There were apparently no guns involved the day the music died. Rumors of gun play factoring into the 1959 plane crash of three Rock-n-Rollers near Clear Lake have been put to rest by a forensic specialist.
Jay Richardson recently hired well-known University of Tennessee forensic anthropologist Doctor Bill Bass to examine the remains of his father, "The Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson, to give an answer to the rumors that shots might have been fired on board the plane and that the he survived the plane crash and died trying to get help.
Bass took x-rays of the Bopper’s body and found nothing to support any of those rumors or any type of foul play. Bass says Richardson suffered massive fractures and likely died immediately when the plane crash in February 1959. The crash also killed rockers Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, as well as Clear Lake pilot Roger Peterson.