The Allman Murder
On December 26, 1949, a single gunshot in a dirt field shattered a young family’s future and set in motion a story that still echoes through Southern rock to this day. The man killed was Willis T. “Bill” Allman, father of two toddlers named Duane and Gregg. The man who pulled the trigger, Michael Robert “Buddy” Green, would spend the next two decades fighting for his life — first in the courtroom, then on death row, and finally in the slow, complicated business of forgiveness.
This series traces that story: the murder, the trial, the commutation, the neighbors who later cared for Buddy, the music of the Allman Brothers Band that rose from all that grief, and the trauma that still lingers — seventy-six years later — through the Allman bloodline. Along the way, we’ll meet grieving mothers, Norfolk families, WWII veterans, governors, guitarists, abandoned children, and those left behind who continue the hard work of breaking the cycle.
This story matters because the Allman Brothers Band didn’t just spring from Southern soil — they grew from blood spilled in that dirt field and from a stubborn love of music. Their resilience changed their family’s history — and the trajectory of American music.
A Ride into Darkness
On December 26, 1949, Willis T. “Bill” Allman offered a stranger a ride. Minutes later, he and fellow officer Robert “Bucky” Buchanan were held at gunpoint on a dirt road outside Norfolk. This post recounts the robbery, the shooting that left Bill dead, and the night that changed Duane and Gregg Allman’s lives forever.
The Murder that Haunts Macon’s Music: A Preface
On a cold December night in 1949, a single gunshot killed Willis “Bill” Allman and forever altered his family’s fate. This preface introduces the story behind the murder that shaped Macon’s music and led to the birth of the Allman Brothers Band.