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Williams case appears bound for court Hall-of-Famer's family split on cryonics plan By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 7/9/2002
The three children of the baseball legend, who died Friday, plan to file a joint motion this week requesting that a Florida judge sort out the legal conflict that has erupted around their father's final arrangements, said the lawyer, John Heer, who was briefed yesterday by the executor for Williams's estate. As a result, Williams's eldest daughter, Barbara Joyce ''Bobby-Jo'' Williams Ferrell, yesterday decided to suspend her legal effort to remove his body from its current resting place, an Arizona cryonics warehouse. Williams's remains were sent there by his son, John Henry Williams, who was Ted's legal guardian, according to Williams family members. Yesterday's developments mean the Florida courts might soon answer the question of what Ted Williams truly wanted, and who is authorized to decide what happens to his body. The legal imbroglio comes even as tributes to the Hall of Fame athlete echo across the nation and baseball fans gather in Milwaukee for the Major League All-Star game tonight, where Williams will be honored. In his waning years, Williams suffered a number of strokes, and increasingly handed his son control of most personal and business matters. But some relatives and close friends insist John Henry Williams exploited his father for profit, isolated him from others, and, in a last slap, refused to honor his wish for cremation. ''The will that is in effect requires cremation,'' said Heer, attorney for Ferrell, Williams's eldest child,who lives in Hernando, Fla. Heer said he was briefed on the will's contents by Albert Cassidy, executor of Williams's estate. Cassidy did not return phone calls, nor did John Henry Williams or his attorney, Eric Abel. ''The estate is at a bit of a crossroads because actions have been taken which at this point sound inconsistent with the terms of the will,'' said Heer, referring to the shipment of Williams's body to Arizona for freezing. The moves yesterday capped a frantic day of negotiations over this bizarre coda to Ted Williams's extraordinary life. About 12 hours after his death at age 83, Willliams's body was flown to the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, according to Ferrell and two of her daughters. There it lies in a liquid-nitrogen deep freeze, at 320 degrees below zero, awaiting medical technology to revive or clone the Red Sox legend. The Williams estate plans, possibly as early as today, to file a declaratory judgment motion in Citrus Country Probate Court, a legal request that typically asks for clarification on some matter to help guide potential litigants. The estate also plans to submit Williams's will for official review before the Florida court. The motion would ask the court to weigh the will against John Henry Williams's rights as legal guardian of his father, said Jeffrey Baskies, an analyst at Lawyer's Weekly, a professional journal, and a specialist in Florida estate law. Without clear proof, he said, the court might seek testimony from Williams's many friends and family members. Ferrell, as well as some of Williams's close friends, insist the authority granted by Williams to his only son occurred after he suffered incapacitating strokes. ''I spent a great deal of time with my grandfather. This is by no means anything that he would agree to. Never in his wildest dreams,'' said Francine Dawn Hebding, 35, of Anaheim, Calif., one of Ferrell's daughters. She says her mother intends to fight to stop the cryonics plan: ''If they have to spend every penny they have to get Grandpa back, they will. That's what they said.'' Hebding said she may visit the Alcor Life Extension Foundation facilities in Arizona to determine the condition of Williams's body. Alcor officials refused to comment on the matter. The nonprofit company has also refused to update Ferrell, said Hebding and her sister, Sherri Mosley of White House, Tenn. However, Alcor's marketing director, Karla Steen, said the small firm's phone lines have been jammed since the Ted Williams story became public Saturday. ''We're getting many requests for membership,'' she said, adding that Alcor has the remains of about 50 people stored in thermos-like liquid nitrogen tanks. She said about 580 more people have arranged similar treatment for when they die. The fight over Williams is the latest episode in a bitter family feud waged largely between John Henry Williams and Ferrell, who will receive a lesser share of the Williams estate than John Henry or his other sister, Claudia, according to a family friend who asked not to be named. Ferrell has asserted in several interviews that John Henry Williams talked his ailing father into distancing himself from her. But the son's defenders maintain that Williams wanted the distance, for reasons that are not clear. At issue have been Williams's deteriorating health and cognitive skills. He could see objects only when they were held directly in front of him. He often required help in eating, and required daily kidney dialysis. The problems stemmed from repeated strokes and heart trouble, culminating with a risky heart repair operation that left him severely impaired. Even the surgeon in that operation conceded the risks were plentiful and the benefits slim, but said Williams had every right to request the procedure. Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe Staff and Globe correspondent Larry Tye contributed to this report.
This story ran on page A1 of the Boston Globe on 7/9/2002.
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he will of the late Red Sox star Ted Williams specified that he be cremated, with no mention of the cryonic deep freeze in which his body currently rests, according to a lawyer for one of Williams's daughters.