Previously, I wrote how Time, Inc. had given up on fact checking. Apparently CNN has as well.
In their article on today’s death of Denny Doherty of The Mamas and the Papas, they write:
all hope for a reunion ended in 1974 when the 30-year-old Elliot choked and suffered a fatal heart attack while eating a sandwich in London.
According to Snopes.Com, as well as numerous other sources:
The first reports of Cass Elliot’s death said that her physician had stated she “probably choked to death on a sandwich”, and the next day’s post-mortem reportedly “showed that she died as a result of choking on a sandwich while in bed and from inhaling her own vomit”. However, Dr. Keith Simpson, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on Elliot, found no traces of food blocking her trachea. Dr. Simpson and Gavin Thurston, a London coroner, then determined that Elliot had in fact succumbed to a heart attack brought about by the effects of long-term obesity. Elliot had long been overweight (she stood 5’5″ and weighed 238 lbs., about twice the proper weight for a woman of her height and build), and the prolonged effects of obesity and several crash diets had weakened her heart to the point of failure.
The Official Cass Elliot website further noted that the forensic autopsy showed (1) there was a heart problem leading to heart failure; (2) there was no evidence of a sandwich or any other item in her throat or trachea; and in fact, (3) she had had very little to eat the day before she died. The official cause of death was “heart failure due to fatty myocardial degeneration due to obesity.”
Sigh. CNN should not be propagating such urban legends, especially about such a wonderful performer.
