6 foot 5 inch country music star David "Stringbean" Akeman was on Hee Haw, and played at the Grand Ole Opry. His only indulgence was a new Cadillac each year

This was his last car, a 472 cu in Cadillac with the Maharaja cloth upholstery, and it only had 3000 miles on it when he was murdered.

David “Stringbean” Akeman fashioned his first banjo from a shoebox and a piece of thread. He was born in 1916 in Annville, Kentucky. They were so poor his mother would give him rocks to throw at birds, and, if his arm was good, they’d have whatever he'd hit for supper.

When he was 12, he traded two bantam chickens for his first real banjo.

 Stringbean landed his first gig in Bill Monroe’s band. He played in the Blue Grass Boys from 1943-45, and his old-timey, “clawhammer” style of banjo picking can be heard on Monroe’s records from this period. Stringbean was replaced by a young picker named Earl Scruggs, who revolutionized the way the otherwise-primitive instrument was played.

I know I've seen him perform this following video clip in the past couple years,



Then he married, and the following year he befriended Grandpa Jones, another banjo playing comedian who started playing the Grand Ole Opry that same year. Grandpa and String shared an appreciation for the old-time songs and a love of hunting, fishing and simple country life.
but until now, I had never heard of the car and him being murdered

They were said to not trust banks-- and there were many rumors around town about "all of their buried money" as Stringbean’s upbringing in the abject poverty of the Great Depression conditioned him with two incompatible impulses that would ultimately bring about his demise: he felt the need to let others know he had made a success of himself by flashing his roll, and he openly distrusted banks.

They lived in a small cabin off of Baker Station Road with outdoor plumbing and no heat. (A larger house on the property with central heating sat empty, as the Akemans preferred the smaller, simpler structure.) His only modern comfort in the cabin was a color television set.

But he allowed himself one luxury, mostly for appearances to and from gigs – he bought a brand new Cadillac every year. Stringbean never learned how to drive, so Estelle would chauffer him to road gigs and the 30 minutes each way from their cabin north of Nashville to the Ryman Auditorium downtown for the Opry on Saturday nights.

On November 10th, 1973 swhortly after purchasing this Cadillac, they returned home after a performance at the Grand Ole Opry and were murdered by waiting burglars.

The killers got away with a chainsaw, some guns and a mere $250 they pulled from Stringbean’s pocket. In their haste, they missed the $3,000 roll in Stringbean’s overall bib pocket – now stained with blood – and the $2,000 Estelle had pinned to her bra.

Having just executed the Opry star and his wife in cold blood, John Brown’s cruelty was not satisfied. He was frustrated he hadn’t found the hidden fortune he had come for, and put Stringbean’s will (which he found earlier while tossing the cabin) and the murder weapon into Stringbean’s gig bag,  loaded it down with rocks and threw it in the lake. Stringbean had no kin, in his will he left everything to a charity for underprivileged children.

John Brown figured if he couldn’t have Stringbean’s money, nobody would.

Grandpa Jones came over the next morning to go bird hunting, and found his friends dead.

The money was found 20 years later, behind a brick in his fireplace, deteriorated beyond use, the cash the killers never found hidden in the fireplace was chewed and shredded by mice, withered over the decades.

The man renting the place went to light a fire in the large fireplace. Small bits of paper escaped from its mouth, softly falling from the brick façade like volcanic ash in the still cabin air. It was money. Tens of thousands of dollars floating in worthless portions, gathered gently on the cabin floor.

the car was in a museum for the longest time in Pigeon Forge, but was then sold at Sotheby's in May 2016 for $26,000

One of the songs that Akeman sang was Herding Cattle in a Cadillac Coupe de Ville
(Jack Logan)

Well, I live out in the valley, the valley which is green
I've got the finest neighbor that you've have ever seen
I've got a honey pot and a fritter tree and I'm really doing well
I'm herding cattle in an air-conditioned Cadillac Coupe de Ville

Well a honey pot and a fritter tree is where I spend my time
Eating country ham and biscuits, drinking elderberry wine
Three cents a week is all I spend but I get my biggest thrill
When I'm a herding cattle in and air-conditioned Cadillac Coupe de Ville

Well I wouldn't hardly say I'm rich, I'm living like I should
I'm living the life of Reilly, Reilly ain't never had it this good
Well, I like this kind of living and I guess I always will
I'm-a herding cattle in an air-conditioned Cadillac Coupe de Ville

Well I've got science baffled, also the blue-eyed world
I fish when I get ready and I love to hunt them squirrel
You'll find me every morning when the sun comes over the hill
Herding cattle in an air conditioned Cadillac Coupe de Ville
Yeah, I'm a-herding cattle in an air conditioned Cadillac Coupe de Ville






where I have the video begin gets right to where they talk about him and Hee Haw. They talk about the night he was murdered at about minute 21:45

http://www.remarkablecars.com/main/cadillac/cadillac-00046.html
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=158207
https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/as16/auburn-spring/lots/r0215-1974-cadillac-coupe/553770
https://en.wheelsage.org/cadillac/deville/78035/19688/pictures/kujoxq/
https://humorinamerica.wordpress.com/2016/03/10/scarecrow-the-music-and-murder-of-stringbean-akeman/