Ted Williams, who spent his entire career with the Red Sox, died in 2002 at the age of 83.NY Daily News Reports
Workers at an Arizona cryonics facility mutilated the frozen head of baseball legend Ted Williams - even using it for a bizarre batting practice, a new tell-all book claims.
In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former exec at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., graphically describes how The Splendid Splinter" was beheaded, his head frozen and repeatedly abused.
The book, out Tuesday from Vanguard Press, tells how Williams' corpse became "Alcorian A-1949" at the facility, where bodies are kept suspended in liquid nitrogen in case future generations learn how to revive them.
Johnson writes that in July 2002, shortly after the Red Sox slugger died at age 83, technicians with no medical certification gleefully photographed and used crude equipment to decapitate the majors' last .400 hitter.
Williams' severed head was then frozen, and even used for batting practice by a technician trying to dislodge it from a tuna fish can.
The chief operating officer of Alcor for eight months before becoming a whistleblower in 2003, Johnson wrote his book while in hiding, fearful for his life.
He told the Daily News then he had received death threats and was moving from safehouse to safehouse. Johnson plans to come out of the shadows Tuesday, with his book and an appearance on ABC's "Nightline."
Johnson said he wired himself with an audio recorder for his last three months at Alcor, stole internal records and took gruesome photographs that are reproduced in the book.
The book describes other atrocities at Alcor's facility in Arizona, including the dismembering of live dogs that were injected with chemicals in experiments, and a situation in which human blood and toxic chemicals were dumped into a parking lot sewer drain.
Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz.
It also also details suspicious circumstances involving the bodies of two people who are frozen in steel cylinders at Alcor: gay rights activist John Dentinger and Dora Kent, an elderly woman whose son, Saul Dent, gave Alcor lots of money.
Nothing in the book is as gruesome as Johnson's descriptions of what happened to Williams' body after it was sent to Alcor at the direction of the Williams' son John Henry Williams, who died of leukemia in 2004.
In 2003, The News reported that Buzz Hamon, the ballplayer's close friend and former director of the Ted Williams Museum in Hernando, Fla., sneaked into Alcor with the help of a mortician friend.
Hamon said he was "appalled" by the conditions there, where Williams' body and more than 50 others were stored in steel tanks alongside cardboard boxes and junk. Hamon died in 2004, reportedly committing suicide.
Johnson writes that holes were drilled in Williams' severed head for the insertion of microphones, then frozen in liquid nitrogen while Alcor employees recorded the sounds of Williams' brain cracking 16 times as temperatures dropped to -321 degrees Fahrenheit.
Johnson writes that the head was balanced on an empty can of Bumble Bee tuna to keep it from sticking to the bottom of its case.
Johnson describes watching as another Alcor employee removed Williams' head from the freezer with a stick, and tried to dislodge the tuna can by swinging at it with a monkey wrench.
The technician, no .406 hitter like the baseball legend, missed the can with several swings of the wrench and smacked Williams' head directly, spraying "tiny pieces of frozen head" around the room.
Johnson accuses the company of joking morbidly about mailing Williams' thawing remains back to his family if his son didn't pay his outstanding debt to the company.
Reprints of invoices show that Alcor president John Lemler charged $120,000 for the honor of "suspending" Teddy Ballgame's body.
A former paramedic, Johnson first blew the whistle on Alcor in a 2003 Sports Illustrated article about Williams' stored body.
He drew criticism at the time for an aborted attempt to sell photos online purportedly showing Williams' corpse.
Johnson said he hopes his book will help fulfill the wishes Williams expressed in his will - that his body be cremated and the ashes "sprinkled at sea off the coast of Florida, where the water is very deep."
Read more…
Posted by Mr.I Get It on October 2, 2009 at 2:02pm
hiphopwired.comJust when you thought 50 Cent had no heart, he turns around and proves everyone wrong. Or does he? His PR team was no doubt in overdrive to clean up the comments he made Wednesday on Hot 97's Angie Martinez Show. As previously reported, Fif made it no secret his thoughts about the now cancelled ‘Fame Kills' tour with Kanye West and Lady Gaga, deeming it the “gay tour.” Now he claims that he was just misunderstood. Yeah, right.He explained himself saying:“During an interview with Angie Martinez yesterday, certain comments I made were taken entirely out of context."When I referred to the Lady Gaga tour as ‘the gay tour,' I was basically repeating what I thought she had referred to the tour in the past.”He also adds that his words were not meant to be offensive and seems to take a slight jab at Ye again. He calls out Lady Gaga directly saying that she makes “great music” but doesn't mention Kanye. Instead he says he doesn't “have a problem with anyone's lifestyle.”"It was not my intention to offend anyone. I don't have a problem with anyone's lifestyle and have no issue with Lady Gaga. She makes great music."Is it just me or did he just call him gay again on the low?While he's steady throwing low key insults, 50's revealed the album cover for his latest album, ‘Before I Self Destruct.' The album cover is fitting showing a close up of the MC looking like he's half man and half machine with one side of his face destructing. The album will hit stores November 17.Peep the cover art below:
Posted by Mr.I Get It on October 2, 2009 at 2:03pm
youraudiofix.com50 Cent is set to appear on VH1’s Top 20 Countdown next Saturday, October 10th at 9AM. Repeats of the show will air Sunday October 11th at 8AM, and Tuesday October 13th at 9AM. This will be apart of 50’s promo run for his album “Before I Self Destruct” hitting stores November 17th. 50 Cent will also be featured on VH1’s popular series “Behind The Music” Tuesday October 13th at 8PM.
Read more…
People.com Reports
For the first time since she was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom seven years ago, Elizabeth Smart on Thursday provided details about her nine-month ordeal with her accused kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell. She described being drugged, tied to a tree and raped as often as four times a day.
Smart was prepared to meet Mitchell face to face in a federal court, but that never happened.
Elizabeth Smart
Yet before Smart was called to the stand, her alleged abductor, Mitchell, began singing a Mormon hymn as he entered the courtroom at 9 a.m. Judge Dale Kimball ordered him to stop, but he refused and was immediately sent to a holding cell to watch the proceedings via a television monitor.
In his absence Smart, 21, calmly recounted her time with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She told U.S. Attorney Brett L. Tolman that Mitchell raped her daily, beginning June 5, 2002, the night she was abducted from her home at knifepoint.
"He placed his hand on my chest," she recalled of the night Mitchell allegedly entered her bedroom and took her away, "and then put the knife up to my neck. He told me to get up quietly and if I didn't then he would kill me and my family."
Ritual Wedding
She continued: "He was whispering, but it was still loud enough it could wake someone. He was dressed in sweats, sweatshirt, stocking cap, tennis shoes."
Mitchell led her into a camp in the woods three miles behind her house, she said, then took her into a lean-to where Wanda Barzee tried to force her to bathe.
"She eventually just proceeded to wash my feet and told me to change out of my pajamas into a robe type of garment," Smart recalled. "And when I refused, she said if I didn't, she would have Brian Mitchell come rip my pajamas off. I put the robe on ... he came and performed a ceremony, which was to marry me to him. After that, he proceeded to rape me."
Religion and Sex
Smart told the court that she was tethered to a tree by a cable except when she was being raped by Mitchell – sometimes four times a day.
"Of your nine months with him, what was his dominant focus?" asked U.S. Attorney Tolman.
"Sex," replied Smart.
Mitchell has twice been found incompetent for trial in Utah state court, so Smart's testimony that he kidnapped her for sex, not because of religion, is critical to the federal case.
"Did he speak to you about religion?" asked Tolman her.
"He used religion to get what he wanted," said Smart.
According to her testimony, Mitchell provided her with drugs and alcohol to lower her resistance. Smart said that she once became sick when Mitchell forced her to drink too much alcohol, and he forced her to lay face down in her vomit all night. He also showed her pornography, she said.
She described the self-avowed prophet as "evil," "manipulative," "greedy" and "not close to God."
He Called Her Augustine
According to Smart, Mitchell changed her name to Augustine and forced her to go without food for days at a time. She said she attempted to fight Mitchell's sexual attacks once by biting him. "He said if I did that, he would never have sex with me again and I would be the most miserable woman in the world," she testified. "He said that but it didn't stop him."
Smart's parents, Ed and Lois Smart, were on hand to hear the painful testimony. They have said they never pressed her for details about her ordeal. Smart leaves on a mission to France next month for the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Her testimony will be used during Mitchell's federal competency hearing on Nov. 30.
Read more…
The report confirms Michael Jackson had a rare skin condition which resulted in the loss of his pigmentation - making him look increasingly whiteLondon Times Reports
Far from being the sickly, underweight shell of man portrayed by the global media, Michael Jackson was in fact relatively healthy before his fatal drug overdose, it was revealed tonight.
According to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s report, the 50-year-old singer was just under 10 stone when he died, within the normal range for a man who stood at only 1.75 metres tall.
Meanwhile, his heart was strong with no sign of plaque buildup, and his kidneys and most other major organs were in good condition.
The autopsy also finally confirmed Jackson’s claim that he suffered from skin condition that resulted in the loss of skin pigmentation: his efforts to disguise it were probably the reason he appeared to turn from black to white in the late eighties.
The coroner said the depigmentation affected the skin on his chest, abdomen, face, and arms.
The autopsy also revealed just how much plastic surgery Jackson had undergone during his lifetime: he had 1.9 cm scar behind his left ear, and another scar behind his right ear. He also had scars beside each nostril, on his right shoulder, at the base of his neck, and additional, smaller scars on his arms, wrist, navel, and abdomen.
Jackson also had several tattoos, all them cosmetic, including one that covered a bald spot. He had other tattoos around both eyebrows and under his eyes, and a pink tattoo around his lips. The coroner also found that Jackson was actively producing sperm.
“His overall health was fine,” said Dr Zeev Kain, chairman of the anesthesiology department at the University of California, Irvine, who reviewed a copy of the autopsy report. “The results are within normal limits.”
But Jackson did have some health problems, including arthritis in his lower spine and some of his fingers, and a mild plaque buildup in his leg arteries. His most serious condition affected his lungs: they were chronically inflamed and probably causing some shortness of breath.
Puncture wounds were also found on both the singer’s arms and on one of his knees and ankles.
Jackson died at his rented Los Angeles mansion on June 25 after his personal $150,000-per-month doctor, Conrad Murray, administered propofol—a hospital-grade anesthetic—and two other sedatives to get the singer to sleep, according to court documents.
Propofol, normally used in operating rooms, can stop a patient from breathing and requires constant monitoring,
The coroner's office announced last month that Jackson's death was a homicide caused by "acute propofol intoxication” with the other sedatives listed as a contributing factor. It added that, in Jackson’s case, the ‘standard of care’ for administering propofol was not met, and that the recommended equipment for patient monitoring, precision dosing, and resuscitation was not being used.
Dr Murray is expected to be indicted on charges related to his patient’s death.
Aside from propofol and the sedatives, the only other substances found in Jackson’s system were a local anesthetic, Lidocaine (used to numb injection sites), and ephedrine, a commonly used resuscitation stimulant. No other drugs — legal or otherwise —were detected, nor was any alcohol.
Dr Kain, the specialist who analysed the coroner’s report, said he was surprised that three other sedatives, known as benzodiazepines, were present with propofol. He said that while anesthesiologists sometimes mix one ‘benzo’ with propofol to help put a patient under, using three of them at the same time was dangerous.
“People don't mix the benzodiazepines together because they interact with each other and increase the risk of respiratory arrest,” he said, adding that it was likely that Jackson stopped breathing before he suffered a heart attack.
Read more…
XXL Reports
Former Cash Money rapper B.G. is back in business. The one-time Hot Boy is ready to deliver 'Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood' next month, his first solo album in over three years.
And it seems like the B. Gizzle is feeling nostalgic. The New Orleans rapper has reunited with his ex-group mates Lil Wayne, Juvenile and producer Mannie Fresh for the LP. T.I., Young Jeezy, Lil Boosie, Trey Songz and Yo Gotti are also among the artists B.G. has drafted for the disc. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, Scott Storch and Cool and Dre all put in work behind the boards.
'Too Hood 2 Be Hollywood' will be released on November 24 through E1, Chopper City and Atlantic Records. His first single “Back to the Money” will hit the airwaves shortly.
Read more…
News-Press.com Reports
It was Sunday night, Sept. 6, and revelers fresh from rapper Plies’ concert at Harborside Event Center streamed into bars and clubs near downtown Fort Myers’ riverfront.
Outside Club Venu on First Street a few hours later, as open doors and shining white lights signaled closing time, a bouncer got into an argument while escorting a group of patrons outside. It escalated. When the bouncer felt a pain in his abdomen, he lifted his shirt and discovered he’d been stabbed.
It’s incidents such as this that Fort Myers Councilman Warren Wright is hoping to avoid. At Monday’s council meeting, he wants to discuss the possibility of banning events featuring hip-hop from Harborside Event Center and other downtown venues because, Wright said, the concerts attract violence and disruption.
“We know the surrounding nightclubs will cater to these events, and as the evening progresses, it becomes becomes more and more aggressive,” Wright said.
Banning hip-hop concerts doesn’t seem likely, said city attorney Grant Alley, because artistic expression is protected by state and federal constitutions.
“One person’s music is another person’s noise,” Alley said.
Last month, the city adopted a downtown development plan that aims to bring high-end restaurants and shops as well as conventions to the riverfront. The council hopes these ideas will blend with art galleries and events the city hosts.
What doesn’t fit are knife-toting clubgoers and performers screaming obscenities, council members say.
Newly elected Mayor Randy Henderson said he is offended by rap lyrics, which to him emphasize violence and vulgarity. He supports limiting this type of music and concerts.
“If there’s a legal way to do that, it’s a worthy idea,” Henderson said.
Fort Myers Police Department spokeswoman Maureen Buice said it’s difficult to distinguish if hip-hop themed events bring more violence downtown.
But Lashawnda Henderson, a local rap promoter, is concerned about the effect a ban would have on a thriving local rap industry.
“There’s so much emphasis put on rap music,” Henderson said. “It’s not rap music itself that causes it. Crime is just out of hand.”
Instead, the city should pay for increased security at clubs, or consider blocking off streets on concert nights, she said.
Downtown bar owners say they wouldn’t be forced to stage hip-hop concerts and similar events if business were better.
Raimond Aulen, owner of the Indigo Room on Main Street, said business is hurting because patrons who are younger than 21 aren’t allowed in bars. Plus, the city’s streetscape and utilities projects shut down portions of the roads for months.
“Clubs are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” Aulen said. “These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures.”
Hip-hop concerts and themed nights are what bring Holli Hall to downtown.
Hall, a 32-year-old Fort Myers resident, attended the Plies concert and said she never felt unsafe. And she has never felt uneasy while grooving at local clubs.
“If they ban hip-hop music,” Hall said, “where will they stop?”
Read more…
Posted by Mr.I Get It on October 1, 2009 at 12:00pm
Be sure to look out for the Limited Editon Deluxe Package as well...Regular and Deluxe Copies of "Before I Self Destruct" will be available for pre-order on I-Tunes in October with Some Exclusive Bonus Tracks
Read more…
A booking mug shows Robert Higgins. Cops say he was naked and covered in feces when he broke into a backyard and jumped in the pool.
NY Daily News Reports
STUART, Fla. — A Florida man is facing charges after authorities say he was naked and covered in feces when he broke into a resident's backyard and jumped into the pool.
A Martin County Sheriff's Office report shows 21-year-old Robert Stark Higgins was charged with burglary to an occupied dwelling, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor theft.
The resident told deputies he heard Higgins crash through the screen of his pool and take a splash Saturday night. Authorities say Higgins took a towel and fled. Deputies used a K-9 to track Higgins to a home. Higgins told deputies he had been drinking.
He was being held at the Martin County Jail on $10,500 bail. Jail officials said he did not immediately have an attorney.
Read more…
Video After The JumpSpin.com Reports
From Karen O's star-studded Wild Things soundtrack to Thom Yorke's new band with Flea, it's an awesome year for supergroups and dream collabos. One of the best yet: Blakroc, a new project from blues-rock duo Black Keys, featuring rappers Jim Jones, Q-Tip, Wu-Tang's Raekwon and RZA, Ludacris, and Mos Def!
Sessions for their self-titled debut album, due Nov. 27, kicked off this summer in Brooklyn with Mos Def, and the smarty-pants boys of Black Keys brought along a video camera -- check out behind-the-scenes-footage from the studio below!
The nearly eight-minute clip -- the second in a series of webisodes to be unveiled at blakroc.com -- shows how one track was recorded. When Mos Def arrives at the studio, the Black Keys (yes, that's guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach; he shaved his beard) present the rapper with a hard-hitting blues track with rumbling bass -- and Def gets right to work. "Your pure heart / Is super cool / You're are elemental / You're sweet and you're true," he ad-libs in a soft croon (Def never writes down lyrics).
After a little mixing in the control room, the guys play the track back. Hip-hop magnate Damon Dash, who, according to Billboard, is releasing the album on BlakRoc records, his new venture with the Black Keys, approves of the song, dancing in circles and flinging his chain. It's a weird scene as he spins alongside a few quaint hipsters girls and the grizzly Keys. But the music is undeniable: "It's got a good beat, you can dance to it -- It's got that right feel!" Def shouts.
Below, watch footage of Mos Def and the Black Keys rocking out in the studio, and working on a second song with Def spitting a poetic rhymes about life and learning over sinister bass and screeching guitar.
Read more…
Posted by Mr.I Get It on October 1, 2009 at 5:12am
Video after the break..50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo were on Angie Martinez show on Hot 97They talk about Eminem, Jay-Z, Before I Self Destruct, Thisis50 fest and more"Jay-Z is the coolest punk in hip-hop"
Read more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 30, 2009 at 5:00pm
Demi Moore pictured above, is just one of many celebrities who have gotten so comfortable with Twitter they will post pretty much anything about themselves.Call me nuts, but I really don't care to see celebs toothless, without makeup and showing off their zitsCheck Out More Pics Below Of Celebs Sharing TMI .
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 30, 2009 at 4:30pm
AllHipHop Reports
Rapper 50 Cent addressed recent comments made by rapper Jay-Z during a radio interview on the BBC last week.
Jay-Z defended rapper Kanye West in an interview conducted by DJ Trevor Nelson’sBBC radio show last week.
Jay-Z became irritated when Nelson suggested that West would not have stormed the stage at the 2009 VMA’s, had 50 Cent been an accepting an award instead of country singer Taylor Swift.
“It wasn't 50 Cent [who made the comments],” 50 told Angie Martinez. “Hip-Hop has cool punk and Jay is the coolest punk in Hip-Hop. He’s big. And his take on it is [he’s] bigger than the art form and he won’t actually and compete. Battling has been a part of the culture.”
“I think he would have done that if that was 50 Cent," Jay-Z also told Nelson. "No one is scared of 50 Cent. I want everyone to be clear. No one is scared of 50 Cent."
Although 50 Cent went on to say that he did not have any problems with Jay-Z, he firmly stated that no one would storm his stage if put in the same situation.
“When he [Jay-Z] has to say no one is scared of 50 Cent, it’s because the public is responding to his punk presentation,” 50 Cent said. “Kanye wouldn’t take the trophy from me and neither would Jay-Z.”
The rapper took numerous shots at Kanye West during the interview, implying that Chicago emcee could be homosexual, due to his association with Lady GaGa’s upcoming “Fame Kills Tours.”
50 also revealed that Shady Records boss Eminem is not happy with the track “Forever,” which features Drake, Kanye West and Lil Wayne.
“I don’t think Em knew everyone was going to be on the record,” 50 Cent said. “Initially I think he just did a verse with it. He mixed his records and then they remixed it. I don’t think he’s happy with that at all.”
50 Cent is currently preparing for his upcoming Thisis50 Festival, which takes place October 3 at The Beach on Governors Island.
The rapper said he will debut new music from his upcoming album Before I Self Destruct during the festival this weekend.
Read more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 30, 2009 at 1:30pm
BoomBox.com Reports
The original mad rappers, Onyx, are back, and they're not happy about Damon Dash's 'Blak Roc' collaboration album with The Black Keys. In a recent interview on Angela Yee and Leah Rose's Lip Service radio show on Shade 45, the baldhead rappers discussed yelled about Dash's project, which features notable MC's like Ludacris, Jim Jones, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and more.
"N----s is biting the whole f---in' movement," explained a ticked off Fredro Starr. "The 'Black Rock' s---, we been rocking with that. Now I'm hearing other n----s coming out with it...I ain't sayin' no f---in' names. You know what it is man, holla at me n----, 100 mad n----s with guns n----, stop playing games with me!"
While Dash's 'Blak Roc' project was only recently announced, Onyx have been talking about their forthcoming studio album, 'Black Rock' since 2008. "Black Rock is a hybrid album -- rock influenced with hip-hop underneath it," Fredro said at the time. "It's us repping for the rebels of the world, the rebels of the street who Onyx represents. It's a where hip-hop meets the mosh pit."
Dame's collaboration with the Black Keys is scheduled for a Nov. 27 release, unless Sticky Fingaz has something to say about it. "Onyx is putting out a 'Black Rock' project, and that's it! And anybody else, tryna put putting out a black rock project, you biting!" blustered Sticky, who then proceeded to threaten to put "trademarks around your f-----' eyes" and "do to y'all n----s like the f---in' candyman, come find y'all n-----s one at a f---in' time!"
As for approaching Dame about the similarity of their projects, Onyx isn't interested in such acts of diplomacy. "It ain't about who put it out first, it's about who getting punched in they f---in' eye first," Sticky Fingaz concluded.
Check The Lip Service Interview Here
Additional SourceRead more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 30, 2009 at 12:45pm
AllHipHop Reports
Rapper Bump J was sentenced to 10 years in prison Tuesday (Sept. 29) after admitting to guilt in a 2007 local bank robbery in August.
The artist, real name Terrence Boykin, received the minimum sentence for both charges, according to Chicago Hip-Hop blog Fake Shore Drive. The Chicago native will serve seven years for an illegal gun and 37 months for the bank robbery.
The jail terms will be served consecutively, and the rapper will also get credit for the time he has already served in jail.
In November 2008, the former Atlantic Recordsartist was arrested during a routine traffic stop in Carbondale, Illinois, about two hours east of St. Louis, Missouri.
He was charged as one of two gunmen suspected of robbing a Chicago Chase Bank on January 4, 2007.
The robbery, during which no one was injured, was captured on a surveillance camera.
At the end of his sentence Bump J will be eligible for placement in a halfway house.
Read more…
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 30, 2009 at 12:39pm
AllHipHop Reports
Hip-Hop will be represented during the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this year in Oslo, Norway.
Rapper/actor Will Smith will host The Nobel Peace Prize Concert this year with his wife and actress, Jada Pinkett Smith, while Wyclef Jean will be one of the feature performers.
“The opportunity to recognise the laureate’s contributions to the world peace movement will be an awe-inspiring experience - we are both humbled and honoured to take part in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this year,” The Smiths said in a joint statement released to media today (September 29).
The Nobel Peace Prize Concert will take place December 10 in Oslo.
Other performers include Toby Keith, Donna Summer, Luis Fonsi and Amadou and Mariam.
According to reports, US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were among the record 205 nominees this year.
The Peace Prize was created by dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.
Read more…
}