Kenneth “Kenny Boy” Lay is dead, which means there is now one less person sucking on the $6.86 left in the Enron pension fund.
Services will be later this week, followed by a private and secret shredding of his remains.
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38 comments
ice weasel
July 5, 2006 at 7:29 am
1Another human parasite struck down before his time.
You know, were it not for this tragedy, we might have learned more about the Enron scandal and lay might have had time to serve his term and then emerge from prison for a few more years of raping the populace financially.
Oh kenny boy, I hardly knew ya.
John Murphy
July 5, 2006 at 7:31 am
2If it truly was a heart attach I hope it hurt like hell and took him a long time to die.
jody
July 5, 2006 at 7:44 am
3NPR this morning, in its effort to find the good in everyone, said that the stress of the trials etc must have taken a terrible toll on Mr. Lay. I would have added, not to mention to toll the collapse of Enron has taken on it’s employees, small stockholders, and enrgy customers who paid thru the roof while Mr. Lay and his ilk made enough to have a vacatio home to die in. Let’s all shed some crocodile tears.
Chris B
July 5, 2006 at 7:48 am
4Many tears will be shred at his wake, I’m sure…
Bob
July 5, 2006 at 8:03 am
5Slobodan Milošević was in jail but had not yet gotten the verdict.
Kenneth Lay got the guilty verdict but had not yet spent time in jail.
Why is it so tough to deliver the whole package to the bastards?
siobhan
July 5, 2006 at 10:56 am
6I’m sure he’d been hoping to hang on until the
estate taxdeath tax rate was most favorable. Couldn’t his pals do a Schiavo on him until 2009?monad
July 5, 2006 at 11:08 am
7Am I the only one who’s thinking ‘liability elimination’? I don’t usually indulge my conspiracy fantasies, but maybe being faced with actual jail time he thought he might try threatening to reveal a few secrets about his powerful friends…?
Ok, I’ve probably read one too many John le Carre novels.
Ken... Just Ken
July 5, 2006 at 12:02 pm
8When we heard the news this morning my girlfriend, surprisingly more suspicious than me today, decided that Ken Lay hasn’t died, but has entered into some sort of witness relocation program…
Republican Criminal Relocation Program?
Maximum Bob
July 5, 2006 at 12:43 pm
9I thought that the death of a criminal brought a sense of closure to his victims. Or does that work only if we kill him? It’s all so confusing.
Sharon
July 5, 2006 at 12:48 pm
10Just Ken, MaxBob,
No, there are plenty of us who wonder at the convenient timing of this “heart attack.” I am pissed that the bastard will never know jail time, and I’m pissed that it will be that much harder to follow the trail to the White House.
Julia
July 5, 2006 at 1:18 pm
11Ex-Enron employees stunned: “Who would have guessed the son of a bitch even HAD a heart?”
Julia
July 5, 2006 at 1:20 pm
12And the obvious headline (it’s the part of the amateurs to pick the low-lying ones) —
Enron Employees Stunned by Evidence: Ken Lay Had Heart
Maximum Bob
July 5, 2006 at 1:51 pm
13I know what you mean, Sharon. It’s just that these days there’s only so much outrage I can generate before I have to take a nap.
If I had a wish for folks like Lay and Skilling, it wouldn’t be jail time; instead I want them to lose all their money. No vacations in Aspen, no private jets, no palatial abodes. They’d spend the rest of their lives living in a tinderbox, working at some minimum wage job, eating government cheese, and wondering if the President is going to pull the plug on Social Security just as they’re about to retire.
Oops, I’m getting sleepy.
cooper
July 5, 2006 at 3:15 pm
14Sharon, since you’re so interested in electronic voting, I wonder if you heard the Diane Rheem show today? The first hour was on this very subject. Enjoy - http://wamu.org/programs/dr/
MaxBob, eating government cheese causes heart attacks. Wait a minute…!
cooper
July 5, 2006 at 3:26 pm
15Chris, speaking of shredding remains, here is a story with a happier ending - http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pkitty04jul04,0,1 493894.story?coll=sfla-features-homegarden&track=mostemailedlink
I still have two kittens to give away. dee is not answering my e-mails, so I guess they are available for the taking. Both kittens are much cuter than this one, plus they’ve been de-wormed. Call now - operators are standing by!
JR
July 5, 2006 at 4:39 pm
16When I heard the news this morning my first impression was “Faust.” (Is it wise to admit that?)
Mephistopheles: What exactly do you want, my friend?
Young Ken Lay: Wealth, power, fame, money, fancy houses, artwork, money. The usual.
Mephis.: No problem. Sign here.
Lay: How hard do I have to work for all this?
Mephis.: Why hardly at all. You’ll have serfs…I mean employees to do the grunt work. And I’ll have one of my assistants help with the heavy lifting.
Lay: And I’ll be rich?
Mephis.: Your money, the stockholders’ money, the employees’ pension money, all of it!
Lay: Powerful? Famous?
Mephis.: Blackouts in California! Nicknamed by the President! Just sign here.
Lay.: (picking up pen) Say, is any of this stuff illegal?
Mephis.: Does it matter?
Lay: Well, I wouldn’t want to end up in jail, or anything, you know?
Mephis.: I guarantee it.
(Or something like that.)
Eliel
July 5, 2006 at 6:09 pm
17Maybe it was just me, but when I read the article in The Times, my addled mind didn’t go all highbrow and Faustian and whatnot like you JR… All I could do was think that the name Kelly Kimberly sounds too much like Beverley Leslie to be a coincidence.
[For the pop culture impaired, click here]
It was hard to take her press statement for the family seriously because I kept hearing it in that character’s voice.
Yeah, it was probably just me.
Murray
July 5, 2006 at 8:00 pm
18According to NPR, Lay’s death means that he has no conviction. As if he had never been indicted. What an unbelievable stroke of good luck for his wife.
I hear that if you inject someone with nicotine it produces a heart attack and has no residue. (Just thinking).
Allison in Santa Cruz
July 5, 2006 at 8:39 pm
19Murray,
Can you explain what you heard on NPR? The guy was convicted, but hadn’t been sentenced. Does dying before getting the actual sentence nullify the conviction? That seems pretty unfair.
My first reaction to hearing of Lay’s death was to think, “Damn, now he’s not going to go to prison!” I mean, what kind of “justice” is it if you can do the crime, get convicted of it, and then conveniently die before having to do the time?
Not that dying is the easiest way to get out of jail time, but you all know what I mean.
siobhan
July 5, 2006 at 9:01 pm
20Alison, I heard the same story that Murray did, but can’t remember precisely when I was in the car, so couldn’t find the right link to the story. However, this interview from Marketplace certainly cuts to the chase about his character. (The story Murray mentions may have been on elsewhere on tonight’s Marketplace. I really think I heard it just in the last few blocks before I got home tonight.)
siobhan
July 5, 2006 at 9:03 pm
21Trying again on that link…
Allison in Santa Cruz
July 5, 2006 at 9:26 pm
22Siobhan,
Thanks for the link. It certainly does make the skin crawl. Makes me wonder, how many people suspected Lay of less-than-moral behavior in the early days of his tenure at Enron.
Did anyone else happen to hear the NPR piece that Murray and Siobhan did? Care to share a link?
SeattleDan
July 5, 2006 at 9:43 pm
23SeattleTammy and I have been mourning Mr. Lay’s passing tonight with a wake, me with some Cabernet and ST with some New Belgium Skinny Dip. RIP.
Coop, thanks for the link on the shredder cat. Good story. ST forwarded the story to some of our cat-loving and chipper-loving friends. I’d love to help you out with your foster-cats, but upon our return from DC last month, we found ourselves infested with a new cat, a Katrina survivor. He’s a lover and a biter. Besides, we are separated by a continent, so the travel would be hard for the young feline. But we do know a real sucker in Baltimore.
Dave
July 5, 2006 at 11:08 pm
24JR, that was worthy of a Felber post!
Dave
July 5, 2006 at 11:10 pm
25With the part of Mephistophiles played, of course, by Dick Cheney weilding a nicotine injecting fountain pen.
untamedcherub
July 5, 2006 at 11:40 pm
26I remember hearing on Wait Wait that Mr. Lay said something like “God works all things together for good.” After hearing about his death, I could not help but think of another biblical quote “Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that too shall he reap.” It seems scary to think that maybe this was God’s way of justice. . .Just something to think about.
tim
July 6, 2006 at 4:50 am
27Voice From Above: Welcome to the afterlife, Kenny Boy!
Kenny Boy: Uh, thanks, I guess.
VFA: As you’ve seen in the orientation video, we have some creative ways of meting out justice around here for the life you’ve lived on Earth.
KB: Yeah, I did see that. Hey, who’s that old lady?
VFA: Ken, that’s your new eternal afterlife case worker, Grandma Millie!
Grandma Millie: Remember me from the California blackouts, Kenny Boy? I’m the one you jammed $250 per megawatt hour right up my f-ing ass!
KB: Noooooooo!!!!!!
siobhan
July 6, 2006 at 7:52 am
28Allison - The Chron explained the whole thing about disappearing convictions in their article about Lay this morning. You can find it about halfway through this column. What is good to note is that, even though the criminal case goes away, the civil suit can proceed against his estate.
Mary
July 6, 2006 at 10:00 am
29Oh my God!!! They’ve killed Kenny!!!!!!!
Why couldn’t it have been Tom Delay? Doesn’t Death *ever* make a mistake??
Allison in Santa Cruz
July 6, 2006 at 12:45 pm
30Siobhan,
Thanks again for the info. I usually don’t have time to actually read the Chron in the morning these days (hell, I’m lucky if I can make it through the comics and Jon Carroll) but will look it up when I get home this evening. Although I do have to host a review session tonight and write an exam for tomorrow. . . there just aren’t enough hours in the day!
cooper
July 6, 2006 at 4:47 pm
31Oh, Mary… you’re going to be such a fun student! I can tell.
Dale
July 6, 2006 at 5:18 pm
32Since Lay wasn’t officially convicted, that means he can still vote in Florida, right?
cooper
July 6, 2006 at 5:42 pm
33No Dale, now Kenny votes in Chicago.
Maximum Bob
July 6, 2006 at 7:53 pm
34I like that, cooper: he sleeps with the fishes, but he votes in Chicago.
John Murphy
July 7, 2006 at 9:31 am
35I new it was a scam. I just saw on CNN that
Body of Enron’s Lay to be cremated
What a bunch of crap. I say it was a suicide and he paid off the doctors before he did it to say he had a heart attach
Landis
July 7, 2006 at 9:45 am
36Well, John, at least in your theory he’s still dead. Plenty of other rumors say he’s alive. And probably sleeping fitfully in the Lincoln bedroom.
John Murphy
July 7, 2006 at 10:19 am
37Landis,
How could i have been so stupid! I bet the SOB is sitting on a beach some where. I hope is gets raped to death by a wild crab.
David
July 8, 2006 at 6:42 pm
38tim,
I’m sitting here seeing and hearing Grandma Millie, and imagining Kenny Boy’s sorry anal sphincter close so tightly a well-greased six-penny finish nail couldn’t penetrate it. Thank you kindly. I needed a farewell image for the bastard even as I hate the idea this will help the White House close the Enron case, at least politically.