“Talented, popular and committed.” - BZA, 06/18.1986
They found the car… and his body, full clothed, in the water nearby, ten miles from home. The car had a bump on the right fender.
“The Mysterious Death of The Iron Curtain Cowboy.” - Rolling Stock, 12/1986
On the dashboard was a fifteen-page suicide note written on the back of the script for his new movie. “The farewell letter was submitted immediately after its discovery to the staff members of the Stasi,” according to a memo from secret police files.
Rock’n’roll Radical - Chuck Laszewski, 2005
About four years after his death a “suicide letter” suddenly surfaced in the wake of German unification.
Reed had a better-than-average command of German. The note is written in German but, as said Ruth Anna Brown, Reed’s mother says, “The grammar is ridiculous. It’s almost like someone was saying, ‘This stupid American couldn’t speak
German, so this is how I’d write it if I were that stupid.’”
“Who Killed Dean Reed.” - Boulder Weekly, 02/24/1994
“My father was murdered. What else could it be?” said Ramona Reed, the expatriate’s 18-year-old daughter, who disputes official reports that her father accidentally drowned June 12.
“Relatives think Dean Reed was murdered.” - Rocky Mountain News, 06/29/1986
Was he murdered by the East German secret police? Or was it, as the secret police claimed, a tragic accident? And why does the homicide squad policeman who investigated the death still say Reed committed suicide?
“Who killed the commie rock star.” – People, 11/1991