The Death Of Evel Knievel

Friday, November 30th 2007, 9:58 pm

By: News On 6

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) -- Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has died. He was 69. His exploits, including a failed attempt to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon on a rocket powered cycle made him an international icon in the 1970s.

Knievel's granddaughter says her grandfather had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

He also underwent a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.