Book says Ted Williams' Head Abused

Technician at Cryogenics Facility Swung at it with Monkey Wrench

(AP)  The New York Daily News is reporting that Red Sox Hall of Famer Ted Williams' severed head was mistreated at an Arizona cryonics facility, according to details from a new book.

In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that Williams' head, which had been severed and frozen for storage, was abused at the facility. Johnson claims a technician took baseball-like swings at Williams' frozen head with a monkey wrench.

Williams, the last player to hit over .400 in a season, died in 2002 at age 83 and had his remains sent to Alcor for cryogenic storage in the hope that future generations would develop the technology to revive him.

[amazedd]

The Judge should make the dude paint Dorian Grey, in his own blood, Yorick.

[darkferious]

Too bad CBS is reporting fiction as if it were news.

It's a case of someone who conned his way into a job with the sole purpose of writing an expose for personal profit. When nothing significant materialized, he created his own drama. Then, he tried blackmail and it didn't work, so now he's writing science fiction novels.

There are no non-surgical tools in the Alcor operating room.

[brianbwb-2009]

Non-surgical? Does this statement imply that there are surgical tools at Alcor?

What need would there be for surgical tools in a meat locker full of frozen body parts?

Seems to me the need for maintenance tools for the refrigeration equipment would be far greater than the need for surgery on "meat by-products", and so it would indeed be rather strange to have a need for surgical instruments, and no need for maintenance instruments.

Methinks thou doth protest too much...

[brianbwb-2009]

Non-surgical? Does this statement imply that there are surgical tools at Alcor?

What need would there be for surgical tools in a meat locker full of frozen body parts?

Seems to me the need for maintenance tools for the refrigeration equipment would be far greater than the need for surgery on "meat by-products", and so it would indeed be rather strange to have a need for surgical instruments, and no need for maintenance instruments.

Methinks thou doth protest too much...

[aponce16]

I am one of the Alcor Foundation clients. Trust me when I tell you, this guy is just looking to make money creating a funny controversy. The people that work at the facility are extremely dedicated and professional. If this guy had any real proof he could have attracted a real news crew investigation. Wait, I guest not...NO MONEY to make. If I remember correctly Ted Williams family was against the whole cryonics thing. They even went to court to try to violate his wishes. That's right, Ted Williams himself gave specific instructions to be put in cryopreservation..
Believe me when I tell you. this people didn't steal his head to do creepy experiments or to play games with it.
If you believe this guy's allegations you are simply a moron. Why? Well, Do you know anything about cryopreservation (besides what you have seen on Sci/fi movies)? I can bet the answer is NO. Admit it, you know nothing about it. You know nothing about the Alcor Foundation either.
You see this is what's wrong with this country these days. People just want to create controversy all the time. Even where there is none. Hey don't let the facts get on the way of a good lynching. How easy it is to stir you ignorant people into a mob mentality and make you march down the street with pick forks and torches to burn whoever they are telling you to burn in a bonfire. You don't know why you are doing it but just like a good lemming you will keep marching up the mountain and will jump down the biggest cliff.
Hey, you fools. Before I decided to become a client I check the foundation extensively. These people don't play around. These people are professionals at what they do. Oh, and don't tell me the guy has tapes. Pleeeeeese. audio tapes can be fake and manipulated so easily. These days anybody can photoshop themselves into any picture, movie, etc...
Why don't you guys look into this guy's background a little. Do some digging before you guys start posting stupid comments.
This is a sick greedy disgruntled employee that is trying to cash in creating funny controversies and peddling his lies in a stupid book. People doit all the time. I had employees if mine that after leaving the company have accused me of all sort of things. After wasting thousands of dollars proving that they lie then what do I get...NOTHING. If you sue them you never get anything because people that lie out of greed never seem to have anything. Some lie for fame, some for money, or both. I know this guy is a liar and he might get some air time but I hope the Alcor Foundation sues his ass off.

[brianbwb-2009]

C'mon aponce, Alcor is nothing but a sham, selling the hope of a second life to suckers who think it might be possible in some imaginary future, and possess the arrogance to think they might be deserving of such.

You accuse the employee of trying to make money off of a lie?

William's head is only there because marketing wanted some celebrities to help bolster their image.

Talk about making money off a lie...

Lets say that the minuscule possibility exists for the DNA re-sequencing necessary for reconstruction could ever be worked out, it could then be extracted from a single cell, or a preserved blood sample, there is no need to preserve the head, or entire body parts.

Lets suppose for a Planck time unit, that the neural network that comprises the brain functions could somehow be brought back online, and those impulses that ultimately became William's consciousness could be re-created, even though they have never been recorded or preserved in the first place.

There then is no need, or point to try to download it into a mass of dead cells, Williams' self awareness could then exist in a computer, still no need for the head to be preserved.

So while you excoriate people for seeking money in this money-driven life, you might note that there are those of us who view Alcor as nothing more than a group of people scamming the families of the dead, selling them unlikely-to-ever-be-possible dreams.

While you deride "people" in general as not wanting any "facts get on the way of a good lynching", you commit the same lynching to the character of those whom you accuse. I don't see any of the above-mentioned facts getting in your way either.

While you do have one point, that people are generally ignorant, you fail to include your own propensity to be so, and thus display your own ignorance. You say that you know the person you deride is a liar, then discount any proof he might present as having been faked, while you yourself provide no proof that any such evidence actually was faked.

You complain about being sued, then call for Alcor to sue. There is ethics for you. Speaking about ethics, btw,

Ever stop to think that when you bite it, and after the insurance company settles up, and the other expenses relating to your demise have spent, then should you somehow re-appear, you have then yourself scammed those companies, and those who paid your expenses?

Why should your will even be valid, considering that you might "return" and change the conditions?

Seems to me, by the content and tone of your post, you are simply angry because this story does open the door to considering the logistical improbability of a program you say you have joined.

I understand, no one likes being suckered, and even less letting the world know that they have been.

[rwsmith29456]

Oh, by the way. I'm going to run right out and buy this book.

[rwsmith29456]

His job is to take care of dead frozen heads. What kind of person would it take do this job?

[retiredgustav]

Talk about a dead end job!

[johnpatrick1]

Ted will kick that guys ass if he comes back before the moron technician kicks off and even then Ted will kick his ass in the hereafter.

[brentsimm]

This is a joke. Ted Williams head abused?!?!? Somebody cut his freaking head off and put it in a deep freeze! Is that not abuse? How the h is that ok? Yeah, it's not ok to hit a cadavers head with a wrench, but it's perfectly civilized to chop his entire head off and stick it in the freezer. Get real....

[dontknowitall]

No. But the umpire sent the employee to first on a walk.

[Henri_Rochard]

It was a real heads-up call.

[Blatensphere]

What an ******. Hope his head is treated the same way when he goes. Any word on whether the employee was charged with abuse of a corpse?