October 4, 1970 - Janis Joplin (8) - J. Buffalo

Rock singer Janis Joplin made drinking respectable again and thus it came as a great shock to her adoring public when she died of a heroin overdose at Hollywood's Landmark Hotel. Only J. Buffalo had the good eyes to see what was coming. She would take considerable guff from Binky Brown and Dr. Death in the years to come for her three scoreless seasons, but she could always shut them up with two words, "Janis Joplin."

August 21, 1971 - George Jackson (8) - R. Schooler

One of three convicts known as the Soledad Brothers, George Jackson was in San Quentin awaiting trial for the murder of a Soledad prison guard. After a visit from his lawyer, Stephen Bingham, Jackson suddenly found himself in possession of a handgun, and attempted to escape. Two convicts and three guards were killed in the attempt, as was Jackson, slain by a guard as he fled towards the prison walls. The hit was the Game's first and only score during a prison break, and it marked R. Schooler as one of our earliest stylists.

April 6, 1972 - Crazy Joey Gallo (6) - J. Smoke

The Game's first Mafia hit was a solo tallied by relaxed and confident J. Smoke, a Charter Gamester and debonair bon vivant, who tallied six unanswered points when Crazy Joey Gallo, the Columbo family's maverick leader, was gunned down on his birthday at Umberto's Clam House in New York's Little Italy, going out in a storm of gunfire and a shower of seafood sauce. The assassination violated the Mafia's rules about hitting a member in the presence of his family, and signaled a breakdown of the old code. For the affable and charming J. Smoke, it was one more occasion to chide his competitors and say, "I told you so."

December 27, 1974 - Amy Vanderbilt (4) - e. mcgrath

How do you predict the Queen of Etiquette doing something so unrefined as leaping from a second-story window? In 1994, e. mcgrath revealed her reasons for making this call. "Pure Sixties rebelliousness. It pleased me to think that death would come even to such a certified social arbiter. I'm sure I saw her as a representative of an arbitrary, hypocritical and repressive social system. It was an angry time. I couldn't work up that much outrage now." Most amazingly, it was mcgrath's second called suicide solo of the year, the first having been on Anne Sexton in October.

March 22, 1978 - Karl Wallenda (3) - N. Basal

"Being on the tightrope is living; everything else is waiting." -- Karl Wallenda

At 73, Karl Wallenda probably should not have been up on a wire strung between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico, ten stories over the street below. And he wasn't for long. The leader of the Wallenda Family, Karl never worked with a net. Because of this 'all or nothing' credo, family members had died in 1962 and 1972. Gamester N. Basal, patient spouse of the Game's legendary smoldering giant J. Basal, had paid attention and was there for this solo, the Game's only day at the circus. Amazingly, she used this stroke of style to win the '78 Silver Bobcat.

December 7, 1980 - John Lennon (6) - Montressor, Mr. Clete's Fan Club

It was the hit nobody wanted, perhaps the Game's lowest moment, and it led to a number of early retirements. Shot by a disturbed fan in front of his apartment in New York's Dakota, John Lennon died and left a void in many gamesters' lives. But it was undeniably a great call by Montressor and the Merry Little Breezes (then a member of Mr. Clete's Fan Club).

March 5, 1982 - John Belushi (7) - The Last Roundup

In retrospect, John Belushi was hellbent on destruction, but amazingly only The Last Roundup had the vision then to see that the bill would come due so soon, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, at the end of a needle, speed-balling heroin and cocaine.

September 14, 1982 - Princess Grace (5) - Pandora's Box

Grace Kelly lived the fairy tale, becoming a movie star and marrying a prince. But it was demanding. To escape, she and Prince Rainier of Monaco spent time at a converted farmhouse on the peak of a mountain above the Monte Carlo Golf Club. The drive down the twisting roads into Monaco terrified the Princess because of the precipitous drops and her poor eyesight, but on September 13th she declined the chauffeur's offer of a ride, and with her daughter Stephanie set out for Monte Carlo. As she was about to negotiate a particularly sharp turn, she complained of a sudden pain in her head and then slumped over the wheel. The car careened off a cliff and fell 120 feet before landing in a farmer's field. She died the following day at Princesse Grace Hospital. Only one gamester, Pandora's Box, a rookie from New England, made the call.

July 1, 1991 - Michael Landon (5) - Teen Angel

Actor Michael Landon was in robust health in 1990, and thus escaped the notice of all but one inspired gamester. When Landon was taken ill in April, only Teen Angel had seen beyond his appearance. Asked why she had listed him, she ticked off the three reasons, "Big hair. Dumped his wife for a bimbo. Highway to Heaven."

June 27, 1992 - Sandy Amoros (4) - Binky Brown

On October 8, 1956, at the World Series, the Yankee's Don Larson was pitching a perfect game when the Dodger's Sandy Amoros stepped up to the plate. On a 1-1 count, Amoros took a mighty swing and sent the ball deep, deep to right field, where it just curved foul by six inches and POW hit a 10-year-old boy squarely on the chin. That plucky lad was Binky Brown, whose picture in the newspaper the next day, bruised, smiling and holding the ball, revealed to the nuns that he had not been home in bed that day as his note said. In 1992, he completed this remarkable circle by hitting a solo on Sandy Amoros. This will stand forever as one of the Game's most artful and personal hits.

October 31, 1993 - River Phoenix (8) - The Plug Pullers

In 1992, the rookie Plug Pullers saw Phoenix slouched in a chair and feeling no pain while being interviewed on WSBK by Dana Hersey. Maybe Phoenix was just tired, but it set the rookie to thinking. A vocal advocate for health and vegetarianism, young actor River Phoenix may have seen the coca leaf and opium poppy as part of nature's bounty. In 1993, while in Los Angeles working on a film, River Phoenix went to Johnny Depp's Viper Room with friends, and ingested a lethal mix of cocaine and heroin. He stumbled from the club and died on the sidewalk outside.

July 15, 1997 - Gianni Versace (5) - Skul

Gianni Versace, a man who changed the face of fashion and headed up an $800 million empire, was murdered at his doorstep by spree killer Andrew Cunanan, and there with a Front Page Solo for five points, was Skul, a long-time stylist.

August 30, 1997 - Diana, Princess of Wales (7) - Harris Tweed

Even after her divorce from Prince Charles, Princess Diana felt the pressure of the tabloid press intensely, and in the end, they literally hounded her to death. She died in Paris, in a black Mercedes pursued by a pack of paparazzi on motorcycles, crashing in a tunnel at close to 100 mph. Harris Tweed made the call, the second high-speed, seven-point solo of her career, the first being Ayrton Senna.

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