When we think of divisive figures in history, Reggae legend Bob Marley rarely tops the list. Throughout his career, the singer emphasized love for his fellow man, social justice, human rights, and peace. Despite his based way of looking at the world, Marley was nearly killed for his belief that people could – and should – be better. So how did a man so well-known for chill beats, a fondness of weed, and his love find himself at the end of a loaded gun? Bob Marley’s story shows that even when you have no interest in politics, politics still have an interest in you.
Why was there an assassination attempt on Bob Marley?
During Bob Marley’s lifetime, Jamaica was going through an extreme political upheaval. Originally a colony of the United Kingdom, Jamaica finally achieved independence post-WWII, moving towards its status as a country starting in the 1950s. As the political scene shifted, its landscape was defined by two rival groups, the People’s National Party, a social democratic party, and the Jamaica Labour Party, its conservative counterpart.
The tension between the groups led to exorbitant violence. Each was outsourcing violence to the “Rude Boys,” a subsect of Jamaican youths who were poor and discontented with their lives, and needed the payouts to live. As the parties swapped power during each election, the heads of both the PNP and the JLP would demolish the neighborhoods the Rude Boys came from, erecting headquarters of sorts.
By the 1970s the groups were in open warfare, using crime bosses and gangs as proxy warriors. The PNP, headed by Michael Manley, started openly supporting Fidel Castro and Cuban Communism. The JLP, headed by Edward Seaga, bragged about the CIA supplying them with weapons. The United States, which considered Jamaica to be its “unofficial backyard,” saw a political leader in open support of Communism as a threat, and naturally sided with the other side. The open warfare led to the death of nearly 900 people over the decade, though both parties, at one point or another, tried to mend bridges.
One of the first attempts was made by Michael Manley’s Ministry of Culture, which tapped a number of Reggae artists – including Bob Marley – to play at the free concert, Smile Jamaica. Marley had previously played at Stevie Wonder’s Wonder Dream Concert, which benefited blind children, and liked the idea. He did have several stipulations, however; he requested that the link the to PNP be downplayed, since as a politically neutral figure, he didn’t like the idea that he would seem more or less sympathetic to either side.
His attempts were unsuccessful, however. His noncommittal approach left many JLP supporters feeling that Marley was tacitly complicit with the PNP.
What was the assassination attempt on Bob Marley?
Late on the evening of December 3, 1976, several armed men raided Bob Marley’s home. The exact number is hotly contested, with some believing the attack was the work of at least 7 people, and others claiming it to be around 3. The home security detail was mysteriously missing that night, and the attackers broke into the home with zero opposition. Dan Taylor, Marley’s manager, as well as Louis Griffiths, one of the band employees, were present at the home as well, despite the band being on a break from rehearsal.
According to Tyrone Downie, the keyboardist for The Wailers, the band had been working on “I Shot the Sheriff” when Bob Marley and Dan Taylor walked out of the recording studio. Moments after the duo left, a hand came through the door, blindly firing a .38 pistol. Downie and the rest of the band — Family Man, Carly, Glen DaCosta, and Dave Madden — hit the floor, and Downie remembers them crawling to the bathroom to hide, some still carrying their instruments. “Family Man was standing with the bass. It was a small room, so everybody wasn’t in there at the same time.”
In the other room with Bob Marley and Dan Taylor, guitarist Don Kinsey witnessed what should have been Marley’s last moments. According to Kinsey, a gunman armed with an automatic weapon spotted the trio in the kitchen. Kinsey insists that the gunman spotted Marley – who was tucked in a corner – immediately. Instead of shooting the man directly, the assailant sprayed fire randomly across the room. A bullet grazed Marley across the chest, ultimately lodging in his left arm. Don Taylor wasn’t so lucky; the band manager was left with five bullets scattered across his torso and legs.
Moments later, a blood-soaked Marley joined his bandmates where they waited, 4 or 5 of them jammed into a bathtub. It wasn’t long before they heard a vehicle pull up outside. Rita Marley, who had just arrived home, was shot in the head as she exited her vehicle. “One inch from the brain,” her son Ziggy Marley later said. Luckily for Rita, she survived. It’s believed her thick dreadlocks slowed the bullet enough to save her life.
The attackers went from room to room, spraying bullets indiscriminately. The firepower the attackers were wielding was immense, and the home was littered with bullet holes. After Rita was shot, the gunmen left as quickly as they had arrived. As Rita rushed into the home, and the first thing she asked was whether or not her husband was okay.
Two days later, both Marleys appeared on stage at Smile Jamaica and played the whole set.
Who tried to assassinate Bob Marley?
The culprits behind the assassination attempt were never officially brought to justice. Many people believe that the hit was ordered by those within the JLP, and likely carried out by a member of an affiliated gang.
Bob Marley said in an interview that he knew who had shot him, but that they had never been caught. Urban legend says that when asked who committed the crime, the legendary singer replied, “they system.” Some have Inferred that some sort of street justice was enacted, but others aren’t so sure.
Former CIA operative Bill Oxley claimed that the attack on Marley was perpetrated by the CIA. The agency felt that the singer was too radical, and that the reach of his music was dangerous. Likewise, his complacency with the PNP felt too much like an acceptance of Communism. Oxley went on to claim that, after the failed shooting, the agency tricked Marley into infecting himself with a cancerous virus with a pair of sneakers, and that Oxley kept tabs on the singer until his death, ensuring that any medical care he received did nothing to help him. For its part, the CIA has never confirmed Oxley as an operative.
The attempted assassination of Bob Marley might never come to a satisfying conclusion, but it’s hard to deny just how impactful the singer was, both during life and after his death. Though Marley left Jamaica for nearly two years after the traumatic event, he returned to his home country in 1878 for the One Love Peace Concert, where he brought both Seaga and Manley on stage for an awkward embrace. During the concert, he remarked, “I neither go right or left. I go straight ahead, seen?”