Two-gun Gene’s jealousy
(DAILY EXPRESS)
(24 September 1963)
POP SINGER THREATENED WIFE AFTER TOUR By RONALD BURNS
AMERICAN pop singer Gene Vincent sat in his London flat yesterday and said: “I hope my fans remember my name is Gene Vincent and not Gene Autry.”
Twenty-eight-year-old Vincent had just been fined £20 for having two pistols and ammunition without a licence.
On another charge of assaulting his wife Margaret, 28, he was conditionally discharged for a year.
Magistrates at Marylebone were told that police were called to Vincent’s house in Lansdowne-road, Notting Hill, on Saturday.
Police called
A detective spoke to his wife, who told him Vincent had threatened her with a revolver.Later Vincent said he had pulled out the gun “just like any other jealous husband.”
Vincent’s counsel, Mr. David Jacobs, said that while Vincent was appearing on the Continent, “other parties” had made remarks to him about his domestic affairs.
Mr. Jacobs went on: “As a result certain domestic difficulties arose which resulted in the conduct you have just hear of.”
Vincent-real name Gene Vincent Craddock-left the court with his wife.
Later, at their flat, he said: “There’s no question of Margaret and I splitting up. We’ve been married a year and we have a beautiful little daughter Sherri Ann.
“We’re both pretty crazy about her.
“The trouble was I listened to some of my alleged friends while I was on tour in Germany. I know better now. There wasn’t a word of truth in what they said.”
Expert shot
The guns?Vincent said: “While I was in the U.S. Navy I was a crack marksman. I have a collection of guns at home in New Mexico and the guns in this case were given to me by friends in Germany for that collection.
“I guess I just brandished one in a moment of temper.”
Vincent still walks with the help of sticks, the result of a car crash in 1960 in which rock ‘n’ roll star Eddie Cochran was killed.
(quoted in full)