Dead Pool 15th November 2020

A quiet week for famous deaths, but the ones that did die have thrown quite a few points  towards us. With he passing of Alex Trebek I can award 70 points to Doug, Abigail, Lee, and Paula; Laura steals 170 points for listing him as her Cert. In addition I can dole out 62 points to Gwenan for correctly guessing that Des O’Conner would sadly die this year. Plus, with the joyful demise of Peter Sutcliffe, only Nickie scores 76 points as he hurtles towards hell! The league table looks very interesting at the top end, several of you could easily win this year! I must remind you that causing the deaths of any of your listed celebrities will result in a disqualification. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

McFly star Dougie Poynter took a “lethal dosage” of Valium after feeling responsible for the band splitting up. Poynter found himself struggling without McFly despite being the one who suggested they come to an end in 2016. The musician, who attempted suicide in 2011, relapsed after falling out with his bandmates and friends Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones and Harry Judd. Speaking in new documentary McFly: It’s All About Us, Poynter said: “On the one hand, I felt inspired because friends in LA would take me to see other bands and stuff. “On the other hand, I was like, ‘But my band’s broken and it’s all my fault’.” Poynter said that “Valium was a way of just making all that disappear”. Fletcher, Jones and Judd soon realised that Poynter was “taking something”, with Judd saying: “He sort of told me what he’d been taking – he was like, at that lethal dosage”. In an attempt to repair their friendship, Poynter asked his bandmates to join him at group therapy. Judd acknowledged that, while there may have been hard feelings initially, “we realised Dougie did nothing wrong – and that’s the biggest lesson from all this”. Speaking about being a part of McFly, Poynter, who won I’m a Celebrity in 2011, said: “It’s all I really know and all I really want to know.”      

Jesy Nelson has sparked further concern this week after pulling out of two big Little Mix events with ill health. The ‘talented’ 29-year-old singer is feared to have secretly quit the group by worried fans who received their copies of the band’s new album missing her signature. While Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall had all signed the special copies of Confessi, Jesy’s distinctive handwriting had been left off the cover. Fans were quick to point out Jesy has recently been unwell, so may not have been with her bandmates during the signing session. Little Mix’s rep told Mirror Online: “We’re not making any further comment on Jesy currently for private medical reasons.” It comes after Jesy pulled out of last Friday’s Little Mix: The Search final after falling ill. She also turned down Sunday’s MTV EMA, leaving her three co-stars to host the virtual event instead. Last week fans thought Jesy looked “over it” in a since-deleted Little Mix video promoting their sixth studio album. While Leigh-Anne, Jade and Perrie were full of beans speaking about Confetti, Jesy was seen rolling her eyes and looking downbeat. Just hours after the video vanished from the band’s socials, a Little Mix rep said: “Jesy is unwell and will not be appearing on tonight’s final of Little Mix The Search. “She will also not be hosting or performing at tomorrow’s MTV EMA’s.” No further information was given about Jesy’s condition.   

Sinéad O’Connor is entering a year-long rehab program following “a very traumatic six years.” In a Twitter-thread on Tuesday announcing the postponement of her shows originally scheduled for next year to 2022, the 53-year-old singer-songwriter revealed to fans that she’ll be seeking treatment for “trauma and addiction.” Declaring that “recovery starts now,” the “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer wrote that “this year was the end” of her trauma and suffering. O’Connor, reflecting on the struggles she has faced, revealed that this year she lost someone “beloved,” which cause her to “become briefly addicted to a drug other than weed.” O’Connor explained she has been addicted to marijuana for 34 years, which she called a “lifetime.” The Grammy winner also revealed that “the last year has been very traumatic” as one of her children – she’s mom to sons Jake, 32, Roisin, 25, and Shane, 15 – was “unwell.” O’Connor did not detail that scenario, though she confirmed that her child “is thriving now.” “I grew up with a lot of trauma and abuse. I then went straight into the music business. And never learned really how to make a normal life,” she wrote. “Never took proper time to heal. Wasn’t ready to either.” Asking fans to be “supportive and understanding,” she encouraged them to hold onto their tickets, promising that she will “be back with a new album and tour.” She apologized “to anyone this causes inconvenience to.” She also requested that her music business partners support her in “taking this step toward making a life I am happy in. So that we can all make some money !!!” 

On This Day

  • 1943 – German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps”.
  • 1949 – Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.  
  • 1971 – Intel releases the world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.

Deaths

Last Meals

Bobby Wayne Woods was an American convicted murderer, kidnapper and rapist executed by the state of Texas for the murder and rape of 11-year-old Sarah Patterson in 1997.  

A seventh-grade dropout, Woods was so illiterate that he had to refer to a spelling list just to write simple notes to his family. He had IQ scores of 80 and 78 during elementary school. His IQ score right before his murder trial was 70, and another in 2002 returned 68. Woods also worked as a short-order cook and roofer. 

In the early morning of April 30th 1997, Woods went to the home of his ex-girlfriend, Schwana Patterson, 35, who had had kicked him out a few days earlier. Her two children, 11-year-old Sarah and 9-year-old Cody, were sleeping inside. Woods crawled through an open window into the children’s bedroom. He grabbed Sarah’s foot and began beating her chest, then sexually molested her. Woods then forced both children to leave through the window in their nightclothes, put them in his car, and drove to a cemetery. There, he beat and stomped Cody on the head and strangled him. With Cody left for dead, Woods drove away with Sarah and found a secluded area where he raped her and cut her throat, resulting in her death. Cody survived and managed to raise the alarm. 

Based on Cody’s statement, police found Woods and asked him where Sarah was, hoping to find her alive. Woods answered, “You will not find her alive. I cut her throat.” He then led them to her body.

Because the Woods case was heavily reported in Dallas-area media, Woods’s trial was held in Llano, Texas. During his trial Woods admitted to kidnapping Patterson’s children and beating Cody Patterson unconscious. A psychologist representing the defence testified that Woods was mentally retarded and was not a threat to society. In response, a psychiatrist representing prosecution testified that Woods was not mentally retarded and could commit future violent crimes. 

Woods received a 40-year sentence for the abduction and assault of Cody Patterson and was sentenced to death for Sarah Patterson’s rape and murder. Schwana Patterson was also tried on charges of child neglect and was found guilty. She was sentenced to 23 years in prison.   

Prior to his execution, Woods last meal consisted of two chicken fried steaks, two fried chicken breasts, three fried pork chops, two hamburgers with lettuce, tomato, onion and salad dressing, four slices of bread, half a pound of fried potatoes with onion, half a pound of onion rings with ketchup, half a pan of chocolate cake with icing and two pitchers of milk. 

Woods was executed by lethal injection at 6:48 p.m. local time on December 3, 2009 in the Huntsville Unit state prison. His final words were “Bye. I’m ready.”

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jonny Lee Miller (48), Edward Asner (91), Beverly D’Angelo (69), Petula Clark (88), Olga Kurylenko (41), Russell Tovey (39), Sandahl Bergman (69), Paul McGann (61), Gerard Butler (51), Whoopi Goldberg (65), John de Lancie (72), Jimmy Kimmel (53), Anne Hathaway (38), Ryan Gosling (40), Gustaf Skarsgård (40), Wallace Shawn (77), Max Grodénchik (68), Neil Young (75), Leonardo DiCaprio (46), Demi Moore (58), Stanley Tucci (60), Calista Flockhart (56), Taron Egerton (31), Hugh Bonneville (57), Neil Gaiman (60), Tracy Morgan (52), Robert Duncan McNeill (56), and Lou Ferrigno (69).

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