The Arizona cryonics facility storing Ted Williams' remains said Thursday it will not release the legendary slugger's body because it was an anatomical gift to science.
According to spokeswoman Paula Lemler, the federal Uniform Anatomical Gift Act gives Alcor Life Extension Foundation "a legal right to keep" Williams among the 58 "patients" being preserved in the event technology might someday revive the dead.
Williams' eldest daughter, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, still was mulling legal options Thursday. She and her husband Mark were outraged by a Sports Illustrated story that said Alcor decapitated Williams, lost DNA samples and cracked his head multiple times during the freezing process.
But even if the Ferrells pursued legal action, "It would not be our policy to thaw somebody out," Lemler said. "We've never done that before because we carry out the wishes of the patient."
The company has dismissed the accusations in the article, contending they were supplied by a disgruntled former employee. Lemler said Alcor was taking legal action against Larry Johnson, the ex-employee, for libel and stealing company property.
The company also is questioning the authenticity of 20 photographs Johnson posted between midnight Tuesday and early Wednesday afternoon on his new Web site, www.freeted.com For a $20 fee, visitors could see images purported to document Williams' fate at Alcor.
John Heer, who represents Johnson and Williams' eldest daughter, said Johnson took the photos off the site after realizing they might be too graphic and could lead people to misinterpret his intentions.
On the site, Johnson wrote that moral, ethical and professional values motivated him to go public with what he called "disturbing and egregious" activities by Alcor.
Williams died July 5, 2002, in Citrus County and was flown that night to Alcor's clinic in Scottsdale. This was authorized by Williams' son John-Henry, who later produced a grease-stained note he said his father signed asking to be cryonically preserved so he one day could reunite with John-Henry and his sister, Claudia.
Their half-sister, Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, maintains the note was forged. She has argued her father wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread off the Florida coast, as dictated in his 1996 will.
Eric Abel, an attorney for the other Williams children, did not return phone calls.
Prosecutors in Ocala and Arizona, who have been asked by the Ferrells and family friends to investigate, had no comment.
According to the Sports Illustrated story, John-Henry Williams still owes Alcor $111,000 of the $136,000 fee to transport and store his father's body. But Lemler said Thursday the nonprofit organization has a $2.4-million trust fund to cover cases in which a family ceases payment.
- Staff writers Richard Raeke and Suzannah Gonzales contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 352 860-7303 or cjenkins@sptimes.com
