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When the tour
manager delivered the plane tickets to the singer’s hotel room on
the last morning of the tour, Cochran ripped open the envelope while
sitting in bed and exclaimed – “Take a look at these, boy, real
genuine tickets to the USA.”
On the last day,
British pop singer Johnny Gentle arrived in Bristol by car to
deputize for one of the support acts who was taken ill. He was
accompanied by his girlfriend and another couple. Immediately after
the curtain fell on the last show, at 10:30 PM on Saturday night,
Gentle met Cochran in the corridor outside his dressing room: “The
rest of the show were traveling by coach but because I was only
standing in for somebody, I had come by car. Eddie knew this and
asked me if I was going back to London and could I take him, Gene
and Sharon. Sharon was standing next to him and said “please”, but
I had a full load and couldn’t take more than two. I really would
have driven them otherwise. Eddie said he would take a cab”.
Cochran was booked
on the one o’clock flight from Heathrow on Sunday and had originally
intended to catch a train to London after the show but abandoned the
idea after learning that services from the West Country shut down at
night. Instead, a cab was hired for the 100 mile journey.
The Ford Consul
which arrived was littered with confetti and the driver, a 19 year
old named George Martin, explained that it had been used for a
wedding earlier in the day. After packing most of their baggage,
Vincent, Cochran, Sheeley and Pat Thompkins left the Grand Hotel at
11 PM. The cab hurtled through the dark Wiltshire night at 70 MPH
winding its’ way through a series of small towns. At approximately
midnight, they reached the outskirts of Chippenham, a small town 20
miles from Bristol. Passing under the narrow Chippenham railway
viaduct, the car had to negotiate a gradual curve in the road
leading up to a gentle uphill gradient called Rowden Lane. “The
road had recently been re-graveled” explains Hal Carter, who heard
the story first hand from Pat Thompkins, “and the driver was racing
like a madman to get Eddie back and he had taken a wrong turn and
was doubling back on himself to Bristol. When Pat saw the road
signs, he said, “You’re going the wrong way, mate, and you should
have turned left there somewhere. We’re going back where we came
from. So the driver hit the brakes”.
Martin misjudged
the curve of the road as the car emerged from the viaduct, lost
control and hit the curb on the far side with his brakes locked.
The impact spun the car around and it went into a backward skid,
bouncing uncontrollably of the curb on both sides of the road,
careening crazily for about 150 yards before impacting a concrete
lamp standard. The impact snapped the rear left roof support away
from the body and badly buckled the left rear panel which bore a
perfect imprint of the lamp post. Cochran had been thrown upwards
against the roof of the car by the force of the crash then propelled
on to the road as the door burst open on contact. Vincent sustained
a broken collar bone while Sheeley received back injuries; Martin
and Thompkins emerged unscathed.
The injured
passengers were rushed to St. Martin’s Hospital in Bath where they
were treated by emergency staff. Cochran did not regain
consciousness and died of severe brain lacerations at 4 PM Easter
Sunday, sixteen hours after the crash. Although his death made
headlines in Britain, the news received only minor coverage in the
USA.
On Wednesday,
April 20th after less than three days in the hospital,
Vincent discharged himself with the apparent intention of flying
back to Los Angeles with Cochran’s body. He immediately rang his
mother in Norfolk, Virginia. Gene said “Eddie and I started
together and we’re coming home together”.
Eddie Cochran was
buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cypress, California on Monday April
25, 1960. |
