Frozen

My Journey Into the World of Cryonics, Deception, and Death

By: Larry Johnson, Scott Baldyga

Narrated by: William Dufris

At first, the job as clinical director at Alcor Life Extension Foundation was an exciting change for veteran paramedic Larry Johnson: a well-funded research facility pushing the limits of modern biotech. But as he gained the trust of his eccentric coworkers and was promoted to acting COO, Larry was thrust into a nightmare world of scandalous controversy, gruesome practices, and deadly secrets.

One secret Larry unearthed was the full, tragic, never-before-heard story of what truly happened to the body of baseball icon and American hero Ted Williams. Compelled by this and other horrific discoveries, Larry began copying documents, taking secret pictures, and ultimately wearing a wire every day at Alcor. He started living two lives: "Alcorian" by day, whistleblower by night.

Beyond the senseless animal experiments, beyond the dumping of toxic chemicals and AIDS-contaminated blood into the public sewage system, these people saw themselves as the elite, the immortal saviors of mankind who would lead us into the future. Inside this cultlike mentality, anything seemed justified. Maybe even murder.

Then Alcor found out. The death threats began. Fleeing from state to state, Larry was stalked and threatened again and again. They chased him through the streets. They left death threats under his windshield wipers. They terrorized his family. Larry Johnson never wanted to be a whistleblower. But he knows this story must be told. Written in Larry's own memorable voice and verified by actual transcripts of his "secret recordings," Frozen reads like a medical thriller---but every word is shockingly true.

©2009 Larry Johnson with Scott Baldyga (P)2009 Tantor

Amazing Story

First of all, let me say this...if you've read reviews of the narration being bad, they are correct. If you were to simply buy the book and read it, you might have a different interpretation of dialogue within the book. William Dufris more or less tends to use bad tonality and sarcasm, making fun of nearly everyone involved in the book. The book is great, but be aware that you may not enjoy listening to it. You can also buy it much cheaper at amazon.
If you don't know much about cryonics, former medic and COO of Alcor shares his story of a 7 month stretch in which he worked at Alcor, a non-profit organization that specializes in "extending life". As Johnson gets deeper into his job, he soon learns of the quirkiness of the employees, the lack of medical knowledge and training of the staff, and unspeakable procedures and experiments that go on behind the closed doors of the Scottsdale, AZ facility.
While the book may not be blatantly biased against cryonics and cryonicists, it is certainly biased against Alcor and with good reason. While Alcor has vehemently denied everything in the book and attempted multiple law suits to shut Johnson up, one can't help but wonder the legitimacy of the text. If you were to take movies "Young Frankenstein" and "The Skulls" and mix them together, you would have an inkling of what has gone on at Alcor since it's founding in 1972.
I found myself fascinated by the whole idea of being "suspended in animation" only to be "reanimated" someday. But as a practical matter, their technology and practices are nothing more than science fiction gone bad. I could probably write a book about how crazy the whole thing is (not to mention the people) and have sufficient evidence to back it up. Johnson was a medic during the David Koresch scandal in Waco, TX back in the 90s and he compares the cultish attitudes of "Alcorians" to be like that of the Branch-Davidians. You decide. But buy the book.

freaky

I almost could not believe this story. I loved it. Truth really is stranger than fiction. I hope the author stays safe from these weirdos.

Pretty good

I have to say that I did enjoy this one bec even though it's a true story,it read more like a spy novel and kept me wondering what was going to happen to the people running the cryo-lab.Those people sure are a pack of wackos.

The "promise of" Cryonics

Wow! This book opens the eyes for cryogenics or cryonics and at least one particular company. The idea of cryonics is potentially attractive – doesn't want to keep going forever? But a lot is pointed out concerning the total inappropriateness of the field as it now stands, and it points out the egos and unacceptable deviance of those trying to carry out the procedure without any real knowledge! The lack of respect for individuals whose bodies will theoretically be reanimated in time is astonishing, and the lack of concern for people and their wishes is mind-boggling!
I have looked up Alcor as well as Alan Kunzman in order to fill in their histories and that of Alcor. I have found that some of the impressions I got from the book itself would not totally factual, but enough checks out with Police Departments and history, that is totally believable!
Fortunately, I am not a famous person who would be a great attribute to a slimy, lawless, and unethical Corporation of this type, so I'm not likely to end up in their hands. I have long said and continue to say "I wanna feed worms!" But I know that there are many people who cherish the idea of freezing and reanimation. I hold nothing against them! But this book makes it clear that we are not ready for that, yet, and individuals employed for that goal need to keep in mind that they are still people – both the clients and the employees!

Pretty good

I think that if I had read this book instead of listening to it, I would have liked it better. The author is very negative about everything and everybody he worked with (which is understandable, from his perspective), but the narrator plays on that way too much. Every sentence is seething with anger and sarcasm. It just gets to be too much.

Even though the style and negativity was very annoying to me, I still did listen to the whole thing and found it entertaining.

Who To Believe

After hearing about Ted Williams I simply had to read this book and while I initially believed what the Author was saying, I have since come to have serious doubts whether or not a lot of it is true. Alcor made a statement on their website regarding this book and its allegations and in all honesty they raise some legitimate issues. In particular is the fact that the author has tried to profit from all of this on numerous occasions. If the information really is true then it is a shame that Mr Johnson has taken the route he has releasing it to the public. For example putting the Ted Williams pictures on a website and trying to charge people [...] a pop so they can see them is..., well lets just say that this in itself does so much damage to Mr Johnson's credability that you really have no choice but to paint all of his statments and accusations with this same brush. It makes Mr Johnson appear to be an opportunist and in all honesty if he is willing to do the website thing then why shouldn't we believe that he is capable of lying to increase the shock value of his book thus making it sell more copies?

Do I believe that some of it is true? absolutely. Why else would Alcor get a court order against Mr. Johnson prohibiting him from releasing any additional information. Obviously he has information that can hurt Alcor and he has proof to back at least some of it up. This, combined with his poor choices, is one of the reasons why I am beginning to have my doubts about some of his accusations. The fact that Mr Johnson has real info that hurts alcor gives him the ability to make things up and it gives people a reason for believing such statements after all if he is telling the truth on statement A, why shouldn't we believe him on statement B? Johnson knows that Alcors image is already going to be severely damaged so there will be very little reason for people to believe any denials coming out of Alcor. It basically gives him the ability to lie and get away with it. Whether or not that's what he actually did is anyone's guess. The fact that he was all about making as much money as possible on this can definitely be used to argue that this is what he did.

Again I have no doubt that some of whats in this book is true. Its just a shame that Mr Johnson was more concerned about making money than he was about actually blowing the whistle on this company. It winds up damaging his credability thus it damages the book itself. Had he simply released this info to the public without trying to make money, well lets just say his argument would hold a lot more water and I wouldn't be sitting here questioning everything I just read, at least not as much as I am now.

The bottom line is I now have very little respect for everyone involved including Mr. Johnson. In other words I don't know who to believe. I still recommend reading this book, the difference now is that I recommend going to your library and checking out a copy instead of buying a copy and thus putting more money into Mr. Johnson's pockets.

Morbid

Would you try another book from Larry Johnson and Scott Baldyga and/or William Dufris?

I will no tlikley let one book determine this.

Has Frozen turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

It has been a few months since I listened to the book. I mainly remember it was extremely morbid. It was likely more the subject than the narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Not that I recall

Any additional comments?

No

Not Raymond Chandler meets Mike Sager

A disappointment. On the surface, an interesting premise, but the whole thing is mired in cliche. Any sympathy/empathy I felt for Larry Johnson evaporated, chapter by chapter. Granted, the folks at ALCOR come off as certified nut-jobs, but it seems that the author works too hard trying to convince the reader how different he is from his reviled coworkers...and ended up convincing me that, in all likelihood, he's pretty much a scumbag, too. Cryonics is, without a doubt, an extreme long-shot, and it seems likely that some unethical practices have been perpetrated by cryonics and cryonicists. The flip side of this book is that cryonic suspension and future reanimation is within the realm of possibility. This is demonstrated in some much more well written literature; and (if you can believe it) more poorly written, also. The first would be, Engines Of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, by K. Eric Drexler and the latter is, The First Immortal, by James L. Halperin. On a final note, the narration of Frozen is excellent; William Dufris never disappoints.