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John Keel

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Categories: Writers/Editors

John Alva Keel, a prominent Fortean author who shed light on the Mothman sightings, died on July 3 of congestive heart failure. He was 79.
Born Alva John Kiehle and raised in Hornell, N.Y., he developed an early interest in magic and mysterious phenomena, and was only 12 years old when he published his first story in a magician’s magazine. In his teens, Keel changed the spelling of his surname and the order of his initials, and hitchhiked to New York City to become a professional writer. Over the next decade, he created comic book scripts, edited Poets of America magazine, worked as a freelance writer and produced several radio programs, yet a passion for stories about the unusual, strange and unexplained soon became his professional focus.
During the Korean War, Keel was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Frankfurt where he worked on the staff of the American Forces’ Network. After leaving the service, however, he traveled through Europe, Asia and the Middle East seeking out the truth behind outlandish tales of myth and legend. Investigating these controversial topics was not the most lucrative career move, but Keel supported his efforts by writing ad libs for Merv Griffin and contributing scripts to shows like “Get Smart” and “Lost in Space.”
Keel published numerous books on the supernatural over the course of his four-decade career, including “Our Haunted Planet,” “UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse,” “The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings” and “Strange Creatures from Time and Space.” But his biggest claim to fame was the 1975 book, “The Mothman Prophecies,” which was turned into a major motion picture starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney in 2002. The book chronicled Keel’s 1966-1967 investigation into reported sightings of a strange creature in Point Pleasant, W.Va.
Known as the Mothman, the creature was described as being 7 feet tall with grey skin, red glowing eyes and large wings. Its origins were unknown, but theories abounded. Some believed the Mothman was a mutant spawned from local chemical and weapons dumps. Others theorized that it was either an extraterrestrial or the result of an Indian curse. Eyewitnesses claimed it screeched like a rat, ate farmers’ dogs, destroyed area fields, caused cars to stall and interfered with TVs, radios and telephones. Although the creature was known for scaring people — particularly couples sitting in parked cars — Keel wrote that the Mothman may have tried to telepathically warn people that the Silver Bridge was going to collapse into the Ohio River. It did so in 1967, killing 46 people.
Keel’s coverage of the Mothman phenomenon turned Point Pleasant into a tourist attraction, and sparked the launch of the annual Mothman Festival. A Mothman Museum, containing props from the movie, eyewitness accounts of Mothman encounters and other curiosities, also opened on Main Street. Keel last visited Point Pleasant in 2003 when a stainless steel statue of the Mothman was unveiled.
Keel’s final years were often spent in an self-imposed isolation. He did few interviews, distanced himself from family and friends and struggled with both health and financial issues.

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Ed McMahon

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Categories: Hollywood, Military, Writers/Editors

emcmahon.jpgCol. Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr., a legendary TV personality and Marine, died on June 23. Cause of death was not released. He was 86.
The Detroit native always wanted to be a broadcaster. In his teens, he worked the microphone as both a bingo caller and a carnival barker. But McMahon’s chance to break into show business was put on hold by World War II. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, and served as a flight instructor and test pilot. When the war ended, McMahon used the G.I. bill to study drama and speech at Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. To support himself during that time, he hawked vegetable slicers on the Atlantic City boardwalk and the Midwestern state-fair circuit.
McMahon’s first broadcasting gig was in radio, but soon he turned his attentions to the up-and-coming medium of television. He played a circus clown on the show “Big Top,” hosted more than a dozen programs in Philadelphia and tackled announcing duties for the music showcase “Bandstand.” Just as the networks came calling, however, McMahon returned to active duty to serve in Korea. There he flew 85 reconnaissance missions in the Cessna OE Bird Dog. He eventually retired from the service with the rank of colonel.
After he returned home, McMahon joined “Who Do You Trust?” a game show originally hosted by ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy sidekick, Charlie McCarthy. The newer version was hosted by an up-and-coming comedian named Johnny Carson, and McMahon was hired to be the show’s announcer. When Carson was offered the opportunity to take over “The Tonight Show” in 1962, McMahon went with him.
For three decades and 6,583 shows, McMahon introduced Carson with the trademark opening: “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” He would then sit on Carson’s right and serve as his sidekick. Through skits and celebrity interviews, standup routines and musical numbers, McMahon always kept the tone of the show light with his humorous commentary and hearty guffaws. And when Carson retired from the show in 1992, McMahon did as well.
Despite a talent for playing second fiddle, McMahon enjoyed standing in the spotlight. In the 1960s and 1970s, he emceed the game shows “Concentration,” “Missing Links,” “Snap Judgment” and “Who Dunnit?”. From 1983 to 1995, he hosted the amateur talent show “Star Search,” which helped launch the careers of numerous entertainers, including Britney Spears, Drew Carey, Rosie O’Donnell, LeAnn Rimes and Sinbad. McMahon co-hosted “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” with his old friend Dick Clark, and helped raise millions during the annual “Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon.” McMahon also lent his voice and likeness to dozens of commercial advertisements, most notably as the pitchman for the American Family Publishers’ sweepstakes.
McMahon’s adventures in Hollywood were so extensive that he penned two memoirs — “For Laughing Out Loud: My Life and Good Times” (1998) and “Here’s Johnny!: My Memories of Johnny Carson, The Tonight Show, and 46 Years of Friendship” (2006) — as well as the nonfiction book “When Television was Young” (2007). His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
Privately, McMahon had a reputation for being a hardworking, stand-up guy with a penchant for imbibing. He played Bacchus, the Greek god of wine, at the 1978 Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, designed his own vodka and published “Ed McMahon’s Barside Companion,” a book that offered a “blend of ’round the bar games and bets, spirited stunts, jokes and tricks.” He even became known as “Mr. Budweiser” when he served as a spokesman for that beer company.
Celebrity suited McMahon, but fortune often slipped through his fingers. The last few years of his life were spent mired in pain and financial difficulty. In 2002, McMahon sued his insurance company, alleging that he and his wife Pamela were sickened by toxic mold that had spread through their Beverly Hills house. The McMahons also blame the mold for the death of their dog, Muffin. They won their legal battle a year later and received a $7 million settlement, but the money didn’t last for very long.
A fall in 2007 caused McMahon to suffer a broken neck, which required two operations. The pain from this injury kept him from working for nearly two years, which meant the unpaid bills quickly piled up. He even faced a possible foreclosure on his home, but was allowed to remain in the residence thanks to the kindness of strangers and private investors who learned of his troubles. In an attempt to make light of his situation, and to make extra money, McMahon appeared in a commercial with once-bankrupt rap artist MC Hammer. The ad, which aired during the 2009 Super Bowl, promoted a cash-for-gold business.
McMahon married three times and was father to six children. When asked by Larry King how he wanted to be remembered, McMahon said, “I don’t plan to have a headstone. I hope to be floating in the sea…but if I had a headstone my epitaph would be: ‘He was a good broadcaster and a great Marine!’”


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Dr. George Tiller

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Categories: Medicine

gtiller.jpgGeorge Richard Tiller, one of only a few doctors in America who performed late-term abortions, was shot to death on May 31. He was 67.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, Tiller earned a degree in zoology from the University of Kansas and a medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He pursued an internship with the United States Navy, serving two years as a flight surgeon at Camp Pendleton in California, then prepared to specialize in dermatology. Those plans changed in 1970 when a plane crash took the lives of his father, mother, sister and brother-in-law.
The sudden loss of his family left Tiller with two new responsibilities: his father’s medical practice in Wichita, and the care of his 1-year-old nephew. As he prepared to close the family planning clinic, Tiller learned of the region’s need for such services. He also discovered that his father had been providing abortions, then an illegal procedure, to women in need. When the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade case legalized the practice of terminating pregnancies in 1973, Tiller decided to perform them as well.
Over the next three decades, Tiller offered reproductive health care and counseling to thousands of women. His practice, Women’s Health Care Services, became known as one of only three clinics nationwide which would provide abortion after the 21st week of pregnancy. He helped pioneer the use of sonogram imaging during procedures, served as a diplomat of the American Board of Family Practice Physicians and founded ProKanDo, a pro-women, pro-choice political action committee that helps elect abortion rights candidates and supports abortion-friendly legislation.
Tiller’s work earned him numerous awards and honors — including The Christopher Tietze Humanitarian Award and the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights’ Faith and Freedom Award — but also the wrath of the anti-abortion lobby. Protesters regularly demonstrated in front of his office, home and church. In 1986, a pipe bomb blew a hole in the clinic’s outside wall and severely damaged its interior.
Tiller was personally targeted as well. He faced, and defeated, a series of legal challenges intended to shut down his practice. His name and photograph were included on “Wanted” posters and assassination lists, and his home address was published on the Web. In 1993, abortion opponent Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon shot him in both arms with a semiautomatic pistol; she’s still serving time for attempted murder.
Federal marshals protected the doctor between 1994 and 1998, and again in 2001 when Operation Rescue urged thousands of activists to blockade his practice. Tiller installed bulletproof glass on the clinic and hired a private security team to protect the patients and staff; however, these efforts failed to stop the demonstrations, threats and property destruction. Just last month, vandals cut wires to the clinic’s security cameras and outside lights, and cut a hole in the roof. Rain poured through the opening and caused thousands of dollars in damages.
On Sunday morning, Tiller was handing out bulletins in the foyer of the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita when a gunman entered and fired one shot at him. The assailant then threatened two bystanders before fleeing the premises. Several witnesses to the attack were able to describe the suspect to authorities and provide a description of his car and license plate number.
Three hours later, police arrested Scott Roeder, 51, and charged him with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Although officials said they believed it was “the act of an isolated individual,” they also plan to look into “his history, his family, his associates.” Roeder was previously convicted of explosives charges after the police discovered a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a pound of gunpowder, ammunition and two 9-volt batteries in the trunk of his car. The conviction was later overturned on appeal on the grounds that the search was illegal.
Despite the arrival of paramedics minutes after the attack occurred, Tiller died at the scene. He was the fourth abortion doctor killed in the United States. Tiller is survived by his wife, Jeanne, who was inside the church sanctuary at the time of the shooting, 4 children and 10 grandchildren. “George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence,” his family said in a statement. “We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere.”
[Update - Jan. 29, 2010: A jury in Wichita, Kan., deliberated for just over a half hour before finding Scott Roeder guilty of murdering Dr. George Tiller. Roeder was also convicted of two counts of aggravated assault for threatening others in the church. He faces life in prison for the slaying.]

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Steve Bernard

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Categories: Business

Stephen Francis Bernard, co-founder of the Cape Cod Potato Chips company, died March 7 of pancreatic cancer. He was 61.
The New Hampshire native earned an economics degree from the University of Notre Dame, then spent the next few years traveling around the country and doing odd jobs. Determined and innovative, he fought forest fires, fished for tuna, ran an auto parts business, sailed to the Turks & Caicos Islands and opened a natural foods store.
In 1980, Bernard and his wife, Lynn, began serving kettle-cooked potato chips at their shop in Hyannis, Mass. Made from potatoes grown on Maine farms and fried in small kettles, the thick chips cooked up crisper and bulkier than ordinary chips. Free samples found favor with locals and tourists alike, but the Bernards struggled to make ends meet until a motorist drove into their front window — and almost hit their daughter. News coverage of the accident bought customers to the door, and soon people from all over New England were visiting the shop to eat and buy their snacks.
Knowing they had a winner on their hands, the Bernards founded Cape Cod Potato Chips. Over time, their factory became a top tourist attraction in the region, one that welcomed 250,000 visitors annually. The company also expanded its product line to include other kinds of chips including: sea salt & vinegar, sea salt & cracked pepper, buttermilk ranch, mesquite barbecue, jalapeno & aged cheddar, blue corn, white corn, cheddar jack & sour cream, veggie tortilla and reduced fat.
Anheuser-Busch bought Cape Cod Potato Chips in 1985, and operated it as a division of its Eagle Snacks unit. By the following year, up to 80,000 bags were sold each day in the U.S. and Canada, with annual sales of $16 million. But when Anheuser-Busch dissolved its snack food division, the Bernards bought it back. They owned the company for three years before selling it to Lance Inc. in 1999.
In the final years of his life, Bernard enjoyed gardening, fly fishing, watching Notre Dame football and playing mini golf with his grandsons. He also co-founded Late July Organic snacks, with his daughter Nicole Dawes in 2001. Friends and family remembered him as a loyal, passionate, adventurous and principled man.

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Cornelia Wallace

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Categories: Government

Cornelia Wallace was a beauty queen, a singer, a mother and a socially-active governor’s wife, but Southerners will always remember her for a split second decision she made in 1972. For when her husband was shot at a political rally, Cornelia threw herself over his fallen form in an effort to comfort and protect him from additional bullets.
Before she became the first lady of Alabama, Cornelia Ellis was simply known as “C’nelia.” Born in Elba, Ala., she studied voice and piano at Methodist Huntingdon College and Rollins College, and placed in the semifinals of the Miss Alabama contest. As a young woman, Cornelia performed with country singer Roy Acuff, recorded two songs (“It’s No Summer Love” and “Baby With the Barefoot Feet”) for MGM and starred in a water ski show in Cypress Gardens, Fla., but a full-time career in the entertainment field remained just out of reach. While the dark-haired beauty did catch the eye of millionaire John Snively III, whom she married and bore two sons before their divorce in 1969, Cornelia’s place in history actually began at a party when she was only 8 years old.
The event was held at the governor’s mansion, where her uncle, Gov. James E. “Big Jim” Folsom, held court. There she encountered George Corley Wallace Jr., a hard-line segregationist and state legislator 19 years her senior. At the time, Wallace was married to his first wife, Lurleen, who became Alabama’s first and only female governor in 1967. But when Lurleen died of cancer a year and half into her term, Lt. Gov. Albert Brewer took over. Despite political pressure from President Richard M. Nixon to opt out of the race, Wallace challenged Brewer for the job and won it in 1971. Two weeks before the gubernatorial inauguration, he wed Cornelia, a move that did not endear the public to her.
While Cornelia was totally committed to Wallace and his career, most of the state’s residents preferred his first wife. Public opinion of Cornelia changed in 1972 when Wallace decided to run for president on the Democratic ticket. On May 15, 1972, at a campaign stop in Laurel, Md., would-be assassin Arthur Bremer shot Wallace four times, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Cornelia’s instinctive decision to protect him — and her loyalty to him during his long recovery — showed the true measure of her devotion.
After the assassination attempt, Cornelia vowed to carry on his presidential campaign until he was well enough to do so. Taped conversations between Wallace and another woman tempered this effort, as did his depressed and angry outbursts. The couple divorced in 1978, and Wallace died 20 years later. In 1997, their story served as the focus of the TV movie, “George Wallace,” starring Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie. Although the role earned Jolie a Golden Globe for best supporting actress, Cornelia was reportedly dissatisfied with the way she was portrayed.
Cornelia entered the Democratic primary for governor in 1978, but she put on a weak campaign and finished last among 13 candidates. After the election, she retired to central Florida to spend more time with her children.
Wallace died on Jan. 8 of cancer. She was 69.

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A Look Back

Categories: Site News

hourglass.jpgSome people believe writing obituaries is a morbid job, but in truth, only one line deals with death. The rest of the story focuses on the amazing lives people lead.
Whenever I hear about a death, I ask myself, “Did they live with passion? Did they accomplish great things? Did they touch other people’s lives in a positive or negative way? Did they contribute something to the world that was previously missing?” Then, I simply try to tell a good story using the facts at my disposal.
This year, The Blog of Death chronicled the lives of celebrities, criminals, artists, heroes and ordinary people who did extraordinary things. These 10 obituaries were my personal favorites:
* Gemina, the beloved crooked-necked giraffe at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
* Lazare Ponticelli, the last French veteran of World War I.
* Vicki Van Meter, a record-setting young pilot.
* Pippa Bacca, an Italian performance artist.
* Dianne Odell, a children’s book author and polio sufferer.
* Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who gave an inspiring final lecture.
* Sandy Allen, the tallest woman in the world.
* Maudie Hopkins, one of the last known widows of a Confederate soldier.
* Dave Freeman, co-author of “100 Things to Do Before You Die: Travel Events You Just Can’t Miss.”
* Gus, the ugliest dog in the world.
Rest in peace.

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George M. Docherty

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Categories: Religious Leaders

George MacPherson Docherty, a Presbyterian pastor who used the pulpit to get the phrase “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance, died on Nov. 27. He was 97.
Born in Scotland, Docherty graduated from Glasgow University and completed a three-year pastorate at Aberdeen’s North Kirk before immigrating to the United States in 1950. He spent the next 26 years working as a pastor at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C.
In 1952, Docherty’s 7-year-old son came home from school and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, which was written in 1892 by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. Although Docherty wasn’t a U.S. citizen, he took offense that God was not acknowledged in the pledge and vowed to do something about it. That year, he gave a sermon at his church, which was located just blocks from the White House, and used the fear of “godless communists” to encourage a change in the pledge’s phrasing.
“I could hear little Muscovites recite a similar pledge to their hammer-and-sickle flag with equal solemnity,” Docherty once said.
Docherty repeated the sermon on Feb. 7, 1954, after learning President Dwight D. Eisenhower planned to attend his service. The next day, Rep. Charles G. Oakman, R-Mich., introduced a bill to add the phrase “under God” to the pledge. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Homer Ferguson, R-Mich. In the midst of the McCarthy era, both pieces of legislation passed and Eisenhower signed the bill on June 14. In the five decades since the religious update, numerous lawsuits have claimed the altered pledge violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
Docherty hosted a religious TV program in Washington, D.C., for 22 years, and penned a book of sermons entitled “One Way of Living.” His autobiography, “I’ve Seen the Day,” was published in 1984. Docherty also used his position at the church to rail against the Vietnam War and to promote racial equality. He invited the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to preach from his pulpit and even joined King on the “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Ala., in 1965.
Docherty and his family moved back to Scotland in 1976, but returned to America 13 years later. In his final years, he gave guest sermons in Huntington, Pa., and enjoyed playing golf and the violin.

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Arthur Shawcross

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Categories: Criminals

Arthur John Shawcross, a serial killer who terrorized the Rochester, N.Y., area from 1988 to 1990, died on Nov. 10 of a heart attack. He was 63.

Born in Kittery, Maine, and raised in Watertown, N.Y., Shawcross was an awkward child who frequently fought with other children, a practice that earned him a reputation as a bully. He dropped out of high school in the ninth grade, and enlisted in the Army, serving a tour of duty in the Vietnam war.

Upon his return to the states, Shawcross moved back to Watertown. In 1972, he lured Jack Owen Blake, 10, into the woods and sexually assaulted and murdered the boy. Four months later, he raped and killed an 8-year-old girl named Karen Ann Hill.

Shawcross later confessed to these slayings, but avoided a life sentence by cutting a deal with the prosecutor. In return for leading police to the bodies and pleading guilty to killing Hill, he would receive a 25-year sentence and no charges for the Blake murder. Shawcross spent 15 years in prison before being released on parole in 1987.

The following year, he settled in Rochester, N.Y., and began a killing spree that would earn him the name: “The Genesee River Killer.”

From 1988 to 1990, Shawcross murdered 11 women: Patricia Ives, Frances Brown, June Cicero, Darlene Trippi, Anna Marie Steffen, Dorothy Blackburn, Kimberly Logan, June Stotts, Marie Welch, Elizabeth Gibson and Dorothy Keller. Most of his victims were strangled and beaten to death; several were also mutilated, their body parts consumed. The press gave Shawcross the ominous moniker because most of the women’s bodies were dumped near the Genesee River.

With the assistance of several FBI profilers and experts, the police set up surveillance on the body of the final victim and caught Shawcross hanging out near the dump site. He confessed to the killing spree while in custody, telling police he was “takin’ care of business,” but later pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

During the 13-week televised trial, the defense offered testimony from psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis that claimed Shawcross suffered from multiple personality disorder, brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder. The jury didn’t buy the argument and found him guilty and sane after only 6 1/2 hours of deliberations. He was sentenced to 250 years in prison, one of the longest sentences ever handed down in New York state.

Shawcross’ crimes were chronicled in the 1992 book “Arthur Shawcross: The Genesee River Killer” by Joel Norris, which included a recording of his confession, and in the 1993 book, “The Misbegotten Son” by Jack Olsen. He was also featured in several programs dealing with serial killers as well as the 2003 HBO documentary, “Cannibal: The Real Hannibal Lecters.”

While behind bars, Shawcross married and later divorced Clara D. Neal. He also reconnected with his only daughter, Margaret Deming of Brooklyn, N.Y., and began painting portraits that were included in an annual inmate art show at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, N.Y. The “Corrections on Canvas” show, which had been staged for 35 years, was discontinued in 2002, after the public protested that Shawcross was profiting from the sale of his pictures.

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