From the AP:
Nearly 36 years after a man was stabbed to death during a Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway, investigators have closed the case, dismissing a theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the killing.
Meredith Hunter, 18, was killed during the free concert on Dec. 6, 1969. The show, which drew an estimated 300,000 people, was billed as the “Woodstock of the West,” but the death helped bring to an end the image of the peace-and-love ‘60s. The concert, and the stabbing, were captured on film in the 1970 documentary “Gimme Shelter.”
As the Stones played on stage, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, hired by the band to provide security, attacked, stabbed and killed Hunter.
Alan Passaro was acquitted after a jury concluded he acted in self-defense because Hunter was carrying a gun. But there had been rumors over the years that a second unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds, and the case remained open.
But Alameda County sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Dudek said Wednesday that after a renewed investigation over the past two years, authorities concluded that Passaro, who died in 1985, was the only person to stab Hunter and did so only after Hunter pointed a gun at the stage.
Dudek said Passaro’s lawyer confirmed his client was the lone assailant. In addition, enhanced and slowed-down footage from the film shows Hunter brandishing the gun just before Passaro leaps from the stage and stabs him, Dudek said.
related: the Annotated “American Pie”*
By the way, Gimme Shelter is worth checking out. Criterion put out a great DVD edition a couple years back.
I really enjoyed Dudek’s slide guitar part on the Allman Brothers’ “Rambling Man”.
This particular annotated American Pie is pretty weak, IMHO.
But hey, maybe you can do Stairway to Heaven next.
Why did this take 36 years to settle? You can see the entire video played in slow motion (along with the Band’s reaction to it) in the movie.
Also in the movie are Keith Richards famous words “I just like to the the sound come out of the speakers”.
Sorry that “ “I just like to hear the the sound come out of the speakersâ€Â.
Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. Back……….. and to the left…
“Gimme Shelter” came out when I was living in Boston, and one day, my hippie friends and I got wrecked, went to the theater at ten AM, and sat there and watched it over and over until closing. Good times.
And just for the record, before someone brings up the old canard, no, they were not playing “Sympathy for the Devil” when the guy got stabbed. They were playing “Under My Thumb.”