Chords for Jerry Garcia Wifes Estate Money Court 1996

Grateful Dead and its leader Jerry Garcia attracted loyal fans who follow the band's every step.
Well now Garcia is dead and two of his wives aren't very grateful over the legal battle left behind.
With millions at stake, Core TV's Helen Nucadis takes us on this long strange trip through the legal system.
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ He was a [G] cool dude. _ _ _
[G] _ _ A cool dude?
Could you elaborate? _ _
Oh, how much [Gm] time do you have? _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ To me my dad was just my old [Dm] man.
Sometimes grouchy, sometimes fun, [D] sometimes stinky.
He was just my old man, [Ab] my dad.
_ [Dm] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _ People remember Jerry Garcia as the leader of the band, the Grateful Dead.
Their _ legion of fans are called [B] Deadheads.
They often made their own tapes of the dead playing live.
[Bm] In fact, this videotape was given to us by Deadhead [Db] Michael Sheehan.
_ Jerry Garcia was [A] a voice of the 1960s [D] psychedelic counterculture
and he kept playing in the band through the 70s, 80s and into the 90s.
I said they're gonna miss [G] me when [D] I'm gone.
Jerry Garcia is missed, but his [D] legacy lives on.
His musical legacy and his legal one.
[N] Garcia's ex-wife is in court.
At issue is their marriage and five million dollars.
Was it love in your [Bm] relationship?
Yes.
The legal question, is this 13-line document a final divorce settlement?
Is it a binding contract [Eb] between Carolyn Adams Garcia and her ex-husband [N] Jerry?
He agreed that it would be a complicated thing to [G] be constantly negotiating further
and that this was an end to negotiation.
[Dm] If the judge finds it [N] is a valid contract, then Carolyn Adams Garcia gets the five million dollars.
It's an unfair contract.
We don't even think it is a contract.
But if Garcia's second [D] wife gets five [Eb] million,
then this woman, Garcia's third wife and widow, Debra Koons Garcia, gets a lot less under his will.
[N] He said that it was a rip-off and that he had to sign the five million dollars away in order to get divorced.
I believe that she is a liar.
[A] _
I've seen it time and time again.
We were a family for a very long time before she came into the picture.
Adams claims she had a loving [D] relationship with Garcia for 30 years,
though they didn't formally marry until [B] 1981.
Adams, seen here in 1967, was nicknamed Mountain Girl.
She and Garcia had two daughters, [N] Annabel and Teresa.
Both support their mother in court.
There was an agreement between them and I know that they wanted to end their relationship amicably
and without any of this kind of stuff.
If you find against the contract, _ _ _ then she's going to get whatever the community property rights really are.
Community property is most of the income earned or assets acquired during a marriage.
Carolyn Adams would be entitled to half without the settlement contract.
Just how much that is, isn't clear.
A brief moment that links us together across the millennia.
On the witness stand, Mountain Girl reads a love letter she claims her husband wrote to her [D] in the 1980s.
Your mouth and special secret smiles in the corners of your mouth, _ sweet for touch.
But by [F] 1990, the special [N] secret smiles apparently no longer held Jerry Garcia's fascination.
That's when she says she and Garcia officially [Em] separated.
He came and [Gb] got the grand piano and [Eb] the books and his clothes and so on.
[D] Debra Koons [B] and Jerry Garcia got married on Valentine's Day [Bb] 1994, a year and a half before he died.
Koons is an executor of [D] her husband's estate, entrusted with carrying out his last wishes as [Bb] expressed in his will.
[Ab] He was generous [Em] to a fault, obviously. _ _ _
Because of that, _ [N] all kinds of people took advantage of it.
Garcia's estate argues the agreement drafted by Adams can't be a contract because it's missing important terms.
The estate contends Jerry Garcia died before the agreement was completed.
It also claims Mountain Girl was a manipulative bully.
Did you describe her as a bully?
I'm familiar with that component of her personality, yes.
But on the other hand, none of Jerry's women have actually [D] exactly been shrinking violets.
Grateful Dead bass player Phil Lesch [D] testifies as a reluctant witness.
[N] Did Carolyn tour with the band in the 80s?
_ _ _ _ _ I don't believe so.
You don't remember her touring at all in the 80s?
Not really.
And do you have a clear recollection of everybody who was present on those various tours?
No, I don't.
I've already stated that it's all very hazy.
For the last 30 years, or one big smoky haze.
_ _ I told you to leave me alone.
I wanted nothing to do with this unseemly affair.
This [A] Grateful Dead road crew member says he [G] considered going to jail rather than testifying about Garcia.
The [D] estate is trying to show Garcia's marriage to Mountain Girl was a sham, arranged for tax purposes.
[Dm] I've been in the back getting married, he said.
Getting married?
What'd you do that for, I said.
He goes, I love Marilyn, Marilyn's my wife, I love Mountain Girl and I gotta straighten up my taxes.
That's [G] what he said to me.
[E] No one knows exactly how much Garcia's estate could [Gb] eventually be worth,
[B] with revenue coming [Em] from items ranging from ice cream to neckties.
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [B] _ _ [E] I want Jerry to come out [Bm] of this looking good, [N] looking like he was generous.
She's been a very determined opponent in this [Gb] court case, and I don't think her determination has slackened a bit.
What would your father say about all this?
That it was just a real good joke.
[B] A real good joke.
So who wins?
Well, last month the judge said the contract is valid, but he hasn't made his final decision yet.
So now it looks like Mountain Girl is entitled to the $5 million, and she tells us she couldn't be happier.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Deborah Koons Garcia tells us it may take a [D] couple years to settle the estate,
because so many people claim that Jerry Garcia owed them money.
Greg Jamie?
And judging by the claims, that too is a long, strange trip.
Helen, thanks.
Still ahead on Inside America_ _ _ _ _
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