Dead Pool 23rd February 2025

Slim picking last week, each of these celebrities could easily walk past me in the street and I’d be none the wiser. However, they have a claim to fame, so here we are.  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Julian Holloway, 80, British actor (Carry On, James Bond Jr., Regular Show), lung infection. 
• Rick Buckler, 69, English rock drummer (The Jam, Time UK, From the Jam). 
• Jamie Muir, 82, Scottish musician (King Crimson) and painter. 
• Peter Jason, 80, American actor (They Live, 48 Hrs., Deadwood). 
• Lynne Marie Stewart, 78, American actress (Pee-wee’s Playhouse, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, American Graffiti).

In Other News

Pope Francis has asked Catholics to pray for him, as he continues to receive treatment in hospital for double pneumonia. The pontiff was unable to deliver the traditional Angelus prayer in person for the second Sunday running. But in a message written over the last few days, he said he was “confidently continuing” his hospitalisation at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital and “carrying on with the necessary treatment”. The message comes after the Vatican revealed on Saturday that the 88-year-old’s condition continues to be “critical”. In his message, released on Sunday, the Pope thanked the doctors and health workers at the hospital, and well-wishers who sent in messages. “In recent days I have received many messages of affection, and I have been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children,” he wrote. “Thank you for this closeness, and for the prayers of comfort I have received from all over the world! I entrust you all to the intercession of Mary, and I ask you to pray for me.” The 88-year-old was first admitted to hospital on 14th February after experiencing difficulties breathing for several days. He is especially prone to lung infections due to developing pleurisy – an inflammation around the lungs – as an adult and having part of one of his lungs removed at age 21. During his 12 years as leader of the Roman Catholic church, the Argentine has been admitted to hospital several times, including in March 2023 when he spent three nights in hospital with bronchitis. The Pope has asked for openness about his health, so the Vatican has started to release daily statements. The tone and length of the announcements has varied, sometimes leaving Pope-watchers to attempt to read between the lines. On Saturday, the Vatican said the Roman Catholic leader was alert and spent the day in an armchair, but that he was “not out of danger” and that he was “more unwell” than he was on Friday. They added the pontiff needed blood transfusions due to a low platelet count – associated with anaemia – and he required a “high flow” of oxygen. Doctors treating the Pope confirmed this week that he was responding to medication but his condition was complex and the slightest change of circumstance would upset what was called a “delicate balance”. “He is the Pope,” as one of them put it. “But he is also a man.”  

A teenage powerlifting champion in India has died after a rod weighing 600lb fell on her neck during a training session. Yashtika Acharya, 17, was practicing with her coach at a gym in the Bikaner district in western India today when the fatal accident occurred. The teen was rushed to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.  Horrifying footage captured the tragic moment, showing Acharya attempting to lift the heavy weight before falling backwards.  As she drops onto the floor, the heavy bar lands on her neck and she collapses.  The girl is then seen lying on the ground motionless as onlookers rush to assist her.  Her coach, who tried to hold onto the bar as she fell, reportedly sustained minor injuries.  Despite her young age, Acharya had achieved several wins in her short weightlifting career. According to Indian news outlet NDTV, she had received a gold medal at the Junior National Games in India. Acharya’s tragic accident is the latest in a series of deaths within the powerlifting community.  In 2023, a fitness influencer was killed in Bali by a barbell while trying to squat-press 460lbs in a horror accident.  Justyn Vicky, 33, was strength training at The Paradise Bali gym in Sanur and died shortly after the freak accident. After the accident, Justyn was rushed to a local hospital with a broken neck and critical compression of vital nerves connecting to his heart and lungs. He died shortly after an emergency operation, despite the surgeons’ best efforts to save his life. Justyn, from East Java, Indonesia, was trying to extend his legs as the heavy bar weighed down upon his shoulders – but struggled to stand upright. The lone spotter behind him was completely helpless as Justyn fell to the floor and the stacked barbell came crashing down onto the back of his neck.  

A tourist has been killed after leaning out of a train to take a selfie on a famous railway line and hitting a rock. Grandmother Olga Perminova, 53, was travelling on Sri Lanka’s iconic Podi Menike line when the horror accident occurred. She suffered horrific injuries after smashing her head and falling off the train, reports claim. Photos taken moments before the tragic accident show Olga posing in a pink dress. There have been dozens upon dozens of stories about tourists dying in horrific circumstances in a similar pursuit of the perfect picture. Last August, a couple plunged 80ft to their death while posing for a photo near a waterfall in Bali, Indonesia. Weeks before that, a woman was hit by the new Canadian Pacific 2816 Empress steam locomotive while posing too close to the tracks as it passed through Hidalgo in Mexico. And here in the UK, two university students were found dead at the foot of a waterfall in Scotland in April last year after reportedly attempting to take a selfie at the top. The Podi Menike is a Sri Lankan passenger train journey running from Colombo Fort to Badulla. Spanning nearly 190 miles, it takes around 10 hours to complete. It is famed for its spectacular scenery as it passes lush tea plantations, dense forests, mountainous terrains, and picturesque landscapes. The stretch from Nanuoya to Ella is a favourite among tourists. Local reports, citing the police, said Olga died ‘after falling off the train when attempting to take a selfie while hanging from the train footboard between the Badulla and Hali Ela railway stations’. ‘The woman knocked against a rock, fell off the train and sustained severe injuries,’ they added. The train was heading for Ella, home to the famous Nine Arches Bridge on a line that has been called one of the world’s greatest rail experiences.  Olga was given emergency treatment but died from her head injuries.

On This Day

• 1943 – The Cavan Orphanage fire kills thirty-five girls and an elderly cook.
• 1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.
• 1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.

Deaths

• 1848 – John Quincy Adams, U.S. politician, 6th President of the United States (b. 1767).
• 1931 – Nellie Melba, Australian soprano and actress (b. 1861).
• 1965 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (b. 1890).
• 1976 – L. S. Lowry, English painter (b. 1887).
• 1995 – James Herriot, English veterinarian and author (b. 1916).
• 2000 – Stanley Matthews, English footballer and manager (b. 1915).
• 2023 – John Motson, English football commentator (b. 1945).

Last Meals

A death row inmate who claimed to be innocent was asked how it felt to know he’d die a day before his execution.

Oscar Ray Bolin received three death sentences in 1991 for abducting and murdering three women across 1986 in Florida.

He would go on to maintain his innocence all the way up until his death on January 7th 2016, via lethal injection, even giving an interview to the media on the day before his execution took place. 

On January 25th 1986, Bolin attacked and killed his first victim, a 25-year-old restaurant manager named Natalie Blanche Holley, after she had finished a night shift and stabbed her to death.

Holley’s body was discovered the morning by jogger running through a local woodland.

His second victim was 17-year-old student Stephanie Collins, who vanished in November after finishing a late shift at her job. Collins would remain missing for another month before it was found by authorities. She had also been stabbed to death and suffered blunt force head injuries.

On the same day that Collins’ body was recovered, police were also alerted to the disappearance of 26-year-old Teri Lynn Matthews, who had vanished from her car outside a post office. Her body was found beaten and stabbed later that day, also wrapped in a white sheet.

Despite obvious connections between the three killings, it would take four years before authorities were able to link Bolin to the deaths of the three woman – thanks to an anonymous tip off from his ex-wife.  

By the time Bolin’s ex-wife made the call, he was already in police custody, serving a separate sentence for the 1987 kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a woman in Ohio.

The tip would lead Bolin’s younger half-brother Philip to speak out against him, revealing that he’d witnessed his sibling attacking a woman wrapped in a sheet back in 1986. This was later confirmed to be Matthews. Bolin’s cousin would also testify that he’d assisted the killer with abducting a woman in Texas in 1987.

He added that Bolin had ultimately raped and strangled the woman, however, authorities in Texas declined to pursue the case due to his other charges.

Bolin would spend the 28 years between his initial imprisonment and death maintaining that he was innocent and had been framed.

In a final interview with Fox the day before his execution, Bolin stated that he was at ‘peace’ with death as it meant being ‘released’ from prison. 

“I feel a little numb,” he said with a laugh, when reporters when asked how he was doing.

“We all die, but knowing your exact date and time, that’s hard to deal with. But I’m at peace with myself… my punishment’s over.” 

His last meal consisted of a rib-eye steak, a baked potato, salad, garlic bread, lemon meringue pie, and Coca-Cola. 

Bolin was executed by lethal injection at 10:16 p.m. EST on January 7th 2016. He was the first person to be executed in the United States in 2016. 

Last Week’s Birthdays

Emily Blunt (42), Dakota Fanning (34), Kelly Macdonald (49), Josh Gad (44), Aziz Ansari (42), Kyle MacLachlan (66), Drew Barrymore (50), Jeri Ryan (57), Thomas Jane (56), James Hong (96), Julie Walters (75), Sheila Hancock (92), Nigel Planer (72), Elliot Page (38), Jennifer Love Hewitt (46), Sophie Turner (29), Kelsey Grammer (70), Tyne Daly (79), Anthony Daniels (79), Miles Teller (38), Brenda Blethyn (79), Anthony Head (71), Benedict Wong (55), Rihanna (37), Cindy Crawford (59), Millie Bobby Brown (21), Benicio Del Toro (58), Sam Reid (38), Ray Winstone (68), Seal (62), Leslie Ash (65), John Travolta (71), Molly Ringwald (57), Greta Scacchi (65), Matt Dillon (61), Cybill Shepherd (75), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (44), Bonnie Wright (34), Rory Kinnear (49), Brenda Fricker (80), Paris Hilton (44), Patricia Routledge (96), and Ed Sheeran (34).