In 1966, Darrell Banks had a number two hit. Four years later, he was dead

Darrell Banks reached number two on the US R&B chart with his 1966 debut single, “Open The Door To Your Heart”, but his recording career was brief and ended with his death four years later. His story matters both as a reminder of a promising soul singer whose work received limited recognition and as a case involving a fatal confrontation with an off-duty police officer.

Banks released seven singles and two albums, moving from Revilot to Atco and then Stax after his follow-up records failed to chart. On 24 February 1970, in Detroit, off-duty officer Aaron Bullock shot Banks during a confrontation involving Banks’s girlfriend, Marjorie Bozeman; Banks later died in hospital, aged 32. The account says Bullock faced no criminal charges, and Banks was buried in an unmarked grave until a memorial was arranged with help from the soulfuldetroit.com website.