Death Watch: Ike Turner

Before Sonny Bono rode his better half to musical superstardom, and well before Wayne Brady had to choke a bitch, there was Ike Turner, who overcome a humble upbringing to set the standard in doing both.

Ike may have made former wife Tina Turner the poster girl for battered women everywhere, but, unlike that misanthrope Claus von Bülow, Ike never went so far as to murder Turner -- or any of his 13 other wives -- by spiking their insulin. Yet, as testament to Ike's pimp-like charisma, What's Love Got to Do With it? stands up fairly well to Reversal of Fortune.

And, while Bülow remains unrepentant and at large, Ike owned up to his sins in his 2001 autobiography Taking Back My Name, confessing:

Sure, I've slapped Tina . . . There may have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I never beat her.

It doesn't sound so bad when he puts it that way, does it?

Ike Turner died peacefully in his sleep yesterday at the age of 76. The bluesman has never been implicated in any sort of child molestation or crime against humanity.