Part of Series
(A 90-page True Crime Short with photographs) On April 1, 1984, Marvin Gaye—one of the world’s most beloved singers—was gunned down by his own father. A generation later, fans still puzzle over how it could be that a man who crooned about peace, love, and understanding could possibly meet with such a violent end—and from his own flesh and blood. Yet the history of popular music is written in blood. Using the slaying of Marvin Gaye as an abject example of the rock and roll lifestyle, David J. Krajicek’s Death by Rock and Roll pulls together the threads of the violent ends of music stars like John Lennon, Sam Cooke, Tupac Shakur, soul saxophone legend King Curtis, and many others. Between overdoses and suicides of what are often fragile stars, rock and roll seems to qualify as one of Americas most dangerous professions. Here, experts weigh in on whether there are patterns to the violence of rock and roll and whether there have been warning signs in some cases that may have saved some lives. A fascinating read.
Author
First things first: The name is pronounced CRY-check. I'm a writer, mostly about crime and murder, although most recently I have published two family-related historical memoirs, "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha." Before retiring recently from the music business, I spent 30 years singing and playing trombone in a band based in the mountains of upstate New York—old-school R&B, like Motown and Stax. Nowadays, most of my spare time is consumed by tennis. I come from South Omaha, Nebraska, although I now split time between New York and the Gulf Coast. I studied at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Columbia University. I spent much of my early professional life as a newspaper crime reporter in the Midwest and New York City. I taught journalism at Columbia during most of the 1990s before being compelled to return full-time to my primary muse: writing. I'm back to writing about crime, though in longer form. For 20 years, from 1999 until 2019, I wrote The Justice Story for the Sunday New York Daily News. It's the longest-running true crime feature in American journalism, published in the News since 1923. Before retiring, each of my 500 columns looked back at an interesting historical crime case—the sorts of stories you will know hear recounted on the countless true crime podcasts. I have written stories about crime and criminal justice for many media venues, including The Crime Report, Alternet, The New York Times, Columbia and Boston magazines, Slate, The Village Voice, The Manchester (U.K.) Guardian and Mother Jones. I've had a long side career as a crime expert on TV, appearing more than 25 times on episodes of true crime shows. I've also talked about crime cases on "The Today Show" and was proud to be a part of "The Poisoner's Handbook" on PBS's American Experience. My books include the family memoirs "Dear Mama" and "Coming Home to South Omaha," both published by News Ink Books; "Charles Manson" and "Mass Killers," by Arcturus/Sirius Books of London, England; "Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival (Second Edition)"; "Death by Rock 'n' Roll," a Kindle ebook from Crimescape/Rosetta Books; "True Crime: Missouri," a longtime regional bestseller published by Stackpole Books; "Murder, American Style" by News Ink Books, and "Scooped!", published by Columbia University Press. I've dabbled in fiction, as well. My first published fiction, a short story called "Sutphin Blvd.," was included in an anthology by Midnight Mind Press in New York. Another of my short stories, "Bluefish," was performed at Literally Speaking, an Albany, N.Y., program similar to NPR's "Selected Shorts." Thanks for your interest in my work. Without readers, there would be no writers.
