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TOM PETTY | 1950 — 2017

A rocker
from the
heartland
Musical legend
dies following
cardiac arrest
BY FRANK LOVECE
Special to Newsday
Rock and Roll Hall of Famer
Tom Petty, who with his band
The Heartbreakers helped
spearhead back-to-basics heart-
land rock in the late 1970s, died
Monday in a Los Angeles hospi-
tal after he suffered cardiac ar-
rest, according to his spokes-
friend, and I’ll never forget
him.”
“No words. just thanks.
@tompetty,” tweeted film-
maker Cameron Crowe, who
memorably had Tom Cruise
sing along to Petty’s “Free
Fallin’ ” on the radio in “Jerry
Maguire” (1996).
Petty was born Oct. 20, 1950,
in Gainesville, Florida, the
elder of of two sons of Earl and
Kitty Petty. After suffering
through what he recalled as a
physically and verbally abusive
relationship with his father,
Petty found refuge in music,
and dropped out of school at 17

woman Carla Sacks.
EMTs responding at Petty’s
Malibu home had found a
pulse, but doctors at UCLA
Santa Monica Hospital later de-
termined he had no brain activ-
ity and a decision was made to
end life-support measures.
Petty was 66.
“It’s shocking, crushing
news,” music icon Bob Dylan,
Petty’s friend and a bandmate
in the supergroup the Traveling
Wilburys, told Rolling Stone in
a statement. “I thought the
world of Tom. He was great per-
former, full of the light, a
to help form his first band,
Mudcrutch. Initially a bass
player, he later became its front-
man and primary songwriter.
His bandmates included future
Heartbreakers Mike Campbell
and Benmont Tench.
After marrying first wife,
Jane Benyo, in 1974, Petty
moved to Los Angeles, where
Mudcrutch soon disbanded.
Petty eventually formed his
own band, and Tom Petty and
The Heartbreakers released its
namesake debut album in 1976.
Two albums later, 1979’s “Damn
the Torpedoes,” with songs in-
Petty’s work with Bob Dylan, among others, resulted in a Grammy. ] Tom Petty: newsday.com/music
cluding “Refugee,” “Here
Comes My Girl” and “Don’t Do
Me Like That,” reached No. 2
on the Billboard chart. “Hard
Promises” in 1981 produced the
hit “The Waiting.” Several
more albums followed, with
1985’s “Southern Accent” con-
taining the hit “Don’t Come
Around Here No More.”
Petty’s 1988 collaboration with
Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Or-
bison and Jeff Lynne as the Trav-
eling Wilburys resulted in a
triple-platinum album and a
Grammy Award for best rock per-
formance. Petty’s subsequent
solo album “Full Moon Fever”
gave him one of his biggest sin-
gles, “Free Fallin’.”
His personal life ran less
smoothly. His marriage to
GETTY IMAGES
Benyo, with whom he had
daughters Adria and AnnaKim,
ended in 1996, and Petty devel-
oped a heroin addiction. He
eventually overcame this and
in 2001 married Dana York. In
2014, his band’s 13th album,
“Hypnotic Eye,” became their
first to reach No. 1 on the Bill-
board chart.
With AP

Cops: Boy said dad killed mom Nassau County Court hearing Siar also testified Monday
newsday.com

that evidence will show his that he saw a lot of blood on

BY BRIDGET MURPHY
bridget.murphy@newsday.com
NEWSDAY, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2017
client acted in self-defense the floor when the boy
Robert Crumb. He described a back bedroom, authorities after Maria Crumb, armed opened the door. The
the boy as having been said. with a knife, came into a room sergeant said he was among
“stone-faced and in shock.” Authorities alleged Crumb where he was sleeping. police personnel who drew

A boy met police respond-
ing to a call about a stabbing
last year by opening the front
door of a Bethpage home and
blurting out something even
before they asked a question,
a sergeant testified Monday.
“He said, ‘My father killed
my mother,’ ” Nassau police
Sgt. Timothy Siar recalled at a
pretrial hearing in the govern-
ment’s murder case against
Crumb, 44, pleaded not
guilty to an indictment charg-
ing him with the Nov. 4, 2016,
slaying of his wife, Maria
Crumb, 41, along with assault,
weapon, reckless endanger-
ment and resisting arrest.
An early-morning 911 call
from the couple’s 12-year-old
son brought police to the fam-
ily’s Seitz Drive house, where
they found his mother dead in
fatally stabbed his wife, and
also wounded their 16-year-
old daughter as she tried to in-
tervene during the attack.
They’ve said the man then led
police on a car chase that
ended in his capture after a
fiery gas station crash in
Brooklyn.
But Robert Crumb’s attor-
ney, Stephen Scaring, said in
an interview after Monday’s
“She started it,” the Garden
City attorney said, adding that
the couple’s son came “into
the middle of a horrific
scene,” and by that time,
“things had already pro-
gressed.”
Brendan Brosh, a spokesman
for the Nassau district attor-
ney’s office, later declined to
comment on Scaring’s state-
ments.
guns and searched the home
to make sure the suspect
wasn’t still there.
Siar said police found the
wife covered with blood in a
bedroom and she appeared
dead from stab wounds. Siar
said he then came upon the
couple’s 16-year-old daughter
crying in the home’s basement
bathroom, and saw she had in-
juries to her arms and hands.