On the 18th of October 2007 South African music icon Lucky Dube was murdered in a botched hijacking. The 43-year-old musician was shot by three gunmen as he dropped off his son in the Rosettenville suburb of Johannesburg.
Born in 1964 to an impoverished family in northeastern Mpumalanga Province, Lucky Dube released his first album at the age of 18 years. He began his career performing the urbanized Zulu music called Mbaqanga. But he also recorded albums in Afrikaans, the language of the white minority.
Dube made his mark on the international scene with Reggae music and became one of the best-known African vocalists of the genre.
His first Reggae album, Rastas Never Die, was banned by the apartheid government in the mid-1980s.
Lucky Dube achieved world fame through music with a social message such as this 2003 song about the ravages of AIDS, called “Number in the Book.”
He received some 20 awards during his 25-year career and was the first South African musician to be signed by the Motown recording label in the United States.
The investigation into his murder would employ several interesting forensics tools to help bring his killers to justice.
Also in this episode is a bonus interview with Dr Richard Shepherd one of the world’s leading forensic pathologists, who has performed more than 23,000 autopsies. Dr Shepherd worked on some really high profile cases including The Hungerford Massacre, the death of Princess Diana, and the inquiry into serial killer Harold Shipman.
SHOWNOTES:
Host: Nicole Engelbrecht
Producer: Nicole Engelbrecht
Music: Snippet (with permission) from Prime Circle’s Evidence
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