Dead Pool 30th June 2024

A quiet week for us, you’d be hard pressed to know any of the potentials below. With us now being halfway through the year, embarrassingly I am still leading the league table. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Tamayo Perry, 49, American surfer and actor (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Blue Crush), shark attack. 
• Shifty Shellshock, 49, American singer (Crazy Town) and songwriter (“Butterfly“, “Starry Eyed Surprise“), drug overdose. 
• Bill Cobbs, 90, American actor (The Bodyguard, The Hudsucker Proxy, Air Bud). 
• Martin Mull, 80, American actor (Clue, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Roseanne), comedian, and musician.  
• Frank Duckworth, 84, English statistician (Duckworth–Lewis–Stern method).

In Other News

Princess Anne has been discharged from hospital five days after being admitted with minor head injuries and concussion believed to have been caused by a horse. The Princess Royal, 73, left Southmead hospital in Bristol early on Friday morning. There is no indication yet when she will have recovered enough to resume public engagements. She will remain at her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire for a further period of rest and recuperation, it is understood, and will return to public duties only once her medical team recommend it is safe and comfortable to do so. Her husband, V Adm Sir Timothy Laurence, said in a statement: “I would like to extend my warmest thanks to the team at Southmead hospital for their care, expertise and kindness during my wife’s short stay.” Few details about the incident are known, and it is understood the princess was unable to remember precise details due to the concussion. There were said to be horses in the vicinity of where it occurred, within the protected perimeter of her estate, and her medical team have said her injuries are consistent with a potential impact from a horse’s head or legs. Emergency services and an air ambulance attended and Anne was treated at the scene. She was transferred to Southmead hospital by road for tests, treatment and observation. Buckingham Palace said on Monday that she was “expected to make a full and swift recovery”. Recovery from concussion varies depending on the individual and the nature of the incident. Sources indicated Anne will return to public duties when doctors recommend she may do so but at this stage it is not possible to know when that will be. She will receive rehabilitation support at home as she follows standard concussion protocols, it is understood. She had been due to visit Canada at the end of this week, and was unable to attend the Buckingham Palace banquet on Tuesday held for the Japan state visit. Laurence, and Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall, visited her in hospital separately on Tuesday, with Laurence returning on Wednesday. He said at the time the princess was “doing fine, slow but sure” and that he had taken her a “few little treats from home”. King Charles did not visit his sister in person but was being kept closely informed of her progress and sent his “fondest love and well wishes” to the princess for a speedy recovery. 

The Notebook star Gena Rowlands has been living with Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, her son, director and actor Nick Cassavetes, has said. Rowlands, 94, starred as the older version of Rachel McAdams’s lead character, Allie, in the 2004 romantic drama – based on the bestselling Nicholas Sparks novel. Allie ends up passing away at the end of the movie after developing Alzheimer’s. “I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes told the Flying Monkeys. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us,” The Notebook director said. Speaking in a 2004 interview, Rowlands discussed how her mother’s struggle with the same disease impacted her decision to take the role. “This last one – The Notebook was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” she said at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it – it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.” Rowlands, who is retired from acting, had an illustrious career in film, TV and theatre. She earned two Oscar nominations for her breakout role in the 1974 drama Woman Under the Influence and 1980’s Gloria. She was married to filmmaker and actor John Cassavetes from 1954 up until his death in 1989. Besides Nick, they share two other children: director and Broken English actor Zoe Cassavetes and director and actor Alexandra “Xan” Cassavetes.   

Former England and Gloucestershire fast bowler David ‘Syd’ Lawrence has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). The 60-year-old played five Test matches for England and took 625 wickets in 280 matches during a 16-year career at Gloucestershire that ended in 1997. A hugely popular figure among the Gloucestershire and wider England fanbase, Syd was unveiled as Club President in April 2022 and despite his MND diagnosis, has said he wishes to see out the entirety of his Presidency at Gloucestershire. David and his wife, Gaynor, are hugely appreciative for the unwavering support they have received and will do in the future from friends and family. While devastated at the diagnosis, David will fight the disease all the way and has expressed his thanks to the Club, the PCA and the Hornsby Trust, for all their support during this extremely difficult time.  Will Brown, outgoing Chief Executive at Gloucestershire Cricket, said: “Everyone at the Club is devastated to hear of the news from David Lawrence and his MND diagnosis. David is an icon of the game, a club legend and a trailblazer as the first British-born Black player to play for England. More than that he is the best of people, kind, loving, considerate and an inspiration to all of us here at Gloucestershire. Working with him since he has been Club President has been both an awesome and humbling experience – he has opened doors we didn’t even know were there, helped us learn and become a friend to so many of us. That friendship is a very special thing and one I know we all cherish. I know I speak for everyone associated with the Club in sending all our love to David, Gaynor and all of their family and friends.” At the request of David, Gaynor and their family, Gloucestershire would like to ask that David’s privacy is respected while he comes to terms with the diagnosis. 

On This Day

• 1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
• 1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulting in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia.
• 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.
• 1937 – The world’s first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.
• 1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
• 2007 – A Jeep Cherokee filled with propane canisters drives into the entrance of Glasgow Airport, Scotland in a failed terrorist attack. Alex McIlveen, a taxi driver, saw what was unfolding and after approaching one of the men, famously kicked the terrorist so hard in the  groin that he tore a tendon in his own foot. 
• 2009 – Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into the Indian Ocean near Comoros, killing 152 of the 153 people on board. A 14-year-old girl named Bahia Bakari survives the crash.

Deaths

• 888 – Æthelred, archbishop of Canterbury.
• 2003 – Buddy Hackett, American actor and comedian (b. 1924).
• 2017 – Barry Norman, English television presenter (b. 1933).

Welcome to Death Row

Wade Wilson, the Fort Myers man convicted of killing two Cape Coral women, is one step closer to being sentenced to death for his crimes. 

Wilson was convicted on June 12, 2024, in Lee County on six charges, including the murders of Kristine Melton and Diane Ruiz: The jury in Wilson’s trial voted in favour of recommending the death penalty for each of the murders. 

Back in October 2019, Wilson, then 25 years old, met Kristine Melton, 35, and her friend Stephanie Sailors at Buddah LIVE, a Fort Myers bar. After the bar closed, Wilson and the two women went to the home of Jayson Shepard where they stayed for several hours before leaving in the morning. 

Wilson, Melton and Sailors then went Melton’s Cape Coral home. After Sailors left, Wilson strangled Melton to death as she slept in her bed and stole her car. 

A short time later, Wilson saw 43-year-old Diane Ruiz walking along a Cape Coral street, asked her for directions and lured her into the car. When Ruiz tried to exit the car, Wilson attacked her, beating and strangling her before pushing her out of the car and running her over repeatedly.

After the murders, Wilson called his biological father Steven Testasecca several times confessing to and narrating the crimes. Testasecca contacted police and Wilson was arrested.  

Jurors, who had the option of recommending life without parole or death, voted 9-3 and 10-2 for death. Trial judge Nicholas Thompson will decide whether the death sentence recommended by the jury is imposed.

Once sentenced and other unrelated charges are resolved, Wilson will be transferred from the Lee County Jail into the Florida prison system.

Death row inmates are housed at Union Correctional Institution, formerly Florida State Prison, in Raiford. Executions are also carried out at that facility.

If Wilson is sentenced to death, he’ll be housed in a cell measuring 6x9x9.5 feet on Florida’s death row at Union Correctional Institution. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, inmates on death row are allowed snacks, radios and 13” TVs, but do not have cable or air-conditioning.  They wear orange T-shirts to set them apart from other inmates and the same blue pants worn by regular prisoners.

Death row inmates are served three meals a day – at 5a.m., from 10:30 to 11a.m. and from 4 to 4:30p.m.. Food is prepared by prison staff and transported in insulated carts to the cells, where inmates are given sporks to eat from the provided trays. They’re allowed showers every other day and any visitors must be pre-approved. Inmates can receive mail, except on holidays and weekends. 

Death Row inmates are counted at least hourly. They wear handcuffs everywhere except in their cells, the exercise yard and shower. They are in their cells except for medical reasons, exercise, social or legal visits or media interviews. Once a death warrant is signed by the governor, the inmate is put on Death Watch status and allowed a legal and social phone call. 

In 1923, the Florida Legislature passed a law replacing hanging with the electric chair. An oak chair was built by prison inmates in that year.

Florida’s current three-legged electric chair, nicknamed “Old Sparky,” was built of oak by Florida Department of Corrections staff and installed at Florida State Prison in Raiford in 1999.

Legislation passed in 2000 allows for lethal injection as an alternative to the electric chair.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Vincent D’Onofrio (65), Mike Tyson (58), Katherine Ryan (41), Gary Busey (80), Amanda Donohoe (62), Kathy Bates (76), John Cusack (58), Mel Brooks (98), Felicia Day (45), Alice Krige (70), Elon Musk (53), Emma D’Arcy (32), Tobey Maguire (49), Aubrey Plaza (40), Ariana Grande (31), Nick Offerman (54), Ricky Gervais (63), Sheridan Smith (43), Erin Moriarty (30), Iain Glen (63), Peter Weller (77), and Nancy Allen (74).