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It is 3 a.m. on August 23, 1983. In Garden City, a city landlocked in the teeming eastern suburbs of Detroit, Shawn Michelle Lewis' mother is awakened by the ringing of the telephone. It is his daughter, panicked, who calls him. "I'm going to leave him mom, it's decided." Still in a daze, her mother tries to reassure her: "It's 3 a.m., honey, calm down and call me back tomorrow." "I don't know if I can, but I'll let you know, mom." A few hours later, around noon on August 24, Shawn Michelle Lewis, née Stephens, was found dead in a bed at the home of her husband, the great Jerry Lee Lewis. She was 25 years old. Her marriage to the man everyone calls The Killer only lasted seventy-seven days.
It's almost noon
Collective memory has erased the image of this bubbly young girl, a waitress in a nightclub until she met in 1981 one of the biggest stars in the history of rock'n'roll. From the life of Jerry Lee Lewis, we prefer to remember his galore hits in the 1950s, his extremely controversial marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale, in 1958, his escapades as an alcoholic and a lover of fire arms. The mysterious death of Shawn Michelle Lewis, she seems to go to the ace. However, it is surrounded by many gray areas.
That morning, Jerry Lee Lewis is awakened by the employees of a laundry, who come to collect his sheets to be washed. The weather is great. His ranch is located in Nesbit, a quiet little town thirty kilometers south of Memphis, on the Mississippi side. You have to walk along a path lined with century-old trees, then climb the stairs that lead to the porch and the front door.
Jerry Lee Lewis opens the door for them, he's in the gas, almost disoriented. This is often the case after yet another evening spent drinking. But do not imagine that the day before was festive. In the house, and this for two days, there are only three people: the owner of the premises, his wife Shawn, and the governess Lottie Jackson. It is the latter who gives the dirty sheets to take away. Jerry Lee Lewis goes back to bed, but has time to order Lottie to go wake up his wife. It's almost noon.
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A mysterious discussion
It is in a guest room that the governess discovers the lifeless body of Shawn Michelle Lewis. She calls for help, who arrives a few minutes later. In his investigation for Rolling Stone magazine a year later, journalist Richard Ben Cramer describes a series of implausible scenes.
After the paramedics, who noticed bruises on the victim's arms, hips and neck, comes Jack McCauley, deputy sheriff. A guy whose fortune earned through investments in industrial parks seems at least equivalent to that of a singer. The two men know each other well. McCauley gets everyone out of the room, including the singer who has woken up in the meantime and has become aware of the situation, haggard but calm, and leaves to lock himself in a room with him, alone. A discussion, whose words are unknown, engages for more than an hour.
When they're done, the deputy decides to call investigators: Shawn's death is suspicious, there's blood in the bathtub, the singer has cuts on his hands, there's even blood in Shawn's hair. Shawn, on her clothes, on a bra found in a neighboring room, and even under the young woman's broken fingernails. Judge Perryman, present in turn, deduced from his observations that the body was moved when Shawn was already dead, at best unconscious, and that she was probably dressed in a babydoll post mortem. He cannot ignore that the house was obviously cleaned before the arrival of the paramedics. But of all this, Jack McCauley will say nothing in his report.
Small arrangements between friends
In the American legal system, the coroner is the official responsible for investigating violent deaths. It is therefore necessary to call him to make his findings. But McCauley dissuades the paramedics, arguing that it would result in publicizing the death of Shawn. He gives the order to keep the press away.
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As the minutes go by, the DeSoto County bigwigs take turns in the room: Sheriff Dink Sowell, District Attorney Bill Ballard… Another deputy sheriff, James Albert Riley, is supposed to come. But he is running for the post of sheriff and is in the middle of an election period. For him and his teams, it is better not to make too much of a stir, not to take any risks. Especially since Jerry Lee Lewis is the biggest donor to his campaign. He doesn't show up at Nesbit's ranch, and the Mississippi Highway Patrol takes over the case. No one notifies the coroner, supposedly untraceable.
In this succession of malfunctions and small arrangements between friends, the most amazing is yet to come. For the autopsy, McCauley does not turn to the person usually responsible for driving them to the county. He calls on Doctor Jerry Francisco. A famous man: he was the one who had carried out one of Elvis Presley's autopsies concluding that he died of heart failure. It was brighter than a colectasis caused by a dantesque taking of drugs, which in fact finished The King. He is also the man who was entrusted with a new examination of the body of Martin Luther King, a decision much criticized by associations fighting for civil rights. In short, he is a guy who knows how to go in the direction of some, but whose expertise is expensive. Very expensive.
Never mind, McCauley arranges with Jerry Lee Lewis: it's the singer who pays. This has the effect of placing the autopsy of the body of Shawn Michelle Lewis in the private domain. Not stupid. The autopsy revealed no trace of drugs or drug overdose in the blood. So, prosecutor Bill Ballard concludes that there was no crime. However, one of the funeral directors, who observed traces of strangulation on the body, was formal when questioned by journalist Richard Ben Cramer: "I can't believe that girl lay down and be dead. You won't make me believe that."
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Violent marriage
When Shawn met Jerry in February 1981, the latter had been married for ten years to his third wife, Jaren Gunn Lewis. They are separated, Jaren filed for divorce with loss and noise. Jerry is an extremely violent man. He beats his wives, humiliates them, kidnaps some of them, for a yes or a no.
All his life, he alternated between taking gargantuan drugs and the desire to return to the path of God. His discography itself can be read through this prism. Jaren, she has had it, and their divorce is being finalized. He never will be. She dies mysteriously, drowned at the bottom of a swimming pool near Memphis, on June 8, 1982. Jerry is free and plans to marry Shawn, who sees above all in this union the opportunity to experience something exceptional. She's not in love, but the singer "has a big dick and a big wallet," she tells her waitress friends. She drops her lifelong love, Scott, and leaves to join Jerry in the Memphis suburb of Nesbit.
The wedding day is a disaster. Jerry Lee Lewis suffers terribly from the stomach. He is late, does not welcome his in-laws, and struggles to pronounce his vows clearly. The next day, for no reason, he attacks Shelley, Shawn's sister. "You're scared of me? You can be. Why do you think they call me The Killer? How did I get that nickname, huh? Shelley picks up a terrible slap. The whole family returns to Garden City, leaving Shawn alone with her abusive husband.
A few days later, the bride is at her worst. She calls her sister and begs her to come and spend a few days at Nesbit, at the ranch, promising her that everything will be fine. On the first day, it's true, Jerry is cheerful and caring. But in the evening, when they start drinking, he makes advances to Shelley. Her dream is to sleep with the two sisters at the same time, they know it well. Shelley doesn't give in and goes to sleep upstairs.
The next day, the hangover makes Jerry irritable. An argument breaks out in the kitchen, the two sisters take blows, slaps, insults. Shelley drags herself out of the house and packs her things. "I'm not leaving without you," she told Shawn. You have to go to the police.” Shawn replies, "No, don't do that, he's got the police in his pocket." When Jerry realizes his wife is about to leave the ranch, he grabs her, slams her against a wall, and says, “I'll show you how we leave. You are my wife. I'll kill you before you go." So Shawn stays at Nesbit, and Shelley leaves.
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A hasty funeral
Shawn's mother told Richard Ben Cramer about this chilling phone call received hours after her daughter's death. Jerry is on the line. He is in a bad state, has trouble expressing himself. He exposes his suffering, his regrets… Shawn's mother refuses to pity him. After all, he beat his daughter, treated her like an object, how can she believe in his innocence? Jerry slams him: “Can you imagine? Waking up with your dead wife next to you in bed?” The matriarch scores a blank, then says, “Investigators told me she was found in another bedroom…”
What did Shawn die of? According to the report of medical examiner Jerry Francisco, the death was due to pulmonary edema, itself of unknown cause. Maybe an overdose, he slips to prosecutor Ballard. But nothing goes in the direction of this conclusion. Sheriff Sowell has explanations for the traces of blood found at the scene: if Jerry Lee Lewis has small wounds on his hands, it's because he cut himself with glass. It is this blood that would be present on Shawn's body, hair and clothes. The bruises are not proof of violence, being only very superficial. There is therefore no reason to request a second autopsy, the body can be buried quickly, even if the family has not yet had time to make the trip from Garden City to Memphis. Two investigators find all this very suspicious. But their investigations are almost impossible to pursue. End of debate, curtain.
The song of the Swan
The family still obtains the right to organize a private funeral wake to which Jerry Lee Lewis is not invited. Shawn's father, very religious, has time to place a cross in the hands of his daughter. The next day, the singer in turn enjoys a vigil. Only a funeral director and his manager are present. When The Killer sees the cross, he explodes with rage, and points the finger at the two men: “You screwed up! You and you screwed up!” He removes the cross, the coffin is definitively closed, the burial can take place.
Numerous witnesses reported an absolutely chaotic ceremony. The family has almost no right to express themselves. Jerry Lee Lewis, dressed in a white suit and red shirt, sings on the piano and asks his cousins to lead the speeches. It's all about the rocker and his pain, in a completely unhealthy way. The day after the funeral, Jerry Lee Lewis goes to a nightclub in the arms of two strippers. He drinks, and, as usual, improvises in song words that several people have sworn to hear: “Ah, I told her that if she left me / I would put another in her bed.”
The story of Shawn Michelle Stephens ends there, replaced, almost forgotten. A terrible end, seventy-seven days spent in the service of a brutal husband, quickly cleared. And as if to signify that she's his forever, Jerry had her buried in the family vault. Not the Stephens', no. That of the Lewises.
