Dead Pool 28th November 2021

With little over a month to go, I thought I’d clean house by going through the lists for missed deaths. Well, I missed three this year, so I’ve updated the league table accordingly. Congratulations go to the following: Abi scored 66 points for the death of Abdelaziz Bouteflika back in September. Also Paul C scores with the passing of Renée-Jeanne Simonot back in July, 40 points. Julie also correctly guessed that Walter Bernstein would die, way back in January, 49 points. Shall we have a brief conversation about Peppa Pig? Brum brrrrrummm, um, no…. Maybe we should all list that useless lump of lard next year, he’s obviously got something wrong with him! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

BBC Radio 1 presenter Adele Roberts says she is “buzzing to be back” as she returned to the Weekend Breakfast show on Saturday after cancer surgery. Roberts, 42, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in early October, was back on the show a month after surgery. She said: “The good news is, they found the tumour… they’ve taken it away. My body is on the mend and I am here. It’s a huge testament to the skill and knowledge and level of care at the NHS. They’re amazing. I owe them my life. I can’t thank them enough.” Roberts, who took a month off to recuperate, spoke candidly about her diagnosis and recovery as she opened the radio show on Saturday. “I can’t believe it – it’s a month since I had my surgery and I’ve got goosebumps. A month on, it’s incredible what the body is capable of. I feel amazing. I’m lucky, I’m happy, and I’m buzzing to be back.” The former Big Brother star, from Southport, Merseyside, sought medical advice in October after struggling with her digestion “for a while”. On Saturday’s show, she urged listeners to her show not to “suffer in silence” but to seek help if they had any health concerns. “Go and see your GP, that’s what I did and I think that’s why I am here today. And I am just so grateful.” The DJ, who appeared on TV reality show I’m a Celebrity in 2019, has chronicled her convalescence on Instagram, including a selfie of her stoma post surgery, admitting the “rollercoaster” prognosis and subsequent treatment had been “overwhelming at times”. “Never underestimate the power of positivity and well-wishes, it makes a difference, I promise you,” she told listeners on Saturday.     

Richard Madeley has revealed all on the medical emergency which caused him to be taken to hospital and have to leave I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here. The Good Morning Britain presenter, 65, appeared on Friday’s show, which was pre-recorded due to Storm Arwen battering Wales, to discuss his sudden exit from camp. He told hosts Ant and Dec: ‘I feel as fit as a fiddle and I am fit as a fiddle. And you know if it wasn’t for Covid I’d be back there eating rice and beans. I had to leave… it’s a Covid situation. It’s still biting our bums isn’t it? What happened was, I had just a funny little turn quite sort of late in the morning. ITV are so good with duty of care. They were adamant. They said “No, we have to make sure that you’re OK.” I said, “But I am OK.” They said, “We have to make sure.” So I went to the local hospital – I was only in there for about an hour and a half – I was given really thorough checks and I was given a completely clean bill of health, I’m absolutely fine. No matter what you might have read, I’m absolutely fine.’ Due to being in hospital, Richard broke the Covid ‘bubble’ the celebrities had been in and was not allowed to return despite telling his followers he was ‘fine’ after the incident. Making the most of being allowed out of camp, Richard admitted: ‘I did hang on after I was discharged for about 20 minutes because I went to the canteen, seriously, and had a bacon butty. That was my first port of call for a bacon butty. And a huge cup of tea, it was amazing. I ate hospital food, exactly.’ He added: ‘I’m absolutely fine. As I say, if it wasn’t for Covid, I’d still be in the game. I’m gutted. I’m gutted, I really am.’ Earlier in the show, the moment the campmates were told he was not coming back was revealed, leaving them in tears as he sent them a video message to let them know. Richard also revealed that sleeping was the hardest thing about I’m A Celebrity, explaining: ‘It was genuinely cold. ‘Night time, sleeping, because we had very thin mattresses, much thinner than in the top camp and not very warm sleeping bags. Really cheap, frankly, sleeping bags. And covered in straw, on the floor, very thin, it was freezing in there. We were always cold. We had to get all of our clothes out of our bag and put them over us to keep us warm at night.’   

US X-Factor contestant Thomas Wells has died following a workplace accident, the evil monkeys report. He was 46. Wells, a singer who competed on the US version of X Factor in 2011 and has also appeared on shows like The Voice, America’s Got Talent, and the short-lived competition series The Winner Is, was working at his job at a tire manufacturing plant when he suffered an accident with the conveyor belt earlier this month. He reportedly was caught inside the machine, which was unable to be stopped in time to avoid injury. The nature of his injuries have not been revealed. Wells was moved from a hospital in Oklahoma to a bigger hospital in Texas, however, he passed away in the Texas facility on Nov. 13th. Wells, who was married to his wife Jessica for 17 years, told us that her husband “always had a smile on his face and tried to make people laugh,” and that he “sometimes bust out singing and didn’t mind the spotlight.” The performer has more than two dozen videos on his YouTube channel, which features him singing as well as playing instruments. In addition to performing covers from artists like Rascal Flatts, Wells posted original songs, such as his piano ballad “Somebody’s Child.”

On This Day

  • 1814 – The Times of London becomes the first newspaper to be produced on a steam-powered printing press, built by the German team of Koenig & Bauer.
  • 1919 – Lady Astor is elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to sit in the House of Commons.
  • 1942 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 492 people.
  • 1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison.
  • 1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and, therefore, as Prime Minister. She is succeeded in both positions by John Major.

Deaths

French Argue Death Penalty Anew as Two Are Guillotined

An article from the New York Times Archives 

PARIS, Nov. 28—Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems were guillotined in the cold, dark blanket of early morning Paris today, the first men executed in France in more than three and a half years. Their deaths at Santé Prison have stirred new debate over capital punishment. “A principle cannot be divided,” wrote Pierre Vians son‐Ponté, editor of Le Monde. “One cannot be against the death penalty, except for certain circumstances, except for certain particularly heinous crimes. “Either one holds blindly to the law of men or one considers that things are not so simple, and that no one has the power or the right to deliberately break the thread of a life.”

Deaths 7 Minutes Apart

The first of the two men beheaded was Roger Bontems, the 36‐year old son of peasants from the Vosges Region of eastern France, a man who had actually never taken an other life.

“His execution is incomprehensible,” said his defense lawyer, Philippe Lemaire, “since the President of the Republic has pardoned even those who have committed double murders.” Seven minutes after Bonterns died, Claude Buffet, a 38‐year‐old former French Legionnaire, was put between the posts of the “machine,” as the device of the 18th century Dr. Guillotin is known. The men, who were condemned in the slaying of two hostages in a prison riot, died with dignity, their defense lawyers said. Buffet, who had been reading Simone Weill and Albert Camus in the death house, said he hoped he would be the last man executed in France.

At 5:45, with dawn still two hours away and a half moon shining over frosty streets, a hearse drove from the prison to the cemetery in the eastern suburb of Thiais. A policeman posted on the prison wall the official bulletin announcing the executions. 

Killings During Revolt

During a revolt at Clairvaux Prison in eastern France last year Buffet cut the throats of two hostages —Nicole Compte, a 35‐year‐ old nurse, and Guy Girardot, a 27‐year‐old guard. Bontems was a fellow prisoner and friend of Buffet. He did not kill. But neither did he move to prevent the killings. “The Buffet problem—there is no problem here, but there is with Bontems,” his defense lawyer, Robert Badinter, said at the trial last June. “The prosecution,” he went on to say, “demands his head. It is the barbarous cry of retribution: ‘An eye for an eye.’ President Pompidou could have pardoned one or both. He has not allowed anyone to be executed in France since he came to office in June, 1969, and has meditated publicly over the “anguish” he feels about his power of life or death over the condemned.

The President did commute the death sentence of a third man, an Algerian named Mohamed Libdirl, who was convicted of murdering a cab driver in the south of France. Mr. Pompidou gave no reasons for his action. But the sympathy for the families of the murdered hostages, strong pleas for the death penalty for both Bontems and Buffet by prison workers and polls that show well over half of the people in favour of capital punishment probably weighed in the decision. “The executions will not give me back my husband,” said Dominique Girardot, the widow of the prison guard. “However—and I say it with out hatred—it is normal that justice he done.”

Buffet Had Life Term

Buffet, who was originally convicted of the murder of the wife of a Paris gynaecologist, was given a life sentence by a Paris court in October, 1970, but cried out that he wanted the death penalty “for reasons that only my conscience knows.” Less than a year later he was at the prison hospital at Clairvaux with Bontems, who had drawn a 20‐year‐sentence for severely injuring a taxi driver in a holdup, had escaped once and was back in prison.

The last man to be executed was a child murderer named Jean Olivier on March 11, 1969. No woman has been guillotined since April 21, 1949. Until 1939 executions were public. There were 11 executions between 1956 and 1961, six between 1962 and 1967 and one between 1968 and 1972. The chief executioner is a 73‐year‐old former mechanic, André Obrecht, who lives in Paris and earns $5,200 a year. When Mr. Obrecht is asked whether he knows the name of his successor, he usually shakes his head and replies, “No, I don’t. But believe me, there will be one.”

Last Week’s Birthdays

Karen Gillan (34), Aimee Garcia (43), Ed Harris (71), Judd Nelson (62), Ellie Taylor (38), Martin Clunes (60), Jon Stewart (59), Armando Iannucci (58), Lashana Lynch (43), Fisher Stevens (58), Sharlto Copley (48), Robin Givens (58), Steve Bannon (68), Bill Nye (66), Kristin Bauer van Straten (55), Rita Ora (31), Mark Margolis (82), Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (33), Tina Turner (82), Christina Applegate (50), John Larroquette (74), Sarah Hyland (31), Stephen Merchant (47), Colin Hanks (44), Billy Connolly (79), Denise Crosby (64), Conleth Hill (57), Kayvan Novak (43), Michelle Gomez (55), Miley Cyrus (29), Ricky Whittle (40), Kelly Brook (42), Scarlett Johansson (37), Mads Mikkelsen (56), Jamie Lee Curtis (63), and Terry Gilliam (81).

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