Autopsy Performed on BB King's Embalmed Body

2 of his daughters allege he was poisoned
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 26, 2015 12:30 AM CDT
Updated May 26, 2015 3:03 AM CDT
Autopsy Performed on BB King's Embalmed Body
In this file photo taken Aug. 22, 2012, BB King performs at the 32nd annual BB King Homecoming.   (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Two BB King heirs who've been most outspoken about the blues legend's care in his final days are accusing King's two closest aides of poisoning him. Daughters Karen Williams and Patty King allege that King's business manager, LaVerne Toney, and his personal assistant, Myron Johnson, hastened their father's death, which occurred May 14. "I believe my father was poisoned and that he was administered foreign substances," Patty King and Williams say in identically worded sections of affidavits provided to the AP by their lawyer. "I believe my father was murdered," they say. An affidavit from Patty King, who used to live at King's home, says she saw Johnson administer to King two drops of an unknown substance on his tongue during the evenings for several months before his death, and that Toney never told her what the substance was.

Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg says an autopsy was performed Sunday and that King's body was then returned to a Las Vegas mortuary. Test results will take up to eight weeks to obtain, the coroner says, and should not be affected by the fact that King's body had been embalmed. Las Vegas police say there's no active homicide investigation of King's death, despite the allegations. Homicide Lt. Ray Steiber said yesterday that any police action will depend on the autopsy findings. What attorney Brent Bryson, who is representing King's estate, had to say: "This is extremely disrespectful to BB King. He did not want invasive medical procedures. These unfounded allegations have caused Mr. King to undergo an autopsy, which is exactly what he didn't want." (More BB King stories.)

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