with his raw raspy voice electrifying
showmanship and
irresistibly catchy songs james brown
cemented his legacy as one of the
greatest musical performers who ever
lived
unfortunately he also did horrible
things
many of which have only come to light
since his death in 2006.
just months before his passing james
brown spoke with journalist robert
chalmers for two hours
brown who chalmers suspected was high at
the time sprinkled the conversation with
long words and yiddish slang that made
no sense in context
eventually he turned his attention to
death theorizing that once someone dies
their soul exits via supernatural
flatulence as a puff of smoke
the singer also claimed he could look at
someone's face and tell if they were
about to die
in 2013 chalmers mentioned a question
that evidently didn't appear in the
originally published interview he had
asked brown whether he could see him
pending death by looking in a mirror to
which the singer responded quote
i ain't going to tell you that given how
often brown brought up death and legacy
in their meeting
chalmers suggested that brown realized
his time was almost up
in 2014 brown's chauffeur told the
guardian that he sometimes picked up
several women from the airport in a
single day to take them to sleep with
brown
he also alleged that the famous stage
performer didn't perform so well in the
bedroom
adding that brown's girlfriends teased
him because his manhood quote was about
the size of a pencil
whatever problems he had revving his
bedroom engine brown functioned enough
to have six kids that he knew of once he
died
more alleged children came forward to
demand a chunk of his estate
by august 2007 roughly a dozen people
had taken paternity tests per the
associated press
by december three had been confirmed as
brown's offspring the most controversial
claim involved young james brown ii
brown's known heirs thought brown had a
vasectomy in the 1980s making them doubt
that james ii was his child
however he absolutely was brown's son
and there's probably no telling whether
there are still undiscovered kids
on december 23 2006 a week and days
james brown went to the dentist where he
felt gravely ill
he was rushed to the hospital and died
on christmas day at the age of 73
the official cause of death was a heart
attack and fluid in the lungs but cnn
highlighted reasons to doubt those
claims
dr marvin crawford who signed brown's
death certificate said he saw the
singer's son-in-law daryn lamar shouting
they killed him
at the hospital brown's friend andre
white said an unnamed nurse told him a
stranger paid the musician a visit just
before his vitals dropped
allegedly there was drug residue in his
breathing tube hairdresser candace hurst
allegedly sent
text messages in which she worried about
going to jail over a quote
james brown duffel bag filled with her
clothes including drug residue on some
shoes
brown's attorney buddy dallas supposedly
told her to throw it into a lake despite
calls from some family members for an
autopsy brown's daughter yama brown has
refused one
i don't need an autopsy
the human body goes on a strange
biological odyssey after death but
james brown's body in particular went on
a very real
very strange journey to different
locations according to his widow tommy
ray to determine the paternity of her
son james ii
the singer's legs had to be cut off to
extract bone marrow since the embalming
process had tainted other sources of dna
she also revealed that in the first six
months after the singer's passing his
body got relocated 14 times
amid family squabbling over his fortune
the last known location of brown's body
was a crypt in his daughter deanna's
yard
in 2010 brown's daughter laronda
peaches-pettit claimed his body had
disappeared possibly to conceal the true
circumstances of his death a funeral
home director denied this and deanna
also denied it via her publicist
however when cnn's thomas lake looked
into the matter he received conflicting
information from two lawyers with one
saying that the body's whereabouts were
confidential and the other stating that
the body was quote publicly known to be
indiana's yard was james brown married
three times or four times
it took 11 years to officially settle
the matter as described by find law
the whole mess began back in 1997 when
tommy ray hiney married javid ahmed
apparently that marriage slipped her
mind because she tied the knot with
brown in 2001.
obviously this was a problem though
maybe not for ahmed who already had
multiple wives in pakistan
brown filed for an annulment but later
changed his mind instead heine had her
first
marriage dissolved even so it wasn't
clear whether brown and haini were
married when the singer passed away
heine was locked out of his house
brown's attorney argued that heine had
just been quote a guest in mr brown's
home
the maybe mrs brown decided to fight in
court and in 2018
an appeals court sided with heine on the
grounds that her first marriage was
invalid from the get-go
after all ahmed was already married
while all this was going on brown's
former spouse velma swooped in to call
dibs on brown's estate the pair had
married in 1953 and according to her
they never divorced which would
invalidate all of brown's later
marriages in reality they officially
called it quits in 1969.
brown had a decades-long history of
violence against women
vicki anderson whose husband performed
alongside him told rolling stone that in
the 1970s brown beat his then wife
deidra she added the minute he buys you
the first thing
if you're his woman next will come those
beatings brown's fourth wife tommy ray
also witnessed his vicious behavior in
2004 she dialed 9-1-1
after her enraged husband shoved her to
the floor and threatened to murder her
while waving a chair this is my last
chance to get away from something that
i'm convinced is going to kill me
brown denied the accusations saying
quote i would never hurt my wife
but of course at the time he didn't
consider tommy ray his wife
despite brown's declarations of love the
prospect of future 9-1-1
calls may have weakened his eagerness to
remarry tommy ray
that issue came up in the unreleased
movie life on the road with mr and mrs
brown which journalist robert chalmers
described in a 2013 gq
article the film contains a sequence in
which brown and tommy ray prepare to
renew their vows in las vegas however
tommy ray remarks that part of their
agreement included a clause that she
never called 9-1-1 again
they apparently never went through with
it but the suggestion is awful enough
speaking with chalmers tommy ray
acknowledged that brown beat her but
denied that it was abuse
after laying her father to rest yama
brown wrote the memoir
cold sweat my father james brown and me
in which she opened up about her
father's monstrous treatment of her
mother and his second wife deidra she
recalled seeing brown a former amateur
boxer
furiously punching her defenseless
mother in the face as she bled profusely
it does talk about domestic violence
what i saw growing up
and then how i went on to unfortunately
be in a domestic violence situation
myself
a part of yama despised her father but
she also resented her mother for
enduring the abuse
eventually she pretended it wasn't
happening just like they did
that kind of trauma follows a person and
in yama's case it repeated itself in her
marriage to darren lamar they had only
been dating for two months when the
initially charming lamar asked james
brown for permission to marry yama
despite not asking her beforehand
brown approved once they moved in
together lamar changed
one day he flew into a jealous rage
chased yama down the street and
repeatedly pushed her to the ground
yama wrote it wasn't until a decade
later when i was lying on that cold tile
floor with my head pounding and my
vision blurred from being punched in the
face
that i left in 2007 the state of
illinois changed the law to allow sexual
assault survivors to sue their attackers
past the statute of limitations
if the survivor was intimidated or
manipulated
the inspiration for that change was
jacqueline hollander who sued james
brown in 2005 but was well past the
statute of limitations
she had kept quiet for years fearing for
her life
hollander first met brown when she was
13. years later they became friends and
recorded songs together
speaking with cnn's thomas lake
hollander described the day james brown
insisted that she join him for a car
ride
armed with a shotgun and possibly high
he became increasingly unhinged
according to hollander
eventually brown drove her into the
woods and sexually assaulted her
at gunpoint afterward he threatened her
and her family terrified of angering
brown hollander continued collaborating
with him
ultimately she tried to break her
silence through author stanley booth
booth included her account in a book
about james brown but made the encounter
sound consensual hollander sued booth
for defamation but lost
adrian brown was james third wife and
one of the first people to leap to his
defense
unfortunately her love and loyalty were
rewarded with
savage beatings in april 1988 police
were called to the brown residence for
the second time in four days
after james reportedly bludgeoned her
with a pipe and fired a rifle at her
physical evidence and eyewitnesses
confirmed
adrian's account yet the godfather of
seoul stayed out of prison like my veg
lovely wife agent stood by me some very
very hard times
adrian's close friend jacqueline
hollander told cnn that adrian had been
threatened
and brown wasn't the only source of
danger according to hollander
he had a network of criminals
investigators and crooked cops at his
disposal who were determined to keep
their paychecks coming
which meant neutralizing threats to
brown's wealth adrian knew where the
bodies were buried and in 1996
she may have become one of them adrian
seemed intent on divorcing brown and
authorities were set to prosecute him
for domestic abuse
before that could happen adrian died
during cosmetic surgery supposedly from
an accidental overdose however a police
informant claimed that a doctor
confessed to killing adrian to keep her
quiet
unfortunately the notes went unnoticed
for over 20 years
prosecutors argued that manager david
cannon took more than his share of
brown's estate which is worth up to a
hundred million dollars according to cnn
he was supposed to get a five percent
cut at brown's earnings but he helped
himself to 15 percent
cannon also allegedly pocketed part of a
900 000
check that was meant to go toward
brown's outstanding debts in total
cannon was accused of taking over 8
million
cannon downplayed the charges as one big
misunderstanding and claimed he obtained
brown's permission to give himself a
raise he said he loved brown like a
brother and would quote
never take a dime from him some of the
money allegedly went to brown's lawyer
buddy dallas who resigned over the
accusations
cannon and dallas were also named as
having a plausible motive for killing
brown as journalist thomas lake noted
the singer reportedly intended to break
away from both men shortly before his
death
in 2011 canon entered an alfred plea
which allowed him to deny guilt while
admitting he looked guilty as sin
he was sentenced to 10 years in jail