Disclaimer: The article contains mentions of murder and assault. Reader discretion is advised.
ID’s Death by Fame‘s upcoming episode will feature the mystery around the death of James Brown in 2006. More than a decade after the music legend died, several claims pointed to evidence that suggested he was murdered. The first episode of Death by Fame season 2 will feature this investigation. It will be aired on ID on Monday, February 12, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
James Brown, popularly known as the Godfather of Soul, was reported dead on Christmas of 2006 after he was hospitalized for two days. He was admitted to the hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia and reportedly died of congestive heart failure. In 2017, more than ten years later, a new investigation was launched to consider claims that Brown was murdered in the Atlanta hospital where he died.
Why was there no autopsy performed after Brown’s death?
An important figure in modern funk music and 20th-century music in general, James Brown set the standard for dynamic live performance in American music. After he died in 2006, the doctors allegedly recommended an autopsy. According to CNN, his daughter Yamma Brown, who was a pharmacist, declined and claimed she had personal reasons for the decision.
The outlet reported that nearly three months after James Brown died, Yamma Brown and her husband, Darren Lumar, had a serious confrontation. She then stabbed his forearm with a knife. Lumar needed 12 stitches, while Yamma said it was an act of self-defense. As the marriage began to fall apart, Lumar reportedly threatened to expose Yamma. He then claimed that James Brown was murdered in conversations between the couple.
The Guardian reported that the doctor who signed James Brown’s death certificate had several passive suspicions regarding the death. A nurse reportedly told him that she found some drug residue in the tube that was supposed to help Brown breathe. An “illicit substance” might have been slipped into the tube by someone. 13 people known to Brown also pressed for a reopened investigation after claims of murder in 2017.
Who claimed that James Brown was murdered?
The same year, circus singer Jacquelyn Hollander contacted Thomas Lake, a reporter at CNN, and claimed that she worked with James Brown as a songwriter during the 1980s. She also claimed that she had information on Brown’s death that could prove facts that were not consistent with what was reported of his death in 2006. She then reportedly made multiple calls for her claims to be probed into and promised that she had evidence to back her claims up.
Among other things, Hollander claimed that she was close to James Brown’s late wife, Adrienne Brown. She said Adrienne was coerced to drop charges against her husband after he assaulted her with intent to murder. Hollander then made several allegations of domestic violence but died before Brown could ever be tried. She died on January 6, 1996, while recovering from a plastic surgery. However, Hollander claimed that Adrienne was also murdered and that the couple’s murder must be investigated to find the truth.
Jacquelyn Hollander then contacted the Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. She presented the evidence she had to prove that James Brown was murdered. She reportedly handed over a green storage bin full of evidence to Howard. Hollander also gave him printed text messages and everything she had gathered over the years. Hollander received the evidence she submitted after the attorney considered it and decided against opening a criminal investigation. However, several items were reportedly missing from the bin, raising more suspicions.
The Death by Fame episode exploring James Brown’s death will be aired on ID on Monday, February 12, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET.
