Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Divisive and flamboyant, maddening and beloved, Marion Barry outshone every politician in the 40-year history of District of Columbia self-rule. But for many, his legacy was not defined by the accomplishments and failures of his four terms as mayor and long service on the D.C. Council. Instead, Barry will be remembered for a single night in a downtown Washington hotel room and the grainy video that showed him lighting a crack pipe in the company of a much-younger woman. When FBI agents burst in, he referred to her with an expletive. She "set me up," Barry said.

Tommy Ramone, a co-founder of the seminal punk band the Ramones and the last surviving member of the original group, has died, a business associate said Saturday. Dave Frey, who works for Ramones Productions and Silent Partner Management, said Ramone died on Friday. Frey didn't have additional details. Ramone — born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest, Hungary — was 65. Tommy Ramone, a drummer, co-founded the Ramones in 1974 in New York along with singer Joey Ramone, bassist DeeDee Ramone and guitarist Johnny Ramone. The band members weren't related and had different last names, but took the common name Ramone. The...

Burton Wilson’s camera was Austin’s memory during the hippie era when, as the saying went, if you could remember it, you weren’t there. The former Vermont farmboy who documented the vibrant scene at the Vulcan Gas Company in the 1960s and the Armadillo World Headquarters in the 1970s passed away Monday morning. He was 95. Wilson got it down while those around him were only concerned with getting down. In the process, he created the defining documents of an enchanting era in Austin’s history. “Burton was one of my mentors,” said photographer Todd V. Wolfson. “He made me want to...

David Brockie, frontman for the Grammy nominated "extraterrestrial" metal band Gwar, died of an accidental heroin overdose in March, the Virginia State Medical Examiner's Office said on Tuesday. Brockie, 50, who gained an international fan base performing as a 43bn-year-old alien vocalist for the satirical band, was found by his roommate on 23 March dead in his Richmond home. Brockie died from "acute heroin toxicity and the manner of death is accident," Arkuie Williams, administrator of the medical examiner's office, said in an email. US deaths from heroin have soared as prescription painkiller abusers turn to the drug because it...

Alexander Shulgin earned his nickname, the Godfather of ecstasy, after honing a way to make the drug - and testing it out on himself to check it had worked. A Facebook post by his wife and research partner, Ann, said he died "surrounded by family and caretakers and Buddhist meditation music". He lived out his final years at his home in Northern California. Shulgin began his study of organic chemistry at Harvard University in his teens and, after a stint in the US Navy during World War Two, returned to Berkeley to get his PhD in biochemistry at the University...

Al Feldstein, who took over a fledgling humor magazine called Mad in 1956 and made it a popular, profitable and enduring wellspring of American satire, died on Tuesday at his ranch in Paradise Valley, Mont. He was 88. His wife, the former Michelle Key, confirmed the death. In recent years, he was a wildlife and landscape painter in Montana, outside Livingston. Mr. Feldstein had been a writer and illustrator of comic books when he became editor of Mad four years into its life and just a year after it had graduated from comic-book form to a full-fledged magazine.

Mickey Rooney, who spent nearly his entire life in the show business, died today. He was 93.

A Toronto rapper is dead after being shot numerous times in his car in what police are calling a “brazen attack” in downtown Toronto. Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan says the victim — identified as Shmar Parris, 25, who social media messages of condolence said also went by the name Murda Marz, a rapper who several videos posted on YouTube — was known to police and the overnight shooting is believed to be a targeted attack. Ryan says a light-coloured SUV was seen driving erratically away from the scene but there are no details on any suspects or how many may...

Dave Brockie, founder and lead singer of outlandish metal band Gwar, died Sunday at the age of 50. The news was first reported by Richmond outlet Style Weekly and confirmed by the band's manager Jack Flanagan. "It is with a saddened heart, that I confirm my dear friend Dave Brockie, artist, musician, and lead singer of GWAR passed away at approximately 6:50 p.m. EST Sunday, March 23, 2014," Flanagan said. "His body was found Sunday by his bandmate at his home in Richmond, VA. Richmond authorities have confirmed his death and next of kin has been notified. A full autopsy...

Glenn Edward McDuffie, the young sailor from Houston who can be seen in one of the most iconic photos from the end of World War II, has died, according to family members. The Navy veteran was 86. McDuffie was 18 when he said he was captured in the famous kiss photo with nurse Edith Shain. “I heard someone running and stopping right in front of us. I raised my head up, and it was a photographer,” McDuffie told the Houston Chronicle in 2007. “I tried to get my hand out of the way so I wouldn’t block her face, and...

Hollywood star Shirley Temple has died at the age of 85, her family has said. The actress found fame as a child star in the 1930s in films like Bright Eyes, Stand Up and Cheer and Curly Top. She died on Monday at home in Woodside, California, from natural causes. "She was surrounded by her family and caregivers," a statement said.

Arthur Rankin Jr., the animator behind the classic holiday special classic “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the “Jackson Five” cartoon series and dozens of other productions, died Thursday at his home in Harrington Sound, Bermuda. He was 89. Rankin’s death was reported by Bermuda’s Royal Gazette. With his partner Jules Bass, Rankin ran the prosperous Rankin/Bass production banner that was behind a slew of specials and cartoon series from the early 1960s through the late 1980s.The company was a pioneer in the use of stop-motion animation, which gave a distinctive look to its 1964 “Rudolph” special (pictured). Rankin/Bass also made a point...

Samong "Avajee" Traisattha, 36, was discovered by his wife lying in a pool of blood in his living room The singer of a black metal band has been stabbed to death for tarnishing Satan. Samong "Avajee" Traisattha, 36, was discovered by his wife lying in a pool of blood in his living room. The lead singer and bassist of Surrender of Divinity had earlier welcomed a fan of the band into his home in Thailand. His wife Jaruvan Surapol, 34, told cops she left to put her children to bed but when she returned an hour later on January 8...

Amiri Baraka died Thursday after weeks of failing health, a family spokeperson confirmed. He was 79. A playwright, poet, critic and activist, Baraka was one of the most prominent and controversial African American voices in the world of American letters. He was born Everett LeRoi Jones on Oct. 7, 1934, in Newark, N.J. A gifted student, he graduated from high school two years early and went to college at New York University and Howard University. After serving in the Air Force for more than two years, Baraka -- then Jones -- was dishonorably discharged for reading communist texts.

Jay Traynor, the singer best known for his stint as the original lead vocalist in Jay and the Americans, has passed away at the age of 69 following a struggle with liver cancer. ABC News Radio reports that Traynor, who had recently been performing with the Tokens, died in a Florida hospital. His passing was confirmed by Jay Siegel of the Tokens, who was described as “acting as a family spokesperson” in ABC’s report. Jay and the Americans rose to prominence in 1962 with the hit single ‘She Cried,’ which was supposed to be the B-side of their song ‘Dawning‘...

A World War II fighter pilot who gained fame for dramatically flying beneath the Eiffel Tower's arches to take down a German aircraft has died aged 92. William Overstreet Jr. died on Sunday at a hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, according to his obituary, but there was no indication of the cause of his death. Overstreet's famously flew his P-51C 'Berlin Express' beneath the Eiffel Tower in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1944, which has been credited with lifting the spirits of French Resistance troops on the ground. For his valiant service, the French ambassador to the United States presented Overstreet with France's...

James Avery has died at the age of 65. The actor -- best known for playing Uncle Philip Banks on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air -- died at an L.A. hospital on Tuesday, Dec. 31. According to TMZ, Avery recently underwent a surgery for an undisclosed illness. His wife, Barbara Avery, was at the hospital at the time of his death.