Death by Rock ‘n’ Roll

Crimescape #2

by David J. Krajicek, Marilyn J. Bardsley (Editor)

Marvin Gaye, one of the world’s most beloved singers, was gunned down by his own father on April 1, 1984. A generation later, fans of the fragile, troubled musician still puzzle over how it could be that a man who crooned about peace, love and understanding would meet such a violent end—from his own flesh and blood. But why should we be surprised? The history of popular music is written in blood.

Using Marvin Gaye’s slaying as an abject example of the rock and roll lifestyle, this story pulls together the threads of the violent ends of music stars like John Lennon, Sam Cooke, Tupac Shakur, soul saxophone legend King Curtis, and many others. Between the overdoses and suicides of its often fragile stars, rock and roll seems to qualify as one of America’s most dangerous professions. Experts weigh in on whether there are patterns to the violence in rock and roll—and whether warning signs were missed in some cases that might have spared lives.

David J. Krajicek is a longtime newspaperman, an author and a former Columbia University journalism professor. He is regarded as one of the country’s best true crime storytellers. He writes The Justice Story, a weekly true crime feature that has been running in the New York Daily News since 1923. He was a special correspondent for truTV’s Crime Library and has appeared frequently on television as a crime expert, including on “The Today Show” and Dominick Dunne’s “Power, Privilege and Justice.” He has written several true crime books and his work has appeared in dozens of major publications.

Genres: Nonfiction

61 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 19, 2011

About the author

First things first: The name is pronounced CRY-check.

I'm a writer, mostly about crime and murder, although most recently I have published two family-related historical memoirs, "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha." Before retiring recently from the music business, I spent 30 years singing and playing trombone in a band based in the mountains of upstate New York--old-school R&B, like Motown and Stax. Nowadays, most of my spare time is consumed by tennis.

I come from South Omaha, Nebraska, although I now split time between New York and the Gulf Coast.

I studied at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Columbia University. I spent much of my early professional life as a newspaper crime reporter in the Midwest and New York City. I taught journalism at Columbia during most of the 1990s before being compelled to return full-time to my primary muse: writing. I'm back to writing about crime, though in longer form.

For 20 years, from 1999 until 2019, I wrote The Justice Story for the Sunday New York Daily News. It's the longest-running true crime feature in American journalism, published in the News since 1923. Before retiring, each of my 500 columns looked back at an interesting historical crime case--the sorts of stories you will know hear recounted on the countless true crime podcasts.

I have written stories about crime and criminal justice for many media venues, including The Crime Report, Alternet, The New York Times, Columbia and Boston magazines, Slate, The Village Voice, The Manchester (U.K.) Guardian and Mother Jones.

I've had a long side career as a crime expert on TV, appearing more than 25 times on episodes of true crime shows. I've also talked about crime cases on "The Today Show" and was proud to be a part of "The Poisoner's Handbook" on PBS's American Experience.

My books include the family memoirs "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha," both published by News Ink Books; "Charles Manson" and "Mass Killers," by Arcturus/Sirius Books of London, England; "Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Second Edition)"; "Death by Rock 'n' Roll," a Kindle ebook from Crimescape/​Rosetta Books; "True Crime: Missouri," a longtime regional bestseller published by Stackpole Books; "Murder, American Style" by News Ink Books, and "Scooped!", published by Columbia University Press.

I've dabbled in fiction, as well. My first published fiction, a short story called "Sutphin Blvd.," was included in an anthology by Midnight Mind Press in New York. Another of my short stories, "Bluefish," was performed at Literally Speaking, an Albany, N.Y., program similar to NPR's "Selected Shorts."

Thanks for your interest in my work. Without readers, there would be no writers.

Reviews

[Rosanne Swiatek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this short compilation 3 stars for the effort and research put into it. It tells a short story of many ( not all) musicians in the "rock" industry who have succumbed to early death either by suicide (accidental or intentional) or murder, especially those by so-called "fans". The book was well written but desperately needs a good editing. I can't believe that the author could have made the mistakes I found, given his writing skills. There were five or six sentences in this short book where words were repeated within the same sentence in the wrong places, resulting in sentences which sounded ridiculous as printed. It looks as though someone may have been editing with a cut and paste routine without reading what was left to see if it made sense. The first time I encountered this type of error, I wasn't too bothered. But after the second and third error of this type, I became impatient with it. After six or so occurrences, I could hardly finish the book. There is no excuse for this many glaring errors of this type in such a short book. It reflects poorly on the author when I believe it could have been editing or printing errors. Also, it did not cover some of the more notorious deaths such as Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson which would have made the book far more interesting and certainly longer. Many of the musicians mentioned were born in the 1930's or performed hit singles I do not remember (before my time).

I only read this book because it was the second in a series of nonfiction books in the Crimescape Series, detailing true accounts of notorious murders and/or serial killings. The first such book in this Crimescape collection was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The author of this book, Marilyn Bardsley, went on to found the Crimescape Series, in which there are 19 books, I believe. I had planned to read all 19 books in the Series in order. Now I have second thoughts. I may give one more book a try but I will probably stick to the ones with the best reviews. I also noted just now that most of the books in this series are short stories and not very widely read. This is a disappointment considering the first book in this series was not only a beefy book but a big-time movie with well known stars as well.

To be fair, this short book did require a great deal of research and was well written except for the above-mentioned errors. Also, because I borrowed this book from the Kindle Lending Library, I returned it before making note of the exact number of errors and giving examples of the offending sentences. It would have been obvious to anyone who read an example that the sentence made no sense as it stood. It also might have made correcting the errors easier, if the publisher cared to do so.

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a long or terribly in-depth book, but it does provide an interesting perspective. If I'd been the editor, I'd have encouraged the author to save some of the more notable names for the last chapter. The book deals with several lesser-known talents, and I felt this detracted from my overall interest level. I do get the gist, though: musical talent and fame are not immunity from violence. Sad on an emotional level - fuel for further study on a psycho-social level.