With the Larry Johnson kiss-and-tell book about Alcor Life Extension Labs coming out shortly, the pot is being stirred again about Ted Williams frozen head, and its treatment.
Forget that Mr. Johnson ran the lab, and could have cleaned up the very things that he is now lamenting for profit.
Disregard that Tom Verducci, the sports writer who began ringing the fire bell about Williams' handling of his father's estate at SI sourced Bobby Jo Williams, who had a very big axe to grind with her half-brother and sister over the disputed will of Ted Williams. Williams had cut his oldest daughter, who was reported to have emotional problems severe enough for her institution at one point, out of the estate. Verducci was a convenient pawn, as a commentator, because he didn't have to do much old-fashioned journalism to give his two cents.
We were the only news agency to which John Henry would grant an interview, after the press hounded him about the head and the other rumors about the labs.
We found out quickly that the picture that SI was painting of the whole situation was grossly distorted. In "The Kid's Kid" we gave you the side of John Henry Williams that SI did not want you to see during Verducci's march to turn the younger Williams into a blood-sucking leech, a pariah. Several weeks after our articles ran, Williams spoke to Mike Fish at SI, and affirmed what he had told us. Unfortunately, Fish is not Verducci, and the damage was already done.
In this open letter from a couple of weeks before the Fish interview, I called out Verducci, and the SI editors for what I still believe is the shoddy journalism that has allowed this story to have legs for nearly a decade. I hope that Fish's attempt to at least set the record straight was due in some small part to our work.
Click to read more ...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 08:50AM 
