The bandmate who frightened Eric Clapton, then killed his own mother in 1983

Jim Gordon, the drummer on Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla”, was a celebrated session musician whose worsening schizophrenia and violent behaviour eventually led him to kill his mother in 1983. The case cast a grim shadow over his musical legacy and left Eric Clapton frightened by the change in a former bandmate he had once trusted.

Gordon also played on records by Steely Dan, George Harrison and the Beach Boys. He killed his 71-year-old mother, Osa Marie Gordon, with a hammer and butcher’s knife on 3 June 1983, and was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison the following year. Clapton later said he had been scared of Gordon near the end of Derek and the Dominos, after their working relationship broke down during a recording session.