And they decided the circumstances of his death were not worth investigating...

"Here's a legacy
of the late Danny Gans:
Las Vegas may never,
ever again be without
a singing impressionist."
-- Mike Weatherford
June 23, 2010, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lindsay Lohan taking same drug that killed Danny Gans

Lindsay Lohan is taking the same drug that killed Danny Gans. The probation report handed to the court in Beverly Hills in advance of the talented and troubled actress’ sentencing on Tuesday reveals that the 24-year-old has prescriptions for and has been gobbling a combination of drugs including the amphetamine Aderall, anti-depressants Zoloft and Trazodone and Nexium, which is used to treat acid reflux.

The most disturbing and dangerous addition to the legal cocktail, however, is the powerful opiate Dilaudid-- also known as hydromorphone or “drugstore heroin."


Dilaudid is the drug that contributed to the untimely death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans in June 2009.

Lindsay's father Michael has been saying for weeks that his daughter is addicted to prescription drugs, trying in vain to get someone to listen.

Will Larry G Jones fill Danny Gans' shoes?

Can Larry G Jones fill Danny Gans' signature black-and-white spectator shoes?

The world is about to find out as one of the many musical impressionists influenced by the late Las Vegas superstar is about to confront the legend head-on with his own one-man comic singing impressionist show on the Las Vegas Strip-- produced by Gans' close friend, collaborator and drummer.

We told you about musical impressionist Larry G Jones back in January, when he made a splash with a well-timed Tiger Woods parody. while working the Royal Resort Hotel just off the Strip. Now it's been announced that Jones will be moving to Planet Hollywood's Harmon Theatre on June 8th.

"This fast-paced fun filled show features an all-star celebrity cast of rapid-fire voice impressions including many of Las Vegas' biggest headliners. Cher, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Elvis, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Rat Pack are a part of the 75 plus voices Larry performs in each show. When you throw a few comedians, Hollywood celebrities, and presidential voices in the mix, there is enough comedy and music to appeal to just about everyone."

The show is produced by Raphael Erardy, who was Gans' drummer and confidante for 20 years, until Gans' tragic and untimely death at 52 on May 1, 2009.

The Larry G Jones - Comic Singing Impressionist show opens June 8th at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino's Harmon Theater, 3663 S. Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109. The Harmon Theater entrance is located next to Krave Nightclub on the corner of the Las Vegas Blvd. & Harmon Ave. Tickets for the 7pm show will be $47.97 for general admission and VIP/Open bar tickets are available for $67.97. Shows will be nightly except for Sunday and Thursday. For show tickets call 702-836-0830 or book online at LarryGJones.com.

Gans family thanks us for remembering

The family of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans has thanked Tabloid Baby.com for remembering the first anniversary of his sad, untimely and mysterious passing on May 1st.


We take no satisfaction in the knowledge that we were the only news organization to mark the approach and date of this tragic milestone. There was no surprise that the Las Vegas media and its flamboyant leading figures deliberately avoided mention of the anniversary. They were exposed over the past twelve month with their embarrassing, shameful and deliberate refusal to investigate the circumstances that led to the musical impressionist's death.


Gans 'widow and children, however, made special mention this week on the revamped and very much alive official Danny Gans website, thanking us and fans around the world for our acknowledgment:

The family is truly touched by your kind emails, blogs and notes that have been received from around the world remembering Danny and supporting us at this time. Our day was spent with family and a few friends sharing memories of Danny, yet mindful of the magnitude of our loss and to that of his fans everywhere.We thank you for your continued support and prayers.

Please keep in touch.

-Julie, Amy, Andrew & Emily Gans

One year ago today, Danny Gans took a nap from which he did not awaken

Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans died in the early hours of May 1st, 2009.

A corrupt and lazy local news media have yet to fully examine the circumstances of his death or life.

Click here to read our comprehensive coverage.

Charge against Michael Jackson's doctor leads MSNBC to invoke cases of "Heath & Anna Nicole & Danny Gans"

The death of Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans by overdose of a powerful opiate called hydromorphone at the prime of his life and career raised few, if any red flags among the members of the Las Vegas news media. The mysterious and untimely passing of the injury-riddled Born Again Christian athlete, corporate entertainment favorite and longtime Steve Wynn showpiece in the middle of the night, and all the strange occurrences before and after his tragic last breath rated little more than cursory coverage and police report transcribing, and the acceptance of one of Danny Gans' doctor's claims that the star may have died from the ingestion of a single hydromorphone (also known as Dilaudid or "drugstore heroin") pill left over from an unused five-year-old prescription.

The willful and shameful avoidance of the Gans story and all its many avenues, including Gans' ownership of a pharmacy supply house, was made more obvious when compared to the national media's vigilant and responsible coverage of the death of entertainer Michael Jackson.


Now, the manslaughter charge lodged yesterday against Conrad Murray, the doctor who allegedly administered the fatal dose of drugs that Jackson ordered up, has again brought the Gans case into the national spotlight.

An item on the MSNBC.com website titled Murray's case up stakes in world of celeb drugs notes that

"...the state of California, weary of growing number of celebrity prescription drug deaths, is seeking some control over a festering doctor-patient dynamic that has taken bold-faced names from Heath Ledger to Anna Nicole Smith to Danny Gans."

While those among the Las Vegas news media would claim that Gans is an unimportant figure, known to few outside the market, others know better. In this case, the musical impressionist is mentioned in the same sentence as two legends, in a story about a fellow legend. Of the four cases, his is the only one that was closed along with all its mysteries left hanging. Yet, according to the MSNBC report, Gans' death, coming weeks before Jackson's, may have been a factor in the decision to prosecute in the Murray case-- "to put a dent into Hollywood's pill pipeline."

Danny Gans' tragedy may, in the end, help future celebrities. But most important: Will there ever be justice for Danny Gans?

Surely, some of the curiosity will spread. After all, they cared about Farrah's hair...

Danny Gans autobiography contains chapter touching on his drug use; coauthor admits book wasn't really completed the day before Gans died

Danny Gans' ghostwriter turned co-author admits today that the musical impressionist's autobiography was not really completed the day before he died. Although the legend began on the day of the Las Vegas superstar's untimely death and has been repeated often in the months since, RG Ryan now admits that he had only finished a "rough draft" of the book-- which is now said to contain a chapter that at least touches on an explanation for Gans' secret use of painkilling drugs.

Ryan's revelation-- and the effort to address the details of Gans' untimely death in a suitable fashion-- could help explain the delay in publishing The Voices In My Head, which was snatched up within days of Gans' shocking passing on May 1st by the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and promised for a rush-release in June (publication is now set for October).

Ryan, a local writer, poet and musician who is also billed today in Norm Clarke's Review-Journal column as a "former minister," had intimated that the delays were due to negotiations with Gans' family over his writing credit.


Ryan tells Norm that the book will include a chapter called "The Glory and The Pain," detailing Gans' "incredible struggles to overcome pain."

Writes Norm:

"The pain came not just from sports injuries, but two car accidents. One involved being rear-ended by a garbage truck about eight years ago. The other happened about five years ago when his car hit a water puddle and hydroplaned into a light pole.

"On some nights, when his pain was unbearable, Gans signaled his band leader to play a song, 'because Danny would have to run off stage and throw up,' Ryan said."

Norm reports that Ryan and Gans' estate do not go into the details of how managed that pain, or what led to the overdose of hydromorphone (described my Norm as "a powerful opiate also known as Dilaudid, the highly addictive drug... nicknamed 'drugstore heroin.'")


Ryan claims, "It never came up in our conversations (12 to 15 hours of interviews). The only thing he ever said about that to me was that he stuck to ibuprofen, because all that other stuff-- he said he had doctors prescribe heavy-duty stuff-- it dried out his voice."

"When Gans died, 'I was just as shocked as anyone else. Obviously he was taking something stronger than Motrin,' Ryan said."

Ryan tells Norm that Gans was "pushing very hard to get a number of things wrapped up. But I didn't pick up any sign that he had a premonition that he was going to die."

"Ryan described the book as a 'comprehensive, intimate look into the heart and soul of a man who, from the time he was 7 years old, was targeted to the goal of being a professional baseball player.'"

Norm also reports that Ryan "finished a rough draft the day Gans died."


A "rough draft" is usually the first version of a work that requires correcting, rewriting, revising and polishing. In the case of a book, it is far from the final, finished version.

Ryan had told us via email that the entire book "was finished at eleven AM on Thursday. We were supposed to get together at four Friday afternoon, May 1."

The autobiography myth was one of several that were spread in the hours after Gans death. Another, later retracted by Norm, was that Gans switched the final song in what was his final show from his usual medley of African American singing impressions to Bobby Darin's "The Curtain Falls."

Las Vegas Sun finally reports week-old Danny Gans pharmacy story: Reporter claims Alicia Jacobs snatched her scoop!

While the Las Vegas Review-Journal continues to keep a conspicuous distance from covering the drug death of Strip headliner Danny Gans and its aftermath, its putative competitor, the Las Vegas Sun, has finally reported news from early last week that the entertainer who died from an overdose of Dilaudid was a part-owner of a pharmacy.

The coverage however, comes in the blog section of its website.

Dana Gentry, a local television reporter and executive producer local cable television shows Face to Face and In Business Las Vegas, reports the story, this afternoon, as well as posting the 2003 letter confirming Gans' stake in the drug business.

Gentry also claims she had the scoop a week ago, but that it was snatched away the following day by a competitor: Danny Gans close personal friend, the beauty-queen-turned-TV entertainment reporter, Alicia Jacobs, who "reluctantly" asked the tough question.

Gentry reports:

Gans owned pharmacy
By Dana Gentry · August 24, 2009 · 3:46 PM

Danny Gans’ friends and family maintained that the late entertainer had little use personally for prescription drugs, though his death in May was from an overdose of Dilaudid, (the generic is Hydromorphone) a painkiller. The source of the drug that killed Gans has not been identified.

Now the Board of Pharmacy is investigating Gans’ ownership interest in Green Valley Med, a distributor of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to doctors. Documents we obtained from the state reveal Gans had held a stake in the local pharmacy since 2003. The pharmacy board took Gans’ records from Green Valley Med in June, but will not reveal the nature of the documents seized. Green Valley Med bills itself on its website as the "largest medical supplier in Southern Nevada.'

We wanted to know if it carries Dilaudid. Owner Scot Silber seemed stunned last Monday when I asked about his business relationship with Gans. Silber confirmed the two were partners but wouldn’t say whether Green Valley Med carries Dilaudid. Coincidentally, the very next day Gans’ self-described friend, Channel 3 entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs, detailed Gans’ ownership interest and reluctantly delved into the possibility that Gans obtained the lethal drug through that association.

Attorney Bob Massi, who represents Green Valley Med and doubles as its marketing director, declined to be interviewed but in an e-mail said, "The perception that is being portrayed of Danny Gans is disgusting. He was a great man, an ambassador to Las Vegas, and he is being smeared by an affiliation which was and has been a matter of public record."

You can see the story tonight on In Business Las Vegas, Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.

(click photo to enlarge it)

"Did Danny get any of his prescriptions from this company?" Alicia Jacobs asks the tough question about Danny Gans' drugstore

Did Danny Gans get his fatal dose of prescription drugs from the pharmaceutical supply company he partly owned? His longtime close personal friend, the beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs asked the question on Las Vegas television, and the answer was, “I don’t know.”

Jacobs took control of the story last night after it was reported earlier on her KVBC-TV News that Gans, who'd overdosed on a powerful opiate May 1st, was a minority owner of Green Valley Med, a "healthcare and specialty pharmacy" in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, where Gans had lived. She expanded the story to report that in the first week of June, the Nevada Board of Pharmacies had raided the place and seized “all of Danny’s records.

“They have yet to return them.”

Jacobs said that the company’s owner, Scot Silber, told her off-camera (because he “was not comfortable speaking on camera”) that “there are five investors in the company and that Danny is the second largest owner.”

Referring to Gans as “Danny” and in the present tense throughout, Alicia Jacobs said, “It began back in 2003. Silber owned Green Valley Drug, which Danny frequented. Silber was expanding his business and approached Danny about investment opportunity, which included selling medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.”


And though Jacobs pointed out that Green Valley Med “is not a place to fill prescriptions,” she asked Silber’s attorney, Bob Massi, on camera:

“It begs the question. Danny died of a drug toxicity. Now we find out he has ownership in a pharmaceutical company. Do we know? Did Danny get any of his prescriptions from this company?”

Massi replied:

“Well, I have no personal knowledge if he did. But the fact that any pharmacy would dispense medication doesn’t mean that they did anything wrong. I’m sure through the pharmaceutical board, you could find out whatever information that you want. Certainly.”

Besides letting slip that Gans had multiple prescriptions (something the coroner did not address when he said that Gans, a former athlete who’d had his share of injuries, had died from taking hydromorphone, which is sold as Dilaudid and known as “drugstore heroin") Jacobs also concluded that there is indeed a connection between Gans' case and the Michael Jackson death investigation.

Alleges link to Jacko death probe

Silber, Jacobs said, had considered buying Applied Pharmacy Services, the operation that federal agents had raised in their investigation of Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray.

Martin Singer, attorney for the Gans estate and other related interests, informed Tabloid Baby that Danny Gans had never been treated by or prescribed medication by Dr. Murray, and we issued a retraction to our story suggested that a possible connection be investigated by the Las Vegas news media.

As KVBC’s newscast tease of a “Michael Jackson connection” was far more misleading than the questions we raised, we wonder if KVBC will also be asked to issue a clarification.


As for Alicia Jacobs, it appears she may be attempting to salvage the credibility she squandered in trying in the weeks after Danny Gans’ death to help spin it into something other than the tragedy it was. Some say that fellow Born Again Christians and those, who, like Alicia Jacobs, saw Danny Gans as a religious leader, should have been the first to shout that the fact that he was a human being who’d suffered to the point where he needed medication takes nothing away from the philanthropy and honest values he espoused, or from the brilliant, unique, family-friendly talent he displayed onstage.

Gans family leaves Las Vegas

As Massi added somehwat superfluously in Jacob's report: “I don’t think you could classify Michael Jackson’s way of life with the Danny Gans way of life. That would be a real tragedy. That would be Shakespearean tragedy. Danny Gans was the antithesis of a Michael Jackson. From start to finish.”

Alicia Jacobs revealed that Gans’ ownership in the company has shifted to the Gans family trust, where it remains, and added a footnote that any local reporter and McCloud-imitating editor would find newsworthy: Gans’ wife Julie and her three children have moved out of their estate in Henderson, and “left Las Vegas for good.

“They’ve moved back to Los Angeles.”

Alas, the rest of the Las Vegas news media has yet to pick up on this latest twist in the Gans saga. While the story of the swimsuit-model-in-the-suitcase leads the mainstream agenda, one respected reporter told us that there is more concern about Time magazine’s cover story in which Joel Stein paints Las Vegas as a burnt-out shell “in the deepest crater of the recession.”

We’d hoped that there would be one strong truth-seeking reporter amid the beholden pack in Sin City. We did not expect her to be Alicia Jacobs. We’ll watch what happens next.

Cops release Danny Gans report & 911 tape

Thanks to the persistence of TabloidBaby.com correspondent on the scene, police in Henderson, Nevada have released the incident report and 911 tape from the morning of May 1st, when paramedics were called to his home to find Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans dead of what would be revealed as an overdose of the powerful opiate Dilaudid.

According to the five page report written by Detective Chad Mitchell, Gans' wife Julia said her husband had been asleep since the afternoon of May 31st.

At about 6 pm, she asked her son to awaken Gans, but that he decided not to wake him up because he was snoring.

Four hours later she went to the master bedroom and found Gans asleep in bed-- lying on his back with his feet slightly elevated. Gans was still snoring. Julia Gans said she thought nothing of it because he often snored when he slept.

She said she awoke at 3:40 am and realized he wasn't snoring.

The report says Julia Gans couldn't tell if he was breathing or if he had a pulse. She called 911 and was given instructions on how to administer CPR. She pulled Gans off the bed, put him on the floor and performed CPR until Henderson police arrived.

Danny Gans was dead.

Julia Gans told Henderson Police investigators that at the direction of the police she had gathered and placed all of her husband's medications so they could be examined.

Henderson Police collected the evidence she gave them, and according to the report, noted "nothing remarkable" about the number of pills that were found and counted.

Coroner's investigators examined Gans' body and noticed that his faced was swollen and red. They found nothing during the examination that suggested foul play.

Police also released the 911 tape in which Julia Gans calls the dispatcher and says she can't tell if her husband is breathing.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE 911 TAPE

While the local Las Vegas news media has willfully ignored, underplayed and failed to pursue leads in the story, we revealed on Monday that the Henderson Police had not closed the books on the Gans case, despite the controversial and incomplete conclusion (accidental "toxic reaction") from the Clark County Coroner on June 9th.

Today, Henderson Police say the Danny Gans case is closed.

Developing...

READ THE POLICE INCIDENT REPORT
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):

EXCLUSIVE: POLICE SAY DANNY GANS DEATH CASE IS "STILL OPEN"

"The Danny Gans case is still an open investigation."

A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department told a TabloidBaby.com producer this afternoon that the investigation into the Dilaudid overdose death of the Las Vegas strip superstar has not yet been closed, despite the "acidental" tag plaxced on Gans' May 1st demise by the Clark County Coroner.

Our man on the ground in Clark County visited the police headquarters on Water Street in hopes of getting hold of the police incident report that's been held from public view since Gans' untimely death at his home on Ricota Court in the Roma Hills estates. It was then that he was told the case is "still an open investigation."

The police report was again withheld.

The lead detective, the police spokesman said, is "on vacation." Whether he's been away the thirteen days since the Coroner and Las Vegas news media closed their books on the case, or is investigating other leads into how the supposedly clean-living, athletic Born Again Christian showman wound up dying from too much "drug store heroin" remains to be seen.

The bigger question is why no one in the Las Vegas news media has gone after the police and paramedic incident reports or questioned why the death is still open thirteen days after it was supposedly officially deemed "accidental."

Danny Gans photo: Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun

Breakdown Pt II: Vegas writer who attacked us for questioning Review-Journal’s Gans reporting lapse hits paper for same failure in Senator sex story!

We don’t mean to harp on compromised Las Vegas writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess (we wouldn't harp on him at all if he hadn't attacked us first and then kept it up), but the signs of the name-caller's public breakdown are getting more obvious and deserve attention.

Now the man who accused us of being tabloid “vermin” and "a**holes" for asking why the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not providing any new reportage two days after the tragic, unexplained death of Danny Gans, is criticizing the Review-Journal for the very same failure in the seamy tabloid story of Senator John Ensign’s adulterous affair!

The same criticism? It's bizarre. It's troubling.

On May 3rd, we wrote:

“…The Las Vegas newspapers and national gossip and magazine media continue to troll for star tributes to the Vegas-only star, while none has yet published a follow-up on the breaking news story…his morning, there's a news vacuum regarding the death of Danny Gans-- which is odd, considering the talk around town.

“If we were running Las Vegas newspapers we'd be running fresh stories on Day Three."

Today, Friess writes on his Vegas-boosting blog:

“I did have to make a quick note that the Review-Journal, on only the third day of the John Ensign sex scandal, used the Associated Press' report on its front page and had no staff-generated material on the drama other than a 360-word commentary by columnist John L. Smith.

“That is really strange… the R-J had nothing at all to report today?”

It's all too easy to call Friess a blatant hypocrite. We fear it's something much worse. Like Susan Boyle, he appears to be crumbling under the pressure of public scrutiny.

This morning, we pointed out that Friess had dedicated his shameful and outlandish defense of the local media’s coverup of Strip superstar Danny Gans' drug overdose death to us.

We should note that the lead to Freiss’ Ensign story is again directed toward TabloidBaby.com:

“I've laid off on the local media criticism in this space for a while in part because I've learned what it's like to have some half-cocked nutjob misread and distort every little thing that happens and/or that you do.”

Again with the name-calling.


We also note that although Steve Friess and his cohorts have insisted that our coverage of the Gans overdose and criticism of the local media have been “discredited” and have gone unnoticed in Las Vegas, he has been referring to our site constantly and, sources say, is very worried about the consequences of his involvement in the media coverup.

We find it all very worrisome. The entire TabloidBaby.com staff wish Steve Friess the best, and hopes that his second unofficial husband, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, gets him the help he so obviously needs.