A while back I mentioned the disturbing allegations that guitarist Bob Brozman (who killed himself in April) was a child molester. These allegations existed almost entirely in the comments sections of various blogs and music news sites – there was no formal article exploring them. However, SantaCruz.com now has a piece entitled “The Dark Side of Genius.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really make much headway in figuring out the truth of the matter. But at least the conversation is out of the shadows, so to speak.

Here’s a bit:

Because Brozman was only 59, and a much-loved figure both locally and in the global guitar community, many people who knew him latched on to the story that chronic pain from an automobile accident in 1980 had worsened and left him suicidal, in fear that he would no longer be able to play. It seemed a possibly credible motivation, even for a man who had reportedly been making rehearsal plans just hours before his death.

But it wasn’t. In fact, it appears that the story actually originated not from Brozman’s friends or family, but from a Guardian reporter who misinterpreted what he had been told in interviews, and reported it in his obit as fact. Though Brozman did complain of pain in the years before his death, the story that it led to his suicide took on a life of its own, circulating through the local, national and international media. Several people I interviewed immediately after his death related it to me, but in retrospect it appears they had gotten it second-hand, either from the Guardian story, one of the subsequent obits, or someone who had read or heard one of them.

Shortly after the Santa Cruz Weekly cover story on his death hit the streets, a much more sinister possible reason for his suicide came to light: there were accusations of child molestation against him.