Bobby Fischer

Someone called last week when Bobby Fischer died who'd been friends with him during his Pasadena days:

Fischer then went into hiding, apart from one impulsive television appearance and the occasional game. He had already renounced his Jewish heritage by joining a sect called the Worldwide Church of God, based in Pasadena, to which he donated a large chunk of his winnings. In 1978, he sued a magazine that had criticised the church, but then accused the church of reneging on a promise to finance the lawsuit.

In May 1981, he was wandering around Pasadena, shabbily dressed and with a flowing beard, when a policeman spotted him and thought that he might be a bank robber. He was arrested after refusing to answer the lawman's questions. A year later, he described the experience in a diatribe which he published under the title, "I was tortured in the Pasadena jailhouse"