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Dead Pool 7th November 2021

Welcome all, another week flies by and another bunch of celebrities of various renown depart unto the great unknown. With the passing of Lionel Blair, we also have points do distribute! Well done to Paul G and Chrissy who correctly guessed he’d pop his clogs this year, 58 points each! Also it was very sad to see Welsh writer and actor Mei Jones passing away, quite possibly one of the most funny Welshmen to have graced out TV screens. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

There have been more than 30 serious security breaches at NHS hospital mortuaries in the past five years, The Flying Monkeys can reveal. The figures emerge as MPs demand a public inquiry into the crimes of NHS electrician David Fuller, who sexually abused 100 corpses, including three children, over a period of 12 years. Fuller, aged 67, pleaded guilty on Thursday to the murders of two women, Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987. Detectives searching Fuller’s home found four million images of sexual abuse he had downloaded from the internet on computer hard drives. They also found footage he had filmed of himself carrying out attacks on the bodies of women at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, where he had worked since 1989. Now it has emerged there have been 30 separate investigations into serious security breaches at NHS hospital mortuaries since 2018. These include unauthorised people gaining entry to the mortuaries where dead bodies are being stored. According to the Human Tissue Authority, unauthorised people were found in the mortuaries at Colchester General Hospital, Essex; St Peter’s Hospital, in Surrey and at UCL Hospital in London during the 12 months to March this year. There was also a security breach at the Royal Stoke Hospital in Staffordshire. Earlier this year, The Flying Monkeys reported on more than 530 serious incidents in NHS mortuaries including dozens of cases where the wrong bodies were released or organs lost. The professional body for mortuary staff, the Association of Anatomical Pathology Technology, warned NHS trusts were often recruiting unqualified cheaper staff to work in mortuaries and has called for staff to be properly regulated. John Pitchers, told The Independent in August: “The fact that the mortuary profession is not a profession regulated by statute – as other professions such as laboratory staff and paramedics are – makes the maintenance of these quality standards more difficult than it needs to be. “For instance, there is no legal bar to hospital trusts or local authorities employing unqualified staff to work within mortuaries, alongside or in place of qualified staff, and we have seen a large increase of these staff being employed – often as a cost-saving exercise by underfunded organisations.” In the wake of the Fuller case, hospitals have been ordered to urgently check their mortuary security and ensure they have CCTV coverage and access points controlled by swipe card systems.  

Original Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Kristy Swanson has been taken to hospital with Covid-19 after previously questioning vaccine mandates online. The 51-year-old actress, who starred in the 1992 film, revealed her diagnosis on Tuesday as she shared a tweet asking fans for their prayers. Revealing she was battling Covid-related pneumonia, the 80s icon stated: ‘Prayers for me please. Yesterday I took an ambulance ride to the hospital. ‘I’m still here with pneumonia, I’m on oxygen etc, all covid related of course. I’m in good spirits and in great hands.’ She continued: ‘I was just at the tail end of my Covid diagnosis when it jumped into my lungs. So they are treating me with baricitinib & blood thinners so I don’t clot. I’m ok.’ Swanson has since denied being anti-vaccines, though she has been outspoken about coronavirus protocols and mandates on social media amid the pandemic. The actress is best known for portraying the titular character in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, written by Joss Whedon and directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui. On Twitter, Swanson has been critical of Dr Anthony Fauci, the current Chief Medical Advisor to the President. Before Joe Biden took office, Dr Fauci served as a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force under Donald Trump. Swanson has been a vocal support of Trump and met with the former president at the White House last year and wrote on Twitter: ‘An honour to meet you Mr President.’ Poor deluded woman! 

Big Brother ‘star’ Chanelle Hayes has opened up about how she is suffering from a mystery illness which has left her with ‘horrific pain’ all over her body. The 33 year old posted an  Instagram where she asked followers to help her diagnose the problem. The photos were of Chanelle laid in bed when she wrote: “So lately I’ve been undergoing lots of medical stuff, ruling out certain conditions etc. “At the minute, what I’m presenting to docs (after ruling out all other things via bloods, scans etc) is pointing towards fibromyalgia. Symptoms I’m having are: Total exhaustion, horrific pain all over, bone aches, muscle aches, headaches. Feeling ‘out of it’ and unable to properly process information.” She also asked fans: “Does anybody suffer from this and have any tips on how to manage it? Any tips would be greatly appreciated…” Chanelle recently lost an impressive 9.5 stone due to having gastric sleeve surgery after hitting 17 stone. She posted a photo showing off her incredible weight loss as she stood inside one of the sides of a pair of her old grey joggers that she wore on the day of her surgery. The star captioned the Instagram post: “These are the joggers I wore the day I went in for my gastric sleeve surgery.” Obviously there is no correlation between losing 9.5 stone in a year and her illness. 

On This Day

  • 1918 – The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7,542 (about 20% of the population) by the end of the year.
  • 1941 – World War II: Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees and wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking.
  • 1972 – United States presidential election: U.S. President Richard Nixon is re-elected in the largest landslide victory at the time.
  • 1991 – Magic Johnson announces that he is HIV-positive and retires from the NBA.

Deaths

  • 1962 – Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. humanitarian, 39th First Lady of the United States (b. 1884)
  • 1980 – Steve McQueen, American actor and producer (b. 1930)
  • 2011 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (b. 1944)
  • 2016 – Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1934)
  • 2016 – Jimmy Young, British singer and radio personality (b. 1921)
  • 2020 – Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth (b. 1948)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Adam Devine (38), Emma Stone (33), Ethan Hawke (51), Rebecca Romijn (49), Thandiwe Newton (49), Sally Field (75), Lori Singer (64), Maria Shriver (66), Nigel Havers (70), Famke Janssen (57), Tilda Swinton (61), Sam Rockwell (53), Robert Patrick (63), Tatum O’Neal (58), Tamzin Outhwaite (51), Armin Shimerman (72), Elke Sommer (81), Art Garfunkel (80), Matthew McConaughey (52), Olivia Taylor Dudley (36), Ralph Macchio (60), Loretta Swit (84), Dolph Lundgren (64), Kate Capshaw (68), Roseanne Barr (69), Dylan Moran (50), Lulu (73), David Schwimmer (55), Stefanie Powers (79), Toni Collette (49), Natalia Tena (37), Jenny McCarthy (49), and Anthony Kiedis (59).

Posted by  |  7th November 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 31st October 2021

Welcome everyone, to the special Halloween edition of the Dead Pool Newsletter. I have really pushed out the boat this year by including one, yes one, Halloween related article. So whilst you drink your cup of tea, enjoy the massive effort I made. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

 In Other News

The Queen has been advised by her doctors to rest for at least the next two weeks and to undertake only “desk-based duties”, Buckingham Palace has announced. But the head of state has the “firm intention” of leading the nation in honouring the country’s war dead on Remembrance Sunday on 14 November, the palace said. The Queen underwent tests in hospital last week, where she spent a night, and then “reluctantly” accepted medical advice to rest, cancelling a planned two-day trip to Northern Ireland. On Sunday, the 95-year-old missed a church service at Windsor, then on Tuesday cancelled her planned evening reception for world leaders at the UN climate conference in Glasgow. The monarch is said to be in good spirits, and during Friday afternoon recorded her speech for the Cop26 summit, which will be played to delegates. The statement from the palace said: “Following on from their recent advice that the Queen should rest for a few days, Her Majesty’s doctors have advised that she should continue to rest for at least the next two weeks. The doctors have advised that Her Majesty can continue to undertake light, desk-based duties during this time, including some virtual audiences, but not to undertake any official visits. Her Majesty regrets that this means she will be unable to attend the Festival of Remembrance on Saturday, November 13th. However, it remains the Queen’s firm intention to be present for the National Service of Remembrance on Remembrance Sunday, on November 14th.” There will be concern for the Queen given her advanced years, but further rest was a “sensible precaution”, a palace source said. The Queen, who next year celebrates 70 years on the throne, has been known for her robust health. She appeared cheerful and in good humour when she hosted a virtual presentation ceremony on Thursday, awarding the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2020 to poet David Constantine. Speaking from Windsor Castle during a video call, she joked with the writer at Buckingham Palace, asking of his award: “Do you put it in a cupboard?” She was also seen greeting foreign ambassadors via video link. The Queen spent one night at King Edward VII’s Hospital earlier this month, her first overnight hospital stay in eight years. During the coronavirus pandemic, she retreated to Windsor Castle for her safety, where she was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh in lockdown. She was recently seen using a walking stick at a Westminster Abbey service, the first time she has done so at a major event.  

Shirley Ballas has revealed she will undergo an “urgent scan” on all her organs after a doctor found her to have “concerning” levels of testosterone. In an interview with a flying monkey, the 61-year-old said that she was told by a doctor that her levels of testosterone were “the highest she’s seen in a female”. Ballas added: “My NHS doctor is very good, so the fact that she is concerned makes me concerned – and she was mortified by my results. She said I have the highest testosterone levels she’s ever seen in a woman, and testosterone can wreak havoc on the female organs. So she’s requested an urgent scan of all of my organs at King’s College, London.” Ballas continued to say that her doctor “won’t speculate on what the cause is”, stating: “She just says, ‘We need to deal with this. Let’s deal with the hormones and then see what else is there. So I’ll have the scans and then I’ll be able to let everyone know what’s going on.” The news comes after Ballas gave fans an update on her health following a doctor’s appointment that was prompted by concerns raised by Strictly viewers who apparently noticed “lumps” in her armpit. Earlier this month, she explained that a doctor had examined her underarm and breasts but “couldn’t feel anything”. The professional dancer went on to say, however, that the doctor had discovered her hormone levels to be “all over the place” and added that she will be having “full blood work done”. Ballas has previously spoken about her family history of cancer. She recently had a scare in June when she found a lump in her shoulder but said her doctor “seems to think it will be fine”. In 2019, she had her breast implants removed in order to reduce the risk of developing the disease, as implants can block early signs of it being detected.

Will Smith has revealed he once considered suicide. The Fresh Prince can be seen discussing his mental health with his family in a new trailer for Will Smith: The Best Shape  of My Life, his new YouTube docuseries. The series follows Smith as he attempts to lose one and a half stone in 20 weeks, but he quickly realises that his journey involves work on his inner self far more than his outer self. “When I started this show, I thought I was getting into the best shape of my life, physically,” he says in the trailer. “But, mentally, I was somewhere else. I ended up discovering a whole lot of hidden things about myself.” In one clip in the trailer, Smith can be seen bursting into tears while sat with his family. He also tells them about a moment in his history – which we do not yet know the details of – that particularly haunted him. “That was the only time in my life that I ever considered suicide,” Smith says, while his daughter Willow can be seen looking anguished. In recent months, Smith has made a number of surprise revelations about his marriage to wife Jada and his mental health. In September, Smith confirmed that he and Jada had opened up their marriage to other sexual partners after both realised that they were “miserable”. Smith also revealed that, during a mental health crisis, he made plans to date a “harem” of women that included Halle Berry. He also rented a house in Utah and sat in solitude for 14 days, before flying to Peru to take part in a number of ayahuasca rituals. I’m sure Halle Berry was as horrified as a horrific thing on a horror trip to horror land! 

On This Day

  • 1941 – After 14 years of work, Mount Rushmore is completed. 
  • 1963 – A propane tank explosion at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum in Indianapolis kills 74 people and injures another 400 during an ice skating show.
  • 1984 – Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two Sikh security guards. Riots break out in New Delhi and other cities and around 3,000 Sikhs are killed.
  • 2011 – The global population of humans reaches seven billion. This day is now recognised by the United Nations as the Day of Seven Billion.

Deaths

  • 1926 – Harry Houdini, American magician and stuntman (b. 1874)
  • 1984 – Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (b. 1917)
  • 1993 – Federico Fellini, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1920)
  • 1993 – River Phoenix, American actor and singer (b. 1970)
  • 2006 – P. W. Botha, South African politician, President of South Africa (b. 1916)
  • 2020 – Sean Connery, Scottish actor (b. 1930)

Last Meals 

Ronald Clark O’Bryan nicknamed The Candy Man and The Man Who Killed Halloween, was an American man convicted of killing his eight-year-old son on Halloween 1974 with a potassium cyanide-laced Pixy Stix that was ostensibly collected during a trick or treat outing. O’Bryan poisoned his son in order to claim life insurance money to ease his own financial troubles, as he was $100,000 in debt. O’Bryan also distributed poisoned candy to his daughter and three other children in an attempt to cover up his crime; however, neither his daughter nor the other children ate the poisoned candy. He was convicted of capital murder in June 1975 and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection in March 1984.

On October 31, 1974, O’Bryan took his two children trick-or-treating in a Pasadena, Texas, neighbourhood. O’Bryan’s neighbour and his two children accompanied them. After visiting a home where the occupant failed to answer the door, the children grew impatient and ran ahead to the next home while O’Bryan stayed behind. He eventually caught up with the group and produced five 21-inch Pixy Stix, which he would later claim he was given from the occupant of the house that had not answered the door. At the end of the evening, O’Bryan gave each of his neighbour’s two children a Pixy Stix and one each to Timothy and Elizabeth. Upon returning home, O’Bryan gave the fifth Pixy Stix to a 10-year-old boy whom he recognised from his church.

Before bed, Timothy asked to eat some of the candy he collected, and according to Ronald, he chose the Pixy Stix. Timothy had trouble getting the powdered candy out of the straw so O’Bryan helped him loosen the powder. After tasting the candy, Timothy complained that it tasted bitter. O’Bryan then gave his son Kool-Aid to wash away the taste. Timothy immediately began to complain that his stomach hurt and ran to the bathroom where he began vomiting and convulsing. O’Bryan later claimed he held Timothy while he was vomiting and the child went limp in his arms. Timothy O’Bryan died en-route to the hospital less than an hour after consuming the candy.

Timothy’s death from poisoned Halloween candy raised fear in the community. Numerous parents in Deer Park and the surrounding area turned in candy their children got from trick or treating to the police, fearing it was laced with poison. The police did not initially suspect O’Bryan of any wrongdoing until Timothy’s autopsy revealed that the Pixy Stix he had consumed was laced with a fatal dose of potassium cyanide. Four of the five Pixy Stix O’Bryan claimed to have received were recovered by authorities from the other children, none of whom had consumed the candy. The parents of the fifth child became hysterical when they could not locate the candy after being notified by the police. The parents rushed upstairs to find their son asleep, holding the unconsumed candy. The boy had been unable to open the staples that sealed the wrapper shut. All five of the Pixy Stix had been opened, with the top two inches refilled with cyanide powder and resealed with a staple. According to a pathologist who tested the Pixy Stix, the candy consumed by Timothy contained enough cyanide to kill two adults, while the other four candies contained enough to kill three to four adults.

O’Bryan initially told police that he could not remember which house he got the Pixy Stix from. Police became suspicious because O’Bryan and his neighbour  had only taken their children to homes on two streets because it had been raining. Their suspicions increased after learning that none of the homes they visited had given out Pixy Stix. After walking the neighbourhood with police three times, O’Bryan led them to the home where no one had answered the door. O’Bryan claimed that he went back there before catching up with the group. He said the owner of the home did not turn the lights on, but did crack the door open and hand him five Pixy Stix. He claimed to have only seen the man’s arm, which he described as “hairy”. The home was owned by a man named Courtney Melvin. Melvin was an air traffic controller at William P. Hobby Airport and did not get home from work until 11 p.m. on Halloween night. Police ruled Melvin out as a suspect when nearly 200 people confirmed that he had been at work.

As their investigation progressed, police learned that Ronald O’Bryan was over $100,000 in debt and had a history of being unable to hold a job. At the time of his arrest, he was suspected of theft at his job at Texas State Optical and was close to being fired. His car was about to be repossessed, he had defaulted on several bank loans, and the family home had been foreclosed on. Police discovered that O’Bryan had taken out life insurance policies on his children in the months preceding Timothy’s death. In January 1974, he had taken out $10,000 life insurance policies on both of his children. One month before Timothy’s death, O’Bryan took out additional $20,000 policies on both children, despite the objections of his life insurance agency. In the days preceding Timothy’s death, O’Bryan had taken out yet another $20,000 policy on each child. The various policies totalled approximately $60,000. O’Bryan’s wife maintained that she did not know about the insurance policies on her children’s lives. Police also learned that on the morning after Timothy’s death, O’Bryan had called his insurance company to inquire about collecting the policies he had taken out on his son. After learning that O’Bryan had visited a chemical supply store in Houston to buy cyanide shortly before Halloween 1974 (he left without purchasing anything after learning the smallest amount available to purchase was five pounds), police began to suspect that Ronald O’Bryan had laced the candies with poison in an effort to kill his children to collect on their life insurance policies. They believed he gave the other children poisoned candy in an effort to cover up his crime. Police repeatedly questioned O’Bryan but he maintained his innocence.

Although police never discovered when or where O’Bryan bought the poison, he was arrested for Timothy’s murder on November 5th 1974. He was indicted on one count of capital murder and four counts of attempted murder. O’Bryan entered a plea of not guilty to all five counts. O’Bryan’s trial began in Houston on May 5th 1975. During the trial, a chemist who was acquainted with O’Bryan testified that in summer 1973, O’Bryan contacted him asking about cyanide and how much would be fatal. A chemical supply salesman also testified that O’Bryan had asked him how to purchase cyanide. Friends and co-workers testified that in the months before Timothy’s death, O’Bryan showed an “unusual interest” in cyanide and spoke about how much it would take to kill a person. O’Bryan’s sister-in-law and brother-in-law testified that on the day of Timothy’s funeral, he spoke of using the money from Timothy’s insurance policy to take a long vacation and buy other items. As well, his wife rejected the claim that Timothy chose the Pixy Stix, stating that O’Bryan had, in fact, forced him to choose the Stix. O’Bryan continued to maintain his innocence. His defense mainly drew upon the decades-old urban legend concerning a “mad poisoner” who hands out Halloween candy laced with poison or needles or candy apples with razor blades inserted. These stories have persisted despite the fact that there are no documented instances of strangers poisoning Halloween candy.

The case and subsequent trial garnered national attention and the press dubbed O’Bryan “The Candyman”.

On June 3rd 1975, a jury took 46 minutes to find O’Bryan guilty of capital murder and four counts of attempted murder. The jury took 71 minutes to sentence him to death by electrocution. Shortly after he was convicted, his wife filed for divorce. She later remarried and her new husband adopted her daughter Elizabeth.

At the time, men sentenced to death under Texas law were confined to the Ellis I Unit near Huntsville, Texas. According to Reverend Carroll Pickett, a former chaplain who worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, O’Bryan was shunned and despised by his fellow death row inmates for killing his child and was “absolutely friendless”. The inmates reportedly petitioned to hold an organised demonstration on O’Bryan’s execution date to express their hatred of him. 

O’Bryan’s first execution date was set for August 8th 1980. His attorney successfully petitioned for a stay of execution. A second date was scheduled for May 25th 1982. That date was also postponed. Judge Michael McSpadden scheduled a third execution date for October 31st 1982, the eighth anniversary of the crime, and he offered to personally drive O’Bryan to the death chamber. It was to have been the first time Texas executed an inmate by lethal injection. The Supreme Court delayed the date yet again to give O’Bryan a chance to pursue an appeal to seek a new trial. A fourth date was scheduled for March 31st 1984. O’Bryan’s lawyer sought a fourth stay on the basis that lethal injection was a “cruel and unusual punishment”. On March 28th a federal judge rejected the request. Before heading to the execution chamber, O’Bryan chose a T-bone steak with fries, salad and French dressing, peas, corn and bread rolls, followed by iced tea and a Boston cream pie for his last meal. Then shortly after midnight, O’Bryan was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit. In his final statement, O’Bryan maintained his innocence, stating that he felt the death penalty was “wrong”. He added, “…I forgive all—and I do mean all—those who have been involved in my death. God bless you all, and may God’s best blessings be always yours.” During the execution, a crowd of 300 demonstrators gathered outside the prison cheered while some yelled “Trick or treat!” Others showered anti-death penalty demonstrators with candy.

Ronald O’Bryan is buried in Forest Park East Cemetery in Webster, Texas. Timothy is buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Peter Jackson (60), Erica Cerra (42), Willow Smith (21), Stephen Rea (75), Sanjeev Bhaskar (58), Vanilla Ice (54), Fiona Dourif (40), Clémence Poésy (39), Henry Winkler (76), Jessica Hynes (49), Juliet Stevenson (65), Winona Ryder (50), Rufus Sewell (54), Ben Foster (41), Richard Dreyfuss (74), Dan Castellaneta (64), Joaquin Phoenix (47), Julia Roberts (54), Annie Potts (69), Matt Smith (39), Gwendoline Christie (43), Caitlyn Jenner (72), John Cleese (82), Robert Picardo (68), Kelly Osbourne (37), Cary Elwes (59), Seth MacFarlane (48), Jon Heder (44), Anthony Rapp (50), Jaclyn Smith (76), Tom Cavanagh (58), Roger Allam (68), Keith Urban (54), Glynis Barber (66), Nancy Cartwright (64), and Katy Perry (37).

Posted by  |  31st October 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 24th October 2021

What a week! Unfortunately no points to award but plenty to read. Just a quick reminder to the few of you who have not joined the Telegram group, as of next year we will be exclusively swapping from email to Telegram. It’s much more customisable, so if you don’t want to hear your inbox being pinged all the time, you can turn it off etc. Link in this weeks email. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

The big news of the week is undoubtedly the killing of Helyna Hutchins on the filmset of Rust by an unwitting Alec Baldwin. Baldwin was handed what was described as a safe “cold gun” on the set, but the prop gun contained live rounds when it was fired, according to details of the police investigation into the fatal shooting released on Friday. The shot hit cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in the chest, and director Joel Souza who was behind her, in the shoulder, according to a county sheriff’s affidavit filed in Santa Fe magistrates court. Hutchins died of her wounds and Souza was injured but has since been released from a local hospital. The assistant director who handed Baldwin the prop gun did not know it contained live rounds. Baldwin said on Friday he was in shock over the accidental shooting as reports emerged of walk-outs on the Rust set earlier in the week over unsafe conditions. The star of 30 Rock and The Hunt for Red October said he was “fully cooperating” with authorities to determine how the incident occurred on Thursday. Production on the movie was immediately shut down. The sheriff’s department said no charges had been filed and the investigation remained open. Baldwin voluntarily gave a statement about the shooting, the sheriff’s department said. The incident took place at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, south of Santa Fe, during a rehearsal and it was not clear whether it had been filmed. The prop gun was one of three on a cart outside a building. One of them was taken by the assistant director on the movie who went inside and handed it to Baldwin. As the assistant director handed the gun to the actor Alec Baldwin, he yelled ‘cold gun’, indicating the prop gun did not have any live rounds. Questions were raised about working conditions on the set of Rust, media outlets cited several members of the crew and others close to the production as saying six or seven camera operators had walked off the Rust set hours before the tragedy. Two media outlets also reported that there had been at least one previous misfire with the prop gun. Hutchins, 42, who was originally from Ukraine, was named one of American Cinematographer’s Rising Stars of 2019. The accident renewed debate about whether certain types of prop guns should be banned on TV and movie sets.

Former US President Bill Clinton has been discharged from a Californian hospital after spending five nights under care. Mr Clinton had been receiving treatment for a urinary tract infection that developed into sepsis. The 75-year-old gave a thumbs up to waiting news crews as he walked out of hospital with his wife, former presidential candidate Hillary. Mr Clinton will return home to New York to complete his recovery, doctors said. Dr Alpesh Amin, who oversaw the team of medics treating Mr Clinton, said in a statement: “His fever and white blood cell count are normalised and he will return home to New York to finish his course of antibiotics.” The 42nd president, who served from 1993 to 2001, shook hands with waiting medical staff as he left the facility with his wife of 46 years. According to US media, Mr Clinton – who was in California to attend a private event for his foundation – had felt fatigued on Tuesday and underwent tests before being admitted to the hospital. President Biden said on Friday night that he had spoken with Mr Clinton and told reporters that he was “not in any serious condition”. The infection is the latest health scare for Mr Clinton. In 2004, aged 58, he had a quadruple bypass surgery after doctors found signs of extensive heart disease and, ten years later, he had a clogged artery opened after complaining of chest pains. Not long after his second surgery, the ex-president – known for his love of fatty foods – went vegan. He told Politico in 2016, “I might not be around if I hadn’t become a vegan. It’s great.” 

Likewise, The Queen spent Wednesday night in hospital for preliminary medical checks and is now back at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace has said. The 95-year-old monarch returned from the private hospital in central London at lunchtime on Thursday and is “in good spirits”, the palace added. The Queen had cancelled a visit to Northern Ireland on Wednesday. She was given medical advice to rest for a few days after a busy schedule of public engagements. In a statement on Thursday night, Buckingham Palace said: “Following medical advice to rest for a few days, the Queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations, returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today, and remains in good spirits.” The Queen travelled by car to the King Edward VII’s Hospital in Marylebone, about 19 miles (32km) from Windsor, where she was seen by specialists. Her admittance is understood not to be related to coronavirus. The overnight stay was said to be for practical reasons and the Queen was undertaking light duties back at Windsor on Thursday afternoon. It is the first time the Queen has stayed in hospital since 2013, when she suffered symptoms of gastroenteritis. The news on Wednesday that the Queen would have to cancel a trip to Northern Ireland was always going to cause concern. Despite looking very well and happy at the numerous events she has attended over the past week, it cannot be forgotten that she is 95 years old. 

On This Day

  • 1857 – Sheffield F.C., the world’s oldest association football club still in operation, is founded in England.
  • 1861 – The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed.
  • 1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
  • 1926 – Harry Houdini‘s last performance takes place at the Garrick Theatre in Detroit.
  • 1929 – “Black Thursday” on the New York Stock Exchange.
  • 1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.
  • 1975 – In Iceland, 90% of women take part in a national strike, refusing to work in protest of gender inequality.
  • 2003 – Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
  • 2008 – “Bloody Friday” saw many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

Deaths

The Death of Brandon Lee

With the events of the week being very fresh in our  minds, let’s cast our minds back to another filmset tragedy which has unimaginable parallels with last weeks tragic accident.

On March 31st 1993, Brandon Lee was filming a scene in The Crow where his character is shot and killed by thugs. In the scene, Lee’s character walks into his apartment and discovers his fiancée being beaten and raped, and a thug played by actor Michael Massee fires a Smith & Wesson Model 629 .44 Magnum revolver at Lee’s character as he walks into the room.

In the film shoot preceding the fatal scene, the prop gun (which was a real revolver) was loaded with improperly-made dummy rounds, improvised from live cartridges that had the powder charges removed by the special effects crew, so in close-ups the revolver would show normal-looking ammunition. However, the crew neglected to remove the primers from the cartridges, and at some point before the fatal event, one of the rounds had been fired. Although there were no powder charges, the energy from the ignited primer was enough to separate the bullet from the casing and push it part-way into the gun barrel, where it got stuck – a dangerous condition known as a squib load. During the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from a distance of 2–15 ft, the dummy cartridges were replaced with blank rounds, which contained a powder charge and the primer, but no solid bullet, allowing the gun to be fired with sound and flash effects without the risk of an actual projectile. However, the gun was not properly checked and cleared before the blank was fired, and the dummy bullet previously lodged in the barrel was then propelled forward by the blank’s propellant and shot out the muzzle with almost the same force as if the round were live, striking Lee in the abdomen.

After Massee pulled the trigger and shot Lee, Lee fell backwards instead of forwards as he was supposed to. When the director said “cut”, Lee did not stand up and the crew thought he was either still acting or kidding around. Jeff Imada, who immediately checked Lee, noticed something wrong when he came close and noted Lee was unconscious and breathing heavily. Medic Clyde Baisey went over and shook Lee to see if he was dazed by hitting his head during the fall, but did not think Lee had been shot since there was no visible bleeding. Baisey took Lee’s pulse, which was regular, but within two to three minutes it slowed down dramatically, and stopped.

Lee was rushed to the New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. Attempts to save him were unsuccessful and after six hours of emergency surgery, Lee was pronounced dead at 1:03 pm on March 31st 1993. He was 28 years old. The shooting was ruled an accident due to negligence. 

Lee was buried next to his father at the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. A private funeral attended by 50 took place in Seattle on April 3rd. The following day, 200 of Lee’s family and business associates attended a memorial service at actress Polly Bergen‘s house in Los Angeles. Among the attendees were Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, David Hasselhoff, Steven Seagal, David Carradine, and Melissa Etheridge.

In August of 1993, Lee’s mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers alleging negligence in the death of her son. The suit was settled two months later under undisclosed terms.

In an interview just prior to his death, Lee quoted a passage from Paul Bowles‘ book The Sheltering Sky, which he had chosen for his wedding invitations; it is now inscribed on his tombstone: Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can’t even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless…

Last Week’s Birthdays

Kevin Kline (74), F. Murray Abraham (82), Ryan Reynolds (45), Emilia Clarke (35), Sam Raimi (62), ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (62), Cat Deeley (45), Christopher Lloyd (83), Jeff Goldblum (69), Bob Odenkirk (59), Derek Jacobi (83), Catherine Deneuve (78), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (46), Andrew Scott (45), Kim Kardashian West (41), Everett McGill (76), Ken Watanabe (62), Viggo Mortensen (63), Danny Boyle (65), Snoop Dogg (50), Sandra Dickinson (73), Rebecca Ferguson (38), Jon Favreau (55), Michael Gambon (81), John Lithgow (76), Pam Dawber (70), Zac Efron (34), and Jean-Claude Van Damme (61).

Posted by  |  24th October 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 17th October 2021

A shocking week with the murder of an MP; regardless of which side of the political spectrum you stand. Sadly political discourse and educated debates are no longer a thing. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Bournemouth and Wales football star David Brooks has been diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. The winger, who left international duty with Wales last week following medical examinations, is set to undergo treatment next week. The Cherries confirmed the news via an official club statement on Wednesday, adding that the 24-year-old had received an “initial positive prognosis”. In a statement of his own, the Wales international said: “This is a very difficult message for me to write. I have been diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin Lymphoma and will begin a course of treatment next week. Although this has come as a shock to myself and my family, the prognosis is a positive one and I am confident that I will make a full recovery and be back playing as soon as possible. I’d like to show my appreciation to the doctors, nurses, consultants and staff who have been treating me for their professionalism, warmth and understanding during this period. I want to thank everyone at the Football Association of Wales because without the swift attention of their medical team we may not have detected the illness. I’d also like to say thank you to AFC Bournemouth for all their support and assistance this past week. Although I appreciate that there will be media attention and interest, I would like to ask that my privacy is respected in the coming months and I will share updates on my progress when I am able to do so. In the meantime, thank you to everyone for their messages of support – it means so much and will continue to do so in the months ahead. I look forward to seeing you all again and playing the sport I love very soon.” Hodgkin lymphoma is an uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, which is a network of vessels and glands spread throughout your body. Brooks joined the Cherries from Sheffield United for a fee of £11.5m back in the summer of 2018, and has since made 78 appearances for the club, netting four goals. He has also emerged as an important player for Wales, scoring twice in 21  appearances.       

Robert Durst has tested positive for Covid-19 and has been placed on a ventilator, according to his attorney. The 78-year-old real estate heir was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for the first degree murder of his friend Susan Berman at her Beverly Hills home. He was found guilty last month of shooting Ms Berman, 55, in the back of the head in December 2000. A jury also found him guilty of the special circumstances of lying in wait and killing a witness, which in California carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of early release. “All we know he’s tested positive for Covid-19, he’s in hospital and on a ventilator,” his attorney Dick DeGuerin told our Flying Monkey. “He looked awful Thursday, worst I’ve ever seen him. He was having difficulty breathing, he was having difficulty speaking.” Our Flying Monkey reports that Durst has been held in a wing of USC Medical Center under the watch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department throughout the trial. It is not clear if he is still in that facility or when or where he became infected with the coronavirus. There are concerns about the exposure to the virus for others present at the trial in which dozens of people were packed into the courtroom. A month ago, the day that Durst was convicted by the jury, he was absent from proceedings because he had been exposed to someone who had tested positive for Covid-19. Durst spent much of the trial in a wheelchair but still engaged in tense exchanges when cross-examined regarding the death of Ms Berman more than 20 years ago. Prosecutors told his trial that Durst killed his friend because she knew too much about the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Ms Durst’s body has never been found after she disappeared in New York in 1982 and he has never been charged in connection with her death. The court was told that Ms Berman had provided a false alibi for Durst in 1982 and that he feared she would reveal that to authorities. Superior Court Judge Mark Windham, who presided over the trial and sentenced Durst in Los Angeles County on Thursday, described the murder as “awful and disturbing.” Durst, who appeared at his sentencing in prison uniform, testified in his own defence for 15 days, with prosecutors telling the jury that he had lied or changed his story multiple times. The trial took place six years after he appeared on the HBO documentary series The Jinx, where he appeared to confess to multiple killings. During the filming of the show, Durst was caught on a live microphone muttering to himself, “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

On This Day

  • 1091 – London tornado of 1091: A tornado thought to be of strength T8/F4 strikes the heart of London. 
  • 1814 – Eight people die in the London Beer Flood.  
  • 1907 – Marconi begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service.  
  • 1931 – Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion.  
  • 1933 – Albert Einstein flees Nazi Germany and moves to the United States.  
  • 1956 – The first commercial nuclear power station is officially opened in Sellafield, England.

Deaths

British MP’s Killed in Office

Sir David Amess, the MP for Southend West, is the ninth parliamentarian to be violently killed in office in British political history. The 69-year-old father-of-five was stabbed to death during a constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea on Friday. A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Essex Police said. 

Tributes to Mr Amess quickly poured in from his parliamentary colleagues, with Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis saying he was “one of life’s truly nice people, a gentleman, who was always ready to give his help to anyone who needed it”.

The killing comes five years after Labour MP and mother-of-two Jo Cox was assassinated at the age of 41 by a far-right terrorist, who shot and stabbed her outside her North Yorkshire surgery. Jo’s widower, Brendan Cox, described Mr Amess’s killing as “an attack on democracy itself. There is no excuse, no justification. It is as cowardly as it gets” he said.

Before the death of Ms Cox, the last MP to be killed in office was Ian Gow, 53, who lost his life after the IRA detonated a car bomb at his Sussex home in 1990. The Eastbourne MP, who had previously served as a private parliamentary secretary to Margaret Thatcher, was not the only British politician to die at the hands of the terrorist group.

Sir Anthony Berry was killed by the organisation’s bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel during the 1984 Tory Party conference, three years after the group shot dead the Ulster Unionist Party MP Robert Bradford in Belfast.

In 1979, the Conservative MP and former Northern Ireland secretary Airey Neave was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army. His car was blown up as he drove it out of the parliamentary car park.

These are the only sitting MPs to have been murdered since World War II. However, Andrew Pennington, who had previously served as a politician, was killed when he rushed to defend his boss, the Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones, from a samurai sword attack in January 2000.

Spencer Perceval, who was shot in the Commons in 1812, is the only prime minister to have been assassinated in office.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Michael McKean (74), Eminem (49), Mark Gatiss (55), George Wendt (73), Angela Lansbury (96), Tim Robbins (63), Suzanne Somers (75), Peter Bowles (85), Dominic West (52), Steve Coogan (56), Cliff Richard (81), Sacha Baron Cohen (50), Christopher Judge (57), Himesh Patel (31), Chris Carter (65), Paul Simon (80), Hugh Jackman (53), Josh Hutcherson (29), Hiroyuki Sanada (61), Robin Askwith (71), Michelle Trachtenberg (36), Claudia Black (49), Joan Cusack (59), Emily Deschanel (45), Jane Krakowski (53), Stephen Moyer (52), Lennie James (56), John Nettles (78), and Dawn French (64).

Posted by  |  17th October 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 10th October 2021

Another strange week, but I’m glad I’m not Chris Peckham, quietly going about his life until  a bunch of nutters blow up a Land Rover in front of his house! Might be a good contender for next year? Also a couple of supercentenarian’s we all missed!!!!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

In Other News

Kim Kardashian’s ex Ray J has been hospitalised with pneumonia and placed in a Covid ward. The rapper, who previously dated the Kardashian, is currently receiving treatment in hospital after having breathing difficulties, his manager David Weintraub has revealed. Ray J is frustrated as he has been sent to a Covid ward for treatment, despite testing negative for the virus five times. He was sent to the Covid ward initially as doctors feared he had the virus as he was struggling with his breathing. However, he was moved out of the wing two days later and is currently receiving oxygen. Ray is asking for his fans to pray for him as he recovers from his illness and his sole focus has been getting better for the sake of his kids. There are times where he thinks he is improving as he feels fine at six in the morning, but by 6.30am, he is struggling with his breathing again and is starting to fear the worst. “I thought it was over. I started praying and knew God is good so I just kept praying,” he explained to the website of his first few hours in hospital, where he is being kept a close eye on by doctors. The British public will best know Ray J for his short-lived stint on Celebrity Big Brother. The rapper exited the show in 2017, just over a week after he first entered the famous house as he claims he was suffering from terrible pain from his teeth.    

Fans of Fuller Goldsmith were sad to learn that the young chef had died days before his 18th birthday this Saturday. The TV star had been battling cancer, after his leukaemia returned five times. He is best known for Winning Chopped Junior 2017 when he was just 13-years-old. He was first diagnosed with the relentless illness when he was three. In August 2020, Fuller announced he was cancer-free but in February received the bad news that the leukaemia had returned for the fifth time. It came after he reported having nausea and dizziness symptoms a doctor, who ran some tests and found a brain tumour. In the run up to his death, Fuller’s father Scott Goldsmith, said that his son had taken a turn for the worse earlier this week. Scott told us: “He got tired and was ready to go. We damn sure didn’t wake up yesterday thinking this would be the day.” He continued: “We knew what the outcome was going to be, but we definitely didn’t think it was going to be yesterday. Monday he was up and moving about, building Legos, and watching all the football games. Yesterday morning he was running a fever, and struggling to breathe.” Scott added: “He was ready to go. He went peacefully in his sleep, no pain, no struggle, laying in his bed, and went to Heaven.” After finding out that his cancer had returned for a firth round, Fuller announced the sad news on Instagram at the time, revealing he would be starting 12 sessions of radiation therapy. When he was 13, Fuller pretended to be his mum and signed himself up to Chopped Junior. He ended up winning the show with his delicious beer-battered catfish with okra and landed a $10,000 prize, which he donated to the Division of Haematology and Paediatric Oncology at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.                 

A world-famous gorilla who starred in a hilarious selfie has died in the arms of the man who rescued her. Ndakasi became a celebrity in 2019 after appearing in a selfie taken by animal rescuer Andre Bauma. The 12-year-old gorilla puffed her chest out in the funny photo alongside buddy Ndeze. Mr Bauma rescued Ndakasi after her mother was killed by an armed militia in Virunga National Park, Congo. For more than a decade, Andre and his colleagues cared for Ndakasi and helped her recover from the trauma of losing her mother. Because of that, she could never be released back into the wild. But Ndakasi did enjoy a happy life with Ndeze and other orphaned mountain gorillas at the parks Senkwekwe Center. In a moving statement Virunga National Park wrote: “It is with heartfelt sadness that Virunga announces the death of beloved orphaned mountain gorilla, Ndakasi. On the evening of 26th September, following a prolonged illness in which her condition rapidly deteriorated, Ndakasi took her final breath in the loving arms of her caretaker and lifelong friend, Andre Bauma.” The national park also remembered the viral World Earth Day selfie which made Ndakasi go viral. They wrote: “The photo features Ndakasi and her partner-in-crime, Ndeze, both standing relaxed on two feet, bellies out with cheeky grins. Their playful nature was a reminder to the world of how much we see ourselves in these animals and it’s one of the reasons Andre Bauma will miss her so dearly.” Andre added to the heightened feelings with his own beautiful message posted on the park website to remember Ndakasi. He wrote: “It was a privilege to support and care for such a loving creature, especially knowing the trauma Ndakasi suffered at a very young age. One could say that she took after her mother, Nyiransekuye, whose name means “someone happy to welcome others. I am proud to have called Ndakasi my friend.”

On This Day

  • 1957 – The Windscale fire results in Britain’s worst nuclear accident.
  • 2015 – Twin bomb blasts in the Turkish capital Ankara kill 109 and injure 500+.
  • 2018 – Hurricane Michael makes landfall in the Florida Panhandle as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. It kills 57 people in the United States, 45 in Florida, and causes an estimated $25.1 billion in damage.

Deaths

  • 1913 – Adolphus Busch, German-American brewer, founded Anheuser-Busch (b. 1839).
  • 1963 – Édith Piaf, French singer-songwriter and actress (b. 1915).
  • 1983 – Ralph Richardson, English actor (b. 1902).
  • 1985 – Yul Brynner, Russian actor (b. 1920).
  • 1985 – Orson Welles, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915).
  • 2004 – Christopher Reeve, American actor, producer, and activist (b. 1952).
  • 2009 – Stephen Gately, Irish singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor (b. 1976).

Serial Killer Archives

Sebastian Shaw was a Vietnam-born American serial killer and rapist responsible for at least three murders in Portland, Oregon between 1991 and 1992. When interviewed by detectives in prison, Shaw confessed to killing ten more people. He is the prime suspect for the 1994 murder of 14-year-old Jenny Lin in Castro Valley, California. At the time of his death he was serving three life sentences in the Oregon State Penitentiary. 

Born Chau Quong Ho in the Phước Tuy Province of South Vietnam on November 28th 1967, he moved to Oregon with his father Van at a young age. As a young boy, Chau became an Altar Server at the local Saint Mary Catholic Church, but was reported to have problematic behaviour at school. Between August and November 1975, he lived at the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, before a group from Port Arthur, Texas sponsored the father and son to move to the state. At age 14, the two moved to Woodburn, Oregon and attended the local high school, where Chau was reportedly enjoying himself. However, at one point, in a supposed suicide attempt, he overdosed on aspirin, but survived. 

In 1985, Chau and Van got into a fight that resulted in the young man being beaten with a piece of wood. He then moved to live with his aunt and cousin in California, where he briefly worked for a company before joining the Marine Corps, serving in Okinawa, Japan. In 1990, Ho applied for an honorable discharge, and was sent back to Oregon, where he applied for a job as a security dispatcher for the Paragon Cable company. During this time, he legally changed his name to Sebastian Alexander Shaw.  

Murders

Jay Rickbeil: On July 1st 1991, the body of 40-year-old Jay Rickbeil, a quadraplegic suffering from cerebral palsy, was found in his Portland home by his roommate and apartment manager Mac MacCartney. He had bled to death as a result of an injury to the neck, likely inflicted with a knife. According to his neighbours, Rickbeil was a New Age believer who would often invite strangers into his apartment to have discussions, and often attempted to convert the visitor to his religion. A trusting man, he would often give them a business card with his name and address, and occasionally even money, which often resulted in his personal possessions being stolen. At that time, Shaw had just been fired from his job at Paragon Cable, following complaints of sexual assault by his colleague Shirley Phillips. In order to vent out his anger, he picked Rickbeil at random, slashing his throat while the man lay in bed.

Donna Ferguson and Todd Rudiger: On July 20th 1992, a couple were found murdered in their trailer home by their fathers in Portland. Todd A. Rudiger, 29, and his live-in girlfriend Donna G. Ferguson, 18, were both stabbed in the necks and bled to death, with Donna having been bound and raped beforehand.

Jenny Lin: On May 27th 1994, after returning home from work, John Lin found the partially naked body of his 14-year-old daughter Jenny in the bathroom of the family’s home in the Palomares Hills neighbourhood, in Castro Valley. She had been stabbed multiple times, but, peculiarly, there were no signs of a struggle, any apparent sexual assault or any items missing from the house, which puzzled the investigators. She had no known enemies, was a straight A-student and gifted violinist who was about to graduate the following month. According to her friends, when they last spoke to her via phone around 5:15 p.m., Jenny said that she was fine and that she was currently at home. Authorities believed that Jenny’s killer was a man, as she had been easily overpowered, and that they did not know each other. They announced that they were looking for a young man on a motorcycle who was seen handing out leaflets in the area, as they wanted to question him as a potential witness.

John Lin later recalled that two weeks before his daughter’s death, he had been stopped at a parking lot by a disheveled man who claimed to have “got his daughter”, but, knowing that Jenny was on her violin lessons, he brushed the man off and left. Although this bizarre individual was not considered a suspect, a sketch of him was released to the press in an attempt to identify and then interrogate him. In the meantime, the Lin family created “Friends of Jenny Lin”, a volunteer organisation aimed at spreading awareness about their daughter’s case. In October, a neighbour came forward to police, claiming that they had seen a stocky man in a dark jacket and cap outside the Lin residence near the time of the murder, claiming that they had been afraid to come forward out of fear that the killer might return to exact revenge on the informants.   

Arrest, trial, imprisonment

On August 31st 1994, Sebastian Shaw was arrested for burglary, after he was found asleep in a stolen 1978 Pontiac Bonneville in San Ramon. Among the items confiscated were a so-called “murder kit”, consisting of ski mask, surgical gloves, duct tape, knives, binoculars, and plastic handcuffs. As there was no evidence linking him to any murders at the time, he was let go. On February 20th 1998, he was arrested again and charged with the Rudiger/Ferguson murders and the 1995 rape of 18-year-old Amanda Carpova in Portland. His DNA was matched to the crime scenes after police obtained a discarded cigarette he had thrown out at a supermarket.

He plead guilty to the double murder and sexual assault of Carpova, but, in a rare decision, the judge acquitted Shaw of the Rickbeil murder before the trial on behest of the prosecutors. Sebastian was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment instead. While in jail, he told a fellow inmate that he had killed a total of 13 people, information which was relayed to investigators. When two detectives came to interview him, Shaw said that his confession was truthful, and that he would name the victims if he was transferred to a federal prison where he could smoke, as smoking was prohibited in Oregon prisons. Two years later, he was convicted of Rickbeil’s murder and received another term of life imprisonment. That same year, he was officially announced as the prime suspect in the murder of Jenny Lin, but was not charged, as there was no physical evidence linking him to the murder. Prosecutors attempted to put him on trial the following year, but the charges were dropped. Lin’s murder officially remains unsolved. 

Shaw died in prison on October 4th, 2021, having served 21 years of his sentence. Cause of death is currently unknown but is unlikely to have been Covid related as the state refuses to name inmates who have died of the virus. He was 53.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Dan Stevens (39), Rose McIver (33), Charles Dance (75), Manu Bennett (52), Martin Kemp (60), Chris O’Dowd (42), Tony Shalhoub (68), Brandon Routh (42), Scott Bakula (67), Brian Blessed (85), Sharon Osbourne (69), Matt Damon (51), Sigourney Weaver (72), Chevy Chase (78), Kristanna Loken (42), Paul Hogan (82), Karyn Parsons (55), Ardal O’Hanlon (56), R.L. Stine (78), Shawn Ashmore (42), Aaron Ashmore (42), Tim Minchin (46), Thom Yorke (53), Simon Cowell (62), Elisabeth Shue (58), Emily Mortimer (50), Ioan Gruffudd (48), Britt Ekland (79), Kate Winslet (46), Guy Pearce (54), Karen Allen (70), Jesse Eisenberg (38), Stephanie Cole (80), Glynis Johns (98), Clive Barker (69), Diane Morgan (46), Neil deGrasse Tyson (63), Bob Geldof (70), Christoph Waltz (65), Dakota Johnson (32), Alicia Silverstone (45), Melissa Benoist (33), Nick Mohammed (41), Susan Sarandon (75), Liev Schreiber (54), and Sarah Lancashire (57).

Posted by  |  10th October 2021 | Categories: 2021 | Leave A Comment »