RIP: August 2008 Archives

EL MONTE -- The mysterious death of a man whose body was found outside an office building in the 9600 block of Flair Drive is looking more like a suicide.

The death was listed with the coroner's office as a "possible suicide."

Coroner's officials said the death was due to blunt force truama.

The afternoon of the discovery, detectives took measurements of a large mechanical lift being used for construction at the site, and spent a good deal of time with their eyes trained upwards toward the lift and the nearby multi-story building.

The dead man is being described only as an Asian man in his 30s pending notification of family members.

*Lt. Gil Carrillo of the Sheriff's Headquarters Bureau said Monday that until an autopsy has been performed that determines the incident was a suicide, detectives will continue investigating.

A summary of some items we've been covering over the weekend:

1. EL MONTE -- Homicide detectives are investigating the mysterious death of a man whose body was found on the property of an office building Sunday.
2. ROSEMEAD -- The man who died in a fiery crash at the end of a police chase Saturday was driving an SUV that belonged to a woman found shot to death at her Gardena business.
3. LA PUENTE -- A man allegedly shot and wounded two of his roommates during an argument at their house Saturday.
4. SOUTH EL MONTE -- Officials have released the name of a man found who was fatally shot in his car last week.
5. NORWALK -- A man was shot and wounded in the parking lot of a convenience store Sunday.
6. SONORA -- The Montrose Search and Rescue Team rescued a 34-year-old man Sunday after he spent two nights at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft.

Two of my favorite entertainers gone in two days, Bernie Mac and now Isaac Hayes. They say this stuff happens in threes. I hope not.

From the Associated Press:

Isaac Hayes, the baldheaded, baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose "Theme From Shaft" won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said. He was 65.

 

Bernie Mac was a funny guy. Who couldn't laugh at his prickly TV character. From the Associated Press in Chicago:

CHICAGO (AP) - A publicist says Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian Bernie Mac has died at age 50.

Publicist Danica Smith says Mac died early Saturday at a hospital in the Chicago area of complications due to pneumonia.

The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but he had said the condition went into remission in 2005. He recently had been hospitalized and treated for pneumonia.

Mac had starring roles in "Ocean's Eleven,""Bad Santa,""Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" and "Transformers."

The comedian drew critical and popular acclaim with his Fox television series "The Bernie Mac Show," which aired more than 100 episodes from 2001 to 2006.

Somewhere on my desk I have a frayed, faded and much abused copy of the 1993 edition of Police Call.

I learned today from LA Observed that Gene Hughes, publisher of the magazine, died recently at age 80.

Police Call was a collection of radio frequencies used by police, fire and other government agencies. Hughes, a scanner junkie, put them together  and made the gibberish understandable to the lay person.

As much as anything I have Hughes (real name Gene Costin) to thank for my ability to tell the difference between real news and real noise.

Here's a bit from the LAO post:

Costin was 13 and living in a Los Angeles foster home in 1940 when he discovered that he could listen in on the LAPD's radios. The rest is history.

Here's a link to Wired's obit. The photo is from Wired also.