Alcor Life Extension Foundation: List of Cryogenic Members

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation has recently come back in to the news spotlight with the allegations made in Larry Johnson's book Frozen that workers at the facility decapitated the head of baseball star Ted Williams and then used it as a ball in batting practice.

Alcor denies the allegations and plans to deal with the matter through legal channels.

The Foundation has 903 members at its facility and 88 of those are in cyropreservation (or frozen using liquid nitrogen) and most of those are neuropatients, which is the cyropreservation of the human brain. The hope of the people preserved here is that they will be restored to full health years from now when new technology is discovered.

But who are some of the other famous cyrogenic members at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation now that the alleged story of Ted Williams has come to light?

James Bedford:

Bedford was the first person to be cryonically frozen and he died on 12 January 1967. When he died his wife and son had to defend his wishes to be cryonically frozen in courts against other relatives who thought he shouldn't be.

Bedford has been in the Alcor Life Extension Foundation since 1982; his last evaluation appears to be in May 1991.

Dick Clair:

Clair died on December 12 1988 and was best known for his work as a television and film writer, especially on It's a Living, The Facts of Life, and Mama's Family.
He was a strong supporter of the Cryonics Society in California in the 60s. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and had to fight in court (Roe vs. Mitchell) for his right to be cryonically frozen.

He has been in the Alcor Life Extension Foundation since his death in 1988.

Thomas K. Donaldson:

Donaldson was the founder of the Cryonics Association of Australia and has funded research in cryonics. He was a mathematician and was born in Kentucky in 1945.

In 1988 Donaldson was diagnosed with a brain tumor and also had to fight in court over the choice to be cryonically preserved before he died from the brain tumor. He lost the case, even though it was based on the fact that he wanted cryopreservation if his tumor began growing again, and not immediately.

In 2006 it was thought that his cancer had returned and Donaldson was returning from Australia to the U.S. He is thought to be preserved at Alcor as his biography is thought to be that of patient A-1097 but it has not been confirmed.

Fereidoun M. Esfandiary (FM-2030):

Known by the name FM-2030, Esfandiary was a Persian author, teacher, futurist and transhumanist philosopher.

He changed his name to FM-2030 as he hoped to celebrate his 100th birthday in 2030 and he wanted to break free of the restraints that come with your name and just live in a tribalistic sense.

He died on July 8 2000 from pancreatic cancer and is in cryonic suspension at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. However, he was the first person to receive vitrification, rather than being frozen in the same manner that other patients had been. Vitrification is superior to regular freezing as it preserves the body better.

Dora Kent:

She has been at the center of controversy as it was thought she was murdered prior to cryonic suspension. Her son Saul Kent is on the board of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. She was brought to the Alcor facility in Riverside California in 1987 with Alzheimer's and pneumonia, and it is thought that Alcor workers removed her head and stored it in nitrogen, but no physician was in attendance when she died.

The coroner who examined her headless body said that the presence of metabolities suggested that she was still alive at the time of preservation; they then wanted to see the head and all the patients' bodies at Alcor but Alcor refused.

The SWAT team raided Alcor and took all property but after it was returned, Alcor sued the county and won both suits. A restraining order was issued against the coroner so that all remains would be safe.

Jerry Leaf:

Being the Vice President and Director of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, it is only natural that Leaf would be at the Alcor facility. He died of a heart attack in 1991 and was preserved by Alcor.

John Henry Williams:

The son of Ted Williams, John Henry Williams is also at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. He died on March 6 2004 and his body was transferred to Alcor so that he could be with his father and then wake up together and be together in the future.

Anyone can donate their body to cryopreservation if they choose to and Alcor accepts anatomical donations.

There is a long standing myth that Walt Disney was cryogenically frozen but this is not true as the first known instance of cryogenic freezing of a corpse was James Bedford in January 1967, and Walt Disney died December 17, 1966. However, to some, this does not mean Walt Disney wasn't the first.

Many also think that Michael Jackson was frozen after his death, but there has been no documentation of this occuring.