Nearly 18 years after hip hop legend Jam Master Jay of Run D.M.C, was gunned down in his Queens recording studio, NYPD police announced this week that the men responsible for the murder had been caught. A relief to both family and fans, the murder’s solving closed the file on one of the longest mysteries of the music world. While this book might be closed, however, the worlds of pop and rock are beset by other unsolved killings and disappearance that have baffled families, fans, and authorities for decades. We take a look into several of the most notorious and bizarre unsolved cases in music history.
The Mysterious Death of Bobby Fuller
Just months after Bobby Fully made it big with “I Fought the Law,” his body was found inside of his mother’s car parked outside of his Hollywood apartment. All morning, both Fuller and the car had been missing. It then reappeared mysteriously with Fuller’s body inside. Authorities officially declared his death as suicide, but for many the pieces don’t add up.
Fuller’s death was, according to official documents, caused by gasoline asphyxiation, though his mother also reported smelling blood in the car. Though declared a suicide, some authorities questioned whether it was accidental or intentional. Then there’s the fact that initial time of death was declared as being several hours before the body was found. Here’s where it gets weird.
Worried both about her son and her car, Fuller’s mother had been relentlessly checking the apartment parking lot all day. She stated that she’d checked 30 minutes prior to finding his body and noted the car wasn’t there. Half an hour later, she checked again and there it was. If the time of death is accurate, Fuller could not have driven the car.
Suicide? Mysterious accident? Murder? Question continue to swirl around Fuller’s death almost 60 years and was even featured on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. While those who knew him contend that we would have never killed himself, it’s likely this mystery will never be solved.
The Strange Disappearance of Jim Sullivan
Jim Sullivan’s debut album, UFO, was far from a hit upon its release in 1969. While today it’s remembered as something of a cult classic, the album’s reconsideration didn’t begin for over half a decade after its release. Mostly, this is due to Sullivan’s bizarre disappearance.
On March 4, 1975, Sullivan left his home in Los Angeles for a cross country drive to Nashville. The next day, after a brief run-in with the highway patrol, Sullivan checked into a motel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. After that, things get a little hazy. What we do know is that Sullivan’s VW Bug was found 26 miles away at a remote ranch. Witnesses reported seeing him walk away from his car into the surrounding desert. Authorities found his money, his guitar, and a box of records, suggesting that there was no robbery. All we know is that after walking away from his car, Sullivan was never heard from again.
Was Sullivan murdered? Did he simply get lost and succumb to the harsh desert elements? Some fans, working on the supernatural themes of UFO, have even suggested alien abduction. All we do know is that neither Sullivan nor his body was ever found.
The Vicious Love of Nancy Spungen
It’s common knowledge that Nancy Spungen was stabbed to death by her violent, drug-addicted boyfriend, Sid Vicious, the bass player for the Sex Pistols. Everyone knows that. Right?
As it turns out, the best anyone can actually about it is that he probably did. Police certainly arrested him for the murder, and although he died from a heroin overdose before he could go to trial, it seemed as though that was that. But what if it wasn’t?
Sure, all the hallmarks were there. Spungen was constantly physically and emotionally abused by Vicious, who was known for getting blackout drunk and high on heroin pretty much every day of his life. Normally, that’s pretty open and shut. But for years following the deaths of Sid and Nancy, the mystery deepened.
In his book, Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, author Phil Strongman pointed the finger at actor, comedian, drug dealer, and staple of the late-70s/early-80s punk and porn scenes Rockets Redglare. According to this theory, Redglare delivered drugs to the couple the night before the murder. While Redglare always publicly denied the theory, several of his friends have stated that he used to confess to the murder in social situations. Most people wrote this off as a joke, but maybe it wasn’t. It would also account for why money, drugs, and personal objects were missing from the hotel room where Spungen lived her final moments.
For his part, Redglare speculated that another drug deal he saw in the lobby of the Chelsea was probably the murderer, not himself or Sid. Were the cops right about Sid or did something else happen that night? We’ll probably never know.
Richey Edwards: Missing Street Preacher
Richey Edwards was well on his way to international superstardom with Manic Street Preachers on February 1, 1995. That day, he was meant to join bandmate James Dean Bradfield on a promotional tour of America for their latest album, The Holy Bible. Edwards never made the flight, but the ensuing mystery is one for the ages.
In the two weeks leading up to his disappearance, Edwards withdrew £200 a day for two weeks from his account.
After that? Things get murkier than London fog.
The night before his disappearance he gave the novel, Novel With Cocaine to a friend and instructed her to read the introduction. That introduction details the author’s stint in an asylum prior to disappearance. He then checked into a London hotel for the night. When checked out the next morning it was discovered that he left most of his packed belongings, his Prozac, and an intricately wrapped box of books addressed to his on-again, off-again girlfriend with a note simply saying, “I love you.”
Edwards then drove to his apartment in Cardiff, and that’s the last anyone can be certain. A cab driver later claimed to have driven Edwards to various train stations, and there have been numerous sightings of the guitarist over the years, but nothing conclusive has ever been found. Last year, a book by Sara Hawys Roberts and Leon Noakes, Withdrawn Traces, purported to show that Edwards staged his disappearance and secretly absconded away to Israel. As it stands, however, his family had him declared legally dead in 2008, 13 years following his bizarre disappearance.
Who Shot Ya: The Murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. were the biggest rappers in the world in 1996, when Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas following a Mike Tyson fight. Just a few months later, in March of 1997, Biggie was similarly killed in Los Angeles. Speculation has swirled in the quarter-century since.
To understand this, you have to understand their history. As the biggest rappers in the world, with Pac based in LA and Biggie based in New York, they were held up as avatars for their respective cities. As such, a rivalry between them grew to heights previously unheard of. Each released songs with lyrics viciously attacking the other, to the point where all-out war seemed set to break out between the East Coast and West Coast hip hop scenes.
It was amidst that climate that Tupac Shakur was murdered on September 7, 1996. Many immediately pointed the finger at Biggie or people in his orbit. Rumors of a planned hit quickly swirled, though Biggie denied it. On March 9, 1997, Biggie himself was murdered. Once again, the rumors mounted. It was a retaliation hit, so they said. Revenge for the murder of the West Coast’s biggest rapper.
Nearly 24 years after Shakur’s death and 23 years after Biggie’s neither case has ever been solved. Sure, every few years someone purports to have new evidence—everyone from the Nation of Islam, to the Crips, to rogue members of the LAPD have been blamed for Shakur’s murder—that definitively answers the question, but as of yet nothing has ever come from the accusations and no arrests have ever been made.
