X-Message-Number: 19111
Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 13:55:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: Leary Hoax

In response to the question about Timothy Leary's death, I have written to
the site which includes two reviews of the movie that was made of the
death. I regret to reopen a topic which caused a lot of dissent and
unhappiness among cryonicists and friends of Leary, but I do want to
reestablish the truth, here.

Here is the text of my email to the site where the reviews appeared:

Your svtoday site, in two separate reviews of "Timothy Leary's Dead,"
unwittingly perpetuates a total fabrication. A bunch of opportunitists
were living in Leary's house during his final weeks, making a movie of his
gradual death--which was mainly caused by malnutrition, since he refused
to eat, and none of the "don't worry, be happy" types in the house tried
very hard to feed him. A cryonics team had installed an ice bath and other
equipment. I have personal knowledge of this, since at that time I was the
president of the organization with which Leary had made cryonics
arrangements. I visited his house several times with the team leader, Mike
Darwin. However, after several weeks we felt compelled to remove the
equipment, fearing for its safety and our own, largely because Leary was
talking about assisted suicide, which could have been classified as
homicide in view of his diminished ability to make decisions. At the very
least it would have precipitated a homicide investigation, during which
Leary would have been autopsied (thus ruining his chances for good
cryopreservation of the brain), our equipment would have been impounded as
evidence, and we might have been regarded as possible accessories.

In several phone calls to Leary I reiterated our desire to fulfill our
contractual and ethical obligation to preserve him, if he so wished, and I
emphasized that we could have our equipment back at his house within a
matter of hours if there was an emergency, or if the situation in the
house stabilized, or if Leary would absolutely agree to make no attempt at
assisted suicide. Finally however I received a call from Leary stating
that he had decided, largely on the basis of a conversation with John
Perry Barlow, that he did not want to be cryopreserved under any
circumstances. I swapped email with Barlow in which he verified this.

This ended our involvement in his case. Therefore I feel certain that
Timothy Leary was not decapitated for cryopreservation. According to
reliable news reports, he was cremated, and a small portion of his ashes
was sent into space with samples of ashes from some other famous people.

To the best of my knowledge, the scenes at the end of "Timothy Leary's
Dead" are totally fraudulent. If the makers of the film claim otherwise, I
invite them to state where the decapitation took place.

Feel free to quote this message if you wish.

--Charles Platt

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