When the Big Bopper died in a plane crash, alongside Buddy Holly and Richie Valens,
many questions surrounding the tragedy were left unanswered. But a recent autopsy may
have uncovered some answers. What did it reveal? Keep watching to find out.
Jiles Perry Richardson, more famously known as The Big Bopper,
was born in 1930 in Sabine Pass, Texas. He had dreams of becoming a lawyer,
but he was naturally gifted when it came to music and was part of the chorus in college.
"He knew music. He had a feel for music."
It was also during that time when he worked at the Beaumont radio station KTRM.
He was eventually offered a full-time position, and he became known as "The Big Bopper,"
which was a reference to a popular dance move at the time called The Bop.
Richardson was so successful with his work at the radio station that he became a program director,
and his dream of becoming a lawyer was set aside. At the same time,
The Big Bopper started writing his own songs, and he was signed under a record label.
Despite his first single being popular with the country crowd, it didn't penetrate the
music charts. That all changed, however, when he released the song "Chantilly Lace" in 1958.
It reached a peak position of No. 16 on the pop charts and was in the Top 40 for 22 weeks.
Soon, The Big Bopper was a star, and he joined other singers at the Winter Dance
Party in 1959 — a 24-day tour of big musicians through the mid-western part of the country.
The tour started on January 23, 1959, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On February 2, 1959, The Big Popper, Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly had
just played a gig in Clear Lake, Iowa, and they were scheduled to travel to Moorhead,
Minnesota next. Prior to that, the musicians had been traveling in a freezing tour bus,
and Holly decided to charter a plane to get to their next gig.
The three boarded a small Beechcraft Bonanza plane at approximately 12:30 a.m. on February 3.
Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed into a cornfield just a few miles from the airport.
Valens, Holly, and Richardson were thrown out of the plane,
while the pilot was found in the cockpit; all four of them died. Per Biography,
initial investigations into the incident blamed the 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson
and bad weather for the accident. It was later found out that although Peterson
had sufficient flying hours and had passed his written test, he was yet to qualify for
flying using only reference instruments, which was what he had to do that night.
At the crash site, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens were discovered near the plane,
while The Big Bopper's remains were almost 40 feet away from the site. An autopsy was
not performed right after the crash, but the coroner's investigation report
revealed the disturbing condition of Jiles Perry Richardson's body.
The Big Bopper was found wearing a red flannel shirt with blue pants.
His head was badly crushed, and according to the coroner, his skull was split open and his
brain was, quote, "completely eviscerated." The right side of his head sustained the most damage,
and he couldn't be identified merely by looking at him. The coroner had to take his fingerprints
to confirm his identity, per the coroner's report. Internal injuries weren't identified,
as an autopsy wasn't performed. Richardson was only 28 years old.
In 2007, an autopsy was conducted on Jiles Perry Richardson — 48 years after the plane crash that
took his life. It was done at the request of his son, Jay Richardson, who was still in his mother's
womb when his father died. He wanted some answers regarding his father's death, one of them being
whether or not the Big Bopper survived the impact. Since his body was found farther than the others,
there were some who believed he was able to walk away from the crash before eventually dying.
Dr. Bill Bass, a renowned forensic anthropologist,
conducted the autopsy. The Big Bopper's body was in good condition, and X-rays were taken.
The results confirmed the fractures the coroner reported in the investigation,
and they were present from his head up to his legs. According to Dr. Bass, Richardson most
likely died immediately upon crashing based on the injuries he found during the autopsy,
as reported by Knox News. In a 2007 interview with the Today show, Dr. Bass confirmed:
"There was no indication of foul play. There are fractures from head to toe. Massive fractures.
He died immediately. He didn't crawl away. He didn't walk away from the plane."
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