A new book by a former employee of Alcor, the company that cryogenically froze Ted Williams’ remains, alleges the baseball Hall of Famer’s body was mistreated by the company.
Cryonics is conducted with the hope that someday scientists will be able to bring the subjects back to life. The heads and bodies, along with those of cats, dogs and other pets, are stored in stainless steel containers at extremely cold temperatures.
Larry Johnson says in the book Frozen: My Journey Into the World of Cryonics, Deception and Death that he watched an Alcor official swing a monkey wrench at Williams’ frozen severed head to try to remove a tuna can stuck to it. The first swing accidentally struck the head, Johnson contends, and the second knocked the tuna can loose.
Johnson says he worked for Alcor for eight months in 2003, first as clinical director then as chief operating officer. He included several photographs in the book, including one of an upside down severed head, not Williams’, that had what appeared to be a tuna can attached to it.
Johnson says Alcor used the cans, from a cat that lived on the premises, as pedestals for heads.
Williams’ head was being transferred from one container to another when the monkey wrench incident took place, Johnson said in the book.
He said that an Alcor employee tried in vain to remove the tuna can.
“Then he grabbed a monkey wrench, heaved a mighty swing, missing the tuna can completely but hitting the head dead center,” Johnson wrote in the book. “Tiny pieces of frozen head sprayed around the room.”
The next swing, Johnson wrote, knocked the can loose.
Johnson also contends that there was a significant crack in Williams’ head. He also repeated an allegation he had made earlier that samples of Williams’ DNA are missing from the facility.
Johnson, who says he wired himself surreptitiously the last few months of his employment, was the source for a story in Sports Illustrated in August 2003 that said Williams’ head had been severed and damaged.
Ted Williams died in July 2002. At the direction of his son, John Henry Williams, the baseball player’s remains were flown from Florida to Arizona.
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