Free Republic

Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, some alone and unseen. Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity. Sometimes, along the way, a life’s secrets are revealed. They found him in the living room, crumpled up on the mottled carpet. The police did. Sniffing a fetid odor, a neighbor had called 911. The apartment was in north-central Queens, in an unassertive building on 79th Street in Jackson Heights. The apartment belonged to a George Bell. He lived alone. Thus the presumption was that the corpse also belonged to George Bell. It...

NORFOLK, Va., - The tallest man in the world and the tallest man in the United States came together in Virginia to film a segment for a British TV documentary. Norfolk sheriff's deputy George Bell, who stands at 7-foot-8, said he and Sultan Kosen, a Turkish man who stands at 8-foot-1, spent time Tuesday at the Norfolk city jail, Bell's place of employment, and Roger Brown's restaurant in Portsmouth, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Wednesday. Bell said it was unusual to stand next to someone whose height exceeds his own. "I didn't feel small-small," Bell said, "but it was a different...