X-Message-Number: 21212 From: Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 22:51:33 EST Subject: Ted Williams replies to Buzz Hamon - the year is 2099 --part1_17c.17494bca.2b86fc45_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit REPLY TO BUZZ ET. AL. BY: TED ................. (perhaps in 96 years) ......... THE REPORTED ASKED: "What would Ted Williams have thought if he knew his body would be hanging upside down in a nitrogen-filled tank with perhaps four other full bodies and five heads at a cryogenics lab inside a strip mall in Scottsdale, Ariz." I WOULD HAVE SAID THANK YOU SON, THANK YOU ALCOR, BUT I DON'T REALLY REMEMBER HAVING GIVEN IT ANY THOUGHT DURING THAT TIME. "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." YES, I REALIZED PERHAPS OLD BUZZ WASN'T CAPABLE OF UNDERSTANDING MY WISHES, PERHAPS I WOULD NEED AN ATTORNEY TO APPOINT MY SON TO PROTECT MY WISHES, ANYHOW I DIDN'T MEAN TO HANG UP ON HIM :=) 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. "FINAL RESTING PLACE" ? I WAS HOPING NOT, DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE WANT TO GO TO ALCOR AT LEGAL DEATH? ANYHOW, HOW COULD I GET ANY REST THE FIRST FEW YEARS WORRYING IF SOMEONE WAS GOING TO TERMINATE MY OTHERWISE SUCCESSFUL SUSPENSION? 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." 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. When Ted Williams died last July 5, John Henry arranged to have his father's body frozen and moved to Alcor. THANK YOU SON. Sources familiar with what took place that day told the Daily News that the minute Williams drew his last breath, hospital officials filled his body with blood thinner and stuffed it into a bag filled with dry ice for transportation to the airport in Ocala, Fla., where a plane chartered by Alcor was waiting on the tarmac to fly it to Arizona. THANK YOU ALCOR. 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. THEY DIDN'T GET ME UNFROZEN - THANK YOU, YOUR HONOR. Meanwhile, no one with close ties to Williams was allowed access to the lab as Williams' body hung suspended in a giant cylinder. THANK YOU ALCOR FOR HONORING MY PRIVACY Hamon couldn't accept that. 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." AND YOU WONDER WHY I HUNG UP ON HIM AND TRIED TO CALL MY ATTORNEY. "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." NO BUZZ, IF I WOULD HAVE BEEN PUT IN A HOLE TO BECOME WORM-FOOD, OR BURNT TO A CRISP AND THEN TURNED INTO ASHES, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN "ABSOLUTE HORRIFYING!" 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: "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? HMMMMMM, I'VE ALWAYS WONDER WHY THERE WERE SO FEW? "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. GEZZZ, I WOULD HAVE BEEN LONESOME ALL THOSE YEARS HAD I BEEN ALL BY MYSELF. "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. "For all the money this supposedly cost John Henry, he wouldn't even see to it that Ted was alone." "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!' THANKS JERRY! "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.' " I ALWAYS DID LIKE HONESTY. 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." GEE, THAT FUNNY, ALL THE YEARS I WAS IN THERE I NEVER NOTICED ANY UNSANITARY CONDITIONS. "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?" HMMMMMMMM, THEY HAVEN'T RETURNED ANY OF MY RECENT PHONE CALLS, WHO'S CALLING WHO STUPID? =========================================== OK, this is all meant in fun, don't take it seriously, who knows what Ted will really say when he gets back. If he is like the rest of us he will probably be honestly sad for those who did not consider cryonics --- if it turns out it works. --part1_17c.17494bca.2b86fc45_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21212