About a week to go, I hope you’re all working on your new lists! You might what to put David Walliams on there, who knows how he’ll react to his crumbling career following the revelations about his sordid past.
If you are struggling to find names for 2026, I do have a Waiting Room of around 1500 names available, if the current poolers agree, I’ll make this available in the Members Area.
Look Who You Could Have Had:
- Anthony Geary, 78, American actor (General Hospital, UHF, Teacher’s Pet), complications from surgery.
- Rob Reiner, 78, American actor (All in the Family) and film director (This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally…), stabbed.
- Michele Singer Reiner, 68, American photographer and film producer (Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, Shock and Awe), stabbed.
- Antony Price, 80, English fashion designer.
- Gil Gerard, 82, American actor (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Airport ’77, ), cancer.
- Rachael Carpani, 45, Australian actress (McLeod’s Daughters, Home and Away).
- Ruth Bourne, 99, British codebreaker and World War II veteran.
- William Rush, 31, British actor (Waterloo Road, Grange Hill, Coronation Street).
- Frank A. Walls, 58, American convicted serial killer, execution by lethal injection.
- Mick Abrahams, 82, English guitarist and singer (Jethro Tull, Blodwyn Pig).
- Lorraine Cheshire, 65, English actress (Trollied, Ackley Bridge, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus).
In Other News
Sir Cliff Richard has revealed that he has been secretly treated for prostate cancer for the past year. The British star, 85, said he was diagnosed after a health check for his insurance ahead of a concert tour of Australia and New Zealand. The singer was speaking to veteran broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan, 67, who has himself has been diagnosed with stage four advanced prostate cancer. Sir Cliff said his cancer had ‘gone at the moment’ and backed calls for a national screening test for men, calling it ‘absolutely ridiculous’ there is not one already. Sir Cliff said: ‘I don’t know whether it’s going to come back. We can’t tell those sort of things but we need to, absolutely, I’m convinced, get there, get tested, get checked. The good fortune was that it was not very old, and the other thing is that it has not metastasised. Nothing had moved into bones or anything like that.’ The singer, known for decades of hits including The Young Ones, We Don’t Talk Anymore and Summer Holiday, described the lack of a national screening programme as ‘absolutely ridiculous’. ‘We have governments to look after our country and those who live in that country, so I can’t see how you can say, “Oh we can do this, we can do that, but we don’t do this for these people”,’ Sir Cliff said. ‘We all deserve to have the same ability to have a test and then start treatments really early. It seems to me – I’ve only been for one year now in touch with cancer, but every time I’ve talked with anybody this has come up and so I think our Government must listen to us.’ Dermot Murnaghan, who is himself in the midst of a cancer battle, said: ‘Prostate cancer, we should put out there, is the most prevalent cancer amongst men and the biggest cancer killer of men. There is no national screening programme’.
Michael Bolton’s daughters are opening up about their caregiving journey for their dad, two years after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. The Grammy winner’s daughters Isa and Taryn — who along with their sister Holly have been caring for the 72-year-old singer — spoke to the Flying Monkeys about his condition. “We’re proud and happy to update anyone who has been interested in following our Dad’s journey that he is in very good spirits and very good health,” Isa told the outlet. “He has a lot of challenges, and we do have great days and some tough days, but in general, he’s very strong. His mobility and cognition have been terrific.” Taryn added that the vibe in the Bolton’s Connecticut home has been good, as the “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” singer is “generally in a really good mood and just excited for the day.” Bolton was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in December 2023. He underwent emergency surgery that same month, and his doctors were able to remove a brain tumour. The musician finished radiation and chemotherapy in October 2024, and currently undergoes MRIs every two months to ensure his tumour has not returned, as glioblastoma has a recurrence rate of about 90 percent. Despite the challenges, the sisters said they’re relishing the fact that Bolton has pumped the brakes on his busy work schedule and is spending more time at home with them and his six grandchildren. “We probably had more meals with him in two years than we have our entire 50 years,” Isa said. “He’s with one of his children, or multiple children and grandchildren for all of his meals.” In a statement shared via email, Bolton praised his daughters, writing, “This past year has tested me in ways I never imagined… My daughters have been constant in a way that grounds me. Whenever you find yourself in any kind of challenging position, just to know that you’re not alone going through it is a big deal,” said Bolton, who has purposely not been given a prognosis and is choosing to remain hopeful. “It actually helps people to know. It reminds them that they’re not alone. I want to keep going. I feel there’s still a lot to do on the fight side,” he said.
On This Day
- 1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpetre miners in Iquique, Chile.
- 1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.
- 1913 – Arthur Wynne’s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
- 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premieres.
- 1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human-to-human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
- 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270. This is to date the deadliest air disaster to occur on British soil.
Deaths
Last Meals
Frank Athen Walls was an American serial killer and rapist who committed five murders between 1985 and 1987 in Okaloosa County, Florida. He was initially convicted of two murders and sentenced to death on one count and to a 25-year-to-life term for the other. Years later, he was linked to a third murder via DNA and eventually confessed to the remaining two murders. He later pleaded guilty to avoid further prosecution.
Walls was born on October 12, 1967, in Ocean City, Florida. He is known to have started committing crimes at an early age, ranging from burglaries to peeping on young women and even abusing animals. At the time his crime spree began, he worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant called “Quincy’s” and was roommates with a man named Thomas “Animal” Farnham. Farnham would later claim that he was wary of Walls, due to the fact that he often talked about morose topics such as raping and killing people.
Despite his criminal record and concerning behaviour, he managed to date the stepdaughter of a man named Mark Riebe – years later, he would gain notoriety in his own way for being a self-confessed serial killer.
Walls committed his first murder in 1985, at the age of 17. He was on Okaloosa Island doing community service when he noticed 19-year-old junior college student Tommie Lou Whiddon sunbathing there. Brandishing a knife, he went up to her and slashed her throat, leaving her to bleed out. Walls then stole her car, which was found on the following day parked behind a random building. That same evening, Whiddon’s body was found by a random person walking on the beach.
In 1986, he killed a second woman in Wright, 24-year-old Cynthia Sue Condra, by stabbing her 21 times and then leaving her body on the side of a road.
In 1987, Walls broke into a mobile home near Fort Walton Beach, occupied by 47-year-old Audrey Gygi, an employee at a local Kel-Tec. While it is unclear what exactly transpired, it is believed that Walls raped her and then left, but later changed his mind, deciding to come back and kill her. After encountering Gygi a second time, he stabbed her to death, stole a fan and a radio, and left the crime scene. Her nude body was found early in the morning after a co-worker reported her missing after she failed to show up at her workplace.
In the early morning hours of July 22nd, Walls committed his most well-known and infamous murders. He broke into a mobile home in Ocean City’s Greenwood Mobile Home Park, at the time inhabited by 22-year-old Eglin Air Force Base airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, 20-year-old Anne Louise Peterson, and intentionally knocked over a fan to wake up the occupants.
When Alger and Peterson arrived to check what the noise was, Walls forced Peterson to tie up her boyfriend’s hands and ankles, before he did the same to her. At some point, however, Alger loosened up his bindings and attacked Walls, but was knocked to the ground and had his throat cut. Still alive, Alger bit Walls on the hand, causing him to drop the knife. Undeterred by this, Walls then pulled out a gun and shot Alger three times in the head, killing him.
Walls then returned to Peterson, removed her gag and started assaulting her. At one point, he grabbed his gun and shot her in the head – the shot proved to be non-fatal, at which point Walls put a pillow over her face and shot again, killing her. He then stole $200, a worn leather wallet and an oscillating fan, and then left. The couple’s bodies were found on July 23rd, after one of Alger’s superiors noticed that he had not arrived at work.
The day after Alger and Peterson’s bodies were discovered, Walls was arrested after his roommate provided information to law enforcement officials. As a result, Walls was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary, grand theft and possession of stolen property. An inspection of his trailer home led to the discovery of stolen items from the crime scene, and Walls himself later admitted responsibility for the murders.
While he was awaiting trial for the double murder, Okaloosa County Police Department created a special unit to re-examine recent unsolved murders in an attempt to link them to Walls, as they suspected that he had had previous victims. One case authorities paid special attention to was the Gygi murder, as a search of Walls’ trailer led to the recovery of a fan similar to the one stolen from her mobile home and also had a single fingerprint, later identified to be hers.
On August 11th 1987, Walls was officially indicted on multiple charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. A year later, a 12-member jury was selected for Walls’ trial, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty against him. After only six days, Walls was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and was officially sentenced to death for the murder of Ann Peterson, and to life imprisonment with a chance of parole after 25 years for the murder of Edward Alger.
On November 18th 2025, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Walls, scheduling him to be executed on December 18th 2025. Walls’ crimes left a lasting impact on Okaloosa County, with many residents claiming that he permanently scarred the community.
Walls was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, and was declared dead at 6:11 p.m. His last meal was chicken, steak, baked potato, vegetables, cheesecake, and juice.
Last Week’s Birthdays
Samuel L. Jackson (77), Jane Fonda (88), Kiefer Sutherland (59), Steven Yeun (42), Jonah Hill (42), Jenny Agutter (73), Nicole de Boer (55), Lucy Pinder (42), Jake Gyllenhaal (45), Alyssa Milano (53), Kristy Swanson (56), Jennifer Beals (62), Richard Hammond (56), Brad Pitt (62), Steven Spielberg (79), Casper Van Dien (57), Katie Holmes (47), Emily Atack (36), Steve Austin (61), Christina Aguilera (45), Nina Wadia (57), Billie Eilish (24), Keith Richards (82), Bill Pullman (72), Katheryn Winnick (48), Milla Jovovich (50), Eugene Levy (79), Giovanni Ribisi (51), Ernie Hudson (80), Laurie Holden (56), Krysten Ritter (44), Miranda Otto (58), Billy Gibbons (76), Michelle Dockery (44), Don Johnson (76), Charlie Cox (43), Paul Kaye (60), Helen Slater (62), and Garrett Wang (57).
Let’s dole out the points!! With just three days to go this year, I can award Martin 76 points for correctly guessing that Chris Rea would not be driving home for Christmas this year. I can also dish out 59 points to Shân for predicting that Bridget Bardot would uncreate in 2025. Well done both of you! 
Copacabana singer Barry Manilow has revealed he has lung cancer and is set to undergo surgery. The 82-year-old shared his diagnosis in a statement on Instagram, as he said it was “found early”. “As many of you know I recently went through six weeks of bronchitis followed by a relapse of another five weeks,” he wrote on Instagram. “Even though I was over the bronchitis and back on stage at the Westgate Las Vegas, my wonderful doctor ordered an MRI just to make sure that everything was OK. The MRI discovered a cancerous spot on my left lung that needs to be removed. It’s pure luck (and a great doctor) that is was found so early. That’s the good news.” However, the singer added he will have surgery to have the spot removed. He said: “The doctors do not believe it has spread and I’m taking tests to confirm their diagnosis. So, that’s it. No chemo. No radiation. Just chicken soup and I Love Lucy reruns.” Revealing his rescheduled tour dates, he said: “The only follow-up is a month to recover and that means we have to reschedule the January arena concerts. The new schedule is listed below. I’m very sorry that you have to change your plans. Just like you, we were all looking forward to the January shows and hate having to move everything around.” He said he is “counting the days” until his return in Las Vegas for Valentine’s weekend concerts. He added: “Something tells me that February weekend is going to be one big party!” He finished his five-page statement by saying: “I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. And remember, if you have even the slightest symptom… get tested! I’ll see you at the Westgate Las Vegas for Valentine’s!” 
And here it is, what you have been competing for this year, the coveted Angel of Death Trophy 2025! A thing of such dreadful beauty that also includes some lovely bubble wrap and a free year of Flying Monkey protection* from the Grim Reaper himself. *terms & conditions apply, no guarantee you’ll not die next year. A guaranteed talking piece for your mantelpiece or a curio for your cupboard, you can decide to keep it or smash this objet d’art which is guaranteed to be priceless in years to come! On a serious not though, the costs of running the Pool and website have gone up by a nearly 45% this year, and since we rely on donations, it could mean that 2026 might be the last year we run things as they are, unless we can find efficiencies or some other cash injection. I have looked at ad revenue for the site, but because most of it is not original *cough plagiarised* and the content is slightly dubious, none of the usual ad offering companies would allow me to register. Besides, we don’t have the footfall to generate enough anyhow. Perhaps self hosting on personal servers is the way to go, but the Dead Pool Master has not mastered the skills required to make this happen. If any of you have any ideas or skillz, please let me know.
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