Media's Lack of Coverage and General Society's Lack of Compassion Regarding Serial Murders of Black Women- Updates With Photos and Videos

Media and Society Lack of Compassion Toward Black Female Victims of Serial Killers

Top:  Tishana Culver  Bottom: Tonia Carmichael, victims of serial killer Anthony Sowell



"This thing is serious business, until we know women are safe in this community, we will be out here every year," - Activist Kathy Wray of the Imperial Women Coalition

"We all know, if these young women had been white, the whole town would have been shut down, until it was solved."- Commenter Mike at Abagond regarding the Henry Louis Wallace serial killings of 11 young Black women in Charlotte

"The police don’t care because these are black women… . It’s not like Lonnie killed no high-powered white folks.  We don’t mean nothing to them.  We’re black. What the @@@@. Just another @@@@@ dead.  The @@@@ should not have been out there on drugs.”

Pamela Brooks, in “Tales of the Grim Sleeper”

                                                                      

This year will be the 10th anniversary of the Imperial House Murders(Anthony Sowell), the 25th anniversary of Henry Louis Wallace(Taco Bell Strangler), and the 40th anniversary of the  Boston Murders.

This will be a three year series on how mainstream media and society disregards the serial murders of Black women in America.  Eleven years ago, I wrote a blog post, Crimes Against Black Women:  Four Cases regarding the neglect of media and police coverage regarding murders of Black women by people of all races and ethnicities as well as the insensitivity of the general public.  I going to discuss the Anthony Sowell murders, along with the Grim Reaper, and of course, Henry Louis Wallace(a.k.a. Bad Henry).  There has been other serial murderers of Black women in the past and current centuries.  Such as Gary Heidnik who murdered several Black women in the Philadelphia area.  Benjamin Atkins in Detroit in 1991-1992 murders of 11 women.  East Cleveland killer Michael Madison.  Larry Bright killed eight Black women in the Peoria area back during 2004-2005.  The Gary Indiana killer back in 2012.  The still unsolved serial murder case in Rocky Mount, N.C. in 2009.  Now, the unsolved murders of Black Chicago women from 2001 to current.  But my focus will be on the five cases at hand.  The  police should have warned that a murderer in the community and to make sure community has an input in solving murders and to bring the perpetrators to justice.  How the media should have had more sensitivity to those who are marginalized.

Bad Henry: Nightmare in Charlotte amid the 1990s prosperity 

Here are some of Henry Louis Wallace victims from Bad Henry

Very beautiful young women victims of Henry Louis Wallace from 1994 USA Today's group photo

 This Vice News documentary needs to be spread to everyone who is concerned with justice and compassion for the most marginalized groups in America.  Especially in a declining, economically depressed cities such as Cleveland, where unemployment is high. 

The invisible victims of Anthony Sowell:

The Grim Sleeper Documentary

Here are some of Chester Turner's victims, pretty young women 

There will be at least four parts to this subject.  Because this is repeatedly ignored by the general public, society and media. Professor Cheryl L Neely of Oakland(MI) Community College discussed this lack of attention and police indifference in her debut book, You're Dead, So What.  She discussed at length how media, law enforcement, and the general public indifference to Black female victims of homicide.  She give examples and comparison between the murder of Imette St. Guillen and Stepha Clark.  How the media and the police treatment of such women are base upon socioeconomic class and race.  

The Missing Beautiful White Woman Syndrome and How Society Treats Victims of Color 

                             

Beautiful Miss Theresa Bunn, one of 75 women murdered by unknown serial killer in Chicago back in 2007.  To this day, her murder is unsolved.

In 2005, Latoyia Figueroa was the subject of the lack of coverage regarding missing Black and Brown women in contrast to Natalee Holloway.  She went missing on July 18, 2005.  Her body was found on August 20, 2005, one month after she was reported missing.

Olamide Adeyooye, missing Illinois State University student whose body was found in October 2005

Chandra Levy's disappearance was well documented in the media in 2001.  At this

time media pundits term "Missing White Woman Syndrome" because of the intense media coverage regarding missing and murdered upper middle class White women in America.

Everybody knows about how mainstream media often saturate missing and murdered women with stories about beautiful, middle class White and Latina female victims such as Chandra Levy, Mollie Tibbitts, Nixzmary Brown, Laci Peterson, Kate Steinle, etc. There's a term for the aforementioned victims, coined as  the "Missing Beautiful White Woman Syndrome."  They're also considered victims deserving of sympathy, compassion, and empathy.  Sure, the pedestalization of White American women help solidify the idea of young, beautiful White women as worthy of remembrance. They, along with lighter-skinned non black women of Color are the standard of beauty in America today.   We Americans still refer to celebrity White women as American Sweethearts who captured the hearts of Americans and others worldwide.  They're considered by mainstream America as being sweet, easy on the eyes, and personable.  Furthermore, non black women and girls get the assumption of innocence regardless of circumstances.

Tonia Carmichael's son Jonathan and his children.  

By contrast, society have very little compassion for Black women victims of crime, let alone serial killers.  As a matter of fact, Black female victims are labeled in American society and media as being "loose", "fast", "crackheads", "runaways", drug users, "sluts","whores", "thots", mentally unstable, "baby-making machines",  "fast tailed girls", and "welfare queens". Likewise, the mainstream American media and the general public tendency to label Black females as "street women", "Chickenheads","prostitutes",  "ghetto","junkies", "ratchet" and so on.  

For much of American history, Black women academics long contended that  controlling images of Black women(Jezebel, Mammy, Sapphire, Welfare Queen, Crackheads, etc.) are employed to stigmatize an already marginalized group of women. The jezebel stereotype especially. That stereotype justified abuse of Black women by White and Black men since slavery.  

Miss Brandi Henderson,
R.I.P.

In 2015,  Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, the pioneer of intersectional feminism, started the hashtag #sayhername to bring awareness of violence against Black women in America and around the world.  

The abuse of Black women rarely invoke outrage from the public. From unacknowledged rapes of Black women during slavery and Jim Crow, to police brutality such as the Sandra Bland case, to the discrediting of Anita Hill by Senate Judiciary Committee, to R. Kelly and his many victims.  That attitude needs to change.

The Madonna/Magdalene Ideology in how society view victims of serial murder in America

Iconography of Mary and Magdalene, stereotypically depicted as the "madonna/magdalene by Italian Renaissance artists, Fra Filippo Lippi and Carlo Crivelli.  Most men and women have dualistic view toward women, then and now.  Today, we use the terms good women and bad women.

In the 1990s depiction of serial murder victims, the media used photos of murder victims and how the media uses such photos either to elicit sympathy and compassion or sensational and scorn.  The Madonna/whore complex is used in such depictions of women, victim or not.

Miss Betty Jean Baucom, beautiful young lady victim of serial killer Henry Louis Wallace.  Her graduation photo is used to evoke sympathy and compassion.  She's depicted in blue, the traditional color of the Madonna.

Rest in peace, Miss Betty Jean.

Ms. Jenny Soto, very attractive Black Latina murder victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin.  This

 photo was used to exploit her in the media.  Her mother, Margarita Gonzalez, complained about the mainstream media's portrayal of her daughter after Joel's confession in June 1993.  May Ms. Soto rests in peace.

American society have a Madonna/whore ideology when it comes to women. From historic times, societies in general always label women as either good, chaste women, wives, mothers, nuns or they're loose women, prostitutes, and mistresses/courtesans.  Renaissance artists reflected societal views of women through the Madonna paintings by famous artists Lippi, Botticelli, Raphael, etc., or nude paintings such as the Venus of Urbino by Titian.  

In American society, the Madonna/whore ideology is strong, tinged with class and race components.  White and other non black women, especially East Asian women are considered the "sacred Madonna" while Black, Native American, and Latinas, especially Caribbean Latinas are labeled as "bad women" deserving of their fate.  This view is far more widespread as the lack of coverage, the disparaging remarks in and out of cyberspace, and general indifference on the part of law enforcement to solve murders of Black women in America and Indigenous women in Canada. 

The Madonna/whore mythology were used in how the public reacted to murders of Black women, the Heidnik, the Larry Bright, Gary Ridgeway, the Sowell case and the Henry Louis Wallace cases in particular.

For example, the Cleveland convenience store owner showed sympathy to Anthony Sowell, whom he said in the Unseen interview that "he took out the garbage".  That's a blatantly hateful remark.  He saw the victims, living and dead, of Anthony Sowell as being "worthless" and "undeserving" to him. He labelled the victims as worthless drug addicted and prostitutes.

Sowell himself justified the murders by labelling the women as being less than perfect.

Again using the Madonna/whore ideology was at work in connection to the inaction on the part of Charlotte police in connection with the Henry Louis Wallace serial murder case, a concerned young woman named Angala Grooms in East Charlotte stated that the police did not care because they viewed the pretty young Black female murder victims of Henry Louis Wallace:  "I feel like they wrote us all off as some fast little black girls who didn't really matter."

During the 1996 Wallace capital murder trial, the defense lawyers tried to taint the young womens' reputation but the witnesses, friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, and the prosecutor vigorously countered the defense by bolstering the virtues and even saintliness of the young victims of Wallace.  The jury didn't buy the defense and voted for the death penalty for the nine first-degree murders and rapes of young Black women.  

Ms. Dee Sumpter, Shawna Hawk's mother and founder of Mothers of Murdered Offspring(left) and Miss Shawna D. Hawk, R.I.P.(right)

Miss Shawna's Graduation Photo

Miss Shawna Denise Hawk

In the December 2014 issue of Vanity Fair article covering the Grim Sleeper and how law enforcement turned a blind eye to the serial murder of Black women, Franklin’s son Christopher describes meeting L.A.P.D. officers who asked if they could shake his hand, aware that he was the son of the Grim Sleeper. Broomfield was dumbstruck by the revelation. “Christopher told me his father had a lot of fans in law enforcement. Some police officers actually admired Lonnie for ‘cleaning up the streets.’ That seemed, to me, too incredible—that a serial killer could be a person who was respected within certain sections of law enforcement.” Unfortunately, those attitudes are widespread in society, seeing poor, Native American, Latina, and Black women as being of lesser value than other American women.  

Margaret Prescod, founder of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders

Enietra Washington, the only survivor of the Grim Reaper Slayer

Media Bias In The Coverage of Black Female Serial Murder Victims

There's a deeply troubling disparity in reporting the disappearance and homicides of female victims reflects racial inequality and institutionalized racism in the social structure. Oftentimes when reporting, there's a considerable bias when it comes to Black American female murder victims.  The reporters always want probe into the backgrounds of such women, their sexual histories, criminal records, the neighborhoods where they reside, their work/education backgrounds, history of drug/alcohol addictions, and whom their associations were as if they done something wrong to cause their demise.  

Miss Valencia Michele Jumper

R.I.P.

They were rarely described in the media as being attractive, beautiful, smart, intelligent, serious, wonderful wives, good mothers, or pretty.  Those descriptions are reserved for middle/upper class and/or famous non black victims.  With precious few exceptions, there are very few media outlets cover Black female homicide/serial murder victims with sympathy and compassion.  

Nobody's Women by Steve Miller

Ms. Telacia Fortson

Miss Kim Smith

Ms. Diane Turner and her children

Ms. Michelle Mason

Michelle Mason at her baptism in the Catholic Church as a child

Miss Leshanda Long as a child

Ms. Amelda Hunter

The Cleveland victims of Anthony Sowell  received coverage and even some compassion from local newspaper journalists. Writer Steve Miller wrote a compassionate book focusing on the victims and their lives in the book, Nobody's Women:  The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell. They didn't focus too much on the victims' drug/alcohol addictions, criminal records, poor family lives, etc.  Instead, they discuss about their lives before circumstances took them away.  Even the Grim Sleeper victims are rehabilitated by author Christine Pilasek in her book, The Grim Sleeper:  Lost Women of South L.A.  Of course, the beautiful victims of Henry Louis Wallace.  Although they didn't get much coverage outside of Charlotte, they were written sympathetically as well.  

Investigation Discovery's Bad Henry.  Premiered in July 2018

Evidence from Investigation Discovery's Bad Henry

Files of the victims of Henry L. Wallace from Bad Henry




My Perspective on How Societal Disregard for Black Women Victims of Crime

Ten years ago, I wrote a blog post about violence against Black women.  I wrote this in an attempt to get America and the world to acknowledge the violence done to Black women in America.  So many people, lurkers, scholars, crime experts came to this website for knowledge and information.  However, I will discuss the various serial murders of Black women in full detail and to bring more awareness to the public.  Here's the link to my old blog post:

https://httpjournalsaolcomjenjer6steph.blogspot.com/2007/08/crimes-against-black-women-four-cases.html

A few years ago, Mikki Kendall, a well-known feminist author, began noticing a pattern in dead bodies that were dumped on the South Side — women who were stripped naked, stuffed in dumpsters and burned. In 2007, two women were found strangled in burning dumpsters near Washington Park. And an investigation by VICE News found four more instances of women who died in the same way over a ten year period.

None of those murders were solved.

Analysis and Perspective Using Intersectionality In Discussing  Black Female Victims of Serial Murders

Six young victims of the Roxbury(Boston) Murders .  

Their murders galvanized the Black feminists community.

This will be at least ten segments regarding media and societal disregard for Black women and girls who are victims of serial murder.  They're not in the media and the general society don't care in the least about them unless they're passing judgment regarding Black serial murder victims like the owner of a Cleveland convenience store featured in the 2016 documentary, Unseen.

Vanessa Gay from Unseen

Black women and girls were devalued both in life and death.   That attitude needs to change.

During the four-year long series, I will be discussing at length the Anthony Sowell murders and his victims, living and dead.  How the city of Cleveland neglected impoverished Pleasant Hill neighborhood, the failings of the police, the residents, and business owners in detecting the murders and the smell of death along with it, the fallout of the Sowell case, and of course, the survivors of  Sowell.  Their voices matter as well.

In another series, I'll do a lengthy series on the victims of Henry Louis Wallace as well as the Grim Sleeper. Also, the 1979 Boston murders and how feminists and Black groups organized to bring awareness of the murders of Black women in Boston.  The unsolved murders of Black women in Chicago, Dayton, and Detroit will be discussed in later series.

Here is the outline of the upcoming segments regarding serial killers of Black women:



I   Anthony Sowell:   The Imperial House Murders
 
    A.  The Victims and Survivors of Anthony Sowell
          
          Deceased Victims

          1.  Tonia Carmichael
          2.  Tishana Culver
          3.  Leshonda Long
          4.  Crystal Dozier
          5.  Michelle Mason
          6.  Kim Y. Smith  
          7.  Amelda Hunter
          8.  Nancy Cobbs
          9.  Diane Turner
        10.  Janice Webb
        11.  Telacia Fortson

          Survivors
         
          1.  Latundra Billups
          2.  Vanessa Gay
          3.  Shawn Morris
          4.  Gladys Wade
          5.  Vernice Crutcher
          6.  Melvette Sockwell

    B.   Media Coverage and Trial

           1.  Trial
           2.  Witness testimonies
           3.  Testimonies from Survivors
           4.  Sentencing Phase

    C.   Legacies

          1.  Documentaries
               a.  Unseen
               b.  Vice's Right Red Hand:  The Cleveland Strangler
               c.   Investigation Discovery Killer Instinct
               d.  Serial Killer Anthony Sowell

          2.  Books
               a.  Nobody's Women by Steve Miller
               b.  House of Horrors by Robert Sberna

          3.  Memorials
               a.  Proposed 11 Angels Memorial

          4.  The Victims' families' continued pain  
               a.  Lawsuit and subsequent settlement with the City of Cleveland
               b.  Lack of counseling for the victims' families
               c.   Survivors of Sowell and their perspectives
       
          5.  Activism
               a.  Kathy Wray of the Imperial Women

          6.  Podcasts


II  Henry Louis Wallace:  The Taco Bell Strangler, a.k.a Bad Henry
   
      A. The Victims and their lives
           1.  Tashanda Bethea
           2.  Sharon Lavette Nance
           3.  Caroline Love
           4.  Shawna Denise Hawk
           5.  Audrey Ann Spain
           6.  Valencia Michele Jumper
           7.  Michelle Denise Stinson
           8.  Vanessa Little Mack
           9.  Brandi June Henderson
         10.  Betty Jean Baucom
         11.  Debra Ann Slaughter


      B.  Media Coverage and Trial
            1.  Venue change and jury selection
            2.  Trial and Sentencing

      C.  Legacies and Memorials
            1.  Mothers of Murdered Offspring
                 a.  Dee Sumpter-  Shawna Hawk's mother
         
            2.  Documentaries and Movies
                 a.  Investigation Discovery Bad Henry
                 b.  Southern Fried Homicide:  Too Many Women
            
            3.  Academic Case Studies
                 a.  Lives Interrupted:  A Case Study of Henry Louis Wallace
                 b.  Henry Louis Wallace: A Calamity Waiting to Happen

            4.  The Victims' families' legacies
                 a.  Tribute To The Victims of Henry Louis Wallace 

            5.  Memorials
                 
            6.  Podcasts
                 a.  The Henry Louis Wallace Podcasts
           
            7.  Sheriff Gary McFadden

III  The Grim Sleeper Murders/South Side Murders in Los Angeles
       
           A.  Why So Long?

           B.   Police and Public Apathy

           C.   Victims

           D.   Arrest and fallout of the LAPD

                  a.  Labeling of victims:  NHI(no human involved)
                  b.  Troubling support of the serial murderer by the LAPD

           E.   Trial and Sentencing

           F.    Media and Academic Studies 

                  1.  Book:  The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central L.A.
                  2.  Only Good Victims Need Apply:  Tales of the Grim Sleeper
           
           G.   Activism

                  1. Margaret Prescod 


IV   The Boston Murders
          
        A.  The media coverage of victims
                  
                  1.  Criticism
            
            B.  Feminists and Black community criticism of the handling of the murders

                  1.  Six Black Women:  Why Did They Die?
                       a.  Combahee River Collective
                            1.  Barbara Smith

                       b.  2.  The Estuary Project Commemorating the women

V       Chicago Serial Murders
       
               A.  Why So long?

               B.  Activism

               C.  Victims

                     1.  Theresa Bunn
    
               D.  News coverage

Did SiriusXM Fire Mark Thompson Out The Cannon?

SiriusXM hosts Mark Thompson and Joe Madison. SiriusXM may have parted ways with Thompson after an altercation with a Black extremist.

I am angry that a favorite among progressives is off the satellite dial.

Mark Thompson (Matsimela Mapfumo) was placed on leave after a video surfaced last month. He got into a heated confrontation with a Black extremist and served the guy a knuckle style chili.

Thompson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Van Jones, Joy Reid, Mark Lamont Hill, Sonny Hostin and Joe Madison have faced a group of Trump supporting coonservatives who ambush them.

They call them "sell outs" for supporting Democrats and progressive causes. They believe they betray the Black experience.

Rapper/activist Talib Kweli wrote about this last month and I have decided to take account to what happened. I got off work this morning and I usually enjoy listening to Make It Plain, which is on SiriusXM Progress between 6am to 9am. Rev. Thompson offers honest takes on civil rights, progressive activism and motivational speaking. He is a staunch critic of Donald J. Trump, Mitch McConnell and Fox News.

Thompson was constantly harassed by this group called ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves).

Thompson is a vocal supporter of reparations of Black slaves who came to the United States on promises of land and opportunities.

Yvette Carnell, the founder of ADOS and her followers became a strong supporters of Trump and his pro-Amerikkkan beliefs.

While on a speaking tour, Thompson was confronted by Africa The Great. This Trojan horse decided to belittle Thompson on his remarks about poor Blacks.

"The stuff you say and other people say don't really explain me or my life. I'm a poor Black man from the inner city and I don't care about Russia ... I care that my kids' education is horrible... there are no jobs... I got a felony so I can't really get a job. These are the things I care about."

After a few remarks agreeing with this Trojan, Thompson tries to walk away. The guy decides to follow him and then calls him a coon and a sellout. That's when Thompson serves him.

Then of course, the Trojan went right to social media to post it and SiriusXM decided to put the brakes on Thompson and Make It Plain.

Now we don't know if he's been fired out the cannon or iced. But from the last few weeks of guest host and today's episode of a repeat of Saturday's programming, me thinks it's the end of the road for Make It Plain.

Do you believe that SiriusXM had a right to let Mark Thompson go or was it a mistake?

He wasn't working on behalf of the company. He was doing an event as a guest.

What Happened To Maleah Davis?

Maleah Davis didn't deserve this.

What are they doing to our children?

The Houston Metro Police are questioning the boyfriend of a missing four year girl who has dangerous medical issues. The law has determined that the little girl is likely dead.

The boyfriend is in custody on charges of tampering with evidence and they believe he will be facing murder charges.

For the last five days, the local junk food media and some of the national junk food media outlets were reporting on the disappearance of Maleah Davis.

The last known images of Maleah was seen with her step-father entering his home five days before he reported her missing. In the video, the young child was seen on surveillance cameras waling behind Derion Vence into their apartment on April 30.

Maleah was never seen again. On May 3, the suspect was emerging outside the home with a laundry basket with a large black trash bag inside.

On that day, he claimed he was attacked by thugs. He said that he and Maleah and his one-year old son were kidnapped and he was served a knuckle style chili. The suspect was also seen with bleach.

The story did not match up and they immediately placed him as a person of interest.

Harris County boys found the laundry basket and a gas can inside the car the suspect claimed was stolen in the kidnapping. He said that vehicle was stolen by three men.

The suspect was changing his story multiple times and the law found that he's not credible.

The suspect has a 1-year old child with the mother. The mother Brittany Bowens has Melah and another son, 5.

Maleah's mother may face charges for allowing abuse of a child to happen.

Texas Child Protective Services said that Maleah fell off a chair into a marble table, but the injury did not match the explanation. Child welfare was called on allegations of physical abuse, neglect and sexual abuse. The children were removed for concerns of safety. The court couldn't find any evidence of abuse and they soon returned the children back to the home.

Now the suspect will face criminal charges. The mother isn't named a suspect, yet. But she could face criminal charges for not reporting abuse or allowing abuse. The charges itself carry 15 to LIFE in the iron college.

Black extremist Quanell X defended the mother and was drowned out by the little girl's father.

This is a tragedy. A little girl's life was lost to sexual and domestic abuse. The man who that little girl trusted as a protector harmed her. She will never have a moment of happiness. As her life has ended, we only can say this honest truth.

The suspect is being held on grounds of possible murder and tampering with evidence.

The mother allowed her "love" for this scum doom her family. Bowens' family probably warned her to get out of the relationship. The biological father of Maleah probably wished he would have taken his children out of that home. He now has to regret that.

The suspect is a mark once he makes it to the iron college. He sexually abused a child. Some interns don't like criminals who abuse children. He will be facing some harsh reality.

The suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

It's hurts to see little girls of color being killed by these disgusting human beings. It infuriates me more that the junk food media doesn't consider missing people of color equal to a missing white woman or white girl. It angers me that lawmakers in the state and federal government want to make novelty laws after dead white women.

We need to have equal justice for all individuals.

Maleah Davis didn't get the life she deserved.....

Empire's Final Song!

Empire falls. The Lyons go extinct. Fox has announced the sixth season is its last.

It's official.

We all knew this was coming.

Thanks to Jussie Smollett's antics, the musical drama Empire will have a final season.

The show that made Terrance Howard and Taraj P Henson the iconic Luscious and Cookie Lyon. The show that gave Gabourey Sidibe, Trai Byers and Bryshere Y. Gray a voice to the forgotten and underprivileged. A musical drama that gave you suspense, entertainment and motivation.

All of that ends after the sixth season. So that means that Empire's fall return will be reduced to 20 episodes.

Disney and Fox Entertainment announced that the hit drama is being cancelled after its upcoming fall season. The scandal in January did damage to the brand, the cast and Lee Daniels.

Daniels made history with the first successful Black drama in modern age. Empire began its first season with 19 million people watching. It was green-lighted a second season soon after the third episode. I've watched Empire faithfully. I have covered this on Journal de la Reyna.

During its run, it had a modest drop off in ratings. But at best, it pulled in 4 to 9 million viewers.

This comes as the network had cancelled Star. The show was modestly well.

It was cancelled upon a cliffhanger. Lee Daniels and Danny Strong hopes of Star having a fourth season has been lowered now that Fox put the brakes on Empire .

Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier says there is an option to have Smollett in the show's final season but right now, he's totally on his honeymoon. The final episode had Smollett marrying his longtime partner (played by Toby Onwumere). Smollett played Jamal Lyon, an openly gay musician. He became a focal point of the series because he publicly came out as well as the character.

Collier did say that the cast will give Empire a big send-off.

Empire's entire cast were hoping that Fox will allow him back on to no avail.

Empire's ratings took a nosedive after the Smollett scandal. Besides that, it cost a lot to produce the two shows. Most of the filming were in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta.

Fox Entertainment wanted to also eliminate scripted shows for the upcoming NFL season. The NFL approved Fox for its programming to air on Sunday, Monday and Thursday. The wild-card playoffs will air on Fox as well as Superbowl LIV.

They also will bring Major League Soccer, MLB, UFC Fighting and WWE to Fox.

Empire will likely head to Tuesday or Fridays when it's finishing up its final episodes.

Doris Day Passed Away!

Doris Day, entertainer of the Silver Age passed away.

Another legendary entertainer passed away. We just learned that Doris Day had passed away at the age of 97.

Born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, she was an American actress, singer and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer before making her debut as an actress in her first film. She was a native of Cincinnati. She was the mother of record producer Terry Melcher, who passed away in 2004.

She was a lifelong Republican.

Her death comes just a day after the junk food media announced the death of Peggy Lipton.

The Associated Press reports on the death of a legend of the silver screen. Doris Day, the sunny blond actress and singer whose frothy comedic roles opposite the likes of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant made her one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1950s and ’60s and a symbol of wholesome American womanhood, died Monday. She was 97.

In more recent years, Day had been an animal rights advocate. Her Doris Day Animal Foundation confirmed her death at her Carmel Valley, California, home.

Day “had been in excellent physical health for her age” but had recently contracted pneumonia, the foundation said in a statement. She requested that no memorial services be held and no grave marker erected.

With her lilting contralto, fresh-faced beauty and glowing smile, Day was a top box-office draw and recording artist known for comedies such as “Pillow Talk” and “That Touch of Mink,” as well as songs like “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” from the Alfred Hitchcock film “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”

Over time, she became more than a name above the title. Right down to her cheerful, alliterative stage name, she stood for the era’s ideal of innocence and G-rated love, a parallel world to her contemporary Marilyn Monroe. The running joke, attributed to both Groucho Marx and actor-composer Oscar Levant, was that they had known Day “before she was a virgin.”

Day herself was no Doris Day, by choice and by hard luck. Her 1976 tell-all book, “Doris Day: Her Own Story,” chronicled her money troubles and three failed marriages.

“I have the unfortunate reputation of being Miss Goody Two-Shoes, America’s Virgin, and all that, so I’m afraid it’s going to shock some people for me to say this, but I staunchly believe no two people should get married until they have lived together,” she wrote.

Doris Day with then entertainer Ronald Reagan.

A.E. Hotchner, who collaborated with Day on her memoir, said she had a “sweet and sour” existence and never let her personal difficulties “change her attitude toward people.”

“She was such a positive, absolutely enchanting woman,” he told The Associated Press on Monday. “And she was so loved.”

Day received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004. Although mostly retired from show business since the 1980s, she still had enough of a following that a 2011 collection of previously unreleased songs, “My Heart,” hit the top 10 in the United Kingdom. The same year, she received a lifetime achievement honor from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

The Humane Society of the United States, of which The Doris Day Animal League is an affiliate, praised Day as a pioneer in animal protection.

In 1987, Day “founded one of the first national animal protection organizations dedicated to legislative remedies for the worst animal abuse,” said the league’s executive director, Sara Amundson. Her foresight “led to dozens of bills, final rules and policies on the federal level,” which helped end abusive videos, protect chimpanzees from invasive research and regulate the online sale of puppies.

“She is an icon in the animal protection world and will be sorely missed for her singular advocacy,” Amundson said.

Paul McCartney, a friend, called Day “a true star in more ways than one.”

“Visiting her in her Californian home was like going to an animal sanctuary where her many dogs were taken care of in splendid style,” he said in a statement. “She had a heart of gold and was a very funny lady who I shared many laughs with.”

He cited films like “Calamity Jane,” ″Move Over, Darling” and others and said he would “always remember her twinkling smile and infectious laugh.”

Day “was kind and decent, onscreen and off; she maintained her friendship with Rock Hudson after his AIDS diagnosis, in a climate of fear and abandonment — one of his last appearances was on a TV show with her,” playwright Paul Rudnick tweeted.

Born to a music teacher and a housewife in Cincinnati, Day dreamed of a dance career but at age 12 broke her leg badly when a car in which she was traveling was hit by a train. Listening to the radio while recuperating, she began singing along with Ella Fitzgerald, “trying to catch the subtle ways she shaded her voice, the casual yet clean way she sang the words.”

Day began singing at a Cincinnati radio station, then a nightclub, then in New York. A bandleader changed her name to Day after the song “Day after Day” to fit it on a marquee.

A marriage at 17 to trombonist Al Jorden ended when, she said, he beat her when she was eight months’ pregnant. She gave birth to her son, Terry, in early 1942. Her second marriage also was short-lived. She returned to Les Brown’s band after the first marriage broke up.

Her Hollywood career began after she sang at a Hollywood party in 1947. After early stardom as a band singer and a stint at Warner Bros., Day won the best notices of her career with 1955′s “Love Me or Leave Me,” the story of songstress Ruth Etting and her gangster husband-manager. She followed with “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” starring with James Stewart as an innocent couple ensnared in an international assassination plot. She sang “Que Sera, Sera” just as the story reached its climax.

But she found her greatest success in slick, stylish sex comedies, beginning with 1959′s Oscar-nominated “Pillow Talk,” in which she and Hudson played two New Yorkers who shared a telephone party line. It was the first of three films with Hudson.

In “That Touch of Mink,” she turned back advances from Grant and in “The Thrill of It All” played a housewife who gains fame as a TV pitchwoman to the chagrin of obstetrician husband James Garner.

The nation’s theater owners voted her the top moneymaking star in 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1964.

Her first singing hit was the 1945 smash “Sentimental Journey,” when she was barely in her 20s. Among the other songs she made famous were “Everybody Loves a Lover,” ″Secret Love,” and “It’s Magic,” a song from her first film, “Romance on the High Seas.”

Doris Day died of pneumonia.

Critic Gary Giddins called her “the coolest and sexiest female singer of slow-ballads in movie history.”

Day was cast in “Romance on the High Seas” after Judy Garland and Betty Hutton bowed out. Warner Bros. cashed in on its new star with a series of musicals, including “My Dream Is Yours,” ″Tea for Two” and “Lullaby of Broadway.” Her dramas included “Young Man with a Horn” and “Storm Warning.”

Her last film was “With Six You Get Eggroll,” a 1968 comedy about a widow and a widower who blend families.

In the 1960s, Day discovered that failed investments by her third husband, Martin Melcher, left her deeply in debt. She eventually won a multimillion-dollar judgment against their lawyer.

With movies trending toward more explicit sex, she turned to television to recoup her finances. “The Doris Day Show” was a moderate success in its 1968-1973 run on CBS.

Day had married Melcher in 1951. He became her manager, and her son took his name. In most of the films following “Pillow Talk,” Melcher was listed as co-producer. He died in 1969.

In her autobiography, Day recalled her son telling her the $20 million she had earned had vanished and she owed around $450,000, mostly for taxes. Terry Melcher, who died in 2004, became a songwriter and record producer, working with such stars as the Beach Boys. He was also famous for an aspiring musician he turned down, Charles Manson. When Manson and his followers embarked on their murderous rampage in 1969, they headed for a house once owned by Melcher and instead came upon actress Sharon Tate and some visitors, all of whom were killed.

Day married a fourth time at age 52, to businessman Barry Comden in 1976.

Her wholesome image was referenced in the song “I’m Sandra Dee” in the 1971 musical “Grease,” which included the lyrics: “Watch it, hey, I’m Doris Day/ I was not brought up that way/ Won’t come across/ Even Rock Hudson lost/ His heart to Doris Day.”