Sam Cooke
Naked except for one shoe and a coat, Sam Cooke’s last moments were profoundly undignified for a man of his immense talent. “Lady, you shot me,” were his final words, muttered as he fell from a bullet fired by a middle-aged motel manager, Bertha Franklin, at LA’s Hacienda Motel on December 11 1964. The death was ruled justifiable homicide after Cooke, angered by the sudden disappearance of his date, grappled with the manager in her office. But some questioned the official story. The woman who Cooke brought to the hotel that evening was later convicted of a second-degree murder in a separate case, while another motel resident had reported seeing a prowler. Cooke’s body was said to be badly beaten, leading some to speculate he was murdered because of his growing power and outspoken support of civil rights.
Joe Meek
Paranoid genius Meek was known for his innovative production techniques and wild mood swings, caused in part by self-medication for a mental health condition that could cause psychosis, depression and paranoia. He had a volatile relationship with his landlady at his home studio on Holloway Road, arguing about rent and the noise coming from the studio. On February 3 1967, this spilled into violence with Meek shooting Violet Shenton and then killing himself.
Meredith Hunter
When the Rolling Stonesaskedthe Hell’s Angels toprovidesecurity for theirDecember 6 1969concert at AltamontSpeedway in California, they were asking for trouble. The combustible combination of sun, acid, alcohol, loud music, hippies and hairy bikersled tomuchviolence, culminating in the death of Meredith Hunter,a black man fatally stabbed by biker Alan Passaro.Both menwere carrying weapons and they bothhadhistory: Hunter, convictions for burglary anddrugs; Passaro,car theft and handling stolen goods, among others.The out-of-control Angels had already beaten members of the audience, road crew and even Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane when theysaw Hunter climb onto a speaker to get a better viewof the Stones. Hunter, worried about racist violence inrural areas,had brought a gun, which he now pulled.Passaro reached for his knife.Hunter’s death provides a shocking moment inthe Maysles’ concert filmGimme Shelter,which captures the fight and then pulls back to show the shocked reaction of the Stones as they watch the footage.Passaro went to court for the murder, and was found not guilty.
Binky McKenzie
Andy Fraser of Free described British-Guyana bassist Binky McKenzie as “the Jimi Hendrix of bass”. He played with Alexis Korner and others, but spent time in prison for possession in 1968 after his parents, worried about his drug use, called the police. In July 1971, something snapped – Binky stabbed his parents and brother-in-law to death. His sister, Candy, later a backing singer with Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen and Diana Ross, survived the attack. Binky was subdued with CS gas and captured. He remains in Broadmoor.
Gram Parsons
Not so much a whodunnit as a WTF? Gram Parsons died of an overdose at the Joshua Tree Motel in 1973, but as the body was being transported to New Orleans for the funeral, it was kidnapped by Parson’s road manager, Phil Kaufman and assistant Michael Martin. The pair were determined to cremate Gram’s body in his beloved Joshua Tree National Park, and impersonating mortuary workers took possession of the casket, even persuading a policeman to help them load it into the hearse. They weren’t exactly subtle – Kaufman signed the release form Jeremy Nobody and Martin was so drunk he drove straight into the wall of the airport hangar, but somehow they got away with it, taking the body to the park and setting it alight with five gallons of petrol. Eventually caught, they were given suspended jail sentences and fined $300, plus $708 for funeral expenses. Gram’s remains were eventually buried in New Orleans as planned.
Sid and Nancy
One of the more squalid true crimes in the rock and roll canon. On October 12 1978, Nancy Spungen was stabbed to death in the bathroom of Room 100 at the Chelsea Motel in New York, with many immediately assuming her boyfriend Sid Vicious was the culprit. Vicious himself couldn’t remember what happened and then died of a heroin overdose four months later, allowing the police to close the case. Some thought that Nancy’s death was a drug deal gone wrong, fingering Vicious’s occasional bodyguard Rockets Redglare, who delivered drugs to the couple that evening, and was said to have confessed to the murder after the event.
John Lennon’s assassination
The murder of John Lennon by Mark Chapman outside the Dakota in New York in December 8 1980 should be one of the more cut-and-dried cases given there are witnesses and a confession. Author David Whelan, though, begs to differ, identifying perceived anomalies that, in a JFK-like twist, he believes provide evidence of a “second shooter” and then piecing together a case that suggests Chapman was brainwashed, perhaps by the CIA, not unlike the theories around the assassination of RFK by Sirhan Sirhan. His case is remarkably unconvincing.
Jim Gordon
A brilliant studio drummer for The Byrds, Everly Brothers and Beach Boys, Gordon later joined Eric Clapton in Derek & The Dominos, playing on both All Things Must Pass and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. He was even credited with writing the piano part on “Layla”, although this was said to have been lifted from his ex-girlfriend Rita Coolidge. Gordon’s drum break on the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache” is one of the foundational samples from hip-hop. Gordon, though, was troubled by outbreaks of violence caused by undiagnosed schizophrenia and in 1983 he murdered his mother. He died in psychiatric prison in 2023.
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye was killed in April 1984 by his own father, with whom he had a volatile relationship. He was shot twice in his family home by a gun that Marvin had bought himself, a Christmas present for his father, Marvin Gay Sr, to protect the house from intruders. Marvin’s sister alleged that a suicidal Gaye had deliberately provoked his father, knowing he would snap; he was eventually given a six-year suspended sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
Jaco Pastorius
Pastorius, who played with Joni Mitchell and Weather Report, was the master of the fretless bass but suffered from bipolar disorder, self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. His death was not a mystery, but it was ineffably sad. Pretty much homeless, he got into a fight at a club in Florida in September 1987 and was beaten into a coma by the club owner, dying ten days after the assault. The perpetrator spent just four months in prison.
Tupac Shakur & The NotoriousB.I.G.
The murders, six months apart, of rival rappers Shakur and B.I.G. both in drive-by shootings, have never been solved, although that could change depending on the outcome of the current case in Las Vegas against Crips gang member Duane Davis, who admitted driving the car containing the man who shot Tupac in a memoir in 2019. Davis has also claimed he was offered $1m by Sean “Diddy” Combs to kill Shakur, while others have alleged Biggie was shot in revenge at the orders of Suge Knight. Nick Broomfield’s documentary, Biggie & Tupac, is worth a watch.
Count Grishnackh and Euronymous
There has been nothing like the 90s Norwegian black metal scene before or since, an escalating parade of outrage, suicide, church arsons and eventually murder, centred around Varg “Count Grishnackh”Vikernes – who recorded as Burzum – and Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, founder of the band Mayhem. Euronymous also ran a record label and shop, and the pair presented themselves in interviews as “Satanic terrorists”. Quite what prompted their fatal altercation isn’t clear and Vikernes argued self-defence, but it ended with Euronymous dying from 23 stab wounds and Vikernes spending 21 years in prison for murder and arson.