Evel Knievel Dies - The Passing Of A Legend

Daredevil motorcyclist Evel Knievel dies at the age of 69

SHÂN ROSS (sross@scotsman.com)

EVEL Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s died yesterday aged 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his grand-daughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, probably contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Knievel, whose trademark was his red, white and blue spangled jumpsuit, suffered nearly 40 fractures before retiring in 1980.

Among his notable feats was a failed but spectacular attempt to leap the Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle in 1974, sailing over 13 Mack trucks in 1974 and jumping 13 double-decker buses in London in 1975.

Billy Rundel, a longtime friend and promoter, said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Florida condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Mr Rundel said.

Knievel's death came just two days after it was announced he and rapper Kanye West had settled a lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

In an interview in May last year, Knievel said: "No king or prince has lived a better life. You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. There are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

Immortalised in Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for the Snake River Canyon jump and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel once said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on 17 October, 1938, Knievel worked in the Montana copper mines and served in the army. He claimed to have also been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker and a hold-up man.

He began his daredevil career in 1965, forming a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, performing stunts such as riding through fire walls and jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions.

In 1966, he began touring alone, increasing the length of jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151ft across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace.

Knievel retired after a stunt in which he was again seriously injured, attempting to jump a tank full of live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater.

He continued with smaller exhibitions with his son, Robbie.

Knievel married Linda Joan Bork in 1959 but they separated in the early 1990s. They had four children.

He lived with longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel. Married in 1999, they divorced, but remained together.

PRISON NICKNAME GIVEN A TWIST

• A PRISON warder in Montana was responsible for Knievel's nickname. As a youth, he had several run-ins with police and the warder dubbed him "Evil Knievel". In order not to be perceived as a bad guy, Knievel later changed the spelling to "Evel".

Knievel played himself in the 1977 film Viva Knievel! The plot featured a rival trying to kill Knievel and use his 18-wheel truck to smuggle cocaine. George Hamilton portrayed him in a 1971 film and George Eads played him in a 2004 television movie.

• Knievel starred in track and field, hockey and ski-jumping while at school.

This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1880722007

Last updated: 01-Dec-07 01:19 GMT

Leeland Eisenburg Gives Clinton Staff Relief From Daily Grind

Now Revealed: Eisenberg, Hostage Taker at Clinton Office, Called CNN During the Crisis

By E&P Staff

Published: November 30, 2007 6:40 PM ET

NEW YORK Leeland Eisenberg, who held several campaign workers hostage all afternoon at a Hillary Clinton storefront in Rochester, N.H., surrendered to police at 6:15 this evening. Cable news caught the arrest as it happened, with Lee Eisenberg, in a white shirt and tie, emerging, going to his knees, getting handcuffed and taken to a police car.

No one was hurt in the entire affair. Three or four hostages had been released over time. Sen. Clinton was in Virginia.

Minutes later, Wolf Blitzer on CNN's Situation Room revealed that the man had called the CNN bureau in Washington during the crisis and talked to staffers -- not Blitzer. The CNN anchor also said that Eisenberg had called another CNN office, which he did not identify, as well.

He said the cable news network decided not to reveal this before so it would not interfere with any negotiations.

Police and the media have suggested that the man who took the hostages has had "issues" with local law enforcement. E&P has found one specific case involving the local man, who reputedly has some mental problems.

Back on March 16 this year, local media reported on
Rochester police coming up with a novel idea for fighting auto theft. But some residents -- including Eisenberg -- were outraged at their plan.

The plan: checking car doors, and if unlocked, leaving behind a warning flyer.

"It's an outrage, it's an absolute outrage," said Eisenberg in one report. He claimed the intrusion into his Chevy violates the Fourth Amendment, and raised such a fuss that his picture appeared in a local newspaper.

"That's a crime. They violated my civil rights and the rights of many citizens in this city that are not even aware of it," said Eisenberg, who was now asking state and federal authorities to investigate the Rochester police.

Eisenberg said he thinks police searched his car illegally, because it was clean when he parked it for the night and dirty with ash from the ashtray the next morning, when he found the flier.

He said he complained to the state attorney general, the governor and the U.S. attorney. Police later said they were re-thinking the idea.
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