NOTORIOUS MURDERS > CELEBRITY CRIMES

The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye

By David Krajicek

Tangled Roots

Marvin Gay Sr. was born in 1914, the third of 13 children of poor farm parents in Jessamine County, Kentucky, south of Lexington. It was an abusive household, with father George Gay frequently beating his wife, Mamie.

“We were all frightened of him,” Marvin Sr.’s brother, Howard Gay, told Travis Hunter, author of Trouble Man. “When you’re 5 or 6 years old you don’t know what to do when your mother is being beaten and there’s hollerin’ and cryin’ going on.”

After failing to scratch out a farm living, George Gay moved his brood to Lexington in 1919. A few years later, Mamie Gay began attending a storefront church in the city affiliated with a religious sect with a comically long name: The House of God, The Holy Church of The Living God, The Pillar And The Ground of The Truth, The House of Prayer for All People.

When Mamie Gay took up the faith, her son Marvin followed and became the family’s enthusiastic believer. Many believe Marvin Jr.’s troubles had psychological roots in both family violence and this peculiar fringe faith.

The House of God, founded by R.A.R. Johnson, mixes elements of Orthodox Judaism with Pentecostal Christianity. Adherents maintain Saturday Sabbath and observe Old Testament prohibitions against pork and shellfish. They ignore Christmas but stock up on matzos for Passover.

The sect’s leader, the “Chief Apostle”, wears a miter hat adorned with a Star of David. Women attend services wearing all-white clothing. During services, congregants practice “tarrying”, repeating the phrase “Thank you, Jesus” as a mantra until the Holy Spirit visits and sets them speaking in tongues.

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1. Setting The Stage
2. Motown's Lover Man
3. Tangled Roots
4. Gay Goes To Washington
5. Nightmare Childhood
6. Marvin Sr. "Enjoying the Whole Thing"
7. Music & the Military
8. Marquees & Moonglows
9. Hitsville, USA
10. The Top
11. The Superego
12. Let's Get It On
13. "He Wanted To Suffer"
14. The Influence Of Narcotics
15. The World Closes In
16. To The Beach
17. To Europe
18. Sexual Healing
19. Increasingly Bizarre Behavior
20. Flying Home
21. "If He Touches Me I’ll Kill Him"
22. The Final Fight
23. The Postmortem
24. Conclusion
25. Photo Gallery
26. Bibliography