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).

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