Okay - he was well known in that people recognised his name, but it wasn't as though his songs got frequent airplay, or he was regularly on the cover of People magazine (except when his nose was falling apart or he was being accused of kiddy fiddling).

I am not going to discount the possibility that he was 'killed', either through through the wreckless medical actions of a doctor, or by an entourage of sycophants too affraid to tell him not to take so much Demerol.

Possibly he had a manager or rep who could have made more money from him dead than alive, but to suggest that he was murdered (in the legal sense - premeditated and malicious) is a little ridiculous.