Murder on Music Row from The Tennessean

This is the second part of a two-part mini-season focusing on some of the issues raised in "Murder on Music Row Season 2: The Skull at the End of the Rainbow." In this episode we look at some of noteworthy murder cases investigated by Nashville detective E.J. Bernard, including the one that ended with him retiring in disgrace. 

This special two-part mini-season focuses on some of the issues raised in "Murder on Music Row Season 2: The Skull at the End of the Rainbow." We do a deep dive into the career of Nashville detective E.J. Bernard, who has been accused of coercing and beating a witness in the David "Skull" Schulman murder case. This is part one of "Good Cop, Bad Cop."

In this bonus episode you'll hear the latest development. We got a call from Jason Pence, the star witness who testified he saw a teenager kill David “Skull” Schulman.

How strong can the case be when the prosecutor says he thought his side was going to lose? In the murder of David "Skull" Schulman, the prosecution pinned the crime on a 17-year-old homeless drifter. Will the Tennessee Innocence Project get involved?

As the investigation into the murder of David "Skull" Schulman began to focus on one suspect, a Nashville detective flew to California to interview a teenager who had been arrested in San Francisco on drug charges. Could this be the guy they were looking for? The new suspect said he didn't do it, and there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime scene.

All roads led to Lincoln, Nebraska. A detective made the trip to Nebraska to find a new witness to the David "Skull" Schulman murder. This person may have been inside the Rainbow Room when Skull was attacked. The problem was that the detective found the witness in a mental institution.

As the police investigation into the murder of David "Skull" Schulman stalled out, the lead investigator on the case ran into serious personal difficulty. A new investigator emerged, and he was a legendary Nashville detective. All of a sudden, witnesses came forward and took the case in a different direction.

Police found that David "Skull" Schulman had borrowed a lot of money from a Nashville music business icon. And the Rainbow Room was getting threatening calls about Skull repaying that money in the week before he was murdered.

Nashville police scrambled to catch a knife-wielding assailant. But they would quickly discover David "Skull" Schulman was killed by a blow to the skull. One of their early suspects was serial killer Paul Dennis Reid (The Fast Food Killer), who was already in custody at the time of Skull's murder. The investigators were baffled.

In the last moments of his life, David "Skull" Schulman opened the Rainbow Room like he had done every day for 50 years. He was wearing his Hee Haw overalls when he was brutally attacked. Police said robbery was the motive, but an examination of the evidence shows how much of a reach that was.

David "Skull" Schulman was an outlaw in a world of musical outlaws. Friends with Elvis, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, Skull was constantly getting arrested in his early days for overseeing illegal gambling, drinking and nudity in the Rainbow Room.

Coming Oct. 7 Murder on Music Row Season 2: The Skull at the End of the Rainbow" is an 8-part deep dive, narrative podcast that focuses on the 1998 murder of David "Skull" Schulman, an iconic Nashville figure who owned the Skulls Rainbow Room strip club/country music bar for 50 years. The police may have botched the investigation. The prosecutor didn't believe he would get a conviction. And the Te...

On Sept. 3, you’ll be able to binge the entire season of USA TODAY's new show "Untested" – for free . As the story unfolds, you’ll get an insider’s view of how Marshawn Curtis sweet-talks cops in multiple states, avoiding arrest and terrorizing more women. Ten years later, a new detective picks up the trail. But will her efforts be enough to put him behind bars? To find out...

All you need to con your way into a NASCAR race is a car, money and the guts of a snake wrangler. In 1982, a man named L.W. Wright showed up in Nashville trying to talk his way into Talladega.  Read the series Part 1: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track Part 2: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk? Part 3: After getting a black flag, would LW Wright outrun t...

Could L.W. Wright drive a race car faster than 180 miles per hour? That's what he set out to do. If he could qualify, he would earn a spot on the starting line at Talladega, arguably the fastest, most dangerous NASCAR race in America.  Read the series Part 1: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track Part 2: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk? Part 3: After gett...

With Talladega in his rearview mirror, L.W. Wright was on the run. He had several people in Nashville, those he conned out of money, and several NASCAR officials trying to find him. Could he go fast enough to drop out of sight forever? Read the series Part 1: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR's fastest track Part 2: Could L.W. Wright drive as fast as he could talk? Part 3: After getting a...

A detective’s dogged pursuit of justice links two rape accusations 800 miles apart, and puts her on the path to catch a sexual predator. She’ll bring listeners along on her quest in the new exclusive true crime podcast series from WITNESS and USA TODAY, Untested. Here’s the first episode. Subscribe for $4.99 to  binge the entire season  ad-free now. 

He terrorized women. He slipped through the cracks. But one detective refused to give up. Untested, an exclusive true crime podcast series from WITNESS and USA TODAY, brings listeners along on this detective’s quest to bring a serial sex offender to justice. Coming in April. .

When a jail officer discovered two keys missing from the control room, the new, about-to-open Nashville jail had a big problem. Who would break into a jail? What could that person do with stolen keys? The race was on to catch a man who inmates had given the nickname Einstein. Read the series Part 1: Two keys to an under-construction jail in Nashville went missing. Would it lead to havoc? Part 2: A...

The man with the nickname Einstein had served almost a decade in prison, where he learned tricks to help him get out of sticky situations. He hid razors in his wall and handcuff keys in his belt. Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall became obsessed with catching this man, who had unleashed a plan to infiltrate Hall's baby — the new Downtown Detention Center. Read the series Part 1: Two keys to...

When they finally found him, the plan was to keep Einstein OUT of the new jail facility. But that's not what happened. In January 2020, Einstein walked into the building carrying bolt cutters, and the jail officer who saw him had a quick decision to make. Read the series Part 1: Two keys to an under-construction jail in Nashville went missing. Would it lead to havoc? Part 2: A razor in his shoe. A...

What could possibly be the explanation for breaking into a jail? Once Einstein was caught, he faced a potential 40-year prison sentence. Instead of taking the sentencing lightly, Alex Friedmann told the court why he breached the jail security system. His explanation shocked everyone who heard it. Read the series Part 1: Two keys to an under-construction jail in Nashville went missing. Would it lea...

Coming soon: The sheriff called him an evil genius. Fellow inmates called him Einstein. In January 2020, just 10 days before a shiny new Nashville jail was set to house its first inmate, a jail officer noticed two keys missing. What they didn't know is that Einstein had snuck into the jail at least 20 times while it was being built. He had stolen the two keys. If that's all he had accomplished in...

Thirteen years after the murder, it took an investigative miracle for Nashville detectives to finally get an arrest warrant. And all these years later, the tentacles of the Murder on Music Row are still alive. Recently, a huge country music star released a song on a new album that was written by one of the men who police believe was involved with the murder of Kevin Hughes.

Thanks to a tip from an unexpected source, the Nashville police turned their focus to a shady small-time music promoter. He was a guy from California who had tried, unsuccessfully, to make it as a singer/songwriter. No matter how much the police believed they were looking in the right direction, the case went cold.