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Thread started 12/17/12 10:50am

Graycap23

Paul Williams death, was it murder? (Temptations)

I was reading this online and wondering if anybody has any thought on Paul Williams death in 1973?

Death

On August 17, 1973,[1] Williams was found dead in an alley, on the ground next to his car, having just left the new house of his then-girlfriend after an argument.[2] A gun was found near his body. His death was ruled a suicide by the coroner; Williams had expressed suicidal thoughts to Otis Williams and Melvin Franklin months before his death.[2]

Williams' funeral was held on August 24, with his family, friends, and former bandmates in attendance. He was survived by his wife, Mary Agnes Williams, and six children: Sarita, Kenneth, Paula, Paul Lucas, Mary and Paul Williams, Jr., the 6'"1" newest member as of March 1, 2008 of a Temptations splinter group, The Temptations Review featuring Dennis Edwards. Paul also had a seventh child, Derrick Vinyard, with a girlfriend.[2] Williams is buried in Clinton Township, Michigan's Lincoln Memorial Park.

The circumstances surrounding Williams' death caused the Williams family to suspect that some form of foul play was the actual cause of Williams' death.[2] According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head.[2] In addition, a bottle of alcohol was found near Williams' left side, as if he had dropped it while being shot. The gun used in the shooting was found to have fired two shots, only one of which had killed Williams.[2] Williams' family has continued to investigate the circumstances of Williams' death to this date.[2]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Williams_%28The_Temptations%29

[Edited 12/17/12 11:37am]

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Reply #1 posted 12/17/12 11:26am

Timmy84

I always thought his mistress' boyfriend killed him. They said he was found in his drawers so he probably ran out of the house after the husband found him and then ran in his truck until the guy caught up and shot him and then made it seem like Paul committed suicide.

His death has bothered me for years. Yeah I do believe he was murdered.

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Reply #2 posted 12/17/12 12:00pm

jackson35

what edvidence is there to support that theory?

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Reply #3 posted 12/17/12 12:03pm

Graycap23

jackson35 said:

what edvidence is there to support that theory?

I thought this was a bit strange: "According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head".

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Reply #4 posted 12/17/12 12:17pm

Timmy84

Graycap23 said:

jackson35 said:

what edvidence is there to support that theory?

I thought this was a bit strange: "According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head".

If someone was to commit suicide, you wouldn't have your gun on one hand while you were shot on the other side of your head...

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Reply #5 posted 12/17/12 12:30pm

missfee

avatar

Graycap23 said:

jackson35 said:

what edvidence is there to support that theory?

I thought this was a bit strange: "According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head".

nod Yes this and the fact the gun went off twice, yet he was only shot once. That definitely sounds like a cover up.

I will forever love and miss you...my sweet Prince.
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Reply #6 posted 12/17/12 12:30pm

Timmy84

missfee said:

Graycap23 said:

I thought this was a bit strange: "According to the coroner, Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head".

nod Yes this and the fact the gun went off twice, yet he was only shot once. That definitely sounds like a cover up.

Yep. Set-up like a mothafucka...

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Reply #7 posted 12/17/12 2:06pm

HAPPYPERSON

Timmy84 said:

I always thought his mistress' boyfriend killed him. They said he was found in his drawers so he probably ran out of the house after the husband found him and then ran in his truck until the guy caught up and shot him and then made it seem like Paul committed suicide.

His death has bothered me for years. Yeah I do believe he was murdered.

wasn't his mistress Florence Ballard's cousin named Winnie Brown who was also the supremes hair stylist? Paul and her opened up a clothes boutique but it wasn't successful and paul owed $80,000 in taxes

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Reply #8 posted 12/17/12 3:12pm

Timmy84

HAPPYPERSON said:

Timmy84 said:

I always thought his mistress' boyfriend killed him. They said he was found in his drawers so he probably ran out of the house after the husband found him and then ran in his truck until the guy caught up and shot him and then made it seem like Paul committed suicide.

His death has bothered me for years. Yeah I do believe he was murdered.

wasn't his mistress Florence Ballard's cousin named Winnie Brown who was also the supremes hair stylist? Paul and her opened up a clothes boutique but it wasn't successful and paul owed $80,000 in taxes

Yep... and the boutique issues add to what may have happened with Paul. Money can do strange things to people.

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Reply #9 posted 12/17/12 4:58pm

HAPPYPERSON

this is so sad

Temptations heir sues sister over lost royalties (MI)

Detroit— Kenneth Williams went to prison for strangling his great-aunt with a telephone cord in 1989, the same year his father was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Before entering prison, the younger Williams asked his sister to save his share of royalty checks he inherited from his dad, Paul Williams, one of the original members of the Temptations, the superstar Motown group known for the hits “My Girl,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.”

“I figured I was well off,” Kenneth Williams, 49, told The Detroit News.

The Redford Township man was released from prison in July after serving more than 20 years and discovered the money — estimated at more than $200,000 — was gone. His sister, Paula Williams, spent it, according to a complaint he filed against her in federal court in Detroit.

The accusation serves as another sad footnote to the legacy of Motown legend Paul Williams, the baritone singer who choreographed the group’s stylish dance moves, and who died in 1973 under murky circumstances. And it is the latest in a long line of fights over one of the most consistently lucrative commodities to come out of Detroit in 51 years: Motown royalties.

The accusations add a new layer of drama to one of the most successful, and tragic, acts in the Motown Records stable. It is a stable filled with stars whose success and tragedies — including premature deaths, murder, drug addiction and legal woes — have inspired Broadway musicals, TV movies and reams of tell-all books.

Federal and Wayne County court records expose a fight within a family dogged by disaster in the decades after Paul Williams and four friends topped the charts.

Thanks to all those hits, Williams’ heirs split about $80,000 a year in Motown royalties based on sales of the group’s music, Paul Williams’ likeness and other rights. The royalties were paid out twice a year.

Motown money fights, which are not unique to the Williams family, are somewhat ironic, said Peter Benjaminson, author of “The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard.”

“When Motown started, there weren’t any significant royalties for most people,” he said. “The average rock star had one hit, then tried for another one, failed, and went to work at a factory.

“One of the big surprises for Motown and everyone who worked for it is how long the songs have lasted and sold.”

It’s hard for Paul Williams Jr., who was 7 years old when his father died, to say whether the royalties are a blessing or a curse.

“Money, ugh,” Paul Jr. said. “What money does to people, I don’t understand.”

His sister Paula declined comment through her lawyer.

Long battle

The Williams family has been fighting for Motown royalties since Aug. 17, 1973, the day Paul Williams died at age 34 of what police said was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had left the Temptations in 1971.

He was coping with health and personal issues at the time and was estranged from his wife, Mary Agnes Williams. A divorce was pending.

In 1987, 14 years after he died, the family reopened Paul Williams’ estate to pursue royalties owed by Motown and determine his rightful heirs, a complicated task because Williams died without a will.

Williams’ family accused Motown of not paying any royalties after the singer died.

The family claimed it was owed $195,000. But Motown said the family could not pursue royalties that were more than 6 years old.

The family eventually settled in March 1988 for $96,520. That covered the years 1981 through June 1987.

Next, Wayne County Probate Judge Joseph Pernick had to divide the royalty pie and determine shares and heirs.

Williams had three daughters and two sons — Sarita, Paula and Mary and Kenneth and Paul Jr. — with wife Mary Agnes.

Before he died, Paul Williams acknowledged fathering a sixth child, son Paul Williams Lucas.

The royalty pie was about to be divided — when a seventh child surfaced, a son born in 1968 to one of Paul Williams’ girlfriends.

Derrick Vinyard, who was 5 when Paul Williams died, wanted a share of the Motown royalties.

Paula Williams denied that Vinyard was an heir.

The Motown star’s brother, however, disagreed.

Johnny Williams said his brother never denied being Vinyard’s father, according to a 1988 deposition transcript filed in the probate case.

Johnny Williams said he saw Paul and Vinyard’s mother on dates at the Fox Theatre and the Twenty Grand nightclub. And there were rumors Paul Williams had fathered twins in Cleveland.

“He’s a breeder,” Johnny Williams said of his brother during the deposition.

The judge concluded Vinyard was an heir — and divided the late Motown star’s past and future royalties.

Paul Williams’ widow would get one-third. The seven children would split the rest equally.

In January 1989, the family agreed to have Paula parcel out the royalty checks to her four siblings and mother twice a year.

The two half siblings receive their money directly from the record company.

‘Prison saved my life’

Kenneth Williams didn’t have long to enjoy the windfall.

On July 18, 1989, he killed his 81-year-old great-aunt Mary Bryant inside her bungalow on Detroit’s northwest side. She was shot in the head and strangled with a telephone cord, which a neighbor found wrapped three times around the woman’s throat, according to a published report.

Kenneth Williams was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison.

“I was out of my mind on crack cocaine,” Williams said. “I was out of control. Prison basically saved my life.”

Young Kenneth had lived a charmed life before the death of his father.

Kenneth spent nights on the road with his father and the group in Las Vegas, Miami and Atlanta.

“Where the show went, I went,” he said.

Kenneth, nicknamed “Bossman” by his dad, spent afternoons learning from Temptations frontman Dennis Edwards how to make paper airplanes, which he threw out a window from an upper floor of Motown headquarters along Woodward.

Kenneth was 11 when his father died. The outgoing youngster turned angry, rebellious and “was put out of every school in Detroit.”

“I was lost,” he said. “I lost my best friend.”

At 19, he smoked his first joint.

At 25, he tried cocaine.

At 27, “that —- took me to another place,” he says.

That’s how old he was when he strangled his great-aunt. He turned 28 just before heading to prison.

“I was trying to deal with why I was in prison and what made me go there,” he said. “The money? I wasn’t even thinking about it.”

He thought the cash was safe during the 7,536 days he spent in prison. He was released July 23, after serving more than 20 years.

Money was gone

He soon learned his cash was gone and confronted his sister, who admitted spending the money, he alleges in a court filing.

“She thought he was never going to get out of prison,” his lawyer Kenneth Burger wrote in a lawsuit.

Paul Williams Jr., told The Detroit News he hasn’t received his full share of royalties in years from Paula.

“She’s doing it to all of us,” Paul Jr. of Sterling Heights said. “She did right by us for 10 years, but she’s been slipping since then. It’s greed.”

Kenneth, meanwhile, works 15-hour days at construction sites while his lawsuit against his sister and Motown successor Universal Music Group is pending in federal court. He alleges breach of contract, negligence, fraud and conspiracy, among other charges, and wants unspecified damages.

It’s a complicated fight because his sister filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Detroit in December.

The bankruptcy filing provides rare insight into the value of Motown royalties because Paula had to list how much she received in recent years.

She received $40,594 in 2008. A year later, the Motown royalties rose to $58,036, according to the filing.

Kenneth Williams has asked Universal to send future payments directly to his house.

He refuses to be bitter or angry despite the fight with his sister.

“I’m still there for her if she needs me,” Williams said. “But I don’t trust people after what I’ve been through. We live in a wicked world.”

http://www.estateofdenial...alties-mi/

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Reply #10 posted 12/17/12 5:09pm

Timmy84

sad

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Reply #11 posted 12/17/12 9:16pm

jackson35

where is it written that when you are trying to shoot the left side of your head that you can only use the left side of your head? they pleny of people who committed sucide who didn't use their strong hand. ever heard of freedie prinz?

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Reply #12 posted 12/17/12 9:40pm

Timmy84

^ But that's Freddie Prinze. There's too many circumstances in Paul's case that puts doubt on the suicide report. That's just my view on it.

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Reply #13 posted 12/18/12 3:34am

Graycap23

jackson35 said:

where is it written that when you are trying to shoot the left side of your head that you can only use the left side of your head? they pleny of people who committed sucide who didn't use their strong hand. ever heard of freedie prinz?

Can u read?

"Williams had used his right hand to shoot himself in the left side of his head"

[Edited 12/18/12 7:16am]

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Reply #14 posted 12/18/12 7:28am

HAPPYPERSON

so very sad but on a light note this is Paul's youngest son with his wife named Paul Jr. and he's currently touring with Dennis Edwards (The Temptations Review)

I hope Paul's family are successful in getting that documentary done about his life. the producer/writer says they need all the exposure they can about this documentary being made. Tv one should air it

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Reply #15 posted 12/18/12 10:16am

Timmy84

HAPPYPERSON said:

so very sad but on a light note this is Paul's youngest son with his wife named Paul Jr. and he's currently touring with Dennis Edwards (The Temptations Review)

I hope Paul's family are successful in getting that documentary done about his life. the producer/writer says they need all the exposure they can about this documentary being made. Tv one should air it

I hope the Williams family can get his story out too. Hope it won't be condensed to an hour lol

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Reply #16 posted 12/18/12 11:25am

mjscarousal

His death is very controversial and has so many speculations around it. Paul was a hell of a mover and a great vocalist. Sad what his family is going through. A documentary on his life is well deserved.

[Edited 12/18/12 11:25am]

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