Lindsay Crosby, Bing Crosby’s youngest son from the famous singer’s first marriage, has lost his family after learning the estate on which he depended has disappeared. Lindsay Crosby shot himself in his Las Virgenes apartment, a family spokesman said Tuesday.
Just 11 days after attorneys told Crosby and his three brothers that their late mother, Wilma Wyatt’s oil investment for them had failed, Marilyn Lai, a spokeswoman for Lindsay’s brother Gary, S said. For Lindsay, Reiss said, the news was “the final straw” after years of battling the stress of alcoholism, depression and living in the shadow of his famous father.
“If he’s a scumbag, maybe he can handle it,” Rice reports, Gary Crosby said after learning of his brother’s death. “He was so sensitive.” Crosby, 51, was found dead late Monday afternoon with a gunshot wound to the head. A small-caliber rifle was nearby.
Rice said Crosby had been living at the Bravo Lane apartment while he was in treatment for alcoholism in nearby Calabasas. He was due to return to Sherman Oaks this weekend with his third wife, Susan, and their two sons, she said. Crosby has two other sons from previous marriages. Alcoholism is just one of many issues plaguing Lindsay, Rice said. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1962, suffered two divorces, and was arrested for DUI and assault multiple times.
He never had a steady job, and his own forays into entertainment, including appearances in low-budget films like The Glory Stompers and Free Grass, flopped miserably. In 1983, Lindsay sided with his brother Gary, who wrote a book called “Going My Own Way,” in which he described Bing Crosby as a bully who abused his son. “I hope it clears up a lot of old lies,” Lindsay said at the time.
Bing Crosby married actress Kathryn Grant in 1957 and started a second family. He died in 1977 at the age of 73, leaving his money in a blind trust fund that his sons were not allowed access to until the age of 65 – their teenage antics The behavior was well covered by the news media.
Another of the Crosby brothers, Philip Crosby, told the magazine six years ago, “My dad thought, ‘How much trouble are they going to get in this? Arthur’s investment. Gary Crosby told Rice that the four brothers, including Philip’s twin Dennis, were in shock. But he said to himself: “My life is one shock after another. I can get a job singing as a backup or running errands in a recording studio.”
No one knew the depth of Lindsay’s despair — except now, in hindsight, Reiss said.