Friday's Boston Globe has the latest developments in the Ted Williams case, and in the elder daughter's continuing attempts to have him thawed and burned, eliminating whatever chances he has for reanimation in the future.

Basically, it looked like things were settled last week, when after being persuaded by the younger daughter, Claudia, that this really was what Mr. Williams wanted, and forensic analysis that showed that his signature on the document was authentic, the executor of the estate withdrew his request to the judge to adjudicate the matter. This had the effect of denying Ms. Farrell's attempts to have the body cremated.

Now she says she's going to sue. One of the defendants will be Alcor itself, the cryonics provider that took custody of the patient.

According to the article, there was a reluctance to take this step, because it will now involve calling Claudia a liar. Up till now, all of the vitriol and ad hominem attacks have been focused on the son, John Henry. If this lawsuit goes forward, it could get really nasty, and provide a lot of publicity for Alcor and cryonics.

Here's my take, given what we know. It appears to me that John-Henry and Claudia sincerely wanted to both be frozen themselves when their time came, and to be able to join their father in the fridge, and reunite with him in the future. John-Henry is certainly not a model citizen, but I don't see how that's pertinent. The talk about preserving his body to sell the DNA was just that--talk. Alcor will not allow that, and it's not a part of the contract. Take that away, and I can't see any other motivation for their actions. Perhaps someone else has other theories, but I don't have any.

Ms. Farrell, on the other hand, could have a couple motivations. One is that she is simply so emotionally distraught that her father will not get what she believes his final wish--to be cremated, that she's willing to do legal battle with her half siblings over the issue, at great cost, both financially and to everyone's reputation.

I'm still holding to the theory that this is at least partially an extortion attempt. She was cut out of the will. She'd still like to get what she considers to be her share. Her legal case is poor, but it's a nuisance for the defendants. She'll ultimately settle the lawsuit in exchange for some amount of money for "emotional pain and suffering" at the thought of her father being upside down in a tank of liquid nitrogen, instead of properly scattered over the Florida Keys. Ted will stay in the vat.

You heard it here first.

For $10.00 they could have avoided all that heartache. From a tech standpoint, time travel and reanimation of frozen heads are about equally likely. Today the former is way cheaper.
www.timetravelfund.com

The real loser here is Alcor, who doesn't need this kind of PR. Unfortunately, these kinds of cases always seem to have an element of extortion to them.

It's not clear whether or not it's bad for Alcor (unless the legal fees get to be a real problem). They say any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right.