The famous drummer Jim Gordon, who was convicted for the murder of his mother, has now died.
Who was Jim Gordon?
Jim Gordon, also known as James Beck Gordon, was an American session drummer and studio musician from Mississippi, active from the 1950s through the 1970s.
In 1969 and 1970, Gordon toured with the backing band Delaney & Bonnie. Eventually, he formed a collaboration with some of their band members to begin Derek and the Comics and went on to make one of his most famous albums, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
He had worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and The Rolling Stones. He had also worked on various film soundtracks and studio albums.
Jim Gordon Cause of death
The drummer, Jim Gordon, died of natural causes on March 13, 2023. He died at 77 in a medical facility in Vacaville, California, which was run by the state.
The publicist Bob Merlis confirmed the death of the famous drummer, known for murdering his mother due to one of his schizophrenic episodes, due to which he was spending his last 40 years in prison.
Jim Gordon was convicted of murder.
Jim Gordon had developed schizophrenia due to his addiction to drugs and alcohol abuse.
As a result, he started to hear voices, including his mother’s, due to which he started to starve himself. It also prevented him from sleeping, relaxing, or playing drums.
Due to his condition, he assaulted a singer, Rita Coolidge, who was also his girlfriend. When asked about it, she said that it came out of nowhere since he seemed calm at the time, and then suddenly, he hit her so hard that she got slammed against the other side of the wall.
He also had a history of assaulting other women, including singer Renee Armand, to whom he was married briefly, along with another girlfriend. This affected his career.
Seeing this, his mother asked him for help in the late seventies. Thus, he got checked into a psychiatric ward in a hospital. But due to his wrongful diagnosis by a doctor, his schizophrenia remained untreated.
Then on June 3, 1983, he attacked his 71-year-old mother, Osa Marie (Beck) Gordon, with a hammer, after which he fatally stabbed her with a butcher knife.
He claimed he did so because the voices told him to do so. He got arrested and couldn’t get an insanity defense because of changes in California law.
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