Let’s dole out the points! With the passing of Bob Newhart I can award 56 points to Iwan!  Well done that bloke! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Tomcraft, 49, German DJ and producer. 
• Whitney Rydbeck, 79, American actor (Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, 1941, Battle Beyond the Stars). 
• Cheng Pei-pei, 78, Hong Kong actress (Come Drink with Me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Mulan), complications from corticobasal degeneration. 
• Bob Newhart, 94, American comedian and actor (The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Elf). 
• Ray Reardon, 91, Welsh snooker player, six-time world champion, cancer. 

In Other News

For all of you enjoying festival season, beware what you grab hold of! Brazilian rock singer Ayres Sasaki was electrocuted last week during a live performance in Brazil. The musician died instantly after reportedly hugging a soaking-wet fan during a concert on July 13th at the Solar Hotel in Salinopolis. The contact allegedly triggered a nearby cable to jolt, causing a fatal electric shock, according to The Flying Monkeys. Salinópolis Police are investing the incident. The Pará Civil Police say that witnesses have given statements and they have requested expert reports. The Solar Hotel shared a statement on social media about the tragic incident. “We are fully dedicated to providing support to his family and taking the necessary measures. We reaffirm our commitment to fully cooperating with the competent authorities for the proper clarification of the events,” the hotel wrote in a translated message. “Our thoughts and condolences are with Ayres Sasaki’s family and friends at this difficult time.” Sasaki is survived by his wife of 11 months, Mariana. On her Instagram Story, Sasaki’s wife thanked fans. “I would like to thank you for every message of affection and comfort, for every prayer during this difficult time that we are going through, I haven’t been able to read all the messages yet, but as I feel better, I will respond to each one. Thank you.” 

There are rumours that Bret Michaels, the reality TV star and frontman of the glam-metal band Poison, has been hospitalised and is in critical condition after suffering a brain haemorrhage. An article on his website seemed to confirm his condition but has since been removed. “There are several incorrect reports on Bret’s condition,” read the Saturday posting on bretmichaels.com. “Bret remains in critical condition at an undisclosed location. Further tests are being ran and information will be updated in the coming days.” Michaels, 47, former star of VH1’s “Rock of Love With Bret Michaels” and current “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant, initially was hospitalised at an undisclosed facility Thursday after suffering a massive subarachnoid haemorrhage, or bleeding at the base of his brain stem, his publicist confirmed to the Flying Monkeys on Friday. Michaels was in critical condition and under “intense observation” by doctors while they ran tests to determine the cause of his bleeding. The new medical woes came on the heels of an emergency appendectomy Michaels received after falling ill before a concert in April. Last weekend, Michaels revealed details of how he was rushed to a hospital in April before a show in San Antonio, Texas. “They told me that if I had gone onstage like I wanted to, my appendix likely would have ruptured and I could have died,” he wrote on his blog. “I’m feeling pretty bad … to tell you the truth,” Michaels wrote after the appendectomy. “When you’re not planning on having a body part ripped out of you, it can be a shock to the system. While the doctors are amazing in San Antonio, there is just no way around the fact that getting your appendix out HURTS. I have a pretty good threshold for pain, but this one hurts.” The rocker added that because he’s been a diabetic since age 6, his recovery could take longer than usual. However, it’s unlikely that Michaels’ diabetes spurred his current condition. “This type of haemorrhage is usually from an aneurysm,” Dr. Wendy Wright, an assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, told the Flying Monkeys. “The risk of an aneurysm rupturing is probably related to size – the larger the aneurysm, the more likely to rupture – and also may be more likely in people who smoke or on blood thinning medications.”  *Editors note: So, this happened in 2011, FML. 

The daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen, Rebecca Wilcox, shared an update about her mother’s health whilst appearing on Good Morning Britain. Rebecca appeared on the programme in a bid to share a plea with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Rebecca is urging Sir Keir to change the law in favour of assisted dying. It was here that she shared heartbreaking information about her TV star mum’s lung cancer battle. Rebecca appeared emotional as she discussed her plea to the Prime Minister, she also admitted how difficult it is to discuss the topic, stating that she “can’t talk about it” without being upset. The devoted daughter’s appearance follows Esther’s decision to join the assisted dying clinic Dignitas in Switzerland, due to assisted dying being illegal in the UK. Rebecca shared her disappointment that Sir Keir’s promise to reverse the law was not mentioned in the King’s speech this week. She confessed that due to the severity of her mother’s illness, she is currently “living from scan to scan”. A tearful Rebecca detailed: “We feel like we’re living in an hourglass and the sand is pouring on us. There will come a point where our heads are no longer above it, and I really want politicians, MPs, people of this country to realise that we all have a choice in how we live, and I want us to have a choice in how we die. This is not about shortening anyone’s life, it’s about shortening their death and making it dignified.” Rebecca spoke of her mother, stating: “I don’t want her to go through a painful death. I don’t want my memories of her to completely be dissolved by pain and agony in those last few days.” 

On This Day

• 1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.
• 1969 – Apollo program: At 02:56 UTC, astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed 19 minutes later by Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.
• 1983 – The world’s lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2 °C!

Deaths

• 1796 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet and songwriter (b. 1759).
• 1967 – Basil Rathbone, South African-American actor and singer (b. 1892).
• 1998 – Alan Shepard, American admiral, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1923).
• 2004 – Jerry Goldsmith, American composer and conductor (b. 1929).
• 2023 – Tony Bennett, American singer (b. 1926).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Josh Hartnett (46), Juno Temple (35), Paloma Faith (43), John Woodvine (95), John Francis Daley (39), Sandra Oh (53), Gisele Bündchen (44), Benedict Cumberbatch (48), Jared Padalecki (42), Vin Diesel (57), Kristen Bell (44), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (42), Eric Winter (48), Brett Goldstein (44), David Hasselhoff (72), Alex Winter (59), Rosa Salazar (39), Will Ferrell (57), Phoebe Cates (61), Corey Feldman (53), Travis Fimmel (45), Brigitte Nielsen (61), Diane Kruger (48), Forest Whitaker (63), Celia Imrie (72), and Jesse Ventura (73).

Inches matter! What could have been, oh well, maybe next time! So, lets dole out the points!

Following the sad passing of Shannen Doherty at the young age of 53, I can award 97 points to the following: Mark W, me, Julia, Paula, Abi, Mark K, and 197 to Ian who had her down as his Woman. Well done everyone!!! 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Joe Engle, 91, American astronaut (STS-2, STS-51-I). 
• Pat Colbert, 77, American actress (Dallas, Leonard Part 6). 
• Benji Gregory, 46, American actor (ALF, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Once Upon a Forest), heat stroke.
• Shelley Duvall, 75, American actress (The Shining, Nashville, 3 Women), complications from diabetes. 
• Ruth Westheimer, 96, German-American sex therapist and Holocaust survivor. 
• Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, American gunman (attempted assassination of Donald Trump), shot. 
• Shannen Doherty, 53, American actress (90210), cancer. 
• Richard Simmons, 76, American fitness personality. 

In Other News

Souvenir T-shirts picturing the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former US president Donald Trump have already gone on sale. The T-shirts use an image of a defiant Trump raising his fist into the air as Secret Service officers try to safely move him off the stage. The former president narrowly escaped being killed after a bullet hit his ear at the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. The assassination attempt took place at around 6.15pm local time, with photos of Trump’s recovery being published minutes later. Mere hours later, T-shirts with variations of the historic image have gone on sale from outlets based in the US and China. By around 8pm on Saturday some Chinese manufacturers had already put the iconic photo onto T-shirts, according to the South China Morning Post. The first batch reportedly went on sale on Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce platform, at 8.40pm. One of the Taobao sellers, Li Jinwei, told the Hong-Kong based newspaper: “We put the T-shirts on Taobao as soon as we saw the news about the shooting, though we hadn’t even printed them, and within three hours we saw more than 2,000 orders from both China and the US.” Potoshirt, an online store for trending T-shirts which is based in the US, was also advertising defiant Trump assassination T-shirts on social media on Sunday morning. One product, which was on sale for $22.95, had a shot of a bloodied Trump raising his fist in defiance with the words “you can’t kill Trump” above the image. Another T-shirt, on sale for the same price, used the full image of the former president surrounded by security personnel, with the line “if you come at the king you best not miss” underneath the photo.  

The family of an 82-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at a New York nursing home are demanding answers after after she was later found to be breathing two hours later at the funeral home. Janet Balducci was thought to have died mid-morning on February 4th, 2023 at the Water’s Edge Rehab and Nursing Center in Port Jefferson on New York’s Long Island. Balducci’s body was then driven from the nursing home to Casimir Funeral Home in nearby Miller Place, some six miles away, to be embalmed. Just as funeral parlour workers were ready to tend to Balducci’s body they noticed the cadaver that lay before them still had a pulse. Now the family, Balducci’s two sons, Robert and Joseph, are looking for an explanation as to how the mix-up occurred in what has been termed as ‘extreme and outrageous conduct’ in a lawsuit filed by the family which is taking on a two-pronged approach. The sons are suing for what they allege is the premature and wrongful death of their mother. The family believe that staff at the care home both declared Balducci prematurely deceased but then also contributed to her actual death by failing to diagnose a deep vein thrombosis, which they allege occurred as nursing home workers stood by and did nothing to help treat her. The family’s lawyer say the woman’s sons are ‘horrified’ by what happened and have to live with the sickening reality their mother ‘was placed in a body bag alive.’ ‘I think the case is more emblematic of what happens when elderly people go into these homes,’ DeNoto said. ‘They don’t have an advocate to keep track of what’s happening,’ lawyer Peter DeNoto, told the Flying Monkeys. A criminal investigation into the entire episode is also still ongoing.   

Strictly professional Amy Dowden has revealed she made an unexpected dash to hospital last week amid her ongoing battle with breast cancer. The star, 33, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer last year. Caerphilly-born Dowden has since undergone a mastectomy, chemotherapy and fertility treatment, and missed out on being a competitor on Strictly during the 2023 series. On Monday, she took to social media to update her fans about how she spent time at a respiratory unit last week. She wrote under pictures of herself on a hospital bed: “So last week didn’t exactly go to plan. Feeling much better now and still taking it easy. “But can’t thank the NHS and the care I received on the respiratory unit enough. Also to my family and Ben of course. Always dropping everything and spending endless hours next to my bed while I mainly slept. Feeling much better and thanks for the many messages after going quiet. Off to oncology unit today for my monthly injection, (missed it last week due to being poorly).” 

On This Day

• 1881 – American outlaw Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the Maxwell House at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
• 1983 – Mario Bros. is released in Japan, beginning the popular Super Mario Bros franchise.
• 2002 – French president Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt from Maxime Brunerie during a Bastille Day parade at Champs-Élysées.
• 2016 – A man ploughs a truck into a Bastille Day celebration in Nice, France, killing 86 people and injuring another 434 before being shot by police.

Deaths

• 1827 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist and engineer, reviver of wave theory of light, inventor of catadioptric lighthouse lens (b. 1788). 
• 1881 – William H. Bonney aka Billy the Kid, American gunfighter and outlaw (b. 1859). 
• 1998 – Richard McDonald, American businessman, co-founded McDonald’s (b. 1909).
• 2022 – Ivana Trump, Czech-American socialite and model (b. 1949).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Phoebe Waller-Bridge (39), Jackie Earle Haley (63), Matthew Fox (58), Conor McGregor (36), David Mitchell (50), Kyle Gass (64), Harrison Ford (82), Patrick Stewart (84), Ken Jeong (55), Melissa O’Neil (36), Michelle Rodriguez (46), Cheryl Ladd (73), Tamsin Greig (58), Bill Cosby (87), Michelle Fairley (61), Stephen Lang (72), Sofía Vergara (52), Fiona Shaw (66), Peter Serafinowicz (52), Chiwetel Ejiofor (47), Tom Hanks (68), Pamela Adlon (58), Kelly McGillis (67), Scott Grimes (53), Jimmy Smits (69), Courtney Love (60), Richard Wilson (88), Kevin Bacon (66), Maya Hawke (26), Anjelica Huston (73), and Jaden Smith (26).

Other than the death of the Tory party; you’d be forgiven for not knowing anyone on the list this week, its been a very quiet week indeed! So, this has given me a chance to run through the lists to see who I’ve missed. 

49 points to Trish as I missed the passing of Janis Page on 2nd June. Paul C got lucky when Zhang Lixiong died in early April, 40 points! Well done both of you, and well done me for not missing too many 🙂 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Robert Towne, 89, American screenwriter (Chinatown, Shampoo, The Last Detail) & director. 
• Smriti Biswas, 100, Indian actress (Baap Re Baap, Maryada, Chandni Chowk). 
• Jeff Whitefoot, 90, English footballer (Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, Grimsby Town). 
• Kimurayama Mamoru, 42, Japanese sumo wrestler. 
• Tony Knight, 54, English comedian, hit by falling branch. 
• Jon Landau, 63, American film producer (Titanic, Avatar, Solaris), cancer.

In Other News

Eamonn Holmes was forced to bow out of his GB News programme early due to ill health. The presenter prompted concern among viewers on Tuesday when he was suddenly absent halfway through an interview segment. Holmes, 64, and his co-host Isabel Webster interviewed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health Maria Caulfield at 7.45am. Halfway through the chat, however, during which Holmes was completely silent, he exited the studio and left Webster to present the breakfast show solo for the remaining 90 minutes. An explanation for his absence was not given at the time. A spokesperson for GB News has since told the Flying Monkeys: “Eamonn had to finish a little earlier today as he was feeling unwell. He hopes to be back tomorrow.” His swift exit follows just days after the broadcaster told us that he felt as though he was living on “borrowed time” because his father had died at the age of 65 from a heart attack in 1991. Holmes made the comments at the TRIC (Television and Radio Industries Club) Awards, which took place in London on 25th June. The veteran broadcaster is currently suffering from chronic back pain, and required a walker with a seat at the ceremony, stating that he considered pulling out of the event due to the severe pain. “I wasn’t going to come, but I’ve got this new chair with all these gadgets,” explained Holmes, who previously said in January that he was facing the “harsh reality” that he may never be able to walk again unaided.  

Christina Applegate has opened up about what she would like to do with the time she has left, including some fun-sounding things! The celebrity has long been open about her ongoing health struggle with MS, and revealed she has a bucket list. And let’s just say the bucket list is not lacking in ambition in the slightest, containing several very exciting activities. It comes as Applegate made a concerning comment during a podcast where she claimed that she no longer ‘enjoys living’. She told her podcast MeSsy: “This is being really honest. I don’t enjoy living. I don’t enjoy it. I don’t enjoy things anymore.” Applegate later clarified that she did not mean to alarm people with the remark. And in a marked change of tone, the star of Married… with Children didn’t hold back on what she wants to do with the time she has, covering work and and play in her list. In a post to her 1.5 million followers on Twitter, she hinted at some of the things she wants to do with her time: “There are things I want to do with the days I have left in life. I want to work with Shirley MacLaine and do shots with Cher! And yes my days are so big. Just saying.” Both of those things sound like they would be brilliant! Many fans of the actor piled into the comments to share their thoughts on the heartwarming post. Some fans even tagged Cher in their tweets in an attempt to draw the star’s attention to the post on social media. 

On This Day

• 1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
• 1985 – Boris Becker becomes the youngest male player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17.
• 1992 – The New York Court of Appeals rules that women have the same right as men to go topless in public. 
• 2005 – A series of four explosions occurs on London’s transport system, killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and injuring over 700 others.

Deaths

• 1307 – Edward I, king of England (b. 1239). 
• 1890 – Henri Nestlé, German businessman, founded Nestlé (b. 1814). 
• 1930 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (b. 1859).

Last Week’s Birthdays

Shelley Duvall (75), Jack Whitehall (36), Ringo Starr (84), Sylvester Stallone (78), Eva Green (44), Kevin Hart (45), Geoffrey Rush (73), Jennifer Saunders (66), Burt Ward (79), Huey Lewis (74), Post Malone (29), Neil Morrissey (62), Tom Cruise (62), Patrick Wilson (51), Kurtwood Smith (81), Yeardley Smith (60), Bolo Yeung (78), Margot Robbie (34), Lindsay Lohan (38), Saul Rubinek (76), Larry David (77), Jerry Hall (68), Peter Kay (51), Liv Tyler (47), Pamela Anderson (57), Dan Aykroyd (72), and Geneviève Bujold (82).

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

Look Who You Could Have Had:

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

In Other News

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

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

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

On This Day

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

Deaths

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

Welcome to Death Row

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last Week’s Birthdays

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

No points to award this week, but a few names and stories to read below. Since we are having website trouble again, I’ll email the newsletters until the SSL issues are resolved. 

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Paul Spencer, 53, English musician (Dario G), rectal cancer. 
• Anouk Aimée, 92, French actress (La dolce vita, A Man and a Woman, A Leap in the Dark). 
• Willie Mays, 93, American baseball player (New York / San Francisco Giants, New York Mets), World Series champion, heart failure. 
• Donald Sutherland, 88, Canadian actor (M*A*S*H, Ordinary People, The Hunger Games).
• Taylor Wily, 56, American actor (Hawaii Five-0, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Magnum P.I.) and sumo wrestler. 
• Malcolm George Baker, 76, Australian convicted mass murderer (Central Coast massacre). 

In Other News

A London theatregoer has described the moment Sir Ian McKellen fell off stage and into her lap, saying she “went into shock.” Johanna Dart was attending a production of Player Kings at the Noel Coward Theatre in London’s West End on Monday evening when the Lord of the Rings star lost his footing during a fight scene and fell off the stage into the front row where she was sitting. Dart told the Flying Monkeys: “Getting crushed by Gandalf the Grey, that’s something you don’t expect.” She recalled that the 85-year-old theatrical knight appeared to trip on a prop on stage before falling and landing head-first on her knees. She added she had been enjoying the show immensely up until that moment. Charlie Johnson, a journalist for the Kingston Courier who was in the audience, told us: “As we approached the interval of the play, there was a fight scene going on. “There were strobe lights and then it all went dark, at which point you could see the silhouette of Sir Ian come out from the wings. And the way the stage works at the Noel Coward, there’s sort of a step down just as the stage meets the audience. I think what happened was he put his foot too far, sort of went off that initial step, at which point he lost his balance and pretty much just went head-first into the audience. And within seconds a blood-curdling scream arose from the actor. He was clearly in a lot of pain, he was screaming, ‘Help me.’” Straight after the incident, McKellen was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital. The following two evening’s performances were cancelled, and it has now been announced he will not be returning to the production. Dart went home with her family but also attended hospital later that night to ensure she has a record for her compensation claim. A statement by McKellen through his publicist Clair Dobbs said: “After three nights in hospital, the effects of my fall onstage have been fully analysed and I’m now having physiotherapy, light exercise and a lot of essential rest at home.  

A TV personality who was shot dead by her British oil tycoon husband in a murder-suicide loved to ‘party hard’ and seemed ‘happy’ in Turkey before she was killed, shocked friends  have revealed. Singer and comedian Victoria Vera Blyth, 40, was found dead after her husband David Thomas Blyth, 53, killed her before turning the gun on himself at their home in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, while their children were in the house on June 11. Friends of the couple yesterday claimed that the tragedy may have unfolded because Scottish-born Mr Blyth found out his wife was planning to leave him over his string of affairs. Ms Blyth is understood to have sent texts to friends telling them that she was unhappy  with her husband over his jealousy and ‘constant infidelities’ and return to her Czech Republic homeland. Her friends believe that the celebrity couple who were married for ten years could have had a furious row at their luxury villa after he translated her text messages showing her discussing her plans with her Czech friends. It was also claimed that controlling Blyth had allegedly become fed up with his ‘vivacious’ wife posting glamorous pictures of herself on Instagram, and had told her that it was unbecoming behaviour for the spouse of a senior executive. A Czech friend of Ms Blyth, who had three children with her husband and was known as Viky said: ‘Everyone was following her on Instagram, but a few months ago her profile suddenly disappeared. So I contacted Viky to find out what was going on. She told me that the husband did not want the wife of an influential businessman to present herself in this way. So, she complied and created a new profile, which she already had locked to the public, and stopped sharing her sexy photos. She explained that she was leaving her husband and children, that she wanted a life without infidelity and stress for the children… Who could have guessed that this decision would cost her her life and make three children orphans.’ Ms Blyth was a hugely popular figure in Czech showbiz circles, and presented the Morning Show on Europe 2 alongside  Czech broadcaster Leo Mare. 

Liverpool legend Alan Hansen has been released from hospital, having been admitted after falling seriously ill. “Alan has been discharged from hospital today to continue his recovery at home,” a statement from Liverpool FC read. “Alan, Janet, Adam, Lucy and family would like to thank everybody for their wonderful messages of love and support. It has been overwhelming and has helped enormously.” The former footballer, 69, was admitted in early June with figures from the footballing world rallying around. His former Liverpool and Scotland team-mate Graeme Souness had been in regular contact with Hansen’s family, providing updates on his chats with his close friend. “Anyone who’s met Alan Hansen, he has a wicked sense of humour so I’ve had two conversations with him in the last five, six days, both conversations were me on the receiving end of his humour, so that tells me he’s on the way back.” Souness had earlier indicated Hansen was on the mend following a phone conversation. And now there has been more positive news, with the defender allowed to return home. 

On This Day

• 1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”. 
• 1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about illegally using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins. 
• 1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
• 2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon
• on a tight rope.
• 2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.

Deaths

• 1998 – Maureen O’Sullivan, Irish-American actress (b. 1911).
• 2011 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927).
• 2021 – John McAfee, British-American computer programmer, founded McAfee (b. 1945).

Central Coast Massacre Murderer Dies

Malcolm George Baker was an Australian spree killer from Terrigal, New South Wales, who died while serving six sentences of life imprisonment for the shooting massacre of seven people, including an unborn child, in Terrigal, Bateau Bay and Wyong on the evening of 27th October 1992, an event known as the Central Coast massacre. 

Baker had dated one of his victims, 23-year-old Kerry Gannon, for several years. She broke off the relationship about six weeks before the shootings. It was reported that a court had ordered Baker not to contact Gannon after their break up. Channel Nine television reported that authorities had revoked Baker’s weapon’s permit and confiscated a cache of weapons from him weeks prior after he allegedly harassed Gannon.

The shootings started at 9:12 p.m. at the Terrigal apartment of his ex-girlfriend Kerry Gannon and her younger sister Lisa Gannon. Baker used his shotgun to smash the front window. Twenty-two-year-old Christopher Gall, a friend of the sisters, was the first person shot, suffering a gunshot wound to the face. Baker then entered the house and shot Kerry Gannon dead. Moving through the house he shot dead Lisa, who was eight months pregnant; later efforts to save her unborn baby failed. Their father, Thomas Gannon, 43, who had been visiting for a few days, was found dead in the street. 

Baker then drove to the resort of Bateau Bay, where he arrived about ten minutes later, at the home of his 27-year-old son David. Baker shot his son through the back of his head. His body was discovered in the back yard of the home he shared with his wife and baby.

Baker then went to the home of Ross Smith, 35, and Leslie Read, 25, in Wyong, 15 kilometres north of Bateau Bay. Arriving there shortly before 10 p.m., he shot and critically injured Read, then finding Smith in the bathtub shot and killed him instantly. Read died two hours later in hospital. Smith and Baker had had a confrontation about two years prior, over a business deal gone sour.

At 11.00 p.m., Baker walked into Toukley police station, surrendered, and handed over a Sawed-off Remington 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun. 

He was charged with six counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. 

On the 25th anniversary of the massacre, the mother of the killer’s ex-girlfriend, Ann Gannan, spoke out about her last encounter with him.

Baker, who was 43-years-old at the time, tried to run Ms Gannan over before making a chilling threat to her and her family.

‘Then he called out something like: “I’m going to take the lot of youse out,” and I really panicked then,’ she told news.com.au in 2017.

‘I went back to Lisa and told her and we were all scared.’

She was right to be afraid of the unemployed mechanic, who went on his murder spree only weeks later.

‘He was the type of person that had to be in control. You’d just get a sense that something was amiss and if you see that you know trouble’s coming,’ she said.

‘I already knew it, I’d seen it in the girls. I’d seen the girls getting scared.’

Baker, 76, died in palliative care on Saturday while serving six life sentences.

Last Week’s Birthdays

Joel Edgerton (50), Melissa Rauch (44), Selma Blair (52), Bryan Brown (77), Frances McDormand (67), Meryl Streep (75), Lindsay Wagner (75), Bruce Campbell (66), Paterson Joseph (60), Kris Kristofferson (88), Tim Russ (68), Stephen Chow (62), Cyndi Lauper (71), Prunella Scales (92), Carrie Preston (57), Chris Pratt (45), Juliette Lewis (51), David Morrissey (60), Eve Harlow (35), Nicole Kidman (57), John Goodman (72), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (35), Lionel Richie (75), Miles O’Keeffe (70), Brian Wilson (82), Millie Gibson (20), Zoe Saldana (46), Kathleen Turner (70), Aidan Turner (41), Paula Abdul (62), Jacob Anderson (34), Richard Madden (38), Carol Kane (72), Isabella Rossellini (72), Paul McCartney (82), Will Forte (54), and Jodie Whittaker (42).