Speaker 1: All right, You grow up hoping to somehow make your
Speaker 1: parents proud of you. Then, as a parent, you want
Speaker 1: your kid to succeed. But here's the thing. When somebody
Speaker 1: reaches success way beyond what anybody expected, shouldn't they all
Speaker 1: be thrilled? Then how does it all fall apart to
Speaker 1: the point where a dad murders his super successful child.
Speaker 1: I'm Patti Steele. The death of music icon Marvin Gay
Speaker 1: at the hands of his father. That's next on the backstory.
Speaker 1: We're back with the backstory. Relationships between parents and kids
Speaker 1: can be pretty darn complicated. Right, In a perfect world,
Speaker 1: your parents help you to be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1: Maybe in a less perfect world they're not so helpful,
Speaker 1: but you get there yourself, and in the end everybody's
Speaker 1: good with it. But that's not what happened to Marvin Gay,
Speaker 1: one of the greatest soul singers of all time. Now.
Speaker 1: He grew up in a home where his dad, a
Speaker 1: pentic costal minister, constantly told him you're never going to
Speaker 1: be anything. He spent his childhood being physically and emotionally
Speaker 1: abused by him. As Marvin grew up, he was incredibly
Speaker 1: attractive to girls and he was a gentle, creative soul,
Speaker 1: qualities his father detested in him. In the end, Marvin
Speaker 1: Senior shot his son to death following a nasty battle,
Speaker 1: just hours before the star's forty fifth birthday. But how
Speaker 1: did he get to that? Well, said one friend. The
Speaker 1: relationship was never good, but it really collapsed as Marvin
Speaker 1: Junior's amazing career took off with huge hits like herd
Speaker 1: it through the grapevine, what's going on? And sexual healing,
Speaker 1: And said the friend, when he started to earn more
Speaker 1: than his daddy, everybody ran to Marvin Junior, which really
Speaker 1: enraged his dad. So it's April first, nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: Palm Sunday. Marvin is living with his mom and dad
Speaker 1: in a gorgeous six bedroom Tutors house in La that
Speaker 1: he bought for them ten years earlier. Despite his unhappy childhood,
Speaker 1: he had moved back home due to his own problems.
Speaker 1: He was struggling with drug addiction, depression, and money troubles.
Speaker 1: Some of his depression stemmed from the loss of his
Speaker 1: singing partner, Tammy Terrell, years earlier. She was just twenty
Speaker 1: four years old when she collapsed in his arms on stage.
Speaker 1: She was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and died
Speaker 1: several months later in nineteen seventy. Can you imagine that
Speaker 1: in all those years he never really recovered from the shock.
Speaker 1: His relationship with his dad, Marvin Senior, had always been rough.
Speaker 1: Dad was a strict, controlling guy known for being really
Speaker 1: cruel to his family. Marvin Junior was the oldest kid,
Speaker 1: and he was bullied endlessly by his father. Marvin Junior
Speaker 1: said his dad disapproved of pretty much everything about him
Speaker 1: as far back as he could remember. So on this
Speaker 1: palm Sunday there were a series of arguments between Marvin
Speaker 1: Junior and Marvin Senior. It was usually minor stuff, but
Speaker 1: the arguments had been getting nastier and more frequent. At
Speaker 1: the same time, Marvin Junior's mental and emotional state was
Speaker 1: getting worse. He was wildly paranoid, heavily into cocaine, and
Speaker 1: despite his gentle demeanor, his temperament was getting a little
Speaker 1: more volatile. Now it reached a boiling point once again.
Speaker 1: It started over something small, an insurance document that Marvin
Speaker 1: Senior just couldn't find, but it blows up into a
Speaker 1: deadly confrontation. Marvin Senior blames his wife for the missing
Speaker 1: document and starts screaming at her right in front of
Speaker 1: his son. Marvin Junior, already at the end of his rope,
Speaker 1: is furious. He says, you can't talk to my mother
Speaker 1: like that. He then begins to physically attack his dad.
Speaker 1: He punches and kicks him. The pot is boiling over
Speaker 1: a dolimination of years of pent up frustration and issues
Speaker 1: with his father that were never dealt with. Marvin Senior
Speaker 1: is humiliated and he's furious. He leaves the room, but
Speaker 1: it doesn't end there. Less than thirty minutes later, he's back.
Speaker 1: This time he's armed with a thirty eight caliber revolver. Ironically,
Speaker 1: this is the gun Marvin Junior gave his dad just
Speaker 1: a few months earlier for protection. Marvin Senior doesn't say
Speaker 1: a word to his son as he enters the bedroom.
Speaker 1: He fires not one, but two shots at point blank range.
Speaker 1: Because Marvin Junior was sitting down. The first bullet was fatal,
Speaker 1: piercing his heart, lung, liver, stomach, and left kidney. Then
Speaker 1: his dad walks even closer, shooting his son point blank
Speaker 1: through the shoulder. Marvin Junior is rushed to California Hospital
Speaker 1: Medical Center, but it was too late. He was pronounced
Speaker 1: dead at one oh one pm, just eleven hours before
Speaker 1: or his forty fifth birthday. His death, especially at the
Speaker 1: hands of his own father, shocked the music industry and
Speaker 1: fans around the world. Of course, Marvin Senior was arrested
Speaker 1: and taken into custody, and this will knock your socks off.
Speaker 1: When asked if he loved his son or it is,
Speaker 1: he replied, let's just say I didn't dislike him. Whew,
Speaker 1: that is a chilling response, you know. So what happened
Speaker 1: after that, well, nobody could make sense of the killing,
Speaker 1: but it was clearly based on a decades long toxic
Speaker 1: family dynamic that nobody had addressed. At first, Marvin Gay
Speaker 1: Senior was charged with first degree murder, but it quickly
Speaker 1: grew hair. During the very complicated trial, Marvin Senior said
Speaker 1: he shot in self defense, that he was afraid of
Speaker 1: his angry, much stronger, drug addicted son. Then it came
Speaker 1: out during the trial that Marvin Senior had a brain tumor.
Speaker 1: The defense, paid for with Marvin Junior's money, argued that
Speaker 1: the brain tumor had impaired Marvin Senior's judgment and that
Speaker 1: led to the shooting. They also blamed the shooting on
Speaker 1: Marvin Junior's aggressive behavior, including him beating up on his
Speaker 1: dad just moments before he pulled the gun. Now. In
Speaker 1: the end, Marvin Senior accepted a plea deal and the
Speaker 1: charges were reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He got a six
Speaker 1: year suspended prison sentence and five years of probation. So
Speaker 1: because of his brain tumor, he never served any time
Speaker 1: in prison for the killing. He spent the remainder of
Speaker 1: his life fourteen years in a nursing home, where he
Speaker 1: died in nineteen ninety eight at the age of eighty four.
Speaker 1: But what about Marvin Junior's mom, Well, Alberta Gay had
Speaker 1: watched the horrifying event come down and had to live
Speaker 1: with the memory of her husband killing the son she adored.
Speaker 1: She never fully recovered, and she divorced Marvin Senior after
Speaker 1: the trial. One of the most chilling stories she told
Speaker 1: she said, the first time she spoke to her husband
Speaker 1: after she posted his thirty thousand dollars bail, he started
Speaker 1: speaking to me, but he said nothing about Marvin. His
Speaker 1: eyes were dry. He wasn't apologetic or repentant. He acted
Speaker 1: like someone who had finally simply gotten something out of
Speaker 1: the way. Alberta died in nineteen eighty seven, just three
Speaker 1: years after her son's death. Others left behind include Marvin
Speaker 1: Junior's bodyguard, who had a recording of the singer saying
Speaker 1: his dad had threatened his life before with the words
Speaker 1: I brought you into the world and if you cross me,
Speaker 1: I can take you out. Marvin told him that the
Speaker 1: threat opened away for him to leave his troubles behind
Speaker 1: by effectively committing suicide by parent and killing his father
Speaker 1: at the same time with guilt. Finally, Marvin's brother, Frankie,
Speaker 1: was living in a guesthouse on the property that night.
Speaker 1: He rushed in minutes after the shooting. He said, his
Speaker 1: brother put himself out of his misery. He brought relief
Speaker 1: to our mother by getting our dad out of her life,
Speaker 1: and he punished my father for all the pain he inflicted.
Speaker 1: Frankie shared Marvin Junior's last words, I got what I wanted.
Speaker 1: I couldn't do it myself, so I made him do it.
Speaker 1: It's good I ran my race. There's no more left
Speaker 1: in me. Marvin Gaye Junior had a life filled with
Speaker 1: unaddressed pain, but his talent and voice transcended the struggles
Speaker 1: he faced. I hope you're enjoying The Backstory with Patty Steele.
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Speaker 1: story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Speaker 1: Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Speaker 1: Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
Speaker 1: and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
Speaker 1: comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.