DEATH with a Twist: VAN TOWED WITH DEAD BODY STILL INSIDE, USA

For one New Yorker, the journey to the Pearly Gates involved a detour to the city’s car pound.

The New York City Police Department towed an illegally parked van carrying a body. The van, parked outside Redden’s Funeral Home on West 14th Street, was to transport the body to Newark for a flight.

But according to the New York Daily News, Paul DeNigris, the funeral director, said he went inside the funeral home to get paperwork and answer a phone call. When he returned, the van was gone — along with the body that was in a white cardboard box, the newspaper said.

“I was just a wreck,” he told the newspaper. “I was frantic. When something like that happens, you go into panic mode.

The corpse was finally rescued after 90 undignified minutes in Manhattan's most miserable locale, trapped amid scofflaws and irate out-of-towners.

DeNigris had parked his silver 2002 Dodge in a "No Parking Anytime" zone outside the funeral home. The body, in a white cardboard box, was headed for Newark Airport and a flight to Miami for cremation.

A funeral van carrying a body was towed from Redden's Funeral Home on West 14th Street. (SMITH FOR NEWS)

DeNigris said he stepped inside to pick up some paperwork, took a phone call, and returned to find ... nothing.

"The car was just gone," he said yesterday.

The NYPD said the van was ticketed at 9:22 a.m. - and then towed nearly three hours later, at 12:07 p.m.

"There was nothing to indicate it was more than just an illegally parked car," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne.

The terrified DeNigris was at the pound within minutes, explaining his improbable plight and showing his funeral home paperwork.

"I tried not to be too loud," he recounted. "I didn't want to scream, 'I'm the guy from the funeral home with the car with the person in the back.'

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DEATH with a Twist: ANOTHER “WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S”?, USA

“Hey! I think my roomate might be dead back at home!” stated one of the the two guys who approached a Denver cop.

In a case reminiscent of the 1989 film “Weekend at Bernie’s,” prosecutors say two men went for a night on the town with their friend dead in the backseat of their car.

The two men, both friends with Jarrett, put his body in the back seat of Mr Rubinson’s car and took it to Teddy T’s and Sam’s No 3 – both bars in Denver – before taking the body back to Jarrett’s home.

At Shotgun Willie’s they also withdrew $400 from Jarrett’s account, although court documents do not make clear whether either of the men knew Jarrett’s PIN number.

The two men stayed at Shotgun Willie’s until closing time, and reported Jarrett’s death to the police at around 04:00 in the morning.

Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson called the incident a “bizarre and unfortunate crime”.

He added: “This isn’t anything you want to have happen to a loved one. You want them treated with respect in death.”

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DEATH with a Twist: DOGS SURVIVING ON OWNERS’ FLESH, CANADA

A Canadian couple died, man-67, woman-57, in their rural Saskatchewan home of causes unknown.

A few of the dogs who survived

Left behind were 7 of their dogs.

Police concluded that for more than a week the dogs — five Shelties and two mixed breeds — survived by eating the remains of the couple.

The question now is whether the dogs should be put down or given a new home.

Neighbour Margaret-Ann Irving, who knew the dogs' owners, said the animals cannot now be adopted.

"Those dogs need to be put down," she said. "You can't place a dog that's been eating on human flesh for two or three weeks and put it in a home where there might be a child."

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Apparently, there are others...

Similar related stories:

• Starving Dog Fed on Human Remains, UK
• Dog Eats Flesh Of Its Dead Owner Picking His Bones Almost Bare, RUSSIA
• Starving Dog Eats His Owner, AUSTRIA

STUNT Gone WRONG: Ormer Locklear

Leslie 'Lock' Locklear (October 28, 1891 – August 2, 1920) was a daredevil stunt flyer during and immediately after World War I.

Born in Greenville, Texas, Locklear was brought up in Fort Worth, and trained as a carpenter. While still at school he was a daredevil performer of tricks in and on moving vehicles. He worked as a house-builder, and married Ruby Graves in 1915.

Locklear became fascinated by flying, trying to build his own glider, so when World War I involved the US in 1917, he joined the U.S. Army Air Service. He trained in Austin, at Camp Dick and Barron Field, becoming a flying instructor. Locklear was an exponent of wing walking to make aircraft repairs in flight.

A 2nd Lieutenant at the end of the war, he had been assigned to military recruitment when he saw a barnstorming show, and realised his own usual flying exploits were far more impressive. Locklear left the army to join the show with two military colleagues, Milton 'Skeets' Elliott and Shirley Short. They soon obtained aircraft and formed their own show, performing far and wide. This opened the way to a movie career in California, where they performed aerial stunts for the camera.

Locklear and Elliott died in 1920 after an aerial manoeuvre while filming Locklear's second movie, The Skywayman It happened at the De Mille Airfield near Los Angeles. While filming the finale by night, Elliott had to dive the plane, carrying himself and Locklear, towards some oil derricks and appear to crash it. He forewarned the lighting crew to douse their lights when he got near the derricks, so that he could see to pull out of the dive; the lights remained full on, blinding him, and he crashed. The movie showed the crash and its aftermath in gruesome detail.

Viola Dana was in a relationship with Locklear and witnessed the crash. Dana describes Locklear's aerial accident in a profoundly personal way in the documentary called HOLLYWOOD: Hazard of the Game (1980).

Locklear and Elliott were buried in Fort Worth after huge funeral ceremonies, both there and in Los Angeles.

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STUNT Gone WRONG: Jayan

Krishnan Nair (July 25, 1939 – November 16, 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan (Malayalam: ജയന്‍), was an Indian film actor, former sailor, stunt performer and 1970s style icon. He worked in Malayalam cinema, a sector of the Indian movie industry. During his film career, he was primarily an action star and was particularly famous for his macho image and unique style. He was reputed for his chauvinistic appeal, masculine persona and well known for performing stunts of dangerous nature on his own. By late 1970s, he became the most popular lead actor and commercial superstar of malayalam film industry and has been acclaimed as the first action hero of Malayalam cinema.

Jayan was an Indian Navy officer before he came to films and rose to fame as an actor in a very short time, appearing as an action hero in numerous films during the 1970s.

He died at the age of 41, at the peak of his popularity, as a result of an accident while filming a dangerous stunt involving a flying helicopter that crashed while he was hanging on to it.

He has since then become a legendary symbol of daredevilry and masculinity with numerous inspirations, imitations, his unfading popularity being widely used to promote newage movies, actors and brands and an evergrowing fanbase spanning generations.

A film titled Avatharam presently under production, is attempting to bring back his screen persona using advanced technologies. A documentary on Jayan’s life and death Jayan – The Man behind the Legend is nearing completion for release on the occasion of his 31st death anniversary.

Death

On 16 November 1980, Jayan was killed in an accident on the set of the movie Kolilakkam (English: Shockwave). The climax scene of the movie was being filmed in Sholavaram, near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Jayan always performed his own stunts, and for this movie he was performing a particularly dangerous stunt that involved him climbing aboard a flying helicopter from a moving motorbike. The shot was accepted by the director in the first take; altogether three shots were filmed.

The iconic image of Jayan performing the
helicopter stunt, seconds before the tragedy.

According to the film’s production executive, Jayan insisted on yet another re-take as he was not satisfied with its perfection. During the re-take, the helicopter lost its balance and crashed along with Jayan, who later succumbed to his injuries.

After his death was confirmed, a slide was added during the theatre show of his movie Deepam which was running in packed houses, informing his death to the viewers who witnessed it with absolute shock and disbelief. A large number of his fans burst into tears and ran out of the buildings while many continued to watch the movie, refusing to believe it and taking it for a genius promotion for some upcoming project.

Some conspiracy theories emerged regarding the circumstances of his death, primarily because the pilot and his co-star Balan K. Nair, who was in the helicopter, survived with minor or no injuries. Nevertheless, it has been confirmed as a genuine accident.

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