Every once in a while, there are cases involving metalheads in very aberrant circumstances and it definitely doesn’t help to stop the perpetuation that metal is bad for you and everyone else. A few days ago in Las Vegas, former guitarist and founding member of black/death metal band Goatlord, Joe Frankulin, fatally shot his neighbor, a 39 year old woman who apparently had some altercations with Frankulin in the past, and then kidnapped and killed her 8 year old son before killing himself.
According to the neighbors, Frankulin was acting strangely when he sold all his possessions and modified his home with barricades and bike ramps for the neighborhood children to play with, which after some time they stopped using. The police had previously visited Frankulin’s house to check on him multiple times, the last time being about a week ago, neighbors said. Officers would use a bullhorn to get him to come out. While the band’s page on Encyclopedia Metallum lists them as “active,” Goatlord hasn’t done anything lately aside from a failed attempt to reunite for Nuclear War Now! festival in Germany last year. Frankulin had been doing yard work in the neighborhood to remain afloat economically.
There doesn’t seem to be a clear motive for the crime so far, but regardless, it is a tragedy and we only send our condolences to those close to the victims. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to support the victims’ family.
[via]
