39 Days and Counting

But after all, who is counting? Oh yes, I am and so is this guy; Butch Welsch from St. Louis.

Mr. Welsch is a successful HVAC/R dealer who was a good friend of Trion and Everett Lytle. 

He has attended a few Indianapolis 500s in the past, listen to how many. 

Man That Is Living, The Sandra West Story

While leaving San Antonio this week I just had to go pay my respects to the lady with the most expensive vault since Cleopatra's. (editor's note: we never know when this is truth and when it is bull shit)

A simple headstone laid in the San Antonio Alamo Masonic cemetery, an old graveyard that is not kept up very well. No famous San Antonians are interred there. However, under this plain marker there is an interesting vault placed in 1977:

Inside the box, and then covered with concrete is this lovely lady:

After death, she was placed in one of her Ferraris wearing her favorite lacy nightgown and with the seat "slanted comfortably" all at the direct instructions from her last will and testament. 

The funeral director said the car in this photograph was not the burial Ferrari, she had three. Some say she was in a 64 American, some say it was her Dino. Regardless I guess one has these choices when one marries an oil tycoon who precedes you into the great unknown (No judgement here, just an observation. Besides, who am I to judge? I married a wealthy school teacher!)

There are conflicting reports on how she passed away, there were some reports that she overdosed on prescription drugs, another report said she died from complications after an auto crash. However her Beverly Hills physician described her as "a psychotic with a tendency toward paranoia and hallucination." Welllll, potay-to, potah-to, she seemed like a pretty fascinating young lady. 

In closing you might ask why investigate the final resting spot of Sandra West and not Davy Crockett? Thank you, that is a good question and I am glad you asked it. Hold on to your coonskin cap, you might not like the answer, next time on Tales of the Macabre!

Guts and Gore

I have a target rich environment of the macabre this week but I will pull it back a little and instead, talk about oddities of famous persons' deaths.

Isadora Duncan

Isadora Duncan, a famous dancer in the 1920’s wore a long scarf. She jumped in a sports car with no roof and the scarf got caught in the spokes of one of the wheels, and she was strangled.

Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig. ALS causes loss of muscle control but many people diagnosed know what's in store for them. They know they will be losing the ability to walk, talk and even breathe.

It is even weirder that he died from a disease that had the same name. I mean, what are the odds?

And finally, what a great way to be remembered:

David Carradine: Bondage Gone Too Far

Carradine was a successful martial artist and actor who appeared in the hit series Kung Fu. Carradine actually learned a lot of his martial arts techniques through his immersive experiences and training while filming kung fu films. While filming in Bangkok, police found Carradine unclothed and hanging from a rope in the closet of his hotel room. At first, most assumed that Carradine's passing would be labeled as a suicide. However, autopsy reports ruled that his demise was caused by autoerotic asphyxiation.

Details about Carradine's interests in bondage and experimental sex provided further evidence that his suffocation was likely accidental, and not intentional.

It is so good to know that it was accidental!

Deviation From The Norm

In a special edition of this blog today I ask that you donate to help the Downeast families who lost a whole lot two weeks ago.I thought about ways that I could personally help immediately. Then I saw where one of ou area churches had figured out a way to do what I was thinking. Pay for the funerals!

Here is the website:https://fumcmhc.org/

Please give generously. Thank you. 

I Did Not Know That

In our house we have a drinking game that is started when someone says those very words. Today on the anniversary of the 1936 death of King George V, I find myself saying those very same words. Did you know this?

By 20 January, he was close to death. His physicians, led by Lord Dawson of Penn, issued a bulletin with the words "The King's life is moving peacefully towards its close."^[118][119] Dawson's private diary, unearthed after his death and made public in 1986, reveals that the King's last words, a mumbled "God damn you!",^[120] were addressed to his nurse, Catherine Black, when she gave him a sedative that night. Dawson, who supported the "gentle growth of euthanasia",^[121] admitted in the diary that he hastened the King's death by injecting him, after 11:00 p.m., with two consecutive lethal injections: 3/4 of a grain of morphine followed shortly afterwards by a grain of cocaine.^[120][122] Dawson wrote that he acted to preserve the King's dignity, to prevent further strain on the family, and so that the King's death at 11:55 p.m. could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper rather than "less appropriate ... evening journals".^[120][122] Neither Queen Mary, who was intensely religious and might not have sanctioned euthanasia, nor the Prince of Wales was consulted. The royal family did not want the King to endure pain and suffering and did not want his life prolonged artificially but neither did they approve Dawson's actions.^[123] British Pathé announced the King's death the following day, in which he was described as "for each one of us, more than a King, a father of a great family".^[124]

Interesting.Euthanasia of the king. 

Take Me Home Tonight

Ronnie Spector died today, she was 78. Lots of notable deaths recently, but I really liked Ronnie. Sure you have to watch old gooogley-eyed Eddie sing for the first half of this, but then you get to watch Ronnie shake that tail, and she was 43 at the time. 

Why You Must Be The Luckiest Guy On Earth!