Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry, episode 033: Rock’s unsolved murders

February 5, 2025 Alan Cross 0 Comments 2 min read

TV has conditioned us to believe that crimes can be solved in less than an hour. A detective or two (and maybe even a whole team) is assigned to a single case, and they somehow manage to solve it over the course of 60 minutes—43, if you deduct commercial time. That’s obviously not how it works in the real world.

Yes, some cases are solved quickly, but others take days, weeks, months, and even years. Then there are cold cases, crimes that don’t have any arrests, convictions, and, in many instances, no suspects.

The most famous case is probably Jack the Ripper. In 1888, at least five prostitutes were found carved up in the Whitechapel area of London. The killer taunted the cops but was never found. The list of suspects continues to grow, even today.

There’s the infamous Black Dahlia murder in Los Angeles. The body of a woman named Elizabeth Short was found mutilated and cut up. Despite numerous suspects, this case has remained unsolved since 1947.

The Zodiac Killer may have killed as many as 40 people in Northern California in the 60s and 70s. He was never caught.

And who killed JonBenet Ramsey on Christmas in 1996? Her body was found in the basement of her family’s house. Despite years of investigation by professionals, amateurs, and documentary-makers, we still have no answers.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The world of music also has its share of cold murder cases. And the circumstances around each of them are, as you might expect, rather bizarre.

This is episode 34 of Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. Let’s explore some of the most infamous unsolved and unresolved murder cases in music history. There are more than you may realize.

Get Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry wherever you get your podcasts. Both Uncharted and The Ongoing History of New Music will be heard back-to-back overnights five days a week on these Corus news stations:

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