Episode 188: David "Stringbean" Akeman (Part 2 of 2)

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Hello, and welcome to the Cash
My Killer Podcast. Thank you for listening.

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My name is Mark. For nearly
eight years, I've written a weekly

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newspaper column about true crimes and missing
people for the Clairemont Sun newspaper in Ohio.

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With the column and podcast, it
has always been my objective to bring

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attention to those cases that have not
received much media attention, if any at

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all. This week's story involves the
homicide of David Stringbean Akeman and his wife

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is Still Stringbean was a country music
star from Kentucky who was a grand old

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opery legend from the time he was
a child. He had a love for

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the banjo and would become known for
his old fashioned banjo picking style of playing.

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He was one of the earliest cast
members of a family program called Keehaw.

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Unfortunately, string Bean's rising star would
be dimmed forever when two men viciously

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murdered him and his wife is Stell
on November tenth, nineteen seventy three.

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For string Being's story, I interviewed
author Taylor Heygood, who wrote a true

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crime book about string Being titled string
Being The Life and Murder of a Country

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music Legend. David Aikman affectionally known
as string Being, was born on June

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seventeenth, nineteen fifteen, to a
farm family in Annville, Kentucky. Based

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on twenty twenty census data, Annville
is a small town in Jackson County,

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Kentucky, with a population of just
over a thousand people. String Bean's love

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for music began at an early age. Before he was even eight years old,

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he built his first instrument of a
shoe box and some thread that he

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got from his mother. He most
likely developed his early love for music from

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his father, who was a successful
banjo player who often played throughout the community.

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So string Being grew up around musicians
his entire life, so it was

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probably no surprise to anyone who knew
him that he would also grow up to

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become a popular musician. By the
time he was twelve, he had enough

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money to buy his own banjo.
He then began playing at local dances and

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built a reputation as an excellent banjo
player. While working construction type jobs building

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roads and planning trees, he continued
playing his banjo with the goal of making

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it big in a music business.
String Bean's career officially took off after he

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entered a contest being judged by musician
Asa Martin. After impressing Martin, he

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soon joined Martin's band. During a
performance, Martin had forgotten David Aikman's name,

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so he just simply introduced Aikman as
string Beans. The nickname was given

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to him based on his tall,
lanky frame. Apparently, the name stuck

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and David Aikman would soon become known
as string Bean. I would also like

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to add something about this nickname.
It's also been said that Aikman was introduced

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as string Beans plural, so it's
actually debatable whether Martin called him string Being

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singular or string Beans plural. And
not only did string Being become known for

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his musical abilities, he also became
known for being a pretty funny guy.

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String Being became known as a comedian
musician. He also broadcast out of Wlap

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out of Lexington, Kentucky, and
played with different groups during the nineteen thirties.

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Oddly enough, old country music back
in the thirties really didn't include much

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banjo playing. However, string Being
was able to keep banjo playing relevant in

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country music when he played. In
addition to being a musician, string Being

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truly was a man of different talents. A lot of people may not realize

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it, but he was also a
decent se my pro baseball player. His

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baseball playing skills became known to musician
Bill Monroe, who had his own semi

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pro club. Monroe was so impressed
was string Bean that he added him to

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his band. String Bean would play
in Monroe's band from nineteen forty three until

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nineteen forty five. After string Bean
left Monroe in nineteen forty five, he

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was replaced by another popular banjo player
named Earl Scruggs, who played a different

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style of banjo than string Bean.
Stringbean also would go on to marry his

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sweetheart, a Stelle Standfill in nineteen
forty five. The following year, he

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would then begin working with another banjo
player named Lewis Marshall Jones, affectionally known

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as Grandpa Jones. The two men
would get together doing comedy in the television

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program Heehaw. Grandpa Jones was a
World War Two veteran and would become string

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beans closest friend, and the two
men would also become neighbors in Goodlettsville,

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Tennessee. During the late nineteen forties, string Being also formed a team with

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lu Chouldrey and became a regular performer
at the Grand Old Opry. During string

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Bean's Grand Old Opry days, he
began wearing his night shirt and pants that

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made him look like a tall man
with tiny legs. He pretty much looked

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like a human string Being playing at
banjo. It'smond said that string beans attire

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was inspired by a comedian named Slim
Miller. After World War Two, Uncle

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Dave Macon, another Grand Old Opry
legend, took string Being under his wing.

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He helped string Being develop his ability
to play songs and tell funny jokes.

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Before Macon died, he gave string
Being one of his prized banjo's.

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During the nineteen fifties, string Bean
became one of the Grand Old Operys biggest

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stars. Although he had made a
name for himself, he didn't sign with

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a record label until the nineteen sixties, when he signed with the Star Day

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label. He had hits with songs
Chewing Gum and I Wonder Where Wanda Went.

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He recorded seven albums between nineteen sixty
one. In nineteen seventy two,

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his first album was titled Old Time
Picking and Grinning was string Being, which

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was released in nineteen sixty one.
His music was considered folk stories with a

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taste of comedy. It's the time
String Being and his buddy Grandpa Jones became

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the two biggest old time banjo players
of their era. In nineteen sixty nine,

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a country style comedy would come to
television. The program would be called

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Heehaw and was on television from nineteen
sixty nine to nineteen ninety three. The

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program lasted for twenty six seasons and
recorded six hundred and fifty five episodes.

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Popular country musician who was Anybody appeared
on the show. String Being and Grandpa

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Jones would become a part of the
original cast. String Being became an instant

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hit with the fans. His tall, lanky body, goofy facial expressions,

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and lovable personality made him a fan
favorite. Coupled with Grandpa Jones, He

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Hall was an immediate success. Even
if you didn't like country music back in

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the day, you could still enjoy
watching Heehaw. I'm not a country music

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fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I absolutely loved watching Hehaw with

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my parents and grandparents when I was
a child. Unfortunately, String Being and

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his wife A Stell, would be
tragically murdered on November tenth, nineteen seventy

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three, after the couple had returned
home from a performance at the Grand Old

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Opry, they walked in on a
robbery by two men. String Being was

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shot the death in front of his
fireplace and his wife Astell, shot to

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death outside their home while trying to
flee the burglars. It would be Grandpa

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Jones who would find the bodies of
his beloved friends the next day. Grandpa

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Jones had plans the pick string Being
up the next day for a plan hunting

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trip. As Grandpa Jones headed over
to pick up string Bean, he became

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concerned because he knew that string Being
must start off every morning with a cup

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of coffee next to a lit fireplace. When Grandpa didn't see any smoke coming

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from string Bean's chimney, he knew
something was wrong. Grandpa Jones would learn

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the sad truth when he pulled up
to his friend's cabin at twenty three zero

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eight Baker Road near Ridge Top,
Tennessee. According to author Taylor Heygood,

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string Bean in a Stell did not
believe in using banks. Keep in mind,

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if they were both around during the
Great Depression, when many people who

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had money in their banks lost it
all. They just didn't trust the banks.

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String Being was known to have kept
thousands of dollars in cash laying around

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his house, Grandpa Jones warning many
times to not keep that much money in

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the house. He had told string
Being several times that one day, keeping

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that much cash around the house would
get him killed. When Grandpa found the

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bodies of his murdered friends, he
knew that day he had worried about had

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finally come. The murders shocked Nashville
residents who would kill string Being in a

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stell. The public and string Being's
fellow country stars were enraged. They demanded

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law enforcement capture and punish whoever killed
string Being in a stell. Law enforcement

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would eventually arrest and convict cousins John
A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown,

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both twenty three years old. For
his book about string Being, author Taylor

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Haygood interviewed one of the lead investigator
in the case. He also interviewed surviving

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members of string Bean's family and fellow
musicians who knew string Bean personally. He

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then compiled his findings into the book
titled string Bean, The Life and Murder

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of a Country Music Legend. This
is the conclusion of a two part story.

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If you haven't already listened to the
first half, please go back and

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listen. And now on with the
tragic story of David Aikman, affectionately known

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as string Bean and his wife is
cell Aikman, is told by author Taylor

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hey Good. Taylor, first of
all, I would like to thank you

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so much for sharing your research about
David string Being Achman with me. Also,

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thank you for sending me a copy
of your book. I did read

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it and I enjoyed it. So
with that, let me start out with

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asking you how to pronounce your last
name. I want to butcher it is

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it hay Good or hey Good?
It's hey Good, It's hey good,

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Tylor hey Good. Okay, and
thank you for the clarification. So tell

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me about yourself and why you decided
to write a book about country music legend

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string Being. My name is Taylor
hey Good, and I am a professor.

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I wear a lot of hats,
but to my main thing is that

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I'm a professor at Florida Atlantic University, which is in Boca Ratwn. But

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long before I was a professor,
I was very interested in old time country

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music. I always loved the music
of Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams and people

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like that. And I was also
in the playing music, playing the guitar

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and the banjo and the piano and
that kind of thing, and particularly the

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banjo was just always interesting to me. And when I was a kid,

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I custored my mom in bed in
the buying me a banjo from my birthday.

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It was a little harmony banjo from
Sears catalog and I was just captivated

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by this instrument. And I had
also managed to pester them into taking me

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to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Originally from North Mississippi, Ripley on

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the Tennessee state line Mississippi Tennessee state
line. My dad's posted in Tennessee and

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did a lot of places but the
home and the hometown. But anyway,

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we went to the Country Music Hall
of Fame, and there I saw a

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string beans banjo and I saw this
picture of him, and he had a

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very strange to dad in me.
Had a very long torso and very short

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pants, a very short leg.
But it was a costume that he had

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and I thought, man, that's
a strange looking guy. And I thought,

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okay, But anyway, I heard
my mom and dad at the time

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talking about remembering his being murdered about
two years before I was born. But

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they were talking about that, and
so it just bied the way in the

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back of my mind. And then
I grew up and became a professor and

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focusing on the Southern littus of the
southern of the United States, and the

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culture and the music and so forth. And I've been reading a lot of

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biographies, and I was interested in
biography and interested in true crime. I've

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been reading true crime, been reading
not just the court essential true crime book,

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the sort of the original You in
Cold Blood, but others. And

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I was interested in history generally.
So anyway, one day I was just

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looking on the phone in a video
of string being popped up, and I

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thought, how about to read a
book about him? And so that I

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went to try to find one,
and really wasn't one. There had the

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book written in nineteen seventy five,
two years after the murder, and it

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was about the investigation, but it
really didn't give you much about String being's

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life, which is so crucial to
the story in a way, the investigation,

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the murder, and all in the
trial that those are all separate from

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String Bean's life in some ways and
seemed that way, but in fact they

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take on their greatest power and meaning
in light of his life stories. Anyway,

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I just started doing the work on
that and said, well, I

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guess I'm going to be the guy
who writes this book. And that's how

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it happened. Now, when you
wrote your book, were you able to

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actually find any surviving family members a
string being and get to speak to any

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of them to get their insights about
him? Well? I did so.

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Well, absolutely so. Some of
the people I got to speak with who

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knew were people who had worked with
him. So Loretta Leon the country music

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saying very helpful of the book.
Paul Jones had passed away, but his

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son was very helpful. Also,
there's a country sing named Whipper and Bill

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Anderson pretty big, legendary kind of
guy. And so there were a number

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of those people who helped out.
And then there were some family. Now

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by the time I got to do
in this book, none of his siblings

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and obviously his parents were no longer
alive, but his nephew as a very

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nice gentleman who lives in Kentucky.
And in fact, they do a string

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being annual school just this past weekend. His name is phill A. Tateman,

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and he was incredibly generous, incredibly
generous, and there was some other

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nieces and nephews and so forth.
But you know what, at this point,

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I'm sorry to say, there aren't
many people really to actually knew stream

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Being. It's just a handful.
And I was writing this book, of

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course during the pandemic, and it
turns out that people were you know,

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i'd say it, you know,
there were people who passed away before I

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could get to it. One of
the people I was going to try to

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talk to was Roy Clark, and
the banjo player who toured was stream Being

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early on, and I wasn't able
a best way before I did, so

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those things happened, but I got
some great stories, and probably one of

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my favorite ones was Lulu Roman,
who was one of the founding past members

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of Heat Hall and stream Bean was
on that with her, and she didn't

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actually know anything about country music.
When she got on the show. She

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knew like one She knew buck Owens
basically, and she got on the showers

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she didn't know who anybody was.
And I asked her, I said,

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what did you think when you saw
this guy? String being oh that long

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his costume with the long shirt and
the short pants, And she said,

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Honey, I was on so much
to LSD at that time that I thought

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one of those creatures I've been seeing
it become real. Well, that was

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quite as smarted. Can you tell
me more about the men that were arrested

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for killing string being in a stell? If I recall they were John and

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Doug Brown, and I believe they
were first cousins. Can you confirm that

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and tell me a little bit more
about their relationship? Yeah, John Brown

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and Doug Brown were first dozens,
Yes, okay, and I know that

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they are the two people who are
officially labeled as being the killers of string

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being in a stell. Can you
tell me how did law enforcement catch these

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two guys? How did they find
out it was these two men? I

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mean, we're talking about a time
when there was no DNA or advanced law

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enforcement techniques. It was basically just
down to what they call gumshoe detective work.

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So tell me more about what led
to their arrest. Well, that

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is a really interesting question. Actually, I really appreciate the way you're putting

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these questions because they just very well
put because it was really one of the

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most fascinating things to me and doing
this work. And I was able to

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talk to Tommy Jacobs, one of
the lead investigators. I was able to

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get in touch with him. I
never succeeded in talking to me. I

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don't even know if some of the
other ones are still alive. I know

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00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:48.559
Sherman Nickins is still alive. I
never succeeded to get in touch with it,

217
00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.000
getting in touch with him, but
anyway, I taught to him and

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I think one of the interesting things
was that, And I think this is

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something that in the realm of investigation, are those things that they had to

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do maybe on some level with intuition
or interaction. They may have to do

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with other things too. Doug's older
brother, Charlie Brown, the one who

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paid all the money for this lawyer. He had a talent agency and he

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knew stream Being and they lived right
up the room from Stream Being had a

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contributed talent agency, and he was
known to have had lunch with stream Being

225
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in his wife. And not only
that, there is heard not too long

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ago a gentleman who was used to
be in the country music industry, and

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he was saying that Charlie Brown actually
did book string being in some of his

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those dates performances, so you know, that's a lot of connection, you

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know what I mean. But he
was also somebody who was on some level

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involved in the country music industry.
People knew who he was and had some

231
00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:52.200
kind of pool. I don't know
how much you know, but anyway,

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he as the investigation went along,
there's a lot of bad blood between Charlie

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Brown and Tommy Jacobs and some other
investigators, and they all saw him as

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being bring leader of this thing.
He was involved in a number of other

235
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criminal activities at the time, but
he was very aggressive fighting back and he

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was handful. Well. Anyway,
what happened, what kind of implicating It

237
00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:23.400
was very interesting because it was very
clear that Charlie and his brother and cousin

238
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were all strategizing. They were strategizing
how can we get out of this?

239
00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:33.839
And who knows what they were staying. Oh I did get touched with some

240
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of them, and Dog Brown passed
away in prison, so there's no way

241
00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.319
you can talk to him. But
it's hard to get a sense of what

242
00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:44.039
they were trying to do. But
they were strategizing and in the middle of

243
00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:48.599
all this, there was a man
named Bill Downey who showed up. The

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investigators were stayed in stream Beings house, which, by the way, again

245
00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:53.680
these were big guys staying in a
tiny house, so I don't know how

246
00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:57.000
that worked out for him. But
anyway, they were hav to step around

247
00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:02.359
the chalk outlines of the stream Beings
on the floor. Well, anyway,

248
00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:06.319
this guy, Bill down he comes
to them and he starts telling this whole

249
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story. And the way he tells
the story is that Doug and John were

250
00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:15.440
the one who were there, and
John is the one who pulls the trigger

251
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and kills street being while string Bean
and Doug or fighting kind of scuffling,

252
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and he claims the Streaming came in
shooting, which may have been true.

253
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The police believed it was true.
They say the story was that Estelle ran

254
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out and those things that she was
running away and shot. John shot her,

255
00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:33.720
got her to the ground and then
shot her point banking the head and

256
00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:37.680
came in laughing and saying this was
by being in Vietnam. Well, that

257
00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:41.000
was the story that was told.
It was a story, but it was

258
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a story that made John the bad
guy. Doug was there, but John

259
00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.039
was the bad guy. So John
had a very different story. John claimed

260
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that Charlie had given some pills and
he had passed out that night and then

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he woke up and they told him
he was the one who had done the

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00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:57.279
murder. If he talked to him
now, he'll tell you the same thing.

263
00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.440
You'll say, I don't have any
remember, And there were other cases

264
00:22:00.519 --> 00:22:06.079
where he didn't have that memory.
Basically, so what happened then is based

265
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on this Bill Downees informing if he
was an informant, based on that by

266
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the way he built down he was
a criminal. He walked into the trial

267
00:22:14.359 --> 00:22:18.720
was stolen boot. But for whatever
reason, the investigators they liked Bill Downy.

268
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They thought it was funny, and
they thought he was a character,

269
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and they trusted him, and which
you can understand. There was incredible pressure

270
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on them to find the murderers,
and here was somebody coming in and telling

271
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:36.960
them a story that fit with what
they were thinking to happen, or that

272
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they believe happened. I think on
some level, so in their minds it

273
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was all working out, and that
may be exactly how it played out.

274
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But what happens is by the time
he got to the trial, you had

275
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this situation where the trial is almost
is largely based on Frankly, I kind

276
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of hearsay, and that was a
point of contention in a number of ways.

277
00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:00.839
But that's that's how it happened.
So it was finally over with when

278
00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:07.119
the arrests were made the investigators,
who were the police, they arrested not

279
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only Doug and Time, but Doug's
brother Roy, and they arrested Charlie Brown.

280
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Now, interestingly, the DA didn't
want to do that. MS Driver

281
00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:19.000
said, I don't want to risk
that him, and Tommy Jacobs said he's

282
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the guy who had planned it.
He's the releader of this thing, although

283
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that was contended. There was also
others saying he didn't plan it, but

284
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that was this thing. And here's
the DA said no, no, no,

285
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we won't. We's not gonna bring
him in. So anyway, long

286
00:23:33.640 --> 00:23:37.400
story short, all four of these
gentlemen were brought in no sooner, I

287
00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:44.039
mean like a day later maybe Charlie
had a lawyer come into the investigators to

288
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say he wants to give you information
for immunity to cut a deal, and

289
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they kept that deal right then and
there because they claimed they wanted to find

290
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the murder weapon, and there was
talk of a will that the players stream

291
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being had left money to needy children
and my own and knew that was entirely

292
00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:03.880
made up. I talked to the
family lawyer of the atman's and nobody would

293
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:07.400
say anything about a will, So
I didn't mean it couldn't have added,

294
00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:11.880
but they did anyway, because of
wanting to get this will. They cut

295
00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:15.799
that deal. And so Charlie went
from being a suspect and an informant of

296
00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:22.000
being a witness in trial, basically
speaking on behalf of his brother against his

297
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:26.880
cousin. That's how it happened,
and so and so they went to turn

298
00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:30.640
no honor among thieves. I guess
exactly right. So they went to the

299
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trial and ultimately John and Doug were
convicted, although when it was all sudden

300
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done, the jury members came out
in the number of them said we don't

301
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:44.519
actually have any idea what really happened, but we know for sure that these

302
00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:48.240
two guys were there and they did
something. They were involved in the murder

303
00:24:48.359 --> 00:24:52.359
some way, and that was how
it played out. But now I want

304
00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:56.279
to say they were real stinkers.
Now, the Browns were some bad folk.

305
00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.240
It was a story that in the
media was the lines are very clearly

306
00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.440
gone. Here are David and Estella, and that by any stretch of the

307
00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:08.759
imagination, as far as anybody can
know, they're like completely innocent. They're

308
00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:15.480
just like lambs to the slaughter,
while the Browns were, You're just quintessential

309
00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:22.039
bad guys. Just everything about them
at that point, if everything about them

310
00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:26.480
was just ugly and evil, they
represented I think the evil element in Nashville,

311
00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:30.039
and so they're in the public mind. I think there was a sense

312
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that this was a kind of retribution. There have been a sacrificial killing,

313
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almost and now there needed to be
payment for that, and so that was

314
00:25:41.440 --> 00:25:45.000
the pressure. In what kind of
a sentence did these guys get? They

315
00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:48.079
got the two I think there were
noney nine years if they were called,

316
00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:52.319
or maybe there were a lifetime.
But anyway, they were done, if

317
00:25:52.359 --> 00:25:55.240
I remember quickly, I think the
deal was that the judge said at the

318
00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:59.279
end, I think they were done
simultaneously, not consecutively, the way it

319
00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:03.559
was high really the way it was
they basically like now they were not there

320
00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:07.960
at that point. It turns out
that would be a year. A year

321
00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:12.519
or so before that the death penalty
had been abolished, so real Roy Acuff

322
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:18.720
was going around saying that punishment should
never have been abolished. These fellows need

323
00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:22.039
to die, they need to try
in the chair. He was going around

324
00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:37.480
saying, no, So I know
that you said Doug died in prison,

325
00:26:37.279 --> 00:26:44.119
but if I recall, didn't John
Brown eventually get parolled and he's out now

326
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:48.799
exactly, So Doug kind of faded
away. He died in the same prison,

327
00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:53.240
by the way that the fictional Hannibal
Lequor was being taken to when he

328
00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:57.680
escaped. So it was an interesting
place there in Tennessee. But anyway,

329
00:26:57.880 --> 00:27:03.079
he died in prison. But John
and he was very quiet once the trial

330
00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:06.079
was over. He never said much, but John was kind of loud.

331
00:27:06.279 --> 00:27:08.480
One time, there was some country
music singers performing in the prison. He

332
00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:12.720
happened to be there and he jumped
on the stage and he started introducing all

333
00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:17.279
of them and it really made them
all very upset. And his wife,

334
00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:22.559
Libor, she started really campaigning in
the media, trying pretty rely on trying

335
00:27:22.599 --> 00:27:26.359
to get you know, after everything
died down. You know, by the

336
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.960
time he got into nineteen eighties and
ninetiesies, she's really started campaigning pretty pretty

337
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:33.519
hard to get John, you know, tind to change his image, and

338
00:27:34.119 --> 00:27:38.839
this lady his wife was an accountant
working for the Cornerstone Church, and nashally

339
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:42.799
has the main minister of it was
a gentlemanhood committed murder as a kid,

340
00:27:42.960 --> 00:27:47.599
and he came out of it and
he had a change of life and he

341
00:27:47.680 --> 00:27:52.559
became a minister, and he was
very compassionate about convicted people who were convicts,

342
00:27:52.599 --> 00:27:57.680
and he started hiring them on And
anyway, there just became a mounting

343
00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:04.519
campaign to say that John had changed
his life and he was following the teachings

344
00:28:04.599 --> 00:28:10.920
of Jesus, and that he was
somebody who was become a Christian and had

345
00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:15.039
had a chain complete change of life
and was a good guy. What had

346
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:21.039
was a model inmate and though on. And so you'd have these parole hearings

347
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:23.079
where you would have on one side
people making that argument, and then you

348
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:29.640
would have on the other side people
like Porter Wagoner and Jean Shephard and Whispering

349
00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:33.519
Bill Anderson and Mac Wiseman and all
these very famous countries bluegrass figures walking in

350
00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:38.240
and saying you cannot parole this guy. This is a horrible crime. David

351
00:28:38.319 --> 00:28:42.319
and I Filtman had done nothing wrong
and they were killed in cold blood.

352
00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:48.519
And so this went on, and
it continued until finally, in twenty fourteen,

353
00:28:48.519 --> 00:28:55.920
the tide turned and the parole board
voted to let John out. And

354
00:28:56.599 --> 00:28:59.599
he got out and he got a
job as a maintenance man at the Cornerstone

355
00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:03.640
Church fared north of Nashville. And
I tried to talk to him. Basically,

356
00:29:03.799 --> 00:29:07.680
I was told he wanted to move
on from all of this, and

357
00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:11.240
which I understand. But people are
very divided. I tell you this.

358
00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:17.240
People are very divided still in Nashville
about this thing. There are people who

359
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:21.839
still say this is somebody who did
not deserve any mercy, certainly doesn't deserve

360
00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:23.799
a role, and then there are
people who say otherwise. And it's not

361
00:29:23.799 --> 00:29:30.319
always di Lulu Roman I mentioned earlier
she's become a gospel singer, and she

362
00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:34.160
said, I've heard great things about
mister Brown and he's tremendous thing that he's

363
00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:37.480
changed his life. So people are
still in different places about it, but

364
00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:41.559
it's still a thing. In Nashville. People are very aware of it.

365
00:29:41.680 --> 00:29:44.400
If you talk to people in the
business of the country, US of business,

366
00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:45.799
you'll hear him say I was tall
one of the killer and I saw

367
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:49.279
John Brown the other day couldn't gas
in his car or they have an opinion.

368
00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:52.519
You know, if there's something that
happened so long ago, you'd be

369
00:29:52.599 --> 00:29:57.599
shocked how fresh it is. And
there are people are very conscious of stream

370
00:29:57.640 --> 00:30:03.839
being and music. I have a
friend the Pam McDonald is excellent piano player,

371
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.119
played with Hank Williams and Blake Shelton
and Pam Tillers and people like that.

372
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:11.240
You're doing the whole album just an
honor of stream being in Stlaightman.

373
00:30:11.920 --> 00:30:15.720
So there's a lot of that out
there in Nashville. It's still really a

374
00:30:15.880 --> 00:30:19.160
thing. I don't want to say
it feels fresh, but I think it's

375
00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:26.880
immediate enough that people feel a connection
to stream being into the murder and all

376
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:30.799
of that. I think there's a
kind of connection there, especially people in

377
00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:36.079
the country music industry. So regarding
these two cousins, I don't know if

378
00:30:36.079 --> 00:30:40.759
I want to use the word ironic, but John Brown is listed as the

379
00:30:40.839 --> 00:30:47.279
shooter, but yet Doug is the
one that actually died in prison and John

380
00:30:47.400 --> 00:30:52.119
is the one that is actually out
of prison and he killed two people.

381
00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:56.599
It seems backwards like it should have
been the other way around. Maybe the

382
00:30:56.680 --> 00:30:59.839
shooter should have died in prison,
and the one who wasn't the actual shooter

383
00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:03.720
should have lived long enough to get
paroled. Doesn't that seem like a strange

384
00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:10.680
twist of fate to you? Yeah? Exactly, that is a tremendous irony.

385
00:31:11.039 --> 00:31:15.519
The one man who survives at all
and triggered Mager. Yes. Well,

386
00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:22.720
And although Brown killed two people and
this public believes that he should still

387
00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:29.160
be in prison, apparently that's not
the case because the Pearl Board decided to

388
00:31:29.160 --> 00:31:32.279
go ahead and let him out.
In anyway, as people outside the story

389
00:31:32.599 --> 00:31:36.480
who are looking in, we have
to look at it as if he spent

390
00:31:36.599 --> 00:31:38.839
his time in prison, he paid
his price, his debt to society,

391
00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:44.640
and as long as he stays out
of trouble, then there's no reason to

392
00:31:44.759 --> 00:31:49.200
really think too much more about him. Exactly, he served his time,

393
00:31:49.920 --> 00:31:56.240
he did. I was looking for
information about him after he was paroled,

394
00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:00.319
and I didn't find anything about him. So that tells me he's probably stayed

395
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:07.440
out of trouble. So who knows, perhaps he was actually rehabilitated and actually

396
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:12.680
feels bad about the crimes that he
committed. Well, when doing the book,

397
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:15.039
I was the book signing and a
gentleman came up to me and he

398
00:32:15.200 --> 00:32:19.799
said, well, he said,
listen, I was working in the Tennessee

399
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.039
prison system and John Brown, and
he said, he's a good guy.

400
00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:28.480
He really has changed, and yes, indeed has been has been quiet ever

401
00:32:28.599 --> 00:32:30.839
since. And in fact, I
would love again, as I say,

402
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:35.680
as I mentioned earlier, I hated
that I could not succeed and get the

403
00:32:35.720 --> 00:32:38.759
talk to him. I understand he's
wanting to move on, but I've mentioned

404
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:43.960
this to other people. I would
love to have gotten his comments on it.

405
00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:45.960
What does the world look like to
him now? But I also understand,

406
00:32:46.599 --> 00:32:50.599
Hey, you want to move on
from this. I understand that.

407
00:32:50.880 --> 00:32:53.559
But what's not as settled as it
seemed? I guess I should mention that

408
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:59.440
Doug Brown had called the Nashville Tennessee
and newspaper only a few days a day

409
00:32:59.519 --> 00:33:02.720
or two of the murder, and
he was saying he didn't reveal his name

410
00:33:02.759 --> 00:33:06.400
at the time, but he said, what, my partner kills stream Being

411
00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.799
with stream Being's own gun. You
know. One of the interesting things about

412
00:33:09.960 --> 00:33:15.839
is that stream Being was killed with
Doug's gun allegedly now allegedly, because again

413
00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:21.119
it gets pretty murky the ballistics and
so forth. It wasn't. Really,

414
00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:24.680
it's not totally clear that this particular
gun was used. And by the way,

415
00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:29.880
to me for the weren't murder weapons
have ever been recovered to this day,

416
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:36.079
they've never been recovered, so who
knows what the claim is Doug claim

417
00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:40.319
when he called the seeing that his
partner killed stream Being with his own gun,

418
00:33:40.480 --> 00:33:45.359
Well, he ended up giving a
lazy confession, or at least that's

419
00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:49.640
what he claimed it was with a
different national paper later on after he had

420
00:33:49.680 --> 00:33:52.839
been arrested and he was waiting for
trial to start, and he in that

421
00:33:52.960 --> 00:33:57.359
when he changed the story, he
was still saying that John did the killing,

422
00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:00.440
but now he was saying that John
had his gun, Doug's gun,

423
00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:05.240
and did shooting while John had Doug
had John's gun, and nobody could ever

424
00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:09.239
figure out why they why did they
trade gun? And meanwhile there were reports

425
00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:14.800
that either the yellow truck pulling out
of the parking lot the driveway a stream

426
00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:19.159
Beans Holson and John Brown had a
yellow truck. And I think a lot

427
00:34:19.199 --> 00:34:22.119
of people know the story is being
fairly clear, clean cut, but it's

428
00:34:22.159 --> 00:34:28.119
really not. And you, of
all people know that murder is just always

429
00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:31.320
missy, you know, and you
do the best you can, but you

430
00:34:31.400 --> 00:34:35.440
know, all these years later to
play the devil's out of the kit,

431
00:34:36.119 --> 00:34:39.119
I would almost say, based on
whatever evidence that they had at the time,

432
00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:45.400
I would almost dare I say,
it lean towards the possibility that maybe

433
00:34:45.639 --> 00:34:51.960
John Brown really did not do this. I believe that he was probably there,

434
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:57.840
but it could have been the cousin
who did the shooting, or maybe

435
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:00.239
someone else. Because, as you
said, this whole case, the trial,

436
00:35:01.239 --> 00:35:06.400
I feel like it was just really
murky, and based on everything that

437
00:35:06.440 --> 00:35:08.920
I've read about this case, I
don't know, it just feels like something's

438
00:35:08.960 --> 00:35:16.159
missing from this story, like there
was other things that happened that we don't

439
00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:22.199
really know about, things that maybe
law enforcement is never released. But I

440
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:28.039
think because of the fact that this
was string being and this was a high

441
00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:32.639
profile case, I almost feel like
maybe they just rushed to judgment to arrest

442
00:35:32.719 --> 00:35:40.280
someone because I'm sure these police officers
were under a lot of pressure to get

443
00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:45.320
someone. I mean, someone had
to go down for this, and maybe

444
00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:50.280
the Browns were just the perfect people
to go after. They weren't exactly wealthy

445
00:35:50.360 --> 00:35:52.159
guys. They didn't have money,
and they probably weren't the smartest guys.

446
00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:58.559
On the block. Maybe they seem
like good suspects or someone else. Yeah,

447
00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:01.320
that's never could So there had a
lot of different kind of cigarettes there

448
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:05.000
that left behind, And that was
one of the things I was talking about.

449
00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:07.199
It is like, how do you
know that there were not more than

450
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:09.400
two people there? And there was
never a really good answer given to that.

451
00:36:09.960 --> 00:36:13.599
But meanwhile, even if there had
been, yeah, here it is

452
00:36:13.800 --> 00:36:19.199
a doug you know. And John
Brown was known to have these blackouts and

453
00:36:19.400 --> 00:36:22.719
commit violence and not have any memory
of it at all. This was established

454
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:25.960
in his pet. He had a
bad pass on Brown. He was definitely

455
00:36:27.039 --> 00:36:29.599
a violent person, so it could
have been that too, you know.

456
00:36:30.119 --> 00:36:31.599
But even with that, you know, you say, well, what happened

457
00:36:31.639 --> 00:36:37.159
here? You know what I mean? And it's it's murky. It's pretty

458
00:36:37.199 --> 00:36:40.960
murky really, So yeah, who
knows in the end, and most likely

459
00:36:42.440 --> 00:36:46.519
we'll probably never truly know what happened
on that day back in November of nineteen

460
00:36:46.639 --> 00:36:52.239
seventy three. I think a lot
of it's just conjecture and that you probably

461
00:36:52.320 --> 00:36:57.360
did the best you could to get
what information you could get, but we'll

462
00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:00.239
probably never really know what happened.
We'll probably never know, But that's why.

463
00:37:00.280 --> 00:37:04.599
I appreciate you asking the question that
way, because sometimes people will say,

464
00:37:05.199 --> 00:37:07.840
well, what happened that night?
You know. That's how I wanted

465
00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:08.719
to write the book, was say, Okay, I was going to start

466
00:37:08.760 --> 00:37:12.679
out with the night of the murder, what happened? And the more I

467
00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:16.920
dealed into the more I felt that
in good conscience I couldn't narrate the murder

468
00:37:17.480 --> 00:37:24.719
because I truthfully don't really believe I'm
sure that I know what happened, right.

469
00:37:25.199 --> 00:37:29.280
And you know, when I was
going to write my column about this,

470
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:31.639
I read a whole bunch of different
articles, and I looked at little

471
00:37:31.719 --> 00:37:37.719
video clips or anything that I could
really find about string being. And you

472
00:37:37.800 --> 00:37:43.000
know what, after I wrote my
column for the newspaper, I was thinking

473
00:37:43.079 --> 00:37:46.440
to myself, did these guys?
Did these guys really do? This?

474
00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:52.960
Was law enforcement just looking for someone
to arrest these guys? Seemed really convenient.

475
00:37:54.079 --> 00:37:59.000
But back in those days, you
didn't have DNA or you know,

476
00:37:59.119 --> 00:38:04.440
fingerprints had to be analyzed by hand. You didn't have any type of computers

477
00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:08.159
or technology to help you. It
was all a matter of as I've said

478
00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:12.760
before, that gumshoe detective work where
you had to knock on doors and walk

479
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:16.079
around and look for stuff. And
I'm sure the crime scene people had probably

480
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:22.559
trampled on it because back in those
days they didn't necessarily have the wherewithal to

481
00:38:23.159 --> 00:38:29.159
understand that you have to protect crime
scene. But I don't know if that

482
00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:32.920
necessarily happened. So, you know, if you want to go by genetic

483
00:38:34.079 --> 00:38:40.239
evidence, can you really honestly say
without a shadow of a doubt that John

484
00:38:40.320 --> 00:38:46.679
Brown was actually the killer? I'm
not so sure. I mean, based

485
00:38:46.760 --> 00:38:52.079
on everything that you had said and
everything that I've read on my own,

486
00:38:52.800 --> 00:38:59.360
there was no smoking gun. A
gun wasn't recovered. And let's just say

487
00:38:59.559 --> 00:39:06.239
that these guys were convicted basically on
hearsay. Somebody said that these two guys

488
00:39:06.320 --> 00:39:09.920
did it, so you don't have
anybody else. But that's off putting if

489
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:15.800
that's all you have is the testimony
of a guy that's a criminal. No,

490
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:21.440
I never found a gun. It's
all basically to hear Yes, it

491
00:39:21.760 --> 00:39:25.239
was, yes, And as you
mentioned earlier, there was other things going

492
00:39:25.360 --> 00:39:29.760
on behind the scenes. You said
that there was a three or four people

493
00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:34.440
total that were supposedly involved in putting
this together, but yet only two were

494
00:39:34.599 --> 00:39:40.400
charged. So you had two that
were willing to make deals and serve as

495
00:39:40.480 --> 00:39:49.599
witnesses instead of being charged. So
did those other two people actually know anything

496
00:39:49.840 --> 00:39:53.159
or have anything to do with this? Who knows? And by the time

497
00:39:53.280 --> 00:39:58.960
it came down to it, it
looked like John and Doug Brown would eventually

498
00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:05.000
be the ones to take fall for
this. And in my opinion, these

499
00:40:05.039 --> 00:40:08.840
guys don't really sound smart enough to
have planned this type of robbery. You

500
00:40:08.920 --> 00:40:13.159
almost have to wonder if there was
someone who was smarter than them, who

501
00:40:13.280 --> 00:40:17.559
was a mastermind, who helped plan
it, someone who knew more intimate details

502
00:40:17.880 --> 00:40:23.039
about String being having the money in
this house. How would a couple of

503
00:40:23.039 --> 00:40:28.920
guys like John and Doug Brown really
know that String being kept all kinds of

504
00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:32.239
money around. These guys didn't have
any connections or anything, so you almost

505
00:40:32.280 --> 00:40:37.559
have to wonder if someone helped them
set it up, if someone told them

506
00:40:37.360 --> 00:40:43.760
and encouraged them. But you know
what, we'll never know. But whenever

507
00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:49.760
you look at cases and you have
people that are witnesses, how much credibility

508
00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:53.320
do you want to give them when
you find out that they got a deal.

509
00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:59.480
They have a reason for saying what
they're saying. They're not doing it

510
00:40:59.519 --> 00:41:15.800
out of the pinness in their heart. Well, right, And in this

511
00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:22.519
particular case, I think there would
be motivation for people to lie about what

512
00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:27.559
they knew that actually happened because of
it being such a high profile case.

513
00:41:28.360 --> 00:41:32.519
That's how it looks to me,
you know. I mean, yeah,

514
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:37.800
And as you probably know, being
a fan of true crime, you know

515
00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:42.760
that these snitches aren't exactly choir boys. I mean almost all of them,

516
00:41:42.800 --> 00:41:45.599
if not all of them, have
some kind of criminal record. So you

517
00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:51.440
have a case where you have one
criminal writting out another criminal. If you

518
00:41:51.559 --> 00:41:54.599
think about it, isn't it kind
of like just switching the deck chairs on

519
00:41:54.679 --> 00:42:00.519
the Titanic? Well? No,
right, I hear you, dog,

520
00:42:00.599 --> 00:42:02.880
I hear you. I mean that's
what it is, you know. And

521
00:42:04.679 --> 00:42:07.360
I think that was whine. I
just kind of felt like, you know,

522
00:42:07.519 --> 00:42:09.119
and I don't, you know,
I don't mean anything against the lawyers.

523
00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:12.840
They had to get somebody, as
you say, I mean, somebody

524
00:42:13.519 --> 00:42:16.039
was going to have to pay for
this. Somebody's going to pay for it.

525
00:42:16.679 --> 00:42:22.079
And this was string being a very
famous man at the time. There

526
00:42:22.199 --> 00:42:25.400
was no way this murder was going
to go on soft. Someone was going

527
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:30.400
to get arrested for it. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, No,

528
00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:34.280
that was exactly the case. He
had. Sherman Nickins was one of the

529
00:42:34.880 --> 00:42:37.800
investigators, and he talked about that
particularly. He said the pressure was just

530
00:42:38.760 --> 00:42:43.800
so intense. And when you think
about it and you think, okay,

531
00:42:43.960 --> 00:42:46.960
they got to do this in a
timely way. The investigations started number eleventh,

532
00:42:47.400 --> 00:42:52.920
finished up in front of January,
and that's kind of a long time.

533
00:42:52.079 --> 00:42:55.440
But it's also yeah, when you
look at those pressures and you think,

534
00:42:55.480 --> 00:43:00.320
okay, results, You've got to
get results, and so what do

535
00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:04.199
you have to do to get those
results? And clearly there's one thing that

536
00:43:04.360 --> 00:43:07.400
is very clear is yes that John
and Doug Brown were there. There's no

537
00:43:07.519 --> 00:43:10.679
doubt about it. They have been
talking about some things. There is plenty

538
00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:15.320
there. And were they there yet, I mean, but quite exactly their

539
00:43:15.440 --> 00:43:19.119
roles were? And was there anybody
else there? Those are kind of the

540
00:43:19.480 --> 00:43:22.679
spect the question of anybody else there
just they were questions, But I think

541
00:43:22.440 --> 00:43:27.079
it could not be pursued at the
time because I think it just made more

542
00:43:27.119 --> 00:43:30.119
sense to get it hashed out this
way. They were too bad guys,

543
00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:32.840
They were easy, they were not
too bright in a way maybe at the

544
00:43:32.880 --> 00:43:37.400
time, and I think it was
like, these are you guys now?

545
00:43:37.480 --> 00:43:42.119
If you were to look at today's
law enforcement, you'd have to wonder what

546
00:43:42.280 --> 00:43:45.440
they even arrest these two guys today. If this happened, I doubt if

547
00:43:45.480 --> 00:43:50.119
this would even go to trial.
I mean not with what the evidence that

548
00:43:50.159 --> 00:43:53.960
they had back then. Yeah,
well that's an interesting point. Yeah,

549
00:43:54.880 --> 00:43:59.880
And if this trial happened today,
based on the evidence that they had back

550
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:05.000
then, I don't think a jury
would even convict these guys, much less

551
00:44:05.719 --> 00:44:08.400
would a prosecutory and want to bring
it to trial. I know it was

552
00:44:08.599 --> 00:44:13.920
so many years ago and things have
changed, but if you look at this

553
00:44:14.119 --> 00:44:21.119
case compared to how everything unfolded back
then, compared to how it would today,

554
00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:27.559
it'd be a totally different case.
There would be so many variances in

555
00:44:27.639 --> 00:44:32.880
the way that this case was investigated. Well, I think that's an interesting

556
00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:37.639
question or interesting point, you know, the question of whether or not the

557
00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:39.679
jury would convictim. When you read
that trial, do you think, to

558
00:44:40.599 --> 00:44:44.960
man, this defense attorney has spoken
a lot of holes in this thing,

559
00:44:45.039 --> 00:44:47.239
and there are a lot of moments
where you think, I don't know,

560
00:44:47.920 --> 00:44:53.079
someboding called upon who listen to this
story? And one of the other factors,

561
00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:57.679
and the thing is the defense attorney
for John Brown, Joe Bakley,

562
00:44:57.760 --> 00:45:00.320
continued to represent Doug. It's kind
of interesting sort of split that the trial

563
00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:04.119
was held the same time, but
it was split as two different trial numbers,

564
00:45:04.599 --> 00:45:07.000
but there were two different lawyers for
the two different guys, and so

565
00:45:07.079 --> 00:45:12.280
he had this kind of sort of
strangely tangulated trial where you had to kind

566
00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:16.719
of the prosecutor who's sort of working
it a little bit but away you kind

567
00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:22.239
of working Dug against John, but
still trying to get both of them convicted.

568
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:28.719
And he got the attorney for Doug
working against John basically, and he

569
00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:31.639
had John's attorney working against everybody,
and meanwhile the pressure was getting to him.

570
00:45:31.639 --> 00:45:35.360
He had a lot of issues of
substance abuse. His name was Arnold

571
00:45:35.400 --> 00:45:38.639
Peoples, and he and one of
the big things. Now he was on

572
00:45:38.760 --> 00:45:44.440
cocaine and the second day of the
trial was delayed because he had to go

573
00:45:44.559 --> 00:45:47.199
to the hospital for high blood pressure. After the trial was over, it

574
00:45:47.360 --> 00:45:51.960
turned himself in. He ended up
with his license, but he was no

575
00:45:52.039 --> 00:45:55.360
longer part of the bar, and
a number of cases were reviewed and when

576
00:45:55.400 --> 00:46:00.239
he finally got his argument, the
time for the defense to make its case.

577
00:46:00.719 --> 00:46:06.079
It was a complete disaster. He
was incoherent and they probably was the

578
00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:08.159
worst tenses in the history and Nashville. And so I think the jury,

579
00:46:08.679 --> 00:46:13.199
you know, I thought about it. What would I where would I about

580
00:46:13.239 --> 00:46:15.119
if I were on the jury,
knowing what I know now, as far

581
00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:20.599
as having been retrospected, been able
to have access to information that the jury

582
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:23.480
would not have had necessarily, you
know, they would not have necessarily been

583
00:46:23.519 --> 00:46:28.800
able to go through and follow all
the different kinds of information or be pretty

584
00:46:28.840 --> 00:46:30.280
good things that how they unfolded.
I think I would have been like,

585
00:46:30.719 --> 00:46:37.719
Okay, you know, I don't
know what to do because but I would

586
00:46:37.719 --> 00:46:42.119
have definitely thought, man, this
defense is a complete disaster. And I

587
00:46:42.199 --> 00:46:45.119
think that's what happened. I think
they said, well, I don't know

588
00:46:45.280 --> 00:46:51.519
that the case really or by the
state was that strong, but the defense

589
00:46:51.719 --> 00:46:55.440
was so weak. And this is
held in Nashville, by the way,

590
00:46:55.880 --> 00:47:00.119
that's a little detail that nobody ever
really talks about. But you know,

591
00:47:00.119 --> 00:47:04.599
where you're really getting a fair jury. Everybody that really knows what's happened,

592
00:47:04.880 --> 00:47:08.800
you know, right and back then, everyone know who string being was,

593
00:47:09.039 --> 00:47:15.199
and especially if you lived in Nashville
and you were being tried in that area.

594
00:47:15.480 --> 00:47:21.480
Everyone knew who he was, so
you have to wonder was the trial

595
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:24.199
even going to be fair. Everybody
knows who stream Being is. It wasn't

596
00:47:24.280 --> 00:47:29.000
done outside of Nashville. And the
judge, you know, Cornelius, he

597
00:47:29.159 --> 00:47:31.639
was allowing the media in on it, and you know he was allowing it

598
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:36.480
to be a circus. And those
guys John and dun Brown never had a

599
00:47:36.599 --> 00:47:39.239
chance. It was a sort of
a foregone conclusion in my opinion, for

600
00:47:39.239 --> 00:47:44.239
a social viewpoint, it was a
foregone conclusion had they not been convicted.

601
00:47:45.599 --> 00:47:49.920
I hate to think what would happen, you know, I hate to sick

602
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:52.840
and gifts people. Historically, again, we were in a position to see

603
00:47:52.880 --> 00:47:57.599
things. Maybe they couldn't see them, but I don't know what the motivations

604
00:47:57.639 --> 00:48:00.239
are, and if everybody from Nashville's
listening. I don't mean to be smurge

605
00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:06.199
to the attorneys or anything, but
attorneys have careers and they have things to

606
00:48:06.320 --> 00:48:09.360
build, and who knows what their
motivations are for things. So it's a

607
00:48:09.519 --> 00:48:15.159
very fascinating story. Really, I
think stream Being had been a little more

608
00:48:15.239 --> 00:48:19.679
high profile than if it's been an
Elvis or somebody. There'd be probably one

609
00:48:19.760 --> 00:48:23.119
hundred and eighty books written about this
already. But I feel this writing the

610
00:48:23.159 --> 00:48:30.599
book was extremely difficult because you cannot
you can't really separated, as I mentioned

611
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:35.360
earlier, the true crime aspect of
it in the biography aspect of it.

612
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:37.639
In some ways, they're like two
different books that you've got to put together,

613
00:48:37.960 --> 00:48:42.960
but both of them take their full
power and meaning from each other.

614
00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:45.679
But it was very hard to write
it, and I kind of wondered for

615
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:50.000
a while why nobody had written this
other than that one book that had been

616
00:48:50.079 --> 00:48:54.000
written by a Nashville Banner reporter working
with Tommy Jacobs back in nineteen seventy five.

617
00:48:54.039 --> 00:48:58.880
I know why, because it's hard
to put those two stories together.

618
00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:05.239
Is extremely difficult to do, so
I think that's why nobody has written the

619
00:49:05.280 --> 00:49:07.079
story before now. But I think
a stream being have been a little bigger,

620
00:49:08.400 --> 00:49:12.079
just a little bit bigger. I
think this would have been even more

621
00:49:12.159 --> 00:49:15.599
written about any people may go in
there and kind of dig in. There

622
00:49:15.719 --> 00:49:20.960
may be people who would have qualifications
or types of access that I don't have

623
00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:24.599
or did now, that could dredge
out information I couldn't find, you know,

624
00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:30.760
so, right, okay, And
the last question that I would want

625
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:37.840
to ask you is based on your
experience of writing this book, in all

626
00:49:37.880 --> 00:49:45.280
the research that you conducted, and
speaking to everyone that you have already spoken

627
00:49:45.400 --> 00:49:50.599
to, what is the number one
thing that you want people listening to this

628
00:49:51.559 --> 00:49:57.400
to know about string being We're talking
about a man that died many years ago.

629
00:49:57.599 --> 00:50:00.480
A lot of people probably have never
heard of string We should got all

630
00:50:00.559 --> 00:50:05.440
people like me who did watch he
law, who do know who he was,

631
00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:12.320
So tell me what was so unique
about him? What is string beings

632
00:50:12.480 --> 00:50:17.519
legacy? Well, I think his
legacy again, I appreciate these questions very

633
00:50:17.599 --> 00:50:22.440
much the way you put him,
I think for me, and the thing

634
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:28.159
that I think drove me through the
process of writing this book, which had

635
00:50:28.679 --> 00:50:31.519
a number of challenges. I think
for me, probably the thing that I

636
00:50:31.639 --> 00:50:37.000
felt the most to be the most
important being in terms of string Beings legacy,

637
00:50:37.119 --> 00:50:43.199
is that he was somebody who lived
through the Great Depression, and lived

638
00:50:43.239 --> 00:50:46.920
through World War Two. He lived
through the Atomic era, he lived through

639
00:50:46.960 --> 00:50:52.800
the nineteen sixties of Vietnam, and
all the fascinations and all the unrealist and

640
00:50:52.880 --> 00:50:57.639
all the trouble and all the moments
when it kind of like with our late

641
00:50:57.800 --> 00:51:00.559
pandemic, all those moments when you
think is there even going to be a

642
00:51:00.639 --> 00:51:04.320
future or what is it going to
look like? And I think everybody on

643
00:51:04.440 --> 00:51:07.320
some level had that feeling in one
way or another, whatever your view of

644
00:51:08.119 --> 00:51:10.880
whatever was going on, I think
there was enough going on, you know,

645
00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:14.880
or you just think there are these
moments when you in life when you

646
00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:17.360
think what is life even going to
be? And how was it going to

647
00:51:17.440 --> 00:51:22.360
go? And all this strife and
division, all that street b was a

648
00:51:22.440 --> 00:51:30.360
guy who threw all of that,
was steadfast and brought entertainment, and he

649
00:51:30.519 --> 00:51:37.079
brought levity and joy. You know. He was making people laugh and in

650
00:51:37.199 --> 00:51:40.840
a way that was kind of above
the free. So for me, that's

651
00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:46.199
his legacy. He was somebody in
an era that in which people have a

652
00:51:46.239 --> 00:51:51.960
hard time getting on the same page
what is politically or socially or whatever.

653
00:51:52.639 --> 00:51:55.280
He was somebody who was able to
pull that off. That's who he really

654
00:51:55.840 --> 00:52:00.559
was. He was somebody who was
able to a human level. You might

655
00:52:00.639 --> 00:52:05.360
not one may not agree with something
about the way he does the world or

656
00:52:05.440 --> 00:52:07.679
looks at the world or whatever,
but he was somebody who was kind of

657
00:52:07.679 --> 00:52:15.079
above that and he brought humility,
and that humility had a certain openness.

658
00:52:15.199 --> 00:52:19.880
And I think he's somebody that you
can look to who's above the phrase and

659
00:52:20.119 --> 00:52:22.519
who said, no matter how bad
things are, no matter how scary they

660
00:52:22.559 --> 00:52:28.960
are, no matter how gain much
division or whatever, you can carry on.

661
00:52:29.639 --> 00:52:34.599
You can just carry on. You
can sing us home, you can

662
00:52:34.679 --> 00:52:38.679
tell a joke and you'll get through
it. And that's submitting it was real,

663
00:52:38.840 --> 00:52:42.840
the real power of who he was. I guess why all kinds of

664
00:52:42.920 --> 00:52:45.199
people. So I think that that's
what it was about, you know,

665
00:52:45.519 --> 00:52:52.960
based on listening to your research,
looking at your book and everything that I

666
00:52:52.079 --> 00:52:59.559
looked up to write my column about
string Being. My thoughts on him were

667
00:52:59.760 --> 00:53:04.639
that he was just a humble,
kind hearted man. He was a good

668
00:53:04.760 --> 00:53:08.960
husband, a good friend, a
good musician. Everyone loved him. I

669
00:53:09.079 --> 00:53:14.639
didn't find anything where anyone had anything
bad to say about the man. He

670
00:53:14.800 --> 00:53:20.840
was definitely a witty character, yeah, sir, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah.

671
00:53:21.519 --> 00:53:23.960
Even though string Being wasn't on this
planet for very long and he died

672
00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:28.920
at a fairly young age, I
think that he did make a great impact

673
00:53:29.159 --> 00:53:32.159
on country music and upon a lot
of his fans. He's been gone for

674
00:53:32.639 --> 00:53:36.480
fifty years, or so, and
here you and I are talking about him.

675
00:53:36.519 --> 00:53:38.320
Fifty years later after his death,
he wrote a book about him.

676
00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:42.679
I wrote a column about him,
and you and I both like his music

677
00:53:42.760 --> 00:53:46.559
and we still listen to so even
in death, he's had an impact on

678
00:53:47.039 --> 00:53:52.480
both of our lives. That's what
I would say, exactly. Okay,

679
00:53:52.599 --> 00:53:59.199
And for anyone out there that's listening
to this podcast episode and they're interested and

680
00:53:59.400 --> 00:54:04.880
purchasing a copy of the book,
String Being The Life and Murder of a

681
00:54:04.960 --> 00:54:09.119
Country music Legend, tell me where
can they get this book? Obviously Amazon?

682
00:54:09.400 --> 00:54:13.880
But where else? Got anything?
I just about everything? Get on

683
00:54:13.920 --> 00:54:17.320
Amazon? You got there's an Amazon
paperback it's a nineteen ninety five, or

684
00:54:17.360 --> 00:54:21.800
you can get it on the kindles, a kindle version, so we can

685
00:54:21.840 --> 00:54:25.079
get it on Barns and Noble online. It's in certain bookstores, so it

686
00:54:25.280 --> 00:54:30.559
was put kind of regionally. So
if you're in the Kentucky area or Tennessee,

687
00:54:30.199 --> 00:54:34.480
some of those areas vinyas instan places, some of the Barns and Nobles

688
00:54:34.519 --> 00:54:37.880
will have them locally, you know, some of the independent bookstores will have

689
00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:40.360
them. I think Pale's Books up
in Oregon or mother get where it is,

690
00:54:40.360 --> 00:54:44.400
Washington, Oregon has some copies you
know there, I think I heard,

691
00:54:44.480 --> 00:54:46.360
and so you know, there are
some independent bookstores that have them,

692
00:54:46.400 --> 00:54:52.119
but definitely online if you go to
Amazon or Barns of Noble, or you

693
00:54:52.159 --> 00:54:57.840
can also order directly from the University
of Illinois Press. So it's it's pretty

694
00:54:57.840 --> 00:55:00.760
easy to get the order from Amazon. It comes into whatever. And there

695
00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:07.559
is a talk of an audio version
of it, but that's not out yet,

696
00:55:07.639 --> 00:55:09.880
so I don't know when that'll be
or if that's going to work out.

697
00:55:09.920 --> 00:55:14.960
But anyway, so there's available kind
a few places actually online, different

698
00:55:15.039 --> 00:55:17.920
kind of bookstores I've noticed, so
yeah, it's pretty much available out there.

699
00:55:19.559 --> 00:55:23.360
And if anyone wants to contact you
with questions about your book, what's

700
00:55:23.400 --> 00:55:28.960
the name of the website that they
can go to? Well, absolutely if

701
00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:31.280
I would be delighted to hear from
anybody, and my website is just my

702
00:55:31.440 --> 00:55:37.119
name is Taylor hey Good dot com. That's t Y l O R H

703
00:55:37.400 --> 00:55:43.239
A g O D dot com and
you can contact me through there, and

704
00:55:43.519 --> 00:55:47.400
I would be absolutely delighted. I'll
tell you I have gotten a number of

705
00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:52.280
emails. I'm shocked that tell you. The emails that come in from people

706
00:55:52.320 --> 00:55:58.239
I've never heard of saying read book
or stream being fans or in some cases

707
00:55:58.320 --> 00:56:00.800
they had and didn't know about stream. They like country music and they ran

708
00:56:00.880 --> 00:56:05.519
across this, and how much should
they were fascinated with the story, so

709
00:56:06.239 --> 00:56:10.960
I would be sometimes they have questions
and I absolutely would be happy to hear

710
00:56:12.039 --> 00:56:16.599
from any boy time. And that
concludes the story of string Being as told

711
00:56:16.840 --> 00:56:22.199
by author Taylor hey Good. Again, if you haven't listened to the first

712
00:56:22.239 --> 00:56:25.800
half of this interview, please go
back and listen. If you enjoy reading

713
00:56:27.119 --> 00:56:31.159
true crime books, then I highly
recommend that you purchase a copy of Taylor's

714
00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:37.239
book. The book takes you from
string Being's humble beginnings as a child making

715
00:56:37.320 --> 00:56:42.440
his own instruments to becoming a country
music legend. You can get your own

716
00:56:42.559 --> 00:56:47.559
copy of string Being The Life and
Murder of a Country Music Legend, written

717
00:56:47.559 --> 00:56:53.280
by Taylor Heygood on Amazon dot com
or wherever else you purchase your favorite books.

718
00:56:54.079 --> 00:56:58.920
And if you would like to contact
Taylor about his book, please visit

719
00:56:59.440 --> 00:57:02.840
Taylor hey Good dot com. I
will be sure to include this information in

720
00:57:02.920 --> 00:57:07.840
the case story notes. And if
you are a parent, law enforcement official,

721
00:57:08.199 --> 00:57:13.000
friend, or relatives, you can
justice for an unsolved common side case.

722
00:57:13.559 --> 00:57:17.320
Please visit my website and complete the
contact form. You can also contact

723
00:57:17.400 --> 00:57:21.000
me through Facebook. Thank you for
listening.