Sonny Bono died 12 years ago today

Former singing star, former Palm Springs mayor, former Cher husband, Needles & Pins composer and U.S. Congressman Sonny Bono died twelve years ago today, killed in a skiing accident on the Heavenly Ski Resort slopes on January 5th, 1998.

Or was he?

Former FBI agent Ted Gunderson theorizes Sonny did not slam into a tree, but was beaten to death and that the accident was staged.

According to The Australian newspaper, Gunderson says that "top officials linked to an international drug and weapons ring feared the singer-turned-politician was about to expose their crimes-- so they had him killed on the slopes."

Investigator Bob Fletcher not only believes Sonny was murdered; he suspects he was responsible. Fletcher put out his own documentary on the subject.

Destiny Denied: The Murder of Congressman Sonny Bono tells how, in December 1997, he sent Sonny documentation about "the activities of high ranking U.S. military and government officials he claims were raking in millions from arms and drug deals in Central America and Southeast Asia.

"I later received a call from an assistant in his offices to tell me Sonny had seen my full report and was absolutely livid about the level of corruption I made him aware of.

"He was going to make it his No. 1 priority when Congress resumed after the Christmas and New Year break. He was going to go after the biggest names.

"Just 10 days later, I received a call that he was dead. I'd heard it was suspected his offices had been bugged. Tragically, that must have been the case. There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed to silence him."


Fletcher also got his hands on Bono's autopsy report, which he says revealed Sonny had "a black eye, swollen lips, bloody nose, bruised jaw, and two upper teeth knocked out, all on the right side of the head," as well as several "fractures in a 'central depressed region' on the right side of Bono's skull, with 'some of the fractured bone pieces have a curved configuration.'"

Fletcher believes these fractures were the result of being beaten with a gun.

Fletcher also reports that Sonny suffered minimal brain damage, and "no smashed ribs, broken knees, neck trauma - or hand injuries that would have come from trying to ward off a collision with a tree."

He says there were no "bark impressions on his face and plant debris on his clothes," and Sonny's ski goggles were not smashed in as would have been expected.

Blogger David Martin suggests that Sonny may have been murdered in retaliation by the US government because of harsh criticism of Attorney General Janet Reno during federal hearings on the Branch Davidian-ATF conflict.

Somehow, this has not attracted the attention of the mainstream media.

Update: Ex-FBI man says Sonny was murdered

"This was an evil plot that was carried out
to almost perfection by ruthless assassins."

Here's the source of that Popbitch item. Our story was in The Globe and picked up by newspapers and news outlets around the world, including The Australian:

Sonny Bono 'assassinated' by hitmen
by staff writers

SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.

Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.

"It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.

"This was an evil plot that was carried out to almost perfection by ruthless assassins," Mr Gunderson told the paper.

The former agent, who has been researching Bono's accident for the past decade, said top officials linked to an international drug and weapons ring feared the singer-turned-politician was about to expose their crimes - so they had him killed on the slopes.

Bono, an experienced skiier, was ambushed on the slopes by hired hitmen, who beat him to death and then staged a tree collision, Mr Gunderson said.

He called for authorities to dig up Bono's remains and open a homicide investigation.

His claims have reportedly been backed by top forensics experts who fear Nevada authorities were too quick to call the death a skiing accident.

Investigator Bob Fletcher had also confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top US government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death, the Globe reported.

"(Bono) was going to make it his No.1 priority... There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced," Mr Fletcher told the paper.

Popbitch joins us, asking: Who Killed Sonny Bono?

Who killed Sonny Bono?

Tabloid Baby has been asking the question for close to a decade ( click here and hit “columns” for “Conspiracy Corner"), from the time our original book promotion site hit the Internet by storm with exclusive video of John-John Kennedy attacking the paparazzi and Princess Diana running over tabloid producer Jim Sheehan (click here for “Pix & Flix”).

And this evening, Popbitch, the irresponsible, indispensable, hilarious, ahead-of-the-curve and politically-connected gossip email newsletter, includes in its weekly report-- tucked between Mick Jagger’s freakishly tall, surgically-scarred galpal and Nigella Lawson seen shopping at Selfridges with “bird shit on her arse”—this item:

Conspiracy theory corner
What to worry about after Diana
There's a weird new theory that Sonny Bono didn't die in an accident, he was assassinated. Some FBI agent reckon drug and gun runners killed him on the ski slopes, through a staged ski accident. One investigator said that he sent Bono evidence that top US government officials were linked to arms and weapons dealers. Less than a month later, Bono was dead.

Every time we’ve brought up the theory, people have laughed— “He was Sonny Bono, a fool, killed by a tree, yuk yuk”— and that would make the deed all the simpler to cover up: the death of a US Congressman and top GOP fundraiser, Scientology droput, defender of the Salton Sea and enemy of drug traffickers dying within a week of a Kennedy's death on the slopes (name another time a celebrity died in a ski accident— even Spider Sabich died of a gunshot to the nuts). In January, Tabloid Baby pal and contributor Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D. took up the case and concluded:

“Overall, I would assign this particular conspiracy theory a coefficient of credibility of 50%, that is, a 50-50 chance that Sonny Bono indeed was murdered.”

Now, it seems, someone has picked up on our reopening of the case in January and the theory has kicked up the UK.

Stay tuned.

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