Crispin Dye: the unsolved death of AC/DC’s manager
Rock and roll is not known to be the healthiest occupation that someone can take on. It might be fun to play music with your friends from time to time and have millions of people singing along to the songs you wrote, but there’s also a good reason why people can’t handle the touring lifestyle after more than a few years on the road. While many strange situations can happen out on the road, AC/DC didn’t think they would be risking their lives when delivering their classics.
However, there has always been a dark undercurrent plaguing many of AC/DC’s back pages. While some imbeciles will still claim that the band’s allegiance to Satan is the reason why they have had so many morbid chapters in their past, the Australian rockers have dealt with more than a few harsh situations, from fans being crushed to death at their shows to being associated with the infamous ‘Night Stalker’ in the 1980s.
By the time the band were resurrected in the early 1980s, thanks to Back in Black, though, it felt like nothing could stop them. They could have sunk without a trace without Bon Scott, but with Brian Johnson at the helm, they could do anything they wanted to. And even with records like Fly on the Wall not having the same general impact as their first record with Johnson, they could count on their management to steer them in the right direction.
And while Crispin Dye was a fine musician in his own right when managing AC/DC into the 1990s, things took a dark turn when he passed away on Christmas Day 1993. He had already been brutally attacked a day before his death, but when unpeeling the layers of his demise, there are a lot more loose ends that have never fully been tied up.
So what happened to Crispin Dye’s killer?
Although Dye had been out drinking the night of his attack, the case had been open for years on what authorities suspected to be a gay-related hate crime, which was later dismissed as a robbery gone wrong. After putting a $100,000 reward on finding the man who attacked Dye, no one had come forward to confess.
However, there were always some pieces of the story that were never fully investigated. When unpacking the case later, it was revealed that authorities had failed to take in Dye’s blood-stained clothes for surveillance, which could have connected the dots to who carried out the murder. While the case was opened back in 2023 and found a person of interest in the case, it was far too late since the suspect had passed away in 2002.
Despite having all of the evidence at their disposal, attorney Meg O’Brien said that it was an injustice that Dye’s killer wasn’t identified 30 years after his death, saying, “What’s particularly troubling about this is that the pieces of paper found by the inquiry may have been a source of fingerprints or DNA, which in turn may have provided the police with information about Mr Dye’s assailant or assailants. It is plainly unsatisfactory that this evidence has lain untouched for nearly 30 years without being found or subjected to testing.”
While the entire story may have been a case of negligence or a case of bias against the LGBTQ+ community, the case still remains unsolved to this day. Although AC/DC themselves have had many parts of their history that may have gone on to trigger or influence some heinous actions, the fact that their manager was killed and his case was promptly forgotten about for years stands as one of the most tragic side stories in their legacy.
