A particularly dire 23

The band Chicago, back in the day. Public domain photo, more information). 

Many RAW fans have picked up on his fascination with 23 and use the number for screen names on the Internet. I've used the number sometimes, too, but one thing I've noticed that is the 23 often crops up in rather dire ways.

I recently read an interesting new book called Gangster Hunters by John Oller about famous 1930s gangsters such as John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd (here is an article I wrote about the book) and I noticed some 23s in that book, connected with serious events (for example, Bonnie and Clyde were shot to death on May 23, 1934). 

I recently ran across a pretty bad 23 I hadn't noticed before.

One of the first rock concerts I ever attended, back in the 1970s, was when I went with friends to see the band Chicago in Oklahoma City. (I still like early Chicago, but not the later version). When I saw the band, it had a guitar player named Terry Kath, and I remember reading about a couple of years later that ha had died of a gunshot wound.

I looked up Kath on Wikipedia the other day, and here are the events of May 23, 1978: 

"Kath enjoyed target shooting and by 1978 was regularly carrying guns. On Monday, January 23, after a party at the home of roadie and band technician Don Johnson, in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Kath began to play with his guns. He spun his unloaded .38 revolver on his finger, put it to his temple, and pulled the trigger. Johnson warned Kath several times to be careful. Kath picked up a semi-automatic 9 mm pistol and, leaning back in a chair, said to Johnson, 'Don't worry about it ... Look, the clip is not even in it'. His last words were, 'What do you think I'm gonna do? Blow my brains out?' To calm Johnson's concerns, Kath showed him the empty magazine. Kath then replaced the magazine in the gun, put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. Apparently unbeknownst to Kath, the gun had a round in the chamber. He died instantly from the gunshot, eight days before his 32nd birthday."

The event was so traumatic the band considered disbanding. According to Wikipedia, Doc Severinsen, leader of the old "Tonight Show" band, (older people like me will remember him) helped persuade the band to keep going.