“I’m No Wacko!”

By Wyatt Earp | July 2, 2008

Rest in peace, Kenneth.

When he was on free radio, I listened to Howard Stern every single day. I enjoyed listening, but not enough to pay for it when Stern jumped to Sirius. So, imagine my surprise when I read that a member of his “Wack Pack” died in April.

A WEEK BEFORE Kenneth Keith Kallenbach died, the Delaware County comedian’s health had deteriorated so badly that prison officials tried to send him home on “compassionate release.” Kallenbach, 39, a longtime member of Howard Stern’s “Wack Pack” who suffered from cystic fibrosis, was rapidly shedding weight while jailed on a parole violation.

Even the Upper Chichester cop who arrested him in March for allegedly trying to lure a teenage girl into a car was shocked by his gaunt appearance at his preliminary hearing April 15.

“He looked bad,” Officer Michael Smalarz recalled last week. “I said, ‘Kenny, man, you’re really losing weight.’ “

He was dying.

But despite the mid-April request that Kallenbach be released – a practice reserved for seriously ill, nonviolent inmates – the county probation office insisted that he stay in jail until he could undergo a psychosexual evaluation, according to John Reilly Jr., acting superintendent at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.

Delaware County Adult Probation and Parole Services refused to send Kallenbach home, Reilly said, even though he was being held on a parole violation from a prior DUI arrest – not on the attempted-kidnapping charge involving a minor. Kallenbach’s mother, Fay, already had posted bail on that charge.

It wasn’t until the morning of April 24 that a county judge agreed to rescind the warrant on the parole violation.

Kallenbach had died a few hours earlier at Riddle Memorial Hospital. (H/T – The Philadelphia Daily News)

Wow. Someone is about to get sued. Kallenbach was a regular on Stern’s show, and was always a laugh riot – mostly because he would perform idiotic stunts. He was always in trouble with the law, and I actually arrested him for DUI once when I was in patrol. I never knew that he was sick.

I feel terribly for his mother. No parent should ever outlive a child.

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