From: John Grigg (starman2100@lycos.com)
Date: Sun Feb 23 2003 - 11:42:26 MST
This is a post I am putting both on Cryonet and the Extropians list.
John deRivaz wrote:
I do hope that Lemler or someone else at Alcor tells their side of this story, too. Possibly even to the same newspapers, if those newspapers play fairly. The statements in these interviews could prove damaging if no one comes forward to explain or even contradict them.
(end)
I feel very disturbed by the Buzz Hamon development, and I would hope Dr. Lemler and Bill Haworth (the Alcor public relations heavy hitter) are able to take the bull by the horns before things spin out of control.
ESPN.com news services
>
Williams' close friend, Buzz Hamon, said the last time he spoke with The
Splendid Splinter, Williams said, "I need a lawyer ... Because I made a
mistake."
Then the phone went dead.
>
It is simply conjecture on Buzz Hamon's part on what really was going on here. If he had really been concerned about things, he would have immediately called the police! lol And if this incident, which supposedly happened was so important, why did Buzz wait till now (long after the Ted Williams controversy has died down) to finally announce it to the world? This does not add up.
>
Hamon provided the details to Bill Madden of the New York Daily News for a
story that was published Wednesday. The impetus behind Hamon's cross-country
journey two weeks ago from his home in Greenville, S.C., to the Alcor Life
Extension Foundation in Scottsdale was simple: He wanted to see for himself
Williams' final resting place.
>
The author of this article is stuck in very conventional modes of thought. Alcor is much too expensive and time intensive to be a cold storage mausoleum.
>
Hamon was Williams' constant companion for 4 years and director of the Hall
of Fame hitter's museum in Hernando, Fla. Hamon arranged all of Williams'
travels -- to Cooperstown each summer, the All-Star Game and various other
baseball events -- and their relationship grew strong enough that Hamon was
thought of as an "adopted son."
>
I can understand then why Hamon is so concerned about Ted's current status. I just wish he had some vision & grasp of where technology is headed. Sometime in the late 21st century Ted is going to be standing over Buzz Hamon's grave and wishing this man who was like a son to him had not been so terribly close-minded.
>
According to the newspaper's account, that was the problem as far as
Williams' real son, John Henry, was concerned. So, John Henry gradually
eased Hamon out as director of the museum and assumed total control of his
father's life.
>
We seem to get our share of controversial people in the cryonics movement.
>
In the months that followed, Wiliams' daughter Bobby Jo Ferrell spent more
than $50,000 in a failed effort to convince a judge to have the body
released from the cryogenics lab so that it could be cremated per Williams'
wishes.
Meanwhile, no one with close ties to Williams was allowed access to the lab
as Williams' body hung suspended in a giant cylinder.
Hamon couldn't accept that.
>
And yet he waited so long to finally speak his mind??
>
With the help of Bobbie Sgrillo, a friend and former mortician who lives in
Phoenix, Hamon gained access to Alcor. According to the Daily News,
Sgrillo's knowledge of the mortuary business enabled her to gain the
confidence of overly protective Alcor officials, who -- after interviewing
her for a half-hour -- agreed to give her a tour of the facility. She then
asked if she could bring along Hamon, whom she introduced to them as "my
friend Art, a public-relations man."
>
Considering the vast number of tours given to people by Alcor, I would hardly say they are over-protective! It s nice to know the foundation here is built on lies and deception.
>
"After what I saw and experienced, I just can't contain myself any longer,"
Hamon told the Daily News by phone Tuesday. "I want the whole world to know
what they've done to Ted. This was absolutely horrifying."
>
Buzz, I honestly think the world already knows! Between numerous TV. specials & newspaper articles the public has a dang good idea. Lol I would like to see a new TV. reality show where this man goes to a mortuary, hospital, veterinarian's clinic, dentist's office, etc. describing the horrifying conditions of early 21st century life and how they could impact Ted.
>
Hamon told the newspaper he was "appalled" by the cluttered conditions
inside the facility, then gave the Daily News the following account of
entering the containment room where Williams' body is stored:
>
I have recently been to the Alcor facility and know (I helped straighten some things up) they are not very cluttered at all considering remodeling is going on. Maybe Buzz just got lost and wound up in Hugh Hixon's workroom! Lol! : )
>
"There were six huge cylinders along the wall, one of which was filled with
liquid nitrogen to supply the other five. I was stunned when [Alcor CEO
Jerry Lemler] told me they had 55 'patients,' as he called them. How could
they have so many?
"Then he told me there were four full bodies and five heads in each of the
cylinders. In addition, there were two short cylinders with just heads in
them."
Hamon said he "was horrified" to hear that Williams' body was not stored in
a separate cylinder.
>
Buzz Hamon is totally right! We need special celebrity/V.I.P. penthouse dewars which hold only one body, even though they could easily hold four or more. If Ted lived in a nice mansion with lots of wasted space while he was up and breathing, then while deanimated he needs a full dewar to himself! I demand at once a response from Alcor on this!!
>
"All I could think of was Ted and what he would have thought if he'd known
what John Henry had done to him," Hamon told the Daily News. "It was bad
enough knowing that somewhere in one of these cylinders, Ted was hanging
suspended, upside down, with his head in a bucket. But he was in there with
four or five other bodies and assorted heads.
>
And some of the people he shares the dewar with may not be folks he would want to associate with! Why, some of them may not have even been baseball fans! A dewar should definitely be set aside for strictly baseball Hall of Famer's, and no one else.
>
"For all the money this supposedly cost John Henry, he wouldn't even see to
it that Ted was alone."
>
Buzz, unless John Henry made a big donation on top of the suspension policy price, he simply paid what everyone else does. So please don't be thinking you get luxurious beachfront property for 50 to a 120 grand when Alcor is the Malibu of cryonics!
>
"I was a little taken aback at the sanitary conditions because of my
experience in the mortuary business," Sgrillo told the newspaper when
reached in Phoenix. "But what really concerned me were the dangerously low
levels of nitrogen in each of the tanks. It was when I asked (Lemler) about
that he said: 'Tour's over!'
>
I took part in a recent suspension at Alcor, and can attest to the fact they keep the operating room area very clean. After the patient was taken to a cool down tank, we scrubbed the place down top to bottom. The mortician should have given explicit details regarding the lack of sanitary conditions or simply not spoken at all.
The dangerously low levels of liquid nitrogen in the tanks statement sounds like the words of someone who just does not know what they are talking about. I can understand why Dr. Lemler may have gotten fed up and finally said tours over!
>
"When I asked them about this whole process, they said: 'We don't promise
anything. We don't know what's on the other end.' "
>
While you re at it Dr. lemler (and Professor Ettinger), we would all like from now on a guarantee for all cryonicists stating not only will we make it in great shape to the future, but not have ANY problems on the other side. ; )
>
When reached by the Daily News on Tuesday, Lemler said he does not recall
the visit by Hamon and Sgrillo and denied that there are problems with
nitrogen levels in the Alcor facility. When asked by the newspaper about its
sanitary conditions, he said "no comment."
>
A part of me wonders if Buzz and his friend even DID visit the Alcor facility! But perhaps they did and Dr. Lemler does not remember them because of all the other people he gives tours to (despite all the intense secrecy!).
>
"I just can't believe people believe in this," Sgrillo told the Daily News,
"that their loved ones can be brought back to life. Are they really that
stupid?"
>
Sgrillo is not worthy to tie the shoelaces of such scholars and scientists as Robert Frietas, Eric Drexler, Michael West, Aubrey de Grey, Ralph Merkle, Bart Kosko and others. Perhaps the real stupid person just happens to be...
From the John Madden article:
Of course, Hamon, the Ferrells and all the other enraged and disgusted
people who were closest to Williams don't for a minute think John Henry was
stupid - or that he really believed his father could one day be brought back
to life through cryogenics. It is their contention that after squeezing
every last autograph out of the feeble, critically ill old man, John Henry
attained his final payday by selling Williams' body to Alcor - which, in
turn, profited enormously by the publicity. (John Henry, Williams' other
daughter Claudia and Bobby Jo Ferrell are under a gag order as a result of
the settlement of Ferrell's lawsuit over Williams' will.)
>
It shows the bottom line ignorance & apathy of these people that they don't even realize the most basic concepts of a cryonics arrangement, due to the fact they claim Ted was "sold" to Alcor.
I just hope government officials and the public realize these people are honestly confused (at best) regarding their intentions, and so they should not buy into a cry to go after Alcor at its present (and peaceful) Arizona home. We don't need another Dora Kent style cryonics witch hunt...
One thing to keep in mind is that sportswriting in general tends toward hyperbole to stir up the reader. And so when cryonics is brought up don't expect things to change in that regard.
Best wishes,
John
P.S. I am currently attempting to assemble the new "professional garden cart" purchased by Dave (Dave Pizer, my employer here at Creekside Preserve/Ventureville- www.creeksidepreserve.com http://www.venturist.org/). As I slowly make progress I think of the advice a friend's dad gave to me when I was a kid "no nut, bolt or piece of equipment is smarter than you are!" I think collectively they just MAY be smarter! lol
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