Williams note challenged by his daughter

The daughter who wants her father's body cremated now disputes the validity of the note the executor considers Ted Williams' wish.

By CARRIE JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 14, 2002

INVERNESS -- A judge should order a hearing to determine the true last wishes of Ted Williams, a lawyer for the hitting great's oldest daughter said Tuesday.

In a motion filed in Citrus County Circuit Court, an attorney for Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell said questions still remain about the authenticity of a handwritten note allegedly written and signed by Williams, in which he agreed to be cryonically frozen after his death.

If a hearing is ordered, Ferrell is prepared to produce witnesses who will testify under oath that Williams told them he wanted to be cremated, even after the note was reportedly signed, according to the motion submitted by Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick, Ferrell's lawyer.

The executor of the estate, Al Cassidy, tried to sidestep a hearing last week when he withdrew his request for help from the court to resolve the dispute over Williams' body. Cassidy's filing said he was convinced Williams wanted to be cryonically frozen after his death.

The move effectively halted the legal dispute that erupted shortly after Williams' death July 5.

But Fitzpatrick argued that the evidence Cassidy submitted as proof -- a report by a Miami forensic handwriting expert who said Williams' signature on the note was authentic -- raised more questions than it answered.

Ferrell is fighting to retrieve her father's remains from an Arizona cyronics lab. She maintains that her father wanted to be cremated, with the ashes spread over the coast of Florida, as dictated in his 1996 will.

Ferrell's half-siblings, John-Henry and Claudia Williams, say their famous father changed his mind after the will was signed, and entered into a pact with them to be frozen after their deaths.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Patricia Thomas will be asked to rule on whether this chapter of the legal dispute should continue.

Robert Goldman, the lawyer for John-Henry and Claudia Williams, said he had not yet had time to review Fitzpatrick's petition Tuesday afternoon. "But I'm concerned that Bobby-Jo probably does not have standing to file it," he said.

Lawyers for Cassidy could not be reached for comment.

-- Carrie Johnson can be reached at 860-7309 or cjohnson@sptimes.com.

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