Dead Pool 18th May 2025

I’ll forgive you if you have no idea who any of our celebs are this week, but apparently these people are famous!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Robert Benton, 92, American film director (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) and screenwriter (Bonnie and Clyde), Oscar winner.
Anne Dunham, 76, British equestrian, six-time Paralympic champion.
Sabu, 60, American professional wrestler (ECW, WWE, TNA).
Glen Edward Rogers, 62, American convicted serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
Charles Strouse, 96, American composer (Bye Bye Birdie, Applause, Annie).

In Other News

Veteran broadcaster James Whale has given a frank health update on his 74th birthday following treatment for stage four kidney cancer. The broadcaster and talk show host has been a popular voice on radio and TV for five decades and currently presents a weekly nighttime talk show on talkRADIO. He was awarded an MBE for his services to broadcasting and to charity in the 2024 New Year Honours List. Whale revealed in February 2020 that his kidney cancer had since spread to his spine, brain and lungs. In 2024 he expressed doubt as to whether he would still be alive by the end of the year. Speaking recently to the Flying Monkeys, Whale offered a candid update on his health. Asked how he was doing, he replied: “I’m feeling ok. As people know I’m not about to die, but well, you never know do you. I have had all my treatment so I’m giving you the lowdown on it. If I make it to Christmas I will be exceptionally lucky. Sometimes I think it will be easier just to have a heart attack and go.” Speaking earlier this month on 2nd May, Whale, along with his Talk co-host Ash Gould, updated listeners on his situation, indicating that he hoped to continue working for a few months more. He said: “I’m at the end of my cancer journey. There is no treatment I can have anymore. I’m hoping to go on for another few months, but as soon as I can’t do the show anymore, I won’t.” Whale added: “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to Talk to actually let me on the air and sit next to Ash, which is a real pain in the butt, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years!” Whale was first diagnosed with cancer in 2000, and had to have one of his kidneys removed. In 2018, his first wife, Melinda Maxted, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer; in August 2020, Whale revealed cancer had returned in his kidney, spine, brain and lungs. The radio DJ’s past experience with cancer led him to form the James Whale Kidney Fund in 2006, which merged with Kidney Cancer UK in 2015.

Sir Chris Hoy is appreciating life “more than ever” after being diagnosed with terminal cancer last year and says he has entered “a bit of a stability period” in his treatment. The 49-year-old, a six-time Olympic cycling gold medallist, said in February 2024 that he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. In October, he announced his diagnosis was terminal after the primary cancer spread to his bones, with doctors giving him between two and four years to live. Speaking to the Flying Monkeys, Hoy issued a positive update on his health: “I’m doing well. It feels like I’ve entered a bit of a stability stage at the moment and I’m feeling good. Most importantly, cancer’s not the first thing I think about when I go to bed at night. I think we’ve got into a rhythm now where it’s part of our life and we manage that and crack on. I feel good. I’m on constant medication, constant treatment, but it’s not interfering too much with my life, and the most important thing is it’s working, so I’m stable at the moment, everything’s good. Making hay while the sun shines.” The Scot won his six Olympic golds – and one silver medal – between 2000 and 2012, making him Britain’s second-most decorated Olympic athlete behind Sir Jason Kenny (seven golds). He also claimed 11 World Championship golds and 34 World Cup titles before retiring in 2013. “I can’t believe the position I’m in now compared to 18 months ago. I never imagined I’d be able to get to this point where I’m actually living life,” he continued. “And not just living life, but actually appreciating it more than ever. It’s not just about doing bucket-list stuff and doing massive things, it’s about appreciating the daily, mundane fun of life.”

On This Day

1695 – The Linfen earthquake in Shannxi, Qing dynasty causes extreme damage and kills at least 52,000 people!
1812 – John Bellingham is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging for the assassination of British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.
1953 – Jacqueline Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1980 – Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage.

Deaths

1980 – Ian Curtis, English singer-songwriter (b. 1956).
1995 – Elizabeth Montgomery, American actress (b. 1933).
2021 – Charles Grodin, American actor and talk show host (b. 1935).

Last Meals

Florida has executed a man known as the “Casanova Killer” for his good looks and ability to charm women just before murdering them.

Glen Edward Rogers, 62, was executed on Thursday by lethal injection for the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, one of four single mothers in their 30’s with reddish hair who fell victim to the Casanova Killer. Rogers was also known as the “Cross Country Killer” because the victims all lived in different states: California, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.

“He’s an animal,” one of his victim’s sisters said in court before Rogers was sentenced to death, according to an archived report from the Associated Press. “He’s about the evilest thing I think I’ve ever imagined.”

Rogers used his last words to shout-out President Donald Trump and address the families of his victims, according to execution witnesses.

“I know there’s a lot of questions that you need answers to. I promise you in the near future the questions will be answered and I hope in someway will bring you closure,” he said. “President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go.”

Randy Roberson, whose mother Andy Lou Jiles Sutton was a victim of the Casanova Killer, witnessed the execution and said that seeing Rogers die will help give him some closure but that his death was far too easy.

“It helps a lot, just knowing that he’s not here anymore,” Roberson said. “I wish it wouldn’t have been so easy for him. It looked like he just went to sleep, like he didn’t really get what he deserved.”

Rogers − a native of Hamilton, Ohio − was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., becoming the 16th inmate executed in the U.S. this year and the fifth in Florida. His last meal consisted of pizza, chocolate cake, and soda. Another three men are set to be executed in the U.S. next week, in Texas, Indiana and Tennessee.

Here’s what to know about Rogers’ execution, including who his victims were.

Authorities connected five victims to the Casanova Killer. Four of them were mothers with reddish hair in their 30’s. Three of the murders happened within a six-day period.

Mark Peters, a 72-year-old retired electrician in Hamilton, Ohio, with whom Rogers lived with briefly, was found dead in a shack owned by Rogers’ family in January 1994 in Beattyville, Kentucky. (Rogers is a native of Hamilton, Ohio just outside Cincinnati.)
Sandra Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, of Santa Monica, California, killed on September 28th, 1995 in Van Nuys. Her body was found in her burning vehicle. She had met Rogers in a bar the night of her murder.
Linda Price, a 34-year-old mother of two, found stabbed to death in the bathtub of her home in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 3rd, 1995. Price briefly lived with Rogers, telling her mother: “He is my dream man,” according to an archived story in the Dayton Daily News.
Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two, found stabbed to death in a Tampa, Florida hotel bathtub on November 7th, 1995. Like Gallagher, she had met Rogers at a bar on the night of her murder.
Andy Lou Jiles Sutton, a 37-year-old mother of four: three sons and a daughter who were 19, 17, 8, and 6 when she was found stabbed to death in her bed on November 9th, 1995 in of Bossier City, Louisiana. Sutton and Rogers met before her murder and are believed to have slept together.

Soon after his arrest, Rogers claimed to have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles in June 1994, and about 70 people overall. There was no evidence to back that up.

Growing up, Rogers’ childhood was deprived of love, moral guidance or family values, and he frequently witnessed his alcoholic father beat his mother, according to court records.

Rogers started using controlled substances at a young age and began committing burglaries, eventually becoming a chronic alcohol abuser, court records said.

As an adult, he held a slew of jobs, from a school bus driver in his native Hamilton, Ohio, to a carnival worker in Mississippi.

Since his arrest at the age of 33, he spent most of the past three decades on death row. He was 62 at the time of his execution.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Tina Fey (55), Miriam Margolyes (84), Chow Yun-Fat (70), Toyah Willcox (67), Paul Whitehouse (67), Pierce Brosnan (72), Megan Fox (39), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (35), David Boreanaz (56), Danny Trejo (81), Stephen Mangan (57), Cate Blanchett (56), George Lucas (81), Tim Roth (64), Greg Davies (57), Siân Phillips (92), Francesca Annis (80), Robert Pattinson (39), Samantha Morton (48), Iwan Rheon (40), Harvey Keitel (86), Zoë Wanamaker (76), Mark Heap (68), Stephen Colbert (61), Varada Sethu (33), Rami Malek (44), Malin Akerman (47), Ving Rhames (66), Emilio Estevez (63), Gabriel Byrne (75), and Jason Biggs (47).