Posted by Larry Jordan on October 15, 2014, 9:17 pm
A travesty of justice occurred in Tennessee with the granting of parole for John A. Brown, one of two cousins convicted of the cold-blooded murder of beloved Grand Ole Opry star David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife, in 1973. (The other convicted murderer died in prison).
Music City is in shock over the decision by the parole board, to release Mr. Brown.
String and his wife, Estelle, were ambushed by the two thugs when the couple returned to their rural Tennessee cabin one night after the Opry. String was notorious for not trusting banks, and would flash a roll of cash -- much to the dismay of his Opry colleagues who would warn him about this.
Grandpa Jones found the two bodies the next morning, as he lived across the way from the Akemans in the heavily wooded area.
I remember seeing String perform at the Opry the first time I visited Nashville as a teenager when I was 15 and had gone down to see Mary Reeves. I never will forget that George Morgan was singing Jim's song, "Four Walls," and doing a beautiful job of it until String -- as a prank -- walked up behind him, took out a big handkerchief, and started pantomiming big, mournful sobs.
The audience found this spectacle hysterically funny and laughed all the way through George's attempt to sing Reeves' song about lost love.
To read the Nashville Tennessean's coverage of the deaths and the parole of one of the killers, click the link below. There are also links to video, etc.
One of the key detectives that played a role in solving this murder case also helped me with my book, "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story," in unraveling some mysteries regarding the Reeves plane crash and other matters.
Be sure to read this fascinating story about the loss of innocence that Nashville experienced with the Stringbean murders.
This article tells you the details of what happened that awful night when two beloved people died at the hands of a couple of ruthless killers, one of whom has now been granted parole, despite being given TWO life sentences. Such miscarriages of justice are appalling and show just how warped our judicial system has become in America.
Grandpa Jones was also very instrumental in convicting the 2 killers. When caught, the killers had some of Stringbean's guns. Grandpa Jones was able to testify the guns belonged to String. When asked by the defense how he could be sure those were String's guns, Grandpa told how String loved to hunt (Grandpa & String hunted together often) but hated to clean the guns. So Grandpa cleaned String's guns and knew every nick and scratch on them. He was, therefore, able to identify the guns without equivocation.