This Day In History

Dec 15 1944
En route to Paris, "swing" big band leader Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel. Miller, listed as Missing In Action, was serving as a Major in the Army Air Force Band when his plane went down.

Dec 15 1952
Fashion photographer George Jorgenson has a Danish surgeon remove his various naughty bits, in the world's first sex-change operation. George emerges in New York as cabaret actress Christine Jorgenson.

Dec 15 1961
Nazi Adolf Eichmann, former Reichssicherheitshauptamt (that's a real word) bureaucrat, is sentenced to death by a Jerusalem court. Eichmann had been arrested in Argentina and smuggled to Israel the previous year.

Dec 15 1966
Walt Disney dead!

Dec 15 1988
Lori Davis, of Bay Shore NY, files suit against Mike Tyson over an incident in which Tyson played a little grabass with her at a nightclub.

Dec 15 1989
The man that masterminded a campaign of horror against the Colombian people, cartel leader Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha, "El Mexicano", is killed by police in a shootout. Gacha had bombed an Avianca plane midflight, killing all 101 passengers, and truckbombed the National Police Headquarters in Bogota. The police were not happy with him.

Dec 15 1997
Thailand begins the mass cremation of some 21,347 dead, all unclaimed from the Poh Tek Tung cemetary in Bangkok. It is a new record.

David Carradine Death Photo Has Family Members Outraged

EXCLUSIVE: David Carradine Death Photo, Genitalia Missing

A Thai tabloid newspaper has published a photo of actor David Carradine's body where he was found hanging in a closet, leading the Hollywood star's family to announce they'll sue any U.S. publication that does likewise.

Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot his latest movie, Stretch, and had been known to join the film crew for dinner. The crew noticed his absence when going out to dinner on June 3, but assumed he was simply taking the night off. They found him dead on June 4th.

The forensic photo was censored in part, but it shows Carradine with his hands tied in front of him, hanging from a closet support bar with half of his naked body. Reports indicate the colour of the body would indicate the actor had been dead for some time.

According to the tabloid, "what this photo does not show is that part of Carradine's genitalia is missing - it was cut out." Thai police noted, "Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation."

Speculation by Thai police is that Carradine died in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident, however, the family of David thinks his death is suspicious. They announced they would hire a private forensics expert and has formally filed a report with the FBI in the hopes the agency will investigate the U.S. actor's mysterious death in Bangkok. Carradine's body is on its way from Thailand to Los Angeles.

Police are still awaiting the results of laboratory tests which will take between three and four weeks to come through before they can make an official conclusion about the cause of death.

Carradine was in the Thai capital to shoot a film called "Stretch" when he was found dead in the wardrobe of his luxury hotel room last week. His body was repatriated on a United Airlines flight early Saturday.

Results of an autopsy in Thailand are not expected for at least three weeks. Carradine's family and friends say the actor would never have killed himself; he had several films to work on, recently bought a new car and was happy in his marriage. He was married five times, most recently in 2004, and was the father of two daughters.

[Do you want to see the picture?]

Debate

"Look, there was a period in my life when I had a single action Colt 45, loaded, in my desk drawer"

Did David Carradine kill himself, was he an accidental victim of his own auto erotic asphyxiation, or was he murdered?

I ask myself after reading these from iReport.com:

JonnyTepin // 48 minutes ago
Raiseya - I thought the same thing, but I suppose that isn't something on which CNN or any other news agency cares to speculate in public! But yeah... I thought it was rather odd to hang oneself NUDE... in the closet... hmm... I had a classmate that lost his little brother who accidentally hung himself from the bunk beds. Carridine had, after all, admitted in interviews that some days he'd...more
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Raiseya - I thought the same thing, but I suppose that isn't something on which CNN or any other news agency cares to speculate in public! But yeah... I thought it was rather odd to hang oneself NUDE... in the closet... hmm... I had a classmate that lost his little brother who accidentally hung himself from the bunk beds. Carridine had, after all, admitted in interviews that some days he'd hold a loaded pistol that he kept in his drawer and contemplate ending it all. Hard to say. But yeah, when they said he was naked, I thought to myself that if I was actually gonna commit suicide, I'd like to be found with my pants on.

I'm really not surprised CNN didn't bring up the possibility, especially after Anderson Cooper's "tea bagging" comment. I wonder just how Mr. Cooper got so knowledgeable about "tea bagging". Hmmm? Can you answer that for us, Triangle-Face?less
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Raiseya // 1 hour ago
I'm surprised no one has speculated about auto erotic asphyxiation. He's in the sex capitol of the world found in a closet. Many practioners are found this way!
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trendle02 // 1 hour ago
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By the way,

Here's the link with the info from the Bangkok Post, lest someone may think I made up the information.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/17906/kung-fu-star-carradine-dead
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trendle02 // 1 hour ago
Guys,

I am not quite to sure he commited suicide. If you read the account from the Bangkok Post, you will come to a different conclusion.
Lumpini police said the body of Carradine was found curled up inside the wardrobe with one end of a shoelace tied around his penis and the other end fastened around his neck.more
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Guys,
I am not quite to sure he commited suicide. If you read the account from the Bangkok Post, you will come to a different conclusion.
Lumpini police said the body of Carradine was found curled up inside the wardrobe with one end of a shoelace tied around his penis and the other end fastened around his neck.

Both of his hands were bound with a cord which was also tied around his neck, said an officer at the station who requested anonymity.
Mysteriously, a footprint found on the bed did not match the shoes worn by Carradine.

THEN, on CNN.com, now:

Binder said a producer of the movie, "Stretch," which A member of the emergency crew who was called to the hotel after a maid found Carradine told CNN that a yellow nylon rope was tied around the actor's neck and a black rope was around his genitals. The source asked not to be identified.

"I do not know if you want to call it accidental," Chuck Binder, Carradine's manager, told CNN's Larry King on Thursday. He said Carradine's career was on a roll and his life was on a resurgence.

Binder said a producer of the movie, "Stretch," which Carradine was to act in, called him from Thailand to tell him what was happening there.

"I do not want to get in the middle of this whole investigation, but this guy said to me for sure there was foul play," Binder said.

Actor Michael Madsen told King that the one thing Carradine's wife, Annie Bierman, wanted everyone to know is, "David was not suicidal."

Foul play? Really?

Suicide, sex gone wrong, or murder? You be the judge.

David Carradine Died By Suicide

(CNN) -- American actor David Carradine has been found dead, hanging by a nylon rope in a hotel room closet in Bangkok, Thailand, according to a Thai police official.

Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred as traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine in the television series "Kung Fu," was 72.

The rope was believed to be from the hotel room curtains, Bangkok Police Lt. Col. Pirom Chanpirom said Thursday.

He said investigators found no sign of forced entry into Carradine's room.

An autopsy was being conducted at a Bangkok hospital, but no results will be available for another day, he said.

A Carradine family spokeswoman issued a short statement saying the family "is devastated by the news of David's passing."

"Circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown, and there will be no further comment until more information can be confirmed," the statement said.

"The family appreciates the many expressions of condolence, and asks for privacy at this time."

Police provided Carradine's family with information about their investigation, said Tiffany Smith, Carradine's personal co-manager.

Smith said she was "in complete shock" and that suggestions that Carradine took his own life are unbelievable.

"Knowing David, he would never commit suicide," and his death comes at a time when his "career is on a roll," she said.

Carradine was in Bangkok for filming of the movie "Stretch," being produced by a United Kingdom-based company, she said. He was the only American cast member.

Don't Miss
People: David Carradine found dead in hotel room
EW: David Carradine: A 'Renegade' life
Modern audiences may best know Carradine as "Bill" in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films. He earned a 2005 Golden Globe nomination for his role in the second movie in the two-part saga.

His career included more than 100 feature films, two dozen television movies and theater work, according to the Internet Movie Database.

"He was clearly an actor who followed his own path," said Leah Rozen, the movie critic for People magazine. (more here)

Actor David Carradine Found Dead

(CNN) -- American actor David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel, according to his personal manager, Chuck Binder.

Binder said Thursday that the death is being investigated but could provide no other details.

Carradine's death was "shocking and sad. He was full of life, always wanting to work ... a great person," Binder told People magazine.

Carradine, who became famous in the 1970s when he starred in the television series "Kung Fu," was 72.

Modern audiences may best know him as "Bill" in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films. Share memories of David Carradine

His career included more than 100 feature films, two dozen television movies and theater work, according to the Internet Movie Database.

Life for Pregnant Briton in Laos Trial

(CNN) -- A pregnant British woman accused of trying to smuggle heroin onto a flight to Thailand from Laos was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

Samantha Orobator, 20, was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced after a three-hour trial, an official in the southeast Asian country said. He declined to give his name because he is not authorized to talk to foreign media.

Orobator's mother was in the courtroom, he said.

The British Foreign Office also confirmed Orobator's sentence.

She was jailed last August at the airport in the Lao capital, Vientiane, and charged with carrying about half a kilogram of heroin.

London and Vientiane signed a prisoner transfer agreement last month, the Foreign Office said.

But it does not kick in automatically at this point, a Foreign Office representative told CNN.

"Before transfer can take place, the sentence must be final with no appeals or legal processes outstanding," the representative said, declining to be named in line with policy.

"Both states and the prisoner have to consent to a transfer. We are seeking access to Samantha" and will ask her "how she wants to proceed."

Orobator is more than five months pregnant, and enters her third trimester on Saturday.

The circumstances under which she became pregnant in prison remain unclear.

She told her mother she was not raped in prison and that the father is not a Lao prison official.

A newspaper run by the Lao government reported Orobator as saying she impregnated herself with the sperm of another prisoner being held in the same jail.

Deaths at Thai Resort Vex Family and Investigators

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- What started as a romantic Southeast Asia vacation for a Seattle couple ended with Ryan Kells preparing Friday to return from Bangkok carrying the ashes of his fiancee to give to her family in California.

"It's such a shock," Robert St. Onge told CNN about the death of his sister, Jill, who had been traveling with the man she planned to marry. "There was no way to hear last words or even see her because she has already been cremated."
The couple had been visiting Thailand at the end of a three-month journey during which the two had become engaged.

On April 26 in her online journal, the 27-year-old woman described the surroundings near where the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, "The Beach," was filmed.

"Hey hey! We're in koh phi phi right now. It's off the west coast of Thailand about a 2 hour boat ride from krabi. So amazing... just drinking eating and living so cheaply and having a blast. Food, drink, good books, sun and warm waters... What else do ya need?," St. Onge blogged.
But on May 2, Kells found St. Onge, who had told him earlier that she had not been feeling well, vomiting in their room at the Laleena guesthouse on Phi Phi island. He put her into a shopping cart and searched for help.

"She couldn't breathe. She was vomiting," Kells, 31, told CNN affiliate KGO-TV. "I tried to run her to a hospital and she ended up passing within, maybe, 12 hours of being sick."
Watch fiance discuss death of bride-to-be »

Robert St. Onge said his sister had been healthy and that her sudden death is a mystery.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that another tourist, a 22-year-old Norwegian woman, died at the same resort the same weekend, the U.S. Embassy in Thailand said.

The manager of the Laleena guesthouse has said in published reports that he believes the women's deaths came from drinking heavily.

Norwegian media reported that the Norweigan woman could have been a victim of food poisoning. Newspapers in Thailand have questioned whether both women were poisoned, quoting police sources.

In Internet postings on a Web site created to update friends and family on the tragedy, Kells also described feeling ill at the hotel and said that he believed something in their room had made the couple sick.

Kells also said he had spent less time in their room than his fiancee.

The U.S. Embassy in Thailand has been working with the St. Onge family to determine what happened.

"The police know we are concerned about this, but as with any investigation, it could take some time," said embassy spokesman Michael Turner.

Robert St. Onge said Thai authorities told his family that the inquiry could take four to eight weeks. He said his family has been given tissue samples so they can have testing done by an independent laboratory.

At Shadowland, the Seattle, Washington, restaurant where Jill St. Onge used to work as a bartender, a corner of the bar is filled with pictures, candles and postcards from the couple.

"Greetings from Phnom Penh," one from Jill reads, "We love you guys."