"So, I says to Pauli, 'you wanna whack this guy on the ski slope to make it look like an accident and none of us knows how to ski. Whatta stupid idea!'"
This has gotten a considerable amount of coverage in Australia. I’m not saying I believe it, but I haven’t seen any coverage of the claim in the news media here.
I guess my ski patrol buddies at the resort had a dead imposter they pulled of the mountain.
I am standing by the lone tree theory until I see proof . Seems like only yesterday Sonny and Cher live at the Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City . Ok maybe day before yesterday .
And the beat goes on.
And how exactly do you stage a convincing tree collision with a man who's already dead? Use him like a battering ram?
It’s like they say: celebrities die in trees.
Wonder when Ted Gunderson’s book about this incident will hit the market?
I live near Heavenly Valley, and this was big news around here, when it happened. There were witnesses.
The run where he died is called Olympic Downhill. It is at the north end, of the Nevada side, of the Heavenly Valley resort. Olympic Downhill is an intermediate run, that is generally well groomed, fairly open, and not very crowded.
Some skiers like to make a fast run there from time to time, because it is easy to go fast, and stay well away from other skiers, if it is fairly empty. In the 90s, the ski patrol would generally look the other way (not pull your ticket), if you were going fast, but doing it very safely (missing other skiers by 100 feet or so).
Sonny Bono was an expert skier, and witnesses said that he was going fast, in a tuck. The only unusual thing was that he stopped making steering adjustments just before his accident. He went straight off the run and head first into a tree. He was wearing a helmet, but hit far too hard to survive.
There was a lot of speculation, around here, at the time. The only theories that seemed to make any sense, were suicide, drugs, and stroke. I never heard what the coroner concluded, but I think he tested negative for drugs. I believe they also dismissed suicide. Normally a stroke would be detectable, but major brain trauma a few seconds after a minor stroke, might make it undectable.
Without further information, I tend to believe the stroke theory.
