2021

Dead Pool 14th February 2021

Welcome to the not so Valentine’s Special, where I have endeavoured to not mention it… Oops! A fairly run of the mill edition this week, no points awarded but a few small bits to read. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Ashley Judd has been taken to hospital following a “catastrophic” accident in the Congo after suffering a shattered leg.. The actress, 52, revealed the news during an an Instagram Live that she was resting in a “trauma unit in beautiful South Africa” after sustaining “massive catastrophic injuries” during a rainforest excursion. Judd said that she had been travelling in the Congo when she tripped over a fallen tree. She recalled lying on the forest floor for five hours, and “howling like an animal” while being carried back to her camp by her “Congolese brothers”. She added that she faded in and out of consciousness during the journey out of the rainforest and to the capital of Kinshasa, and had kept herself awake by reciting Bible passages. She was finally taken to hospital in South Africa after what she described as an “incredibly harrowing” experience. In the Instagram Live, Judd, said that the accident was a reminder of her privilege as a person of means travelling in the Congo, explaining: “The difference between a Congolese person and me is disaster insurance that allowed me, 55 hours after my accident, to get to an operating table in South Africa.” 

Fernando Alonso suffered a broken jaw after he was involved in a road accident while cycling, his Formula One team have confirmed. The 39-year-old suffered the accident while riding in Switzerland on Thursday. The Spanish driver was due to return to the grid this season following two years away. And while his injuries are understandably serious, Alpine F1 expect him to be “fully operational” by the time the season begins in Bahrain next month. A statement from the team read: “Following his cycling accident yesterday Fernando Alonso was kept under observation in hospital in Switzerland. “Medics discovered a fracture in his upper jaw and conducted a successful corrective operation. The attending medical team are satisfied with his progress. Fernando will remain under observation in hospital for a further 48 hours. Looking forward, after a few days of complete rest, he will be able to progressively resume training. We expect him to be fully operational to undertake preparation for the season.” In 2018, Alonso quit the sport and set his sights on becoming only the second driver since Britain’s Graham Hill to complete the so-called Triple Crown – winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans 24 Hours and Indy 500. Although he won the famous sportscar endurance race in 2018 and 2019 he has not been able to crack the Indy 500, despite a remarkable effort on his first appearance back in 2017.  

As you all know, I had written a piece on Capt. Tom Moore for last weeks edition, but I chickened out publishing it because I felt it was edging on going a little too far. Well, somebody didn’t listen to their own inner monologue and has now been charged in connection with an offensive social media tweet about the dead Captain. The 35-year-old man is due to appear in court in Lanarkshire later this week! A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “On Friday 5th February 2021, we received a report of an offensive tweet about Sir Captain Tom Moore who died on Tuesday 2nd February. A 35-year-old man has subsequently been arrested and charged in connection with communication offences and is due to appear at Lanark Sheriff Court on Wednesday 17th February.” I have no idea what was tweeted, but I’m fairly sure it wasn’t as bad as what I wrote last week! Maybe I did make the correct judgement call? Looks like you can’t make offence online nowadays without finding yourself cancelled or arrested. 

On This Day

  • 1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.  
  • 1849 – James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.  
  • 1852 – Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, is founded in London.  
  • 1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).  
  • 1929 – Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone‘s gang, are murdered in Chicago. 
  • 1989 – Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.  
  • 1990 – The Voyager 1 spacecraft takes the photograph of planet Earth that later becomes famous as Pale Blue Dot. 
  • 2005 – YouTube is launched.

Deaths

  • 1779 – James Cook, English captain, cartographer, and explorer (b. 1728). 
  • 1975 – P. G. Wodehouse, English novelist and playwright (b. 1881). 
  • 1996 – Bob Paisley, English footballer and manager (b. 1919). 
  • 2010 – Dick Francis, Welsh jockey and author (b. 1920). 
  • 2018 – Morgan Tsvangirai, 2nd Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (b. 1952). 

Last Meals

Anthony Sowell was an American serial killer and rapist known as the Cleveland Strangler. He was arrested in October 2009 after the bodies of eleven women were discovered by police at his home, in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Cleveland, Ohio.  

Sowell was one of seven children born to single parent Claudia “Gertude” Garrison. Seven other children belonging to Sowell’s sister also lived in the household, having moved in after her death following a chronic illness. According to Sowell’s niece, Leona Davis, Garrison subjected them to physical abuse while her own children watched from adjacent rooms. In one incident, Garrison forced Davis to strip naked in front of the other children, then whipped her with electrical cords until she bled. Sowell himself began raping his niece on an almost daily basis for two years, starting when she was 10. It was also reported by Davis that the other males in the household also participated in the rapes. 

In 1989, Sowell attacked Melvette Sockwell, who was three months pregnant at the time, when she attempted to leave his home. He tied her up and choked her so badly that she thought that she was going to die. He was charged with kidnapping, rape, and attempted murder for which Sowell pled guilty and served a 15-year sentence. He was released from prison in 2005.

Unfortunately, this did not serve as a deterrent for his murderous actions. He said he was a master looking for a submissive partner to “tame” and neighbours complained of a foul odor coming from his home. He also, somehow, dated the niece of the Cleveland Mayor Frank G Jackson for a time, who smelled the decaying bodies but was told various different stories by Sowell. Somewhere between 2007-2008, she moved out. 

No one knew about the bodies until 2009 when Latundra Billups was invited to Sowell’s home for a drink. After he had a couple of drinks, he assaulted, choked, and raped her. Billups went to the police who arrived with an arrest warrant. Sowell had fled, but he was captured two days later. Either way, police went inside which is when they started to find the bodies. 

Much like John Wayne Gacy, Sowell’s 11 murder victims  were found in and around his home. Bodies were found in the basement, in crawl spaces, in the backyard. One skull was found in a bucket. Most victims were killed by manual strangulation, leading to the name the Cleveland Strangler. Some of the bodies still had the ligatures used to kill them on them.

In addition to the murders, Sowell also raped three women. He would invite them home to smoke crack cocaine with him and then assault them. He would be charged with 11 counts of aggravated murder and 74 counts of rape, kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Initially, he pled “not guilty by reason of insanity”, but later changed it to just “not guilty”.  Sowell was convicted of his crimes and sentenced to death. He was still exhausting his appeals as late as May 2020. 

On January 21st 2021, he began receiving end-of-life care at the Franklin Medical Centre for a terminal illness and died on the 8th February. His last meal has not been released.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Simon Pegg (51), Danai Gurira (43), Andrew Robinson (79), Neal McDonough (55), Mena Suvari (42), Stockard Channing (77), Kim Novak (88), Josh Brolin (53), Christina Ricci (41), Michael Ironside (71), Arsenio Hall (65), Maud Adams (76), Natalie Dormer (39), Jennifer Aniston (52), Damian Lewis (50), Thomas Turgoose (29), Sheryl Crow (59), Chloë Grace Moretz (24), Elizabeth Banks (47), Keeley Hawes (45), Laura Dern (54), Robert Wagner (91), Philip Glenister (58), Holly Willoughby (40), Tom Hiddleston (40), Michael B. Jordan (34), Rose Leslie (34), Joe Pesci (78), Ciarán Hinds (68), Mia Farrow (76), Mary Steenburgen (68), Seth Green (47), Nick Nolte (80), and Ethan Phillips (66).

14th February 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 7th February 2021

Goodness me, what a week! A points avalanche!!!! Let’s start with Capt. Tom Moore, 50 points to Ceri and Paul C, but an exceptional start for newb Sarah as she had him as her Cert, 150 points!! Onto Christopher Plummer,  Sarai had him as her Cert, 159 points and Paul G also gets 59 points. Now Leon Spinks, Laura and Ron had him as their Cert, 183 points each, and 83 points to Paul C. who managed to guess two people in one week, that doesn’t happen very often! Well done all of you. A strong start to the year so far. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Jennifer Lawrence has sustained minor injuries after a glass explosion stunt went wrong on the set of Don’t Look Up. The forthcoming Netflix comedy – which stars Lawrence opposite Leonardo DiCaprio – has been forced to temporarily suspend production following the disruption. Lawrence had been shooting a scene with Timothee Chalamet when the controlled glass explosion sent shards of glass flying, causing minor injuries to the Hunger Games star. While the details of her injuries aren’t entirely clear, but a malfunction resulted in “shards of glass flying.” As a result of the incident, production on Don’t Look Up has been paused as of Friday, though Lawrence is expected to return to the film’s Boston set on Monday. Don’t Look Up stars Lawrence and DiCaprio as two low-level scientists who attempt to warn the world’s population of an impending meteor strike due in six months.

Jazz legend Tony Bennett has revealed that he has been living with Alzheimer’s Disease for the last four years. The singer, who is 94, made the announcement in AARP Magazine, which focuses on issues affecting people over the age of 50. The article conveys how the condition has affected Bennett’s memory and ability to recognise everyday objects. His wife Susan told the magazine that the star is “not always sure where he is or what is happening around him”. However, Bennett has so far been spared many of the worst characteristics of the disease – including the disorientation that can cause patients to wander from home and episodes of terror, rage or depression. Bennett has been a star since 1951, scoring hits with songs like I Left My Heart In San Francisco and The Shadow Of Your Smile. Some of his biggest successes have come in the last decade, including the chart-topping duets album with Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek, which won a Grammy in 2015. The singer’s neurologist Gayatra Devi, told us that, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bennett’s touring schedule “kept him on his toes and also stimulated his brain in a significant way. However, the decimation of the live music industry has been a real blow from a cognitive perspective, his memory, prior to the pandemic, was so much better. And he’s not alone. So many of my patients are negatively affected by the isolation, the inability to do the things that matter to them,” he said. “For someone like Tony Bennett, the big high he gets from performing was very important.”  said Devi. However, Devi stressed that Bennett was still “doing so many things, at 94, that many people without dementia cannot do. He really is the symbol of hope for someone with a cognitive disorder,” he added.   

Michael Schumacher’s family are set to release rare footage of the F1 legend in a new documentary. The German F1 legend was involved in a devastating skiing accident in the French Alps in 2013 that has left him in a medically-induced coma. Out of respect and eventual disinterest, the world’s media has given him and his family privacy. Only a small handful of people have been allowed to visit the seven-time World Championship winner. His condition has been kept a close-guarded secret by his family. According to PlanetF1, a new documentary titled ‘Schumacher’ is set to be released that will contain private recordings that the German’s family has provided. The documentary is the work of Award-winning German filmmakers Michael Wech and Hanns-Bruno Kammertons. Sabine Kehm, Schumacher family spokesperson, said: “The film portrays Michael’s impressive career, but also many of the facets of the complex man. Many fans will be desperate to see the new documentary with Schumacher such a popular figure in and out of Formula One. 

On This Day

  • 1301 – Edward of Caernarfon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales. 
  • 1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books, in a “Bonfire of the vanities”.  
  • 1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.  
  • 1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres. 
  • 1984 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Manoeuvring Unit.  
  • 1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, thirty years later, bet they’re planning some troubles again! 
  • 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union, Farage shits himself. 
  • 2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.  

Deaths

The Early Days of Plymouth, New England 

In 1642, as a wave of sin swept over the colony of Plymouth, New England, a man named Thomas Graunger entered the history books in the most ignoble way imaginable. 

Graunger became one of the first people hanged in the Plymouth Colony (the first hanged in Plymouth or in any of the colonies of New England being John Billington) and the first known juvenile to be sentenced to death and executed in the territory of today’s United States. Graunger, at the age of 16 or 17, was convicted of “buggery with a mare, a cow, two goats, five divers sheepe, two calves, and a turkey”, according to court records of 7th September 1642. 

Basically, someone walked in on Granger, a teenage servant, while he was engaged in “lewd practice towards the mare,” and the young man eventually confessed to having sex with the horse regularly, along with several other farm animals. 

Then, as now, bestiality was a serious crime. But back in 1642, the punishment was strange by modern standards: The authorities worked to determine which animals Granger had had sex with, following the laws set down in Leviticus 20:15 (“And if a man shall lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast”), then killed them in front of him before executing Granger himself by “hanging until he was dead”. They then buried the animals, as opposed to eating them, because their bodies had been defiled.

The killing and burying of the animals would have been a hardship for the colonists and was therefore another indicator of how seriously this crime was viewed: For an agricultural society this slaughter of all the farm animals was a substantial economic sacrifice. 

Granger’s acts were extreme, but there are other examples from that period of the Pilgrims stuffing more than just turkeys. Plymouth court records from 1642 tell the story of Edward Michell, who was accused of “lewd and sodomitical practices tending to sodomy with Edward Preston, and other lewd carriages with Lydia Hatch,” who was also punished for sharing a bed with her brother. All this came to light because Preston apparently propositioned a man named John Keene, who turned him down and told the authorities. Keene was then ordered to watch while the two Edwards were whipped. Another, tamer, example of sexual wrongdoing was the case of John Casley and his fiancee, Alis, who were discovered to have had sex before their marriage; John was whipped while Alis was forced to look on from the stocks. 

The first woman hanged on the gallows in Plymouth Colony was 32-year-old Alice Bishop in 1648 for the murder of her young daughter; an apparently motiveless crime which must have shocked her fellow settlers. Almost nothing is known about Alice’s early life, she was marry twice and had three daughters: Abigail, Martha and Damaris. By 1648, Alice was living with her second husband, the Plymouth newcomer Richard Bishop, who was Damaris’s father. The family seems to have been unexceptional, just another household trying to eke out a living in a harsh and unforgiving environment. Somewhere along the line, something went very wrong. 

On July 22nd, 1648, while Richard Bishop was away from home, family friend Rachel Ramsden dropped by the Bishops’ residence and spent some time with Alice. Alice’s four-year-old middle child, Martha Clark, was asleep in bed in the loft, which was accessible by ladder. (Where the other two children were has not been recorded.) At some point, Alice gave Rachel a kettle and asked her to go fetch some buttermilk from a neighbour’s house. When Rachel returned, she noticed blood on the floor beneath the ladder. Alice was “sad and dumpish,” and when Rachel asked her what was going on, she wordlessly pointed up at the loft. Rachel climbed up to have a look: there was blood everywhere; Martha’s mattress was drenched in it. 

Rachel fled the house in a panic, found her parents and told them she thought Alice had murdered her daughter. Her father rushed to find the colonial governor. A posse of twelve armed men assembled and went to the Bishop house. By the time the men arrived, Alice was in hysterics. They found Martha’s body lying on her left side, “with her throat cut with divers gashes crose wayes, the wind pipe cut and stuke into the throat downward, and the bloody knife lying by the side.” Nothing could be done for her.

Alice freely admitted she had murdered her daughter and said she was sorry for it, but she claimed she had no recollection of the crime. When they asked her why she’d done it, she had no answer for them. She was tried, found guilty and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until she was dead. Today this crime would probably be attributed to Post Partum depression. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

James Spader (61), Tina Majorino (36), Ashton Kutcher (43), Deborah Ann Woll (36), Chris Rock (56), Eddie Izzard (59), Garth Brooks (59), Emo Philips (65), Alice Eve (39), Mike Farrell (81), Kevin Whately (70), Axl Rose (59), Michael Sheen (52), Jennifer Jason Leigh (59), Christopher Guest (73), Charlotte Rampling (75), Tony Jaa (45), Gabrielle Anwar (51), Natalie Imbruglia (46), Alice Cooper (73), Jim Jefferies (44), Isla Fisher (45), Bridget Regan (39), Warwick Davis (51), Morgan Fairchild (71), Gemma Arterton (35), Brent Spiner (72), David Jason (81), Shakira (44), Sherilyn Fenn (56), Michael C. Hall (50), Harry Styles (27), and Lisa Marie Presley (53).

7th February 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st January 2021

A fairly average week, no points to award but plenty to read, with a big thanks to Nickie for finding a great story for us below. Remember to message a link if you find a newsworthy tale for the newsletter! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Larry King’s widow Shawn King has shared her husband’s cause of death as well as his final words to her. The veteran TV host died on 23rd January at the age of 87. In a recent interview with Dead Pool Weekly, Shawn King, 61, said her husband died as a result of sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs in reaction to an infection. Earlier in January, Larry King was treated for Covid-19, but according to Shawn King, he had recovered from the illness by the time the sepsis occurred. “It was an infection, it was sepsis,” she told us. “Well, he was finally ready to go, I will tell you that. You know, he never wanted to go but his sweet little body was just, it had just been hit so many times with so many things and once we heard the word Covid, all of our hearts just sunk. But he beat it, you know, he beat it, but it did take its toll and then the unrelated infection finally is what took him, but boy, he was not gonna go down easily.” Shawn King said she and her husband were able to speak via FaceTime while he was in the hospital. “It was hard for him to talk, but the one message that he wanted to make sure I heard was, ‘I love you, take care of the boys,’” she said. The pair have two sons: Chance King, 21, and Cannon King, 20.  

Rapper Martell Derouen, whose cousin is Beyoncé, has reportedly been shot dead aged 34. Derouen – who raps under the name Kardone – was discovered during a welfare check by police officers on Tuesday. Someone had called the police after not hearing from the musician in several days, with officers visiting his apartment around midday. Maintenance staff helped police access the apartment. Inside, they reportedly found Derouen dead with a gunshot wound. Speaking to local news network, Derouen’s wife said that the musician “didn’t deserve this”. Local police are said to be searching for 21-year-old Sasha Skare as a suspect, with law enforcement encouraging anyone with information to come forward. Born in San Antonio, Derouen spent much of his childhood in Louisiana, and was later signed to Sony-affiliated record label The Orchard. He released a full length album titled Trunk Bag in 2016, while his last single “Magic” came out in 2020.

One of the main suspects in the infamous unsolved hijacking of a flight from Portland to Seattle 50 years ago carried out by the mysterious “DB Cooper” has died in California aged 94. Sheridan Peterson, who passed away on 8th January was thought to possibly be the “Dan Cooper” who hijacked Northwest Orient Flight 305 on Thanksgiving eve 1971. Mr Cooper handed a flight attendant a note saying that he had a bomb and then demanded $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. When the flight landed in Seattle, the hijacker exchanged the flight’s 36 passengers for the money and parachutes and ordered the flight crew to take off and head for Mexico City. Somewhere between Seattle and Reno, Nevada, Mr Cooper jumped from the rear door of the aircraft with a parachute and the ransom money. The pilots landed the plane safely, but the identity of the hijacker and what happened next remains a mystery to this day. Mr Peterson was considered a chief suspect due to his experience as a smokejumper — a firefighter that parachutes into remote areas to tackle wildfires — and love of skydiving. He served as a marine during the Second World War and later worked as a technical editor at Seattle-based Boeing. Indeed he wrote about possibly being DB Cooper in an article for the National Smokejumper Association’s magazine. “Actually, the FBI had good reason to suspect me,” he wrote. “Friends and associates agreed that I was without a doubt DB Cooper. There were too many circumstances involved for it to be a coincidence. At the time of the heist, I was 44 years old. That was the approximate age Cooper was assumed to have been, and I closely resembled sketches of the hijacker.” On another occasion a photo came to light from a Boeing newsletter showing him dressed in exactly the same manner as the hijacker was said to have been during the 1971 flight. Mr Peterson insisted that he was in Nepal at the time of the hijacking, but nevertheless was still considered a prime suspect by the FBI. Eric Ullis, an entrepreneur from Phoenix, spent years trying to establish the real identity of DB Cooper. He concluded that he was “98 per cent” certain that  Mr Peterson had carried out the daring heist. DNA collected from a tie Mr Cooper was wearing on the plane has been tested, but no match was found. Mr Peterson is by no means the only person identified as DB Cooper. An HBO documentary released in 2020 called The Mystery of DB Cooper profiled several contenders. Another theory is that Mr Cooper did not survive when he jumped from the aircraft as he would not have been able to steer his parachute and was over a wooded area in unsuitable clothing and footwear. In 1980, a young boy found a rotting package of $20 bills totalling $5,800 with serial numbers that matched those of the ransom money lending credence to the theory. 

On This Day

  • 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Four of the conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, are executed for treason by hanging, drawing and quartering, for plotting against Parliament and King James.  
  • 1953 – A North Sea flood causes over 1,800 deaths in the Netherlands and over 300 in the United Kingdom.  
  • 1961 – Project Mercury: Ham the Chimp becomes the first hominid to travel into outer space.  

Deaths

  • 1606 – Guy Fawkes, English conspirator, leader of the Gunpowder Plot (b. 1570). 
  • 1956 – A. A. Milne, English author, poet, and playwright, created Winnie-the-Pooh (b. 1882). 
  • 2016 – Terry Wogan, Irish-British radio and television host (b. 1938)

The Hotel of Death

If you ever decide to stay in Los Angeles, perhaps to hang about the infamous Cedars-Sinai Hospital to see all the celebrities who are dying, you might want to stay at The Cecil Hotel. The Cecil’s a budget hotel in Downtown Los Angeles which opened in 1927. It has 700 guest rooms which were refurbished in 2017, sounds lovely! However the has a checkered history. 

Almost immediately after it was built, the area where the Cecil Hotel is located began to decline, suicides and other violent deaths on the premises became more frequent. The first documented suicide at the Cecil was reported in 1931, when a guest named W.K. Norton died in his room after taking poison capsules. Throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s, more suicides at the Cecil occurred. By the 1960’s, longtime residents had begun to call the Cecil “The Suicide.” 

In addition to suicides, the Cecil’s history includes other kinds of violence and disturbing happenings. It also became a notorious rendezvous spot for adulterous couples, drug activity, and a common ground for sex workers. 

In 1947, Elizabeth Short, dubbed by the media as the Black Dahlia, was rumoured to have been spotted drinking at the Cecil’s bar in the days before her notorious, and to date  unsolved, murder. 

In 1964, a retired telephone operator named “Pigeon Goldie” Osgood, who had been a well-known and well-liked long-term resident at the hotel, was found dead in her room. She had been raped, stabbed, and beaten, and her room ransacked. A man named Jacques B. Ehlinger was charged with Osgood’s murder but was later cleared. Her death remains unsolved.  

Perhaps most infamously, in the 1980s the hotel was rumoured to be the residence of serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the “Night Stalker”. Ramirez had been a regular presence on the skid row area of Los Angeles, and according to a hotel clerk who claims to have spoken to him, Ramirez is rumoured to have stayed at the Cecil for a few weeks. Ramirez may have engaged in part of his killing spree while staying there. Another serial killer, Austrian Jack Unterweger, stayed at the Cecil in 1991, possibly because he sought to copy Ramirez’s crimes. While there, he strangled and killed at least three sex workers, for which he was convicted in Austria. He hanged himself shortly after his conviction.  

In 2013, the Cecil (by then re-branded as the “Stay on Main”) became the focus of renewed attention when surveillance footage of a young Canadian student, Elisa Lam, behaving erratically in the hotel’s elevator, went viral. The video depicts Lam repeatedly pressing the elevator’s buttons, walking in and out of the elevator, and possibly attempting to hide from someone. Her naked body was subsequently discovered in a water supply cistern on the hotel roof, following complaints from residents of odd-tasting water and low pressure. How she got into the cistern remains a mystery. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled her death accidental due to drowning, with bipolar disorder being a “significant” factor. Tasty! 

If you fancy reading through the whole list of suicides and murders at The Cecil, follow this link. 

You might think you’ve never heard of the place before, but back in 1987, U2 performed an impromptu live concert on the rooftop of a one-story building on the corner of 7th and Main in Downtown Los Angeles, next door to the Cecil Hotel. The performance, with the hotel featured as a backdrop, was filmed and commercially released as a music video for the release of the band’s song “Where the Streets Have No Name”. The hotel was also the inspiration for Barton Fink, which should give you a good idea of the atmosphere of the place. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jonathan Banks (74), Justin Timberlake (40), Minnie Driver (51), Dexter Fletcher (55), Marcus Mumford (34), Christian Bale (47), Olivia Colman (47), Gene Hackman (91), Vanessa Redgrave (84), Phil Collins (70), Heather Graham (51), Tom Selleck (76), Katharine Ross (81), Sam Trammell (52), Marc Singer (73), Oprah Winfrey (67), Adam Lambert (39), Tim Healy (69), Ariel Winter (23), Elijah Wood (40), Tom Hopper (36), Alan Alda (85), Frank Darabont (62), Frank Skinner (64), Rosamund Pike (42), Patton Oswalt (52), James Cromwell (81), Alan Cumming (56), Bridget Fonda (57), Frank Miller (64), Sara Rue (42), Scott Glenn (82), Deep Roy (72), and Ellen DeGeneres (63).

31st January 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th January 2021

As if by magic, we have a winner people!! Congratulations to Julie who correctly guessed that Larry King wanted to interview god, 63 points!! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Jessie J has revealed she had to spend Christmas Eve in hospital in Los Angeles after suffering from Meniere’s disease, which left her struggling to hear or walk in a straight line.  Dunno about you, but I struggled to walk in a straight line on that day too! Jessie revealed: “I woke up and felt like I was completely deaf in my right ear, couldn’t walk in a straight line. Basically I got told I had Meniere’s syndrome. I know that a lot of people suffer from it and I’ve actually had a lot of people reach out to me and give me great advice, so I’ve just been laying low in silence”. Thankfully, the inner ear condition caused her to struggle to sing. “I haven’t sung for so long and when I sing loud, it sounds like there’s someone trying to run out of my ear.” Nothing new there then…  She added in an Instagram live video: “It could be way worse, it is what it is. I’m super-grateful for my health. It just threw me off”. According to the NHS website, an attack of the disease may cause sufferers to feel like they or everything around them is spinning. They can also lose their balance and feel sick. So, a bit of a hangover then… 

Not one to miss a profitable endeavour, Kate Garraway is set to release a new book about her husband Derek Draper’s illness battle over the last year. Derek, 53, has been seriously ill in hospital since March, 2020, after he contracted COVID-19 which caused other health complications. Kate has remained open about her family’s distress since Derek fell ill and she is due to detail some of what happened in her new book. Publishers Transworld confirmed that the book will be called The Power of Hope and it will be released in April. Kate said: ‘Whilst my experience of COVID is an extreme/extraordinary one, I am only too aware that this virus has impacted every single one of us, oh, and my husband too. We are all going through this, to a greater or lesser degree, myself to the lesser degree, my husband to the greater. By telling the story of Derek’s illness and how it has altered my life, I hope to be able to reach out to others who are suffering and make lots of cash! If writing about my experience of facing fear, coping day to day with an uncertain future and finding strength for the sake of my kids can in some way help another who is feeling lost or in despair, it will help me buy another horse. Yes, it is really all about me!  

Dame Sheila Hancock has revealed that she told friend Gyles Brandreth that she likely only had months to live. The 87-year-old actress and star of stage and screen, who was recently made a Dame in the New Year’s Honours List, has spoken about a recent exchange while filming Great Canal Journeys. In addition to Great Canal Journeys, the pair also appear as regular panelists on Radio 4’s Just a Minute and also on the celebrity editions of Channel 4 hit Gogglebox. In Great Canal Journeys, Sheila shows off her exercise regime to Gyles as she must combat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and in doing so she tells him that she may only have a matter of months left to live. Shelia explains: “This wasn’t to do with my illness – although you can die of it and I do have to think about that – but just at my age, you’re unlikely to live many more years and that weighs heavily if, like me, you’re greedy to learn new things.” Being so focused on her work, Hancock revealed that she has not spent enough time focusing on other aspects of her life, saying: “I’ve been postponing living all my life!” Speaking of her condition recently: “I have dodgy days but, on the whole, I’m OK. On the days when I’m feeling all right, I get out and walk around – I’ve been doing a lot of it in lockdown.” So basically, she’s trying to make headlines because she’s old. 

On This Day

  • AD 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman Emperor by the Praetorian Guard after they assassinate the previous emperor, his nephew Caligula.  
  • 1536 – King Henry VIII of England suffers an accident while jousting, leading to a brain injury that historians say may have influenced his later erratic behaviour and possible impotence.  
  • 1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.  
  • 1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.  
  • 1989 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, with over 30 known victims, is executed by the electric chair at the Florida State Prison. 

Deaths

  • AD 41 – Caligula, Roman emperor (b. 12). 
  • 1939 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician, created Muesli (b. 1867). 
  • 1965 – Winston Churchill, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874). 
  • 1975 – Larry Fine, American comedian (b. 1902). 
  • 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American religious leader and author, founded the Church of Scientology (b. 1911).   
  • 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial killer (b. 1946). 

Last Meals 

Brandon Bernard was an American man convicted for the 1999 robbery, kidnapping, and murder of Todd and Stacie Bagley. He was sentenced to death for the murders and remained on death row until his execution in December 2020. Bernard spent most of his childhood in Killeen, Texas. In his early teens, he joined a neighbourhood gang known as “212 Piru Bloods” and began burglarizing houses in early 1995. His crimes and rebellious behaviours led him to being kicked out of several schools and prosecuted in the juvenile criminal justice system, which is a shame as he received decent grades and had good attendance. Bernard even attempted to change his lot by joining the United States Army, but was rejected because of his juvenile offences.

On the afternoon of June 21st, 1999, Brandon Bernard, 18; Christopher Vialva, 19; Terry Brown, 15; Christopher Lewis, 15; and Tony Sparks, 16, approached Todd and Stacie Bagley, two youth pastors, and asked them for a ride at a gas station with plans to rob them. Once the Bagley’s agreed to give them a ride, Vialva held the couple at gunpoint and forced them into the trunk. While in the trunk for several hours driving around, the Bagley’s spoke through an opening in the backseat and urged their abductors to accept Jesus into their hearts and spare their lives, which in itself is enough to warrant killing them. The perpetrators then robbed the Bagley’s by using their ATM card to withdraw cash, stealing money, stealing jewellery, and seeking to pawn Stacie’s wedding ring. Soon after, the teens pulled to the side of the road at Belton Lake recreation area and poured lighter fluid inside the vehicle while the Bagley’s sang “Jesus Loves Us“. Vialva then shot both of the Bagley’s in the head; which in fairness is the only thing anyone can do when someone is singing Jesus songs at you; killing Todd instantly. Bernard then set the car on fire, and according to Stacie’s autopsy report, she died of smoke inhalation. 

In the time preceding his execution, there was controversy over whether Bernard should have been sentenced to death and executed, in part because of Donald Trump’s lame-duck status. Bernard’s legal team filed appeals on the basis that his prosecutor withheld the information that he was a low-level gang member, making him less likely to be a future offender. This revelation, combined with concerns that Bernard’s attorneys did not adequately defend him at trial, convinced five out of the nine living jurors who voted to convict Bernard to advocate for his sentence to be commuted to life in prison. Former federal prosecutor Angela Moore, who had initially argued for upholding the death sentence on appeal, also pressed for Bernard’s sentence to be commuted to life. She cited new studies that showed 18-year-olds lack an adult’s ability to control their impulses, as well as studies that showed black teenagers are “systematically denied the benefit of their youth.” She also noted Bernard’s exemplary record in prison; in 20 years, he had never been cited for a disciplinary rules violation. Lawyers Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr, who have represented Trump in the past, requested that the Supreme Court delay the execution by two weeks, but were only successful in prolonging proceedings for three hours. Bernard was executed by lethal injection of pentobarbital at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.  

While preparing for the execution, Bernard ate a Meat lover’s pizza and a brownie, then spoke his last words saying he was “sorry” to the couple he murdered, citing those words as “the only words that I can say that completely capture how I feel now and how I felt that day.” He was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m. on December 10th, 2020. Shortly following Bernard’s death, both Kim Kardashian and Senator Bernie Sanders criticised the government’s decision to execute Bernard. Of his conspirators, Vialva was executed on September 24th, 2020, and the remaining teens received a range of different prison terms; some remain incarcerated.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kristen Schaal (43), Mischa Barton (35), Matthew Lillard (51), Ed Helms (47), Tatyana Ali (41), Nastassja Kinski (60), Michael Ontkean (75), Adrian Edmondson (64), Neil Diamond (80), Richard Dean Anderson (71), Gil Gerard (78), Olivia d’Abo (52), Linda Blair (62), Piper Laurie (89), John Wesley Shipp (66), Geena Davis (65), Martin Shaw (76), Emma Bunton (45), Rainn Wilson (55), David Lynch (75), Tom Baker (87), Bill Maher (65), Katey Sagal (67), Dolly Parton (75), Tippi Hedren (91), Rob Delaney (44), Michael Crawford (79), Kevin Costner (66), Dave Bautista (52), Jason Segel (41), Mark Rylance (61), and Jane Horrocks (57).

24th January 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th January 2021

Yay! We have a winner! First death of the year and the bonus points go to Ceri for the demise of murderer Lisa Montgomery, well done Ceri!!! Touch and go if they were going to list her, they were very slow to do so, but she is listed; even though her Wiki points to her victim which is common practice nowadays as to limit the glorification of the murderer. I’ve elaborated below on the story of Montgomery as it’s a tragic tale from start to finish. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Jeff Bridges has announced that his cancerous tumour has “drastically shrunk” amid treatment for lymphoma. The Oscar winner revealed in October that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma, but that his prognosis was “good”. In a new message posted to his official website, Bridges said that he went “in for a CAT scan” on 6th January to see if his tumour had shrunk in the wake of his treatment. “Turns out it’s working beautifully,” Bridges writes in the hand-written note. “The thing has drastically shrunk. I come home elated with the news.” Bridges added that his CAT scan coincided with the Capitol riots, in which Donald Trump supporters stormed Washington’s Capitol building. “To see our country attacking itself broke my heart,” Bridges writes. “A question rose in me – what’s an individual to do in a situation like this? My mentor, Rozzell Sykes, came to mind. His mantra was ‘be love’.” Nice to see he’s not lost his lovie-ness. Lymphoma is cancer that begins in infection-fighting cells of the immune system, called lymphocytes. These cells are in the lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, bone marrow, and other parts of the body. When you have lymphoma, lymphocytes change and grow out of control. 

Don’t you just hate rewrites? I was leading this week with the story of Lisa Montgomery, the only female inmate on federal Death Row and how she got a stay of execution only hours before her big moment. Well, they only went and executed her!!! She received a lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. The case attracted attention because her lawyers argued she was mentally ill and suffered serious abuse as a child. The 52-year-old strangled a pregnant woman before cutting out and kidnapping her baby in Missouri in 2004. Her victim, 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett, bled to death. Montgomery is the first female federal inmate to be put to death by the US government in 67 years. The execution was postponed twice – first by Covid-19, then by a judge – until a Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for it to take place in the early hours of Wednesday. In a dramatic move late on Monday, a judge in Indiana had halted the scheduled injection until a mental competency hearing could be held which was thought to be a total reprieve as had she been able to hold out until President-elect Joe Biden took office, it was widely believed that he’d put a stop to federal executions. Her lawyers argued that she had been born brain-damaged and was too mentally ill to be executed as she had no comprehension of what her punishment involved. As a child she was routinely sexually and physically abused by her father and trafficked by her mother, family members said. Her treatment was so violent that it amounted to torture, her lawyers say. Her defence team believe that at the time of her crime, Montgomery was psychotic and out of touch with reality. That opinion is supported by 41 current and former lawyers as well as human rights groups like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. But her victim’s family and friends say the murder committed by Montgomery was so horrific that she deserved to be put to death regardless of her mental health. Since 2008, Montgomery had been held in a federal prison in Texas for female inmates with special needs, where she has been receiving psychiatric care. Since receiving her execution date, she’d been placed on suicide watch in an isolated cell. Montgomery’s lawyer, Kelley Henry, said her original legal defence was woefully inadequate, and presented few of the details about her abuse, trauma and mental illness. Federal executions had been on pause for 17 years before President Donald Trump ordered them to resume earlier last year.  

Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi was rushed to hospital in  Monaco on Thursday because of heart issues, his personal physician has said. It is unclear what the media tycoon’s medical emergency is. The 84-year-old has battled multiple health issues in recent years, undergoing heart surgery in 2016 and being hospitalised with Covid-19 in September, following a visit to Sardinia. Mr Berlusconi developed double pneumonia after contracting the virus and was treated for more than a week at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital. On his release from hospital, the former prime minister said he had survived “the most dangerous challenge” he had ever faced. “Each one of us is exposed to the risk of infecting others. I repeat my call for maximum responsibility from everyone,” he cautioned at the time. On the news of his current health scare, shares in his family’s broadcasting firm Mediaset leapt almost three per cent on Thursday. The jump in price was attributed to speculation about ownership changes at Mediaset were his condition to worsen.  

Saved by The Bell actor Dustin Diamond has been diagnosed with cancer, his representative has said. The 44-year-old, who played Samuel “Screech” Powers in the popular 1990s US school-based sitcom, fell ill last week and was taken to hospital. His representative, Roger Paul, said the actor is now waiting for further details. “We will know the severity of it when the tests are done,” Paul said, adding they expect an update next week. Diamond reprised his role in follow-up series Saved by the Bell: The New Class, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years. But he did not appear in the recent revival series. The American was also a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2013.

On This Day

Deaths

The Bullseye Killer

In May 1989, a Welshman named John Cooper filmed an appearance on the cult ITV game show Bullseye. He was skilled at darts, talked of the beauty of the Welsh coastline, and happily told presenter Jim Bowen of his love of scuba-diving. He was also a serial killer.

The unexpected significance of Cooper’s Bullseye appearance only became apparent 20 years after the episode was broadcast, and plays an integral role in a new ITV drama series about his crimes.

While Cooper appeared jovial and friendly on television, he also hid a dark side. As well as being a prolific burglar of homes across the Welsh village of Milford Haven, Cooper had killed two people four years prior to filming the episode. Less than a month after Bullseye, he killed again. 

“You’ve got an unusual hobby John, haven’t you?” Bowen asked Cooper during the programme. “Oh yes,” Cooper replied. “The scuba diving … on the coast line. We’ve got deep water where you can swim over mountains and all sorts of things.” Cooper’s performance on the show was relatively short-lived. Kicked off after the first round having failed to answer a sufficient number of general knowledge questions, he was then invited back in a later round, but that also proved unsuccessful – all three darts he threw missed their target. He forced a smile for the cameras nonetheless.

Three weeks later, Cooper held a pair of holidaymakers at gunpoint before shooting them both at point-blank range.

In court, Cooper’s son would recall his father roaming the sleepy town of Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a shotgun concealed under his coat. Secretly, Cooper was looking for houses to break into, and used the skills learnt in his vast collection of SAS manuals to slip in and out undetected. Cooper is believed to have turned to crime after losing thousands of pounds attempting to break into the property market and gambling away the £90,000 he won in a 1978 newspaper competition. 

In 1985, Cooper targeted a mansion in Milford Haven owned by millionaire farmer Richard Thomas and his sister Helen, who would become his first known murder victims. Prosecutors later speculated that Cooper had killed the siblings after being disturbed during the break-in, with the pair’s bodies, both bearing point-blank shotgun wounds, found in their burnt-out home days after the robbery. 

The killings cast a dark shadow over Milford Haven, but police were unable to apprehend a suspect. It would be four years before Cooper struck again just as violently. 

Peter and Gwenda Dixon were a Oxfordshire couple holidaying on the Pembrokeshire coast when they encountered Cooper. Before killing the pair, again at point-blank range with a shotgun, Cooper tied them up close to a cliff edge and demanded their bank details. He would spend the rest of the day travelling from cashpoint to cashpoint, withdrawing money from the couple’s accounts. Police, meanwhile, were able to deduce that the same 12-bore shotgun was used in both the Thomas and Dixon murders. They had a serial killer on their hands.  

Cooper, however, remained at large. In 1996, he held a group of Milford Haven teenagers hostage during a robbery, raping one girl and sexually assaulting another. In 1997, he held a woman at gunpoint in her home in the small Pembrokeshire village of Sardis. The woman was bound and gagged, but managed to flee. It was this crime that eventually exposed him, with police arresting Cooper in 1998 in connection with a series of home invasions in the area.  

During a raid on Cooper’s home, police recovered jewellery, silverware and photo frames, some still bearing the photos of his victims. A pair of shorts were also recovered. Cooper was sentenced to 16 years in prison on 30 counts of robbery and burglary, but it wasn’t until advancements in technology occurred that police were able to officially link him to the Thomas and Dixon murders, as well as the 1996 assaults.  

Police would identify traces of Gwenda Dixon’s blood on the recovered shorts, believing Cooper kept them as a trophy. A sock that once belonged to Richard Thomas was also recovered from Cooper’s home, while traces of Peter Dixon’s blood were found beneath a fresh lick of paint on Cooper’s shotgun. 

In his 2013 book The Pembrokeshire Murders: Catching the Bullseye Killer, retired chief superintendent Steve Wilkins, recalled the moment of truth.

Having learnt that Cooper appeared on Bullseye, Wilkins partnered with ITV presenter Jonathan Hill to unearth a copy of the episode. Once a copy was found, Wilkins was floored by what he saw – notably Cooper casually telling Bowen his knowledge of the exact spot in which the Dixons were killed weeks later. It was also quickly made clear that the unknown man in the police sketch bore an uncanny resemblance to Cooper as he appeared on television, with ITV’s camera capturing him in the exact same stance as that in the sketch.

“You could hardly make it up,” Wilkins writes in his book. “For the first time we could see Cooper as he would have looked at the time of the Dixons’ murder. In my 30 years service, I had seen many artist’s impressions and photo-fit efforts, but I had never seen as close a match as this.”

The Bullseye tape, and the discovery of small traces of blood found on items of clothing retrieved from Cooper’s home, proved pivotal to Wilkins’s case. Cooper has always protested his innocence, but his attempts at appealing the verdict have proved unsuccessful. Since his imprisonment, Cooper has been linked with at least five other possible deaths in the Pembrokeshire area.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Zooey Deschanel (41), Jim Carrey (59), Betty White (99), Kelly Marie Tran (32), James Earl Jones (90), Lin-Manuel Miranda (41), John Carpenter (73), James May (58), Eva Habermann (45), Kate Moss (47), James Nesbitt (56), DJ Jazzy Jeff (56), Claudia Winkleman (49), Jason Bateman (52), Carl Weathers (73), Kevin Durand (47), Faye Dunaway (80), Grant Gustin (31), Mark Addy (57), LL Cool J (53), Dave Grohl (52), Ruth Wilson (39), Orlando Bloom (44), Michael Peña (45), Liam Hemsworth (31), William B. Davis (83), Bill Bailey (56), Rachael Harris (53), Kirstie Alley (70), Howard Stern (67), Jeff Bezos (57), Pixie Lott (30), Zayn Malik (28), Amanda Peet (49), Mary J. Blige (50), Jason Connery (58), and Melanie Hill (59).

17th January 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th January 2021

Welcome to a bumper edition of the Dead Pool. This week we learn the Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Hospital is the place to be to look out for ailing celebrities! Bet the staff there could tell a few stories! And because I don’t thank her enough, big shout out to Nickie who keeps sending interesting stories she’s found for the newsletter. Very much appreciated, as is all the donations so far. You all rock! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Tom Parker has revealed his stage 4 brain tumour has ‘significantly reduced’ and is ‘responding well’ to treatment. The Wanted singer, 32, took to Instagram on Thursday to update fans on his progress after receiving his terminal diagnosis of glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer, in October. In a lengthy post, Tom said it was a ‘good fucking day’ after receiving the positive news about his battle and vowed to ‘keep fighting’ for the sake of his wife Kelsey Hardwick and their two children. He wrote: ‘SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION These are the words I received today and I can’t stop saying them over and over again. I had an MRI scan on Tuesday and my results today were a significant reduction to the tumour and I am responding well to treatment. Everyday I’m keeping on the fight to shrink this bastard! I can’t thank our wonderful NHS enough. You’re all having a tough time out there but we appreciate the work you are all doing on the front line.” Last month Tom has admitted his world was turned ‘upside down’ after he was told he has a stage four brain tumour. Thanking his wife Kelsey and their family for the support they have given him, Tom said he has ‘come a long way’ since being given the heartbreaking news. Tom revealed he’d reached the end of his latest day of treatment, admitting it had taken its toll. He also revealed he’d been suffering with bad short term memory loss after having chemotherapy and radiotherapy amid his brain tumour battle. Glioblastoma is considered the most aggressive tumor that can form in the brain. Patients have a 10 percent chance of surviving five years after their diagnosis, according to figures. The average lifespan is between 14 and 16 months.  

A representative of London Zoo has responded to Ricky Gervais’s wish that his body be consumed by lions in the aftermath of his death. The comedian and long-time animal rights campaigner had made the proposal to Conan O’Brien on the US late night chat show Conan, saying he wanted to “give back”. “I thought it would be good to be just fed to the lions at London Zoo,” said Gervais. “That would be useful, isn’t it? We never give anything back. We take everything from this world…everything we do is for us, we’re not even food for other things. At least then…I’d like the look on the tourists’ faces when they throw this dead, fat, naked, 73-year-old, maybe, if I’m lucky, to the lions, and as it lands some people go, ‘is that the bloke from The Office?’” London Zoo’s chief operating officer Kathryn England said: “I suspect Ricky may be a bit gristly for our lions.” She added: “We are struggling financially because of lockdown so if anyone wants to ‘give something back’ we welcome donations that will help us keep our lions fed on a more suitable diet.” We’re wondering why he wants to wait until he dies, feed the fucker to them right now!  

After days of false reports, it’s been confirmed that Tanya Roberts has died at the age of 65. Her partner, Lance O’Brien, told us that Roberts’ doctors called him just after 9:00 p.m. on January 4th to notify him of Roberts’ passing. The actress had been hospitalised for complications of a UTI that he claimed spread to her kidneys, liver and gallbladder before it “got into her blood.” The news comes shortly after a premature death announcement was made. The star was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after collapsing on Christmas Eve. Her rep, Mike Pingel, said that O’Brien claimed to have been asked by hospital staff to come in and say his final goodbyes on Sunday. Apparently O’Brien watched her close her eyes and assumed she had passed away. O’Brien reportedly called Pingel afterwards and told him Roberts had died. But during an interview with Inside Edition that morning, O’Brien received a phone call from the hospital informing him that Roberts had not passed away. “Now you’re telling me that she’s alive?” he said at the time. “Oh, thank the lord! Thank god.” O’Brien began to cry. “The hospital’s telling me she’s alive, and they’re calling me from the ICU,” he said, later adding, “I’m so happy.” However, the joy didn’t last long, it appears that Roberts is now dead, again. Roberts starred in many films over the course of her lifetime, including the 1985 James Bond movie A View to a Kill. She also acted on a number of popular TV shows, including That ’70s Show and Charlie’s Angels.   

Dr Dre says he is ‘doing great’ after being hospitalised in California for a suspected aneurysm. The rap mogul posted on Instagram that he hopes to leave Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and return home soon. “Thanks to my family, friends and fans for their interest and well wishes,” he wrote. “I’m doing great and getting excellent care from my medical team. I will be out of the hospital and back home soon. Shout out to all the great medical professionals at Cedars. One Love!!” Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, was taken to the hospital’s ICU on Monday where doctors ran tests to find what caused the bleeding on his brain. Luckily he wasn’t declared dead by his better half as he’s in the middle of a divorce from his wife, Nicole Young, who filed to end their marriage of more than 20 years. The rapper, who was born in Compton, California, rose to fame in the rap group NWA in the 1980s. After leaving the group he went on to huge solo success and won a Grammy for his 1993 album The Chronic. He went on to work as a hit music producer, and played an influential role in the careers of rappers such as Eminem and 50 Cent before selling his soul to Apple Inc. for $3 billion. Yup, you read that right, three billion dollars. The boy from Compton did good! 

On This Day

  • 1776 – American Revolution: Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense. 
  • 1863 – The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s oldest underground railway, opens between Paddington and Farringdon, marking the beginning of the London Underground.  
  • 1927 – Fritz Lang‘s futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.   

Deaths

  • 1862 – Samuel Colt, American engineer and businessman, maker of guns (b. 1814). 
  • 1917– Buffalo Bill, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846). 
  • 1971 – Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, founded Chanel (b. 1883).   
  • 2016 – David Bowie, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor (b. 1947)

Last Meals

George Junius Stinney Jr., was a 14-year-old African-American boy who was convicted, of murdering two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, age 11, and Mary Emma Thames, age 7, in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina. He was executed by electric chair in June 1944. Stinney is the youngest American to be sentenced to death and executed since Hannah Ocuish in 1786.  

A re-examination of the Stinney case began in 2004 after a judicial review. Stinney’s conviction was overturned in 2014, seventy years after he was executed, when a court ruled that he had not received a fair trial. 

In March 1944, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, 7, were riding their bicycles in Alcolu looking for flowers. When they saw Stinney and his younger sister Aime during their journey, they stopped and asked if they knew where to find maypops, the yellow edible fruit of passionflowers. That was reportedly the last time the girls were seen alive. 

Binnicker and Thames, who were white, never made it home that day. Their disappearance prompted hundreds of Alcolu residents, including Stinney’s father, to come together and search for the missing girls. It wasn’t until the next day when their dead bodies were discovered in a soggy ditch. When examined, their bodies, there was no clear sign of a struggle, but both girls had met violent deaths involving multiple head injuries. 

Thames had a hole boring straight through her forehead into her skull, along with a two-inch-long cut above her right eyebrow. Meanwhile, Binnicker had suffered at least seven blows to the head. It was later noted that the back of her skull was “nothing but a mass of crushed bones.” The wounds were likely caused by a round instrument about the size of the head of a hammer.  

A rumour floated around town that the girls had made a stop at a prominent white family’s home on the same day of their murder, but this was never confirmed. And police certainly didn’t seem to be looking for a white killer. 

When Clarendon County law enforcement officers learned from a witness that Binnicker and Thames were seen talking to Stinney, they went to his home. There, George Stinney Jr. was promptly handcuffed and interrogated for hours in a small room without his parents, an attorney, or any witnesses. Police claimed that Stinney confessed to murdering Binnicker and Thames after his plan to have sex with one of the girls failed. At the time, 14 was considered the age of responsibility – and Stinney was believed to be responsible for murder. 

About a month after the girls’ deaths, George Stinney Jr.’s trial began at a Clarendon County Courthouse. Court-appointed attorney Charles Plowden did “little to nothing” to defend his client. During the two-hour trial, Plowden failed to call witnesses to the stand or present any evidence that would cast doubt on the prosecution’s case. The most significant piece of evidence presented against Stinney was his alleged confession, but there was no written record of the teen admitting to the murders. 

By the time of his trial, Stinney hadn’t seen his parents in weeks, and they were too afraid of getting attacked by a white mob to come to the courthouse. So the 14-year-old was surrounded by strangers — up to 1,500 of them. 

Following a deliberation that took less than 10 minutes, the all-white jury found Stinney guilty of murder, with no recommendation for mercy. On April 24th, 1944, the teen was sentenced to die by electrocution. 

On June 16th, 1944, George Stinney Jr. walked into the execution chamber at the South Carolina State Penitentiary in Columbia with a Bible tucked under his arm. 

Weighing in at just 95lbs/43kg, he was dressed in a loose-fitting striped jumpsuit. Strapped into an adult-size electric chair using a Bible as a booster seat because Stinney was too small for the chair. The state electrician also struggled to adjust an electrode to his right leg due to his size. A mask that was too big for him was placed over his face. 

An assistant captain asked Stinney if he had any last words. Stinney replied, “No sir.” The prison doctor prodded, “You don’t want to say anything about what you did?” Again, Stinney replied, “No sir.” 

When officials turned on the switch, 2,400 volts surged through Stinney’s body, causing the mask to slip off. His eyes were wide and teary, and saliva was emanating from his mouth for all the witnesses in the room to see. After two more jolts of electricity, it was over. Stinney was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. In a span of just 83 days, the boy had been charged with murder, tried, convicted, and executed by the state. He was buried in an unmarked  grave in Crowley. 

In 2004, George Frierson, a local historian who grew up in Alcolu, started researching the case after reading a newspaper article. His work gained the attention of South Carolina lawyers Steve McKenzie and Matt Burgess. Together they filed for a re-trial. 

Frierson stated in interviews, “There has been a person that has been named as being the culprit, who is now deceased. And it was said by the family that there was a deathbed confession.” Frierson said that the rumoured culprit came from a well-known, prominent white family. A member, or members, of that family had served on the initial coroner’s inquest jury, which had recommended that Stinney be prosecuted. 

New evidence in the court hearing in 2014 included testimony by Stinney’s siblings that he was with them at the time of the murders. In addition, an affidavit was introduced from the “Reverend Francis Batson, who found the girls and pulled them from the water-filled ditch. In his statement he recalls there was not much blood in or around the ditch, suggesting that they may have been killed elsewhere and moved. 

Rather than approving a new trial, on December 17, 2014, circuit court Judge Carmen Mullen vacated Stinney’s conviction, thus not exonerating Stinney, but voiding the verdict. She ruled that he had not received a fair trial, as he was not effectively defended and his Sixth Amendment rights had been violated. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jemaine Clement (47), William Sanderson (77), Evan Handler (60), Fran Walsh (62), Rod Stewart (76), Imelda Staunton (65), Joely Richardson (56), Rachel Nichols (41), Michelle Forbes (56), Amber Benson (44), Nicolas Cage (57), Jeremy Renner (50), Erin Gray (71), Linda Kozlowski (63), Brett Dalton (38), Steven Williams (72), Helen Worth (70), Eddie Redmayne (39), Kate McKinnon (37), Norman Reedus (52), Rowan Atkinson (66), Angus Deayton (65), Clancy Brown (62), Bradley Cooper (46), January Jones (43), Diane Keaton (75), Robert Duvall (90), Shea Whigham (52), Hayao Miyazaki (80), Vinnie Jones (56), Marilyn Manson (52), Mandip Gill (33), Dafne Keen (16), Julia Ormond (56), Graham McTavish (60), Matt Frewer (63), Emma Mackey (25), and Julian Sands (63).

10th January 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 3rd January 2021

Here we are folks! We made it through 2020!! Thank you all who have contributed to The  Cause, you have been very generous indeed! We’re fairly close to the goal, in fact the closest we’ve been to breaking even ever!!! I suppose we’d better get on with it! 

Look Who You Could Have Had 2020:

Look Who You Could Have Had 2021:

In Other News

Eighteen care home residents in Belgium have reportedly died after contracting coronavirus, following a visit from a man dressed as Santa Claus, Ho ho ho! Scores were infected at the nursing home in early December, with an outbreak emerging in the days after the visit. The visitor was reportedly among the first to test positive after his trip to the Hemelrijck home in Mol, a town in Antwerp province. It is yet unclear whether his visit was the cause of the outbreak, which authorities are still looking into. The city council said on Christmas Eve that 13 residents had died at the care home, after being infected with coronavirus. Five more people have since died at the nursing home, Mol’s mayor Wim Caeyers said. On Christmas Eve, Mol city council said a total of 121 residents at the Hemelrijck nursing home had tested positive for Covid-19, and the number showing serious symptoms was increasing. Six members of staff had also tested positive for the virus. “The residential care centre will face a very difficult period in the next seven to ten days,” the council said in a statement on Christmas Eve. After the outbreak emerged following the Santa visit, a company spokesperson told us: “The team is very shocked by what happened, but that also makes them very motivated to get the virus out again.” In hindsight, one wonders who thought it was a good idea to bring a Santa to see a bunch of geriatric non-believers in the first place??  

YouTuber Grace Victory’s family has shared an update on her condition after she was placed into an induced coma by doctors on Christmas Day. On 30th December, the family shared a second post on her Instagram page, saying: “Grace is currently stable and responding well to treatment.” They also thanked fans for their support and well wishes: “We as a family are truly overwhelmed by the amount of Love and well wishes sent to our Grace and we want to thank each and everyone of you for casting a light of hope our way. The 30-year-old influencer delivered her first child on Christmas Eve, much earlier than her due date of February, due to Covid-19 complications. After the birth, Victory, who is from High Wycombe, was then admitted to intensive care as a result of breathing difficulties. Her family shared a post on 28 December detailing what had happened. “As you guys know, Grace gave birth on Christmas Eve to a beautiful baby boy, who is currently doing so well, he’s incredible. We love him so much. Grace developed Covid-19 two weeks ago and although her symptoms were mild at first, they worsened as the days went on. Which meant they had to deliver the baby as soon as possible, as she was just too unwell to carry on with the pregnancy.” The family explained that despite the successful delivery of her son, Victory was then placed into an induced coma to “give her body the rest it needs, in order to recover”. Victory has over 200,000 YouTube subscribers and 224,000 Instagram followers. She has focused her career on body positivity, mental health and holistic healing.  That went well for her then….  

Voice actor Tom Kane, best known for his roles in Star Wars films and TV series, has suffered a stroke. According to a Facebook post by Kane’s daughter, Sam, the stroke occurred around two months ago, and left Kane unable to “efficiently communicate verbally, nor read or spell”. “Our family wanted to share why my dad has been MIA,” she wrote. “About two months ago he had a left side stroke that gave him right sided weakness and damage to the speech centre of his brain. “He is still competent and very much himself, but can only get out a few words right now… My dad still remains in good spirits and his extreme stubbornness has helped him already show improvements in speech. He is fully on board with me sharing this and he will see anything you guys post.” A prolific actor, Kane, now 58, voiced Jedi master Yoda in the Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars, returning to the role in other productions. He also voiced the cult franchise favourite Admiral Ackbar in Rian Johnson’s 2017 entry Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, and has appeared in other roles in several Star Wars video games and series. Outside of Star Wars, Kane has appeared in animations including Archer, Powerpuff Girls and Robot Chicken. In the Facebook post, Kane’s daughter revealed that his neurologist told him he may not be able to act in voice-overs again.

On This Day

  • 1833 – The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. 
  • 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.  
  • 1961 – The SL-1 nuclear reactor is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities. 
  • 1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates our old friend Fidel Castro. Castro still lived a full life and probably didn’t even notice. 
  • 2009 – The first block of the blockchain of the decentralised payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, was established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.  
  • 2015 – Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people!! 

Deaths

  • 1795 – Josiah Wedgwood, English potter, founded the Wedgwood Company (b. 1730). 
  • 1903 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant, father of Adolf (b. 1837). 
  • 1946 – William Joyce, American-British pro-Axis propaganda broadcaster (b. 1906). 
  • 1967 – Jack Ruby, American businessman and murderer (b. 1911). 
  • 1979 – Conrad Hilton, American businessman, founded the Hilton Hotels (b. 1887). 
  • 2003 – Jimmy Stewart, Scottish racing driver (b. 1931). 

Last Meals

In the weeks after the Second World War broke out, the crackly sound of a clipped English accent spouting Nazi propaganda began to filter through the wireless sets of Britain in a desperate attempt to sap morale. Radio critic Jonah Barrington was the first to brand the anonymous plummy voice he heard with the nickname “Lord Haw-Haw”. He wrote scathingly: “I imagine him having a receding chin, a questing nose, thin yellow hair brushed back, a monocle, a vacant eye, a gardenia in his buttonhole. Rather like PG Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster…” The moniker would stick when the anonymous voice was revealed as belonging to William Joyce, a scar-faced Anglo-American traitor who had begun broadcasting fascist propaganda. Over the next five years, Joyce would go on to become the scourge of the airwaves. It is estimated that, at his peak, six million Britons regularly tuned in to his transmissions.  

Now, over 80 years on from Joyce’s first broadcasts, the story of how he was finally captured and brought to justice, was, ironically, by a Jew who had fled Hitler’s Germany. 

Born in 1906 in New York to an Irish father and English mother, Joyce’s family moved to Ireland where, as a young man, he dabbled with working for British intelligence. He went on to study English at the University of London, became a teacher and once said: “From my earliest days, I was taught to love England and her Empire.” But by the 1920s, Joyce began to fall under the spell of fascism and in a spat with communist sympathisers, he was slashed from his earlobe to mouth leaving him with a distinctive scar across his right cheek. Joyce was soon giving speeches for the British Union of Fascists but believed its leader Sir Oswald Mosley was too moderate and formed his own pro-Nazi and anti-semitic organisation. 

In 1939, Joyce was tipped off that he was about to be arrested and fled for Germany with his wife Margaret just a week before hostilities broke out. He was quickly recruited by the Nazis, keen to use his background to help them wage a propaganda war through the radio. Although Joyce was of ordinary stock, he had developed a nasally, upper-class English accent that the Nazis believed would give their message credibility and authenticity. His sarcastic and sneering short-wave transmissions from Hamburg would always start with “Germany Calling” before a tirade of arguments designed to convince his British audience to surrender. The Third Reich’s head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, would describe him as “the best horse in my stable” and Joyce was rewarded for his treachery with German citizenship.

Many Brits, bored by the stodgy wartime BBC output, admitted they listened in not because they sympathised with Haw-Haw’s message but to have a good laugh at his haughty tone. But as the Second World War began to turn against the Nazis and British resolve hardened, Joyce’s power began to wane. As the Allies closed in on Berlin, Joyce gave a final, drunken, rambling broadcast on April 30th 1945, before signing off with a final defiant, “Heil Hitler and farewell”. Joyce and his wife then went into hiding near Flensburg, on the Danish border.  

A month later, on May 28th, a dishevelled figure was spotted gathering firewood by two British soldiers, Captain Bertie Lickorish and Lieutenant Geoffrey Perry members of T-Force, the unit tasked with securing Germany’s scientific and industrial assets. They had begun to engage the man in conversation in English when Lieutenant Perry had a lightbulb moment. He knew Haw-Haw was rumoured to be in the area and thought he recognised the distinctive accent of the man in front of them. He asked him: “You wouldn’t, by any chance, be William Joyce would you?” In response to the question, Joyce reached for his pocket. Believing that he was going for a weapon, Lieutenant Perry shot him in the buttocks. In fact, Joyce didn’t have a gun, he had been reaching for his papers drawn up in the fake name of Wilhelm Hansen. 

The captured Joyce was sent back to Britain to stand trial for high treason because of his British passport. In September, he was found guilty at London’s Old Bailey and hanged by the famed executioner Albert Pierrepoint, on January 3rd 1946, at Wandsworth Prison, making him the last person to be executed for treason in the United Kingdom. He was 38. Sadly we don’t know what his last meal was but Joyce’s unrepentant last words are said to have been: “May the swastika be raised from the dust.” 

The scar on Joyce’s face split wide open because of the pressure applied to his head upon his drop from the gallows. As was customary for executed criminals, Joyce’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave within the walls of HMP Wandsworth. In 1976 following a campaign by his daughter, Heather Landalo, his body was reinterred in Bohermore, Galway, Ireland.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Mel Gibson (65), Florence Pugh (25), Victoria Principal (71), Dabney Coleman (89), Sarah Alexander (50), Tia Carrere (54), Kate Bosworth (38), Cuba Gooding Jr. (53), Frank Langella (83), Li Gong (55), Anthony Hopkins (83), Val Kilmer (61), Ben Kingsley (77), Jane Badler (67), Eliza Dushku (40), Tracey Ullman (61), Fred Ward (78), Tiger Woods (45), Michael Nesmith (78), Jude Law (48), Jon Voight (82), Ted Danson (73), Lilly Wachowski (53), Danny McBride (44), Bernard Cribbins (92), Marianne Faithfull (74), Denzel Washington (66), Maggie Smith (86), Noomi Rapace (41), Sienna Miller (39), Joe Manganiello (44), John Legend (42), and Nichelle Nichols (88).

3rd January 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool: Round up of 2020

This year has been rather exceptional with the coronavirus picking off celebrities of all ages. However, it doesn’t seem as deadly as 2016, where it felt like anyone who wasn’t listed were dying just to spite us; I’m thinking of you David Bowie!!!  

Anyhow, we have a winner to declare! Congratulations to Louise for topping the table with 467 points from 4 deaths. If you could send me your contact details I can send off the trophy to you! Honourable mentions go to Laura for the most deaths (7) and to Stu and myself for not scoring a bean throughout the year. Well done all of you! 

Right, let’s have a quick look at who we lost in 2020. 

January:

  • Derek Acorah – The self-styled spiritual medium, whose real name was Derek Johnson, died right at the beginning of the year aged 69. It was revealed he had been treated in intensive care following a “brief illness”. So far he’s refused to contact the living world since his departure.  
  • Terry Jones – The Welsh actor and Monty Python star passed away aged 77. His family said he died at his home in London after battling a rare form of dementia. In a statement, the actor’s family said: “His work with Monty Python, his books, films, television programmes, poems and other work will live on forever, a fitting legacy to a true polymath.” 
  • Kobe Bryant – The basketball legend and his 13-year-old daughter died in a helicopter crash that killed nine people in total. The five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist was 41. 
  • Nicholas Parsons – The Just a Minute host died aged 96 after a short illness. He was best known for the show, where panellists have to speak for one minute without hesitation, deviation, or repetition. He first fronted the show on its inception in 1967. BBC director general Tony Hall said: “Very few people have done so much to entertain audiences over the decades and no-one deserves to be called a broadcasting legend more than Nicholas Parsons. 

February:

  • Kirk Douglas – The actor died at the age of 103. The venerated star, patriarch of an acting dynasty was one of the few remaining survivors of Hollywood’s golden age, was best known for films including Spartacus, Paths of Glory and The Vikings. His eldest son, Michael Douglas, a two-time Oscar-winner, announced his father’s death with a touching tribute that failed to address his aggressive and murderous personality and the likelihood he was a paedo rapist. 
  • Caroline Flack – The former Love Island TV presenter and Strictly Come Dancing winner was found dead at the age of 40 at her London home after taking her own life. Flack, who was described as “vulnerable” by her management, had pleaded not guilty to assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton at her former flat. Her death came just weeks before the trial was due to begin. 
  • Dieter Laser – The German actor who played sadistic surgeon Josef Heiter in 2009 shock horror film The Human Centipede. He died at the age of 78, with The Human Centipede director Tom Six describing him as a “force of nature, an unique human being and an iconic actor”. 

March:

  • Max von Sydow – Swedish actor Max von Sydow died at home in France aged 90. He’s mostly lnown for his roles in Flash Gordon, Game Of Thrones, The Exorcist and The Seventh Seal. He once said of his most famous role “The film you hear about the most is The Exorcist. When people come up to me and say, ‘Oh, you scared me!’ I was the good guy in that film!” 
  • Michel Roux – Chef Michel Roux died aged 79. He opened the first Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Gavroche, in Britain in the ’70s alongside his brother Albert. 
  • Roy Hudd – Comedian and actor Roy Hudd died at the age of 83 after a short illness. His agent said he had passed away peacefully with his wife Debbie at his side. Hudd was born in Croydon and started his career as a messenger for an advertising agency, window dresser and a commercial artist before his professional debut in 1957.  
  • Kenny Rogers – The Country music legend with a career that spanned six decades, with hits including Coward Of The County, The Gambler and Islands In The Stream, with Dolly Parton. The Houston-born singer, known for his trademark husky voice and silver beard, broke through into the world of pop to sell more than 100 million records. He also gained fame as an actor, starring in TV movies based on The Gambler and other songs, making him a superstar in the 1970s and 80s. He died peacefully in a hospice, surrounded by family, aged 81.

April:

  • Eddie Large – Comedian Eddie Large died at the age of 78 after contracting coronavirus while in hospital. The comedian, famous for his double act with Syd Little, had a long-running comedy sketch show on BBC One in the 1970s and 1980s. 
  • Lord Bath – Lord Bath of Longleat was 87 when he died after testing positive for coronavirus. The “gloriously” eccentric Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, ran Longleat Safari Park. The flamboyant aristocrat was known for his colourful dress sense and was a regular feature of the Animal Park television show about his estate.  
  • Honor Blackman – Actress Honor Blackman, best-known for playing Pussy Galore, died at the age of 94. She died peacefully of natural causes at home in Lewes, Sussex, surrounded by her family. Her numerous and varied roles included Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger. 
  • Sir Stirling Moss – The motor racing great died at the age of 90 following a long illness. His wife Lady Moss said: “It was one lap too many. He just closed his eyes.” Though Moss famously never won the Formula One title, he finished runner-up four times and came third three times in a career during which he won 16 Grands Prix. 
  • Tim Brooke-Taylor – The Goodies star died aged 79 after contracting coronavirus. The actor, best known as part of the 1970s comic trio, was survived by his wife Christine. Alongside Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, The Goodies TV show attracted millions of viewers in its heyday. 
  • Bill Withers – Famous for timeless classics including Lean On Me, Lovely Day, Just The Two Of Us and Ain’t No Sunshine. His death from heart complications at the age of 81. 

May:

  • Little Richard – Sir Mick Jagger led tributes to Rock ‘n’ Roll singer Little Richard following his death at the age of 87. Little Richard, who inspired musicians including The Beatles, David Bowie and Sir Elton John, was a Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer and renowned for hits such as Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally. 
  • Florian Schneider – Co-founded Kraftwerk alongside Ralf Hutter in 1970 after meeting as students in Dusseldorf. The band’s pioneering use of drum machines and synthesisers influenced countless musicians who came after them. Schneider died after a short cancer disease just a few days after his 73rd birthday.
  • Roy Horn – Best known as part of the Las Vegas performing duo of Siegfried & Roy, who were world renowned for their shows involving white lions and tigers, alongside Siegfried Fischbacher. However, the act unravelled in October 2003 when a tiger named Mantecore mauled him during a live performance, severing his spine and inflicting several other injuries, permanently affecting his ability to move, walk and speak. Horn died at the age of 75 after contracting coronavirus. 

June:

  • Willie Thorne – The snooker legend died in hospital in Spain after a short battle with leukaemia. He was 66. He had been in an induced coma in the intensive care ward at Torrevieja Hospital, Spain, after suffering respiratory failure. Thorne was diagnosed with leukaemia earlier in the year and had several health issues while undergoing chemotherapy treatment. 
  • Dame Vera Lynn – Forces’ Sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn died at the age of 103. A statement said: ”The family are deeply saddened to announce the passing of one of Britain’s best-loved entertainers at the age of 103.‘’  
  • Ian Holm – The Lord Of The Rings star was remembered as “charming, kind and ferociously talented”, following his death at the age of 88. The actor, who was acclaimed for his roles in Chariots Of Fire, Alien and Brazil, was also a prolific and accomplished star of the Royal Shakespeare Company and was described as Harold Pinter’s favourite actor. He died peacefully in hospital after a Parkinson’s-related illness, with his family and carer at his bedside.

July:

  • Ennio Morricone – The legendary movie composer died at the age of 91 after breaking his hip in a fall. The Italian composer created music for more than 400 films, but was best-known for the soundtrack to 1966 Spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Morricone was rated as one of the world’s most influential composers after writing scores for cinema – including 70 award-winning films – television and 100 classical works. 
  • Jack Charlton – The former Leeds and England defender who won a World Cup winner’s medal in 1966, died in July. He was 85. Charlton had been diagnosed with lymphoma in the last year and was also battling dementia. He spent his entire 21-year playing career at Leeds, making a joint club record 773 appearances, before retiring as a player in 1973 and going on to enjoy a successful and colourful career as a manager.  
  • Kelly Preston – the wife of John Travolta, died aged 57 after battling breast cancer for two years. The actress starred in films such as Mischief, Twins and Jerry Maguire. Alongside a photograph of her, Travolta announced her death saying: “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many.“ The couple had been married for nearly 30 years. Their son, Jett, died at the age of just 16 after suffering a seizure during a family holiday in the Bahamas in 2009. 
  • Naya Rivera – Tributes were paid to the former Glee star, after her death was confirmed at the age of 33. The actress went missing during a boating trip at Lake Piru in Southern California with her four-year-old son, Josey Hollis, and her body was found days later. Demi Lovato, who played Rivera’s on-screen girlfriend on the show, said she will “forever cherish” starring alongside her. 
  • Dame Olivia de Havilland – The two-time Oscar winner and for decades the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind, died at the age of 104. The actress died of natural causes at her residence in Paris, where she had lived for more than six decades. She emerged as a star during the classic movie era – first as a romantic partner for Errol Flynn in swashbucklers such as Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood and then as Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. 

August:

  • Chadwick Boseman – The actor, best known for playing superhero Black Panther, died at the age of 43 after a battle with cancer. In an announcement that stunned Hollywood, Boseman’s family said he had been diagnosed with colon cancer four years ago and died surrounded by his loved ones, including wife Taylor Simone Ledward. He never discussed the illness publicly and films including Black Panther, Da 5 Bloods and Avengers: Endgame were all filmed “during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy,” the family said. 

September:

  • Dame Diana Rigg – The actress, known for roles from The Avengers to Games of Thrones, died at the age of 82. Her daughter Rachael Stirling said: “My Beloved Ma died peacefully in her sleep, at home, surrounded by family. She died of cancer diagnosed in March, and spent her last months joyfully reflecting on her extraordinary life, full of love, laughter and a deep pride in her profession. I will miss her beyond words.”  
  • Jackie Stallone – The mother of Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone, died at the age of 98. The famous celebrity astrologer and women’s wrestling promoter had a memorable – although brief – stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2005. A surprise contestant, Stallone entered much to the shock of co-housemate and former daughter-in-law Brigitte Nielsen, with whom she had a frosty relationship. 
  • Michael Lonsdale – Best known for his role as James Bond villain Hugo Drax in 1979’s Moonraker, Lonsdale made more than 100 films and performed on stage in a career in entertainment that spanned 60 years. Lonsdale died peacefully at his home in Paris, aged 89, with his agent of 20 years saying it was simply old age. “His spirit was alive but his body was tired,” he said.

October:

  • Eddie Van Halen – The world of rock and roll mourned the “Mozart for guitar” Eddie Van Halen following his death at the age of 65. The revered guitarist was Van Halen’s creative force as they blurred the line between hard rock and heavy metal on their way to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1980s. Van Halen died after a “long and arduous” battle with cancer.  
  • Frank Bough – The former TV presenter died at the age 87. A family friend told the BBC Bough died in a care home. Bough was one of the best-known TV hosts in the 1970s and 1980s and was part of the launch of the BBC’s Breakfast TV show in 1983. His career with the BBC ended in 1988 when he was sacked over a sex-related scandal. 
  • Bobby Ball – The 76-year-old comedian died of coronavirus in hospital. One half of the duo Cannon & Ball, Bobby’s death was confirmed by his manager and wife Yvonne said: “I will always miss him, he was so joyful, full of fun and mischievous.” The Cannon and Ball Show ran for nine years from 1979 and in more recent times they found success on the panto circuit and cameos on TV. 
  • Sean Connery – The film star, most famous for playing James Bond, passed away at the age of 90. Sean, who played 007 in the likes of Goldfinger, Thunderball and You Only Live Twice, won an Oscar in 1988 when he was named best supporting actor for his role as an Irish cop in The Untouchables and also starred in films like The Rock and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. 
  • Johnny Nash – Best known for the 1970s reggae hit I Can See Clearly Now, which sold more than a million copies and sat at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks. He largely dropped out of the spotlight in the late 1980s. He died of natural causes, aged 80, his son said. 

November:

  • John Sessions – The actor and comedian died at the age of 67 after suffering a heart attack. He was best known for his work on Spitting Image and Whose Line Is It Anyway? 
  • Des O’Connor – The much loved entertainer died at the age of 88. The TV legend passed away in hospital a week after suffering a fall in his Buckinghamshire home. He will be best remembered for shows such as Take Your Pick, Countdown, The Des O’Connor Show and Today with Des and Mel. The presenter was also a singer and recorded 36 albums as a singer, five of which made it to the UK Top 40. 
  • Geoffrey Palmer – The actor, known for his roles in such sitcoms as Butterflies, As Time Goes By and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, died aged 93. Versatile and prolific, he was known and loved for his hangdog expression and the often testy demeanour he gave to his characters. 
  • Ray Clemence – Former Liverpool, Tottenham and England goalkeeper Ray Clemence was hailed as a “true legend” and “a giant of a man” after his death at the age of 72. Clemence, who won three European Cups and five First Division titles during a trophy-laden spell at Anfield, was without question one of the greatest of his generation. 
  • Diego Maradona – The Argentinian football legend famous for his Hand of God, died aged 60. He was regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time and helped Argentina win the World Cup in 1986, the pinnacle of an illustrious career. 
  • David Prowse – The British actor who played Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, died aged 85. The weightlifter-turned-actor, who also earned an MBE for playing the Green Cross Code Man to promote road safety, died after a short illness. Prowse won the role playing Vader due to his impressive 6ft 6in physique, but with his West Country accent deemed not quite suitable, the part was instead voiced by James Earl Jones. 

December:

  • Peter Alliss – The “voice of golf” died at the age of 89 after a successful playing career where he won more than 20 tournaments during and played on eight Ryder Cup teams. His move into broadcasting came about after he was overheard by the BBC’s Ray Lakeland talking to a friend on a flight back from a tournament in Ireland in 1960. 
  • Dame Barbara Windsor – Babs died aged 83 in a care home. Best known for her roles in EastEnders and the Carry On films, she was considered a national treasure in the UK after finding fame as a buxom blonde in the Carry On films. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014, she made the news public in 2018. Her husband Scott Mitchell said her final weeks were “typical of how she lived her life” and “full of humour, drama and a fighting spirit until the end”. 
  • John le Carré – Cold War espionage author David Cornwell, known by his pen name John le Carré, died aged 89 after a battle with pneumonia. Among his 25 novels were acclaimed best-sellers including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and The Night Manager. His most well-known character was the career intelligence officer George Smiley – made even more famous by Alec Guinness in the TV series of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. 
  • Eileen Pollock – Was a star of stage and screen who appeared in films including Far And Away in 1992, alongside Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, and Angela’s Ashes in 1999. But she was best known for playing “tart” Lilo Lill, mistress of Freddie Boswell, in Bread, the TV comedy that centred around the working class Boswell family in Liverpool, which ran from 1986 to 1991. She died peacefully in her sleep at home in London, aged 73.

1st January 2021 | Categories: 2020, 2021 | Leave A Comment »

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