That last excuse is pure insanity. The mangled, twisted wreckage, the blunt force trauma the bodies had sustained, were all observed at the time the accident location was discovered. The coroner's report made it abundantly clear death had been instantaneous.

BTW, the Big Bopper's only son, who was the driving force behind the exhumation of his father, was sued by four of his half-siblings, who say he improperly instructed the record company -- after the death of their mother -- to divert all royalty payments (amounting to $100,000 a year) to him. The Bopper wrote such songs as "Chantilly Lace" and "White Lightening,"