Mistaken burial leads to lawsuit by family
LOS ANGELES — Relatives who thought they had buried their loved one only to find out he was alive 11 days after his funeral sued a California county Tuesday.
The suit filed by Frank Kerrigan's family accuses the Orange County coroner's office of negligence, concealment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims.
County spokeswoman Carrie Braun said she can't comment on pending litigation but that the sheriff's department is conducting an investigation.
The mix-up began when a man was found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Frank Kerrigan's father, who goes by the same name as his son, said the coroner's office told him the body was his son's.
When he asked whether he should identify the body, a woman at the coroner's office said — apparently incorrectly — that identification had been made through fingerptrints. Another family member who talked to the coroner's office said a woman told her Kerrigan also had been found with his identification, according to the lawsuit.
Last May, Kerrigan's family buried a man.
Eleven days later, Kerrigan turned up at a family friend's house. The friend called Kerrigan's family to tell them he was alive.
The man the Kerrigan family had buried turned out to be a Kansas native named John Dickens, who had to be exhumed before he was cremated and sent to his mother in Kansas.
Both Kerrigan and Dickens were homeless and mentally ill.
Kerrigan's family also alleges that the body found at the Verizon store was neither Kerrigan nor Dickens.
LAS VEGAS — Marty Allen, the bug-eyed comedian with wild black hair who was a staple of TV variety shows, game shows and talk shows for decades, died Monday night. He was 95. Allen died in Las Vegas of complications from pneumonia with his wife and performing partner of the last three decades, Karon Kate Blackwell, by his side, Allen’s spokeswoman Candi Cazau said.
Allen, known for his catchphrase “hello dere,” was a link to a generation of longdead superstars with whom he shared a stage, including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Elvis Presley
He found fame as half of the duo Allen & Rossi with partner Steve Rossi, who died in 2014. Allen & Rossi appeared 44 times on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” including the episodes in which the Beatles performed.
“There wasn’t a talk show on TV that didn’t want Allen & Rossi,” Allen said.
The duo appeared regularly on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” and “The Merv Griffin Show.” They also toured comedy clubs nationwide, headlined shows in Las Vegas and released hit albums until their amicable breakup in 1968.
Allen then took on serious roles on daytime TV and made-for-TV movies and was a regular on “The Hollywood Squares.”
Allen, born in Pittsburgh, served in Italy in the Army Air Corps in World War II, earning a medal for valor.
He was married to Lorraine “Frenchy” Allen from 1960 until she died in 1976. In 1984, he married Blackwell, a singer-songwriter who became his partner, acting as the goofy Allen’s “straight man,” just as Rossi did half a century earlier.
“It’s unbelievable to be 94 years old,” Allen told an audience in 2016. “My wife says, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ I told her, ‘An antique.’ So she framed my birth certificate.”
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