You’ve probably heard the story of how the lead singer of the Bobby Fuller Four was found dead in his mother’s car in 1966. It was soon after the group’s one and only hit, ironically called “I Fought The Law & The Law Won.” That killing was never solved, amid suspicions it could have also been a suicide.
 
Turns out there’s another musical murder that I never heard of before that’s so terribly ironic, it almost sounds like it’s made up. But it’s not only true, the guilty party went to jail and died there in 2011.
 
You may remember a song called “The Cheater” by Bob Kuban and the In-Men. It was their only hit in 1966 and has become something of a classic tune on oldies stations to this day. The lead vocal on the song was done by a guy who went by the stage name Walter Scott, although his real name was Walter Notheis Jr.
 
Their sole hit consisted of Scott singing a warning about the guy known as “The Cheater,” who’ll "take your girl and he’ll mistreat her.” In 1983, long after the group had disbanded, Scott was found dead in a cistern on a St. Louis-area property owned by one James Williams. Cops immediately arrested the suspect, who was tried, found guilty and sent to prison for the killing.


 
But it’s the motive for the murder than turns this story inside out. Turns out Williams not only killed Scott, but his own wife. The reason? He was having an affair with Scott’s spouse and the pair wanted to be able to carry on with no messy exes to get in the way. So they dispatched both victims and tried to cover their tracks.
 
Which means the guy who warned people in the 60s to be wary of “The Cheater” was killed by the very kind of cheater he’d sang about two decades earlier. Williams, who was serving life for the killings, died behind bars. Scott’s wife, the other party in the affair, also spent a year in the hoosegow, convicted of hindering prosecution. She was released on parole in 1994.
 
There are all kinds of weird rock and roll tragedy stories. But I can’t think of one that involves a victim singing about the kind of guy who would eventually kill him almost 20 years later. It doesn’t get more ironic or bizarre than that. 



Man who murdered St. Louis singer dies in prison
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