Post by Graveyardbride on Mar 25, 2017 18:44:32 GMT -5
Nine Mysterious Rock ‘n’ Roll Deaths
Probably no single group logs up more mysterious deaths than those in the entertainment field, particularly rock ‘n’ roll singers and musicians. Elvis, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself, died unexpectedly under peculiar circumstances and despite the passage of 40 years, his untimely demise is still the subject of books and TV talk shows. But the weird ways in which others have met their maker are just as strange and unexplained. Following are nine of the most bizarre, only one of which has been solved:
Bobby Fuller (The Bobby Fuller Four). The 24-year-old “I Fought the Law” singer (2nd from left above) was found dead July 18, 1966, in his car, just a few months after the song became a hit. His body had apparently been doused in gasoline and several people said there were bruises on his corpse. Initially considered a suicide, Fuller’s death was eventually ruled accidental, though rumors circulated that he had been killed by the Mafia, or, in one more outlandish theory, the Manson Family.
Brian Jones (The Rolling Stones). The eccentric genius behind some of the most daring sounds on early Rolling Stones records – including the marimba in “Under My Thumb” – Jones’s death at the age of 27, on July 3, 1969, in his pool, was ruled an accidental drowning and labeled “death by misadventure” by the coroner in a nod to his alcohol and drug abuse. However, Scott Jones, an investigative journalist, pinned Jones’s death on a builder named Frank Thorogood, the last person to see the musician alive. Sussex police reviewed the case in 2009 based on the evidence provided by Scott Jones, but decided the new information wasn’t enough to overrule the initial finding. Then in 2013, in a bizarre twist, Thorogood claimed Brian Jones was confronted at his East Sussex home just hours before his death by Mick Jagger and a knife-wielding Keith Richards over who owned the rights to the name “Rolling Stones.”
Jim Morrison (The Doors). July 3, 1971. Given Morrison’s legendary hedonism, labeling his death “mysterious” might seem odd. But no autopsy was performed on the Doors frontman, who, at the age of 27, met his maker in Paris, July 3, 1971. Forty-three years later, in 2014, Marianne Faithful fingered late drug dealer Jean de Breiteuil as the man behind Morrison’s death, claiming he administered a dose of heroin to Morrison that was “too strong.”
Gary Driscoll (Rainbow). On July 8, 1987, Driscoll (above), 41, was found murdered in his Ithaca, New York, home. There was no apparent motive and separating fact from invention is difficult. Nevertheless, rumor has it death was drug-related, there was more than one killer, and he was either dismembered or flayed alive, possibly in some sort of occult ritual.
Chet Baker. The 57-year-old fell to his death from the balcony of an Amsterdam hotel May 13, 1988. A notorious junkie who was usually in some sort of financial struggle, it was easy to assume there was something malicious about his death. After all, in the late 60s, he was beaten so badly during a dispute over drugs that most of his teeth were knocked out. There were drugs in his system when he died and it is widely assumed his death was accidental, but given Baker’s history, the cause is likely to remain a point of contention.
Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls). Like Morrison’s death, that of Johnny Thunders, 38, at the St. Peter House in New Orleans, April 23, 1991, was hardly a surprise. But though his demise was officially ruled drug-related, toxicology reports later determined the amount of drugs in his system would not have resulted in death. However, Thunders was suffering from advanced leukemia, which could have significantly lowered his drug tolerance. Oddly, his room had been ransacked and Dee Dee Ramone wrote in his autobiography that, “Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards ... who ripped him off for his methadone supply. They had given him LSD and then murdered him.”
Mia Zapata (The Gits). On July 7, 1993, Zapata (above) joined the 27 Club when she was beaten, strangled and raped on the streets of Seattle. While members of the local music community – Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden among them – raised $70,000 to hire a private investigator to look into the singer’s murder, there wasn’t a break in the case until 2003, when Jesus Mezquia, a Cuban exile with a long criminal history, was arrested in Florida for possession of burglary tools and his DNA matched that in the Zapata case. In 2004, Mezquia was sentenced to a prison term of 37 years.
Richey Edwards (The Manic Street Preachers). Edwards, 27, who had a long history of mental health issues, was last seen February 1, 1995, just before the band was scheduled for a promotional tour in the United States. His car was found abandoned near the Severn Bridge between Gloucestershire and Wales, a well-known suicide location. For a time, the guitarist was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous missing persons, with sightings reported as far away as the Canary Islands and India. His sister criticized the manner in which the police handled the case and the family did not have him declared dead until 2008, when his status was changed to “missing, presumed dead.”
Elliott Smith (Between the Bars). Smith died October 21, 2003, at the age of 34, of what were two seemingly self-inflicted stab wounds to the heart. However, there were cuts on his hands consistent with defensive wounds, and the coroner’s report made no mention of typical “hesitation wounds,” usually seen in suicides by stabbing. At the time, detectives concluded his death was “possibly suspicious” and nothing came of a subsequent investigation.
Sources: Alex Heigl, People, March 23, 2017; Scott Jones, The Daily Mail, July 6, 2013; Russell Hall, “Unsolved Rock and Roll Mysteries,” April 14, 2008; and Amy Weller and Elliot Mitchell, “Gone Too Soon: 47 Musicians Who Died Far Too Young,” September 14, 2014.
