Look, I'm as stunned and and disturbed as everyone else about the sudden demise of David Carradine. But let's just cut to the chase about his cause of death, OK? Today, both the Thai police and the public record are all but corroborating one thing: David Carradine masturbated to death.
Despite early reports suggesting a suicide, then accidental death, murmurs around the Web -- from mainstream news outlets to suspicious bloggers -- hinted that the rope found around Carradine's neck and genitals may have been linked to an autoerotic act. You think? Specifically, the word on the street started as autoerotic asphyxiation, which the Associated Press helpfully defined in a follow-up today as "cutting off oxygen to the brain for sexual arousal. The practice is said to result in a form of giddiness and euphoria -- similar to alcohol or drug intoxication -- that enhances the sexual experience." Not that the Thai police were ready to recognize it, explaining that it was "unclear whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure."
But not long afterward -- and after an autopsy -- AFP passed along revised word from the cops: "Under these circumstances we cannot be sure that he committed suicide but he may have died from masturbation," said police commander Lt. Gen. Worapong Siewpreecha.
Now we're talking. Not for prurience or gossip's sake, either, but for a little more transparent discussion of what everyone seems to be dancing around. Add to that recently unearthed court filings in which Carradine's ex, Marina Anderson, cited the actor's "deviant sexual behavior which was potentially deadly." So there -- that's done. And believe me, no one over here is laughing. It's sad news in any event. But it did happen, and it is news, so can we please just be honest about it going forward?
· Carradine may have died from sex act: Thai police [AP]
· Carradine's "Deviant Sexual Behavior" [The Smoking Gun]