Joe Alston, Top Fibby, Badminton Champ: RIP

Radley Balko | May 9, 2008

One of the more interesting obituaries I've read in a while:

Joe Alston, an FBI agent who investigated Patty Hearst's kidnapping and a champion athlete who was the only badminton player ever to make the cover of Sports Illustrated, has died. He was 81.

[...]

He had just won his second U.S. Open singles title when he appeared on the March 7, 1955, cover of the sports magazine. At the time, he had been with the FBI for four years.

“That picture really changed my life,” Alston told Sports Illustrated in 1999.

“The bosses said, 'Maybe this isn't the time to have you doing undercover surveillance.' As a result, I continued working investigations – kidnappings, extortions, bank robberies, all the good stuff – the rest of my 30 years in the bureau.”

[...]

He was the FBI's major case coordinator in Los Angeles from 1967 through 1980. His family said he was involved with investigating the 1974 kidnapping of Hearst, the newspaper heiress who was seized by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army, and in the still-open investigation of airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper.

As a badminton player, Alston represented the U.S. eight times in the world men's team championships. He also was the only U.S. player to win the men's doubles title in the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships. He and Johnny Heah of Malaysia won in 1957.

His son also was an FBI agent and a leading U.S. badminton player in the 1980s.

Comments

|5.9.08 @ 9:21AM|#

Might as well add in the cover shot.

|5.9.08 @ 9:24AM|#

Man, what a life.

|5.9.08 @ 9:25AM|#

Hmm, interesting. Anyway, you can see the image by copying & pasting the following url in your browser window.

http://usedmagazines.com/cgi-bin/otherjpg.cgi?full/SI19550307.JPG

adrian|5.9.08 @ 9:45AM|#

ain't much like smacking the 'cock

|5.9.08 @ 9:53AM|#

Badminton is a great sport. I'd love to see it televised. Better than beach volleyball.

|5.9.08 @ 10:04AM|#

Badminton seems so quaint, slow, and nonviolent in your backyard. Then you see the professionals. Fear the high-speed shuttlecock.

|5.9.08 @ 10:10AM|#

Warren,

For your badminton viewing pleasure.

|5.9.08 @ 10:13AM|#

Did J Edgar play with his shuttlecock?

Taktix®|5.9.08 @ 10:17AM|#

Fear the high-speed shuttlecock.

I fear high-speed 'cocks of all types. No good can come of them.

|5.9.08 @ 10:19AM|#

Call it a birdie if you feel that your masculinity is threatened.

Ska|5.9.08 @ 10:30AM|#

Better than beach volleyball.

Until they have finely toned women in little bikinis playing badminton, I must disagree.

(Admittedly I have no clue what they wear, I'm suspecting something similar to what tennis players wear)

|5.9.08 @ 10:45AM|#

Women's beach volleyball is the greatest spectacle ever conceived by the mind of man.

|5.9.08 @ 10:57AM|#

Pro Lib,
That was awesome. Thanks

I suppose it's just me, but I'd rather ogle the women running around the tennis court in short skirts than the bikini clad ones jumping in the sand.

Urkobold™|5.9.08 @ 11:09AM|#

JOE, YOU FOOL! WHAT YOU'VE FAILED TO CONSIDER IS THAT WOMEN PLAY WITH 'COCKS IN BADMINTON. WHICH IS WHY THE URKOBOLD MAKES SURE TO ATTEND COMPETITIVE BADMINTON FUNCTIONS WHEN THEY COME TO TOWN. FRONT ROW, BABY, FRONT ROW.

Ska|5.9.08 @ 6:57PM|#

Holy shit!! He's doing the Dio/devil horns shit with his non-racket hand. Sick!!!!