We were treated to a fine obituary on Kenny Sailors, the first to develop basketball's jump shot. Then, if you read the other paper, in today's WSJ, you get an Essay piece on the jump shot by Shawn Fury. Mr. Fury has even written a book on the jump shot, "Rise and Fire: The origins, Science and Evolution of the Jump Shot--and How It Transformed Basketball Forever." The subtitle is as long as the first chapter.
Earlier in the week we had the obituary for the character actor Abe Vigoda, best known for being ordered into a car for a final ride by Michael Corleone in movie "The Godfather." Abe also had the distinction of previously being reported dead in real life nearly 30 years before he actually did pass away. Both times there was an obituary.
This is somewhat repeated when you consider the story of the British figure, Richard John Bingham, the seventh Earl of Lucan who disappeared in 1974 after being suspected of whacking the household's nanny to death with a lead pipe in the basement of the family's home.
This of course lead the makers of Clue to revise the British version of the popular game to include the possibility that the body could be found in the basement, done in by a lead pipe wielded by an Earl. The Earl's token was made to be near-royal blue in color.
The Earl was never found, prompting comparisons to New York's missing Judge Joseph Force Crater who got in a cab after having dinner in the theater district during FDR's administration as governor of New York, never to heard or seen from again. Speculation for his abduction and likely murder was all over the map, including a theory that FDR had him eliminated because the Judge was a figure of interest in an Albany corruption scandal that Roosevelt wanted squelched. Nothing's changed.
Crater's disappearance was on August 6, 1930 and was fodder for comedians for decades. Johnny Carson on "The Tonight" show would make reference to the missing Judge. Today, Crater's name would draw blanks from most people.
Perhaps the next most famous missing person is Jimmy Hoffa, the head of the Teamsters Union who disappeared on July 30, 1975. Persistent speculation has always revolved around Hoffa's ties to organized crime,and the theory that they wearied of his presence on earth. Jimmy has been identified as being mixed in with more foundations than are registered with the IRS.
Richard John Bingham, the seventh Earl, is described as what we American would immediately recognize as the epitome of a British snob. Cad, more likely. He was estranged from his family at the time of the murder, but supposedly got back into the house and murdered the nanny, perhaps because he thought she was his wife.
Daughters are sometimes teased that they "marry their fathers" when they choose a spouse, so I guess it's not entirely impossible to believe that rich people hire a nanny because they resemble their wife.
Mistaking your nanny for your wife while you're throttling her with a lead pipe in the cellar does go a bit beyond the pale. The lights were out in the cellar? A woman's screams are just like your wife's? With no apprehension of the good Earl himself, one can only speculate.
His Lordship had heavy gambling debts, so it's not entirely impossible to believe that he met with foul play himself when he fled the murder and got completely cut off from his assets. There are people who do eventually weary of IOUs.
As you might imagine, the British have been as preoccupied by the Earl's disappearance as we Americans have been with Judge Crater, and later Jimmy Hoffa. Flight to France, suicide, all sorts of explanations have emerged. But where's the body?
And this is how you get to be dead twice. A British judge declared the Earl dead in 1999, but when there's peerage involved, it doesn't go away, even then. The Earl's son, George John Bingham (two first names, just like dad) petitioned the courts to be named the eighth Earl of Lucan. No doubt there's something to be gained by having your nobility recognized.
George John's request apparently stems from a 2014 British law that requires a death certificate to have been issued for the father's demise before he, George John, can ascend in ranking to be the eighth Earl. GJ's request has been granted.
Whether any of this leads Julian Fellowes to mine the story for export to the States will of course remain to be seen. 'Downton Abbey' is over in the UK and Mr. Fellowes is supposedly cobbling together a New York Gilded Age version for us to feast on. Over the years, the Brits have of course already fed the story into their own media furnace.
Again though, with no body, and the fact the Earl is still not too old not to be alive, there can be the possibility that he became a silent partner in Gordon Goody's beach front bar in Mojacur, Spain and could even now be living as the seventh Earl of Lucan, but also as an honorary 16th member of Britain's Great Train Robbery Gang.
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