Posted by Larry Jordan on December 7, 2014, 11:24 pm
Been to Music City lately? Those of us who have been going there for many years have noticed a lot of changes, and not for the better. Money has corrupted the town in many ways, including the courts, the media, and especially the music industry.
There are of course still many honest, hard working people there, and I have friendships with some of them. But the place has been undergoing a drastic transformation.
I remember years ago being shocked upon going backstage at the new Opryland, after having visited the old Ryman on various occasions since I was a teen (when I would travel to Tennessee to see Mary Reeves) and even the new Opry house when it first opened. I was amazed by the diamond-studded stars and the beautiful women in fur coats and expensive jewelry hanging around backstage, decked out in clothes that you'd previously only see in Palm Beach or on Rodeo (pronounced Ro-Day-O) Drive in Beverly Hills.
Where were the cowboys? I wondered...
Country music was being replaced by a synthetic new kind of sound performed by untalented people who had to depend on "auto tune" to sing on pitch and who, despite wearing cowboy hats, probably had never been near a horse and would be frightened to get on one of them.
Things have gotten A LOT worse since.
The New York TImes has taken note of this in an interesting story which you can read by clicking below. When you get to the page, be sure to click on the right hand side as well to read the interesting comments from people who live in Nashville, describing a situation that is much worse than what The Times writer even cited.
Fascinating insight from LJ as per usual. In his book Larry points out that JR ditched a lot of the old cowboy garb etc - he probably realised that the old west had long since gone and wanted to be more true to his current time. A lot of C&W music which tries to recall a nineteenth century existence of cowboys and shoot outs can seem rather strange. JRs music seems to transcend all of this and would be as relevant now as it was then. Controversial stuff!
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I have not visited Nashville much. Last time was around 1990. Since all of my favorite country music artists have died, and since the Jim Reeves Museum no longer exists, there is really nothing for me to go back for. If I ever pass through again, I hope to drive by Jim and Mary's old house on Westchester Drive in Madison, which I have never done.
I have no interest in what passes today for "country music", and would not walk across the street to hear any of the current "stars", even for free. I would much rather listen to a Jim Reeves record, or watch Jim or some of the old stars on You Tube. You could say I'm "stuck in the sixties".
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Sad to say, the neighborhood near Jim's former residence in Madison, Tenn. has deteriorated a lot since Jim and Mary lived there.
And the crash site off Baxter Lane has been at least partially decimated by the removal of many trees from the woods so the owner of the home to the east of the site could build another large residence to the north, or directly behind the house that's right on Baxter. It's the weirdest thing you can imagine, as the view out his window to the north is the high voltage power towers and an empty field with DANGER signs all around. I can't imagine a worse location for building a nice house. Construction has been underway on it for months.
The owner of the property has also built a long curving driveway that passes right through where Jim's remains were found, and just a short distance from "the tree." (The unedited home movie I have of the crash scene -- which I have never shown to anybody -- contains reference points which establish the exact locations of the impact point, etc.)
So what many fans regard as sacred ground has been desecrated. And that is the ONLY way to describe it.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Larry, Do you happen to have the approximate GPS coordinates of the crash site? If you do, would you be willing to share them? I'd like to drive by that way when I get a chance. Thanks!
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I said I am stuck in the sixties, and that is very true. I love the "Nashville Sound" type of country music, from back in the 1960's. It has to do with the songs, certainly. But the clincher for me has to be the voice of Jim Reeves. But for Mr. Reeves making records, I don't think I would have ever been much of a record buyer. I do enjoy some other artists, but by a wide margin, most of the records in my collection, and most that I have spent time listening to, have been those Jim Reeves made.
So, when Mr. Reeves died, in a way, my interest in country music died with him. I was only twelve years old when Jim died, and I did not start buying records until a few years later, but even in the late sixties, Jim was still heard a good bit on the radio, and his songs were on juke boxes in my town, and that is how I learned of his existence. For a kid in a small mountain town in western North Carolina to become an admirer of Jim Reeves, after his death, his probably not such an oddity given my age. It would be much more unlikely that a teenager today would become an admirer of Jim since his music is rarely heard on radio now, and I think juke boxes are out of style. I know some adults in their forties who don't know who Jim is.
I would like to tie this back into the subject Larry raised. For someone like me, there is little left in Nashville that concerns Jim Reeves. And that is the main reason why Nashville has lost its appeal to me.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Mandella, the woods are easy enough to find on Baxter Lane, but the tree and location of Jim's remains are not something I am willing to share with anyone.
I know that a foreign website recruited some of its flunkies to go digging around in the woods using metal detectors some years ago, and I also know the owner of the property is NOT happy about trespassers due to the loss of privacy and liability issues.
For me to tell anyone exactly where these locations are within the woods would surely result in a frantic effort by these same individuals to descend upon those woods. But they're too late. I began researching that crash more than 16 years ago and have had the home movie for some time. With the cooperation of the powers that be I was already able to comb those woods but I am not going to divulge what was found.
As you may know, I posted a previously unknown and very rare color home movie of the crash scene on YouTube. I edited this to remove any images of the human remains, although the original film, which I have locked up in a safety deposit box and have a personal DVD dub of, DOES show the remains in close-up, explicit detail, including both before and after these remains were picked up and placed in body bags on stretchers.
So far that video has garnered in excess of 310,000 views; over 150,000 the first time I posted it and most recently 160,000 additional views.
I felt it was historically important to post portions of this video so Jim Reeves' fans could see for themselves the aftermath of the tragedy. After all, at the time it happened, people dressed up for church were bringing their CHILDREN to have picnics at the crash site -- a truly horrific thing to do.
As you can see from the video, hundreds of people assembled on the edge of the woods and over 150 individuals were allowed to wander around the crash site and even move wreckage, thus compromising the investigation. No FAA man worth his salt would have permitted that if the woods had not already been searched.
This is a further indication that the crash location was discovered PRIOR TO the public announcement as I believe officials knew from the moment that plane disappeared from radar EXACTLY where that was. This was attested to by the controller who spoke with Reeves (and whom I interviewed twice on tape), the tower supervisor, other airport personnel, and even a now-deceased neighbor who had never been interviewed by authorities despite living across the street from the crash scene. He actually observed the plane go down, and described its flight path and movements in precise detail consistent with forensic evidence at the scene and certain other information I know about the accident.
This neighbor said in an interview videotaped for my book that it was "WRONG" (his word) that the wreckage wasn't found for two days. In fact, he said it was located almost immediately. He went on to describe on tape how people were abandoning their cars off Franklin Road and running across his yard -- even knocking down his fence -- to get to the crash scene moments after the plane went down along the busy road during RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC.
Ground searchers including civil defense workers assembled on the corner of Baxter and Franklin (within sight of the woods) later that night, and also met at a house within view of the woods. And yet we are to believe that they did not find this wreckage for TWO DAYS? That is laughably absurd. Internal airport memoranda also remark on this incomprehensible fact because John Hettish, the controller, knew the precise point where the plane disappeared from radar and he marked a spot on his scope -- just south of the high voltage power towers. He gave the EXACT COORDINATES to Jim's charter pilot, Bill Larson, who got airborne within mere minutes of the crash, and flew over the spot.
Granted, Jim's plane had penetrated the tree canopy at such a steep angle the branches closed up behind it and hence it was not visible from the air. But it was only a little way into the small, 2 acre woods. It was UNAVOIDABLE that ground searchers would have found the wreckage before two days had passed!
Instead, they blocked off Baxter so nobody could go down the road, and told people to look over toward Radnor Lake (far to the northwest of the actual crash site), even though there had been fishermen on the lake who would have seen a plane go down if it really had ended up there.
The airport officials were frustrated by being told that the woods had been searched and no wreckage was found.
Somebody in an official capacity in Nashville deliberately misinformed members of the Tennessee State Highway Patrol, the lay public and scores of civilian volunteers.
Two men who worked in U.S. military intelligence played key roles in this story, and I identify them by name and interviewed one of them (even though people tried to tell me he was deceased for years; I tracked him down).
Federal agency files have been sanitized of almost all references to the Reeves crash and so have local, state and regional files. I believe there is an ongoing cover up that continues to this day.
After I filed a Freedom of Information Act request -- twice -- for all government files on Jim and Dean, I was informed that records relevant to my request had been DESTROYED on the orders of a federal judge in Washington, D.C. AFTER my request, and that further records were locked up with Kennedy assassination papers.
(As an aside, Jim and the Blue Boys were in Dallas the day JFK was killed, and Reeves told friends he recognized Lee Harvey Oswald and "would never forget that face" as being a man who had come to his shows at Dewey Groom's nightclub -- which Jim and the Blue Boys had just played THE NIGHT BEFORE the President was murdered. That nightclub had been co-owned by JACK RUBY, the killer of Oswald.)
A young woman who waited on Jim and Dean at the small general store that functioned as an ad hoc airport adjacent to a rural landing strip in Batesville, Arkansas -- and was the person who could have seen anyone around Jim's plane -- was killed when she was run off an Arkansas mountain road in what her family still believes was a hit-and-run accident shortly after Jim and Dean died.
Days before going to press with my book I also received a call from a retired Nashville police officer whom I had earlier consulted, who put a man on the phone who identified himself as having previously worked for U.S. military intelligence. He warned me not to probe too deeply into the crash.
You need to read my book for the two chapters I devote to this. The Jim Reeves plane crash mystery also appears in the book "Hit List" by Richard Belzer and David Wayne. They devote an entire chapter to it, based on my book.
Over 2000 searchers participated in the hunt for Jim's plane and I discuss in detail how events unfolded. I have not yet told all I know about this matter.
I understand your reluctance to share the exact location based on the fact that it's on private property. The landowners will certainly have no peace from fans.
Thanks, though, for that extensive account.
It's a shame that Jim cannot receive a memorial the way Patsy Cline and others in that crash received over at the Camden crash site.
Here's a photo I took when I visited her memorial:
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Julie and I have always been very much opposed to marking a death scene. Is that how YOU want to be remembered?
How about a marker at the hospice facility where you pass away? Or the roadside where you're killed in an auto accident? Great memorial huh?
What is a shame is that there is nothing in Nashville to commemorate Jim having been there, except for a picture at Studio B.
Mary made a mistake burying him in an out-of-the-way place like Carthage, Texas, in a county where Tex Ritter also grew up, and with one of Ritter's kinfolks running the place. Tex's wife even objected to Jim being included in the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame (!) though she sure liked the huge bronze statue of old Tex on his steed out front, that cost a fortune. She remarked Jim already had a monument two miles out of town so why did he need to be remember in the Texas Hall of Fame?
But Carthage has sure benefitted by thousands of Reeves fans traveling from all around the world to come to that little town to pay their respects to Jim. How many Tex Ritter fans have done the same?
That's the mentality of some of the powers that be there. They have always been jealous of Jim's fame and NOT been receptive to honoring his life. Mary Reeves was so "out of it" right after Jim's death that Tom Perryman made the arrangements for Jim's burial there. I'm not blaming Perryman (who has a lot to answer for in putting together the deal years later to sell Jim's estate to a carney and convicted con man). But the arrangements were so hasty and Tom should have talked Mary out of this very bad idea.
Carthage is an out of the way little place that hides Jim. If he had been buried in Nashville and immortalized there, people might still remember him.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Gary, I agree with just about everything you said. I was also 12 years old when Jim died, and the Country music of the '60's was always my favorite, with Jim's records far surpassing any other artist. There were others I liked such as Eddy Arnold, Marty Robbins, Jimmy Dean, etc, but for me, no one ever came close to Jim. He was, and always will be, the best! I live on Long Island, and Jim is NEVER played here on the radio, which is just unbelievable to me! There is a radio station here that even plays a LOT of the old music from Jim's day, pop and country. They play Eddy Arnold, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins and quite a few other country performers on this station, but I've never heard a song by Jim. It is such an outrage, that I can't even think of words to describe how this makes me feel! I've mentioned Jim's music to some people from time to time that are certainly old enough to know who he is, but they have no idea who he is. An absolute crying shame! Jim deserved MUCH more credit and recognition than he ever received!
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Well, I'm afraid, Larry, that on the point of "marking a death scene," I am going to have to agree to disagree with you and Julie. I very much support the idea. To answer your question as to whether that's how I'd like to be remembered: IF I was a celebrity, and if I had a tragic accident the way Jim did, I'd expect folks may want to erect a monument at the scene of the tragedy and I would have absolutely no issues with that.
Lives become different when you're a celebrity. You become "public property " so to speak. And, as public property, people tend to want to know about the lives and times, daily routines, affairs, scandals, shopping habits, and so on, right down to the last detail about those celebrities. The death scene of such a celebrity is simply one of those details.
People want death scenes memorialized or at least to be able to visit them. Examples include: Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot, the house across the street where Lincoln died (the blood stained pillow was displayed on the bed under a glass covering), the room where George Washington died at Mount Vernon (highlighted on the tour), the blue Cadillac in which Hank Williams died, The Alamo where Crockett and Travis were killed, Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, Pricess Diana's crash site in Paris, Patsy Cline's crash site, Ground Zero in NYC, and so on. The reasons people may want to visit death scenes may vary. It could be curiosity or it could be to quietly reflect and offer prayers. Jim's fans would surely engage in quiet reflection and prayer.
But the bottom line is that when a celebrity dies (especially if they're young or if it's a tragedy), people want to visit the scene. And I think that if it is at all possible, they should be allowed to do so.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Most of the places you cited are public (Ford's Theater, Mount Vernon, Pearl Harbor, etc.), not a private resident's tree studded yard. Nor would you want a bunch of people assembling in the street in front of your house to gaze at some monument.
Pointing out the woods on a bus tour of Nashville from I-65 is one thing; having people trample through the woods on this private man's property is another. Plus it is just morbid.
I don't think ANY celebrity would want to be immortalized at their death scene.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I totally agree with you that we cannot infringe on private property. That is out of the question. That's why I said it's a shame we cannot have a memorial for Jim at the crash site. The ONLY way there can be a memorial for Jim is if the landowner wanted one and that's not going to happen. To reiterate, I do not support any attempt to infringe on private property. But, in cases where such difficulties don't exist and no private property is infringed upon, I fully support the idea of "marking death scenes" of celebrities.
I'm guessing the land on which Patsy's plane crashed is not private land? Hence the memorial?
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I'm not sure who owns the woodland where Patsy's plane went down but it is definitely in a rural area whereas the Reeves crash scene is in an urban setting just off a major highway. Baxter Lane itself is so narrow it's like someone's driveway, and it's difficult enough to drive down it, especially when you encounter a car approaching from the opposite direction. Adding traffic to that situation would be problematic, as you can imagine.
I rather like the idea of turning famous people's homes into memorials, whether it be Harry S Truman's former home in Missouri or Graceland where Elvis lived. Granted he also died there, but at least it is large enough to accommodate the crowds.
The big mistake was not to inter Jim Reeves in Nashville, where he made music history. As it is, he is hidden away in some remote location in east Texas that is off the beaten path and you have to really want to go there to get there. Whereas if Jim's statue had been erected in Nashville, it would still be a visible reminder of this great artist.
On the one hand you can cite the fact that Mary had quizzed her husband as to where he wanted to be buried if anything happened to him, and Jim declined to answer -- saying only that he was sure Mary would know when the time came.
On the other hand, Mary said in a series of published and broadcast interviews in the aftermath of Jim's death that for years she had contemplated the possibility that something would happen to him. "The odds are against you," she told me, and "studies show most accidents happen within five miles from home." I can still remember sitting in Jim's Caddy with Mary behind the wheel as she made this comment.
So this begs the question: if Mary had given this subject so much thought ahead of time -- what to do in case Jim got killed -- why didn't she think this through better? She told Tom T. Hall's wife, Dixie, that her decision to bury Jim in Texas was very well thought-out, and that she took into consideration what the effect would be ten or 20 years down the road. Well, her speculation turned out to be wrong.
Because the minute those mounds of dirt were piled on Jim's grave in that forlorn, wind-swept former pasture out in the middle of nowhere in Texas, many people in Nashville forgot him.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Mike, I find it puzzling as to why a radio station that plays Arnold, Cline and Robbins would not play Jim Reeves. There must be a reason. It would be interesting to know what it is.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Larry, Thank you for not making available the video that shows the remains of Jim and Dean, because if it was available, I don't know that I could resist watching it. I have watched the video you released, and it almost made me sick, mainly because the crash put an end to the lives of two men that I admire.
The actions of the government officials surrounding Jim's crash are curious. Obviously, certain guilty people have things to hide.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I think chasing crash sites is macarbe, jr lives on in his recordings. On a technical note the radar capability in 1964 could only have indicated the crash site within a two mile radius and there is a lack of concrete evidence to support conspiracy theories.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I too believe it would have been a LOT better for Jim to have been interred in Nashville. Carthage is so far off that it's not "on the way" to anywhere else. One must make a special trip to go there.
I did visit twice so far. Once there, it's a beautiful setting. I imagine if the same, or similar, memorial was in Nashville, many, many more people would visit and Jim would not be as forgotten an entity as he is today.
But the funny thing is, Hank Williams is not interred in Nashville either. Both his gravesite and his museum are in Montgomery, AL. However, that has not kept Hank's memory from fading as much as Jim's has.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
The remembering of people who have died depends on those still living. Most people who die are not famous, and as soon as those who personally knew them die, then there is no one left to think about them, or talk about them.
Most of the people who actually knew Jim have now passed on, so there are not many left who can actually talk about him from personal experience. Happily, we have Jim's recordings, and Larry's biography, and some memorabilia, to remind us that Jim was once here. But I would guess that most people alive today have never heard of Jim Reeves. And if they heard him sing, would have no idea whose voice it is. So, in spite of the efforts of Mary, Leo, Larry, Julie, and others, Jim Reeves is not known by most of the people in this world now.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Mr James: I am afraid your knowlege of 1964 radar is NOT correct! I spent many hours watching Don Wells, John Hettish and others operate the ASR 2 radar in Nashville Approach Control and more time flying practice radar approaches both with and without gyro headings. (simulated gyro failure) using standard rate turns until told to 'stop turn.' One time a USAF jet, unable to get into Ft Campbell, 40 miles away diverted to BNA with "Bingo" fuel, (no fuel showing on gauges) was vectored by Don Wells, (Operating initials WS or "Whiskey Sour") straight intro RWY 13 which had no ILS capability and was below approved minimums as was the airport itself using the authority of 'declared emergency.' When he landed I can't describe the relief in the A/C (aircraft commander) voice when he was safely on the ground.
Had you read Larry's book you would know I was waiting for Jim on the ground when JH called saying 'I lost him on radar' I grabbed an airplane and a few minutes later JH vectored me to the point where he lost the 'blip' which turned out to be just south and west of the actual site which was not visible because of the tree canopy. You'll have to read the rest of the story in the book. My point is I WAS THERE both in the air and on the ground, there is no third party involved in my testimony.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Rodney, I think you were just shot down by a surface to air missile.
Bill Larson, besides being one of the smartest men I've ever known, was not only a charter pilot for Jim Reeves, the Blue Boys and others -- he went on to have a distinguished career as a pilot for Eastern airlines who flew for 30 years (everything from Constellations to being the captain of Jumbo Jets) with an unblemished record.
He spent YEARS with me sifting through the evidence as I was assembling it, analyzing every piece. Just before publication of my book, I shared a lot of this with current FAA men as well as professional crash scene investigators (even a guy who teaches aircraft accident investigation). They were all mightily impressed with the reconstruction Bill and I had done. Furthermore, the neighbor who turned out to be an eyewitness confirmed details.
But I want to make several other points. Halmond Atkins, the tower supervisor at Berry Field who was on duty that day, told me in a taped interview that when the blip disappeared from controller John Hettish's radar screen, John told him that Jim crashed in that woods near the big power tower grid.
When I taped interviews with John separately on two occasions, he brought up this same point.
Furthermore, contemporaneous internal memoranda from the airport showed that they were so frustrated at being told that ground searchers had already searched the woods and there was no wreckage there, that they were getting ready on Sunday to assemble their own team to go down to Baxter Lane and search the woods themselves. That's how convinced the airport officials were FROM THE TIME THE PLANE WENT DOWN, that the crash occurred where it did.
Now why were searchers told to look elsewhere? Bill Pursell, a pianist who had played on many of Jim's RCA and demo sessions, rushed down to Baxter and Franklin when he heard of the missing plane. He told me he motioned over to the woods and suggested they start searching there, but someone told them NO, the plane was reported missing over toward Radnor Lake to the northwest. THIS WAS NOT TRUE. How did this happen?
Yet whomever was directing ground searchers deliberately ignored the input from the airport officials themselves! Think about that for a moment. The last individuals to track that plane and communicate with the pilot were offering guidance as to where the wreckage could be located, and this information was discarded. WHY?
There are too many troubling anomalies about the Reeves plane crash and especially its AFTERMATH to dismiss them. The fact that two FBI agents showed up at Mrs. Dean Manuel's home shortly after the crash and started quizzing her about any connections DEAN might have had to organized crime doesn't strike you as strange?
It was known by Saturday morning among certain individuals in Nashville (among them Chet Atkins) that there was a frantic search on for a briefcase Jim was carrying. Baxter Road was blocked off and inaccessible to searchers. WHY?
The unsolicited phone call I received from a respected Nashville police officer (who figured in key investigations during his career) and who put the guy on the phone who purported to formerly work in U.S. intelligence and who told me NOT to probe further into the crash isn't odd? Do you think this was a practical joke? This individual informed me that Jim had been a "courier."
Ted Staples, a retired judge in Texas and one of Jim's closest friends, found it odd that Reeves -- as a general aviation pilot -- was able to land at military airports. Private pilots normally don't do that. Jim also insisted that when he flew to visit Ted in a rural area of Texas, that a guard be posted to watch his rental plane 24 hours a day, which was NOT the norm.
The destruction of records relating to Jim AFTER I filed a FOIA request, and the fact other records are under government seal with JFK assassination papers is not convincing enough for you to believe that there is more to this story than meets the eye? Especially when Reeves was in Dallas when Kennedy was killed and made no secret of the fact that he recognized Lee Harvey Oswald as having come to his dances at Dewey Groom's nightclub (that Jim and his band had just played the night before Kennedy was killed). I've already mentioned this in an earlier posting here and it's in my book.
You can go back and retrieve accident reports for air crashes decades older than Jim's, yet Jim's is missing from all agency files and certain other records are also missing. Coincidence? I did manage to retrieve this vital information but circumvented usual channels to do so.
I know that Bill Larson believes, as do I, that weather was the key factor in Jim Reeves' plane crash. But what happened AFTER accident is the most suspicious part of the whole story.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Gary, I've asked myself this question many times throughout the years, and I still have no clue as to the answer. One time, maybe about ten or fifteen years ago, I was turning the dial on my car radio, and I heard Jim singing "He'll Have To Go". I almost had to pull over to the curb, I was that surprised that Jim was actually getting airplay! When the song was over, the DJ announced his name as Joe Reeves! I finally heard Jim on the radio, and they got his name wrong! There was one time a few years before that I can also remember hearing Jim sing "You Belong To Me", the overdubbed version that Mary put out, on some radio station while I was at work, but these are absolutely the only two times I can ever remember hearing Jim on the radio.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
One addition to Larry's letter: When it began to get dark I landed and called Linda Price (Ray Price's wife) who had phone numbers for many country music people and asked her to send people to the search area. As the word spread two men crashed and possibly still alive needing medical attention, the ground search began. I then accompanied THP Officer Truman Clark in his helicopter down to the area I had been searching. As we started north, east of and parrellel to Franklin Rd we saw many people WEST of Franklin Rd. Truman cheched with his dispatcher and was told the crash was near Radnor Lake and we should look there. This was only three hours after the initial reports, so the cover up had already started even though the victims might have been alive which was a heartless decision on someone's part under the circumstances. Circumstances later proved they died instantly so nothing was said, but it just proves something had to be cosidered awfully important to disregard possibility of injured victims needing medical attention.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Mr. Larson, Do you know if the identity of the person who gave the order to direct people to the wrong place is known by someone who was not part of the deception?
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Gary: At the time of the accident I was based in Washington DC with EAL and in Nashville to visit my retired father. As soon as the dust settled I returned to DCA since I was still in my first year as an EAL pilot. So I missed the immediate investigation of the accident. There is misdirection and rumors associated with any aviatiion mishap. It was not until 40+ years later when Larry and I got together, we realized the accident records had vanished and the incident 'swept under the rug' that it became apparent this misdirection was deliberate. As I posted yesterday something had to be considered extremely important to misdirect searchers from possibly injured survivors needing medical attention. I strongly suggest you get a copy of Larry's book which has details available nowhere else. Also read his post yesterday and the questions he raises. Yes, we are still looking for answers, if and when found will probably show up in the Forum.
You posted the other day thanking Larry for editing the video, believe me you were correct, When we were taken to the scene after landing by Frank Knapp, ( Airport Manager and himself an aviation pioneer flying mail flights and weather flights,) two guys with me were former "Blue Boys" and we all wished we were somewhere else, The victims had been guys that were highly respected friends we had traveled with, guys we knew very well. Believe me, it HURT!
Again, Gary, read Larry's book it will answer many questions!
Bill
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Mr. Larson, Thank you for your answer. I have Larry's book. I am in the process of reading it for the second time. Because the part of the book that deals with the crash is so painful for me, I probably forgot some of the details from my first reading. Actually, for a long time, I could not bring myself to read that part of the book. I know that must sound a bit strange coming from someone who never met either Jim or Dean, but Jim's death has had a profound effect on me since I first learned of it as a boy. I can't explain that. Neither can I explain why, after all these years, it still makes a knot come up in my stomach whenever I think about it. Anyway, I hope you are doing well, and thanks again.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I have found the discussion fascinating. Bill and Larry's revelations are remarkable. Based on their comments and the book pretty much everyone the actual crash was an accident. However it seems possible someone reached the crash site before it was officially found. If so they must have received precise location directions by the radar guys as noted by Bill. Tep questions arise. How did these person(s) come to know of the crash? Moreover what was their motivation? So far reasons advanced include - jr was carrying a briefcase or papers relating to divorce - or papers relating to Government info - some sort of link to lee Harvey Oswald - other reasons unknown? Is this a fair summary or is there info that is being withheld?
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
The crash site is just off a main north/south roadway -- Franklin Road -- and this was rush hour when the plane crossed that highway, made a turn and then an even steeper turn and flew momentarily parallel to the high voltage power lines, before the right wing went down, the left wing went up, the plane lost its lift, and went nose down into the woods, all in a matter of seconds.
A man who lived just south of the woods heard the sound of the engine as it began revving and saw the plane as the above maneuvers took place and witnessed the crash. He did not call authorities because he felt he didn't need to do so; people were turning onto his street, flinging their car doors open and even leaving their engines running to dash on foot across his lawn, trample down his fence, and cross Baxter Lane to the woods WITHIN MOMENTS OF THE PLANE GOING DOWN.
Why did authorities NEVER INTERVIEW THIS MAN? He gave his first-ever interview for my book (on videotape). For that matter, why did the Nashville press state that the plane went down behind the home of A.L. Jerden, who was away at the time -- when the fact is, this guy didn't even own the woods. That property actually belonged to the house to the east and that woman was at home at the time of the crash, but was never interviewed by reporters. Nor were neighbors across the street to the south, OR the house with the dormers that was to the west of the crash (that can be briefly glimpsed near the end of the crash scene video as the camera pans from right to left and then looks at the woods).
Now does it still sound plausible to you nobody knew where the plane was?
Even the Nashville media reported that a teenage girl had told her mother Saturday morning of having felt a huge vibration, as if something had hit her house, and heard a loud crash late on the afternoon of July 31st. She lived to the east of the woods and had walked in that direction and saw a little smoke but nothing else. But her mother notified authorities of this Saturday morning -- ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY for them to search those woods!
Why was the search party assembled at the corner of Franklin and Baxter on Friday night, and why did Civil Defense workers meet at a house a very short distance away? This was attested to by Bob Newton, who worked with U.S. military intelligence in Southeast Asia but was in Nashville at the time and in fact described for my book how he got caught in the intense downpour. He supposedly did not find the plane until Sunday, but he was in the vicinity of the downed aircraft within minutes of its disappearance from radar.
There is yet another reason why the federal government would have known about that plane crash (aside from the fact that the Nashville airport tower supervisor, Halmond Atkins, called FAA headquarters in Atlanta). An extremely important eyewitness was in the neighborhood -- which I have not yet revealed and probably will not discuss until the next edition of my book. But it will blow your mind.
That street was sealed off right after the crash, I believe to keep people from going into that woods because authorities wanted an opportunity to search it first.
Why was secrecy so important, and as Bill Larson pointed out, the emphasis was NOT on rescuing accident victims who may have still been alive? Unless authorities knew right away the crash had been fatal.
John Hornaday, the FAA man who was on duty that weekend, is the one who can be seen in the crash scene video I posted on YouTube, standing amidst the carnage with body parts laying all around, granting TV interviews -- including to a reporter standing there with a microphone in hand. Truly sacrilege. Meanwhile, Hornaday let scores of people mill about (though the public at large was kept back by police). The man who shot the video, who was the bus driver for Marty Robbins, was first told by a cop he couldn't enter the woods but he walked on past him anyway with his camera.
So Hornaday stood around while all sorts of people who should NOT have been there, milled about, thus contaminating the crash scene and compromising the investigation. Does that make sense? Either he was grossly incompetent or he knew the site had already been searched, so it didn't matter by that point. They HAD to recover the human remains, and men with plastic bags and gloves combed the area picking up pieces of flesh, etc. This can be seen in the video.
As for what was in the all-important briefcase, we can only speculate. I don't think "divorce papers" would be a compelling reason for officials to behave the way they did and divert the search efforts.
While the plane crash *may* have been an accident, what happened afterward is what raised suspicions.
Jim had a relationship with the U.S. State Dept. About this there can be no doubt. He had done many military shows, including on foreign military bases. He also was able to get band members like Leo and Bud out on unscheduled furloughs whenever he wanted, during the time these guys were in the service. Who has that kind of clout? He also landed his plane at military airports besides commercial airports. General aviation pilots DON'T ordinarily do this.
As an entertainer Reeves had access to areas the lay public did not. It was not uncommon during the Cold War era for the federal government to recruit celebrities to help. After all, testimony now establishes the CIA had enlisted members of organized crime to try to kill Cuban president Fidel Castro.
It is also very peculiar that Jim flew to Arkansas to ostensibly view property that was basically marsh land and even to this day has no practical usefulness. And even stranger is that the man he met with WAS OUT ON BAIL FOR HAVING MURDERED A HUSBAND AND WIFE IN COLD BLOOD BY SHOOTING THEM TO DEATH. Clyde Griffin was in the process of trying to burn the dismembered remains of the woman -- one of her legs -- when a Batesville, AR police officer whom I interviewed came upon the scene. Despite the horrific thing he had done, this man ended up walking free due to hung juries!
Is this the sort of individual that Jim Reeves would normally have associated with? I was also told Griffin was a criminal figure.
It surely is noteworthy that Jim Reeves and the Blue Boys played Dewey Groom's nightclub in Dallas the night before the Kennedy assassination and that club had been co-owned by Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of JFK. Jim -- who was notorious for having a photographic memory for names and faces -- said "I would never forget that face" when he saw a picture of Oswald on TV the night of Nov. 22, 1963, and recognized him as having come to his dances, the implication being he may have even seen him the night of Nov. 21st!
The official account of Oswald's movements the night before the JFK murder do not mention a stop at Groom's nightclub, but then no one can account for every minute of Oswald's life or movements. It was certainly theoretically possible he stopped by the club, however briefly. But even if he didn't, the fact that Jim had seen this man is significant. Because it also does not fit the Warren Commission's profile of Lee Oswald as an anti-social recluse. Although even members of Jack Ruby's staff claim to have seen Mr. Oswald and Mr. Ruby together at his club, and other witnesses have claimed to have seen them together.
Jim also stayed at a hotel that was frequented by Jack Ruby (who used to stop by the coffee shop) and Blue Boys told me they and Jim would go to Ruby's strip clubs.
As outlined in my book, the young woman who was the last to see Jim and Dean alive in Batesville, and who worked at the small general store that was adjacent to the landing strip or "airport" south of town -- and who was called by the FAA the night of July 31, 1964 and asked to check the "N" numbers of any aircraft sitting there to make sure Jim's plane was not among them, died shortly thereafter in what was clearly a hit-and-run accident (because parts from another vehicle were found at the car crash scene). Her family believes she was murdered.
IF someone wanted to sabotage the Reeves plane it would be easy to do and Bill Larson has explained to me how. And it would have been undetectable during Jim's pre-flight inspection. Also remember he was in a hurry to get home that day as some bad weather was approaching, and he called the weather service station TWICE -- once before leaving the home of Dean Manuel's aunt and uncle -- and again after he arrived at the small Batesville airport a few minutes later. The two men left in such a hurry, Dean accidentally left his shaving kit behind.
There is much more in my book, "Jim Reeves: His Untold Story," than what I have outlined here. There are many lingering mysteries surrounding the tragedy that took the lives of two fine entertainers.
Larry, If Jim's plane was tampered with, I would say the probability is very high that it was someone with ties to the US Government that is responsible. And, if the plane was sabotaged, I can only take comfort that God knows about it, and will administer justice to the guilty in His own time.
It is obvious that the search for the crash was interfered with by people in positions of authority (government). And, it is obvious that the reason was to protect people who were guilty of something. I don't know if it had anything to do with the assassination of Kennedy, but it could have.
Jack Ruby didn't shoot Oswald just because Oswald was alleged to have shot a President Ruby was fond of. Ruby had other motives. The Warren Commission was a farce. Records were sealed for fifty years, I think it was, reportedly to spare the Kennedy family more pain(yeah, right). Knowing what you have told, I would not be surprised to learn that Jim's crash was somehow linked to the Kennedy murder.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I wish Mary Reeves had chosen to bury JR in Nashville,and that the statue of Jim were in front of either RCA studio B or the old Ryman/GOO so he'd be seen and remembered more today by everyone who even passes through Nashville,Tenn.She must have not intended to visit his grave much,either,since he was buried far away in rural Texas.Anita L. Cooper
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
The Kennedy assassination records were sealed for 100 years I think; otherwise they would have come out by now. It does make you wonder what the government is hiding?
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
You are right, it was not fifty years. The government is hiding many things. The more I learn about what has happened, and what is happening, the more I distrust the government. Actually, my distrust is very close to 100% already.
You were warned not to probe into Jim's crash. Never forget that those who are trying to hide their guilt would think nothing of causing you to have an "accident".
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Over half a century later,aren't most of the key players in the JFK assassination and anyone who may have tampered with JR's plane---the man who likely murdered the young woman airport manager in Arkansas,the guilty parties,dead now too?In 1964 that Batesville airport wasn't much of an airport,even for a rural town.As far as the Kennedy family is concerned,I think Caroline is the only living person from JFK's close family,and she was only five in 1963.There's not much family to cause pain to left.Anita L. Cooper
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Yes, most of them probably are dead. But some may not be. But even if they are dead, I would like to know who is really responsible for Kennedy's murder. And, if Jim's plane was messed with, I would like to know who did it. But some powerful, cruel, and ruthless people don't want anyone looking into those things.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
I agree with your comments,Gary,and would like to have the answers about who really was responsible for the assassination of JFK,and if JR's plane was sabotaged,I'd also like to know who did it and why or at who's orders or behest,even if that man is still alive somehow;he may have been obeying orders in which he'd have been executed if he didn't follow them,so carrying out a sabotage on a plane and eliminating a witness(the woman manager at the small airport store)could have been things he somehow was forced to do.I can see how some of the people may still be living and are over 70 now.It is odd that the cover up continues today,five decades+ later.For persons who are elderly if still alive.They were cruel,ruthless,and powerful over half a century ago and still are in 2014.Too much is being kept from Americans for too long for it not to be severe information and it must threaten somebody alive today somehow.I have thought of a man 'high in government' who may be involved,but I will not mention him in a public forum.(Larry may have an idea who I mean)and although he is elderly,he is still alive.Speculating about who they are in a forum like this would be imprudent.And perhaps dangerous.Anita L. Cooper
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
Why would anyone want to know the exact spot where Jim and Dean died,to me that sounds really 'ghoulish',What would they do if they were told? As for having picnics there,those people obviously had NO respect at all,they are beneath contempt!
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
On the subject of an important briefcase being aboard Jim's plane, the question is; where was it picked up from? did Jim make an unscheduled stop on the way back to Nashville?
Again the mystery deepens.
Re: How Nashville has changed since Jim Reeves' day
He made no stop on the way back to Nashville. His charter pilot, Bill Larson — who happened to fly the Beechcraft Debonair that Jim and Dean died in — was at the airport refueling it when the two men arrived to embark on their trip to Arkansas. Bill recalls Jim had his briefcase with him and remembers exactly where he put it in the plane. It was also customary for Jim to carry a briefcase on his travels.
on December 8, 2014, 1:36 pm, in reply to "