WTF?!?
FAMILY DISPUTE
Williams daughter: body being frozen
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff, 7/6/2002
Ted Williams's estranged daughter says the baseball great's son is freezing the hitter's body in hopes of reviving him in the future - a decision that goes against Williams's wishes to be cremated.
Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, Ted Williams's oldest child, said that Williams's son, John Henry, had approached her last year about possibly freezing the slugger's body at the Arizona-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, which has frozen 49 bodies. Ferrell's husband, Mark, said John Henry said that Alcor would freeze Williams's head for around $50,000.
John Henry Williams ''told me we could sell Daddy's DNA,'' said Bobby-Jo Williams Ferrell, who is John Henry's half sister. At the time, Ferrell said she rejected the scheme.
Ferrell said she learned from a friend in the hospital where Williams died yesterday morning that John Henry Williams had gone ahead with the freezing plan anyway.
''She told me my father died, and they were freezing him and pumping him full of blood thinners. I knew right away what it was,'' said Ferrell. ''He's just trying to make money off Daddy.''
John Henry Williams could not be reached for comment last night, nor could Ted Williams's lawyer to confirm he wanted to be cremated. Married three times, Williams has one other child, a daughter, Claudia. Ferrell and John Henry Williams are at odds - with John Henry Williams controlling most of their father's finances.
Freezing a body in hopes of bringing someone back to life is known as cryonics. Bodies are rapidly cooled, usually in liquid nitrogen, to preserve DNA and tissue cells. The hope is that future medical advances could allow the bodies to be revived and cured. However, no one has been able to freeze a body and bring it back to life; even Alcor's Web site predicts such a revival is still decades away.
Some microscopic organisms have been frozen for short times and had viable cells extracted from them. But no one has been able to freeze even an organ that can be thawed succesfully. While scientists can transplant kidneys and hearts from patient to patient by submerging the organ in low temperatures, the organs are never frozen and can only be out of bodies for short times.
''Some people believe in this,'' said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology, a pioneer cloning company in Worcester. ''You can freeze tissues and organs, but we don't have the technology to thaw those organs out without severe damage. The hope is by some day in the future they will have the technology.
''It's not something I would personally endorse, but to each his own,'' said Lanza.
According to its Web site, Alcor has signed up 580 people for its freezing technology after death, and 49 individuals are suspended at the Scottsdale, Ariz., facility. The company charges $120,000 to freeze the whole body, and $50,000 for the head only, according to the Web site.
The company suggests donating life insurance polices to pay for suspension.
However, company officials admit they do not know how long a person can lie dead before the body is too decomposed for proper suspension.
A woman who answered the phone at Alcor said she was waiting for an important call and couldn't speak.
Ferrell said she told her brother that Williams wanted to be cremated when John Henry initially raised the idea of freezing Williams's corpse. ''Then my friend called me this morning and told me what was happening,'' she said. ''I put two and two together. It's insane.''
Raja Mishra of the Globe Staff contributed to this article.
This story ran on page A7 of the Boston Globe on 7/6/2002