Tarzan actor Ron Ely’s wife was stabbed to death in their California home by their 30-year-old son, who was then shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies, authorities said yesterday.
Deputies summoned to the home by a 911 call found Valerie Lundeen Ely, 62, dead with multiple stab wounds shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday, a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s statement said.
The deputies talked to Ron Ely and identified his son, 30-year-old Cameron Ely, as the suspect, and found him outside the home in Hope Ranch, a suburb of luxury homes outside Santa Barbara, authorities said.
Cameron Ely posed a threat to deputies, four of whom opened fire and killed him, the statement said. It did not say what he had done that was threatening.
Ron Ely, 81, played the title character on the NBC series “Tarzan,” which ran from 1966 to 1968.
He was host of the Miss America pageant in 1980 and 1981 and later married Valerie Ely, a former Miss Florida. The couple had three children.
There was no report of Ron Ely being injured. Authorities confirmed he was at the home during the stabbing and the shooting, and an earlier sheriff’s statement said an elderly man in the home was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The home where the killings took place is one of two addresses listed in public records for Cameron Ely. It is not clear whether he had been living with his parents.
Lit: Farrow books sells across Australia despite legal threat
Ronan Farrow’s new book is being sold in Australia despite threats of defamation lawsuits that the Pulitzer-winning journalist believes led some Australian retailers to drop the bestseller.
“Catch and Kill” covers events leading to Farrow’s New Yorker magazine expose of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct as well the reporter’s account of his contentious divorce from his previous employer, NBC News. The detailed stories on Weinstein published by The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017 shared a Pulitzer Prize and are credited with igniting the global #MeToo movement.
Farrow’s book also makes repeated references to former National Enquirer editor in chief Dylan Howard, whose lawyers sent letters to Australian booksellers threatening lawsuits.
Amazon Australia and Booktopia declined to comment yesterday on their decisions not to sell Farrow’s book.
A number of smaller Australian book retailers received letters from Howard’s law firm McLachlan Thorpe Partners, but most did not.
Lawyer Andrew Thorpe, who signed the letters, did not respond when asked by AP who had received them.
One letter shown to The Associated Press said Howard believes the book contains “false and defamatory allegations.” The letter warns that if the Australian publisher, Hachette Australia, is sued for defamation, “our client will have no alternative but to join you as a party to those proceedings as a distributor.”
Hachett Australia spokeswoman Anna Egelstaff declined to comment on the legal threat but said the book had been distributed as planned.
“It’s been distributed widely across Australia. It’s now available in bookshops and some online retailers,” Egelstaff said.
Farrow tweeted that some Australian book outlets had “caved and banned it due to frivolous legal threats.”
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