Numbers are everything in the music business. For recording artists, a high position on a rankings chart can jumpstart a career; a low ranking can hinder, if not, kill one. The stakes are high for the high slots. Not surprisingly, competition breeds contempt, and contempt can cause corruption. Sometimes, contempt and corruption morph into murder. Such was the case thirty-five years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee.

A murder occurred in the music city on the evening of March 9, 1989, and the motive was related to Nashville’s signature business. The life of twenty-three-year-old Kevin Hughes was cut short because he was about to expose a trail of corruption in the business he loved.

Kevin Hughes

Kevin Hughes had recently left Belmont University to work for Nashville’s Cash Box Magazine’s Top 100 Country and Western Chart. He soon became the magazine’s chart director. His job encompassed receiving and reviewing play list charts each week from radio stations across the country. Based on these reports, he would rank records from one to one-hundred in terms of their popularity.

Kevin took his job seriously as he knew these rankings were critical to an aspiring performer’s career. He did his due diligence in evaluating them and was considered fair-minded at ranking them.

Chart Director

On the evening of March 9, 1989, Kevin’s friend, aspiring singer and songwriter Sammy Sadler, stopped at his office. The men left at approximately 8:30 p.m. and went to a nearby restaurant for a late dinner.

Afterwards, they made an unplanned stop at Sammy’s workplace, Evergreen Records, where Sammy phoned his parents. They left after approximately ten minutes.

Sammy Sadler

The men began entering Kevin’s car; Kevin on the driver’s side and Sammy on the passenger side. As they were doing so, a masked man shot Sammy in the arm and then chased after a fleeing Kevin, shooting him three times in the back of his head. The gunman then ran from the scene without returning to kill Sammy, who took cover in a nearby apartment.

Five people witnessed the shootings and saw the gunman running. Because he wore a mask, however, no one could provide a good description of him.

When police and rescue workers arrived at the scene, Kevin Hughes was pronounced dead. The murder weapon was found to be a .38 caliber gun. Sammy suffered a severed artery in his arm, but he ultimately made a full recovery.

                                Kevin Killed                          Sammy Survives

A robbery gone wrong was ruled out as the motive because the assailant had shot both men without attempting to steal anything from them. Police concluded the attack was an execution-style murder; Kevin Hughes was the target while Sammy Sadler was shot only because he was with him.

Kevin Was The Target

Sammy Was In The Way

Chart fraud at Cash Box Magazine was rumored to have been the motive for Kevin’s murder, but it would be thirteen years before the theory was confirmed.

A Work-Related Murder

In 2002, a man came forward saying he had sold a .38 caliber gun and the same type of ammunition that was used in the murder to Richard D’Antonio. The tipster also told police D’Antonio had test-fired the weapon in his backyard on the day of the murder. Investigators recovered bullets from D’Antonio’s backyard, one of which was determined to have been fired from the gun used in the murder of Kevin Hughes.

Witnesses to the shooting told police the killer ran from the scene in an unusual side-to-side gait. D’Antonio had a back problem at the time that caused him to walk in such a manner. In addition, black cat hair found in a hat left at the scene may have come from a black cat D’Antonio owned at the time.

The man who came forward, along with D’Antonio’s former wife Carolyn Cox, also admitted they lied about his whereabouts on the evening of the murder to provide him an alibi.

Richard D’Antonio

Richard D’Antonio had worked with Kevin Hughes at Cash Box. He had been able to get employment with the company despite previous convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, and several drug charges in Alabama and Georgia.

Investigators determined D’Antonio had been taking bribes to place artists on the Cash Box music chart list. Kevin had discovered his illegal acts and had refused to take part in the scheme. He is believed to have attempted to stop the shenanigans and perhaps had compiled enough evidence to go to the authorities.

D’Antonio is believed to have killed Kevin Hughes to prevent him from talking. After Kevin’s murder, he left Cash Box to become a promoter.

Motive Learned

In September 2003, Richard D’Antonio was convicted of the murder of Kevin Hughes and for assault with intent to commit second-degree murder of Sammy Sadler. He was sentenced to life in prison.

D’Antonio died in September 2014.

D’Antonio Guilty

In an Unsolved Mysteries segment documenting Kevin Hughes’ murder, Chuck Dixon, a record promoter at Cash Box Magazine, praised Kevin’s fairness in compiling the rankings, and expressed outrage over his murder. Investigators say it was an act, as Dixon had orchestrated the cash-for-positions scheme and had ordered D’Antonio kill Kevin in order to keep him quiet.

At D’Antonio’s trial, a witness stated Dixon said Kevin would be “handled or gone” and that he would not be able to reveal the truth about the bribes.

Chuck Dixon died in 2001, before his involvement in the Cash Box corruption and the murder of Kevin Hughes came to light.

Chuck Dixon

Record Promoter

Sammy Sadler has become a successful recording artist.

Sammy Survives

And Becomes A Successful Musician

Kevin Hughes’ mother Barbara, who died in 2020, said her son began compiling his own charts and music rankings after listening to country music and buying Billboard magazines as a young boy. He always wanted to work in the music business and his being hired at Cash Box Magazine in 1987 seemed the fulfillment of that dream.

The man who had hired Kevin to work at the now-defunct Cash Box Magazine was . . . Richard D’Antonio.

Hired By His Killer

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132374542/kevin-wayne-hughes

Sources:

• ABC News
• Business Wire
• CMT News
• Music Row
• Nashville Scene
• Northwest Indiana Times
• Southeast Missourian
• Unsolved Mysteries