Judy Garland
The shortcomings of Garland's childhood years became more apparent as she struggled to overcome various personal problems, including weight gain and serious drug addiction. She was found dead in her bathroom by her last husband, Mickey Deans, on June 22, 1969. The stated exact cause of death by coroner Gavin Thursdon was accidental overdose of barbiturates; pathologist Dr. R. Pocock found 4.9 mg of Seconal [6] in Garland's blood. Garland had turned 47 just over a week prior to her death. She was residing in a rented flat with her husband in the Chelsea section of London at the time of her death.
Upon Garland's death, The Wizard of Oz co-star Ray Bolger commented: "She just plain wore out."
Layne Staley
On April 19, 2002, Staley was found dead in his home. His body was surrounded by various drug possessions and equipment. He was thirty-four years old. As he had apparently died two weeks earlier, Staley's body was not immediately identifiable, and a positive identification was not released until the next day. The autopsy report later concluded that Staley died after injecting a mixture of heroin and cocaine known as a "speedball". By coincidence, the coroner's office estimated that he died on April 5, the same date that fellow Seattle Grunge rocker Kurt Cobain was estimated to have died eight years earlier.
Gram Parsons
In the late 1960s, Parsons became enamored with Joshua Tree National Monument. Alone or with friends, he would disappear in the desert for days, searching for UFOs while under the influence of psilocybin or LSD. It was seen by these friends as a rare crevice of sanity in his otherwise disfunctional life. After splitting from Burrell, Parsons would frequently spend his weekends in the area with Margaret Fisher and Phil Kaufman. Before his tour was scheduled to commence in October 1973, Parsons decided to go on one more excursion. Accompanying him were Fisher, personal assistant Michael Martin, and Dale McElory, Martin's girlfriend. Less than two days after arriving, Parsons died September 19, 1973 in Yucca Valley, California at the age of 26 from an overdose, purportedly of morphine and alcohol. According to Fisher in the 2005 biography Grievous Angel: An Intimate Biography of Gram Parsons, the amount of morphine consumed by Parsons would not be lethal to an addict and that he had likely overestimated his tolerance considering his past experience with opiates. Fisher and McElroy were returned to Los Angeles by Kaufman, who dispersed the remnants of Parsons' stash in the desert.
Dimebag Darrell
On December 8th, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag Darrell Abbott was shot and killed onstage by Nathan Gale. Abbott was shot a total of five times, twice at point blank range in the head. He was 38 years old.
Three others were killed in the shooting: concert attendee Nathan Bray, 23, of Columbus; club employee Erin Halk, 29, of northwest Columbus; and Damageplan security guard Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, 40, of Texas. The band's drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks, and tour manager, Chris Paluska, were injured.
According to police, Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, taking the time to reload once, remaining silent throughout the shooting. When security staff and audience members climbed the stage to try to stop him, Gale fired at them, killing Thompson and Halk, who had attempted to stop the gunman with a wooden table, and wounding Paluska. Gale then took Brooks hostage, holding him in a headlock position after the technician attempted to wrestle him to the ground. When the hostage moved slightly, Columbus police officer James D. Niggemeyer, who was the first police officer to arrive at the scene, shot Gale in the back of the head with a 12 gauge police issue shotgun.
During the rampage, nurse and audience member Mindy Reece, 28, went to the aid of Abbott. She and another fan administered CPR until paramedics arrived. According to some reports, victim Nathan Bray was also attempting to render assistance when he was killed.