The love story of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, who both had a lasting impact on country music, is told in the Showtime documentary “George and Tammy.” Their narrative is not a fairy tale, despite the intensity of their love. Both of them go through really difficult times and frequently find themselves in precarious positions as a result of making poor choices. In the series’ penultimate episode, Tammy is discovered to be wed to George Richey. When she fabricates a story about a phony kidnapping to conceal Richey’s physical abuse, the true degree of her imprisonment is made apparent. What you should know if you’re wondering how much of the incident shown in the episode is true.
Was Tammy Wynette Really Kidnapped?
Tammy Wynette reported that an unidentified guy had abducted and beaten her during a news conference in October 1978. According to People, when she returned to her car after going shopping, it had already been occupied. “I felt someone poke me on the side and then heard a man say, ‘Drive!'” The only things I could make out were a brown glove, a thick beard, and two inches of a rifle barrel,” she remarked. The country star was unable to identify the man because he was wearing a stocking mask.
Because the attacker didn’t touch the money and credit cards Wynette was currently carrying, the crime is still a mystery. She wasn’t sexually raped, but the man viciously punched her, breaking her cheekbones, and then he choked her with pantyhose. The man forced Wynette to go 80 miles through Tennessee before abandoning her by the side of the road and driving off in another vehicle. He dragged me out of the car while holding the gun in his left hand and opening the door. Then he punched me in the face. Wynette confessed, “I thought, Oh, God, I’m going to die.
Fortunately, Wynette located a house close by and dialed for assistance. Junette Young, a fan of Wynette, was the person who initially discovered her and was horrified to see her stumble across the driveway. “I was shocked to learn that it was the actual Tammy Wynette. It was neither the time nor the place to discuss her ex-husband, despite my desire to express how much I adore her and George Jones together, Young said. This was “the most terrifying experience of [her] life,” according to Wynette, and it was at times like these that she wished she wasn’t well-known. Even yet, she was unfazed by it and continued to fulfill her tour obligations. After she recovered from it, she gave a performance in front of a crowded hall.
Who Assaulted Tammy Wynette?
The fact that Tammy Wynette’s kidnapping case was never solved makes it a mystery to everyone, including the police that looked into it. Prior to the kidnapping, Wynette and her family claimed that they had been the focus of a long-term attack. There were break-ins, and the perpetrators wrote derogatory terms like “slut” and “pig” on the mirrors and walls. Wynette’s tour bus and the bedroom wing of her home both caught fire at various periods. There was once an attempt to kidnap Georgette Jones, who was just eight years old, and someone once wrote eight Xs on the back door.
All of these elements suggest that Wynette was the target of a genuine grudge. After her divorce from George Jones, it was assumed that it might be some irate admirer. The possibility that George Jones committed everything, including the kidnapping, was also raised. However, Wynette and her daughter later refuted this assertion. Georgette Jones said that blaming the father for it was absurd during an interview with Fox Radio.
“My dad would never have done anything to us like that.” That was, in my perspective, a foolish notion because he would never harm any of us, she continued. Instead, she suggested that it could have been George Richey’s fault, a suggestion she also made in her memoir, “The Three of Us: Growing Up With Tammy and George,” which served as the basis for the Showtime series. The moment Wynette and Richey got married, according to Georgette, all the bad things that had happened to them ceased.
In her book Tammy Wynette: A Daughter Recalls Her Mother’s Tragic Life and Death, Wynette’s elder daughter Jackie Daly made a similar charge in the past. Jackie claimed that after being physically assaulted by Richey, her mother once admitted to fabricating the kidnapping story to her. Despite these allegations, Wynette never went public with any abuse she may have experienced during her marriage to Richey. No such case was ever presented or proven in court, and Richey never admitted to being engaged in the kidnapping or any physical assault.