Python Threads - stopped vs. gone vs. Alive

[RossGK]

I've answered my own question about the "None" state - an event was
setting the thread to None where I didn't expect it.

However, my question slightly repositioned is if a Thread is "Stopped"
it still seems to exist. Is there someway to make it go away, send it
to garbage collection etc?

Other part of the original Q - I assume a Stopped thread gets a false
from "isAlive" and a Running thread gets a true?