture by electrocution of the genitals.

On This Day

  • 1819 – Peterloo Massacre: Seventeen people die and over 600 are injured in cavalry charges at a public meeting at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, England.
  • 1906 – The 8.2 Mw Valparaíso earthquake hits central Chile, killing 3,882 people.
  • 1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico, United States, at 102,800 feet setting three records that held until 2012: High-altitude jump, free fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft.

Deaths

  • 1948 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (born 1895). 
  • 1956 – Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor (born 1882).
  • 1977 – Elvis Presley, American singer and actor  (born 1935). 
  • 2003 – Idi Amin, Ugandan field marshal and politician, President of Uganda (born 1928).
  • 2018 – Aretha Franklin, American singer-songwriter (born 1942). 
  • 2019 – Peter Fonda, American actor, director, and screenwriter. (born 1940). 
  • 2021 – Sean Lock, English comedian and actor (born 1963).

Last Meals

On December 13th 2021, a young girl residing in Columbus, Georgia, was found murdered in Phenix City, Alabama. On the night before her death, the 5-year-old girl, Kamarie Holland, was brought out of her home in Georgia, and taken to the abandoned house of its 37-year-old former owner, Jeremy Williams. Before this, Holland’s mother Kristy Marie Siple, who had a sexual relationship with Williams, agreed to Williams’ request to rape Holland. Siple allegedly asked Williams to pay her $2,500 in exchange for raping her daughter, but they reduced the payment to $1,300 after some negotiations, although Williams never paid Siple the reduced payment of $1,300.

After Holland was taken into Williams’s vacant house, Williams raped the girl and also engaged in sodomy and oral sex, and he personally filmed the sexual acts, and also forced the girl to consume methamphetamine. After doing so, Williams used a ligature to strangle Holland and therefore killed her by asphyxiation. Even after Holland died, Williams went on to commit further sexual assaults on her corpse and similarly filmed the necrophilic acts.

Meanwhile, on the morning after the murder, Holland was reported missing by her mother, who lied to the police that she last saw Holland before she went to sleep about midnight and awoke to find her daughter gone and the front door open. An extensive search was conducted, and on that night itself, Holland’s body was found inside the same house where Williams raped, sodomised and murdered her. The police were able to identify Williams as the prime suspect and arrested him for the murder shortly after. 

In March 2022, a Russell County grand jury formally indicted both Williams and Siple for their respective charges of murder and other offences pertaining to the rape and murder of Holland. Williams was indicted on eight charges, including four counts of capital murder for kidnapping, rape, sodomy and for killing someone under the age of 14, as well as sex trafficking (two counts), producing child pornography and abuse of a corpse. Siple was indicted on three counts of felony murder and two counts of sex trafficking.  

On June 16th 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court authorised the death warrant of Williams, and the case was forwarded to the Alabama governor Kay Ivey, who was tasked with scheduling an execution date for Williams. Two days later, Governor Ivey scheduled Williams’ execution to take place by lethal injection on August 13th 2026, with a 30-hour window during which his death warrant will remain active. 

On Thursday, 42-year-old Jeremy Williams was put to death by lethal injection at 6:16 pm in Holman Correctional Facility. When asked if he had a final statement, Williams stated, “I want to thank God for forgiving me for my sins so I can meet him in peace. Goodnight.” For his final meal, Williams requested a cheese pizza. Williams is the first condemned person put to death in Alabama in 2026, as well as the first person in the United States to be executed for a murder occurring in the 2020’s.  

Last Week’s Birthdays

Steve Carell (64), James Cameron (72), Taika Waititi (51), Madonna (68), Julie Newmar (93), Evanna Lynch (35), Jennifer Lawrence (36), Ben Affleck (54), David Zayas (64), Natasha Henstridge (52), Tony Robinson (80), Jim Dale (91), Mila Kunis (43), Steve Martin (81), Halle Berry (60), James Buckley (39), Joseph Marcell (78), Sebastian Stan (44), Cara Delevingne (34), Bruce Greenwood (70), Jim Beaver (76), Chris Hemsworth (43), Anna Gunn (58), Ian McDiarmid (82), Joe Rogan (59), Antonio Banderas (66), and Rosanna Arquette (67).

This entry was posted on 16th August 2026 by . It was filed under 2026 .

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