Welcome all, more points to dispense this week with the demise of Robert Mugabe!! Both Shan and Jamie had him as a Cert, so 155 points each, and Chrissy and Mark get 55 points each! Well done everyone, slight movement in the league table with only the last quarter of the year to go.  

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Katherine MacLean, 94, American science fiction author.  
• Terrance Dicks, 84, English screenwriter (Doctor Who, Crossroads, Space: 1999).
• LaShawn Daniels, 41, American songwriter (“Say My Name“, “Love and War“), Grammy winner (2000), traffic collision. 
• Carol Lynley, 77, American actress (Harlow, Bunny Lake Is Missing, The Poseidon Adventure), heart attack.  
• Robert Mugabe, 95, Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician, Prime Minister (1980–1987) and President (1987–2017).  
• Chester Williams, 49, South African rugby union player (Western Province, national team) and coach (Blitzboks), heart attack.

In Other News

Comedian and actor Kevin Hart was taken to hospital with “major back injuries” on Sunday following a car accident in Los Angeles. According to the California Highway Patrol, Hart was being driven in his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda on Mulholland Highway at the time of the accident. His wife Eniko Parrish told news reporters on Monday that the comedian was awake and “going to be just fine”. The accident happened just after midnight. The driver, Jared Black, lost control of the car and it tumbled into an embankment, the report stated. Black also sustained major back injuries. A third passenger was unhurt. Black – the fiance of the third passenger, Rebecca Broxterman – was determined not to have been driving under the influence at the time of the crash. Hart was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Centre and the driver was taken to another hospital, the patrol report said. Photos published by the media showed the car had suffered considerable damage. It looks like the fire department had to saw the roof off to free the two occupants who were pinned to their seats.    

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro will miss a planned summit on the fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest to prepare for surgery, an aide has said. The operation will be the far-right leader’s fourth after he was stabbed in the stomach during his presidential election campaign in 2018. Brazil may send a representative in his place or ask for the summit to be postponed, the spokesman said. More than 80,000 fires have broken out in the Amazon rainforest this year. The controversial leader was elected to the presidency in October 2018, a month after he was stabbed at a campaign rally. His surgery is to correct an incisional hernia and is his fourth operation since the attack. Speaking to reporters outside his official residence, the president vowed on Monday to defend his Amazon policy “even in a wheelchair” at a UN General Assembly meeting on 24th September. Let’s hope hr has a complication on the operating table.  

It is the kind of incident that might convince one of a higher power, or not. A priest has accidentally shot himself in the face with a spear gun while scuba diving. Despite the three-foot dart impaling his head, he survived. Connie Hallowell, from Umkomaas, in South Africa, called his escape a “miracle”, obviously… The near-tragedy happened as he was spearfishing in the sea off Scottburgh Beach, south of Durban, on Saturday. “I put my gun down while I was trying to get some sinkers out of the rocks,” the 48-year-old father-of-two told us from his hospital bed. “A big wave came, and with that wave in action, I tried to remove the gun, and the trigger went off and fired the spear into my face.” The arrow smashed straight through his right check and out in front of his left ear – but crucially missed his brain and eyes. He said: “When I tried to move my head, I couldn’t, and I realised it was a spear. I managed to stand up, and I just thought let me stay awake. I screamed for people to help me while I walked back towards the shore.” He was able to make it to dry land where lifeguards treated him while a fisherman shortened the embedded projectile with an angle grinder. Doctors were able to remove the spear after he was airlifted to hospital. “I can see, I can talk, everything is going well. I’ve got a bit of numbness, but I will be much better,” Mr Hallowell said on Sunday. “It’s amazing that I am here at all.” He added that he had no plans to quit spearfishing and was already planning his next trip. God is planning his next ‘miracle’ to cleanse the earth of priests as we speak. 

On This Day

• 1727 – A barn fire during a puppet show in the village of Burwell in Cambridgeshire, England kills 78 people, many of whom are children.
• 1888 – In London, the body of Jack the Ripper’s second murder victim, Annie Chapman, is found.
• 1914 – World War I: Private Thomas Highgate becomes the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the war.
• 1966 – The landmark American science fiction television series Star Trek premieres with its first-aired episode, “The Man Trap”.

Deaths

• 1965 – Dorothy Dandridge, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
• 1999 – Moondog, American-German singer-songwriter, drummer, and poet (b. 1916)
• 2017 – Don Williams, American musician (b. 1939)

Last Meals

Larry Swearingen, 48, was the latest recipient of the lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for his part in the brutal strangling of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter, a Montgomery county girl he claimed was his friend. The Texas death row inmate maintained his innocence until the very moment of his execution for the 1998 rape and murder of the student who was found strangled in woodland with a pair of pantyhose around her neck. Despite Swearingen’s repeated pleas of innocence and a number of push-backs on his execution date – along with Trotter’s family – prosecutors stood firm on their belief that he was her killer. A last-ditch appeal filed by Swearingen’s attorneys was denied by the US Supreme Court just minutes before his scheduled execution time of 6pm. As a result, Swearingen was escorted into the execution chamber, strapped to an IV, and at 6.35pm, he was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital. ‘Lord, forgive them,’ Swearingen said into a microphone hanging above his head after the warden asked if he had a final statement. ‘They don’t know what they’re doing.’ He then began narrating his impending death, saying he could hear the drug going into his arm, before saying he could ‘taste it’. ‘It’s actually burning in my right arm. I don’t feel anything in the left arm,’ he said. Almost immediately, he took a short breath, then started to snore quietly. He stopped moving. He never opened his eyes and never looked at the witnesses who were there on his victim’s behalf, including her parents, who watched through a window just a few feet from him. At 6.47pm – 12 minutes after the lethal dose was administered – Swearingen was pronounced dead and became the 12th inmate to be put to death in the US this year, and the fourth in Texas – the country’s busiest state for capital punishment. But what was his last meal I hear you ask… Well… In Texas, you ain’t getting anything special, and this is the reason why. 

Back in 2011, white supremacist Lawrence Russell Brewer, 44, was served two chicken fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions, a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger and a cheese omelette with beef mince, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapenos. If that wasn’t enough, he was also given fried okra with ketchup, a pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread, three fajitas and a meat pizza. For dessert he was served a pint of ice cream and peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. He was also given three root beers to wash it all down. But Brewer thumbed his nose at the system one final time and didn’t have a single bite, telling staff at the Huntsville prison he wasn’t hungry.  

The next day, Texas lawmakers were so outraged that the practice of final meals on death row was brought to an immediate halt. State Senator John Whitmire said Brewer had ordered such an elaborate meal to “make a mockery” of the system. “It’s wrong to treat a vicious murderer in this fashion. Let him eat the same meal on the chow line as the others.” And rightly so, Brewer was convicted of the racist murder of James Byrd Jnr – who was chained to a truck and dragged to death 21 years ago. Along with Shawn Berry, the killers chained Mr Byrd’s ankles to the back of a truck and dragged him for three miles along roads in Jasper, Texas, on a Saturday night in June 1998. They had offered Mr Byrd a ride home but drove him to an isolated spot where they beat him, spray-painted his face and urinated and defecated on him before chaining him to the vehicle. He was alive during much of the dragging before his head and right arm was severed. The killers dumped his body in front of a black cemetery. King was convicted in February 1999 and became the first white man in modern Texas history to be sentenced to death for killing a black person.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Evan Rachel Wood (31), Shannon Elizabeth (45), Leslie Jones (51), Toby Jones (52), Julie Kavner (68), Dario Argento (78), Chrissie Hynde (67), Doug Bradley (64), Idris Elba (47), Michael Keaton (68), Raquel Welch (79), Rose McGowan (46), Carice van Houten (43), Paddy Considine (46), George Lazenby (80), Christopher Morris (54), Beyoncé (38), Michael Berryman (71), Charlie Sheen (54), Jean-Pierre Jeunet (66), Pauline Collins (79), Keanu Reeves (55), Salma Hayek (53), Keith Allen (66), Zendaya (23), Burn Gorman (45), Lily Tomlin (80), Steve Pemberton (52), Gloria Estefan (62), and Barry Gibb (73).

Yay! Points!!! Sarai correctly guessed Valerie Harper would pop it this year, but also listed her as her Woman, so 170 points, Paul C and Laura also listed her and got 70 each. Quite a points haul for Sarai, instantly propelling her to third place and Paul C strengthening his leadership. Well done all of you. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Timothy Bell, Baron Bell, 77, British advertising and public relations executive (Bell Pottinger).  
• Jessi Combs, 36, American racer and television host (Xtreme 4×4, MythBusters, Overhaulin’), jet-car crash.  
• Jim Leavelle, 99, American homicide detective, police escort for Lee Harvey Oswald, heart attack.  
• Franco Columbu, 78, Italian bodybuilder and actor (Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator), Mr. Olympia winner (1976, 1981), heart attack.  
• Valerie Harper, 80, American actress (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Valerie), multiple Emmy Award winner, leptomeningeal carcinomatosis.  
• Hans Rausing, 93, Swedish businessman, Chairman of Tetra Pak (1985–1993).  
• Anthoine Hubert, 22, French racing driver, GP3 Series champion (2018), race crash.

In Other News

Pope Francis has apologised for arriving late for his weekly prayer in St Peter’s Square, saying was stuck in a lift in the Vatican. The 82-year-old pontiff said he had been trapped in the lift for 25 minutes because of a power outage before he was freed by firefighters. We all know what can happen in broken down lifts! “I have to apologise for being late,” a smiling Pope said at the start of the Angelus address. He then asked the crowd for a round of applause for the firefighters. Addressing the crowd, the Pope said there had been a “drop in voltage and the elevator stopped”. “Thank goodness, the firefighters arrived, and I thank them so much, and after 25 minutes of work they managed to get it started again,” he said. Television networks in Italy which broadcast the prayer live had been concerned the unprecedented delay might have been due to health reasons, AFP news agency reports.  In his address, the Pope announced that he would create ten new Roman Catholic cardinals next month, like we needed any more…  

Colin Baker, who starred as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, admitted that he had to wait nine-and-a-half hours to be seen in A&E while he was suffering from a mystery illness. The ex-Time Lord star recalled “A fortnight ago I was sent by my GP to A&E in Stoke Mandeville where (I was told) the orthopaedic team were awaiting my arrival. I spent nine and a half hours being in a corridor. “My problem was not life-threatening, but I had a very high temperature and felt unwell. “I was admitted, put on an antibiotic drip and discharged thirty six hours later. “Forty-eight hours after that I was back in A&E for an eight and a half hour wait, with an even higher temperature. “Six hours in, I was left in a side room, where I dozed off and woke at 2am and went in search of help. “I was presented with an irate nurse, demanding crossly to know where I had been.” Colin explained: ”They had a bed for me and couldn’t find me. The doctor had apparently not told her where they had taken me. Fortunately, Colin was later discharged from hospital and recovered completely within five days, but as we know, these things tend to flare up now and again.   

Charlie Webster – the Radio 5 Live favourite – admitted she will have a kidney problem “for the rest of her life” after a battle with malaria damaged her organs. The former Sky Sports presenter revealed doctors have now told her they “don’t know if her kidneys will last”. The 36 year old presenter opened up about her health fears after suffering a near-fatal experience with malaria three years ago. Revealing how the disease has impacted her internal organs, Charlie explained: “The one thing I’ve got as a long-term thing is I’ll always have a kidney problem.” She admitted doctors are currently unsure about whether her kidneys will continue working. She added: “I have to keep an eye on it and see a consultant for the rest of my life, because they don’t know if my kidneys will last and that really upset me.” In spite of the frightening diagnosis, Charlie insisted she is trying to avoid “constantly worrying” about it. Charlie was diagnosed with malaria back in 2016 after spending two weeks in a coma. She was told by doctors she was dying after contracting the mosquito-borne disease, while also suffering from other diseases including pneumonia. Reflecting on when she began to feel unwell during a work trip to Rio, the campaigner said: “I started not feeling well and pushed and pushed and I could hardly stand up. “I was even bleeding through my bum and going to the toilet all the time. Moral of the story, get your jabs or get mentioned on this newsletter. 

On This Day

• 1715 – King Louis XIV of France dies after a reign of 72 years, which is the longest of any major European monarch. Our Queen is coming up to 68 years.
• 1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake devastates Tokyo and Yokohama, killing about 105,000 people.
• 1939 – Adolf Hitler signs an order to begin the systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and disabled people, the UK Conservative Party try to emulate him in 2019. 
• 1958 – Iceland expands its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom, beginning the Cod Wars.
• 1985 – A joint American–French expedition locates the wreckage of the RMS Titanic.
• 2004 – The Crisis in Beslan commences when armed terrorists take schoolchildren and school staff hostage in North Ossetia (Russia); by the end of the siege three days later more than 385 people are dead (including hostages, other civilians, security personnel and terrorists).

Deaths

• 1715 – Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
• 2006 – Kyffin Williams, Welsh painter and educator (b. 1918)

 Last Meals 

Charles Frederick Peace was an English burglar and murderer, who embarked on a life of crime after being maimed in an industrial accident as a boy. After killing a policeman in Manchester, he fled to his native Sheffield, where he became obsessed with his neighbour’s wife, eventually shooting her husband dead. Settling in London, he carried out multiple burglaries before being caught in the prosperous suburb of Blackheath, wounding the policeman who arrested him. He was linked to the Sheffield murder, and tried at Leeds Assizes.

In 1854, he was found guilty of multiple burglaries and sentenced to four years’ penal servitude. In 1859, he married a widow named Hannah Ward. Soon afterward, he committed a major burglary in Manchester, nearly killing a police officer who came to arrest him, and was sentenced to six years’ penal servitude. Another burglary in Manchester earned him another eight-year sentence. For a while after this, he seems to have concentrated on his picture-framing business, before working on the North Eastern Railway, from which he was sacked for absenteeism. After moving to the Sheffield, Peace made the acquaintance of a civil engineer called Dyson, which would prove fateful in due course. During this time, Peace fatally shot a policeman but managed to escape in the darkness, two brothers, John and William Habron, living nearby, were arrested and charged with the killing of Constable Cock. John Habron was acquitted for lack of evidence, but William Habron was sentenced to death, later commuted to penal servitude for life. Peace had made a point of attending the trial, to confirm that he was not a suspect, before returning to Sheffield.

In the meantime, Peace had developed an obsessive interest in Dyson’s wife, though it was never established how far she may have returned his feelings. On 1st July, Peace approached Mrs Dyson and threatened to blow out her brains and those of her husband. Dyson took out a summons against Peace, and moved to a different suburb. On their first day in the new house, Mrs Dyson was accosted by Peace, who said “You see, I am here to annoy you, and I’ll annoy you wherever you go.” That evening, a little after eight o’clock, Peace observed Mrs Dyson coming out from her back door and entering a nearby outhouse. When she duly emerged, he confronted her with a revolver, shouting “Speak or I’ll fire.” In terror, she retreated to the outhouse, and her husband came out to investigate. Peace fled down the passage, where Dyson followed him. Peace fired twice at Dyson, the second shot passing fatally through his temple. As Mrs Dyson cried “Murder!”, Peace escaped and made his way by train to Hull, where his wife kept an eating-house. There was an immediate hue and cry, with a price of £100 on his head. Peace was finally caught. On 10th October 1878. During his trial Peace denied all allegations against him, but the evidence against him made it clear he was a bad ‘un. The Judge passed a sentence of death for the murder of Dyson. Having nothing more to lose, Peace made a full confession to the murder of Constable Cock, in order to exonerate William Habron, who was later given a free pardon and £800 compensation. Peace re-asserted that Mrs Dyson had been his mistress, but she strenuously denied this, calling him a demon, “beyond the power of even  a Shakespeare to paint”.

On the morning of his execution, Peace ate a hearty breakfast of eggs and salty bacon, and calmly awaited the coming of the public executioner, William Marwood, inventor of the “long drop”. He was escorted on the death-walk by the prison chaplain, who was reading aloud from The Consolations of Religion about the fires of hell. 

Peace burst out “Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worth while living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!” 

Peace was buried in Armley Gaol. He was 46 years old.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Richard Gere (69), Chris Tucker (47), Todd Carty (55), Cameron Diaz (46), Michael Chiklis (55), Warren Buffett (88), Carla Gugino (47), Rebecca De Mornay (59), Elliott Gould (80), Jason Priestley (49), Jack Black (49), Brian Thompson (59), David Soul (75), Shania Twain (53), Aaron Paul (39), Peter Stormare (65), Barbara Bach (71), Paul Reubens (66), Reece Shearsmith (49), Melissa McCarthy (48), Chris Pine (38), Macaulay Culkin (38), Alexander Skarsgård (42), Sean Connery (88), Tim Burton (60), Rachel Bilson (37), Tom Skerritt (85), Gene Simmons (69), and Claudia Schiffer (48).

Sadly another week without scoring, luckily for you we have a number edition of the newsletter to keep your hopes as alive as your lists. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Richard Booth, 80, Welsh bookseller.  
• Angelo Grubisic, 38, British astronautical engineer and wingsuit designer, BASE jumping accident.  
• Junior Agogo, 40, Ghanaian footballer (Bristol Rovers, Nottingham Forest, national team).  
• Gary Ray Bowles, 57, American serial killer, executed by lethal injection.  
• David Koch, 79, American businessman and political financier, Executive Vice President of Koch Industries (1983–2018).  

In Other News

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been treated for a tumour on her pancreas, according to a court spokesperson. The tumour was determined to be malignant, a spokesperson said, adding that noe additional treatment would be required at this time. The 86-year-old justice reportedly began radiation treatment for the localised cancerous tumour on 5th August in New York City on an outpatient basis. The Supreme Court also said a bile duct was placed inside of the Supreme Court justice as part of her treatment. She has battled numerous bouts of cancer in past decades, including lung cancer last year, when she underwent surgery in December. Ginsburg “tolerated treatment well,” the statement said, adding: “She cancelled her annual summer visit to Santa Fe, but has otherwise maintained an active schedule.” “The tumour was treated definitively and there is no evidence of disease elsewhere in the body,” the statement read. “Justice Ginsburg will continue to have periodic blood tests and scans. No further treatment is needed at this time.” In a recent interview with NPR, Ginsburg shot down critics who have lambasted her amid numerous health scares. “There was a senator, I think it was after my pancreatic cancer, who announced with great glee that I was going to be dead within six months,” she said. “That senator, whose name I have forgotten, is now himself dead, and I,” she added with a smile, “am very much alive.”    

The man who hoaxed detectives by claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper has died, police have confirmed. John Humble, who was dubbed Wearside Jack, sent police on a wild goose chase when he sent them hoax letters and an audio tape in the late 1970s. He was unmasked and sentenced to eight years in jail in 2006 after admitting perverting the course of justice. Northumbria Police said Humble, who had changed his name to John Samuel Anderson, died on 30th July. West Yorkshire Police detectives, headed by the force’s assistant chief constable George Oldfield, believed the letters and tape were genuine and diverted resources to Humble’s home town of Sunderland. When Humble was eventually prosecuted, Leeds Crown Court heard claims that delays caused by the hoax allowed Peter Sutcliffe to murder three more women. Sutcliffe was jailed in 1981 and given 20 life sentences for killing 13 women and attempting to kill seven more. Humble, 63, died at his home in South Shields, where he had lived since being released from prison in 2009. A force spokesman said his death was not being treated as suspicious and would not be investigated.  

Actor Ben Unwin, who played Jesse McGregor in Australian soap Home and Away, has died at the age of 41. The actor’s body was discovered last week, on 14th August, but the cause of death has not yet been confirmed. “Police attended Minyon Falls, Whian Whian (New South Wales), responding to a concern for welfare,” a police statement read. “The body of a 41-year-old man was located. The death is not being treated as suspicious.” Unwin played “bad boy” Jesse during two stints on the popular soap, between 1996 and 2000 and then from 2002 to 2005. His character was often in trouble with the law, with one storyline seeing his character sent to prison after he was accused of burning down Alf Stewart’s shop for insurance money. A spokesman for the Seven network, which broadcasts Home and Away, said: “Cast and crew from Home and Away are saddened to learn of the passing of former cast-mate, Ben Unwin. “Ben’s work in the role of Jesse McGregor is remembered with much affection. 

On This Day

• 1609 – Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.
• 2001 – American singer Aaliyah and several members of her record company are killed as their overloaded aircraft crashes shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas.
• 2012 – Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space becoming the first man-made object to do so.

Deaths

• 1819 – James Watt, Scottish-English engineer and instrument maker (b. 1736)
• 1822 – William Herschel, German-English astronomer and composer (b. 1738)
• 1867 – Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (b. 1791)
• 1900 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philologist, philosopher, and critic (b. 1844)
• 1956 – Alfred Kinsey, American biologist and academic (b. 1894)
• 1984 – Truman Capote, American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
• 2012 – Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut (b. 1930)
• 2017 – Rich Piana, American bodybuilder (b. 1971)
• 2018 – John McCain, American politician (b. 1936)

Last Meals

Teresa Wilson Bean Lewis was an American murderer who was the only woman on death row in Virginia prior to her execution. She was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murders of her husband and stepson in October 2002. Lewis sought to profit from a $250,000 life insurance policy her stepson had taken out as a U.S. Army reservist in anticipation of his deployment to Iraq.

Teresa Wilson Bean first met Julian Lewis, her future husband, at work. He was a recent widower with three children. Julian’s older son was previously killed in a car accident, leaving his father $200,000 from a life insurance policy. Which might have sparked Teresa’s greed. Julian’s younger son, Charles J. Lewis, obtained a $250,000 insurance policy in preparation for his impending deployment to Iraq as part of the United States Army Reserve. Charles designated his father as the primary, and Teresa Lewis as the secondary beneficiaries.

In the fall of 2002, Teresa Lewis met 21-year-old Matthew Jessee Shallenberger and 19-year-old Rodney Lamont Fuller at a Wal-Mart in Danville and began a sexual relationship with both of them. In October 2002, Charles came home on a visit from Army training in Maryland. On October 23rd, Shallenberger and Lamont were given $1,200 by Lewis to purchase firearms and ammunition to kill Julian Lewis and his son Charles for the insurance money. A week later, on the night of October 30th, Shallenberger and Fuller entered the Lewis’ trailer through a back door that Teresa had left open. While she waited in the kitchen, Shallenberger shot the sleeping Julian several times, while Fuller shot Charles in his bedroom with a shotgun. After discovering Charles was not dead, Fuller shot him twice more. Teresa waited 45 minutes before calling for help, and while waiting for the police to arrive, she removed money from her dying husband’s wallet. Shortly after, Teresa Lewis was caught attempting to withdraw $50,000 from her dead husband’s account with a forged check. Within a week, she confessed to law enforcement officers that she had offered money to have her husband killed. During the investigation, prosecutors found that Lewis had been trying to gather the assets of her late husband and stepson even before they had been buried. During the murder trial, the judge deemed Lewis the mastermind of the crime and called her “the head of this serpent.” Barbara G. Haskins, a court appointed, board-certified forensic psychiatrist, stated that “Cognitive testing showed a Full Scale IQ of 72. Verbal IQ was 70, and Performance IQ was 79.” Dr. Haskins also stated that Teresa Lewis was and is able to make a plea agreement and enter pleas. Lewis’ lawyer stated that “She’s not mentally retarded, but she is very, very close to it.” Defence attorneys thought the evidence against Lewis was overwhelming and advised her to plead guilty to the capital charges in order to avoid a jury, and hope that the judge would show some leniency since Lewis had been cooperating with investigators. However, she was sentenced to death. 

Lewis’ last meal consisted of two fried chicken breasts, sweet peas with butter, a Dr Pepper and apple pie for dessert. Lewis addressed stepdaughter Kathy Lewis Clifton, who came to witness her execution, to apologize for killing her brother and father. Her last words were:

 “I just want Kathy to know that I love you, and I’m very sorry.” 

Lewis was executed on September 23rd, 2010, at 9 p.m. by lethal injection, at Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt. This made her the 12th woman to be executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jared Harris (57), Steve Guttenberg (60), Rupert Grint (30), Stephen Fry (61), Ray Park (44), Charley Boorman (52), Kristen Wiig (45), Richard Armitage (47), Honor Blackman (93), James the cunt Corden (40), Ty Burrell (51), Carrie-Anne Moss (51), Hayden Panettiere (29), Kim Cattrall (62), RJ Mitte (26), Kenny Rogers (80), Amy Adams (44), Andrew Garfield (35), Ben Barnes (37), Jonathan Ke Quan (47), John Noble (70), Joan Allen (62), James Marsters (56), Misha Collins (44), David Walliams (47), Ray Wise (71), Demi Lovato (26), Sylvester McCoy (75), Matthew Perry (49), Jonathan Frakes (66), Ian McElhinney (70), Kevin Dillon (53), Diana Muldaur (80), Simon Bird (34), Roman Polanski (85), Edward Norton (49), Robert Redford (82), Christian Slater (49), Madeleine Stowe (60), and Denis Leary (61).

Nil points this week, plus a personal failure on my Star Trek list not to have listed Barbara March. Oh well, let’s get on with it…    

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Barbara March, 65, Canadian actress (Star Trek), cancer. 
• Robyn Léwis, 89, Welsh author, politician and arch-druid, Vice President of Plaid Cymru (1970–1976).  
• V. B. Chandrasekhar, 57, Indian cricketer (Tamil Nadu, Goa, national team), heart attack.  
• Princess Christina of the Netherlands, 72, Dutch royal, bone cancer.  
• Peter Fonda, 79, American actor and screenwriter (Easy Rider, Ulee’s Gold, 3:10 to Yuma), lung cancer.  
• Richard Williams, 86, Canadian-British animator and director (The Thief and the Cobbler, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Return of the Pink Panther), three-time Oscar winner, cancer.  

In Other News 

Police are investigating after Labour activist Owen Jones was “kicked in the head” by a group of men outside a pub. The Guardian columnist said he had been celebrating his birthday with friends when the men made a “direct beeline” for him in the early hours of Saturday. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said an attack on a journalist was “an attack on free speech and our fundamental values”. The Met said it was working to establish the “full circumstances”. Mr Jones told the BBC he had spent Friday night with his partner and some friends at the Lexington pub on Pentonville Road, Islington. The six of them left the pub at about 02:00 BST on Saturday. As they were saying goodbye to each other, a group of “three or four” men made a “direct beeline” for Mr Jones. Mr Jones claimed it was a “premeditated” move by “far right” activists. “They marched over, kicked me in the back, threw me on the floor… and then kicked me in the head,” he said. Mr Jones said his friends were also punched in the head as they tried to stop the “frenzied” attack on him – and that there was “no question” the men were “specifically” targeting him. Mr Jones said the attack was the latest in a series of assaults since he was verbally abused by protesters on College Green in Westminster earlier this year. “I’m obviously very concerned and worried – not simply about my own personal safety, but of others, and the fact that the far right feels increasingly emboldened and far right-types are feeling increasingly prepared to resort to thuggery and violence.”  

Peter Murphy, former frontman of goth rock group Bauhaus, has suffered a heart attack. In a statement posted to Murphy’s Instagram, his management confirmed that the 62-year-old star was admitted to a New York hospital after experiencing “shortness of breath” and was later determined to have had a heart attack. As a result, several dates in Murphy’s New York residency at music venue Le Poisson Rouge have been postponed. “Sadly, Peter is physically unable to perform the remaining shows in the Residency series” the statement read. “These shows will be postponed to later dates to be determined.” Ticket holders have been offered transfers to a new date, or a refund on their tickets. Murphy’s family additionally said in a statement: “We would like to thank the fans for their undying support and hope that Peter will be back on stage with a refreshed heart, stronger than before!” Last year Murphy joined Bauhaus for a world tour celebrating the band’s 40th anniversary, and is currently in the midst of his second residency following a successful stint in San Francisco. His last solo record Lion was released in 2014.  

Olivia Newton-John has been seen for the first time since she opened up about her battle with breast cancer. The Grease actress, 70, recently revealed she doesn’t know how much longer she has to live as the chance of a cure for her condition – which is at stage four – is very slim. On Wednesday night she hit the red carpet at the Industry Dance Awards and Cancer Benefit Show in Hollywood, where she picked up an award. She looked glam in a white trouser suit and shimmery silver top which she matched with her trainers. Olivia was all smiles as she posed for photos and wanted people to know that she was feeling good. “I just want everyone to know, I’m here, I’m doing great, it was a challenging year because I broke my sacrum and I had to learn to walk again and everything. But I am strong and I am back and I’m feeling good and loving every minute.” Olivia shared the devastating news that she’s battling breast cancer for the third time back in November. She decided it was better for her mental health if her doctors didn’t tell her how long she had left. 

On This Day

• 1612 – The trial of the Pendle witches, one of England’s most famous witch trials, begins at Lancaster Assizes.
• 1634 – Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France.
• 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov‘s controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.

Deaths

• 1227 – Genghis Khan, Mongolian emperor (b. 1162)
• 1998 – Persis Khambatta, Indian model and actress, Femina Miss India 1965 (b. 1948)
• 2017 – Bruce Forsyth, English television presenter and entertainer (b. 1928)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Robert De Niro (75), Sean Penn (58), Belinda Carlisle (60), Steve Carell (56), James Cameron (64), Julie Newmar (85), Madonna (60), Jennifer Lawrence (29), Ben Affleck (47), Natasha Henstridge (45), Joe Jonas (30), Jim Dale (84), Tony Robinson (73), Mila Kunis (36), Halle Berry (53), Steve Martin (74), Joseph Marcell (71), Cara Delevingne (27), Chris Hemsworth (36), Ian McDiarmid (75), and Hulk Hogan (66).

Last Meals

William George Bonin also known as the Freeway Killer, was an American serial killer and twice-paroled sex offender who committed the rape, torture, and murder of a minimum of 21 boys and young men in a series of killings in 1979 and 1980 in southern California. Bonin is also suspected of committing a further 15 murders. Described by the prosecutor at his first trial as “the most arch-evil person who ever existed”, Bonin was convicted of 14 of the murders linked to the “Freeway Killer” in two separate trials in 1982 and 1983. He spent 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin State Prison on February 23, 1996. Bonin became known as the “Freeway Killer” due to the fact that the majority of his victims’ bodies were discovered alongside numerous freeways in southern California. He shares this epithet with two separate and unrelated serial killers: Patrick Kearney and Randy Kraft.

Bonin’s quest started early, on November 17, 1968, at age 21, Bonin committed a sexual assault on a youth. He was to commit three further sexual assaults upon boys and youths over the following four months. The victims of these four assaults were aged between 12 and 18 and in each instance, he bound or otherwise restrained his victim before forcibly engaging in sodomy, oral copulation, and methods of torture which included bludgeoning and the squeezing of his victims’ testicles. In early 1969, Bonin was arrested as he attempted to restrain a 16-year-old youth whom he had lured into his vehicle; he was indicted on five counts of kidnapping, four counts of sodomy, one count of oral copulation, and one count of child molestation against the five youths he had abducted. Bonin pleaded guilty to molestation and forced oral copulation and was sentenced to the Atascadero State Hospital as a mentally disordered sexual offender. While detained at this hospital, Bonin was subjected to a battery of psychiatric examinations, which revealed that he possessed a higher than average IQ of 121, and displayed traits of manic depression in addition to damage to the prefrontal cortex of his brain—which would likely reduce his ability to restrain any violent impulses. Two years after his arrival at the Atascadero State Hospital, Bonin was sent to prison, declared unsuitable for further treatment—largely due to his repeatedly engaging in forceful sexual activity with male inmates. On June 11, 1974, he was released from prison after doctors concluded he was “no longer a danger to the health and safety of others. He then went on to murder dozens of young boys and men.

On June 11, police observed Bonin driving in a seemingly random manner throughout Hollywood, unsuccessfully attempting to lure five separate teenage boys into his van, before succeeding in luring a youth into his vehicle. The police followed Bonin until his van parked in a desolate parking lot close to the Hollywood Freeway, then discreetly approached the vehicle. Upon hearing muffled screams and banging sounds emanating from inside the van, these plainclothes officers forced their way into the vehicle; discovering Bonin in the act of raping a 17-year-old Orange County runaway named Harold Tate, whom he had handcuffed and bound. Although initially protesting his innocence in any of the murders, Bonin confessed to abducting, raping, and killing 21 boys and young men. He expressed no remorse for his actions, but he did demonstrate extreme embarrassment and regret over having been caught. Bonin was brought to trial in Los Angeles County, charged with the murder of 12 of his victims whose bodies had been found within this constituency. Bonin was sentenced to death for the murders. Describing the murders as “a gross, revolting affront to human dignity”, the judge further ordered at this hearing that if Bonin’s death sentence were commuted to one of life imprisonment, the sentences should run consecutively.

Bonin was to remain incarcerated on death row for 14 years at San Quentin State Prison, awaiting execution in the gas chamber. In his years on death row, he undertook both painting and writing as hobbies, and received several minor awards for his artwork, short stories and poems. He also corresponded with numerous individuals, including the mothers of some of his victims, he never expressed any regret or remorse over having murdered their sons. On one occasion, Bonin  informed one mother that her son had been his favourite victim as “he was such a screamer”. Bonin was executed by lethal injection inside the gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison on February 23, 1996. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California. At 6 p.m. on the day he was executed, Bonin was moved from his cell to a death watch cell, where he ordered his last meal: two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of chocolate ice cream and three six-packs of Pepsi. Bonin was escorted from his holding cell into the execution chamber. In his final statement, given to the prison warden one hour prior to his scheduled execution at midnight, Bonin again expressed no remorse for his crimes and left a note that stated:

I feel the death penalty is not an answer to the problems at hand. I feel it sends the wrong message to the people of this country. Young people act as they see other people acting instead of as people tell them to act. I would advise that when a person has a thought of doing anything serious against the law, that before they did, they should go to a quiet place and think about it seriously.

Bonin was pronounced dead at 12:13 a.m. He was 49 at the time of his execution.

This weeks big news is the suicide of that lovely individual called Jeffrey Epstein. However convenient his death may be to some major players in the world, it’s crass and pointless to engage in conspiracy theories about it, as we’ll probably never know who committed Epstein’s suicide.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Miriam, 38, Mexican reality show personality (There’s Something About Miriam, Big Brother Australia 2004).  
• Henri Belolo, 82, French music producer (The Ritchie Family, Village People) and songwriter.  
• Alfred Smith, 111, Scottish supercentenarian, oldest man in Scotland.  
• Toni Morrison, 88, American author (The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved), Nobel laureate (1993), Pulitzer Prize winner (1988).  
• Jeffrey Epstein, 66, American financier (Bear Stearns), philanthropist (Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation) and convicted sex offender, suicide by hanging.

 In Other News

Country music legend Willie Nelson has canceled his tour just as it began, due to a medical issue. The 86 year old singer took to his verified Twitter on Wednesday night, to reveal that his tour with Allison Krauss is canceled due to a breathing problem. Nelson didn’t indicate whether there were any plans in the immediate future to hit the road again. ‘To my fans, I’m sorry to cancel my tour, but I have a breathing problem that I need to have my doctor check out. I’ll be back Love, Willie,’ the singer said. He wouldn’t elaborate on the medical issue, but Nelson had just embarked on his tour on Monday, with a performance at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This isn’t the first time that Nelson has been forced to cancel numerous performances due to medical issues. Nelson has had a history of emphysema, and in 2012 he canceled a performance in the Denver area due to complications with emphysema due to the high altitude. In 2015, after several years of difficulties with emphysema, Nelson underwent stem cell therapy to improve his lungs. A longtime cigarette smoker, he quite several years ago but continued smoking marijuana, though in 2008, he used a carbon free method to avoid effects of smoke.

You might remember that Jimmy Osmond, 56, suffered a stroke during a pantomime performance of Peter Pan in Birmingham at the end of last year. The singer fell ill on stage but still continued his performance and signed autographs for fans before being rushed to hospital. Now, Merrill Osmond, 66, who was previously the lead singer of the sibling’s group The Osmonds, has said a return to the stage for his brother is unlikely. He commented: “I think they are off the cards. I think they are off, brother. We used to be called The Osmond Brothers. Now it’s down to Brother Osmond.” Merrill went on to say his brother’s illness is a “big enough disaster” to prevent him from performing again. “He definitely needed space – and he still does. He doesn’t want to meet with anybody,” he added.  

Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder says he’s taking more pills than ever because ‘getting old is really shit’. Bizarrely, the singer, now 56, now pops more prescription drugs than ecstasy tablets. He told us: “I’m on so many fucking drugs I rattle when I walk. I have to take all sorts of bleedin’ stuff for all me different ailments. Shaun has never hidden his past struggles with drugs – he’d regularly indulge in a cocktail of booze, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana after a gig. But these days, while on tour with the band four decades later for their greatest hits tour, he’s got a new addiction to contend with. “Just shit loads of chocolate really,” he said. “It used to be sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Now it’s just rock ’n’ roll – the wife is gutted. Shaun recently hit the headlines about his appearance when all his body hair fell out. He explained in an interview that he now has ‘no eyelashes, no fingernails, no head, no hair whatsoever’ – and it has left doctors completely baffled. “I got alopecia and all me hair fell out,” he said. “At the start of this year I had hair and a beard and then, almost overnight, the whole lot went, eyelashes, eyebrows, even me pubes. “They don’t know what’s caused it. At first they thought I had that immune deficiency thing, but I haven’t. Then they said it was linked to me under active thyroid but that just makes me fat and tired. “And I haven’t produced any testosterone for 10 years. I used to have injections but now I’m on the gel which is better.” 

On This Day

• 1934 – The first civilian prisoners arrive at the Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.
• 1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi.
• 1969 – The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine following their lift-off from the moon.
• 2000 – An air rage incident occurs on board Southwest Airlines Flight 1763 when 19-year-old Jonathan Burton attempts to storm the cockpit, but he is subdued by other passengers and dies from his injuries.

Deaths

• 480 BC – Leonidas I, Agiad King of Sparta
• 1956 – Jackson Pollock, American painter (b. 1912)
• 1994 – Peter Cushing, English actor (b. 1913)
• 2014 – Robin Williams, American actor and comedian (b. 1951)

Last Meals

Friedrich Heinrich Karl “Fritz” Haarmann was a German serial killer, known as the Butcher of Hanover, the Vampire of Hanover and the Wolf-Man. Between 1918 and 1924, Haarmann is known to have committed at least 24 murders, although he is suspected of murdering a minimum of 27. All of Haarmann’s victims were males between the ages of 10 and 22, the majority of whom were in their mid- to late-teens. The victims would be lured back to one of three addresses in which Haarmann is known to have resided throughout those years. He is known to have killed upon the promise of assistance, accommodation, work, or under the pretence of arrest. At Haarmann’s apartment, the victim would typically be given food and drink before Haarmann bit into his Adam’s apple, often as he was strangled. In many instances, this act would cause the victim to die of asphyxiation, although on several occasions, Haarmann would bite completely through his victims’ Adams apple and trachea. (Haarmann would refer to the act of biting through his victims’ neck as being his “love bite”.) All of Haarmann’s victims were dismembered before their bodies were discarded, usually in the Leine River, although the dismembered body of his first known victim had simply been buried, and the body of his last victim had been thrown into a lake located at the entrance to the Herrenhausen Gardens. Following Haarmann’s arrest, rumours would circulate that the flesh of his victims had been consumed by Haarmann himself or sold upon the black market as pork or horse meat. Although no physical evidence was ever produced to confirm these theories, Haarmann was known to be an active trader in contraband meat, which was invariably boneless, diced and often sold as mince. Haarmann was found guilty of 24 of the 27 murders for which he was tried and sentenced to death by beheading in December 1924. In addition, in accordance with German practice, his honorary rights of citizenship were revoked. 

At 6 o’clock on the morning of 15 April 1925, Fritz Haarmann was beheaded by guillotine in the grounds of Hanover prison. In accordance with German tradition, Haarmann was not informed of his execution date until the prior evening. Upon receipt of the news, he observed prayer with his pastor, before being granted his final wishes of an expensive cigar to smoke and Brazilian coffee to drink in his cell. No members of the press were permitted to witness the execution, and the event was seen by only a handful of witnesses. According to published reports, although Haarmann was pale and nervous, he maintained a sense of bravado as he walked to the guillotine. The last words Haarmann spoke were: “I am guilty, gentlemen, but, hard though it may be, I want to die as a man.”  Immediately prior to placing his head upon the execution apparatus, Haarmann added: “I repent, but I do not fear death.” Following Haarmann’s execution, sections of his brain were removed for forensic analysis. An examination of slices of Haarmann’s brain revealed traces of meningitis, although no sections of Haarmann’s brain were permanently preserved. Nonetheless, Haarmann’s head was preserved in formaldehyde and remained in the possession of the Göttingen medical school from 1925 until 2014, when it was cremated.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Antonio Banderas (58), Rosanna Arquette (59), Anna Kendrick (34), Sam Elliott (75), Gillian Anderson (51), Rhona Mitra (43), Eric Bana (51), Melanie Griffith (62), Audrey Tautou (43), Dustin Hoffman (82), Charlize Theron (44), Abbie Cornish (37), Michael Shannon (45), David Duchovny (59), M. Night Shyamalan (49), Michelle Yeoh (57), Barbara Windsor (82), Geri Horner (47), Mark Strong (56), Tawny Kitaen (58), Meghan Markle (38), Billy Bob Thornton (64), and Barack Obama (58).