Before he changed his name, Bison Dele was basketball player Brian Williams: a 6-foot 11-inch man mountain who left a trail of fire and bruised egos through the NBA. He was famously eccentric. When he quit both basketball and the states aged 30, he wound up first in Lebanon, firing off bazookas into the desert for fun, and then on an endless nomadic voyage through Asia, living as a kind of wealthy hobo.
A Sports Illustrated profile details how while on the road Dele became a beat poet, writing verse inspired by William Blake. He stayed away from the U.S. for years, raising hell in Australia, where he learned to sail and bought himself a boat named the Hakuna Matata. Then he said he was gonna sail it clear from Tahiti to Hawaii. You can probably guess where this is going.
On July 7, 2002, Dele set sail. Onboard were his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, the ship's captain, Bertran Saldo, and Dele's older brother, Miles Dabord. They never made it to Hawaii. Dele, Karlan, and Saldo vanished at sea. Two months later, Dabord was arrested in Phoenix trying to buy gold with one of his brother's checks. Released on bail, he died by suicide via insulin overdose just across the Mexican border. Dele, Karlan, and Saldo were never found.
Dabord was allegedly a bitter guy who was prone to violence and envied his brother's success. The smart money is on him killing the other three and dumping their corpses in the Pacific.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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