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MOTOWN MURDER MACHINE PT 2 · Cosmic Peach

0:00
Speaker 1: Baby my game statue.
0:02
Speaker 2: It takes a little tangle. You don't mean statue, baby
0:15
Speaker 2: game statue.
0:23
Speaker 3: Trigger warning.
0:25
Speaker 4: This podcast is designed to take you outside of your
0:27
Speaker 4: comfort zone and make you question reality.
0:30
Speaker 5: Listening Discretion is a vibe.
0:38
Speaker 6: Tukwardly fellas.
0:41
Speaker 3: This ain't my first time at the rodeo. Hello, and
1:04
Speaker 3: welcome back to the show. Thanks for being here, thanks
1:10
Speaker 3: for being born, Thank you for being listeners and supporters
1:14
Speaker 3: of the Cosmic Peach podcast.
1:18
Speaker 7: We are back.
1:19
Speaker 3: We're back in action, and we are discussing part two
1:25
Speaker 3: of the Motown Murder Machine and we are going to
1:29
Speaker 3: bust this case wide open. Today got a list of
1:33
Speaker 3: bodies for you, and the list is long and the
1:36
Speaker 3: connections are astounding. I hope you enjoyed the first part.
1:43
Speaker 3: Motown is one of my favorite genres. Maybe you're not
1:47
Speaker 3: a Motown fan, but I don't see how you couldn't be.
1:52
Speaker 3: It's one of the most legendary eras. And just to
1:56
Speaker 3: recap Barry Gordy Junior, remember this asshole, the man who
2:03
Speaker 3: built Motown, the man who created legends, stars, icons, And
2:10
Speaker 3: yet behind the glossy history lies something darker about Barry
2:17
Speaker 3: Goody Junior. A trail of broken lives and early graves
2:25
Speaker 3: that's been ignored for far too long. But that is
2:30
Speaker 3: why you have the feature. Because while everyone points at
2:36
Speaker 3: Clive Davis, and if you don't know the story about
2:40
Speaker 3: Clive Davis, that's another episode. Barry Gordye usually goes under
2:46
Speaker 3: the radar until now. What we are doing in this
2:52
Speaker 3: episode is looking at the patterns, the suicides, the mysterious endings,
2:58
Speaker 3: the young lives, cut, the financial ruin, the rumors of intimidation,
3:04
Speaker 3: and asking why so many of them circle back to
3:08
Speaker 3: Motown and Gordy. These are the stories as they've been
3:13
Speaker 3: told in books, interviews, news reports, gossip sites, and rumors
3:19
Speaker 3: that have followed the label for decades. Some facts are documented,
3:24
Speaker 3: some are disputed, Some may never be fully known. But
3:30
Speaker 3: one thing that can't be denied are the body's people.
3:35
Speaker 3: Not only that, but the broken lives and the silence
3:39
Speaker 3: that followed them. For every hit that lived forever, there
3:45
Speaker 3: were lives that didn't. For every star Barry helped create,
3:53
Speaker 3: there was another story of control, of obliteration, of tragedy,
4:01
Speaker 3: and over time the pattern became impossible to ignore. Motown
4:07
Speaker 3: wasn't just built on music, It was also built on manipulation, betrayal,
4:14
Speaker 3: hurt and bodies. There are more than a few Motown
4:19
Speaker 3: artists known and unknown that lost their lives in a
4:23
Speaker 3: myriad of ways under the Gordy Motown umbrella. Some argue
4:29
Speaker 3: he's not directly responsible for these misfortunes we'll be discussing today,
4:35
Speaker 3: but there have always been rumors and people who suggest otherwise.
4:40
Speaker 3: They say that this genius of a man with shadey
4:45
Speaker 3: vindictive had ties to the underworld that could handle what
4:49
Speaker 3: he legally couldn't. Some say he actually caused direct harm
4:55
Speaker 3: to these people, while others suggest that he did things
5:00
Speaker 3: to possibly push them to do it themselves. So shall
5:07
Speaker 3: we begin.
5:09
Speaker 8: Let the bodies at the fuck, Let the bodies at
5:13
Speaker 8: the fun.
5:16
Speaker 3: Our first body on the list is an interesting one.
5:22
Speaker 3: You know the music, but you've never heard his name.
5:27
Speaker 3: Roger Pinza bean pe pin zub Fine. You know, I
5:36
Speaker 3: really don't know how to pronounce this guy's last name,
5:39
Speaker 3: pin Pinzaban, Pinza Binet. Anyways, Roger was one of Motown's
5:49
Speaker 3: most gifted lyricists and one of its most forgotten. He
5:54
Speaker 3: didn't want to be famous, He just wanted to make music.
5:58
Speaker 3: Born in Detroit, andnineteen forty four. Roger was a local, quiet,
6:03
Speaker 3: reserved kid with Cecilian and Irish roots. He went to
6:07
Speaker 3: Mumford High School and spent his early years obsessed with music,
6:12
Speaker 3: especially words and melody. His childhood friend, Cornelius Grant, would
6:18
Speaker 3: later become the musical director for the Temptations, and through him,
6:24
Speaker 3: Roger found his way into Motown's writing circles and slipped
6:28
Speaker 3: into becoming a professional songwriter. And it was here where
6:32
Speaker 3: Roger started crafting some of the most legendary lyrics the
6:36
Speaker 3: label would ever record. So, whether you realize it or not,
6:42
Speaker 3: you know his words. How about I Wish It would rain?
6:48
Speaker 3: Who doesn't know that song? How about I Could Never
6:52
Speaker 3: Love Another, the end of Our Road, take Me in
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Speaker 3: your arms, Your my Everything, and many more. But what
7:02
Speaker 3: most people don't know is that Roger also co wrote
7:08
Speaker 3: I Heard It through the Grapevine and helped make Motown
7:11
Speaker 3: a household name. But while Roger was finally living his
7:16
Speaker 3: dreams of making music and crafting songs behind the scenes,
7:21
Speaker 3: his experience wasn't as rewarding as it looked. Despite his contributions,
7:27
Speaker 3: Roger was often left uncredited for his work at Motown.
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Speaker 3: Credit meant everything, money, cloud, legacy, and for Roger, none
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Speaker 3: of those fucking things ever showed up. He was part
7:42
Speaker 3: of the system, but not protected by it. While his
7:47
Speaker 3: words fueled chart topping records, his name stayed buried in
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Speaker 3: the fine print or missing altogether. Music was the love
7:56
Speaker 3: of his life, but even that was being taken from him.
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Speaker 3: And for someone like Roger who saw music as his everything,
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Speaker 3: that kind of obscurity was unbearable. Roger wasn't just being
8:13
Speaker 3: left out of meetings, he was being left out of
8:15
Speaker 3: fucking history. While others made money and built names off
8:20
Speaker 3: his work, he struggled with little recognition and practically zero
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Speaker 3: financial reward. And if Motown wasn't breaking his spirit enough,
8:32
Speaker 3: his home life really finished the job. At home, things
8:36
Speaker 3: were definitely falling apart. Roger, who was quiet and carrying
8:41
Speaker 3: the weight of being uncredited, underpaid, and overlooked, finally cracked
8:48
Speaker 3: because Roger's wife, Helga, was cheating on him repeatedly. According
8:55
Speaker 3: to Otis Williams of the Temptations, Helga was trying to
9:00
Speaker 3: sleep with literally any and everybody, including him, flashing her
9:05
Speaker 3: shit all around town, he claimed. Otis claimed that he
9:09
Speaker 3: turned her down, but said many men took her up
9:13
Speaker 3: on the offer, thus further humiliating Roger. Otis also claims
9:20
Speaker 3: that the famous songs that Roger wrote for the Temptations
9:25
Speaker 3: were about her, and although his wife was a two
9:29
Speaker 3: time in hussy, Roger tried to hold the marriage together,
9:33
Speaker 3: but it was unraveling fast. Between the betrayal at home
9:37
Speaker 3: and the obscurity at work, the pressure was mounting. The
9:41
Speaker 3: songs he wrote in his final days say it all,
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Speaker 3: I wish it would rain. I could never love another.
9:50
Speaker 3: As some would say, they were goodbye letters, emotional confession
9:55
Speaker 3: set to melody. A week after these songs were finally
10:00
Speaker 3: recorded and he heard the final product. On New Year's Eve,
10:04
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty seven, Roger took his own life. He was
10:08
Speaker 3: only twenty three years old, and as sad as that is,
10:14
Speaker 3: it was like it never even happened. There were no headlines,
10:19
Speaker 3: no tributes, no statement from Barry Gordy, no Motown memorial,
10:24
Speaker 3: and decades later most people still don't even know who
10:29
Speaker 3: he was. But his words, well, they've been sung by
10:34
Speaker 3: us for generations. Roger Penzabene gave his life to Motown
10:41
Speaker 3: and got literally nothing in return. Roger became the first
10:46
Speaker 3: of Barry's bodies to take his own life, but sadly,
10:52
Speaker 3: he wouldn't be the last. Imagine writing songs about the
10:58
Speaker 3: heartbreak of your why fucking dudes behind your back, to
11:02
Speaker 3: be sung by one of the dudes she was fucking
11:07
Speaker 3: behind your back, and then you murder yourself out of sheer, desperation, misery,
11:14
Speaker 3: and your song turns into a mega legendary hit, and
11:18
Speaker 3: then no one knows you wrote it or who you
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Speaker 3: are at all.
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Speaker 8: Motdown Sunshine, Blue Skies, please go away, But God found
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Speaker 8: another and gone away with her.
11:53
Speaker 6: With my future.
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Speaker 9: My life is filled with gloom, So day after day
12:00
Speaker 9: I stay locked up in my room. I know to
12:03
Speaker 9: you it might sound strange, but I wish it would rain.
12:11
Speaker 10: Yeah, God, so badly.
12:17
Speaker 11: I want to go outside.
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Speaker 9: But everyone knows that a man ain't supposed to cry. Listen,
12:26
Speaker 9: I gotta cry because crying.
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Speaker 2: Says a pain.
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Speaker 9: Ah yeah, people, this hat I feeling sad.
12:38
Speaker 6: Words could never explain.
12:40
Speaker 11: I just wish it would rain.
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Speaker 9: Let it rain, rain, rain, rain, Let.
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Speaker 5: It rain, and.
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Speaker 12: Let it rain.
13:04
Speaker 3: Now, let's meet Paul. Paul wasn't just any singer. He
13:09
Speaker 3: was a founding member of the Temptations, His voice helped
13:13
Speaker 3: shape their earliest sound, and his stage presence helped give
13:17
Speaker 3: the group its identity. Without Paul, the Temptations wouldn't have
13:23
Speaker 3: been as flashy. But by the early nineteen seventies, Paul's
13:27
Speaker 3: life was quickly unraveling. He had sickle cell anemia, a
13:33
Speaker 3: painful blood disorder that often left him weak and struggling
13:37
Speaker 3: to perform. On top of that, he battled alcoholism, depression,
13:42
Speaker 3: and the crushing reality of being slowly pushed out of
13:47
Speaker 3: the group that he helped build by who Barry Gordie.
13:53
Speaker 3: Behind the scenes, Paul was also locked in a fight
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Speaker 3: with Motown itself. Get this. When his health declined from
14:03
Speaker 3: literally a debilitating chronic blood disorder, Motown wouldn't release him. Instead,
14:11
Speaker 3: Barry kept him under his contract but refused to use him,
14:17
Speaker 3: which meant he couldn't record elsewhere, couldn't rebuild his career,
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Speaker 3: and couldn't escape. He had to sue Barry, Gordy and
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Speaker 3: Motown just to try and break free. And you never
14:31
Speaker 3: sue Berry Gordy and live to tell the tale. So,
14:38
Speaker 3: of course that's where things get a little bit darker.
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Speaker 3: For oh Paul. Suing Gordy was a mistake he would
14:45
Speaker 3: definitely pay for. Over the years, it's become pretty clear
14:50
Speaker 3: that Barry may have sent men after him in retaliation,
14:55
Speaker 3: and poor fucking Paul was already spiraling between his illness,
15:01
Speaker 3: his addiction, and being trapped in a label that no
15:04
Speaker 3: longer wanted him but wouldn't let him go. He fell
15:08
Speaker 3: into a deep depression. On August seventeenth, nineteen seventy three,
15:12
Speaker 3: Paul Williams was found dead in an alley in Detroit.
15:17
Speaker 3: The official ruling self inflicted gunshot wound to the head,
15:22
Speaker 3: while he may have had a gunshot wound to the
15:27
Speaker 3: head with the weapon discovered nearby. His death has never
15:33
Speaker 3: sat right with anyone. Too many details just don't add
15:38
Speaker 3: a baby. Even members of his own family raise serious doubts,
15:43
Speaker 3: and up to today, there has been major evidence uncovered
15:48
Speaker 3: to prove that it wasn't a suicide at all, but
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Speaker 3: a homicide. Paul Williams, a temptation, a pioneer, a man
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Speaker 3: who fought Barry Gordyan Court, was brutally murdered at just
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Speaker 3: thirty four years old. Unlike Roger, though at least with Paul,
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Speaker 3: there were tributes and memorials that matched his contribution to
16:12
Speaker 3: the company, but many definitely faulted Barry and Motown for
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Speaker 3: Paul's downfall, but Barry just kept the train moving with
16:22
Speaker 3: business as usual. Paul Williams became the next of Barry's
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Speaker 3: bodies to quote unquote take his own life. But we
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Speaker 3: know what really happened, and even after him, there would
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Speaker 3: be more.
16:52
Speaker 4: For once in my life, I have someone needs me,
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Speaker 4: someone I've made it so long. For once, I'm afraid
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Speaker 4: I can go where.
17:13
Speaker 13: Like leaves me.
17:16
Speaker 4: Somehow I know I'll be strong.
17:22
Speaker 11: For once, I can't touch it.
17:25
Speaker 9: But my heart used to dreamer.
17:31
Speaker 6: Long before I knew.
17:38
Speaker 8: Someone like you.
17:46
Speaker 4: Could make my dream come true. For once in my life,
17:56
Speaker 4: I won't let sorrow hurt me, not like it's hurt
18:03
Speaker 4: me before. For once, I'm afraid I can go where
18:13
Speaker 4: I beeds me. I'm not alone anymore.
18:23
Speaker 11: For mos, I can say this is my You can't
18:29
Speaker 11: take it. As I know I have, I can make
18:37
Speaker 11: it for wals in my life, I have so long
18:44
Speaker 11: who needs me?
18:51
Speaker 3: How about Hubert Johnson? He was an original member of
18:56
Speaker 3: the Contours, the group best remembered for their nineteen sixty
19:01
Speaker 3: two hit do You Love Me? That single written by
19:05
Speaker 3: Barry Gordy himself became one of Motown's earliest major successes.
19:11
Speaker 3: It even got revived in the nineteen eighties when it
19:14
Speaker 3: was featured in Dirty Dancing. But the history of the
19:18
Speaker 3: group tells a darker story. The Contours were signed to
19:23
Speaker 3: Motown in the early nineteen sixties, but they were never
19:27
Speaker 3: treated like a priority act. They didn't get the same
19:31
Speaker 3: push or attention as the Temptations, The Supremes or Marvin
19:34
Speaker 3: gay Hel Barry Gordy didn't even like him. When they
19:38
Speaker 3: had auditioned for Barry in the fifties. Barry turned them
19:42
Speaker 3: away with the quickness hated them. Hubert, though, made a
19:47
Speaker 3: call to his cousin Jackie Wilson. You remember Barry and
19:52
Speaker 3: Jackie's connection from part one, and so he asked if
19:56
Speaker 3: Jackie could get Barry to change his mind. And so
20:01
Speaker 3: Jackie called in a little old favor and asked Barry
20:03
Speaker 3: to reconsider, and Barry reluctantly gave them another chance, this
20:08
Speaker 3: time signing them but with nothing but the worst in tensions.
20:14
Speaker 3: At heart, probably just saw them as more souls to
20:17
Speaker 3: suck to power the label. So what he did was
20:20
Speaker 3: he signed them to this janky ass seven year contract,
20:25
Speaker 3: and while they managed to have some success with the label,
20:28
Speaker 3: tensions grew quickly, as it often did at Motown. Unfair payments,
20:34
Speaker 3: unfair treatment, etc. Etc. And within only two years of
20:40
Speaker 3: signing the group was ready to leave, But artists were
20:44
Speaker 3: never allowed to just leave Motown. The deal with the
20:49
Speaker 3: Devil or Barry in this case pretty synonymous if you
20:53
Speaker 3: ask me. They got what they wished for, but it
20:57
Speaker 3: drained them of everything, and while they were locked into
21:01
Speaker 3: this janky ass seven year contract, they were essentially left
21:06
Speaker 3: behind at Motown's dust and left to suffer and watch
21:10
Speaker 3: as Barry's select few were bolstered into superstardom and they
21:16
Speaker 3: were practically dogshit. For Hubert, that meant watching others succeed
21:20
Speaker 3: while his own career stalled. He had the talent, but
21:25
Speaker 3: not the backing, and on top of that, Barry kept
21:28
Speaker 3: changing the Contour's lineup until Hubert himself was eventually forced
21:33
Speaker 3: out of the group altogether. Life for Hubert after Motown
21:37
Speaker 3: wasn't kind to him. Like so many others who left
21:42
Speaker 3: the label, he struggled financially and emotionally. Depression set in,
21:47
Speaker 3: and without the Motown murder machine behind him, he faded
21:51
Speaker 3: from the spotlight completely. Over the years, the Contours kept
21:56
Speaker 3: trying to recapture their spark, even as the lineup constantly
22:01
Speaker 3: shifted and the industry moved on, they still were trying
22:06
Speaker 3: to get their little peace. So when Hubert finally got
22:09
Speaker 3: the chance to record two more songs, he clung to
22:13
Speaker 3: it with everything he had. It was his shot at
22:16
Speaker 3: a comeback, a chance to matter again. But Barry made
22:20
Speaker 3: sure those records flopped, and it wasn't just a career disappointment.
22:26
Speaker 3: It was the final blow to a man already quietly unraveling.
22:31
Speaker 3: By the early nineteen eighties, Hubert Johnson was already battling
22:34
Speaker 3: mental health issues, poverty, and the pain of being discarded
22:39
Speaker 3: by the very label he had helped put on the
22:42
Speaker 3: map with Do You Love Me? And on July eleventh,
22:46
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty one, Hubert Johnson was found dead in his apartment.
22:51
Speaker 3: He had allegedly taken his own life by get this shit,
22:58
Speaker 3: ingesting rap poison and then shot himself in the head.
23:03
Speaker 3: And this is another one that wreaks a mob connections.
23:06
Speaker 3: Who Okay, the mob loved using rat, poison and shit.
23:11
Speaker 3: Now ask yourself, why would any human being on earth.
23:17
Speaker 3: Double tap themselves if you know you're inevitably going to
23:22
Speaker 3: shoot yourself in the fucking head. Is the rap poison
23:28
Speaker 3: even necessary? Or does that sound like someone wanted him
23:34
Speaker 3: to suffer a little bit before they ultimately murdered him.
23:38
Speaker 3: It wasn't enough that he was already a total shell
23:42
Speaker 3: of himself thanks to Barry. No, Barry wanted him out
23:47
Speaker 3: of his hair and to endure a little torture session too,
23:52
Speaker 3: as if his life wasn't torture enough. Hubert was only
23:58
Speaker 3: forty years old. There was no major coverage, no industry tribute,
24:03
Speaker 3: no acknowledgement from Barry or Motown, just another name left
24:10
Speaker 3: off the books. Hubert Johnson was the third of Barry's
24:15
Speaker 3: bodies to supposedly take their own lives, and it didn't
24:20
Speaker 3: end with him, because just a few years later, the
24:24
Speaker 3: most famous Motown death of all would shake the world.
24:29
Speaker 10: You brought.
24:31
Speaker 11: Because I couldn't dance, You didn't even.
24:35
Speaker 14: Want me around, And now I'm back to let you
24:39
Speaker 14: know I can really shake them down.
25:02
Speaker 13: What's me now?
25:04
Speaker 10: I was looking label well you have a me away.
25:11
Speaker 7: Till a little.
25:16
Speaker 13: At the massactata at the basket, the do the.
25:20
Speaker 9: Twist do the hell tell me?
25:23
Speaker 13: Can a baby tell me?
25:26
Speaker 1: And I canna lit?
25:27
Speaker 12: Can tell.
25:32
Speaker 7: Tell you?
25:53
Speaker 6: What's me now?
26:09
Speaker 3: By nineteen eighty four, Marvin Gay had been unraveling for years.
26:14
Speaker 3: He was no longer the smooth, sultry voice behind what's
26:18
Speaker 3: going on or let's get it on. He was paranoid, isolated, addicted,
26:24
Speaker 3: and tired. His battle with cocaine was destroying his mind,
26:30
Speaker 3: his body, his soul. He talked often about death, about
26:34
Speaker 3: ending it, about not making it to his next birthday.
26:39
Speaker 3: It wasn't just drugs or mental illness. It was a
26:43
Speaker 3: lifetime of pain. For years, Marvin had clashed with Barry
26:48
Speaker 3: Gordy in Motown, and we all know how that ends
26:51
Speaker 3: for folks. Marvin hated being controlled, hated how the label
26:56
Speaker 3: edited his albums, delayed his releases, and drained him financially.
27:01
Speaker 3: He once fled to Europe even to escape the irs,
27:04
Speaker 3: the courts, and the pressure. And even after leaving Motown,
27:10
Speaker 3: the damage stayed with him. He couldn't trust anyone. He
27:14
Speaker 3: couldn't trust the industry, not even himself, and definitely not
27:18
Speaker 3: even his own family. Gordy made sure he'd never recover
27:24
Speaker 3: after leaving Motown and Marvin inevitably ended up moving back
27:29
Speaker 3: into his parents' home in Los Angeles. His health was failing,
27:34
Speaker 3: his behavior was erratic, and his relationship with his father,
27:39
Speaker 3: Marvin Gay Senior was toxically violent. For years, Marvin Gay
27:46
Speaker 3: Senior had told people, if one of my children ever
27:49
Speaker 3: puts their hands on me, I'll kill him. Marvin knew that,
27:53
Speaker 3: and on April first, nineteen eighty four, he tested it.
27:57
Speaker 3: The fight started between his parents his His father was
28:00
Speaker 3: yelling at his mother, loud aggressive. Marvin stepped in. He
28:07
Speaker 3: tried to intervene, defended her, shoved his father out of
28:10
Speaker 3: the way. Words were exchanged. Then moments later, Marvin was
28:16
Speaker 3: shot in the chest again and again and again at
28:22
Speaker 3: point blank range. He was slumped over, clinging to what
28:26
Speaker 3: was left of his life. When his brother Frankie arrived,
28:31
Speaker 3: Marvin was still alive, barely, and the last thing Marvin
28:35
Speaker 3: said to him was I got what I wanted. I
28:38
Speaker 3: couldn't do it myself, so I made him do it.
28:41
Speaker 3: Some people call it homicide, others call it suicide by proxy,
28:47
Speaker 3: because the truth is this wasn't Marvin's first attempt. Years earlier,
28:52
Speaker 3: he had threatened to drive his car with his wife,
28:55
Speaker 3: Janice and their two kids in the backseat off a
28:58
Speaker 3: cliff he had tried overdosing. He begged for death, then
29:04
Speaker 3: begged to be saved. Marvin Gay wanted out, and that
29:09
Speaker 3: day he got it. Unlike the other's, tributes poured out
29:13
Speaker 3: from everywhere. This wasn't just another body. This was the
29:18
Speaker 3: prince of Motown. But in the end even the Prince
29:23
Speaker 3: wasn't spared from becoming one of Barry's bodies.
29:27
Speaker 11: To move mo.
29:42
Speaker 13: Fare too many, Help you cry, bather, bather, brother, help,
29:51
Speaker 13: that's far too many. Hop you die.
29:56
Speaker 5: You know we're not too far.
30:01
Speaker 8: To bring some.
30:02
Speaker 5: Loving here today. Father, mom, we don't need to hasty.
30:17
Speaker 13: All the hatter. We're all in love and comp you.
30:26
Speaker 6: You know you're not too fasly to break some loving
30:34
Speaker 6: had ticket that's ticket sick.
30:41
Speaker 13: Punish me with brutality.
30:46
Speaker 5: Talk to me, wanna so you getting now?
30:51
Speaker 10: What's going on?
30:53
Speaker 11: What's going on here?
30:56
Speaker 6: What's going on?
30:57
Speaker 5: Tell me what's going on?
31:14
Speaker 3: Four men, all tied to Motown, all connected to Barry Gordy,
31:18
Speaker 3: all gone by their own hand or something close to it.
31:23
Speaker 3: A songwriter erased, a temptation, discarded, a contour, forgotten, and
31:28
Speaker 3: a legend who couldn't carry the weight anymore. If you
31:33
Speaker 3: believe this is all coincidence, stop here, people, just move on.
31:40
Speaker 3: I'll catch it on the next episode. But if you,
31:45
Speaker 3: like me, are starting to see a pattern, keep listening,
31:49
Speaker 3: because the next set of bodies is even more astounding.
31:56
Speaker 3: Died oddly and tragically, and some left more questions than others.
32:02
Speaker 3: Shall we continue? Let's start with Florence Ballard. She had
32:08
Speaker 3: one of the strongest voices in Motown history, but by
32:14
Speaker 3: the time she died, she had no record deal, no money,
32:17
Speaker 3: and no protection. She co founded the Supremes. She named
32:22
Speaker 3: the group. She sang lead on some of their earliest recordings,
32:28
Speaker 3: but she was replaced by Diana Ross, who would later
32:32
Speaker 3: become romantically involved with Barry Gordy and have a child
32:37
Speaker 3: with him. But so Florence was slowly erased from the narrative.
32:42
Speaker 3: What came after that looked a lot like sabotage. In
32:46
Speaker 3: nineteen sixty eight, Florence signed a solo deal with ABC Records.
32:52
Speaker 3: It was supposed to be her fresh start, her first
32:56
Speaker 3: shot at reclaiming her voice, her story, her independence, but
33:01
Speaker 3: Gordy saw that the project was shelved after just a
33:04
Speaker 3: few recordings, no single was released, no album rollout. The
33:10
Speaker 3: label abandoned her. Why because Barry Gordy had her black bald.
33:18
Speaker 3: And the reason for this was because Florence had sued
33:23
Speaker 3: Motown and that's the same as signing your death certificate.
33:29
Speaker 3: She filed a lawsuit for unpaid royalties and wrongful dismissal,
33:34
Speaker 3: the same kind of legal threat that the other Motown
33:38
Speaker 3: artists were punished for or lost their lives behind. And
33:43
Speaker 3: soon after her name disappeared from the industry conversations, her
33:48
Speaker 3: performances dried up, and the Florence Ballard album quietly died
33:53
Speaker 3: on a shelf. By the mid nineteen seventies, she was
33:57
Speaker 3: living on welfare. She had three children, she was the press,
34:00
Speaker 3: she struggled with alcoholism, and her home had been foreclosed on.
34:05
Speaker 3: This was a woman who had once helped carry one
34:08
Speaker 3: of the most famous groups in musical history, and now
34:12
Speaker 3: she's reduced to shopping at the Goodwill, living on public assistance,
34:16
Speaker 3: and cast into pure obscurity. But then there came this
34:21
Speaker 3: turning point. In early nineteen seventy six, Florence announced that
34:27
Speaker 3: she was planning a big comeback. She started doing interviews
34:31
Speaker 3: booking appearances. She was going to sing again. It was
34:37
Speaker 3: supposed to be a resurrection. But it never happened, baby,
34:43
Speaker 3: because on February twenty first, nineteen seventy six, Florence checked
34:47
Speaker 3: into Mount Carmel Mercy Hospital in Detroit, and she was
34:51
Speaker 3: never seen again. She was reportedly suffering from numbness in
34:56
Speaker 3: her legs.
34:58
Speaker 7: In terrest.
35:01
Speaker 3: The next morning, she was dead, deader than fuck. The
35:05
Speaker 3: cause of death, they ruled it a coronary thrombosis, a
35:09
Speaker 3: blood clot that had caused a heart attack. The odd
35:13
Speaker 3: thing was she was only thirty two years old. This
35:18
Speaker 3: official story didn't sit right with fucking anybody. Her sister,
35:23
Speaker 3: Maxine Ballard Jenkins, publicly claimed Florence had been murdered. She
35:28
Speaker 3: said there were visible bruises on Florence's legs and all
35:32
Speaker 3: over her body at the funeral, bruises no one could explain.
35:37
Speaker 3: Maxine believed her sister had been a victim of domestic
35:41
Speaker 3: violence or something much much worse. And then there's the
35:44
Speaker 3: timing of it all. Florence died just as she was
35:48
Speaker 3: starting to rebuild her career, just as she was threatening
35:51
Speaker 3: to reclaim a spotlight Motown had snatched away. This coincidence
35:56
Speaker 3: is just too much. Barry Gordy had been fucking furious
36:01
Speaker 3: about the lawsuit. He'd let other artists crumble when they
36:06
Speaker 3: challenged him, and some believe Florence wasn't just blackballed, she
36:13
Speaker 3: was targeted. And of course he left behind no evidence
36:17
Speaker 3: directly connecting himself. Much like the quote unquote suicides, there
36:23
Speaker 3: was no investigation, but the bruises, the comeback, how he
36:29
Speaker 3: had been after her for years. It all keeps the
36:33
Speaker 3: question alive. Did Gordie arrange her death? Her funeral was big,
36:40
Speaker 3: Motown artists showed up, Diana Ross was there. She actually
36:43
Speaker 3: got booed out of the funeral for crying too loud.
36:46
Speaker 3: The people felt she was trying to make it all
36:48
Speaker 3: about her, that even in death, Diana Ross couldn't let
36:52
Speaker 3: Florence shine on her own damn dead day. But Barry,
36:57
Speaker 3: he never said much, didn't really even give a shit,
37:02
Speaker 3: and Motown never did anything to restore Florence's name or
37:06
Speaker 3: royalties or her credit. She just died a poor, poor,
37:09
Speaker 3: lonely woman, and she died blocked, She died silenced, and
37:15
Speaker 3: Florence Ballard may not have died alone. But the people
37:20
Speaker 3: who stood by her at her grave weren't the ones
37:25
Speaker 3: who stood by her in her life. Diana Ross, another
37:29
Speaker 3: voice gone, another lawsuit lost, another mysterious body tied to
37:36
Speaker 3: Barry's empire.
37:37
Speaker 11: Oh my baby going sticky?
37:55
Speaker 12: What do you like?
37:56
Speaker 2: He said?
37:57
Speaker 7: You know what I like?
37:58
Speaker 3: I like?
38:03
Speaker 5: Now?
38:04
Speaker 3: How about someone by the name of David Ruffin. He
38:11
Speaker 3: was never easy to contain, but that's what made him
38:15
Speaker 3: a star. He didn't just sing with the Temptations, He
38:20
Speaker 3: defined their golden era. His voice on my Girl Ain't
38:25
Speaker 3: too Proud to beg and I Wish it would rain
38:28
Speaker 3: turned him into a frontman the world couldn't ignore. But
38:31
Speaker 3: that spotlight it came with consequences. David clashed with Barry
38:37
Speaker 3: Gordy early and often. He wanted billing as David Ruffin
38:42
Speaker 3: in the Temptations. He wanted money, ownership and creative control
38:47
Speaker 3: of the Temptations. But Gordy didn't operate that way, and
38:53
Speaker 3: he didn't reward demands.
38:55
Speaker 1: So David, David asked, got replaced quietly, harshly, no public tribute,
39:04
Speaker 1: no graceful exit, just gone.
39:08
Speaker 3: He was replaced by a dude named Dennis Edwards. But
39:11
Speaker 3: Ruffin wouldn't go quietly. He became even more disruptive, doing
39:18
Speaker 3: things like showing up unannounced that Temptations concerts, sometimes grabbing
39:22
Speaker 3: the microphone and trying to sing. Doing things like that
39:26
Speaker 3: was bad for business, not only for the Temptations but
39:30
Speaker 3: also for Barry's bottom line, and you don't fuck with
39:34
Speaker 3: Barry's bottom line. And then David all but sealed his
39:40
Speaker 3: fate by filing a lawsuit against Motown and Barry, seeking
39:45
Speaker 3: royalties and also seeking to leave the label. This caused
39:50
Speaker 3: Barry and Motown to countersuit, in which they won. Naturally,
39:54
Speaker 3: the case was settled out of court and required David
39:57
Speaker 3: who remain under contract as a solo art with the label,
40:01
Speaker 3: but they made sure not to back him, and from
40:06
Speaker 3: that moment on, David Ruffin was locked in a battle
40:10
Speaker 3: not just with Motown but with himself. He tried to
40:14
Speaker 3: launch a solo career with Motown. Some say it even
40:18
Speaker 3: started strong with hits like My Whole World Ended, But
40:23
Speaker 3: the solo gig quickly fell apart and his Whole World
40:28
Speaker 3: ended anyways. After his contract with Motown was finally over,
40:37
Speaker 3: he bounced between labels and Barry saw that the industry
40:41
Speaker 3: would turn its back on David. Behind the scenes, it
40:46
Speaker 3: was even worse. David's addiction to cocaine was spiraling. His
40:51
Speaker 3: behavior became erratic. He disappeared for days, misshows show up high.
40:57
Speaker 3: He developed a reputation for violence predictability. The same energy
41:02
Speaker 3: that made him magnetic on stage made him a liability
41:06
Speaker 3: off of it. He kept trying to get back in,
41:10
Speaker 3: back into Motown, back into the Temptations, back into control,
41:15
Speaker 3: but Barry Gordy kept him at arm's length. There were
41:19
Speaker 3: even reunion attempts. There were these patchups that they would
41:24
Speaker 3: do with the Temptations, but none of them stuck. And
41:28
Speaker 3: then there's this the mainstream will have you believe. In
41:32
Speaker 3: June of nineteen ninety one, David Ruffin was found dead
41:37
Speaker 3: in a smack house in Philadelphia. The official cause of
41:41
Speaker 3: death would be an accidental overdose of crack cocaine. He
41:46
Speaker 3: was fifty years old. Sounds pretty cut and dry, right wrong,
41:52
Speaker 3: because almost immediately the question started, witnesses said David Ruffin
42:00
Speaker 3: was dropped off at a hospital by a mysterious man
42:03
Speaker 3: in a limousine, and he was already dead by the
42:08
Speaker 3: time he arrived at the hospital, and the man in
42:11
Speaker 3: the limousine was never identified. Ruffin's wallet and personal items
42:17
Speaker 3: were also missing, and some claimed the hospital was given
42:21
Speaker 3: a false name when he was dropped off. His family
42:25
Speaker 3: and fans demanded answers. The story just never fucking made sense,
42:30
Speaker 3: and it still doesn't. But the main question remains, how
42:36
Speaker 3: does one of Motown's biggest stars, a man with a
42:40
Speaker 3: long history of industry tension, legal battles, and drug issues,
42:46
Speaker 3: die in such a vague, untraceable circumstance, And why was
42:53
Speaker 3: Motown so quiet about it? Some say it was just
42:57
Speaker 3: his addiction that got to him. Others say it was
43:00
Speaker 3: something else. Maybe David knew too much, Maybe he talked
43:05
Speaker 3: too loud, Maybe his mistakes were used against him. We'll
43:10
Speaker 3: never know for sure, But what we do know is this,
43:15
Speaker 3: David Ruffin was one of the most iconic voices Motown
43:19
Speaker 3: ever had, and when he died, he joined the growing
43:24
Speaker 3: list and another one bites the dust of Barry's bodies.
44:11
Speaker 2: Love that so.
44:14
Speaker 12: Much, Amazon, I've got a sweet sung them community.
44:29
Speaker 3: Well, And if the deaths surrounding Motown weren't self inflicted
44:57
Speaker 3: or mysterious, then there were. He was young, just two
45:01
Speaker 3: young people, kind of like the old Faustian bargain thing right,
45:07
Speaker 3: you trade your life for fame. A lot of people
45:11
Speaker 3: who lost their lives in Motown were people who hadn't
45:14
Speaker 3: even come close to sea in forty yet. Whether it
45:18
Speaker 3: was due to illness or tragedy, these unfortunate artists lost
45:23
Speaker 3: their lives way too early. One of the main cases
45:27
Speaker 3: was Tammyterrell. Tammy Terrell was young, vibrant, and full of promise.
45:34
Speaker 3: The pretty girl with the cutesy voice joined ranks with
45:38
Speaker 3: Motown in nineteen sixty five, and it was there where
45:43
Speaker 3: she would shine. But also when Tammy Terrell joined Motown,
45:48
Speaker 3: Barry Gordy made a choice that would change her life forever.
45:53
Speaker 3: He paired her with Marvin Gay. On paper, it was perfect.
45:57
Speaker 3: Their voices melted together, the chemistry was effortless. In their
46:01
Speaker 3: duets Ain't no Mountain high enough your Precious Love, and
46:06
Speaker 3: Ain't nothing like the Real Thing Baby. They became some
46:11
Speaker 3: of Motown's biggest hits. But for Tammy, the pairing wasn't
46:16
Speaker 3: just about music. It came with consequences. It seems Barry's
46:22
Speaker 3: decision wasn't just creative, it was calculated. He deliberately placed
46:29
Speaker 3: Tammy at Marvin's side because he knew who else would
46:33
Speaker 3: be watching David Ruffin's ass pops up again. Another jab
46:39
Speaker 3: at poor old David Ruffin, because, as it turns out,
46:43
Speaker 3: Tammy and David were an item, and Ruffin was jealous, possessive,
46:47
Speaker 3: and dangerous. By giving Tammy and Marvin the spotlight together,
46:53
Speaker 3: Barry guaranteed hits, but he also guaranteed conflict, and that
46:59
Speaker 3: conflict it nearly destroyed her. Tammy's history with abusive men
47:04
Speaker 3: had already left its scars at just seventeen. She had
47:08
Speaker 3: been in a relationship with James Brown, who beat her
47:13
Speaker 3: so badly she once needed hospital care. When she later
47:17
Speaker 3: became involved with David Ruffin's ass, the cycle repeated. Their
47:23
Speaker 3: relationship was toxic, violent, and one night, rough and allegedly
47:28
Speaker 3: struck her in the head with a motorcycle helmet. By then,
47:32
Speaker 3: Tammy was already complaining of headaches, already fragile. That fateful blow, though,
47:39
Speaker 3: worsened and triggered a brain tumor that would eventually end
47:44
Speaker 3: her life. In nineteen sixty seven, the damage came into
47:48
Speaker 3: the open. While performing with Marvin Gay in Virginia. Tammy
47:53
Speaker 3: totally collapsed in his arms on stage. The crowd thought
47:57
Speaker 3: it was exhaustion, but it wasn't. It was the tumor.
48:01
Speaker 3: Over the next three years, Tammy endured eight brain surgeries.
48:06
Speaker 3: She lived in constant pains, sometimes weighing under one hundred pounds.
48:11
Speaker 3: Marvin Gay visited her often. He later admitted he never
48:15
Speaker 3: recovered from watching her fade away. On March sixteenth, nineteen seventy,
48:20
Speaker 3: Tammy Terrell died in Philadelphia. She was just twenty four
48:24
Speaker 3: years old. Her funeral was filled with Motown's greatest gladys Knight,
48:29
Speaker 3: Marvin Gay, and the official cause of death, a brain tumor.
48:35
Speaker 3: The unofficial truth Tammy had been placed in danger long
48:40
Speaker 3: before the diagnosis. Would her condition have been different if
48:45
Speaker 3: she hadn't been hit, if she hadn't been intentionally paired
48:51
Speaker 3: with Marvin by Barry Gordy in an effort to rouse
48:56
Speaker 3: Ruffan's jealousy, if Barry's manipulations hadn't turned her life into
49:03
Speaker 3: a weapon in someone else's game. We'll never know, But
49:09
Speaker 3: what we do know is that Tammy Terrell was robbed
49:12
Speaker 3: of her future. Another life cuts short, another talent gone,
49:18
Speaker 3: another of Berry's bodies.
49:25
Speaker 8: Listen, Babe, and no Mother no BALLA.
49:32
Speaker 15: What the babe, you need me call me, no matter
49:38
Speaker 15: where you are, no matter how call my name them
49:45
Speaker 15: in a hic.
49:46
Speaker 10: You don't have any word a man lo.
50:00
Speaker 15: He didn't even get the day with the mother baby.
50:04
Speaker 10: I said, you see, I go to him.
50:07
Speaker 16: And always count on me that they are.
50:12
Speaker 13: I made it about I remember in a moment somewhere somehow.
50:17
Speaker 10: Oh then go thy No, No, ain't no down and ball,
50:26
Speaker 10: They ain't no red love.
50:29
Speaker 1: And he didn't even get to you.
50:35
Speaker 10: Oh no, no, all.
50:44
Speaker 5: They just know my father coming down on the dollar
50:50
Speaker 5: to jup say.
50:52
Speaker 7: They are.
50:58
Speaker 10: In my heart.
51:13
Speaker 3: But Tammy Terrell wasn't alone. She was just one of
51:17
Speaker 3: many Motown talents who never lived to see forty. There
51:22
Speaker 3: was also Al Bryant, an original temptation who was fired
51:26
Speaker 3: early on Blackballed by Barry Big Surprise and became an
51:31
Speaker 3: alcoholic and died of cirrhosis of the liver at thirty six.
51:38
Speaker 3: Sandra Tilley of Martha and the Vandellas died from a
51:43
Speaker 3: brain aneurysm at age thirty eight. Gianna Tillman of the
51:48
Speaker 3: Marvelettes had sickle cell anemia and lupus, and she died
51:53
Speaker 3: at thirty six. And then there was Shorty Long, an
51:59
Speaker 3: early Motown singer who Barry disliked greatly and never saw
52:03
Speaker 3: fit to push because he was too raw, unpolished, and
52:08
Speaker 3: basically too black for the white audiences that Barry was after.
52:12
Speaker 3: He did have one hit, Devil with the Blue Dress
52:15
Speaker 3: on wonder if that was Barry doing a drag show?
52:19
Speaker 3: But Shorty tragically drowned in the Detroit River in a
52:24
Speaker 3: boding accident. He was just twenty nine years old. Barry
52:30
Speaker 3: taking out the garbage perhaps could it just be a
52:34
Speaker 3: coincidence though? Maybe? But seven years after Shorty, Tom Baird,
52:43
Speaker 3: a Motown producer and songwriter, also died in a tragic
52:47
Speaker 3: boding accident, and he was just thirty six years old.
52:53
Speaker 3: How about Eddie McFarland, an early Motown artist who was
52:58
Speaker 3: keeled in a car craft while touring on the label's
53:01
Speaker 3: motor Town Special Tour. He was also in his thirties.
53:08
Speaker 3: One after another, these names faded, some from illness, some
53:15
Speaker 3: from accidents, some from violence. None of them lived long
53:19
Speaker 3: enough to see the kind of legacy their work deserved,
53:23
Speaker 3: and every single one of them became another on Barry's list.
53:31
Speaker 3: Just one more body, So why don't more people know
53:35
Speaker 3: about this fucking man like Clive Davis? Again, do you
53:39
Speaker 3: research if you don't know about him? He lives in
53:42
Speaker 3: the shadows people, and he's seen as this gatekeeper of
53:48
Speaker 3: sorts and one that could make or break things. If
53:52
Speaker 3: the Motown murder machine of Barry Gordy didn't land you
53:56
Speaker 3: with death, it would be destruction by another name. Because
54:01
Speaker 3: under Motown, survival didn't always mean staying alive. It meant
54:06
Speaker 3: staying trapped, controlled, ruined. Barry ran his label like an
54:12
Speaker 3: assembly line. Everything was about efficiency and turning people into product,
54:18
Speaker 3: and his artists, the ones with the voices, the talent,
54:22
Speaker 3: the magic, often had the least control over their own careers.
54:28
Speaker 3: Every Friday, Motown held what they called quality control meetings.
54:34
Speaker 3: Songwriters and producers would present their work. Executives, not the artists,
54:40
Speaker 3: voted on what was good enough to be released. The
54:43
Speaker 3: artists themselves had no final say. They could record an
54:47
Speaker 3: entire fucking album only to have Barry say it was
54:50
Speaker 3: dog shit. Even Marvin Gay and Stevie Wonder were often
54:54
Speaker 3: told no, this wasn't about freedom of expression. It was
54:58
Speaker 3: about Gordy's bottom line and what made this Even more
55:02
Speaker 3: messed up is that Barry still forced them to pay
55:06
Speaker 3: for records he had no plans on releasing. Studio time
55:10
Speaker 3: wasn't free, and the artists had to pay for their sessions.
55:14
Speaker 3: This would cut into their payments all of the time,
55:18
Speaker 3: but allowed Barry and Motown to make money hand over fist.
55:22
Speaker 3: Barry set up publishing companies under his control as well.
55:26
Speaker 3: When artists signed their contracts, they often didn't realize they
55:30
Speaker 3: were giving up ownership of the very songs that made
55:34
Speaker 3: them famous. Motown owned the publishing, Motown owned the royalties.
55:41
Speaker 3: The singers and songwriters, the people who poured their lives
55:44
Speaker 3: into the music, got crumbs, and when the checks finally
55:48
Speaker 3: did come, they were often light light or missing all together.
55:53
Speaker 3: And in the contracts. Motown's deals locked artists in. Even
55:59
Speaker 3: if the label wasn't releasing their music, they couldn't leave
56:03
Speaker 3: and signed somewhere else. They were stuck. That's why so
56:08
Speaker 3: many sued Barry. Gordie, Florence Ballard, Paul Williams, Marvin Gay,
56:14
Speaker 3: Tina Murrie. All of them tried to fight their way out,
56:17
Speaker 3: and almost all of them lost because Barry had money,
56:21
Speaker 3: lawyers power, and then the case was done. The artists
56:27
Speaker 3: who dared to challenge him were often blackbald, forgotten, or
56:31
Speaker 3: dead as fuck. Barry didn't just control the contracts, he
56:35
Speaker 3: controlled the people. He played favorites. He chose Diana Ross
56:40
Speaker 3: over Florence Ballard. He paired Tammy with Marvin Gay in
56:45
Speaker 3: a way that fueled ruffens, jealousy, and violence. He even
56:51
Speaker 3: tried to rename the Fucking Jackson Five Michael Jackson and
56:56
Speaker 3: the Jackson Five because he knew it would have caused
57:00
Speaker 3: dissension in the group and the family was already dealing
57:04
Speaker 3: with jealousy and other toxic issues. He knew it, and
57:07
Speaker 3: he wanted to do it anyways. Joe Jackson put his
57:11
Speaker 3: foot down and stopped that. But Barry, he knew how
57:15
Speaker 3: to pit his stars against each other, and he used
57:18
Speaker 3: that tension to keep himself in control and have the
57:22
Speaker 3: artists in fighting with jealousy and rivalries. It all worked
57:27
Speaker 3: in Barry's favor. The artist never got too powerful because
57:31
Speaker 3: they were too busy of fighting with each other. But
57:34
Speaker 3: here's the cruelest part. Even loyalty didn't save you. The
57:40
Speaker 3: artists who stayed at Motown, who played the game, who
57:43
Speaker 3: kept their heads down most of them wound up completely indigent, addicted,
57:50
Speaker 3: or erased. Motown got rich, Barry got richer, and the
57:54
Speaker 3: people who built the empire they were left broken. This
57:58
Speaker 3: wasn't coincidence. It system a system where the hits live forever,
58:04
Speaker 3: but the people behind them didn't. Some died young, some
58:08
Speaker 3: died broke, and most didn't live long enough to realize
58:11
Speaker 3: the music they gave their lives to would become legendary.
58:16
Speaker 3: And supposedly, whatever Barry couldn't do himself, it has been
58:20
Speaker 3: speculated that he got others to do it for him.
58:23
Speaker 3: He allegedly went to the underworld to handle his business
58:27
Speaker 3: so that he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty.
58:30
Speaker 3: Barry Gordy is widely celebrated as the visionary founder of
58:35
Speaker 3: Motown Records, a label that transformed the sound of American
58:39
Speaker 3: music and launched countless black artists into superstardom. But behind
58:44
Speaker 3: the glittering legacy lies a long standing undercurrent of rumor,
58:51
Speaker 3: one that ties Gordy indirectly or otherwise to organized crime.
58:56
Speaker 3: The speculation largely centers around this ess named Barney Els
59:02
Speaker 3: or something like that. Owl's a Sicilian American who was
59:05
Speaker 3: hired by Gordy to handle Motown's sales and promotions, and
59:10
Speaker 3: this Barney asshole played a pivotal role in getting Motown
59:14
Speaker 3: records distributed across the country, especially in white owned radio
59:19
Speaker 3: stations and in white owned stores that were reluctant to
59:23
Speaker 3: support black artists. His effectiveness quickly became legendary, but so
59:28
Speaker 3: did the rumors. Because of Barney's Italian heritage and the
59:33
Speaker 3: speed in which Motown expanded under his guidance, questions began
59:39
Speaker 3: to swirl about whether he had mob connections. Barney himself
59:45
Speaker 3: fuelled the fucking gossip with his own cryptic comments about
59:49
Speaker 3: whether or not he was actually in the mafia. He
59:53
Speaker 3: would say stuff like I never said I was, I
59:55
Speaker 3: never said I wasn't. This kind of ambiguity only fueled
1:00:01
Speaker 3: the fire in the music industry, especially during the nineteen
1:00:06
Speaker 3: sixties and seventies. Even a whiff of mob ties could
1:00:10
Speaker 3: grant leverage or at least a certain mystique. Barry Gordy
1:00:16
Speaker 3: has consistently denied any affiliation with organized crimes. Still, the
1:00:21
Speaker 3: fact is the FBI was looking into him, but somehow
1:00:26
Speaker 3: he walked away. Smellin aroses. Critics of Gordy point to
1:00:31
Speaker 3: how tightly he controlled the Motow murder machine. Artists were
1:00:36
Speaker 3: often locked into grueling tour schedules, tightly curated images, and
1:00:42
Speaker 3: restrictive contracts that rarely allowed them to own their work.
1:00:47
Speaker 3: When artists pushed back or threatened to leave, some say
1:00:50
Speaker 3: there was an air of intimidation, whether through legal threats
1:00:54
Speaker 3: or whispered implications, that crossing Motown put your life in danger.
1:01:01
Speaker 3: But in the world of music, especially during the height
1:01:04
Speaker 3: of the record industry's mob entanglements, it seems there's too
1:01:10
Speaker 3: many connections that lead back to his mob ties to
1:01:14
Speaker 3: be denied. Mob ties are not, though Barry Gordy Junior
1:01:18
Speaker 3: shed his fair share of blood to keep the Motown
1:01:22
Speaker 3: murder machine in full swing. Suicides, mysterious deaths, young lives,
1:01:29
Speaker 3: stolen careers, erased bodies piling up. Some say it was
1:01:36
Speaker 3: just the times, addiction, illness, bad luck. But I see
1:01:41
Speaker 3: a fucking pattern people behind every one of these stories.
1:01:46
Speaker 3: There's the same backdrop Motown. There's the same man, Barry Gordy,
1:01:53
Speaker 3: in a system that lifted voices to the heavens while
1:01:56
Speaker 3: quietly destroying the people who carried them. This suicides, the
1:02:01
Speaker 3: suspicious deaths, the artists who never lived past forty, the
1:02:05
Speaker 3: ones who live long enough to die broke, and the
1:02:09
Speaker 3: whispers about mob ties, intimidation and power plays made it
1:02:15
Speaker 3: clear crossing Barry Gordy came at a fucking cost. Was
1:02:21
Speaker 3: it a curse, a coincidence, or the quiet consequence of
1:02:26
Speaker 3: an empire built on blood? One thing is certain. For
1:02:32
Speaker 3: all the glamour, all the hits, all the history, the
1:02:37
Speaker 3: shadow of Motown will always be written in tragedy. And
1:02:42
Speaker 3: the bodies left behind they still belong to Barry. And
1:02:48
Speaker 3: that is going to be Part two of the Motown
1:02:52
Speaker 3: Murder Machine. What do you think people? Is this all
1:02:57
Speaker 3: just a coincidence? Shit that I just stretching, grasping at straws.
1:03:04
Speaker 3: Or am I on to something here? Comment David Ruffins
1:03:10
Speaker 3: bee Hole in the comment section if you believe I've
1:03:13
Speaker 3: got a case here. Again, that's David Ruffins bee Hole
1:03:18
Speaker 3: in the comment section if you agree with my analysis.
1:03:23
Speaker 3: But as I said in part one, Barry's reach extended
1:03:26
Speaker 3: beyond the walls of his Motown empire. And we're going
1:03:30
Speaker 3: to talk about a couple people in particular in the
1:03:33
Speaker 3: next episode, one of them being one of my favorite
1:03:37
Speaker 3: artists of all time, Sam Cook. People have speculated and
1:03:43
Speaker 3: there's been whispers of conspiracy surrounding what happened to Sam Cook.
1:03:47
Speaker 3: And I'm going to bring it all the way home
1:03:49
Speaker 3: for you, but it's going to take time and it's
1:03:52
Speaker 3: going to take some diligence. We will expose every facet
1:03:57
Speaker 3: of the truth. But that's going to do it for today. People,
1:04:01
Speaker 3: Thanks for being here, Thank you for listening. I love
1:04:04
Speaker 3: each and every one of you. Comment David Ruffins, behold
1:04:07
Speaker 3: in the comments. If you agree with what I have
1:04:09
Speaker 3: presented today, take care of yourselves and I will catch
1:04:14
Speaker 3: you on the next one.
1:04:17
Speaker 5: Oh yes, bad a minute the boon.
1:04:21
Speaker 9: Hey, hey, I am just a bone man.
1:04:28
Speaker 12: Whoa ya.
1:04:33
Speaker 7: A phone?
1:04:36
Speaker 2: Well yeah, that must be the word today.
1:04:45
Speaker 10: My friends.
1:04:46
Speaker 16: So away then look.
1:04:51
Speaker 5: And say.
1:04:57
Speaker 7: I'm standing you please and boats not so lo oc patient.
1:05:05
Speaker 10: God, just the car, it's just a letter.
1:05:09
Speaker 16: Say it's me doney, I don't me business the bowsmad?
1:05:15
Speaker 12: Hell?
1:05:16
Speaker 10: Yeah?
1:05:18
Speaker 15: Pass mister phone?
1:05:23
Speaker 7: Well yea, so many days you pass me by, you
1:05:32
Speaker 7: saw till standing near by?
1:05:36
Speaker 9: You want stop to make me feel better vally than me?
1:05:42
Speaker 10: A got a letter?
1:05:44
Speaker 16: This is a bols man again, Sy, there will letter
1:05:48
Speaker 16: all your bad fromping. You know what's been sold? Long
1:05:55
Speaker 16: yes Ita, hurt so fen?
1:05:58
Speaker 9: What ma?
1:05:59
Speaker 11: You've been away?
1:06:00
Speaker 2: The bed and wait the bed