New Theme: Dead Before Their Time/ RIP Theme
This month's theme is "RIP Theme./ Dead before their time", based on people who all have died under fifty, the majority under forty or thirty.
To explain the rules of RIP Theme:
1. Votes are based both on personality, music and how the music legend died as much as anything. So, for example, someone can be voted Karen Carpenter as their regular stamp, but can be voted as someone else completely based on what sort of music career they describe themselves in taking a part in and how they'd wish to die.
I tried to provide as much information as I could on each person's death, given that we have over forty options. Slightly morbid theme, I know, but I thought it was a neat idea XD
The application will be posted seperately, considering the entry needs to be posted in two parts.
Bon Scott of AC/DC: Lead Singer: Died at 33:
Alcohol overdose. He passed out after a night of heavy drinking in a London club. He was left to sleep in a Renault 5 owned by an acquaintance named Alistair Kinnear in South London. The following afternoon, Kinnear found Scott lifeless, and alerted the authorities. Scott was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Pulmonary aspiration of vomit was the cause of Scott's death, and the official cause was listed as "acute alcohol poisoning" and "death by misadventure".
Kurt Cobain: Singer/Guitarist of "Nirvana": Died at 27:
Suicide. Death by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Cobain's body was discovered at his Lake Washington home by an electrician who had arrived to install a security system. Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, the electrician reported seeing no visible signs of trauma, and initially believed that Cobain was asleep until he saw the shotgun pointing at his chin. A suicide note was found, addressed to Cobain's childhood imaginary friend "Boddah", that said, paraphrasing, "I haven't felt the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really writing . . . for too many years now". A high concentration of heroin and traces of Valium were also found in his body.
Billie Holiday: Singer: Died at 44:
Results of heroin- and alcohol addiction. Holiday was taken to a hospital in New York suffering from liver and heart disease. Police officers were stationed at the door to her room. She was arrested for drug possession as she lay dying, and her hospital room was raided by authorities. Holiday remained under police guard at the hospital until she died from cirrhosis of the liver. In the final years of her life, she had been progressively swindled out of her earnings, and she died with $0.70 in the bank and $750 (a tabloid fee) on her person.
Bob Marley: Singer: Died at 36:
Melanoma. In July 1977, Marley was found to have acral lentiginous melanoma, a form of malignant melanoma. Despite his illness, he wished to continue touring and was in the process of scheduling a world tour in 1980. The intention was for Inner Circle to be his opening act on the tour but after their lead singer Jacob Miller died in Jamaica in March 1980 after returning from a scouting mission in South America this was no longer mentioned. The album Uprising was released in May 1980 and the band completed a major tour of Europe, where they played their biggest concert, to a hundred thousand people in Milan. After the tour Marley went to America, where he performed two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of the Uprising Tour. Shortly afterwards, his health deteriorated and he became very ill; the cancer had spread throughout his body. The rest of the tour was canceled and Marley sought treatment at the Bavarian clinic, where he received a controversial type of cancer therapy partly based on avoidance of certain foods, drinks, and other substances. After fighting the cancer without success for eight months, he boarded a plane for his home in Jamaica. While flying home from Germany to Jamaica, accepting that he was going to die, Marley's vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, he was taken to hospital for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life".
Brian Jones: Original member of "The Rolling Stones": Died at 27:
Death by misadventure in his swimmingpool, while his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse. Jones was living at Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, the residence formerly owned by Winnie-the-Pooh author A. A. Milne. Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool. His Swedish girlfriend was convinced he was alive when they took him out, insisting he still had a pulse. However, by the time the doctors arrived, it was too late, and he was pronounced dead. In 2009 the Sussex Police had decided to review Brian Jones' death for the first time since 1969, after new evidence was handed to them by Scott Jones, an investigative journalist. Scott Jones has traced many of the people who were at Brian Jones' house the night he died, plus unseen police files held at the National Archives. He said a builder who had been renovating the house, Frank Thorogood, killed Brian Jones in a fight and the senior police officers covered up the true cause of death.
Buddy Holly: Musician: Died at 21:
Plane crash. Together with Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper, he flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane which flew into a blinding snowstorm and crashed shortly after takeoff. This is known as "The Day The Music Died".
Duane Allman of the "Allman Brothers Band": Died at 24:
Motorcycle accident. Allman was riding his motorcycle toward an oncoming truck that was turning well in front of him. The truck suddenly stopped in mid-intersection. Allman lost control of his Harley-Davidson motorcycle while trying to swing left, possibly striking the back of the truck or its crane ball. He was thrown from his motorcycle, which landed on him and skidded with him under it, crushing his internal organs.
Eddie Cochran: 1950s Guitarist and Musician: Died at 21:
Road accident in a taxi in United Kingdom. The taxi crashed into a lamp post. Cochran was thrown through the windscreen, and was taken to the hospital, where he died the following day of severe head injuries.
Edith Piaf: Singer: Died at 46:
She died of liver cancer at Plascassier, on the French Riviera. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness for several months. It is said that Sarapo drove her body back to Paris secretly so that fans would think she had died in her hometown. She is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris next to her daughter, where her grave is among the most visited. Although she was denied a funeral mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris because of her lifestyle, her funeral procession drew tens of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the ceremony at the cemetery was attended by more than 100,000 fans. Fans recalled that Piaf's funeral procession was the only time since the end of World War II that he saw Parisian traffic come to a complete stop.
Elvis Presley: Singer: Died at 42:
Cardiac arrhythmia. In 1977 he was hugely overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopoeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts. In Louisiana, the singer was on stage for less than an hour and was impossible to understand. He failed to appear in Baton Rouge: he was unable to get out of his hotel bed, and the rest of the tour was cancelled. Despite the accelerating deterioration of his health, he stuck to most touring commitments. In South Dakota, he was so nervous on stage that he could hardly talk, and unable to perform any significant movement. The fans were becoming increasingly voluble about their disappointment, but it all seemed to go right past. His world was now confined almost entirely to his room and his spiritualism books. A cousin, recalled how Presley would sit in his room and chat for hours, sometimes recounting favorite Monty Python sketches and his own past escapades, but more often gripped by paranoid obsessions. When he was scheduled to fly out of Memphis, to begin another tour, ih that afternoon he was discovered unresponsive on his bathroom floor. Attempts to revive him failed, and death was officially pronounced . Autopsy founds in his system "significant" levels of ethinamate, methaqualone, codeine and different barbiturates, including amobarbital, pentobarbital, and phenobarbital.
Eric Carr of "Kiss: Died at 40:
He was diagnosed with an unexpectedly serious and extremely rare type of cancer - heart cancer.
Freddie Mercury: Lead singer of "Queen: Died at 45:
Bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. Mercury was an acknowledged bisexual. While some critics claimed he hid his sexual orientation from the public, others claimed he was "openly gay". According to his partner, Mercury was already diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. Mercury denied the rumours for the press by saying he was tested HIV negative. In 1991 Mercury held a public statement by confirming he had AIDS. Only one day later he died of the disease.
Glenn Miller of the "Glenn Miller Band": Orchestra leader: Died at 40:
Disappeared. On December 15, 1944, Miller was to fly from the United Kingdom to Paris, France, to play for the soldiers there. His plane departed from Bedfordshire and disappeared while flying over the English Channel. No trace of the aircrew, passengers or plane has ever been found. Miller's status is missing in action. There are a few theories about what happened to Miller's plane, including the suggestion that he might have been hit by Royal Air Force bombs after an abortive raid on Germany. One hundred and thirty-eight Lancaster bombers, short on fuel, jettisoned approximately 100,000 incendiaries in a designated area before landing. The logbooks a Royal Air Force navigator recorded that he saw a small, single-engined monoplane spiraling out of control and crashing into the water. However, a second source, while acknowledging the possibility, cites other RAF crew members flying the same mission who stated that the drop area was in the North Sea. In a book by a former member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's personal staff, argues that the U.S. government covered up Miller's death. This suggested that Miller, who spoke German, had been enlisted by Eisenhower to covertly attempt to convince some German officers to end the war early. The book goes on to suggest that Miller was captured and killed in a Paris brothel, and his death covered up to save the government embarrassment.
Ian Curtis: Singer of Joy Division: Died at 21:
Suicide. Hanging. After a depression maybe caused by heavily epileptic seizures, just one day before going on a American tour, he hanged himself in the kitchen of his house.
Janis Joplin: Singer: Died at 27:
Heroin overdose. The official cause of death was an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol. Presumably Joplin had accidentally been given heroin which was much more potent than normal, as several of her dealer's other customers also overdosed that week. Her last recording was a birthday greeting for John Lennon. Her taped greeting arrived at Lennon's home after her death.
Jeff Buckley: Singer/Songwriter: Died at 30:
Drowned. On the same evening Buckley's band flew to Memphis intending to join him in his studio there to work on the newly-written material, Buckley went swimming in Wolf River Harbor, a slackwater channel of the Mississippi River, while wearing boots, all of his clothing, and singing the chorus of the song "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin. Buckley had gone swimming there several times before. A roadie in Buckley's band, Keith Foti, remained on shore. After moving a radio and guitar out of reach of the wake from a passing tugboat, Foti looked up to see that Buckley had vanished. Despite a determined rescue effort that night, Buckley remained missing. Five days later his body was spotted by a tourist on a riverboat and was brought to land.
Jimi Hendrix: Guitarist: Died at 27:
Respiratory arrest caused by alcohol and barbiturate overdose and vomit inhalation. Jimi Hendrix died in London. He had spent the latter part of the evening at a party and was picked up by girlfriend Monika Dannemann and driven to her flat at the Samarkand Hotel, Notting Hill. Dannemann claimed in her original testimony that after they returned to her lodgings the evening before, Hendrix, unknown to her, had taken nine of her prescribed Vesperax sleeping pills. The normal medical dose was half a tablet, but Hendrix was unfamiliar with this very strong German brand. According to the doctor who initially attended to him, Hendrix had asphyxiated in his own vomit, mainly red wine which had filled his airways, as the autopsy was to show.
Jim Morrison: Lead singer of "The Doors": Died at 27:
Official cause of death is recorded as heart failure. He was found in a Paris apartment bathtub. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death. His girlfriend Pamela Courson stated that Morrison had died of a heroin overdose, having inhaled what he believed to be cocaine. The second manager from The Doors Danny Sugerman added that Courson had given numerous contradictory versions of Morrison's death, at times saying that she had killed Morrison, or that his death was her fault. Courson's story of Morrison's unintentional ingestion of heroin, followed by accidental overdose, is supported by the confession of Alain Ronay, who has written that Morrison died of a hemorrhage after snorting Courson's heroin, and that Courson nodded off, leaving Morrison bleeding to death instead of phoning for medical help.
John Bonham of "Led Zeppelin": Died at 32:
Alcohol overdose. Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for an upcoming tour of the U.S.; the band's first since 1977. During the journey, Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he drank four quadruple vodkas (sixteen shots, amounting to about 480 ml). He then continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the rehearsals. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Jimmy Page's house. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. John Paul Jones found him dead the next afternoon. Weeks later at the coroner's inquest, it emerged that in the 24 hours before he died, John Bonham had consumed forty shots of vodka which resulted in him vomiting and subsequent aspiration (inhaling) of his vomit, causing asphyxiation. A verdict of accidental death was returned at an inquest held. An autopsy had found no other drugs in Bonham's body.
John Lennon of "The Beatles" Died at 40:
Murdered. When Lennon and Yoko Ono returned to the Dakota, the New York apartment building where they lived, when Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of the nearby hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Johnny Thunders of "The New York Dolls": Died at 39:
Conflicting sources report heroin overdose or methadone and cocaine poisoning or that the autopsy did not disclose a cause of death. He apparently died of drug-related causes, but it has been speculated that it was the result of foul play. Dee Dee Ramone took a call in New York the next day from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player. "They told me 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. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away from those creeps - the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that." What is known for certain is that Johnny's room was ransacked and most of his possessions were missing (passport, makeup, clothes). Rigor mortis had set in with his body positioned in an unnatural state, described by eyewitnesses as "like a pretzel", underneath a coffee table. Friends and acquaintances acknowledge he had not been using heroin for some time, relying on his methadone prescriptions. The police did not open a criminal investigation.
Judy Garland: Singer: Died at 47:
An incautious self-overdosage of barbiturates. Garland was found dead by her husband, Mickey Deans, in the bathroom of their rented Chelsea, London house. The coroner, stated at the inquest that the cause of death was "an incautious self-overdosage" of barbiturates; her blood contained the equivalent of ten 1.5-grain (97 mg) Seconal capsules. He also stressed that the overdose had been unintentional and that there was no evidence to suggest she had committed suicide. Garland's autopsy showed that there was no inflammation of her stomach lining and no drug residue in her stomach, which indicated that the drug had been ingested over a long period of time, rather than in one dose. Her death certificate stated that her death had been "accidental."
Karen Carpenter: Singer/ Member of "The Carpenters": Died at 32:
Complications from anorexia nervosa. The autopsy stated that Karen's death was the result of emetine cardiotoxicity due to anorexia nervosa. Under the anatomical summary, the first item was heart failure, with anorexia as second. The third finding was cachexia, which is extremely low weight and weakness and general body decline associated with chronic disease. Emetine cardiotoxicity implies that Karen abused ipecac syrup, an easily obtained emetic medicine that is only meant to be taken by persons who have accidentally swallowed poison.
Keith Moon of "The Who: Drummer, died at 32:
Overdose on anti-seizure medication prescribed for alcoholism. After dining with Paul McCartney, Moon and his girlfriend, returned to a flat on loan from Harry Neilson. Shepherd Market, Mayfair in which Cass Elliot had died four years earlier. Moon then took 32 tablets of Clomethiazole (Heminevrin). The medication was a sedative he had been prescribed to alleviate his alcohol withdrawal symptoms as he tried to go dry on his own at home; he was desperate to get clean, but was terrified of another stay in the psychiatric hospital for in-patient detoxification. However, Clomethiazole is specifically contraindicated for unsupervised home detox because of its addictiveness, tendency to rapidly induce drug tolerance and dangerously high risk of death when mixed with alcohol. The pills were also prescribed by a new doctor, who was unaware of Moon's recklessly impulsive nature and long history of prescription sedative abuse. He had given Moon a full bottle of 100 pills, and instructed him to take one whenever he felt a craving for alcohol (but not more than 3 per day). The police determined there were 32 pills in his system, with the digestion of 6 being sufficient to cause his death, and the other 26 of which were still undissolved when he died.
Keith Relf: Lead singer of the Yardbirds: Died at 32:
Electrocution. He died from electrocution, at his home while playing his improperly grounded electric guitar.
Cass Elliott of "The Mamas and the Papas": Died at 32:
Heart attack. At the height of her solo career in 1974, Elliot performed two weeks of sold-out concerts at the London Palladium. She telephoned Michelle Philips after the final concert, utterly elated that she had received standing ovations each night. She then retired for the evening, and died in her sleep. Sources state her death was due to a heart attack. Elliot died in a London flat, which was on loan from singer/songwriter Harry Nielson. Four years later, The Who's drummer Keith Moon died in the same flat. Despite the cause of death being a heart attack, an oft repeated urban myth states that Elliot died choking on a ham sandwich. The story, which started following the discovery of her body, was based on speculation in the initial media coverage. Police had told reporters that a partly eaten sandwich found in her room might have been to blame even though an autopsy had not been conducted. Despite the post-mortem examination finding that Elliot had in fact died of a heart attack and no food was found in her windpipe, the story that she had choked has persisted in the years following her death.
Marc Bolan: Lead singer of "T-Rex": Died at 29:
Road accident. He was a passenger in a purple Mini 1275GT driven by his girlfriend Gloria Jones as they headed home from a drinking club and restaurant in Berkeley Square. Jones lost control of the car and it struck a sycamore tree after failing to negotiate a small humpback bridge near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride, southwest London. Bolan died instantly, while Jones suffered a broken arm and broken jaw and spent time in hospital.
Marvin Gaye: Singer: Died at 45:
Murdered. After a tour, he isolated himself by moving into his parents' house. He threatened to commit suicide several times after bitter arguments with his father. Gaye's father fatally shot him after an argument that started after his parents squabbled over misplaced business documents. Gaye attempted to intervene, and was killed by his father using a gun that Marvin Jr. had given him four months before. Marvin Sr. was sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Charges of first-degree murder were dropped after it was revealed that Marvin Sr. had been beaten by Gaye before the killing. Doctors discovered Marvin Sr. had a brain tumor but was deemed fit for trial.
Nat King Cole: Singer: Died at 46:
Lung cancer. Cole was a heavy smoker of Kool menthol cigarettes, believing that smoking up to three packs a day gave his voice the rich sound it had (Cole would smoke several cigarettes in rapid succession before a recording for this very purpose). The many years of smoking caught up with him, resulting in his death from lung cancer.
Nico: Singer: Died at 49:
Heart attack. Nico was a heroin-addict. While on holiday with her son in Ibiza, Spain, Nico had a minor heart attack while riding a bicycle and hit her head as she fell. A passing taxi driver found her unconscious and had difficulty getting her admitted to local hospitals. She was incorrectly diagnosed as suffering from heat-exposure and died at eight o'clock that evening. X-rays later revealed a severe cerebral hemorrhage as the cause of death.
Patsy Cline: Singer: Died at 30:
Plane crash. The plane flew into severe weather, however, and according to Cline's wristwatch, crashed in a forest outside of Camden, Tennessee, 90 miles from the destination. There were no survivors. Throughout the night, reports of the missing plane flooded the radio airwaves.
Ritchie Valens: Died at 17: Musician and guitarist best known for "La Bamba":
Plane crash. After a winning cointoss and despite of his fear to fly, together with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, he flew out of the Mason City airport in a small plane that Holly had chartered. The plane flew into a blinding snowstorm and crashed shortly after takeoff. This is known as "The Day The Music Died".
Rory Storm: Lead Singer: Died at 33:
Suicide. When Storm's father died, he returned to Liverpool to be with his mother. Storm developed a chest infection and could not sleep properly, so he took sleeping pills. On one evening, Storm and his mother were both found dead. The post mortem revealed that Storm had alcohol and sleeping pills in his blood (as had his mother) but not enough to cause his death, which was ruled accidental, although it could not be proven that his mother had committed suicide after finding Storm's body.
Sam Cooke: Singer: Died at 33:
Murdered. The details of the case involving Cooke's death are still in dispute. The official police record states that Cooke was shot dead by Bertha Franklin, manager of the Hacienda Motel, where Cooke had checked in earlier that evening. Franklin claimed that Cooke had broken into the manager's office-apartment in a rage, wearing nothing but a shoe and a sports coat demanding to know the whereabouts of a woman who had accompanied him to the hotel. Franklin said that the woman was not in the office and that she told Cooke this, but the enraged Cooke did not believe her and violently grabbed her, demanding again to know the woman's whereabouts. According to Franklin, she grappled with Cooke, the two of them fell to the floor, and she then got up and ran to retrieve her gun. She said that she then fired at Cooke in self-defense, because she feared for her life. Cooke was struck once in the torso, and according to Franklin, he exclaimed, "Lady, you shot me," before mounting a last charge at her. She said that she beat him over his head with a broomstick before he finally fell, mortally wounded by the gunshot. According to Franklin and the motel's owner, Evelyn Carr, they had been on the telephone together at the time of the incident. Thus, Carr claimed to have overheard Cooke's intrusion and the ensuing conflict and gunshots. Carr called the police to request that they go to the motel, informing them that she believed a shooting had occurred. A coroner's inquest was convened to investigate the incident. The woman who had accompanied Cooke to the motel was identified as Elisa Boyer, who had also called the police that night shortly before Carr. Boyer had called the police from a telephone booth near the motel, telling them she had just escaped being kidnapped. Later that year Boyer was arrested for prostitution. This invited speculation that Boyer may have gone willingly to the motel with Cooke, then slipped out of the room with Cooke's clothing in order to rob him, rather than to escape an attempted kidnapping.
Selena: Singer of mostly Latin music, died at 21:
Murdered by the president of her fan club. After she told Yolanda Saldívar that she could not be trusted anymore with money and fired her, Saldívar drew a gun from her purse, pointing it at Selena. As the singer turned and left the room, Saldívar shot her once in her right shoulder, severing an artery. Critically wounded, Selena ran towards the lobby to get help. She collapsed on the floor as the clerk called 911, with Saldívar chasing her, calling her a "bitch". Before collapsing to the floor, Selena named Saldívar as her assailant.
Sid Vicious: Guitarist for "The Sex Pistols": Died at 21:
Suicide. After he was arrested and charged with the murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, he had a small gathering to celebrate his detoxed from heroin a few months later. His mother delivered some heroin again. He overdosed himself too much of the nearly 100%-pure heroin to shoot up the third dose himself.
Steve Clark of "Def Lepperd": Died at 30:
Drug overdose. Clark was found dead on his settee by his girlfriend. The autopsy revealed he had died from an overdose of codeine and had Valium, morphine and a blood alcohol level of .30, three times the British legal driving limit. There was no evidence of suicidal intent. Clark's drinking companion the night before, testified that the two went to the local pub and returned to the guitarist's home at midnight to watch a video.
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Guitarist: Died at 33:
Plane crash. In 1990 he was at a sold out concert in Wisconsin, featured an encore jam with Vaughan and Eric Clapton. The day after, a helicopter carrying Vaughan en route to Chicago crashed within seconds after takeoff caused by impact with hillside during fog/inclument weather. There were no survivors.
Steve Gaines: Member of Lynyrd Skynyrd: Died at 28:
Plane crash. Aircraft stalled due to fuel exhaustion during emergency landing attempt. Three days after a new album was released (and four dates into the band's most successful tour yet), a plane carrying the band between shows from South Carolina to Louisiana, crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Steve Gaines was killed on impact. The crash also killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve's sister, the assistant road manager, as well as the pilot and the co-pilot.
Stu Sutcliffe: Artist/ Painter/ Original member of The Beatles: Died at 21:
Aneurysm, after bleeding in the right ventricle of his brain. Also known as the fifth Beatle, he began experiencing severe headaches and acute sensitivity to light and stated that some of the headaches left him temporarily blind. Doctors told that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. After collapsing again he was taken to hospital, but he died before the ambulance reached the hospital.
Terry Kath of "Chicago":
Russian roulette. Kath reportedly had a history of using alcohol and other drugs, including cocaine. He struggled with weight problems, and by 1976 he was quite overweight. Chicago bandmates have indicated that he was also increasingly unhappy. Bassist Peter Carara even went so far as to say that Kath would have been the first to quit Chicago had he lived; and according to then-producer, Kath was working on a solo album before he died. Despite his personal problems, this was not the cause of his accidental death. After a party at roadie/band technician Don Johnson's home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, Kath took an unloaded .38 revolver and put it to his head, pulling the trigger several times on the empty chambers. Johnson had warned Kath several times to be careful. Kath then picked up a semiautomatic 9 mm pistol and, leaning back in a chair, said to both his wife and Johnson, "Don't worry, it's not loaded". After showing the empty magazine to Johnson, Kath replaced the magazine in the gun, put the gun to his temple, and pulled the trigger. There was a bullet in the chamber, and he died instantly.