Joe DiMaggio

Joseph Paul DiMaggio, born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), was an American baseball player.

Death

After DiMaggio, who underwent lung cancer surgery on October 14, 1998, fell into an 18-hour coma on December 11, his lawyer, Morris Engelberg, was forced to admit that the positive reports he had been feeding to the press were greatly exaggerated. He claimed Joe made him promise not to tell even his family about his condition. Joe was finally taken to his home in the Bar Harbour section of Hollywood, Florida on January 19, 1999. Days later, NBC broadcast a premature obituary; Engelberg claimed he and DiMaggio had been watching TV and saw it. His last words, according to Engelberg, were "I'll finally get to see Marilyn." (Famous last words) However, the day after DiMaggio's death, a hospice worker who cared for him gave a radically different version of events to The New York Post.

Related Topics:
Lung cancer - October 14 - 1998 - Coma - December 11 - Hollywood, Florida - January 19 - 1999 - NBC - Premature obituary - Famous last words - The New York Post

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He is interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California. In his eulogy, Dom DiMaggio declared that his brother had everything "except the right woman to share his life with," a remark seeming to confirm the family's disapproval of Monroe. Cramer told the New York Times that Dom cooperated with him on his controversial biography, and got other family members to do likewise.

Related Topics:
Colma, California - New York Times

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The equally-controversial Engelberg offered dozens of signed bats on Shop At Home for $3,000 each weeks before DiMaggio died. In April 1999, he sued the City of San Francisco to stop its plan to name the North Beach park, where Joe learned to play baseball, after him. That June, he sold hundreds of items to a collectibles dealer, including baseballs DiMaggio signed on his deathbed, and offered Joe's personal effects at a Sotheby's auction. In 2003, Engelberg broke attorney-client privilege, and published his own book on DiMaggio as a rebuttal to Cramer.

Related Topics:
North Beach - Sotheby's

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Oddly, both books contain inaccuracies, salacious gossip, unsubstantiated claims and rely on the same discredited sources. Both state Joe thought Marilyn was murdered due to her involvement with the Kennedy Family; Cramer even claims the coroner who perfomed her autopsy "took a dive." And, both Cramer and Engelberg draw the same conclusion: DiMaggio was a greedy humbug convinced everyone was out to take advantage of him.

Related Topics:
Kennedy Family - Autopsy

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