The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (16 page)

Just as Durst might have been thinking he could now move on with his life another twist was added to the already long-running saga – nearly a year after his shock victory on murder charges
Pennsylvania authorities indicted him on two counts of interstate gun transportation. At the time of the indictment Durst was just days away from release for the bail jumping and evidence-tampering
charges when he was taken into custody by Federal marshals for transfer to Pennsylvania to face the gun charges.

Durst’s defence team had already managed to secure him a low tariff for bail jumping and evidence tampering. The team had successfully managed to remove the trial judge, Susan Criss, after
she had publicly expressed regret over the jury’s verdict. Subsequently the defence team struck a deal with the prosecution whereby Durst would receive a five-year prison term, most of which
would be covered by credit for time already served.

Durst’s lawyers, who were not expecting there to be any additional suits, claimed that their client was now being pursued for vindictive reasons. Dick DeGuerin, a member of Durst’s
defence team, described the action as a “malicious prosecution”.

When Durst faced the charges in Pennsylvania his lawyers began a round of plea bargaining intended to minimize the effect of the prosecution; without this it was possible that Durst could have
faced up to 15 years in prison had he chosen to go to trial.

Durst was finally sentenced to nine months imprisonment, a $30,000 fine plus a further two years supervised release. United States District Court Judge Timothy Savage agreed to a deal whereby
Durst would be given credit for time already served which means that he should finally walk free in April 2005.

Robert Durst remains the wealthiest man in the United States penal system, his wealth appearing to have bought him a significant amount of skill in terms of his defence team, skill many others
could not have afforded.

Rather than wanting a break from all of the costly legal wranglings which have dogged his life for the past few years, Durst is now involved in a legal dispute with his brother Douglas and one
his cousins who have sought to change the rules governing the family trust fund, of which Durst is one of thirteen benefactors. Durst is fighting to ensure that he can bequeath his share of the
wealth to his estranged wife Deborah, a situation other members of the family are not pleased with.

There are now active investigations on both coasts of America, with authorities saying they can prove that Durst was in Los Angeles at the time of Susan Berman’s death, something which
Durst has always denied. This alone would not provide sufficient evidence of guilt, interesting though it is. No charges have been brought but the police do not rule out further interviews with
anyone they think might be able to help with their enquiries.

I heard it through the grapevine. It is virtually impossible to read those words without adding to them the melody which has become famous the world over as Marvin Gaye’s
signature song. The man who would be an icon began his all-too-short life from very meagre beginnings. Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr, one of the most gifted and visionary musical talents was born 2 April
1939, in Washington DC. The second of four children born to Alberta and Marvin Sr, an ordained minister in the House of God, a Christian sect bringing together parts of Judaism and Pentecostalism,
a mixed religious environment with very strict values. It would be the hands of his father who would, some 45 years later, take the gift of life from this singing legend. To understand the person
that Marvin Gaye became, you really need to understand the feudal father–son relationship he was to suffer throughout his life.

Marvin Gay Sr was born in 1914, the third of 13 children of poor farm parents in Jessamine County, Kentucky. It was an unhappy childhood which was to be repeated in Marvin Jr’s own home
later in life, and like his father, Marvin was to become a strict disciplinarian, abusive and totally in control of his household.

In 1919, with the farm work unable to provide enough money to keep the large family going, George and Mamie Gay moved to Lexington. Shortly after arriving in Lexington Mamie and her son, Marvin
Sr, began attending a storefront church, affiliated to a religious sect which was strangely, yet proudly named “The House of God, The Holy Church of The Living God, The Pillar And The Ground
of The Truth, The House of Prayer for All People”. Marvin Sr was to prove a good religious scholar, absorbing the moralistic stories and taking them all very seriously. Years later, in 1934,
he moved to Washington DC, as a House of God preacher.

It was while preaching in Washington DC that Gay Sr met Alberta Cooper, a regular member of his congregation. After a brief but proper courtship they were married in July 1935. Marvin and
Alberta had four children: Jeanne, in 1937, Marvin Jr, on 2 April 1939, Frankie, in 1942, and Zeola, known as Sweetsie, in 1945.

Marvin Sr continued to preach, popular with the congregation but poorly paid. The family managed to survive on Alberta’s wages as a maid and made do with subsidized housing. In 1950,
Marvin Sr left the church when he was overlooked as a candidate for the role of Chief Apostle of the House of God. His working life never really took off and he spent the majority of his adult life
out of work. Unfortunately for his children he had plenty of free time and focused much of his attention on them, his penchant for the strict application of his rules never far away. Although he
had given up his church role he still held many of its beliefs and forced these upon the family. Not only were their strict rules about what you could and couldn’t do, discussing certain
subjects was also considered a sin. The Gay household was no place to discuss athletics, dancing, movies, television and popular music. His daughters had to dress demurely and he strictly enforced
a no lipstick or nail polish rule. The children were routinely tested on biblical passages, and had to always obey Gay’s firmly set curfew. If rules were broken or disobeyed then there were
consequences to be paid, namely a beating, and there were many. To add to the children’s problems they were all bed-wetters, no doubt the result of some deep-seated psychological problems,
yet this too prompted the unwanted attention of their father.

Marvin Gaye Jr claimed that living with his father was something like living with a king – a very peculiar, changeable, cruel and all-powerful king. The children were made to seek Gay
Sr’s favour, something which Marvin would refuse to do, spending much of his time defying his father, resenting his dogmatic and cruel attempts at child rearing. His father would take
pleasure in the punishment of his children, sending them to their bedrooms to await his belt, often leaving them for up to an hour, giving them plenty of time to sweat it out. They were terrified
of the door opening as they knew he didn’t make idle threats when it came to a whipping. If Gay Sr was overzealous in his pursuit of punishment, Alberta Gay would provide the soft centre of
the family. Marvin Jr relied on his mother to lift his spirits – it was she who would console him and praise his singing.

A contradictory facet of Marvin Sr’s character was his penchant for dressing in his wife’s clothes, even her wigs and shoes. Later in life Marvin Jr was at pains to admit that he
also had developed a fascination with women’s clothes, although he was quick to point out that he had no attraction for men, although interestingly, five of Marvin Sr’s siblings were
homosexual.

Wasting no time at all, Marvin’s singing career started at the tender age of three, when he first sang in church, a role he enjoyed and excelled at, so much so that he was soon elevated to
a soloist in the choir. Singing was not his only musical accomplishment for he was also able to play the church organ and the family piano, an old but reliable instrument which was kept in the
family’s living room. He was self taught and played by ear, never feeling the need to learn how to read music; he was a natural. His father encouraged his son’s passion for music,
himself a self-taught pianist, but Marvin had to keep in mind that he was only allowed to play religious melodies, at least when his father was in the house. Music was a great source of enjoyment
for Marvin and he would use this pleasure to take away some of the pain of a very unhappy home life. He attended Cardozo High School where he had many musically talented friends and together they
formed a band in which Marvin played piano and drums. Along with his pals he enjoyed going out to see musicians, especially rhythm and blues bands, his favourites being James Brown, Jackie Wilson
and Sam Cooke, the inspiration for the extra “e” in his surname, which he added in 1957.

With increasing pressures at home Marvin dropped out of high school in 11th grade and at 18 joined the American Air Force. But military life did not suit – he had escaped one dictator only
to find another, he was still being ordered around and found he still wasn’t enjoying himself. The Air Force gave him only menial jobs to keep him busy – instead of flying jets, which
he thought was the whole idea of joining, he found himself peeling potatoes. Having concluded that he had “jumped out of the fat and into the fire”, he feigned illness and managed to
get an honourable discharge, leaving because of his inability to adjust to regimentation and authority. With the swift end to his military career, Marvin was now ready to pursue the only thing that
really mattered to him and fulfil the passion in which he had always sought refuge – his music.

He returned to Washington and began singing in several street-corner “doo-wop” groups, forming a singing group called The Marquees, in which Marvin was lead tenor. The group played
local events and competitions where, by a stroke of luck, they were spotted by Bo Diddley, himself a local musician and one just on the cusp of gaining popularity with his amazing guitar melodies.
It was with the assistance and enthusiasm of Diddley that The Marquees recorded their first double-sided single, containing the songs, “Hey Little School Girl” and “Wyatt
Earp”. The record did moderately well, encouraging Marvin to audition for the lead in another band, The Moonglows. The band loved him and offered him the lead singer’s role. Finally
making some progress the band moved to Chicago, where Gaye came across other musicians, occasionally providing back-up vocals on songs for Etta James and Chuck Berry. After relocating to Chicago,
The Moonglows recorded a selection of singles for Chess Records, including 1959’s “Mama Loocie”, which along with other recordings did rather well, enough for them to start
touring. It was while on tour that the group performed in Detroit, where Gaye’s graceful tenor and three-octave vocal range won the interest of fledgling impresario Berry Gordy Jr, who, in
1961, signed him to the Motown Record label, marking the beginning of a long, productive career with one of the best-known labels in the US.

Gordy had a fantastic talent for blending rock ’n’ roll, gospel, and rhythm & blues into very popular, commercial tunes, which appealed to a vast audience. As Marvin himself once
put it, “We produce black dance music that white kids want to buy.” It was while at Motown that Marvin met Gordy’s sister Anna, the namesake for one of his record labels, Anna
Records, who became a major part in Marvin’s life for several years. The couple met when Marvin was only 20, whereas Anna was already 37 years old. Despite the age difference, the friendship
blossomed and they fell in love, marrying in January 1961.

During his early Motown years Marvin produced many minor hits including, “Stubborn Kind of Fellow”, “Hitch Hike” and “Can I Get a Witness”, but his first top
ten hit, “Pride and Joy”, was the one which launched him, earning him great adulation from his ever-growing fan base. The hits just kept on coming – both as a solo artist and as
one half of a duo – and by the mid 1960s he had secured three top ten hits, “Ain’t That Peculiar”, “I’ll Be Doggone”, and “How Sweet It Is (To Be
Loved by You)”. These great songs were shortly followed by another big hit, “It Takes Two”, a duet which hit all the right notes commercially. Marvin was now a worldwide singing
phenomenon, his face adorned the covers of countless magazines and his voice rang out from juke boxes and radio speakers, but with the success came the money, the glory, the temptations and the
gradual slide into drug abuse.

Throughout these early years of Marvin’s success, it was Anna who provided the guiding force in his life. He often said, “I sang all these songs for Anna,” but by now Marvin
Gaye had started to mirror some of the behaviour he had learned from his father. Anna Gordy was a very strong-willed woman, characteristics which Marvin found difficult to cope with so that from
the beginning the couple’s relationship was tempestuous and fiery, with Marvin often resorting to violence. He confessed, “We came to blows on more than one occasion, and I’m
going to tell you something, Anna could hold her own.”

Despite the turbulance within the marriage, the couple longed for a child, but after years of hoping and waiting they eventually discovered that Anna was unable to conceive. Reminiscent of
Marvin’s childhood, his father added to the grief by taunting his son, claiming he wasn’t man enough to produce him a grandchild. In 1965 desperation kicked in and the pair came up with
a plan whereby Anna would fake being pregnant – she told all her friends and family that she was pregnant, even giving the date the baby was due, as well as wearing progressively large
maternity clothes. On the due date the Gayes took delivery of an adopted child, a son, and decided to name him Marvin III.

The child, though a welcome addition to the Gaye household, did nothing to quell the growing rift between Marvin and Anna, who having rowed to the point of physical attack on many occasions,
split up frequently. As their marriage crumbled they each took lovers, both having many sexual partners during their ten years together. Marvin had more than ample opportunity to indulge in
extramarital sex and spent the majority of the 1960s recording duets with a multitude of gorgeous female singers, adding further strain to his already weak marriage.