August 15, 2023 • 53 mins
David Akeman affectionately known as “Stringbean” was born on June 17, 1915 to a farm family in Annville, Kentucky. Anneville is a small town in Jackson County, Kentucky. Stringbean’s love for music began at an early age. Before he was 8 years old, he built his first instrument out of a shoebox and thread. He most likely developed his early love for music from his father who was a successful banjo player who often played throughout the community. By the time Stringbean was 12, he bought his own banjo and then began playing at local dances and built a reputation as an excellent musician.
While working construction type work building roads and planting trees, he continued playing his banjo with a goal of making it big in the music business. His career began when he entered a contest being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin. After impressing Martin, he soon joined Martin’s band.
During a performance, Martin had forgotten David Akeman’s name. So he just introduced Akeman as “String Beans” The nickname was given to him based on his tall lanky frame. Apparently, the name stuck and David Akeman would become known simply as String Bean.
Not only did Stringbean become known for his musical abilities, he also became known for being a funny guy. Stringbean became known as a comedian musician. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington, Kentucky, and played with different groups during the late 1930s. Strange enough, old country music back in the 30s didn’t include much banjo playing. However, Stringbean was able to keep banjo playing relevant in country music.
Interesting enough, Stringbean was also a decent semi pro baseball player. His baseball playing skills became known to Bill Monroe, who had his own semi pro club. Monroe was so impressed with Stringbean that he added Stringbean to his band. He played in Monroe’s band from 1943 until 1945.
After Stringbean left Monroe in 1945, he was replaced by another popular banjo player named Earl Scruggs, who had a different sound than Stringbean. Stringbean would also go on marry his sweetheart Estelle Stanfill in 1945. The following year he would begin working with another banjo player named Louis Marshall Jones, affectionately known as Grandpa Jones. The two men would both be together doing comedy in the television program Hee Haw. Grandpa Jones was a WWII veteran and would become Stringbean’s closest friend. The men also became neighbors in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
Akeman was one of the Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. Oddly enough, he didn't begin recording on his own until the early '60s, when he signed to the Starday label. He had hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where Wanda Went," and recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972.
His first album was titled Old Time Pickin' and Grinnin' with Stringbean which was released in 1961. His music was considered folk stories with a taste of comedy. At the time, Stringbean and his buddy Grandpa Jones became the two biggest old time banjo players of their era.
In 1969, a country style comedy would come to television. The program would be called Hee Haw and was on television from 1969 to 1993. The program lasted for 26 seasons and recorded 655 episodes. Any popular country musician who was anybody appeared on the show.
Unfortunately, Stringbean and his wife Estelle would be tragically murdered on November 10, 1973. After the couple returned home from a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, they walked in on a robbery by two men. Stringbean was shot to death in front of his fireplace and his wife Estelle was shot to death outside their home while trying to flee the robbers.
It would be Grandpa Jones who would find the bodies of his beloved friends the next day. Grandpa Jones had plans to pick Stringbean up the next day for a a planned hunting trip. Grandpa Jones would learn the sad truth when he pulled up to his friend’s cabin at 2308 Baker Road near Ridgetop, Tennessee. According to author Taylor Hagood, Stringbean and Estelle didn’t believe in using banks. Both were alive during the Great Depression when many people who had money in their banks lost it all.
Stringbean was known to keep thousands of dollars in cash laying around his house. Grandpa warned him many times to not keep his money in the house. He told Stringbean that one day, keeping that cash around the house would get him killed. When Grandpa found the bodies of his murdered friends, he knew the day he worried about had finally come. The murders shocked Nashville residents. Author Taylor Hagood would write a book about Strinbean's life and death.
For his book about Stringbean, Hagood interviewed one of the lead investigators in the case, surviving members of Stringbean’s family and fellow musicians who knew Stringbean persona
While working construction type work building roads and planting trees, he continued playing his banjo with a goal of making it big in the music business. His career began when he entered a contest being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin. After impressing Martin, he soon joined Martin’s band.
During a performance, Martin had forgotten David Akeman’s name. So he just introduced Akeman as “String Beans” The nickname was given to him based on his tall lanky frame. Apparently, the name stuck and David Akeman would become known simply as String Bean.
Not only did Stringbean become known for his musical abilities, he also became known for being a funny guy. Stringbean became known as a comedian musician. He also broadcast on WLAP out of Lexington, Kentucky, and played with different groups during the late 1930s. Strange enough, old country music back in the 30s didn’t include much banjo playing. However, Stringbean was able to keep banjo playing relevant in country music.
Interesting enough, Stringbean was also a decent semi pro baseball player. His baseball playing skills became known to Bill Monroe, who had his own semi pro club. Monroe was so impressed with Stringbean that he added Stringbean to his band. He played in Monroe’s band from 1943 until 1945.
After Stringbean left Monroe in 1945, he was replaced by another popular banjo player named Earl Scruggs, who had a different sound than Stringbean. Stringbean would also go on marry his sweetheart Estelle Stanfill in 1945. The following year he would begin working with another banjo player named Louis Marshall Jones, affectionately known as Grandpa Jones. The two men would both be together doing comedy in the television program Hee Haw. Grandpa Jones was a WWII veteran and would become Stringbean’s closest friend. The men also became neighbors in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
Akeman was one of the Opry's top stars throughout the 1950s. Oddly enough, he didn't begin recording on his own until the early '60s, when he signed to the Starday label. He had hits with "Chewing Gum" and "I Wonder Where Wanda Went," and recorded seven albums between 1961 and 1972.
His first album was titled Old Time Pickin' and Grinnin' with Stringbean which was released in 1961. His music was considered folk stories with a taste of comedy. At the time, Stringbean and his buddy Grandpa Jones became the two biggest old time banjo players of their era.
In 1969, a country style comedy would come to television. The program would be called Hee Haw and was on television from 1969 to 1993. The program lasted for 26 seasons and recorded 655 episodes. Any popular country musician who was anybody appeared on the show.
Unfortunately, Stringbean and his wife Estelle would be tragically murdered on November 10, 1973. After the couple returned home from a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, they walked in on a robbery by two men. Stringbean was shot to death in front of his fireplace and his wife Estelle was shot to death outside their home while trying to flee the robbers.
It would be Grandpa Jones who would find the bodies of his beloved friends the next day. Grandpa Jones had plans to pick Stringbean up the next day for a a planned hunting trip. Grandpa Jones would learn the sad truth when he pulled up to his friend’s cabin at 2308 Baker Road near Ridgetop, Tennessee. According to author Taylor Hagood, Stringbean and Estelle didn’t believe in using banks. Both were alive during the Great Depression when many people who had money in their banks lost it all.
Stringbean was known to keep thousands of dollars in cash laying around his house. Grandpa warned him many times to not keep his money in the house. He told Stringbean that one day, keeping that cash around the house would get him killed. When Grandpa found the bodies of his murdered friends, he knew the day he worried about had finally come. The murders shocked Nashville residents. Author Taylor Hagood would write a book about Strinbean's life and death.
For his book about Stringbean, Hagood interviewed one of the lead investigators in the case, surviving members of Stringbean’s family and fellow musicians who knew Stringbean persona
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
The old Kentucky wonder strang Bean.Hold that you get back on give him
I'll do it every time I dothe song. Here, I have a
fit and I feel want of comingon right now. Hang on, children,
(00:35):
you walk up to your due.Can you slip and it go in?
You can bet your bottom dollar whenthat rick start, you spend your
hairt fit, lading up sound andthat he'll be any feet. I should
spend on around, beep around orget around you and romping down. I'll
be Robby Castle, storing, riding, slip bel around, He'll man.
(01:02):
Hello and welcome to the Catch MyKiller Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly newspaper
column about true crimes and missing peoplefor the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With a column and podcast, ithas always been my objective to bring attention
to those cases that have not receivedmuch media attention, if any at all.
(01:27):
This week's story involves the homicide ofDavid string Bean Akman and his wife
is still. Stringbean was a countrymusic star from Kentucky who was a grand
old opery legend from the time hewas a child. He had a love
for the banjo and would become knownfor his old fashioned banjo picking style of
(01:49):
playing. He was one of theearliest cast members of a family program called
Keehaw. Unfortunately, string Bean's risingstar would be dimmed forever when two men
viciously murdered him and his wife EstelleBy November tenth, nineteen seventy three.
For string Being's story, I interviewedauthor Taylor Heygood, who wrote a true
(02:12):
crime book about string Being titled stringBeing The Life and Murder of a Country
music Legend. David Aikman, affectuallyknown as string Being, was born on
(02:35):
June seventeenth, nineteen fifteen, toa farm family in Annville, Kentucky.
Based on twenty twenty census data,Annville is a small town in Jackson County,
Kentucky, with a population of justover one thousand people. String Bean's
love for music began at an earlyage. Before he was even eight years
(02:55):
old, he built his first instrumentof a shoe box and some thread that
he got from his mother. Hemost likely developed his early love for music
from his father, who was asuccessful banjo player who often played throughout the
community. So string Being grew uparound musicians his entire life, so it
was probably no surprise to anyone whoknew him that he would also grow up
(03:17):
to become a popular musician. Bythe time he was twelve, he had
enough money to buy his own banjo. He then began playing at local dances
and built a reputation as an excellentbanjo player. While working construction type jobs
building roads and planning trees, hecontinued playing his banjo with the goal of
(03:38):
making it big in a music business. String Bean's career officially took off after
he entered a contest being judged bymusician Asa Martin. After impressing Martin,
he soon joined Martin's band. Duringa performance, Martin had forgotten David Aikman's
name, so he just simply introducedAikman as string Beans. The nickname was
(04:02):
given to him based on his tall, lanky frame. Apparently, the name
stuck, and David Aikman would soonbecome known as string Bean. I would
also like to add something about thisnickname. It's also been said that Aikman
was introduced as string Beans plural,so it's actually debatable whether Martin called him
(04:25):
string Bean singular or string Beans pluraland not only did string Being become known
for his musical abilities, he alsobecame known for being a pretty funny guy.
String Bean became known as a comedianmusician. He also broadcast out of
w Lap out of Lexington, Kentucky, and played with different groups during the
(04:46):
nineteen thirties. Oddly enough, oldcountry music back in the thirties really didn't
include much banjo playing. However,string Bean was able to keep banjo playing
relevant in country music when he played. In addition to being a musician,
string Being truly was a man ofdifferent talents. A lot of people may
(05:08):
not realize it, but he wasalso a decent semi pro baseball player.
His baseball playing skills became known tomusician Bill Monroe, who had his own
semi pro club. Monroe was soimpressed was string Bean that he added him
to his band. String Being wouldplay in Monroe's band from nineteen forty three
until nineteen forty five. After stringBean left Monroe in nineteen forty five,
(05:33):
he was replaced by another popular banjoplayer named Earl Scruggs, who played a
different style of banjo than string Bean. String Bean also would go on to
marry his sweetheart, A still standfillin nineteen forty five. The following year,
he would then begin working with anotherbanjo player named Lewis Marshall Jones,
(05:56):
affectionately known as Grandpa Jones. Thetwo men would get to Yeah, They're
doing comedy in the television program Heehaw. Grandpa Jones was a World War Two
veteran and would become string Bean's closestfriend, and the two men would also
become neighbors in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.During the late nineteen forties, string Being
(06:16):
also formed a team with lou Childrenand became a regular performer at the Grand
Old Opry. During string Bean's GrandOld Opry days, he began wearing his
night shirt and pants that made himlook like a tall man with tiny legs.
He pretty much looked like a humanstring Being playing a banjo. It's
been said that string beans attire wasinspired by a comedian named Slim Miller.
(06:43):
After World War Two, Uncle DaveMacon, another Grand Old Opry legend,
took string Being under his wing.He helped string Being develop his ability to
play songs and tell funny jokes.Before Macon died, he gave string Being
one of his prize banjos. Duringthe nineteen fifties, string Being became one
of the Grand Old Opery's biggest stars. Although he had made a name for
(07:08):
himself, he didn't sign with arecord label until the nineteen sixties, when
he signed with the Star Day label. He had hits with songs Chewing Gum
and I Wonder Where Wanda Went.He recorded seven albums between nineteen sixty one.
In nineteen seventy two, his firstalbum was titled Old Time Picking and
(07:30):
Grinning was string Being, which wasreleased in nineteen sixty one. His music
was considered folk stories with the tasteof comedy at the time. String Being
and his buddy Grandpa Jones became thetwo biggest old time banjo players of their
era. In nineteen sixty nine,a country style comedy would come to television.
(07:51):
The program would be called Heehaw andwas on television from nineteen sixty nine
to nineteen ninety three. The programlasted for twenty six seasons and recorded six
hundred and fifty five episodes, andany popular country musician who was anybody appeared
on the show. String Being andGrandpa Jones would become a part of the
(08:11):
original cast. String Being became aninstant hit with the fans. His tall,
lanky body, goofy facial expressions,and lovable personality made him a fan
favorite. Coupled with Grandpa Jones,he Hall was an immediate success. Even
if you didn't like country music backin the day, you could still enjoy
(08:31):
watching Heahaw. I'm not a countrymusic fan by any stretch of the imagination,
but I absolutely loved watching Heehaw withmy parents and grandparents when I was
a child. Unfortunately, string Beingand his wife Estelle would be tragically murdered
on November tenth, nineteen seventy three. After the couple had returned home from
(08:52):
a performance at the Grand Old Opry, they walked in on a robbery by
two men. String Being was shotto death in front of his fireplace and
his wife, a Stell, wasshot to death outside their home while trying
to flee the burglars. It wouldbe Grandpa Jones who would find the bodies
of his beloved friends the next day. Grandpa Jones had plans the pick string
(09:16):
Being up the next day for aplan hunting trip. As Grandpa Jones headed
over to pick up string Bean,he became concerned because he knew that string
Being must start off every morning witha cup of coffee next to a lit
fireplace. When Grandpa didn't see anysmoke coming from string Bean's chimney, he
knew something was wrong. Grandpa Joneswould learn the sad truth when he pulled
(09:41):
up to his friend's cabin at twentythree zero eight Baker Road near Ridgetop,
Tennessee. According to author Taylor Haygood, string Bean in a Stell did not
believe in using banks. Keep inmind, if they were both around during
the Great Depression, when many peoplewho had money in their banks lost at
all, they just didn't trust thebanks. String Being was known to have
(10:05):
kept thousands of dollars in cash layingaround his house, Grandpa Jones warning many
times to not keep that much moneyin the house. He had told string
Being several times that one day,keeping that much cash around the house would
get him killed. When Grandpa foundthe bodies of his murdered friends, he
knew that day he had worried abouthad finally come. The murders shocked Nashville
(10:31):
residence. Who would kill string Beingin a Stell? The public and String
Being's fellow country stars were enraged.They demanded law enforcement capture and punish whoever
killed string Being in a stell.Law enforcement would eventually arrest and convict cousins
John A. Brown and Marvin DouglasBrown, both twenty three years old.
(10:54):
For his book about string Being,author Taylor Heygood interviewed one of the lead
investigators in the case. He alsointerviewed surviving members of string Bean's family and
fellow musicians who knew string Being personally. He then compiled his findings into the
book titled string Being The Life andMurder of a Country Music Legend. This
(11:20):
is the first half of a twopart story. Please be sure to listen
to the conclusion next week. Andnow on with this tragic story of David
Aikman, effectually known as string Beanand his wife Estelle Aikman, is told
by author Taylor hey Good. Taylor, first of all, I would like
to thank you so much for sharingyour research about David string Being Akman with
(11:45):
me. Also, thank you forsending me a copy of your book.
I did read it and I enjoyedit. So with that, let me
start out with asking you how topronounce your last name. I don't want
to butcher it is it haygood orgood. It's y good, Taylor very
good, Okay, and thank youfor the clarification. So tell me about
(12:07):
yourself and why you decided to writea book about country music legend string being.
My name is Taylor very Good,and I am a professor. I
wear a lot of hats, butto my main thing is that I'm a
professor at Florida Atlantic University, whichis in bulk of a town. But
long before I was a professor,I was very interested in old time country
(12:31):
music. I always loved the musicof Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams and people
like that. And I was alsoin the playing music, playing the guitar
and the banjo and the piano andthat kind of thing, and particularly the
banjo was just always interesting to me. And when I was a kid,
I testored my mom and dad andbuying me a banjo from my birthday.
It was a little harmony banjo fromSears catalog and I was just captivated by
(12:56):
this instrument. And I had alsomanaged to pester them into taking me to
the Country Music Hall of Fame.Originally from North Mississippi, Ripley on the
Tennessee state line, Mississippi Tennessee stateline. My dad's folksed in Tennessee and
did a lot of places, butthe home and the hometown. But anyway,
we went to the Country Music Hallof Fame, and there I saw
(13:18):
a string beans banjo and I sawthis picture of him, and he had
a very strange to dad in me. Had a very long torso and very
short pants, a very short leg. But it was a costume that he
had, and I thought, man, that's a strange looking guy. And
I thought, okay. But anyway, I heard my mom and dad at
the time talking about remembering his beingmurdered about two years before I was born.
(13:41):
But they were talking about that,and so just filed the way in
the back of my mind. Andthen I grew up and became a professor
and sing on the southern literatures ofthe southern part of the United States and
the culture and the music and soforth. And anyway, I've been reading
a lot of biogeason. I wasinterested in biography and interested in true crime.
(14:03):
I've been reading true crime. I'vebeen reading not just the cortessential true
crime book, the sort of theoriginal You in Cold Blood, but others.
And I was interested in history generally. So anyway, one day I
was just looking on the phone ina video of string being popped up,
and I thought, how about toread a book about them? And so
that I went to try to findone, and really wasn't one. The
(14:26):
book written in nineteen seventy five,two years after the murder, and it
was about the investigation, but itreally didn't give you much about string Bean's
life, which is so crucial tothe story in a way, the investigation,
the murder, and all in thetrial that those are all separate from
string Bean's life in some ways andseemed that way, but in fact they
(14:48):
take on their greatest power and meaningin light of his life stories. So
anyway, I just started doing thework on that and said, well,
I guess I'm going to be theguy who writes this book. And that's
how it happened. Now, whenyou wrote your book, were you able
to actually find any surviving family membersa string being and get to speak to
(15:09):
any of them to get their insightsabout him? Well? I did so,
well, absolutely So some of thepeople I got to speak with who
knew it, you know, werepeople who had worked with him. So
Loretta Lynn, the country music sayingvery helpful with the book. Paul Jones
had passed away, but his sonwas very helpful. Also, there's a
(15:30):
country sing named Whipper and Bill Anderson, pretty big, legendary kind of guy.
And so there were a number ofthose people who helped out, and
there were some family now string Being, didn't you know, by the time
I got to do in this book, none of his siblings and obviously his
parents were no longer alive, buthis nephew as a very nice gentleman,
lives in Kentucky, and in fact, they do a string Being annual festals
(15:54):
just this past weekend. His nameis Philip Bateman, and he was incredibly
gen was credibly generous. And therewas some other nieces and nephews and so
forth. But you know what,at this point, I'm sorry to say,
there aren't many people really to actuallynew stream being. It's just a
handful. And I was writing thisbook, of course during the pandemic,
(16:18):
and it turns out that people wereyou know, i'd say it, you
know, there were people who passedaway even before I could get to.
One of the people I was goingto try to talk to was Roy Clark,
and the banjo player who toured wasstream being early on, and I
wasn't able a best way for medid so those things happened, but I
got some great stories, and probablyone of my favorite ones was Lulu Roman,
(16:41):
who was one of the founding pastmembers of Heat Hall and stream Bean
was on that with her, andshe didn't actually know what anything about country
music when she got on the show. She knew like one She knew buck
Owens basically, and she got onthe show and she didn't know who anybody
was. And I asked her,I said, what did you think when
you saw this guy string Bean?Oh, that long his costume with the
(17:03):
long shirt and short pants, Andshe said, Honey, I was on
so much at LSD at that timethat I thought one of those creatures I've
been seeing it become real. Well, well, that was quite as smart
as I can remember watching he Hallwith my parents and grandparents when I was
a kid. I was about fouryears old when string Bean died, so
(17:26):
by the time when he passed away, I wasn't really watching it then.
I'm gonna say that I probably startedwatching it back in the nineteen seventy five
or nineteen seventy six so string Beanwas already gone by then, but I
do remember Roy Clark and Buck Owensm And for me to like Keyhaw,
(17:47):
that's really saying a lot because I'mdefinitely not a country music fan. I
really don't care for the modern music, but I did like the older music
with Loretta Land and Johnny Ash.You're right right, well, yeah,
Now regarding stream Being, I didenjoy his music. As a matter of
fact, I will still go onYouTube and watch old videos of him from
(18:12):
when he was on Heehaw, AndI think that he was really a very
talented musician, and I thought thathe was especially funny too, especially for
his time doing the music, andcomedy was really great, you know.
And then him and Grandpa Jones togetheron heehall was really great. He was
(18:33):
really a comic. Yeah, Andof course the clips of him and Grandpa
Jones together are classic. I knowthey were best friends in life, but
they also had that chemistry together.It was really great on Heehaw. Yeah,
they really did, and had avery drass into humor. I think
a really interesting thing about stream Beingand a really interesting thing to me about
(18:57):
him, And you mentioned the Cash. Of course, Johnny Cash never goes
out of style. He was.He did some folks he did. He
was a rock and roll guys country, so he was a little bit of
everything. Stream Being was not thatguy, but in his own way.
Stream Being he's sort of cool ina very uncool way, you know what
I mean, Like he's not youknow. But he was a guy who
kind of really blasted over these decadesand remained relevant. And everybody who worked
(19:23):
with him loved him. He wassomebody who was a great colleague, you
know, And that was part ofthe thing. When he was murdered,
it really hit people. He wasa real punch in the stomach. I
had always thought the string Being seemedlike a really interesting guy. As a
matter of fact, I had reada lot about him, and I had
(19:45):
decided that I wanted to write acolumn about him. I write this true
crime column for this paper in Ohio, and I've been doing it for a
while. But I just wanted towrite something about him. I guess I
just wanted people to who had neverheard of him to maybe be curious enough
to look him up and learn abouthim, or look up some of his
(20:07):
videos and listen to his music onYouTube. Oh okay, and through that
column. I believe that's how Iended up getting in touch with your press
person, or actually they contacted mebecause they must have read the article and
thought that maybe that I might beinterested in speaking to you about your book,
(20:30):
and they were right. When Iwas contacted about it, I was
definitely interested. So yeah, Idefinitely wanted to talk to you when you're
a publicity person contacted me. Soyeah. But from what I've read about
him, I've read that string Beingwas a pretty humble, normal guy and
he didn't have any kind of anego. It was almost as if he
didn't even know he was famous.Yeah, no, that's been true.
(20:53):
And his wife lived in a littlebit of house little Nashville, and he
was a tall guy, tall guy, and I'm not I'm on like five
eight and a half, you know, but like going to that house.
I visited the house, but theowners, the current owners of credibly nice
people. And going to that house, the eve of the house, it's
just a tiny assist a few rooms, and the eaves of the house when
(21:18):
you go up on the porch,it almost hits me in the head to
walk on to the porch. Sohe would have had to been pretty far
over just to get on there.And I only mentioned that because it's a
tiny little house and that's where helived in a lot of land, but
that's where these people lived here andhis wife, and they lived a very
quiet life and they minded their ownbusiness, and they were very humble.
(21:41):
Yeah, and they were very frugal. I don't know about you. My
grandmother used to after the Christmas shouldn'tbe ironing the wrapping paper. You know.
She was very frugal. She hadbecome of age in the Great Great
Depression, just a stream Being hadand they were very frugal people, and
they didn't spend money. They wouldbuy, Yeah, they would trade him
for a new catalac every year atthe beginning of the year, and that
(22:03):
was their one splur. They hada boat. They're a basketboat. Really.
They weren't like George Jones or somebodywith a lot of stuff that.
They weren't that person at all.Nothing against George Jones, but they were
a very different type of people.Yeah, both string Being and his wife
Estelle, both sounded like very humblepeople and very good people too. Yeah,
very string Being like the hunt heliked to fish. He was just
(22:27):
a normal guy. It wasn't likethe guy was taking yachts all over the
place or living in a mansion,or just seemed like a pretty normal,
everyday guy just living his life.That's right, it really was. It
really was. While doing research forstring Being story, I had learned that
(22:48):
he was truly a very humble man. He didn't take his fame too seriously,
and he just seemed to be happyas long as he can entertain his
fans with the sweet sounds of hisbanjo playing, his goofy facial expressions,
his lanky physical appearance, and hiscorny jokes. We will take a short
break in return with details about stringBean's early days as a young and upcoming
(23:12):
musician from Kentucky. So tell meabout what it was like for string Being
(23:33):
coming up. Because a lot ofpeople that will be listening to this will
have never heard of string Being,so they won't know anything about him,
and I would like them to becurious enough to look him up and do
some research on him, or toeven purchase your book. So tell me
more about how did he end upbecoming a musician? Tell me about his
(23:56):
humble beginnings absolutely, and let metell you just to make a point I
guess on routes to that. Iappreciate very much your research and writing,
and you know, I want tosay that in my mind, I tried
to get his I put everything intothe book that I could find, But
I suspect there are probably stories outthere that I can't find at this point,
(24:19):
and there may be more things cometo light, and so it's my
hope that people will continue to dothe research and learn about him, because
I think there's probably more out there, you know. But anyway, who
was again, his name was David. Her name was David Eightman A K
E M A N. The familyspend a little different ways, but that's
(24:40):
how he ended up spelling it theway. He was from Jackson County,
Kentucky, which is kind of southmaybe a little bit southeast Lexington, kind
of close to London, Kentucky,And anyway, grew up there, grew
up on a farm, and hebut that was a banjo player and stream
being Dave Lateman learned to play LevanJoe's as a kid, and then when
(25:03):
he was, you know, getto be young man, there was a
banjo contest held near him. Hesent by radio station in Lexington and he
competed in it. He did notactually win that contest, but he made
enough of an impression on the gentlemanthe name Asa Martin, who was running
the contest and was a radio personality, and Asa Martin invited him to play
(25:26):
on the radio. He went toLexington, did David Akman, And when
he got there, Asa Martin wasfamous for the kind of famously would forget
people's names, and he couldn't rememberthis guy's name that he had invited,
and he said, well, helooked at him and said, well,
he's tall. He said, comeon over here, a stream bean and
play us as all. He couldn'tthink of his name. So now some
(25:51):
people say Asa Martin said stream Bean, And in fact, a lot of
times, especially earlier in his career, stream being or Dave Aateman was billed
as in the plural for him streamBeans, but I suspect it was probably
the singular because he looked quiet,as you say. But anyway, that's
how he got his name, andhe started playing his playing with two three
different groups at least. And it'sanother thing I'm kind of curious about it.
(26:12):
If there's anybody out there listening whoknows and you know, there may
be other groups he was playing with. I was able to identify I think
to three during those early years,but a lot of stuff is not documented
from that time. But anyway,he was doing that. Then he got
connected with Charlie Monroe. Of course, Charlie and Bill Monroe were big gleb
(26:33):
brothers and they had split up,and then Bill Monroe really became the father
of bluegrass music. And the factstream Being ended up not only playing with
Charlie, but ultimately he became thefirst and people listening to anybody who knows
about bluegrass music may be surprised tohear that it was actually David string Being
Eateman who was the first banjo playerwith Bill Monroe, because a lot of
(26:57):
people think about it being Earl Scrulland Earl Scruggs replaced stream Being, so
that was David Eateman and left Streamingleft Building Rhodes. The team up with
another singer named Luke Children and afterthat this Eurol Scruggs came into the group.
So really stream Being was an importantperson in the history of bluegrass music
(27:19):
because he was the first one toreally bring that banjo sound into it.
He played a different style he playedhe called a rapping style and most people
call it climber style. And heplayed two finger picking style, but both
of those are different from what EarlScrugs did, which is a free finger
picking style. Anyway, that waswhat he did, and he became part
(27:40):
of the Grand Old Opry ultimately asa solo act, and over the years
he played there. By the nightHank Williams debuted on the Grand Old Opry
stream being was standing in the wingsand he played, I don't know one
or two slots after him, hewas right there, so he was really
there, and he really bridged thoseearly days, the really early days the
country music and radio and all ofthat all the way into the television era.
(28:04):
And ultimately, when he was murderedin the nineteen seventy three, it
was right on the cusp of thatthe you know that outlaw country music,
and in fact, Willie Nelson itwasn't his, one of the quintessential outlaw
country singers. Lived very close tostring being in Enridged tut Tennessee's house burned
down and he headed all back hometo Texas and that's where he started growing
(28:27):
his hair out and became the WillieNelson. We know, and that's who
I guess, sort of a shortversion of string Being's musical career. Okay,
now let's talk about heahaw. Howdoes string Being end up being on
Heahaw? Tell me about that?So he how So it's kind of interesting.
He wasn't necessarily in the original lineupas they envisioned it. Of course.
(28:52):
He all was developed by a coupleof producers who are actually from Canada.
They had been watching the show laughin and they said, we think
we could do it a ton ofa rural version of this had rural TV
had come in. So you thinkabout the sixties, you know, you
had the fifties and sixties, youhad the Andy Griffiths showed, you had
Green Acres and I she got somerural programming. Oh those were great shows,
(29:15):
Andy Griffiths, Green Acres. Iwatched them all. Okay, you
don't tell about Oh definitely. Sothere was this rural all this rural programming
have been doing pretty well, andso these guys, well, can we
do sort of a rural la versionof laughing basically, so it was a
popular show at the time, comedyshow. If he mayn't have been doing
(29:37):
comedy from from early on. Hehad didn't do it at almost from the
beginning, and he had a realdrive it. And anyway, so they
set up this show and they they'rereal contact person was Buck Owens, who
was a West Coast guy. Hewas he was based in California and he
so I think that kind of gavea certain proximity for them. And anyway,
(30:00):
they got him and they want todo this thing, and they relied
on him a lot to bring peoplein. So they had certain people like
Archie Campbell and many Pearl and GrandpaulJones were right there at the beginning.
And then they kind of brought streamBeing. They said, listen, you
gotta get because guy string Being inon the deal, and that's how he
came in there. They didn't reallyknow what to do with them. They
(30:22):
can quite figure out what stream Being'srole should be. But then they hit
on the idea of making him thescarecrow in the cornfield. So the cornfield,
as as I know, you remember, that's that place where they would
go and they would be telling thesejokes at half the time they would get
them wrong and they'd cracked themselves up. But stream Bean was the scarecrow in
(30:45):
the cornfield, and that's how itwasn't it? And he had such success
that he actually ended up writing asong called Me and My Old Crow and
he pat some money on it,so that's how I got in it.
And and then down the line heintroduced one of his acts from various it's
at least the nineteen fifties, hehad been doing a thing where he would
write these fake letters from home becausethat were funny, and he would start
(31:07):
reading. He started reading those andthey said, couldn't do this, and
they said, yeah, it doesn'thave to be a big hit, and
he was really going strong. Ithink one of the tragic things is the
final album he recorded was called MeMo Crowe, and it's a really interesting
album. I mean, some ofthe approach to music that he was doing
really well. He was at hisbest. Really. It would have been
(31:30):
really interesting to see what kind ofmusic he might have produced it had lived,
because they did old time music.But he did like comic songs like
Me and Mo Crow. But youknow he did in that final album he
did a really interesting interpretation actually thatwantall Sally if they've got a little Richard
doing that song extreme beings approach toit is really original, it's really interesting.
(31:52):
So if he lived, it wouldhave been interesting. Oh, I
definitely agree with you. I thinkthat had being lived longer, he would
have gone on to become a hugecountry star. I know he was already
a big star in his own right, but he came in with the introduction
of television, so he would havebeen on television more. And then with
(32:16):
him being on Heehaw, he probablywould have stayed on Heehaw a lot longer.
So through Heehaw, I think thatbecause it ran for such a long
time, that program would have probablyincreased his exposure and he would have had
(32:37):
more fans from that show. Heprobably would have just become a household name.
But that's just my opinion. ButI think he was definitely a good
enough musician that he would have probablyhad a bigger impact on country music had
he not been murdered. Absolutely totallyand he aged will. I hope he
(33:01):
and Grandpa Jones. You know,Grandpa Jones had an ultimate This guy had
the ultimate marketing plan. He wastwenty something years old when he started telling
himself, Grandpaul Jones, you're nevergoing to outlive that billing so you're always
going to be more Grandpaul and reallystream Being was a similar kind of guy
because he was sort of a guyjust you know, he's never going to
(33:22):
outlive that buildings. I agree.I happen to agree it with that very
much. And I think that's avery astute, astute observation that you make
that I think people don't often thinkabout it, but I happen to agree
with you entirely. I think hadhe lived, I think he would have
been, as you say, ahousehold name right there with Grandpa Jones and
some of those people. Because alot of people wh don't know anything about
country music per se, they knowwho Grandpa Jones is. Today, when
(33:45):
I think back on heehaw in watchingit as a kid, I think about
Grandpa Jones because that's how I rememberhim in Minnie Pearl and Roy Clark Buck
going Sloretta Lynn. I remember seeingthem all on key Hall when I was
growing up, and then when theydid the skits where they were in the
(34:07):
cornfield telling the jokes. I rememberwatching this back in like seventy five,
seventy six, seventy seven, watchingit with my grandparents and my parents,
and even as a kid. Iused to just crack up with the jokes.
I really don't think I knew whatwas going on, but watching my
parents and grandparents, and then ofcourse watching the actors on the show laughing
(34:28):
at each other's jokes, I thoughtit was funny too. So it was
definitely a pretty hilarious show back inthe day, even though I didn't know
what was going on half the time. Yeah, I didn't either. Well
when it came to he Hall,the producers must have been doing something right
because it ran for over twenty years. I mean it was on for a
(34:52):
long time. Oh yeah, butyou know it's funny. I didn't know
what's going on either when I wasa kid, but I thought I thought
they weren't. The fact that theywould just crack up, as you say
in that field you do, itmust be something funny and I don't know,
it just always crack me up.But I know exactly what you're talking
about. Growing up in the lateseventies as I did. One of the
(35:15):
fondest memories I have of my childhoodwas watching Heaw with my parents and grandparents.
Grandpa Jones would eventually become my favoritecharacter. We will take a final
break and when we return, Taylorwill discuss the longtime friendship between Grandpa Jones
and string Bean. So I've alwaysbeen fascinated with the friendship that Grandpa Jones
(35:55):
had with string Bean. Did youget to hear that many stories about their
friendship or did you even get tohear that many stories about Grandpa Jones,
because of course he was another greatcharacter on there on heaw, I mean,
he was a World War two vetrain. So do you have any
stories about his time in World Wartwo or anything about that He was a
(36:19):
good fight in World War Two,Yes, sir, and now certain being
was he was in the army fora short time. But Grandpa actually he
did. Stream Being was discharged,but Grandpa Jones actually was in Europe and
he was there, and anyway,yeah, it's kind of interesting. They
were both from Kentucky, and theywere from two different parts of Kentucky,
but they were the same state,and they were in Nashville. Grandpa came
(36:44):
a little bit after a stream Being, but stream Being had been there with
Bill Monrope. But Grandmal came kindof when stream Being was making that transition
to being a solo performer, andthe stream Being was also marrying his second
wife, the one that everybody knowsabout steal And they were very close.
And it was also a time whenGrandpa Jones was marrying a Ramona the lady
(37:07):
married I think it was his secondwife also, so you know, both
of them really were starting over.They had similar skills. They both played
claw hammer ban Joe, They bothknew the same songs. They both had
a kind of not exactly this thingbeing had a dryer sense of humor,
but they both had this sense ofhumor and were comics, and so they
(37:29):
had a lot and both loved tohunt and fish. Loved to hunt,
both of them, and they usedto like to go down to the Hart
River and and just fish. Andthey were really two peas in the pot
if I could be permitted to usethat freeze. They were very similar,
very close, and that's really howit happened. You know, they didn't
perform very often together. They did. They can go on YouTube and find
(37:52):
them playing a song or two,but they didn't actually perform that much together
relatively speaking. But they were extremelyclose and they did performed, but not
as much as you might think,I guess what I'm saying. But they
were very close friends. And infact, at one point David and Stell
Pateman the stream being and his wifewere living in Nashville and a kind of
(38:14):
an apartment and that they were livingon Partland Street and anybody stream mister miss
Jones, Grandpa's a religor buis MarshallJones and Romana Jones. They basically said,
look, we're going to pull ourmoney and buy a farm north of
Nashville and Ridge Tuck. And whenI say they were neighbors, they were
(38:34):
neighbors. Like as I told you, I was at their house and it
was it's probably the house that Grandpaand Romana lind is still fanding, but
it's not in the vest shape.But honestly, I would say it's probably
about maybe maybe ten steps of anormal person, of an adult person to
walk from one house to the other. I mean, they're like right beside
(38:58):
each other. And then they werethey were That's how close they were.
Tremendously close. From one liners stand. They were always doing stuff together.
They were neighbors and best friends always, always always. That was a pretty
amazing friendship. No exactly right,and it lasted. I don't think most
(39:22):
people have friendships like that. Onesthat are that loyal. No, no,
mister miss Jones. They ended upThey did end up coming back and
they bought another place, or Imay have built it, but anyway,
it was very close. Not asclose as that house, and then they
had their home chunk of land,but it was very close. But to
be that close and to remain friends, that's a real pestimony, I think,
(39:45):
to how close you know, howsimilar they were, and the wives
were very close friends also, Soit's remarkable, really it is. Now
take me up until the time whenGrandpa Jones found string being and his wife
both dead. The thing that getsme is that I know, as close
(40:07):
of friends as they were, Ican't imagine how he must have felt.
Imagine that you have plans to gohunting with your best buddy, a guy
that's like a brother to you.You're excited to be going on in this
hunting trip with this friend of yours, and then you go to his house
and find him and his wife bothdead and not by accident. Someone killed
(40:31):
them. And from what I understand, it was hard on Grandpa Jones for
the rest of his life that heprobably never really got over it. So
tell me about that. Did youget to learn anything about how it affected
him for the rest of his life. Well, yeah, so I really
(40:52):
appreciate the way you think that question, because I think that's a good way
to frame the question. We're obviouslyinching towards the murder, but there is
not just say it this way forthe moment, in the way of thinking
about Grandpa Jones's position, as yousay, it's a complete, complete shock.
They had a plan. This wasNovember the tenth, and nineteen seventy
(41:14):
three was a Saturday, and theyhad a plan. Grandpa Jones and Stream
Bean and they call each other Grandpaand Stream and they had a plan to
go hunting and Virginia. Grandpa hadworked up there for a while and they
were going to get up in thenext morning, Sunday morning. They were
at the grandall offering making their finalplans. On the night of November the
tenth, nineteen seventy three, theyhad a plan to go to Virginia and
(41:37):
they were going to get up anddrive the next morning. When I say
they, it was going to beGrandpaul because the stream being never drove.
But anyway, they were going togo up in the morning, and Grandpa
wanted to leave earlier. Stream Beingdidn't like to get up early, so
they split the difference, and Ithink it was six thirty. Maybe they
were planning to go. Well.Next morning, Grandpa gets up, blows
(41:58):
up as the vehicle and he comesdriving, and he comes up over the
hill over the thing, and helooks down and he sees the house of
stream Being, but he sees thatthere's no smoke coming out of the chimney.
And that was the thing that reallyHe would talk about this at the
trial. He said, that wasthe thing that really started to make me
nervous because stream Being loved to getup in the morning and kick the fire
(42:20):
and the action get the fire going. He loved it every day of his
life if he could, if hewas at home. And so there was
no smoke coming out of the chimney. And in fact, I wanted at
one point to call the book titledthe book No Smoke from the Chimney,
because that was such a striking thing. Anyway says no smoke come from the
chimney. Anyway pulled in, yougot to pull over a little bridge,
(42:42):
A little small bridge goes over alittle ditch, and then you go up
through a field and there's a cattlethere's a nat a gate there at the
ditch, but there was another cattlegate closer to the house. Anyway,
you see you you see. Hethinks it's a clue in the field,
but he realizes access still gets outa car, runs over to her.
He says this, you know,she'd been shot in the back of the
(43:04):
head, shot in the arm.He knew what it looked like. He
had seen a woman shot in Europe. And then it dawns on him,
and he's already horrifying and dawns onhim, you know, and already string
being it was known around town orcarrying cash with him, large amounts of
cash. And and so Grandpa andGrandpa Joves, his son told me,
he said, my dad was alwayssaying, somebody's going to kill you someday
(43:27):
with you carrying that lot of moneyaround. And he realizes today is to
day. And so he rushed overhis calling out the name, and he
rushed over. When inside the door, he could see through the screen the
storm door and stream being was lyingkind of like if he goes straight into
the house from the front door,there's a fireplace. It looks the same
(43:49):
day that they'd been. He's gotpan paneling around it. Stream Being was
in in front of the fireplace.His head was facing like his head was
to the left, and there wasa doorway at that time there. But
anyway, he found they found thebodies, and that's that's how it was.
It was. It was a lifechanging, terrible moments. Now,
tell me about the investigation, becauseI'm sure that with the popularity of string
(44:15):
being back in the time, I'msure the cops were held bent on trying
to find out who did this,right, So the investigation was let me
just say this about the whole thing, the murder, of the investigation,
out of the trial that followed,in the different stages of the trial were
probably some of the most sensational tohit Nashville ever really, to say the
(44:37):
truth, certainly, in the lifetimesof the people of that moment, it
represented them a complete change of thecity. So did the city seemed menacing
and big and dangerous in a waythat it never had seen to them before.
And the country music industry was changedthat way and but fifting because there
(44:58):
would be another situation, another trial, investigation and trial that would follow stream
Being shortly after this, all havehashed out and that one it was become
the Marshal Trembrill case, and itwas also a basically kidnapping, and that
one had kind of featured the samecast of characters in terms of the police
and so forth. Anyway, Ijust mentioned that because this is not something
(45:21):
that just happened. This was abig deal. The whole city was written.
It was just written, and thecity was that ranged really because this
wasn't wasn't a ravel rouser, youknow, and the city was really devastated.
So I just that's something worth nothing. But as far as the investigation,
(45:43):
you had the finishing kind of people, the police, the investigators felt
a tremendous pressure. It probably worked. Noting I guess that the Metro the
way it worked was there was thisMetro Davidson County like Metro, basically,
it wasn't a new form of government, and it cook it basically include an
entire county, and so there wasa lot of ground to cover. The
(46:06):
equipment had not really caught up withthe moment that they were funding problems.
So there are a lot of headwinds, a lot of challenges. A lot
of the investigators were I don't meanany disrespect to them in any way.
And I certainly I'm not an investigatorby trade, so I don't want to
second guess them, but I'll justsay this, they were in a position
where they had to assemble their owninvestigation kit and put them in diplog bags.
(46:31):
They didn't They didn't even have theequipment to go handle a very high
profile situation, very high profile murder. And the murder scene and I have
to talk to people who were atthe murder scene was a complete circus.
I mean people were stepping on evidence. And one of the investigators, I
(46:52):
mean Jacobs, mentions it is lookpeople were there was who knows what kind
of evidence was was obliterated and wouldcome up at the trial. The defense
attorney for one of the men whowas charged and put on trial, he
poked all kind of holes into thewaiting year investigation was done as far as
the gathering of evidence and sore andreally but the first day or two they
(47:14):
had no clue. They had noidea who have done this? Had certain
had a few ideas. They hadsome cigarettes and they had an idea about
who. Okay, well if wecould find people are smoking these different kinds
of cigarettes, But there were somestrange things that the aintments had two cars.
One was a Cadillac and the otherone was a station wagon. The
station wagon had been driven to arock quarry. The police weren't quite sure
(47:36):
why that was. So there waskind of a very confusing things. And
probably the worst thing of all,the hardest things all from an investigation standpoint,
is they couldn't find any enemies.That they had no enemies, And
what they began to hear about wasthese people carried money, and they kept
a lot of cash on their personsand in the house. Now there were
(47:57):
a lot of report Multiple people havereported that still eight mon kept cash in
cans like old coop cans and puthim in the freezer. There's never been
any mention of any of that moneybeing recovered, but the police decided that
this was money motivated. Never sayanything about if there's any money in refrigerator.
Who knows if it's true or not. I have no idea, but
(48:19):
I can tell you this. Therewas determined that the mode was money.
But there was a wat of threethousand dollars on stream being person in his
overhauls in two thousand and the personof this Steff that's the three thousand bills
and didn't want all hundreds. That'sa substantial water of money. It seems
to me, well, if youthink about it, five thousand dollars in
(48:43):
nineteen seventy three, that was alot of money, right exactly, you
know, it's a lot of money. It's amiss that the whole purpose is
to go kill somebody for the moneyand you leave that kind of wat of
money on there. I mean,come home, you know, so way,
but whatever, that was what theydetermined and and so that was what
set it up. And you know, basically in terms of evidence, they
(49:07):
found twenty two case sings and therewere different calibers basically of metal around and
so they said, okay, wellthere had to be certain kind of guns,
and so I start piecing that togetheras you would at any investigation.
But really where the tide turned,and it was very curious for the tide
really turned, was that there wasa gentleman being held in custody who told
(49:32):
the DA at the time, whowas named Thomas Schreiver. It was like
this old time southern Middle Tennessee kindof lawyer, but they weren't very old
at the time. But his dadhad been a lawyer, and he was
sort of an establishment guys Vanderbilt Tide. He was up for reelection, by
the way at that time. Butanyway, this gentleman in custody said,
I heard there were these fellows whowere planning this murder, and their names
(49:55):
were John and Doug Brown, andthere also was and that Doug's brother Roy
and his brother Charlie. Charlie Brownwere all kind of implicated, and that
from that point forward, these gentlemenwere brought in. Job was actually not
in town at the time, butthey were brought in and they were questioned.
(50:16):
And one of the really interesting thingshad happened at that moment was that
Charlie Brown, who owned a weldingbusiness, hired Joe Binkley, who was
the most expensive defense attorney in thecity of Nashville. And it's a very
strange question. How in the worldcould you pay for this guy if you
(50:37):
just have a welding business. Andso the sort a big question in my
mind. Did they come away withmoney? Had they already come away with
money? And was this thing wherethey were surprised? There was there more
to it? And there were questionsthere. I think I never quite came
to a satisfactory answer, maybe formyself one and maybe there might be more
come to light some day. Butanyway, that was how well, it
(51:00):
was kind of a long model thatmay have been more detailed than you were
ontant. And that concludes the firsthalf. A string Beans story is told
by author Taylor Heygood. If youenjoy reading true crime books, then I
highly recommend that you purchase a copyof Taylor's book and adding it to your
collection. The book takes you fromstring Being's humble beginnings as a child making
(51:24):
his own instruments to becoming a countrymusic legend. You can get your own
copy of string Being The Life andMurder of a Country Music Legend, written
by Taylor Heygood on Amazon dot comor wherever else you purchase your favorite books.
And if you would like to contactTaylor about his book, please visit
(51:46):
Taylor Heygood dot com. I willbe sure to include this information in the
case story notes. And if youare a parent, law enforcement official,
friend, or relative seeking justice foran unsolved comic side case, please visit
my website and complete the contact form. You can also contact me through Facebook.
(52:07):
Thank you for listening.
The old Kentucky wonder strang Bean.Hold that you get back on give him
I'll do it every time I dothe song. Here, I have a
fit and I feel want of comingon right now. Hang on, children,
(00:35):
you walk up to your due.Can you slip and it go in?
You can bet your bottom dollar whenthat rick start, you spend your
hairt fit, lading up sound andthat he'll be any feet. I should
spend on around, beep around orget around you and romping down. I'll
be Robby Castle, storing, riding, slip bel around, He'll man.
(01:02):
Hello and welcome to the Catch MyKiller Podcast. Thank you for listening.
My name is Mark. For nearlyeight years, I've written a weekly newspaper
column about true crimes and missing peoplefor the Claremont Sun newspaper in Ohio.
With a column and podcast, ithas always been my objective to bring attention
to those cases that have not receivedmuch media attention, if any at all.
(01:27):
This week's story involves the homicide ofDavid string Bean Akman and his wife
is still. Stringbean was a countrymusic star from Kentucky who was a grand
old opery legend from the time hewas a child. He had a love
for the banjo and would become knownfor his old fashioned banjo picking style of
(01:49):
playing. He was one of theearliest cast members of a family program called
Keehaw. Unfortunately, string Bean's risingstar would be dimmed forever when two men
viciously murdered him and his wife EstelleBy November tenth, nineteen seventy three.
For string Being's story, I interviewedauthor Taylor Heygood, who wrote a true
(02:12):
crime book about string Being titled stringBeing The Life and Murder of a Country
music Legend. David Aikman, affectuallyknown as string Being, was born on
(02:35):
June seventeenth, nineteen fifteen, toa farm family in Annville, Kentucky.
Based on twenty twenty census data,Annville is a small town in Jackson County,
Kentucky, with a population of justover one thousand people. String Bean's
love for music began at an earlyage. Before he was even eight years
(02:55):
old, he built his first instrumentof a shoe box and some thread that
he got from his mother. Hemost likely developed his early love for music
from his father, who was asuccessful banjo player who often played throughout the
community. So string Being grew uparound musicians his entire life, so it
was probably no surprise to anyone whoknew him that he would also grow up
(03:17):
to become a popular musician. Bythe time he was twelve, he had
enough money to buy his own banjo. He then began playing at local dances
and built a reputation as an excellentbanjo player. While working construction type jobs
building roads and planning trees, hecontinued playing his banjo with the goal of
(03:38):
making it big in a music business. String Bean's career officially took off after
he entered a contest being judged bymusician Asa Martin. After impressing Martin,
he soon joined Martin's band. Duringa performance, Martin had forgotten David Aikman's
name, so he just simply introducedAikman as string Beans. The nickname was
(04:02):
given to him based on his tall, lanky frame. Apparently, the name
stuck, and David Aikman would soonbecome known as string Bean. I would
also like to add something about thisnickname. It's also been said that Aikman
was introduced as string Beans plural,so it's actually debatable whether Martin called him
(04:25):
string Bean singular or string Beans pluraland not only did string Being become known
for his musical abilities, he alsobecame known for being a pretty funny guy.
String Bean became known as a comedianmusician. He also broadcast out of
w Lap out of Lexington, Kentucky, and played with different groups during the
(04:46):
nineteen thirties. Oddly enough, oldcountry music back in the thirties really didn't
include much banjo playing. However,string Bean was able to keep banjo playing
relevant in country music when he played. In addition to being a musician,
string Being truly was a man ofdifferent talents. A lot of people may
(05:08):
not realize it, but he wasalso a decent semi pro baseball player.
His baseball playing skills became known tomusician Bill Monroe, who had his own
semi pro club. Monroe was soimpressed was string Bean that he added him
to his band. String Being wouldplay in Monroe's band from nineteen forty three
until nineteen forty five. After stringBean left Monroe in nineteen forty five,
(05:33):
he was replaced by another popular banjoplayer named Earl Scruggs, who played a
different style of banjo than string Bean. String Bean also would go on to
marry his sweetheart, A still standfillin nineteen forty five. The following year,
he would then begin working with anotherbanjo player named Lewis Marshall Jones,
(05:56):
affectionately known as Grandpa Jones. Thetwo men would get to Yeah, They're
doing comedy in the television program Heehaw. Grandpa Jones was a World War Two
veteran and would become string Bean's closestfriend, and the two men would also
become neighbors in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.During the late nineteen forties, string Being
(06:16):
also formed a team with lou Childrenand became a regular performer at the Grand
Old Opry. During string Bean's GrandOld Opry days, he began wearing his
night shirt and pants that made himlook like a tall man with tiny legs.
He pretty much looked like a humanstring Being playing a banjo. It's
been said that string beans attire wasinspired by a comedian named Slim Miller.
(06:43):
After World War Two, Uncle DaveMacon, another Grand Old Opry legend,
took string Being under his wing.He helped string Being develop his ability to
play songs and tell funny jokes.Before Macon died, he gave string Being
one of his prize banjos. Duringthe nineteen fifties, string Being became one
of the Grand Old Opery's biggest stars. Although he had made a name for
(07:08):
himself, he didn't sign with arecord label until the nineteen sixties, when
he signed with the Star Day label. He had hits with songs Chewing Gum
and I Wonder Where Wanda Went.He recorded seven albums between nineteen sixty one.
In nineteen seventy two, his firstalbum was titled Old Time Picking and
(07:30):
Grinning was string Being, which wasreleased in nineteen sixty one. His music
was considered folk stories with the tasteof comedy at the time. String Being
and his buddy Grandpa Jones became thetwo biggest old time banjo players of their
era. In nineteen sixty nine,a country style comedy would come to television.
(07:51):
The program would be called Heehaw andwas on television from nineteen sixty nine
to nineteen ninety three. The programlasted for twenty six seasons and recorded six
hundred and fifty five episodes, andany popular country musician who was anybody appeared
on the show. String Being andGrandpa Jones would become a part of the
(08:11):
original cast. String Being became aninstant hit with the fans. His tall,
lanky body, goofy facial expressions,and lovable personality made him a fan
favorite. Coupled with Grandpa Jones,he Hall was an immediate success. Even
if you didn't like country music backin the day, you could still enjoy
(08:31):
watching Heahaw. I'm not a countrymusic fan by any stretch of the imagination,
but I absolutely loved watching Heehaw withmy parents and grandparents when I was
a child. Unfortunately, string Beingand his wife Estelle would be tragically murdered
on November tenth, nineteen seventy three. After the couple had returned home from
(08:52):
a performance at the Grand Old Opry, they walked in on a robbery by
two men. String Being was shotto death in front of his fireplace and
his wife, a Stell, wasshot to death outside their home while trying
to flee the burglars. It wouldbe Grandpa Jones who would find the bodies
of his beloved friends the next day. Grandpa Jones had plans the pick string
(09:16):
Being up the next day for aplan hunting trip. As Grandpa Jones headed
over to pick up string Bean,he became concerned because he knew that string
Being must start off every morning witha cup of coffee next to a lit
fireplace. When Grandpa didn't see anysmoke coming from string Bean's chimney, he
knew something was wrong. Grandpa Joneswould learn the sad truth when he pulled
(09:41):
up to his friend's cabin at twentythree zero eight Baker Road near Ridgetop,
Tennessee. According to author Taylor Haygood, string Bean in a Stell did not
believe in using banks. Keep inmind, if they were both around during
the Great Depression, when many peoplewho had money in their banks lost at
all, they just didn't trust thebanks. String Being was known to have
(10:05):
kept thousands of dollars in cash layingaround his house, Grandpa Jones warning many
times to not keep that much moneyin the house. He had told string
Being several times that one day,keeping that much cash around the house would
get him killed. When Grandpa foundthe bodies of his murdered friends, he
knew that day he had worried abouthad finally come. The murders shocked Nashville
(10:31):
residence. Who would kill string Beingin a Stell? The public and String
Being's fellow country stars were enraged.They demanded law enforcement capture and punish whoever
killed string Being in a stell.Law enforcement would eventually arrest and convict cousins
John A. Brown and Marvin DouglasBrown, both twenty three years old.
(10:54):
For his book about string Being,author Taylor Heygood interviewed one of the lead
investigators in the case. He alsointerviewed surviving members of string Bean's family and
fellow musicians who knew string Being personally. He then compiled his findings into the
book titled string Being The Life andMurder of a Country Music Legend. This
(11:20):
is the first half of a twopart story. Please be sure to listen
to the conclusion next week. Andnow on with this tragic story of David
Aikman, effectually known as string Beanand his wife Estelle Aikman, is told
by author Taylor hey Good. Taylor, first of all, I would like
to thank you so much for sharingyour research about David string Being Akman with
(11:45):
me. Also, thank you forsending me a copy of your book.
I did read it and I enjoyedit. So with that, let me
start out with asking you how topronounce your last name. I don't want
to butcher it is it haygood orgood. It's y good, Taylor very
good, Okay, and thank youfor the clarification. So tell me about
(12:07):
yourself and why you decided to writea book about country music legend string being.
My name is Taylor very Good,and I am a professor. I
wear a lot of hats, butto my main thing is that I'm a
professor at Florida Atlantic University, whichis in bulk of a town. But
long before I was a professor,I was very interested in old time country
(12:31):
music. I always loved the musicof Jimmy Rogers and Hank Williams and people
like that. And I was alsoin the playing music, playing the guitar
and the banjo and the piano andthat kind of thing, and particularly the
banjo was just always interesting to me. And when I was a kid,
I testored my mom and dad andbuying me a banjo from my birthday.
It was a little harmony banjo fromSears catalog and I was just captivated by
(12:56):
this instrument. And I had alsomanaged to pester them into taking me to
the Country Music Hall of Fame.Originally from North Mississippi, Ripley on the
Tennessee state line, Mississippi Tennessee stateline. My dad's folksed in Tennessee and
did a lot of places, butthe home and the hometown. But anyway,
we went to the Country Music Hallof Fame, and there I saw
(13:18):
a string beans banjo and I sawthis picture of him, and he had
a very strange to dad in me. Had a very long torso and very
short pants, a very short leg. But it was a costume that he
had, and I thought, man, that's a strange looking guy. And
I thought, okay. But anyway, I heard my mom and dad at
the time talking about remembering his beingmurdered about two years before I was born.
(13:41):
But they were talking about that,and so just filed the way in
the back of my mind. Andthen I grew up and became a professor
and sing on the southern literatures ofthe southern part of the United States and
the culture and the music and soforth. And anyway, I've been reading
a lot of biogeason. I wasinterested in biography and interested in true crime.
(14:03):
I've been reading true crime. I'vebeen reading not just the cortessential true
crime book, the sort of theoriginal You in Cold Blood, but others.
And I was interested in history generally. So anyway, one day I
was just looking on the phone ina video of string being popped up,
and I thought, how about toread a book about them? And so
that I went to try to findone, and really wasn't one. The
(14:26):
book written in nineteen seventy five,two years after the murder, and it
was about the investigation, but itreally didn't give you much about string Bean's
life, which is so crucial tothe story in a way, the investigation,
the murder, and all in thetrial that those are all separate from
string Bean's life in some ways andseemed that way, but in fact they
(14:48):
take on their greatest power and meaningin light of his life stories. So
anyway, I just started doing thework on that and said, well,
I guess I'm going to be theguy who writes this book. And that's
how it happened. Now, whenyou wrote your book, were you able
to actually find any surviving family membersa string being and get to speak to
(15:09):
any of them to get their insightsabout him? Well? I did so,
well, absolutely So some of thepeople I got to speak with who
knew it, you know, werepeople who had worked with him. So
Loretta Lynn, the country music sayingvery helpful with the book. Paul Jones
had passed away, but his sonwas very helpful. Also, there's a
(15:30):
country sing named Whipper and Bill Anderson, pretty big, legendary kind of guy.
And so there were a number ofthose people who helped out, and
there were some family now string Being, didn't you know, by the time
I got to do in this book, none of his siblings and obviously his
parents were no longer alive, buthis nephew as a very nice gentleman,
lives in Kentucky, and in fact, they do a string Being annual festals
(15:54):
just this past weekend. His nameis Philip Bateman, and he was incredibly
gen was credibly generous. And therewas some other nieces and nephews and so
forth. But you know what,at this point, I'm sorry to say,
there aren't many people really to actuallynew stream being. It's just a
handful. And I was writing thisbook, of course during the pandemic,
(16:18):
and it turns out that people wereyou know, i'd say it, you
know, there were people who passedaway even before I could get to.
One of the people I was goingto try to talk to was Roy Clark,
and the banjo player who toured wasstream being early on, and I
wasn't able a best way for medid so those things happened, but I
got some great stories, and probablyone of my favorite ones was Lulu Roman,
(16:41):
who was one of the founding pastmembers of Heat Hall and stream Bean
was on that with her, andshe didn't actually know what anything about country
music when she got on the show. She knew like one She knew buck
Owens basically, and she got onthe show and she didn't know who anybody
was. And I asked her,I said, what did you think when
you saw this guy string Bean?Oh, that long his costume with the
(17:03):
long shirt and short pants, Andshe said, Honey, I was on
so much at LSD at that timethat I thought one of those creatures I've
been seeing it become real. Well, well, that was quite as smart
as I can remember watching he Hallwith my parents and grandparents when I was
a kid. I was about fouryears old when string Bean died, so
(17:26):
by the time when he passed away, I wasn't really watching it then.
I'm gonna say that I probably startedwatching it back in the nineteen seventy five
or nineteen seventy six so string Beanwas already gone by then, but I
do remember Roy Clark and Buck Owensm And for me to like Keyhaw,
(17:47):
that's really saying a lot because I'mdefinitely not a country music fan. I
really don't care for the modern music, but I did like the older music
with Loretta Land and Johnny Ash.You're right right, well, yeah,
Now regarding stream Being, I didenjoy his music. As a matter of
fact, I will still go onYouTube and watch old videos of him from
(18:12):
when he was on Heehaw, AndI think that he was really a very
talented musician, and I thought thathe was especially funny too, especially for
his time doing the music, andcomedy was really great, you know.
And then him and Grandpa Jones togetheron heehall was really great. He was
(18:33):
really a comic. Yeah, Andof course the clips of him and Grandpa
Jones together are classic. I knowthey were best friends in life, but
they also had that chemistry together.It was really great on Heehaw. Yeah,
they really did, and had avery drass into humor. I think
a really interesting thing about stream Beingand a really interesting thing to me about
(18:57):
him, And you mentioned the Cash. Of course, Johnny Cash never goes
out of style. He was.He did some folks he did. He
was a rock and roll guys country, so he was a little bit of
everything. Stream Being was not thatguy, but in his own way.
Stream Being he's sort of cool ina very uncool way, you know what
I mean, Like he's not youknow. But he was a guy who
kind of really blasted over these decadesand remained relevant. And everybody who worked
(19:23):
with him loved him. He wassomebody who was a great colleague, you
know, And that was part ofthe thing. When he was murdered,
it really hit people. He wasa real punch in the stomach. I
had always thought the string Being seemedlike a really interesting guy. As a
matter of fact, I had reada lot about him, and I had
(19:45):
decided that I wanted to write acolumn about him. I write this true
crime column for this paper in Ohio, and I've been doing it for a
while. But I just wanted towrite something about him. I guess I
just wanted people to who had neverheard of him to maybe be curious enough
to look him up and learn abouthim, or look up some of his
(20:07):
videos and listen to his music onYouTube. Oh okay, and through that
column. I believe that's how Iended up getting in touch with your press
person, or actually they contacted mebecause they must have read the article and
thought that maybe that I might beinterested in speaking to you about your book,
(20:30):
and they were right. When Iwas contacted about it, I was
definitely interested. So yeah, Idefinitely wanted to talk to you when you're
a publicity person contacted me. Soyeah. But from what I've read about
him, I've read that string Beingwas a pretty humble, normal guy and
he didn't have any kind of anego. It was almost as if he
didn't even know he was famous.Yeah, no, that's been true.
(20:53):
And his wife lived in a littlebit of house little Nashville, and he
was a tall guy, tall guy, and I'm not I'm on like five
eight and a half, you know, but like going to that house.
I visited the house, but theowners, the current owners of credibly nice
people. And going to that house, the eve of the house, it's
just a tiny assist a few rooms, and the eaves of the house when
(21:18):
you go up on the porch,it almost hits me in the head to
walk on to the porch. Sohe would have had to been pretty far
over just to get on there.And I only mentioned that because it's a
tiny little house and that's where helived in a lot of land, but
that's where these people lived here andhis wife, and they lived a very
quiet life and they minded their ownbusiness, and they were very humble.
(21:41):
Yeah, and they were very frugal. I don't know about you. My
grandmother used to after the Christmas shouldn'tbe ironing the wrapping paper. You know.
She was very frugal. She hadbecome of age in the Great Great
Depression, just a stream Being hadand they were very frugal people, and
they didn't spend money. They wouldbuy, Yeah, they would trade him
for a new catalac every year atthe beginning of the year, and that
(22:03):
was their one splur. They hada boat. They're a basketboat. Really.
They weren't like George Jones or somebodywith a lot of stuff that.
They weren't that person at all.Nothing against George Jones, but they were
a very different type of people.Yeah, both string Being and his wife
Estelle, both sounded like very humblepeople and very good people too. Yeah,
very string Being like the hunt heliked to fish. He was just
(22:27):
a normal guy. It wasn't likethe guy was taking yachts all over the
place or living in a mansion,or just seemed like a pretty normal,
everyday guy just living his life.That's right, it really was. It
really was. While doing research forstring Being story, I had learned that
(22:48):
he was truly a very humble man. He didn't take his fame too seriously,
and he just seemed to be happyas long as he can entertain his
fans with the sweet sounds of hisbanjo playing, his goofy facial expressions,
his lanky physical appearance, and hiscorny jokes. We will take a short
break in return with details about stringBean's early days as a young and upcoming
(23:12):
musician from Kentucky. So tell meabout what it was like for string Being
(23:33):
coming up. Because a lot ofpeople that will be listening to this will
have never heard of string Being,so they won't know anything about him,
and I would like them to becurious enough to look him up and do
some research on him, or toeven purchase your book. So tell me
more about how did he end upbecoming a musician? Tell me about his
(23:56):
humble beginnings absolutely, and let metell you just to make a point I
guess on routes to that. Iappreciate very much your research and writing,
and you know, I want tosay that in my mind, I tried
to get his I put everything intothe book that I could find, But
I suspect there are probably stories outthere that I can't find at this point,
(24:19):
and there may be more things cometo light, and so it's my
hope that people will continue to dothe research and learn about him, because
I think there's probably more out there, you know. But anyway, who
was again, his name was David. Her name was David Eightman A K
E M A N. The familyspend a little different ways, but that's
(24:40):
how he ended up spelling it theway. He was from Jackson County,
Kentucky, which is kind of southmaybe a little bit southeast Lexington, kind
of close to London, Kentucky,And anyway, grew up there, grew
up on a farm, and hebut that was a banjo player and stream
being Dave Lateman learned to play LevanJoe's as a kid, and then when
(25:03):
he was, you know, getto be young man, there was a
banjo contest held near him. Hesent by radio station in Lexington and he
competed in it. He did notactually win that contest, but he made
enough of an impression on the gentlemanthe name Asa Martin, who was running
the contest and was a radio personality, and Asa Martin invited him to play
(25:26):
on the radio. He went toLexington, did David Akman, And when
he got there, Asa Martin wasfamous for the kind of famously would forget
people's names, and he couldn't rememberthis guy's name that he had invited,
and he said, well, helooked at him and said, well,
he's tall. He said, comeon over here, a stream bean and
play us as all. He couldn'tthink of his name. So now some
(25:51):
people say Asa Martin said stream Bean, And in fact, a lot of
times, especially earlier in his career, stream being or Dave Aateman was billed
as in the plural for him streamBeans, but I suspect it was probably
the singular because he looked quiet,as you say. But anyway, that's
how he got his name, andhe started playing his playing with two three
different groups at least. And it'sanother thing I'm kind of curious about it.
(26:12):
If there's anybody out there listening whoknows and you know, there may
be other groups he was playing with. I was able to identify I think
to three during those early years,but a lot of stuff is not documented
from that time. But anyway,he was doing that. Then he got
connected with Charlie Monroe. Of course, Charlie and Bill Monroe were big gleb
(26:33):
brothers and they had split up,and then Bill Monroe really became the father
of bluegrass music. And the factstream Being ended up not only playing with
Charlie, but ultimately he became thefirst and people listening to anybody who knows
about bluegrass music may be surprised tohear that it was actually David string Being
Eateman who was the first banjo playerwith Bill Monroe, because a lot of
(26:57):
people think about it being Earl Scrulland Earl Scruggs replaced stream Being, so
that was David Eateman and left Streamingleft Building Rhodes. The team up with
another singer named Luke Children and afterthat this Eurol Scruggs came into the group.
So really stream Being was an importantperson in the history of bluegrass music
(27:19):
because he was the first one toreally bring that banjo sound into it.
He played a different style he playedhe called a rapping style and most people
call it climber style. And heplayed two finger picking style, but both
of those are different from what EarlScrugs did, which is a free finger
picking style. Anyway, that waswhat he did, and he became part
(27:40):
of the Grand Old Opry ultimately asa solo act, and over the years
he played there. By the nightHank Williams debuted on the Grand Old Opry
stream being was standing in the wingsand he played, I don't know one
or two slots after him, hewas right there, so he was really
there, and he really bridged thoseearly days, the really early days the
country music and radio and all ofthat all the way into the television era.
(28:04):
And ultimately, when he was murderedin the nineteen seventy three, it
was right on the cusp of thatthe you know that outlaw country music,
and in fact, Willie Nelson itwasn't his, one of the quintessential outlaw
country singers. Lived very close tostring being in Enridged tut Tennessee's house burned
down and he headed all back hometo Texas and that's where he started growing
(28:27):
his hair out and became the WillieNelson. We know, and that's who
I guess, sort of a shortversion of string Being's musical career. Okay,
now let's talk about heahaw. Howdoes string Being end up being on
Heahaw? Tell me about that?So he how So it's kind of interesting.
He wasn't necessarily in the original lineupas they envisioned it. Of course.
(28:52):
He all was developed by a coupleof producers who are actually from Canada.
They had been watching the show laughin and they said, we think
we could do it a ton ofa rural version of this had rural TV
had come in. So you thinkabout the sixties, you know, you
had the fifties and sixties, youhad the Andy Griffiths showed, you had
Green Acres and I she got somerural programming. Oh those were great shows,
(29:15):
Andy Griffiths, Green Acres. Iwatched them all. Okay, you
don't tell about Oh definitely. Sothere was this rural all this rural programming
have been doing pretty well, andso these guys, well, can we
do sort of a rural la versionof laughing basically, so it was a
popular show at the time, comedyshow. If he mayn't have been doing
(29:37):
comedy from from early on. Hehad didn't do it at almost from the
beginning, and he had a realdrive it. And anyway, so they
set up this show and they they'rereal contact person was Buck Owens, who
was a West Coast guy. Hewas he was based in California and he
so I think that kind of gavea certain proximity for them. And anyway,
(30:00):
they got him and they want todo this thing, and they relied
on him a lot to bring peoplein. So they had certain people like
Archie Campbell and many Pearl and GrandpaulJones were right there at the beginning.
And then they kind of brought streamBeing. They said, listen, you
gotta get because guy string Being inon the deal, and that's how he
came in there. They didn't reallyknow what to do with them. They
(30:22):
can quite figure out what stream Being'srole should be. But then they hit
on the idea of making him thescarecrow in the cornfield. So the cornfield,
as as I know, you remember, that's that place where they would
go and they would be telling thesejokes at half the time they would get
them wrong and they'd cracked themselves up. But stream Bean was the scarecrow in
(30:45):
the cornfield, and that's how itwasn't it? And he had such success
that he actually ended up writing asong called Me and My Old Crow and
he pat some money on it,so that's how I got in it.
And and then down the line heintroduced one of his acts from various it's
at least the nineteen fifties, hehad been doing a thing where he would
write these fake letters from home becausethat were funny, and he would start
(31:07):
reading. He started reading those andthey said, couldn't do this, and
they said, yeah, it doesn'thave to be a big hit, and
he was really going strong. Ithink one of the tragic things is the
final album he recorded was called MeMo Crowe, and it's a really interesting
album. I mean, some ofthe approach to music that he was doing
really well. He was at hisbest. Really. It would have been
(31:30):
really interesting to see what kind ofmusic he might have produced it had lived,
because they did old time music.But he did like comic songs like
Me and Mo Crow. But youknow he did in that final album he
did a really interesting interpretation actually thatwantall Sally if they've got a little Richard
doing that song extreme beings approach toit is really original, it's really interesting.
(31:52):
So if he lived, it wouldhave been interesting. Oh, I
definitely agree with you. I thinkthat had being lived longer, he would
have gone on to become a hugecountry star. I know he was already
a big star in his own right, but he came in with the introduction
of television, so he would havebeen on television more. And then with
(32:16):
him being on Heehaw, he probablywould have stayed on Heehaw a lot longer.
So through Heehaw, I think thatbecause it ran for such a long
time, that program would have probablyincreased his exposure and he would have had
(32:37):
more fans from that show. Heprobably would have just become a household name.
But that's just my opinion. ButI think he was definitely a good
enough musician that he would have probablyhad a bigger impact on country music had
he not been murdered. Absolutely totallyand he aged will. I hope he
(33:01):
and Grandpa Jones. You know,Grandpa Jones had an ultimate This guy had
the ultimate marketing plan. He wastwenty something years old when he started telling
himself, Grandpaul Jones, you're nevergoing to outlive that billing so you're always
going to be more Grandpaul and reallystream Being was a similar kind of guy
because he was sort of a guyjust you know, he's never going to
(33:22):
outlive that buildings. I agree.I happen to agree it with that very
much. And I think that's avery astute, astute observation that you make
that I think people don't often thinkabout it, but I happen to agree
with you entirely. I think hadhe lived, I think he would have
been, as you say, ahousehold name right there with Grandpa Jones and
some of those people. Because alot of people wh don't know anything about
country music per se, they knowwho Grandpa Jones is. Today, when
(33:45):
I think back on heehaw in watchingit as a kid, I think about
Grandpa Jones because that's how I rememberhim in Minnie Pearl and Roy Clark Buck
going Sloretta Lynn. I remember seeingthem all on key Hall when I was
growing up, and then when theydid the skits where they were in the
(34:07):
cornfield telling the jokes. I rememberwatching this back in like seventy five,
seventy six, seventy seven, watchingit with my grandparents and my parents,
and even as a kid. Iused to just crack up with the jokes.
I really don't think I knew whatwas going on, but watching my
parents and grandparents, and then ofcourse watching the actors on the show laughing
(34:28):
at each other's jokes, I thoughtit was funny too. So it was
definitely a pretty hilarious show back inthe day, even though I didn't know
what was going on half the time. Yeah, I didn't either. Well
when it came to he Hall,the producers must have been doing something right
because it ran for over twenty years. I mean it was on for a
(34:52):
long time. Oh yeah, butyou know it's funny. I didn't know
what's going on either when I wasa kid, but I thought I thought
they weren't. The fact that theywould just crack up, as you say
in that field you do, itmust be something funny and I don't know,
it just always crack me up.But I know exactly what you're talking
about. Growing up in the lateseventies as I did. One of the
(35:15):
fondest memories I have of my childhoodwas watching Heaw with my parents and grandparents.
Grandpa Jones would eventually become my favoritecharacter. We will take a final
break and when we return, Taylorwill discuss the longtime friendship between Grandpa Jones
and string Bean. So I've alwaysbeen fascinated with the friendship that Grandpa Jones
(35:55):
had with string Bean. Did youget to hear that many stories about their
friendship or did you even get tohear that many stories about Grandpa Jones,
because of course he was another greatcharacter on there on heaw, I mean,
he was a World War two vetrain. So do you have any
stories about his time in World Wartwo or anything about that He was a
(36:19):
good fight in World War Two,Yes, sir, and now certain being
was he was in the army fora short time. But Grandpa actually he
did. Stream Being was discharged,but Grandpa Jones actually was in Europe and
he was there, and anyway,yeah, it's kind of interesting. They
were both from Kentucky, and theywere from two different parts of Kentucky,
but they were the same state,and they were in Nashville. Grandpa came
(36:44):
a little bit after a stream Being, but stream Being had been there with
Bill Monrope. But Grandmal came kindof when stream Being was making that transition
to being a solo performer, andthe stream Being was also marrying his second
wife, the one that everybody knowsabout steal And they were very close.
And it was also a time whenGrandpa Jones was marrying a Ramona the lady
(37:07):
married I think it was his secondwife also, so you know, both
of them really were starting over.They had similar skills. They both played
claw hammer ban Joe, They bothknew the same songs. They both had
a kind of not exactly this thingbeing had a dryer sense of humor,
but they both had this sense ofhumor and were comics, and so they
(37:29):
had a lot and both loved tohunt and fish. Loved to hunt,
both of them, and they usedto like to go down to the Hart
River and and just fish. Andthey were really two peas in the pot
if I could be permitted to usethat freeze. They were very similar,
very close, and that's really howit happened. You know, they didn't
perform very often together. They did. They can go on YouTube and find
(37:52):
them playing a song or two,but they didn't actually perform that much together
relatively speaking. But they were extremelyclose and they did performed, but not
as much as you might think,I guess what I'm saying. But they
were very close friends. And infact, at one point David and Stell
Pateman the stream being and his wifewere living in Nashville and a kind of
(38:14):
an apartment and that they were livingon Partland Street and anybody stream mister miss
Jones, Grandpa's a religor buis MarshallJones and Romana Jones. They basically said,
look, we're going to pull ourmoney and buy a farm north of
Nashville and Ridge Tuck. And whenI say they were neighbors, they were
(38:34):
neighbors. Like as I told you, I was at their house and it
was it's probably the house that Grandpaand Romana lind is still fanding, but
it's not in the vest shape.But honestly, I would say it's probably
about maybe maybe ten steps of anormal person, of an adult person to
walk from one house to the other. I mean, they're like right beside
(38:58):
each other. And then they werethey were That's how close they were.
Tremendously close. From one liners stand. They were always doing stuff together.
They were neighbors and best friends always, always always. That was a pretty
amazing friendship. No exactly right,and it lasted. I don't think most
(39:22):
people have friendships like that. Onesthat are that loyal. No, no,
mister miss Jones. They ended upThey did end up coming back and
they bought another place, or Imay have built it, but anyway,
it was very close. Not asclose as that house, and then they
had their home chunk of land,but it was very close. But to
be that close and to remain friends, that's a real pestimony, I think,
(39:45):
to how close you know, howsimilar they were, and the wives
were very close friends also, Soit's remarkable, really it is. Now
take me up until the time whenGrandpa Jones found string being and his wife
both dead. The thing that getsme is that I know, as close
(40:07):
of friends as they were, Ican't imagine how he must have felt.
Imagine that you have plans to gohunting with your best buddy, a guy
that's like a brother to you.You're excited to be going on in this
hunting trip with this friend of yours, and then you go to his house
and find him and his wife bothdead and not by accident. Someone killed
(40:31):
them. And from what I understand, it was hard on Grandpa Jones for
the rest of his life that heprobably never really got over it. So
tell me about that. Did youget to learn anything about how it affected
him for the rest of his life. Well, yeah, so I really
(40:52):
appreciate the way you think that question, because I think that's a good way
to frame the question. We're obviouslyinching towards the murder, but there is
not just say it this way forthe moment, in the way of thinking
about Grandpa Jones's position, as yousay, it's a complete, complete shock.
They had a plan. This wasNovember the tenth, and nineteen seventy
(41:14):
three was a Saturday, and theyhad a plan. Grandpa Jones and Stream
Bean and they call each other Grandpaand Stream and they had a plan to
go hunting and Virginia. Grandpa hadworked up there for a while and they
were going to get up in thenext morning, Sunday morning. They were
at the grandall offering making their finalplans. On the night of November the
tenth, nineteen seventy three, theyhad a plan to go to Virginia and
(41:37):
they were going to get up anddrive the next morning. When I say
they, it was going to beGrandpaul because the stream being never drove.
But anyway, they were going togo up in the morning, and Grandpa
wanted to leave earlier. Stream Beingdidn't like to get up early, so
they split the difference, and Ithink it was six thirty. Maybe they
were planning to go. Well.Next morning, Grandpa gets up, blows
(41:58):
up as the vehicle and he comesdriving, and he comes up over the
hill over the thing, and helooks down and he sees the house of
stream Being, but he sees thatthere's no smoke coming out of the chimney.
And that was the thing that reallyHe would talk about this at the
trial. He said, that wasthe thing that really started to make me
nervous because stream Being loved to getup in the morning and kick the fire
(42:20):
and the action get the fire going. He loved it every day of his
life if he could, if hewas at home. And so there was
no smoke coming out of the chimney. And in fact, I wanted at
one point to call the book titledthe book No Smoke from the Chimney,
because that was such a striking thing. Anyway says no smoke come from the
chimney. Anyway pulled in, yougot to pull over a little bridge,
(42:42):
A little small bridge goes over alittle ditch, and then you go up
through a field and there's a cattlethere's a nat a gate there at the
ditch, but there was another cattlegate closer to the house. Anyway,
you see you you see. Hethinks it's a clue in the field,
but he realizes access still gets outa car, runs over to her.
He says this, you know,she'd been shot in the back of the
(43:04):
head, shot in the arm.He knew what it looked like. He
had seen a woman shot in Europe. And then it dawns on him,
and he's already horrifying and dawns onhim, you know, and already string
being it was known around town orcarrying cash with him, large amounts of
cash. And and so Grandpa andGrandpa Joves, his son told me,
he said, my dad was alwayssaying, somebody's going to kill you someday
(43:27):
with you carrying that lot of moneyaround. And he realizes today is to
day. And so he rushed overhis calling out the name, and he
rushed over. When inside the door, he could see through the screen the
storm door and stream being was lyingkind of like if he goes straight into
the house from the front door,there's a fireplace. It looks the same
(43:49):
day that they'd been. He's gotpan paneling around it. Stream Being was
in in front of the fireplace.His head was facing like his head was
to the left, and there wasa doorway at that time there. But
anyway, he found they found thebodies, and that's that's how it was.
It was. It was a lifechanging, terrible moments. Now,
tell me about the investigation, becauseI'm sure that with the popularity of string
(44:15):
being back in the time, I'msure the cops were held bent on trying
to find out who did this,right, So the investigation was let me
just say this about the whole thing, the murder, of the investigation,
out of the trial that followed,in the different stages of the trial were
probably some of the most sensational tohit Nashville ever really, to say the
(44:37):
truth, certainly, in the lifetimesof the people of that moment, it
represented them a complete change of thecity. So did the city seemed menacing
and big and dangerous in a waythat it never had seen to them before.
And the country music industry was changedthat way and but fifting because there
(44:58):
would be another situation, another trial, investigation and trial that would follow stream
Being shortly after this, all havehashed out and that one it was become
the Marshal Trembrill case, and itwas also a basically kidnapping, and that
one had kind of featured the samecast of characters in terms of the police
and so forth. Anyway, Ijust mentioned that because this is not something
(45:21):
that just happened. This was abig deal. The whole city was written.
It was just written, and thecity was that ranged really because this
wasn't wasn't a ravel rouser, youknow, and the city was really devastated.
So I just that's something worth nothing. But as far as the investigation,
(45:43):
you had the finishing kind of people, the police, the investigators felt
a tremendous pressure. It probably worked. Noting I guess that the Metro the
way it worked was there was thisMetro Davidson County like Metro, basically,
it wasn't a new form of government, and it cook it basically include an
entire county, and so there wasa lot of ground to cover. The
(46:06):
equipment had not really caught up withthe moment that they were funding problems.
So there are a lot of headwinds, a lot of challenges. A lot
of the investigators were I don't meanany disrespect to them in any way.
And I certainly I'm not an investigatorby trade, so I don't want to
second guess them, but I'll justsay this, they were in a position
where they had to assemble their owninvestigation kit and put them in diplog bags.
(46:31):
They didn't They didn't even have theequipment to go handle a very high
profile situation, very high profile murder. And the murder scene and I have
to talk to people who were atthe murder scene was a complete circus.
I mean people were stepping on evidence. And one of the investigators, I
(46:52):
mean Jacobs, mentions it is lookpeople were there was who knows what kind
of evidence was was obliterated and wouldcome up at the trial. The defense
attorney for one of the men whowas charged and put on trial, he
poked all kind of holes into thewaiting year investigation was done as far as
the gathering of evidence and sore andreally but the first day or two they
(47:14):
had no clue. They had noidea who have done this? Had certain
had a few ideas. They hadsome cigarettes and they had an idea about
who. Okay, well if wecould find people are smoking these different kinds
of cigarettes, But there were somestrange things that the aintments had two cars.
One was a Cadillac and the otherone was a station wagon. The
station wagon had been driven to arock quarry. The police weren't quite sure
(47:36):
why that was. So there waskind of a very confusing things. And
probably the worst thing of all,the hardest things all from an investigation standpoint,
is they couldn't find any enemies.That they had no enemies, And
what they began to hear about wasthese people carried money, and they kept
a lot of cash on their personsand in the house. Now there were
(47:57):
a lot of report Multiple people havereported that still eight mon kept cash in
cans like old coop cans and puthim in the freezer. There's never been
any mention of any of that moneybeing recovered, but the police decided that
this was money motivated. Never sayanything about if there's any money in refrigerator.
Who knows if it's true or not. I have no idea, but
(48:19):
I can tell you this. Therewas determined that the mode was money.
But there was a wat of threethousand dollars on stream being person in his
overhauls in two thousand and the personof this Steff that's the three thousand bills
and didn't want all hundreds. That'sa substantial water of money. It seems
to me, well, if youthink about it, five thousand dollars in
(48:43):
nineteen seventy three, that was alot of money, right exactly, you
know, it's a lot of money. It's amiss that the whole purpose is
to go kill somebody for the moneyand you leave that kind of wat of
money on there. I mean,come home, you know, so way,
but whatever, that was what theydetermined and and so that was what
set it up. And you know, basically in terms of evidence, they
(49:07):
found twenty two case sings and therewere different calibers basically of metal around and
so they said, okay, wellthere had to be certain kind of guns,
and so I start piecing that togetheras you would at any investigation.
But really where the tide turned,and it was very curious for the tide
really turned, was that there wasa gentleman being held in custody who told
(49:32):
the DA at the time, whowas named Thomas Schreiver. It was like
this old time southern Middle Tennessee kindof lawyer, but they weren't very old
at the time. But his dadhad been a lawyer, and he was
sort of an establishment guys Vanderbilt Tide. He was up for reelection, by
the way at that time. Butanyway, this gentleman in custody said,
I heard there were these fellows whowere planning this murder, and their names
(49:55):
were John and Doug Brown, andthere also was and that Doug's brother Roy
and his brother Charlie. Charlie Brownwere all kind of implicated, and that
from that point forward, these gentlemenwere brought in. Job was actually not
in town at the time, butthey were brought in and they were questioned.
(50:16):
And one of the really interesting thingshad happened at that moment was that
Charlie Brown, who owned a weldingbusiness, hired Joe Binkley, who was
the most expensive defense attorney in thecity of Nashville. And it's a very
strange question. How in the worldcould you pay for this guy if you
(50:37):
just have a welding business. Andso the sort a big question in my
mind. Did they come away withmoney? Had they already come away with
money? And was this thing wherethey were surprised? There was there more
to it? And there were questionsthere. I think I never quite came
to a satisfactory answer, maybe formyself one and maybe there might be more
come to light some day. Butanyway, that was how well, it
(51:00):
was kind of a long model thatmay have been more detailed than you were
ontant. And that concludes the firsthalf. A string Beans story is told
by author Taylor Heygood. If youenjoy reading true crime books, then I
highly recommend that you purchase a copyof Taylor's book and adding it to your
collection. The book takes you fromstring Being's humble beginnings as a child making
(51:24):
his own instruments to becoming a countrymusic legend. You can get your own
copy of string Being The Life andMurder of a Country Music Legend, written
by Taylor Heygood on Amazon dot comor wherever else you purchase your favorite books.
And if you would like to contactTaylor about his book, please visit
(51:46):
Taylor Heygood dot com. I willbe sure to include this information in the
case story notes. And if youare a parent, law enforcement official,
friend, or relative seeking justice foran unsolved comic side case, please visit
my website and complete the contact form. You can also contact me through Facebook.
(52:07):
Thank you for listening.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.