B.B. King's daughters say their father was poisoned by his personal assistant and business manager
Two of B.B. King's daughters say that their father was poisoned by his business manager and personal assistant in order to hasten his death, allegations that the attorney for King's estate calls "defamatory and libelous."
The lawyer, Brent Bryson, told The Associated Press that King received 24-hour care and was monitored by medical professionals "up until the time that he peacefully passed away in his sleep" earlier this month at the age of 89. King's daughters, Karen Williams and Patty King, say that manager and estate executor LaVerne Toney and personal assistant Myron Johnson prevented family members from visiting King, and Patty King says she witnessed Johnson putting drops of an unknown substance on her father's tongue over the course of several months. The sisters had previously told a court that large sums of money were missing from King's bank accounts and that Toney hired her own relatives to work for King.
An autopsy on the late musician was performed on Sunday, and it will take up to eight weeks for the results to come back. "This is extremely disrespectful to B.B. King," Bryson said. "He did not want invasive medical procedures. He made the decision to return home for hospice care instead of staying in a hospital. These unfounded allegations have caused Mr. King to undergo an autopsy, which is exactly what he didn't want."
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Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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