The Obituary Club

Charles Seely was one of the greatest comic talents of our age. The list ran: Chaplin, Fields, Seely. Charley had spent his life perpetrating cruel, giant-size practical jokes on the famous. His final one, included in his will, was a sample of his monstrous sense of humor. There were seven people named in the will. All big names in show business, all the public butt of Charley's last horrible joke. Columnist Grant Simon tagged the group, "The Obituary Club." It was a fitting title, for as the will was set up, only after the first of the seven died, would one of the remaining six become Charley's heir. It was a waiting game; someone had to kick the bucket to set up the payoff. But the payoff came when Hollywood's biggest star became a target for a killer who wanted to turn the macabre lottery into cold-blooded murder.