The Murder of David "Stringbean" Akeman

I am surprised that I have never blogged this case as it is one of the first stories I remember seeing when I started watching shows and reading things that involved true crimes decades ago. That being said the part I remembered the most was the fact that the perpetrators had apparently not found all the money they were expecting to find in the home and instead the money was found more than two decades later hidden in the wall of the home.

David “Stringbean” Akeman was a man well known in the country music community. At the time of his murder in 1973 he was a regular on the popular television series “Hee Haw” but he had been around for decades. He had obtained his name because while he was an accomplished musician, known for his “old fashioned” style of banjo picking, he was also a comedian. He began going on stage dressed in a long night shirt with a pair of shorts that were held by a belt just above his knees. This made it appear that he had an especially long torso and early on in his career a man who was introducing him had forgotten his name and simply called him Stringbean.

In 1955 Stringbean, along with his wife, Estell bought a farm with “Grandpa” Jones, another musician well established in the history of country music, in Goodlettsville Tennessee, about fifteen miles out of Nashville. The farm contained a large farm house in which the Jones family would live, and a small three room cabin that Stringbean and his wife would reside in. A few years later the Jones' moved away for a short period and when they returned they moved into a home just down the road from the farmhouse. Stringbean and Grandpa Jones would always remain close.

Being from the Depression Era, Stringbean was like many of his generation and was not too fond of the idea of banks and basically refused to use them. The couple was also rather frugal. Despite the fact that he was in the entertainment field he was not necessarily even close to being one of the wealthiest. However, the fact that the couple lived meagerly obviously helped him financially. It was said that the only two luxuries the couple enjoyed was a color television set and a new Cadillac every year that was paid for in case. It was even said that he used apple vinegar as shaving lotion and rubbing alcohol as deodorant. The couple never had any children so their expenses were low. Stringbean was known to carry around wads of one hundred dollar bills in his overalls and yet while he did not flaunt it per se, it was just simply known he had it. It was also rumored that he kept large amounts of money in his home.

On the night of November 10, 1973 Stringbean had performed at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Not only had his wife Estell been there as the couple seemingly were always together, but she had been his “ride” since Stringbean never obtained a drivers license. After the show the couple returned to their cabin in Goodlettsville. Speculation is that upon pulling up the couple thought things looked strange. I say “speculation” because reality is that no one really knows what the couple was thinking as they would never be able to tell their story. By most accounts it is said that Stringbean entered the cabin alone where he was confronted by twenty-three year old cousins, Marvin and John Brown. He was attacked and shot inside the cabin. Estell apparently heard the commotion and began screaming and running. One of the perpetrators, some of the reports say John Brown, chased her down in the yard and shot there, where she would lay and die.

The following morning Stringbean and Grandpa Jones were supposed to go hunting. When Grandpa Jones got to the farm he found the bodies of Stringbean and his wife and reported it to the police. In 1973 there was not much crime in the area as it was and this crime seemed to be particularly heinous considering that it appeared that Estell had been chased down before murdered. It would be a dark spot in their history and the beginning of people realizing they were living in a new era.

My research never indicated how investigators were led to the Brown cousins but they were charged with the murders and faced trial. It was said that during the robbery they had only obtained some firearms and a chainsaw. Grandpa Jones testified that one of the guns brought to the trial was one in which he had given to Stringbean. Each of the cousins blamed the other for firing the shots but from a legal sense that did not really matter, even in 1972, since they were both involved in the crime in which two people were murdered. Years after the trial Marvin would give an interview saying he participated in the crime but that John had fired the fatal shots and it appears that John would later admit that this was true, but again, that was years later. The cousins were found guilty and while I could not find a date or even exactly what their sentences were completely they were sent off to prison.

In 2003 Marvin died in prison in his early fifties. In October of 2014 John Brown was paroled at the age of sixty-four. It was said that he had been sentenced to 198 years and had served forty. Due to the age of this crime I did not determine exactly where these “years” came from nor the laws in which how much time he was required to serve. Of course those rules would have been based on 1973 laws.

In 1996 the current resident of the cabin found a removable brick near the chimney. Inside was an apparent hiding place in which $20,000 was found. Today that money would be valued at more than $120,000. However, little of that money was actually recovered as most of the bills were either decayed by time and elements or eaten by rats. Had the Brown cousins not looked hard enough? There does seem to be a dispute as to whether the Browns had been in the home waiting for the couple to return for hours prior to their arrival, giving them time to search, or whether they had followed the couple home from the Opry. If the latter occurred they may have just grabbed what they could and made a quick getaway.

I also want to point out at this time that the website Findagrave.com indicates that the Browns were cousins of Stringbean, or at least that is how it reads. Nothing in my research indicated that they were related to anyone, other than each other.

In 1996 in Tyner Kentucky in Jackson County, in Stringbeans home town the Stringbean Memorial Bluegrass Festival began and aside from this year, 2020 when it was canceled because of COVID-19, it has continued ever since. It takes place the third week of June to coincide with Stringbeans birthday on June 17^th. One thing I do find interesting is that the website for the festival spells his name Akemon instead of Akeman. I have seen pictures of Stringbean and Estell's tombstone and the spelling is Akeman. Apparently the festival has spelled it this way from the beginning and there have been references to this before so I am unsure why it has never been changed. To be fair I find it a little disheartening that a festival presented in his name and in his memory cannot seem to spell his name correctly. Even if this was another spelling of the name from the community it just seems unprofessional not to spell it the way he obviously did.