Homeless star of disputed viral video dies of alcoholism
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Version 0 of 1. A 56-year-old homeless man who went viral in a video showing him giving away food has died in a Los Angeles alley of chronic alcoholism, with questions still circling over the authenticity of the YouTube hit. Kenni Thomas Nickel appeared in a video titled How Does a Homeless Man Spend $100? which has been viewed more than 38m since it was posted in December 2014. In the video, which at least one witness has suggested was staged to look like a secret camera recording, Josh Paler Lin is shown giving Nickel $100 and following him as he goes to a liquor store, then comes out with food and gives it to others. Nickel was found unresponsive in an alley behind a Los Angeles drugstore on May 28 and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene, said Los Angeles county chief of coroner’s investigations Craig Harvey. An examination of the body revealed he died of chronic alcoholism and Nickel was listed as homeless at the time of his death, Harvey said. After the video went viral and helped fuel his own career as a creator known mostly for video pranks, Lin launched a crowdfunding campaign that was said to have raised $145,873 for Nickel. Lin said in his condolence video that the funds were transferred to Nickel on 11 March and he hoped the money would help the man’s family. But Nickel’s brother Kevin said in a phone interview that he did not know whether his brother received the money and complained Kenni should have been sent for treatment for alcoholism, depression and other problems, not given the star treatment he received in a later so-called makeover video. “They should have been showing him going in the hospital and getting help, not having lobster dinners and haircuts and suits,” Kevin Nickel said. Viewers of the original video called Nickel an inspiration for giving away food. But one witness to the scene, Taugan Kadalim, told television station CBS Los Angeles that it was staged and that Nickel was driven to the store. Lin has denied the video was staged. |