Spade Cooley(1910-1969)

He was convicted of murdering his second wife Ella Mae over alleged infidelities--they had an argument and he beat her to death. The murder happened on April 3, 1961 in front of his 14-year-old daughter Melody. He was sentenced to life in prison. He was furloughed in 1969 to appear at a police benefit show. While waiting backstage to come on, he had a sudden heart attack and died.

Playing the fiddle was as much a part of my life as breathing. I was knee-high to a stump and playing the fiddle, and my daddy played the fiddle and so did my granddad before him. So I came by it naturally, and later on I got it in my head to just flat quit schooling, the idea to be making money because being born poor and staying poor and being satisfied with it wasn't how I saw living out the rest of my natural life.