Gary James' Interview With The Editor and Publisher of Rockin' '50s Magazine
Bill Griggs



Buddy Holly's Death: Foul Play or Horse Play?

Over sixty years have passed since Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash. The questions surrounding that crash have never died. "Was Buddy Holly Murdered?" asked a national music publication. For three years Bill Griggs (Editor and Publisher of Rockin' '50s Magazine) examined and investigated the circumstances leading up to and including the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly's Death: Foul Play or Horse Play? Bill Griggs gives us the answers.

Q - Bill, how did you get interested in the whole issue of how Buddy Holly died?

A - I am disgusted that the same rumors crop up year after year around February 3rd. I decided to investigate this myself and put as many of those rumors to rest as I could. I think that Kevin Terry, my co-investigator, and I have done this. It is now more than a year after our article was published (in Rockin' '50s magazine), and no new information, facts, have come to light.

Q - Have you traveled to the crash site?

A - I have been to Mason City and Clear Lake (Iowa) four times. There is no evidence at the crash site. Kevin Terry and I worked on this for three years before I felt that we had enough to release, and release properly, without trying to sensationalize everything.

Q - Do you have a lot of money tied up into this investigation?

A - Any money spent with the investigation came out of funds utilized for the Buddy Holly Memorial Society and my Rockin' '50s magazine. Although the BHMS is now in its 15th year of operation, we've been in the red for 13 of those years. I still operate as a non-profit organization, literally.

Q - What can you tell me about the article that appeared in Sh-Boom magazine a while back. Were you happy with it?

A - There is a lot more to the overall story, which was published in my article. The article in Sh-Boom was an abridged version of the story, and sensationalized at that. My article dealt with pilot error and the possibility of foul play against the pilot. It was Sh-Boom magazine that changed the title to 'Was Buddy Holly Murdered?', a title I didn't like as that was not the gist of the story. I tried to deal with just the facts and nothing more. If there was something there which had been overlooked all these years, I wanted to find it. As you probably know, I told my readers that the wreckage of the plane still existed and I believe I was the first to do that. We had reported that one of the original investigators stated that the CAB report was done shabbily. I didn't state this, he stated it. We worked long and hard on this story and presented quite a few new facts to the public, which is why I copyrighted the story so any other media utilizing it would have to print the source, Rockin' '50s magazine. I publish a collector's magazine and I do try to deal with straight facts. I believe I did this with my story.

Q - Someone told you a bullet hole was discovered in the back of the pilot's seat. How do you know that the hole wasn't there before Feb. 3rd, 1959? And why is Jerry Dwyer (owner of the plane Buddy Holly leased) being so secretive about the wreckage of that plane he keeps locked up? What do you think he's hiding, if anything?

A - I don't know if the bullet hole was there before Feb. 3rd, 1959 and I'm still not sure there is a bullet hole there. No outsider, to my knowledge, has seen that wreckage. As for Jerry Dwyer, I did give him the opportunity to answer questions. He refused. I have no idea why his secrecy, if there is a secret at all.

Q - If the pilot was not to blame for the crash, why would the plane go down?

A - I started my three year investigation trying to get the pilot off the hook. The more I checked the more I found out about him. However, I still believe that weather, ice on the wings, was the primary culprit forcing the plane into serious trouble and the eventual crash on that farm. At that time, it was possible that pilot, Roger Peterson, then became confused and flew the plane into the ground.

Q - You state that Buddy Holly had a gun inside his overnight bag, which he carried on that plane. If it was discovered that Buddy Holly and say The Big Bopper, were fooling around with a gun in that plane, and it discharged, what do you think that would do to the legendary status of Buddy Holly and the others? Wouldn't the public regard these guys as fools?

A - Buddy Holly was sitting in the front seat. The Big Bopper was sitting in the rear, thus, the question is moot. If there was an accidental gunshot which hit the pilot and caused the plane to crash, don't you think this 'fact' would absolve Jerry Dwyer, his flying service, and his pilot, from all blame? If this happened, why wasn't something said years ago about it? It didn't happen. You may be confused as to why I made those statements in the first place. I was printing as many of the rumors as I was aware of, then printing our investigation results which dispelled most of those rumors, the primary reason for the article in the first place.

Q - What about this reporter Jim Collison, who was at the crash site, but then said he wanted to "forget the whole ordeal." Are you suggesting that maybe somebody got to him and told him to keep quiet?

A - I don't know his reasoning. As this happened nearly 30 years ago when we talked to him, his memory could be playing tricks on him. However, I rather doubt that he'd forget something like this which he was part of.

Q - You say the night of the plane crash it was not a snowy night. Yet, Bob Hale, who was the emcee of the show on that night, claims it was a stormy night. No wonder there's such controversy. No one can agree on what the weather was like that night.

A - I'm sick and tired of various people saying that it was blizzard-like night with snow falling, etc. If they would simply check the facts, they'd have the answer. I've checked the weather report for that night, and the newspaper with the crash headline states the same thing; very little snow that night and Mason City received just a trace. There is no controversy about this as far as I'm concerned, and there was no blizzard.

Q - In the 1950s, Rock 'n' Roll came under a lot of criticism and some strange things happened to some very big players. Chuck Berry went to jail. Jerry Lee Lewis' career was in ruins when he married his thirteen year old cousin. Alan Freed was brought down with the Payola scandal. With this scenario in mind, isn't it possible that somebody wanted to stop Buddy Holly from achieving more popularity? Is that far-fetched?

A - If what you are stating is true, then one of two things had to have happened. Either the pilot was paid to have some sort of death wish, or someone tampered with the airplane. Neither of these theories have been proved. The plane was operating properly, mechanically, when it crashed. If all the evidence presented in the CAB report, and with the three years of research we did are put together, ice on the wing and perhaps pilot error, are the only things which fit the puzzle completely.

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