Talk:John Rostill

Death

Findagrave says he was electrocuted, which is the story I remember appearing at the time:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13854159/john-rostill

Same thing here:

http://themusicsover.com/2009/11/26/john-rostill/

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-rostill-mn0000232359

http://dirtcitychronicles.blogspot.com/2011/12/death-by-misadventure.html

No reference is given for "barbiturates overdose" story.

Does someone want to provide one?

Paul Magnussen (talk) 19:24, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

[1] is a scan of a newspaper page from that timeframe, stating unequivocally that the cause of death was barbiturate poisoning. Note that this site requires registration (but you can view three articles for free, so it should be much of a problem for anyone wanting to verify). Is Findagrave atc. considered a reliable source for this sort of thing? If so I support including both potential causes of death, fully sourced. NekoKatsun (nyaa) 02:45, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

if you go back to newspaper stories that reported John's death you'll find they say words to the effect of "friends said they believed he may have been electrocuted" see this for an example. However the inquest ruled it was barbiturate poisoning but the inquest result wasn't as widely reported as the original death so the electrocution story gets out there and picked up as the accepted version of events rather than findings of the inquest. Find a grave is no more reliable than IMDB which when I looked say barbiturate poisoning but as neither carries any sources and are user generated they should be discounted. The only source for electrocution I can find that would normally be considered reliable is an article much more recently in the Independent [2] but I have to say that on this occasion it is mistaken and completely contrary to the findings of the inquest. I'm not sure how we can give any other cause of death other than that decided upon, and not subsequently contested AFAIK, by the coroner. If there is a proposal to say that initial reports of his deaths stated that the suspected cause was electrocution but that the resulting inquest found that barbiturate poisoning was the cause then that's fine by me. I understand that as it was ruled as suicide the family may, even after all this time, prefer the accidental electrocution to be the preferred story but that's not Wikipedia's role to go along with that. Nthep (talk) 08:44, 17 April 2019 (UTC)

Factual error

Rostill did not write for Elvis. After Olivia had her hits with "Let Me Be There" and "If You Love Me", Elvis performed them in concert and they ended up on albums. This was well after Rostill died. 136.159.160.121 (talk) 20:02, 20 June 2023 (UTC)