HOLLYWOOD MYSTERIES AND SCANDALS_ Buddy Holly and his Tragic End
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00:00Buddy Holly. In the late 1950s, he was on the cutting edge of a new musical sound called rock and roll.
00:06By the age of 22, Buddy Holly had begun to achieve enormous fame and global recognition.
00:11He wouldn't live to see his 23rd birthday.
00:17February 3rd, 1959, a small chartered plane carrying music sensations Buddy Holly,
00:22Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper fell without warning from the frozen midnight sky.
00:27Everybody on board was killed on impact. It was rock and roll's first great tragedy.
00:31But is there more to this story than just a simple plane crash?
00:34I'm A.J. Benza. On this episode of Mysteries and Scandals, we'll investigate the mysteries surrounding the death of Buddy Holly.
00:41There's a good chance Buddy was flying that airplane.
00:44Who would shoot the pilot of an airplane when you're 4,000 feet in the air?
00:47Was it an accident or was it murder?
00:49We'll also look back at the meteoric rise of this ambitious young Texan with a pocket full of songs and a six string guitar.
00:55Buddy was going for the whole enchilada.
00:58Buddy was like our leader, our general in music.
01:01And we'll relive the events that led to the tragic end of this rock and roll legend.
01:04We should all move to New York. Buddy wouldn't have gotten on the plane.
01:09Join me as we search for clues about what happened aboard that plane.
01:13What secrets about the crash have been buried all these years?
01:16Most importantly, could the tragic death of Buddy Holly have been avoided?
01:26Mysteries and Scandals
01:40Charles Harden Holly, nicknamed Buddy, was born September 7th, 1936, the youngest of Ella and Lawrence Holly's four children.
01:48Obviously, the funny looking glasses weren't the only influence Buddy's parents had on his life.
01:53Holly biographer Larry Leamer explains.
01:55Buddy had a real musical family. He grew up in Lubbock, Texas and his parents were musical and his brothers as well.
02:03Travis Holly was nine years older than his brother Buddy.
02:06I picked up a guitar overseas and learned how to play it and Buddy became enamored with that.
02:13We managed to teach him a few chords and things like that and from then on he was pretty well a musician.
02:19Peggy Sue Guerin was a childhood friend and the inspiration for one of Holly's best loved songs.
02:24Peggy Sue remembers Buddy's musical roots.
02:27Some of the addresses that he lived were in East Lubbock.
02:31There was probably some black influence in the way he played, the way he thought and could hear music.
02:37Through his high school years, Buddy Holly performed whenever and wherever he could.
02:41He even showed up to play at the grand opening of a local gas station.
02:45In 1955, Buddy graduated from Lubbock High School and dedicated himself to music.
02:50He teamed up with Jerry Allison who eventually became the Cricket Screamer.
02:54When Buddy and I first played in a band together, he had to play the country gigs to make the money.
02:59He made something like $5 or $10 a night. It was great.
03:03But that's how we started hanging out and then we started hanging out and practicing,
03:07listening to R&B stations which were hard to find in the 50s in West Texas.
03:12Gary Busey was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor in the 1978 film, The Buddy Holly Story.
03:18He would listen to the Louisiana Hayride, a radio station out of New Orleans.
03:22And Little Richard was on there a lot. Little Richard played piano.
03:25Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
03:28So Buddy Holly played guitar.
03:31In 1956, 20-year-old Buddy was inspired by the showmanship of a fellow country boy named Elvis Presley.
03:43Bill Griggs is a Buddy Holly historian.
03:45He saw Elvis the very first time he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and wondered,
03:48how can you do that on television and get away with it? And then started to emulate Elvis.
03:53Later that year, Elvis appeared at the Fair Park Coliseum.
03:57Later that year, Elvis appeared at the Fair Park Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas.
04:01The stars from the Fair Park Coliseum, after they played there, they'd come out to the Cotton Club.
04:05We played the dance at the Cotton Club before the stars got there.
04:08We started tearing our gear down and Elvis and the guys were sitting there and Elvis was carrying the equipment.
04:13Buddy, of course, wanted to meet him so bad and went backstage to meet him and got to talking with him.
04:19And evidently they had passed the guitar back and forth and did a little playing.
04:24And Elvis told him, man, you're ready right now.
04:26Elvis was right. Buddy decided to form his own band.
04:30We got a fellow named Joby Mauldin who was playing with a local band in the 14's and we sort of stole him from that band.
04:37By 1957, 20-year-old Buddy had his group together. Now all they needed was a name.
04:42Back at that time, you named groups after birds and insects and things like that.
04:46Buddy, in particular, liked a group called The Spiders and he thought, let's get an insect name.
04:50And we got out a dictionary or something and looked up insects, just went down the list.
04:55We could have stopped the Beatles, but we didn't. We went on to The Crickets.
04:58And there was also a lot of crickets around Texas that year.
05:01They chirp and make noise and that's how we got the name.
05:04It was an exciting time. The music was beginning to change and it was the new sound.
05:09They set up a recording session over at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis and they recorded a song called Battle Be The Day.
05:15Norman Petty, the manager of The Crickets, pitched Battle Be The Day to several record companies in New York.
05:20The demo was finally bought by Decca Records for a measly $150.
05:25But would it be a hit? For Buddy and The Crickets, the waiting game was on.
05:29Things seemed to move slowly. He was out of money and wondering when it was going to happen.
05:35But we looked at Billboard every week and it would be on the bottom of the charts.
05:38We said, wow, we may actually get to go to Chicago, you know, some big town like that.
05:43And an older brother said, let's go call that guy in New York and find out what the situation is.
05:48And they called up there and the guy told them, oh, Buddy, your record's a hit. It's a smash. It's playing all over town right now.
05:54It was just exciting to be able to know that these songs were going up these mysterious charts
06:00and that the people were buying the records and that they loved the music and that it was all over this country.
06:06Finally, I saw an Irving Fell call that did Super Shower of Stars. He called and booked us for 17 weeks.
06:13He said, we have made it. You know, we're the ones.
06:16Got to New York and we moved to the Billings like that.
06:19Buddy Holly and The Crickets had arrived, but how would the good old boys handle the pressure of the big city?
06:24When we come back, what turn of events forced Buddy to participate in that doomed final tour?
06:29And what caused Buddy's plane to crash? Was it weather, pilot error, or something more sinister?
06:35In 1957, 20-year-old Buddy Holly was just starting to make a name for himself.
06:40Buddy and his band, The Crickets, was slowly climbing up the music charts with the hit song, That'll Be Today.
06:45The group went on tour up and down the East Coast with their rockabilly meets rhythm and blues sound.
06:50Buddy and The Crickets were featured along with the hottest R&B acts of the day, including Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino.
06:56Needless to say, audiences were surprised when The Crickets turned out to be as white as the T-shirt they were wearing.
07:02Longtime Apollo Theater employee Billy Mitchell recalls stories of Buddy's opening night at the famous Harlem Night Spot.
07:08Everyone around here just assumed that he was black.
07:11The announcer announced to him on that particular night that he was coming here to perform.
07:15Ladies and gentlemen, we want to welcome to the stage Mr. Buddy Holly.
07:19And he walked out on stage and all at once, collectively, everybody says,
07:23and you heard this one lady say, is he white?
07:28And then another guy yelled out, you better sing good.
07:32Then he asked his band members, let's do a little Bo Diddley, Bo Diddley.
07:36So they did some Bo Diddley, started dancing around the stage and whatnot.
07:41And before you know it, Buddy Holly and The Crickets had the Apollo Theater in his hands.
07:47Over the next several months, Buddy and The Crickets toured around the country.
07:50They also appeared on popular television programs like American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show.
07:55The boys from Lubbock were enjoying the perks of celebrity.
07:58The Crickets had a lot of success by the summer of 1958.
08:02Buddy had met a woman in New York City named Maria Elena Santiago.
08:06And he fell in love with her and they got married.
08:09Along about July 22, 1958, Jerry Ellis and I eloped.
08:13We called Buddy from Dallas the next day.
08:15And he said, OK, we'll honeymoon together.
08:1821-year-old Buddy found wedded bliss with his new bride.
08:21But sadly for Buddy and The Crickets, the honeymoon was about to end.
08:25You see, Buddy had big plans for his career and success wasn't going to find him in Texas.
08:29Buddy was going for the whole enchilada.
08:33He wanted to keep working, stay in New York.
08:36He wanted to start a publishing company.
08:38And in order for that to work, he felt that it needed to be in New York City.
08:43The Crickets were preparing to move there and decided, no, they didn't want to go to the big city.
08:49They'd rather stay out west.
08:50The band split up and Buddy was left to pursue a solo career.
08:54You know, I don't know what all the reasons were, but it was a bad mistake.
08:58We should have all moved to New York.
09:00Maybe Buddy wouldn't have gotten on the plane.
09:02I've always regretted that we didn't stay together.
09:05Buddy decided to form a backup band.
09:08He turned to one of his closest friends, Waylon Jennings, with an offer he couldn't refuse.
09:12He brought in this bass.
09:14He said, now learn to play that. You've got two weeks.
09:18So I memorized every one of his songs.
09:20Buddy needed money. He was cash poor.
09:22And he thought by going on this tour, he could get some ready cash.
09:25So he got a lot of his other endeavors going.
09:27So he went to an old friend, Irvin Feld.
09:29And Feld suggested that they put together a tour just for Buddy and some other up-and-coming rock stars.
09:35The other headliners in the 1959 Winter Dance Party Tour were Richie Valens with his smash hit song La Bamba
09:42and the big bopper J.P. Richardson, known for his upbeat single Chantilly Lace.
09:46They traveled in the dead of winter through the frigid Midwest.
09:49This would forever be remembered as the tour from hell.
09:52The group on the Winter Dance Party Tour for 24 days in 1959 were given a series of buses that kept breaking down.
09:59And on February 1st, 1959, they were on their way to Green Bay, Wisconsin for a show.
10:05And they broke down out in the middle of nowhere.
10:07We were going right down the road, just 40 below, and the bus froze up.
10:10And they thought they were going to die.
10:12We wrapped up in the bus with the heater going on, but they had to come out there and get us with the sheriff's department.
10:17And then they went on to what was going to turn out to be their last date, which was Clear Lake, Iowa, at the Surf Ballroom.
10:22Scott Anderson is the present owner of The Surf.
10:25The place was packed.
10:27They had upped the price that night to a whole $1.25, opposed to their usual 50 cents.
10:33The concert was a huge success.
10:35After the show, Buddy couldn't stand the thought of returning to that cold, crowded bus.
10:40Buddy decided, let's hire a plane, and we'll take myself and my band to the next venue.
10:46He wasn't originally going to take the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.
10:50He was going to take Tommy Alsup, who was his lead guitarist, and Waylon Jennings.
10:54But as you can imagine, no one wanted to ride the stinking bus.
10:57Ritchie Valens and Tommy Alsup flipped a coin.
11:00Ritchie won, and Alsup lost his seat on the plane.
11:04Waylon Jennings remembers giving up his seat to the Big Bopper.
11:07The Big Bopper was sick. He had the flu.
11:09Buddy was in a cane-bottom chair laughing at me, as usual.
11:13And he said, well, you're not going with us tonight.
11:16And I said, no.
11:17And he said, well, I hope your damn little bus freaks us out.
11:19And I said, yeah, well, I hope your old plane crashes.
11:22The last thing in the world you can even think about, Waylon,
11:25is that you're going to be killed in a plane crash.
11:27It ended up that the three headliners of that tour got on the plane along with pilot Roger Peterson.
11:32Within two to three minutes of takeoff, the plane crashed, and the news went around the world.
11:37The first rock and roll tragedy.
11:39The Beechcraft Bonanza was a four-passenger, single-engine plane.
11:43It plummeted from the sky.
11:45The plane skidded nearly 600 feet and came to rest in a snow-covered field.
11:4922-year-old Buddy Holly, 17-year-old Ritchie Valens, and 28-year-old J.P. Richardson were instantly killed.
11:56To this day, legend has it that a winter storm brought the plane down.
11:59But what really caused this tragic accident?
12:01When we come back, we'll hear from an eyewitness who was at the crash site.
12:04Who was to blame?
12:06How could this disaster have been prevented?
12:08On the morning of February 3, 1959,
12:10the wreckage of a small plane carrying rock and roll's rising star, 22-year-old Buddy Holly,
12:15was found in a frozen Iowa cornfield.
12:18It took rescuers 10 hours to locate the mangled debris after the plane fell from the sky.
12:23Welcome back to Mysteries and Scandals. I'm A.J. Benza.
12:26Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper were thrown from the wreckage
12:30while the pilot's body remained trapped inside.
12:32Local resident Leroy Morford was at the scene of the 1959 crash.
12:36When we got there, the bodies had already been picked up,
12:39but the pilot, Roger Peterson, was still in the plane,
12:42and they had actually cut the plane apart to get him out.
12:44There was no way you could hardly tell it was an airplane.
12:47The official cause of the crash was pilot error.
12:51If you have a plane crash and the pilot dies, you blame it on the pilot. That's very easy.
12:55Well, what if the pilot wasn't actually flying the plane?
12:58There's a good chance Buddy was flying that airplane.
13:01There's a good chance.
13:03The reason I know that, we flew all over west Texas and a bunch of places, you know,
13:07and every time that plane would get off the ground, he'd say,
13:10let me take it.
13:12And his great buddy, Holly, asked him, let me take the wheel.
13:15Now, what's he going to say?
13:16Others don't buy into the theory that Buddy was flying the plane.
13:19The physical evidence disproves that.
13:21The crushing wounds to the pilot's body were similar to someone coming in impact with the control column.
13:28Still, there is suspicion among some Iowa residents that the crash was caused by foul play.
13:33For one thing, the wreckage of the plane hasn't been seen since 1959.
13:37Who's got the plane? Where'd it go? When will we see it?
13:40And the other mystery in my mind, was it an accident or was it murder?
13:43The plane crashed on the Albert Jewell farm,
13:46and a couple months later when he was ready to plow for crops,
13:49Albert Jewell was out picking up pieces of the wreckage, and he found a pistol.
13:52So he turned it in to Sheriff Jerry Allen.
13:54It wasn't clear at the time when they found the gun who it belonged to.
13:58Some people even alleged that the pilot had been shot.
14:01Now, first of all, who would shoot the pilot of an airplane when you're 4,000 feet in the air?
14:05But Buddy did have a pistol on board, so we have to go look into that.
14:08Sheriff Allen examined the pistol and discovered it had been fired.
14:12That's when the rumors started.
14:14Perhaps during maybe some kind of scuffle or disagreement on the plane,
14:17that the gun was discharged and either struck the pilot in the back of the head or the back of the neck,
14:22and he was out of control.
14:23I did go back and find the doctor who did the autopsy on the pilot
14:27and asked him to review his autopsy report
14:29and see if there were any injuries at all that would be consistent with a gunshot,
14:34and he didn't find any.
14:36Albert Jewell came back over to Sheriff Allen and said,
14:38did you find out who owned the pistol?
14:40Sheriff Allen said, yes, it was Buddy Hollis.
14:42And Albert Jewell said, well, it works.
14:44Sheriff Allen says, what do you mean it works?
14:47He says, well, when I found it, I fired it.
14:49Well, end of rumor, because it was Albert Jewell that fired the pistol and nobody else.
14:52So much for the magic bullet theory.
14:54The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the crash and ruled that the accident was the pilot's fault.
14:59Weather conditions weren't great, it was a bitterly cold night,
15:02and the 21-year-old pilot should have known better than to take off.
15:06I'm fairly confident that the pilot was having second thoughts.
15:09He got to the end of the runway while waiting to taxi on the takeoff
15:13and decided that this isn't for him, this isn't a good idea.
15:17Well, he said, number one, if you have ice on the wings, the plane gets heavier.
15:20The plane was at maximum as it was.
15:22Number two, if you have ice on the wings, the wings lose their shape.
15:25You lose the aerodynamics. You lose lift.
15:28The wind was blowing, the plane was shuffling around out at the end of the runway.
15:34But I'm also convinced that the singers persuaded him that if they were to get to their next gig,
15:40he had to be the one to get them there.
15:44The answer is that plane never should have taken off.
15:46That would have been the decision to make.
15:48Instead, a fatal decision was made, and the impact was felt around the world.
15:52Up next, the dreams that were destroyed and the lives that were forever changed
15:55by this senseless and unexpected tragedy.
15:58In 1959, the tragic plane crash that took the life of 22-year-old rock and roll icon Buddy Holly
16:04shocked the nation.
16:05For so many, it was, as the song says, the day the music died.
16:09I was in junior high school.
16:11We had a big brown radio that went up like this, and the news came on.
16:17There'd been a plane crash.
16:18Clear Lake, Iowa.
16:20Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Big Bob Burdette.
16:24And it was like air went out of me.
16:27I'm only 12, but I realized we have just lost something major.
16:31I remember the DJ saying,
16:33that's yet another song by the late Buddy Holly who died this morning in a plane crash.
16:38And I remember pulling to the side of the road, no tears, more of shock,
16:41because our heroes aren't supposed to die.
16:43And then all of a sudden, they said, Buddy's killed. I said, surely not.
16:46My wife met me at the door and said, your brother has been killed in a plane crash.
16:51It was like somebody had literally reached up and just turned all the lights out.
16:56Totally dark.
16:58The plan stopped.
17:00The publishing company was not going to be.
17:02There would be no record label.
17:04It just stopped.
17:07The Winter Dance Party Tour and the rest of Buddy's band
17:10arrived at their next gig in Fargo, North Dakota.
17:13They hadn't yet heard the news.
17:15A guy came to the front door, the tour manager.
17:18He said, come here, I've got to talk to you.
17:21And I knew something was bad and wrong.
17:24And I said, no.
17:26And I didn't know why, but I said, no.
17:29I said, the boys didn't make it.
17:31I said, that plane crashed.
17:33And I didn't know what to do.
17:35I really, I mean, there I was.
17:37All I want to do is go home.
17:39Despite their grief, the musicians were told the show must go on.
17:43To ensure this, the managers of the tour
17:45made a handful of promises to Buddy's band.
17:47We'll give you a plane ticket home for the funeral.
17:50First class, we'll take care of you and everything.
17:52We'll give you what we were going to give Buddy,
17:54but please don't leave.
17:56Don't leave the tour.
17:58Fifties rocker Bobby V was added to the concert lineup
18:01for the remainder of the ill-fated tour.
18:03I remember seeing Tommy Alsop, the lead guitar player for Holly at that time,
18:07and seeing his eyes were all glossed over and he wasn't there.
18:11His body was there, but he wasn't there.
18:13Every once in a while that I was singing, you know,
18:15every once in a while I was playing bass
18:17and probably playing the wrong song.
18:19It was like, just get through it, and that was it.
18:22There had been this sense of, you know,
18:24let's come together and get through this terrible thing that's happened.
18:27And after it was over, they docked us for Buddy.
18:30So I got mad.
18:32I said, tell you what we'll do.
18:34Tell them that we will tear every piece of lumber in that building
18:38and they won't have anything standing unless they pay.
18:41They got two ways to build it, that's one.
18:43Well, the building was still standing,
18:45so I guess the promoters of the show took the other way.
18:48However, the tour managers never made good on their promises.
18:51Waylon and the other band members continued the tour,
18:54but were never given the plane tickets needed to get back home.
18:57Sadly, they missed Buddy's funeral.
18:59Nice business, huh?
19:00And for his friends and family back home,
19:02Buddy's memory would not soon fade away.
19:05For a long time after his death, I wouldn't even listen to his songs.
19:08I never played any of his records,
19:10and if it was playing on the radio, I'd turn the radio off.
19:13After about three years, it began to come to me
19:15that it was wonderful music and I should listen to it,
19:18and I've learned to love it now.
19:20That's the power of Holly.
19:22That's the power of his music.
19:23It's timeless. It's universal.
19:25It will be here forever.
19:27Keeping the legend and the music alive,
19:29the original Crickets continue to perform in concert.
19:32Everybody said rock and roll won't last.
19:34I thought if it lasted another three months, it'd be great.
19:37Buddy's mother and I were both at the same rock concert
19:40in Clovis, New Mexico, one year,
19:42and she said, boy, Petey, this is our kind of music.
19:45For just three or four years, it's heated up there.
19:47The influence he had on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,
19:50and all of that British invasion,
19:52there's just sparkles of Buddy Holly all over it.
19:55It's so good to feel this spirit now,
19:59and the spirit of Buddy will never leave me.
20:01To this day, I don't go through a week without thinking of him.
20:04There was no two ways about it. He was the king.
20:06Still is.
20:07Music is the highest art form of them all,
20:10and Buddy Holly is a master.
20:12He still is.
20:13I'm sure he's got some good songs going up there
20:15in the choirs of heaven.
20:17The unexpected death of the young Buddy Holly was tragic,
20:20but his triumph can still be heard in his music.
20:23I'm A.J. Benza.
20:24Join me the next time we expose the high cost of fame
20:27on Mysteries & Scandals.
20:29Tonight there'll be no hesitating, oh boy
20:32Oh boy
20:33When you're with me, oh boy
20:34Oh boy
20:35The whole world can see that you
20:37Are what I'm in
20:38For me
20:41Stars appear and the shadows are falling
20:44You can hear my heart calling
20:46A little bit of loving makes everything right
20:49I'm gonna see my baby tonight
20:51All of my love, all of my kissing
20:54You don't know what you've been missing, oh boy
20:57Oh boy
20:58When you're with me, oh boy
20:59Oh boy