"It's Just A Shot Away"

For a long weekend, some news from the weird: Remember the 1969 Hell's Angels killing that took place at a Rolling Stones concert? The police have just closed the case. From the AP:

Nearly 36 years after a slaying at a Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway marked the end of the peace-and-love '60s, investigators have closed the case, dismissing a theory that a second Hells Angel took part in the stabbing.

Meredith Hunter, 18, was killed during the free concert on Dec. 6, 1969, that was billed as a West Coast Woodstock. The concert, which drew an estimated 300,000 people, was later immortalized in the film documentary Gimme Shelter.

As the Stones played on stage, a member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, hired by the band to provide security, attacked, stabbed and killed the young man.

Alan Passaro was acquitted after a jury concluded he acted in self-defense because Hunter was carrying a gun. But there had been rumors over the years that a second unidentified assailant had inflicted the fatal wounds, and the case remained open.

But Alameda County sheriff's Sgt. Scott Dudek said Wednesday that after a renewed investigation over the past two years, authorities concluded that Passaro, who died in 1985, was the only person to stab Hunter and did so only after Hunter pointed a gun at the stage.

Dudek said Passaro's lawyer confirmed his client was the lone assailant. In addition, enhanced and slowed-down footage from the film shows Hunter brandishing the gun just before Passaro leaps from the stage and stabs him, Dudek said.

Let me get this straight. This happened thirty-six years ago. There was a trial and an acquittal. Twenty years ago, the Hell's Angels member died. And our overworked cops just spent two years working on this?

Does this mean the 60's are really over now?

Time to relax and enjoy the weekend. And maybe rent Gimme Shelter again.