Musician Gram Parsons died of a drug and alcohol overdose on September 19, 1973, in Yucca Valley, California. He was 26 years old. After his death his body was taken by his road manager, Phil Kaufman, and Michael Martin to be cremated in Joshua Tree National Park, reportedly according to Parsons’s wish. Kaufman and Martin drove to Los Angeles International Airport in a hearse and then convinced officials that they were supposed to transport the body to a private plane at a different airport. The two were given Parsons’s body, which they then took to the park. There they set the coffin containing Parsons’s corpse on fire, but the corpse was only partially burned before law authorities arrived. Parsons was later buried in New Orleans, and Kaufman and Martin were fined.
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