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Tenerife Weekly - 14th February 2014 - 20th February 2014
Neknomination Death Toll Now 4
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hE SOCIAl nEtWOrK drinking dare game neknomination, could now be responsible for four deaths in Britain alone. two men who died in the uK at the weekend were believed to be playing neknomination, which is thought to have originated in Australia but has spread quickly around the world through social media.
The first deaths in the UK linked to the craze came after two men in Ireland, Jonny Byrne who is thought to have died after jumping into a river and Ross Cummings, died earlier this month apparently taking part in the game. As reported in the Tenerife Weekly several weeks ago, Neknomination sees players film themselves downing various amounts and types of alcohol and daring each other to do stunts, then nominating someone to continue the game. They then post the video online. Participants are often dared to outdo the exploits of those who nominated them, with some players filmed consuming not only alcohol but dog food, engine oil and live goldfish. Isaac Richardson worked at Hostel Ordance
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in Woolwich, south London, and was drinking in the pub downstairs when he died, an employee at the hostel said. Mr Richardson reportedly drank a cocktail of wine, whisky, vodka and lager before collapsing early last Sunday. South Wales Police say they are investigating whether Neknomination also played a part in the death of a 29-year-old in Cardiff named locally as Stephen Brooks, Officers and paramedics were called to the Rumney area early on Sunday after receiving reports of a man collapsing while taking part in Neknomination. A police spokesman said: “Officers investigating his death on behalf of HM Coroner have received information regarding the so-called neck and nominate game. Inquiries are continuing and a post-mortem is taking place.” .Alcohol Concern chief executive Eric Appleby said: “It is devastating for family and friends to lose someone in this way. “This lethal ‘game’ shows just how hard we have to work to de-normalise binge-drinking among young people. But it’s not just about young people. They take their cues from society’s attitude to drinking and it’s this we have to change for all our sakes.”
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
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n FEBruArY 29th 1929, four men dressed as police officers entered the headquarters of George Clarence Moran, better known as gangster, Bugs Moran, on north Clark Street in Chicago, once inside they lined seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shot them to death. the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, as it is now called, was the culmination of a gang war between arch rivals Al Capone and Bugs Moran. “Bugs” Moran ran the North Side gang in Chi-
cago during the bootlegging era of the 1920s. He fought bitterly with “Scarface” Al Capone for control of smuggling and trafficking operations in the Windy City. Throughout the 1920s, both survived several attempted murders. On one notorious occasion, Moran and his associates drove six cars past a hotel in Cicero, Illionis, where Capone and his associates were having lunch and showered the building with more than 1,000 bullets, and is largely credited as being the first “drive -by shooting”. A $50,000 bounty on Capone’s head was the final straw. He ordered that Moran’s gang be destroyed. On February 14, a delivery of bootleg whiskey was expected at Moran’s headquarters. But Moran was late and happened to see police
officers entering his establishment. Moran waited outside, thinking that his gunmen inside were being arrested in a raid. However, the disguised assassins were actually killing the seven men inside. The murdered men included Moran’s best killers, Frank and Pete Gusenberg. Reportedly Frank was still alive when real officers appeared on the scene. When asked who had shot him, the mortally wounded Gusenberg kept his code of silence, responding, “No one, nobody shot me.” The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre actually proved to be the last confrontation for both Capone and Moran. Capone was jailed in 1931 and Moran lost so many important men that he could no longer control his territory. On the sev-
enth anniversary of the massacre, Jack McGurn, one of the Valentine’s Day hit men, was killed him in a crowded bowling alley with a burst of machine-gun fire. McGurn’s killer remains unidentified, but was likely Moran, though he was never charged with the murder. Moran was relegated to small-time robberies until he was sent to jail in 1946. He died in Leavenworth Federal Prison in 1957 of lung cancer. The Valentine’s Day Massacre has been immortalised in such films as “Some Like It Hot” and “The Untouchables” and the conflict between the warring gangsters has been the inspiration for film such as “The Godfather”, “Scarface” and The TV series “The Sopranos” and “Boardwalk Empire”.