The tragedy of The Coasters: One band, three brutal murders
For a moment in the 1950s, R&B group The Coasters stood as one of America’s most popular acts.
Combining the day’s rock and roll with doo-wop harmonies, The Coasters would cruise through numerous members around the foremost frontman Carl Gardner, scoring their commercial peak and ‘classic’ era from 1956 to ’61. Teaming up with Elvis Presley and Ben E King songwriting collaborators Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, The Coasters team would drop a string of humorous ‘storytelling’ singles which straddled the worlds of pop and light-entertainment.
Some of The Coasters’ numbers would endure as defining hits of the era. ‘Down in Mexico’, later finding new life in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, ’Searchin’’, ‘Charlie Brown’, and the US number one ‘Yakety Yak’ all set the American charts alight.
Yet, dark circumstances would cloud The Coasters. While scoring an affectionate era of US pop, their musical legacy has been overshadowed by the untimely ends of three of their members and associates.
First was ‘Yakety Yak’ saxophonist King Curtis. Boasting sessions with Aretha Franklin, Buddy Holly, and Waylon Jennings, as well as opening for The Beatles with his Kingpins band at their lauded 1965 Shea Stadium show, Curtis stood as a heavyweight in the R&B world. However, late on August 12th, 1971, Curtis became drawn into an altercation with Juan Montanez over the latter’s loitering around the brown stone stoop of his Manhattan apartment at 50 West 86th Street.
After some arguing, the clash became physical, at which point Montanez stuck Curtis with a knife. Rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, Curtis died the next morning at 37 years old. Montanez would plead guilty to a charge of second-degree manslaughter, spending just five years at the Wallkill Correctional Facility, but the music world was devastated by his loss, Atlantic Records closing its office for the day during the funeral, and everybody from Stevie Wonder to Jesse Jackson attended the service to pay their respects.
Nine years later, a Coasters member met an even grislier fate. Joining the band at a later reformation, Nathaniel ‘Buster’ Wilson was brought into the harmony group under the new management of Patrick Cavanaugh. According to prosecutors, Wilson had caught wind that Cavanaugh was involved in a phoney cheque and furniture racket scheme. It was at this point that Wilson went missing in 1980.
Shot in the head in Las Vegas, Wilson’s arms, legs, and head were dismembered, his fingerprints dissolved in acid, and the body parts were discovered in a Modesto canyon. With the star witness’s assistance from Cavanaugh’s wife, the crooked manager was found guilty of Wilson’s murder and sentenced to death in 1984, but ultimately died of natural causes in Nevada’s Ely State Prison in 2006.
Even more curious is the case of Cornell Gunter. A member of The Coasters during their classic line-up, Gunter had forged a relatively successful second career touring as The Fabulous Coasters along with Wilson, and was planning a solo comeback in 1990 before being assassinated in Las Vegas. Presumed to have spotted the assailant, Gunter had attempted to speed away, but was shot twice in the head behind the wheel of his car, eventually crashing into a wall. While eyewitnesses reported an argument with a teenage man, the case remains unsolved, and no suspect has ever been apprehended.
Such affection for The Coasters was had that they were the first inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, but with eerie misfortune, their attendance at the ceremony in 1987 was dogged with two murders in recent memory, and another awaiting to strike only three years later.
