‘DEADHEADS’ MARKED FOR MURDER!
Twisted serial killer slaying rock band’s fans for decades!
GRATEFUL Dead fans have been dying violent and mysterious deaths for decades — sparking fears the hippie band’s superfans are being targeted by a bloodthirsty serial killer!
Investigator Todd Matthews has been tracking the mounting body count that inspired his chilling podcast “Dead and Gone,” which seeks to expose the dark side of the music group’s fandom! “The one thing all these dead kids have in common was that they were either going to [or] coming from Grateful Dead shows,” he said.
Matthews, who worked at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), estimated there have been about a dozen known fatalities among Deadheads — and believes there may be many more!
“When you think of the Grateful Dead, you think of peace and love and music and community,” said Matthew’s podcast partner Jake Brennan. “Not murder.”
But “Dead and Gone” cocreator Payne Lindsey said because Deadheads are a typically carefree, hedonistic group, they are easy pickings for a predator.
“Dead and Gone” reported Mary Gioia, 22, of Schenectady, N.Y., and Greg Kniffin, 22, of Wilton, Conn., were found beaten and shot dead in a homeless enclave called Rainbow Village near San Francisco after meeting at a show in 1985.
Four years later, unconscious 19-year-old Adam Katz was found beside a highway near New Jersey’s Meadowlands Arena — less than an hour after the final encore of a Dead concert. He died the following day.
“He had blunt force trauma to his head,” Lindsey explained.
Jeremy Alex, who vanished in 2004 in Northport, Maine, turned up on a woman’s lawn after a concert, screaming “people were chasing him,” Lindsey said.
But after the woman rushed indoors to call police, she returned to find Jeremy, then 28 had vanished!
"Several years later, his ID washed up on (a nearby) shore," Lindsey said.
Richard Simmons’ brother Doug, 20, disappeared at a Dead concert in Raleigh, N.C., in 1990, after telling buddies he was going to grab something in the car.
Two years ago, a wallet and bones were found a mile and a half from the venue and DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Doug.
“I hope the families get the closure that I got,” Richard said. “I hope they finally find some peace.”