[TexasCajun]

[AppyPappy]

Details are sketchy as to why he did it but there did seem to be a robbery involved.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Stringbean is dead? Next you’ll tell me Grandpa and Junior are gone or Minnie Pearl!

[Kartographer]

Akeman was modest and unassuming, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing. Accustomed to the hard times of the Great Depression, Akeman and his wife Estelle lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Their only indulgence was a Cadillac. Depression-era bank failures caused Akeman not to trust banks with his money. Gossip around Nashville was that Akeman kept large amounts of cash on hand, even though he was by no means wealthy by entertainment industry standards.

On Saturday night, November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife returned home after he performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Both were shot dead shortly after their arrival. The killers had waited for hours. The bodies were discovered the following morning by their neighbor, Grandpa Jones.

A police investigation resulted in the convictions of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both 23 years old. They had ransacked the cabin and killed Stringbean when he arrived. His wife shrieked when she saw her husband murdered. She begged for her life, but was shot as well. According to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, “Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial (where Akeman’s cast-member and friend Grandpa Jones testified, as he recognized one of the stolen firearms in the defendants’ possession as a gift he had given Akeman), each defendant blamed the other for the homicides.”[2]

The killers took only a chain saw and some firearms. In 1996, 23 years after the murders, $20,000 in paper money was discovered behind a chimney brick in Stringbean’s home. The money had deteriorated to such an extent that it was not usable and had to be turned in to a bank.

Marvin Douglas Brown fought his convictions in the appellate courts. On September 28, 1982, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial judge’s order denying him a new trial.[3] Marvin Brown ultimately granted an exclusive interview to Larry Brinton of the Nashville Banner. He admitted his part in the burglary and murders, but insisted John Brown fired the fatal shots. As Marvin Brown, by his own admission, had committed burglary (a felony) that resulted in death, Brown was legally guilty of murder, regardless of who fired the shots, under the Felony murder rule.

Marvin Brown died of natural causes in 2003, at the Brushy Mountain Prison, in Petros, Tennessee, and is buried in the prison cemetery. John Brown is incarcerated in a Tennessee Special Needs Facility. In July 2008, the Tennessee Parole Board deferred any parole for 36 months. He was again denied parole in July 2011. The A&E cable television network profiled the case on a 2003 episode of its City Confidential series.

David and Estelle Akeman are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. During the remaining production of Hee Haw, the scarecrow was left as a memorial.

Bluegrass artist Sam Bush recorded “The Ballad of Stringbean and Estelle”, which tells the story of their murders, for his 2009 album, Circles Around Me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%22Stringbean%22_Akeman

[Dallas59]

Akeman was modest and unassuming, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing. Accustomed to the hard times of the Great Depression, Akeman and his wife Estelle lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Their only indulgence was a Cadillac. Depression-era bank failures caused Akeman not to trust banks with his money. Gossip around Nashville was that Akeman kept large amounts of cash on hand, even though he was by no means wealthy by entertainment industry standards.

On Saturday night, November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife returned home after he performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Both were shot dead shortly after their arrival. The killers had waited for hours. The bodies were discovered the following morning by their neighbor, Grandpa Jones.

A police investigation resulted in the convictions of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both 23 years old. They had ransacked the cabin and killed Stringbean when he arrived. His wife shrieked when she saw her husband murdered. She begged for her life, but was shot as well. According to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, "Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial (where Akeman's cast-member and friend Grandpa Jones testified, as he recognized one of the stolen firearms in the defendants' possession as a gift he had given Akeman), each defendant blamed the other for the homicides."

The killers took only a chain saw and some firearms. In 1996, 23 years after the murders, $20,000 in paper money was discovered behind a chimney brick in Stringbean's home. The money had deteriorated to such an extent that it was not usable and had to be turned in to a bank.

Marvin Douglas Brown fought his convictions in the appellate courts. On September 28, 1982, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial judge's order denying him a new trial. Marvin Brown ultimately granted an exclusive interview to Larry Brinton of the Nashville Banner. He admitted his part in the burglary and murders, but insisted John Brown fired the fatal shots. As Marvin Brown, by his own admission, had committed burglary (a felony) that resulted in death, Brown was legally guilty of murder, regardless of who fired the shots, under the Felony murder rule.

[Jagdgewehr]

Brown has served 40 years of his 198-year sentence for killing the Akemans...

Oh, well Hell's Bells, that plenty long enough for killing two people.

/srac.

[teeman8r]

the way the headline is written... stringbean was granted parole for killing the opry...

sheesh.

press one for english

[Pontiac]

Melissa McDonald with the Tennessee Board of Parole told News 2 the board voted Wednesday morning to grant John Brown parole.

Well maybe they can vote to parole the Akmans from being dead.

[arderkrag]

This is the murder Grandpa Jones discovered:

A resident of rural Ridgetop, Tennessee outside of Nashville, he was a neighbor and friend of fellow musician David "Stringbean" Akeman. On the morning of November 11, 1973, Jones discovered the bodies of Akeman and his wife, who had been murdered during the night by robbers. Jones testified at the trial of the killers, his testimony helping to secure a conviction. He identified a firearm found in their possession as one he had given to Akeman.

Source

[JOAT]

This is a textbook case for capital punishment.

The slug gets 198 years, but some disconnected future generation lets him out after 40.

He still has 158 more years to serve since they didn't send him to the chair like they should have when he was convicted.

[mware]

What the hell. The b@t@rd killed his wife too.

[Ghengis]

I was a 12 year old Appalachian kid when these murders hit the news. My family loved Hee-Haw and the cast members seemed almost like someone you knew from a town down the road. Stringbean's murder was quite a shock to my young consciousness.

A few generations ago, both would have likely been executed. You can't convince me that there is not a deterrent factor in capitol punishment.

[GeronL]

even a 198-year sentence doesn’t keep them in prison

messed up!

[DoughtyOne]

Oh you silly Conservatives. We don't need a death penalty. You put them behind bars for life, and you never have to worry about them again. God you folks are vicious!

And once again we're proven right.

Good people are dead, and never get a reprieve.

Vicious killers get sympathy and a parole.

The same people who promised this guy would never get out, fought to get him out. Count on it!

[freeonefrom]

I cannot understand why they would allow John Brown to be paroled. The crimes he and his brother committed were terrible and two people did not have the best (retire or something else) of their life to live. He (John Brown) should live the rest of his life in prison. For someone that is a better writer than I, here is the parole boards e-mail address BOP.Webmail@tn.gov