Say what you want about violence in Hip Hop -- those "gangstas" got nothing on the King of Western Swing, Spade Cooley. Spade was a big star, appearing in 38 Hollywood westerns, and had a string of top ten singles. But he was crazy as a bed bug, paranoid, and jealous of his young strawberry blond wife, Ella Mae. So much, in fact, that he literally stomped her to death after suspecting she was having an affair with another singing cowboy, Roy Rogers.
Born dirt poor, at the peak of his fame Cooley had amassed over fifteen million bucks capitalizing on the Western Swing craze. He owned a huge mansion on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, a ranch in the Mojave Desert, and a 56-foot yacht for sailing the seas. They say his closets were lined with 100 custom cowboy suits, 50 hats and three dozen pairs of pointy-toed boots. But the vicious murder of his beautiful younger wife Ella Mae shocked the nation, and brought his kingdom crashing down.
Oh, a storm is threat'ning My very life today If I don't get some shelter Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
According to a new BBC documentary, the Hells Angels planned to murder Mick Jagger in 1969. The motorcycle gang was furious over the Stones' infamous concert at Altamont, when Jagger hired them as security, resulting in the death of a young fan. The gang went so far as to attempt an attack on Jagger's home on Long Island, New York, by sea. Fortunately, en route, a storm capsized their boat.
"The Hells Angels were so angered by Jagger's treatment of them that they decided to kill him," said Tom Mangold, who is presenting the BBC documentary, in an interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
"They planned the attack from the sea so they could enter his property from the garden and avoid security at the front. The boat was hit by a storm and all of the men were thrown overboard. All survived and there was not said to have been any further attempt on Jagger's life."
Newly discovered documents thrill conspiracy buffs. November 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated while riding in a Dallas motorcade. That much we know. The rest is uncertain, in spite of countless exhaustive investigations, including the official 888-page report of the Warren Commission. A single shooter? A conspiracy? Theories abound, and counter-theories. Don DeLillo encapsulated them in Libra, a literary "fiction" about a conspiracy of Cuban exiles, mobsters, and CIA spooks -- all with axes to grind, all trigger-happy -- who use "blank slate" Oswald as the perfect patsy.
(warning:film clip contains violence)
What's new? A batch of papers was just discovered in a forgotten Dallas courtroom safe that purports to be a transcript of a conversation between nightclub owner Jack Ruby and alleged lone assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. The conversation supposedly took place October 4, 1963, at Ruby's strip joint, the Carousel Club, more than a month before the assassination. In the papers, the two discuss the mob's plans to kill Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who had cracked down on the mob. From the transcript: Oswald: There is a way to get rid of him without killing him. Ruby: How is that? Oswald: I can shoot his brother.
Is this a "what-if" scenario? A speculation, a play, some kind of brain-storming, or the transcript of an actual conversation between the two? According to ABC News, "official records from Ruby's trial, a gun holster that probably belonged to Ruby or Oswald and personal letters from former District Attorney Henry Wade, the prosecutor in the Ruby trial, also were found inside the safe."
Oswald: I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I'll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning.
Oswald in police custody. Lone assassin or patsy? Whatever the case may be, two days after the Kennedy assassination, Jack Ruby shot Oswald during his transfer to the County Jail, while surrounded by Dallas cops. End of story.
Ruby killing Oswald. Read the ABC report here. The Associated Press report here.
Born dirt poor, at the peak of his fame Cooley had amassed over fifteen million bucks capitalizing on the Western Swing craze. He owned a huge mansion on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles, a ranch in the Mojave Desert, and a 56-foot yacht for sailing the seas. They say his closets were lined with 100 custom cowboy suits, 50 hats and three dozen pairs of pointy-toed boots. But the vicious murder of his beautiful younger wife Ella Mae shocked the nation, and brought his kingdom crashing down.
