Who killed J.R.? Another fast food giant dead!

Five months. Six deaths.

Tell us we’re “conspiracy nuts” now. After a strange “coincidental” trio of fast food chain founder's deaths in the first three months of 2008, we began to keep close tabs on the mortality rate in the controversial industry, only to be shocked by the sudden passings of one of its legends and another pioneer.

That would be five deaths in the first five calendar months of 2008:

Carl Carcher, founder of Carl’s Jr. (January 11);
Lovie Yancie, founder of Fatburger (January 23);
Al Copeland, founder of Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken (March 23);
Herb Peterson, inventor of the Egg McMuffin (March 25);
Irvine "Irv" Robbins, co-founder of Baskin-Robbins (May 5).

Today, we add another to the list.

J.R. Simplot, the billionaire king of the frozen French fried potato, supplier of fries to McDonald’s and other fast food chains-- the man whose product literally greased the skids for the rise of the fast food industry-- died on Sunday, May 25th.

The LA Times notes:

“Simplot's sale of frozen fries to McDonald's and other chains accelerated the growth of the fast-food industry and changed the nation's eating habits, according to Eric Schlosser, author of ‘Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal’ (2001).

"’Americans have long consumed more potatoes than any other food except dairy products and wheat flour,’ said Schlosser, who called Simplot ‘America's great potato baron.’”

Simplot drove around Idaho in a Lincoln Continental with the license plate “Mr. Spud.”

The coroner says he died of “natural causes.”

He was 99.

None dare call it conspiracy but we pointed it out: Another fast food giant found dead (5th this year)

We’d prayed that we were wrong, that it was only a fluke that in the first three months of 2008, three founders of popular fast food chains-- and the inventor of a fast food favorite--turned up dead in quick succession. And after keeping an eye on the obits and trades through a tense April and finding no further calamities, we were eager to close the book on yet another "coincidence."

But now it’s happened again.

Weeks after the death of Herb Peterson, inventor of the Egg McMuffin, and following the passings in rapid and unexplained succession of Carl Carcher of Carl’s Jr. (January 11); Lovie Yancie of Fatburger (January 23), and Popeye's Fanous Fried Chicken founder Al Copeland, (March 23) we learn that Irvine "Irv" Robbins, co-founder of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream chain, has died in Rancho Mirage, California.

Robbins started up the Baskin-Robbins empire in 1947 with single shop in Glendale, California. His partner and brother-in-law, Burton Baskin (father of actor Richard Baskin, best known for his role in Nashville), died of a heart attack in 1967. He was only 54.

Baskin-Robbins has more than 5,800 shops— 2,800 in the United States.

Irvine Baskin was 90.

We return, regretfully, to the death watch.

Update: Ex-FBI man says Sonny was murdered

"This was an evil plot that was carried out
to almost perfection by ruthless assassins."

Here's the source of that Popbitch item. Our story was in The Globe and picked up by newspapers and news outlets around the world, including The Australian:

Sonny Bono 'assassinated' by hitmen
by staff writers

SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.

Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.

"It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.

"This was an evil plot that was carried out to almost perfection by ruthless assassins," Mr Gunderson told the paper.

The former agent, who has been researching Bono's accident for the past decade, said top officials linked to an international drug and weapons ring feared the singer-turned-politician was about to expose their crimes - so they had him killed on the slopes.

Bono, an experienced skiier, was ambushed on the slopes by hired hitmen, who beat him to death and then staged a tree collision, Mr Gunderson said.

He called for authorities to dig up Bono's remains and open a homicide investigation.

His claims have reportedly been backed by top forensics experts who fear Nevada authorities were too quick to call the death a skiing accident.

Investigator Bob Fletcher had also confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top US government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death, the Globe reported.

"(Bono) was going to make it his No.1 priority... There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced," Mr Fletcher told the paper.

Popbitch joins us, asking: Who Killed Sonny Bono?

Who killed Sonny Bono?

Tabloid Baby has been asking the question for close to a decade ( click here and hit “columns” for “Conspiracy Corner"), from the time our original book promotion site hit the Internet by storm with exclusive video of John-John Kennedy attacking the paparazzi and Princess Diana running over tabloid producer Jim Sheehan (click here for “Pix & Flix”).

And this evening, Popbitch, the irresponsible, indispensable, hilarious, ahead-of-the-curve and politically-connected gossip email newsletter, includes in its weekly report-- tucked between Mick Jagger’s freakishly tall, surgically-scarred galpal and Nigella Lawson seen shopping at Selfridges with “bird shit on her arse”—this item:

Conspiracy theory corner
What to worry about after Diana
There's a weird new theory that Sonny Bono didn't die in an accident, he was assassinated. Some FBI agent reckon drug and gun runners killed him on the ski slopes, through a staged ski accident. One investigator said that he sent Bono evidence that top US government officials were linked to arms and weapons dealers. Less than a month later, Bono was dead.

Every time we’ve brought up the theory, people have laughed— “He was Sonny Bono, a fool, killed by a tree, yuk yuk”— and that would make the deed all the simpler to cover up: the death of a US Congressman and top GOP fundraiser, Scientology droput, defender of the Salton Sea and enemy of drug traffickers dying within a week of a Kennedy's death on the slopes (name another time a celebrity died in a ski accident— even Spider Sabich died of a gunshot to the nuts). In January, Tabloid Baby pal and contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. took up the case and concluded:

“Overall, I would assign this particular conspiracy theory a coefficient of credibility of 50%, that is, a 50-50 chance that Sonny Bono indeed was murdered.”

Now, it seems, someone has picked up on our reopening of the case in January and the theory has kicked up the UK.

Stay tuned.

And subscribe to Popbitch here.

You thought we were joking about the fast food death conspiracy?

With three high-profile passings in the first quarter of 2008, we reported exclusively earlier this week about a possible conspiracy in the deaths of America's fast food founders.

After detailing the recent deaths of Al Copeland of Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken, Fatburger's Lovie Yancey and Carl Karcher, founder of Carl's Jr., we indicated a spike on the conspiracy chart.

And we promised to keep close watch on the April obituaries.

It didn't even take that long.

The LA Times reports this morning:

"Herb Peterson, inventor of the Egg McMuffin, has died, a Southern California official of McDonald's restaurants said Wednesday. He was 89.

"Peterson died peacefully at his Santa Barbara home on Tuesday, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald's restaurants in that city.

"Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972.

"He began his career with McDonald's as vice president of the company's advertising firm, D'Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald's first national advertising slogan, 'Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.'"

More to come.

Who is killing America's fast food founders?

The death today of Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken founder Al Copeland marks him as the third fast food founder to fall victim to the Reaper in the first three months of 2008.

The passing of the flamboyant businessman set off alarm bells this morning in the Tabloid Baby conspiracy unit, which has been tracking necrology trends in the “Die in Threes” and other categories, and because of a sudden spike in the first weeks of the year, had already been watching the fast food industry.

The facts so far:

JANUARY: Carl’s Jr.


Carl Karcher, who parlayed a single hot dog pushcart into a chain of more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants bearing his name, dies on January 11th at the age of 90. The affable, burly entrepreneur was known to millions as the jovial television pitchman for the Carl's Jr. chain.

FEBRUARY: Fatburger


On February 2nd, The Los Angeles Times reports the death a week earlier of Lovie Yancey, who launched what eventually became the popular Fatburger chain of burger-and-fries joints. Her death at 96 in Los Angeles was attributed to pneumonia.

MARCH: Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken


Popeye’s founder Al Copeland dies on March 23rd at a clinic near Munich. He'd been diagnosed shortly before Thanksgiving with a malignant salivary gland tumor. He was 64.

APRIL: ????


We don’t make this stuff up. We just report it.