- First theory, a 'tractor trailer passing by' knocked
Dr. Wiley off balance and made him fall into the river below.
-
- Now we hear that it might have been a seizure that made
him fall.
-
- This reminds me of the UK Classical Swine Fever and FMD
excuses. A ham sandwhich, not a ham sandwhich. Chinese take out, then,
not Chinese take out caused the outbreaks.
-
- Plain ole HOG WASH!
-
- Isn't it strange that we did not hear about the damage
to Dr. Wiley's rental car, or about a history of seizures in prior news
stories.
-
- BTW the tractor trailer draft was a pitiful excuse. If
it was a truck passing, the driver would have noticed Dr. Wiley, or at
least the car.
-
- Dr. Wiley was not drunk, so they better not try to pass
that one off on us. It sickens me to see a great man like Dr. Wiley, murdered
and belittled. It REALLY angers me.
-
- I want to know how he died and who caused it.
-
- It sounds like Dr. Wiley might have been edged over by
another car seeking to slow him down or stop him. Could have caused him
to hit a sign. I think Dr. Wiley was trying to get away from a car that
was seeking to run him off the road. He managed to stop and a struggle
ensued. Dr. Wiley might have sustained some of the injuries in a fight
for his life. He was probably dead before he hit the water, dead before
he went over the bridge. Murdered!
-
- I am taking this very personally. A great man like Dr.
Wiley, murdered. The man was a brilliant researcher and had a very analytical
mind. He would not get out of the car and teeter near the edge of the bridge
if he was having a seizure. He was a man of common sense and sharp mind.
Why would he stop in the middle of the bridge to inspect minor damage to
the vehicle? There has to be better theories then the ones that the press
and Govt. are suggesting.
-
- Patricia
-
-
- Seizure May Have Led To Scientist's Death
Fall
By Thomas Jordan
jordan@gomemphis.com
January 15, 2002
-
- An eminent Harvard scientist might have been disoriented
from a seizure when he accidentally fell to his death from the Hernando
DeSoto Bridge, the county medical examiner said Monday. Dr. O. C. Smith
said Don C. Wiley had a history of seizures - two or three major episodes
a year - that was not known outside his family and a small circle of friends.
Smith said there is no way to know exactly what happened on the bridge
the morning of Nov. 16. But he outlined a scenario in which a disoriented
Wiley had a couple of minor accidents on the bridge.
-
- Stopping to inspect the damage to his rental car, Wiley
could have fallen into the river as a result of the seizure, the shaking
and bucking of the six-lane bridge, or even a blast of wind from a fast-moving
tractor-trailer, Smith said.
-
- The medical examiner said he ruled out suicide because
Wiley had demonstrated no suicidal tendencies. He also said there was physical
evidence that the research scientist's plunge into the river was not consistent
with someone who purposely jumped.
-
- Wiley's car was found abandoned in a westbound lane of
the bridge at 4 a.m. Nov. 16. The key was in the ignition and the gas tank
full.
-
- The disappearance of Wiley, a prize-winning biochemist,
stirred international interest. He had done research on dangerous viruses,
including Ebola, and that led to speculation in some news media that Wiley
might have been abducted by bioterrorists.
-
- His body was found Dec. 20 in the Mississippi River 300
miles south of Memphis.
-
- Smith said there was minor impact damage at the front
of Wiley's car on both sides. The hubcap for the right front wheel also
was missing and has not been found.
-
- Yellow paint scrapes found on the 2001 white Mitsubishi
are similar to the paint on bridge construction signs.
-
- "From this it may be concluded that Dr. Wiley had
two mishaps with his vehicle, perhaps indicating the reason why he was
stopped on the bridge," Smith said. "The two mishaps may also
be an indicator of some physical impairment."
-
- Smith said Wiley, 57, had suffered from "an infrequent
and poorly understood seizure disorder" for years. He said Wiley kept
the condition private and wasn't being treated for it.
-
- "It was prone to occur when he was stressed, fatigued
or had taken alcohol," Smith said. "It would be manifested by
episodes of agitation, which he tried to control by himself."
-
- Wiley was in Memphis to attend a two-day meeting of the
Scientific Advisory Board of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He
was last seen in the lobby of The Peabody, where he had attended a banquet
for the board, about four hours before he disappeared.
-
- Smith said it will never be known if the seizures, lack
of sleep, fatigue or the effects of alcohol contributed to what happened
on the bridge.
-
- Toxicology studies weren't complete, but "alcohol
has been identified at levels suggesting impairment," Smith said at
a press conference at the Police Department.
-
- However, just how much Wiley had been drinking will never
be clear, Smith said, because alcohol levels tend to rise after death because
of fermentation and diffusion.
-
- Based on the police investigation and the injuries to
Wiley's body there was no indication he was slain, Smith said. That left
the question of whether Wiley took his life or died accidentally.
-
- Smith said an extensive review of Wiley's medical records
and his behavior "are totally devoid of any prior suicide thoughts
or action."
-
- Other than the seizure disorder, Smith said, there are
"no identifiable life stressors or crises out of the norm in Dr. Wiley's
life."
-
- Further, Smith said his office's experience with suicides
from the Hernando DeSoto indicate that people jumping generally do so with
enough force to clear a box beam that projects 38 inches along the length
of the bridge 12d feet below the top guardrail.
-
- It's likely Wiley hit the beam, cracking the third button
of his shirt before entering the water, Smith said.
-
- "This subtle physical finding combined with the
absolute lack of suicidal indicators is conclusive," Smith said. "The
possibility of Dr. Wiley's death having been a suicide was carefully considered
and rejected."
-
- Wiley entered the Mississippi River by going over a guardrail
that is 43b inches above the roadbed. At the foot of the guardrail is a
10-inch-high curb. Smith said if the 6-foot-3 Wiley were standing on the
curb trying to assess the damage to his car, the guardrail would have come
to his mid-thigh, "14 inches below his center of gravity."
-
- "Instability for any reason could precipitate a
fall," he said.
-
- Wiley fell 135 feet into the 55-degree Mississippi. Smith
said Wiley hit the surface on his right side at about 60 mph after a fall
of less than three seconds.
-
- Wiley didn't drown; he was killed by the fall. Smith
said he suffered several fractures, including ones to the neck and spine.
His chest was crushed.
-
- Police don't know why Wiley was on the bridge headed
toward West Memphis. And they don't know his whereabouts during the four
hours he was last seen and his car was found.
-
- The scientist's father, Bill Wiley of Memphis, said his
son stayed with him for several days while he was here.
-
- - Thomas Jordan: (901) 529-5880
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Jim Mortellaro, PhD
Jsmortell@aol.com
1-15-2
-
- Hog wash!
-
- It's what We The People have been given to accept of
late. Seems that the transition from Land of the Free and Home of the Brave
has become the Land of the Fee and Home of the Knave. And the Knave's are
not US. The knaves are our leaders.
-
- "Leaders?" Now that's an oxymoron if I ever
heard one. How about another oxymoron. "News!" Yet another.
"Media!" Oh and how about "Congress," "Senate"
and the "Military!" Knaves to a man, woman and child.
-
- We've become lemmings, non-thinking lemmings who have
somehow become (and for the life of me I cannot compute how, when or why
this occurred), we've become intellectual midgets (sorry, that ain't PC
but quite frankly, I just don't give a damn!).
-
- How the Citizens of this Nation can believe the pap they
are receiving from our government is a testament to our stupidity and to
our _very_ short memories. Remember, for a moment, the cars which sported
the American Flag, after the WTC tragedy? Count now, the number of automobiles
doing the same. And the number of homes. The difference is both amazing
as well as telling. Short memories.
-
- Perhaps we are too busy living. Worrying over placing
bread on the table and paying the mortgage, over keeping our kids from
becoming heroin addicts or alcoholics. Perhaps the worries which we fret
over are not the worries we should be fretting over. Maybe. The fact of
the matter is that if one looks at NAZI propaganda and the garbage coming
from countries such as Iraq, Pakistan and India, from the Taliban and others,
We The People, if we were thinking people, would have long ago reached
the conclusion that there appears to be no difference. Propaganda. Death
bed lies as an art form? Maybe. But what is the effect of such on those
of us who claim alien abduction, UFO sightings? How indeed. It diminishes
the validity of such claims. And that, dear readers, is wrong. There is
no excuse for lies. No excuse for disinformation, even if acknowledged
to be such ... after the fact. The damage is already done. The needle and
the damage done.
-
- And if we go back to Viet Nam and Korea, Desert Strom
and others and think carefully, using our intellects, we would again realize
that this propaganda spewing forth from our 'leaders' and the media, has
been worked long and hard toward the final goal of destroying our Constitution,
our freedoms and our liberties by a slow and apparently deliberate program
of disinformation. We are not the nation or the people we used to be by
degree. More's the pity. And the shame. But the shame is not the media's
or the government; the shame is ours, for allowing it to happen, to continue
and allowing ourselves to be duped so easily.
-
- Whether it is gun control or the IRS, whether it is crime
or punishment, whether it is war or peace, there is no truth. Just what
happened to the leaders of the Taliban? How many have been arrested and
brought to trial? Not one. With the sole exception of one dimbulb who got
his arss in a sling right here in the good old US of A. And these days,
how many times do you hear, "The Search for Bin Laden" on the
news? Probably a lot less than a month ago and less still than two months
ago.
-
- No folks. The war in Afghanistan has resulted in catching
no one in Afghanistan, of eliminating terrorism. No! So what was the reason
for this war?
-
- Please, turn on that dusty intellect and think about
it - go figure it out for yourselves. Notice what happened to gas prices
during the conflict? Notice what's happening to gas prices now? Down ...
then up. There should have been a civil trial of Bin Laden and his henchmen,
in open court, with which to decide his guilt ... or less likely, his innocence.
But there is not likely to be such a trial. Instead, the subject will,
like old soldiers, just ... fade ... away. Just like Bin Laden. He just
faded away. Out of earshot of the media, out of mind.
-
- The only good thing we have these days is the Internet
and people like Jeff Rense, with attention to all aspects of the news,
no matter the government's line and slant, no matter the spin which they
would desire us to read, hear and adsorb. Adsorb. Like the osmosis of claptrap.
-
- This old sod is not an old soldier, just an old citizen,
made old by reading Jeff's site. Old because of what I remember and lost.
Old because of reading pieces with which to learn. True or not, the perspective
is an education in seeing and hearing truth. The truth of diversity, the
perspective of seeing the good, the bad and the ugly. The education of
using our intellect and judgment. Old because of my anger. Yes, Jeff's
made me older than I should be. But it is righteous. Rather that than believe
a line of such none sense, that to believe it, is death. No, death is good.
It is the dying which is painful and frightening. And such is our present
situation ... we are dying. Better to die than to be dying.
-
- Jim Mortellaro,
Ph.D.
|