CMT Most Shocking   -  About the Episode

Country pioneer Hank Williams was found dead in the back seat of a baby blue Cadillac 50 years ago. True to his word, he never got out of this world alive. But nobody expected the 29-year-old to fall victim to heart failure. Or was there more to the story? Following a 1973 performance on the Grand Ole Opry, the beloved country comedian David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife Estelle were brutally murdered at their rural home, devastating the entire city of Nashville. By the end of the decade, a mountain climbing expedition scarred Hank Williams Jr. for life, and Tammy Wynette endured gossip and speculation about an alleged kidnapping at a Nashville mall. While country music icons like Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell and Reba McEntire narrowly escaped the clutches of death, Opry star Dottie West was not so fortunate. After struggling through turbulent marriages and bankruptcy, the original "Lesson in Leavin'" singer lost her life following a spectacular car crash on a Nashville freeway exit. In 1999, George Jones received exactly the wake-up call he had prayed for when he drunkenly crashed his Lexus into a bridge. No stranger to shocking incidents, Jones was declared dead -- twice -- on the way to the hospital. And somehow, unlike many of his contemporaries, he lived to tell it all.