Ted Williams

Ted Williams

The frozen head of late baseball legend Ted Williams was abused, according to an excerpt from an upcoming book. The book, Frozen, chronicles the remains of the late Red Sox slugger in the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryogenic facility in Arizona. The book’s author, former Alcor executive Larry Johnson, describes how Williams’ body was mistreated and abused. The book, out Tuesday from Vanguard Press, tells how Williams’ corpse became “Alcorian A-1949″ at the facility, where bodies are kept suspended in liquid nitrogen in case future generations learn how to revive them.

Johnson writes that in July 2002, shortly after the Red Sox slugger died at age 83, technicians with no medical certification gleefully photographed and used crude equipment to decapitate the majors’ last .400 hitter. Williams’ severed head was then frozen, and even used for batting practice by a technician trying to dislodge it from a tuna fish can. The book due out Tuesday alleges gruesome behavior at the facility, where bodies are kept suspended in liquid nitrogen in case future generations learn how to revive them.

Johnson writes that in July 2002, shortly after the legendary slugger died at age 83, technicians with no medical certification used crude equipment to decapitate the majors' last .400 hitter. Williams' severed head was then frozen, and even used for batting practice by a technician trying to dislodge it from a tuna fish can, according to the book. Johnson was the chief operating officer for eight months before becoming a whistleblower in 2003. He said he wired himself with an audio recorder for his last three months at Alcor, and gathered internal records and photographs reproduced in the book.