But later news reports revealed the victim was Viktoria Chapman Cornelius. He had claimed alleged abuse as well. But she filed multiple restraining orders against the Soul Train creator. One time she even pepper sprayed him.

Cornelius left no suicide note yesterday. He killed himself in a single gunshot wound to the head. “He and his son had a conversation earlier and the son came over and found his father in that state,” said Officer Sara Faden said in a news statement to the Daily Beast.

It remains unclear Cornelius’ condition this week. Some friends called him “frail”, while others called him actively working to bring the program back to television.

He had undergone brain surgery in 1982 and had suffered a stroke this decade. He told ABC News roughly twenty years ago “You’re never quite the same afterward [after brain surgery]“.

But two years ago, Cornelius told a divorce court to rush up the resolution of his matter because of his health condition. “I am 72 years old. I have significant health issues. I want to finalize this divorce before I die.”

Don Cornelius, however, was preparing his return to television. He was in development on bringing the program back to television syndication and launching a film project as well. Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson remembered Cornelius yesterday. Magic told news “Don Cornelius was the first African-American to create, produce, host and more importantly OWN his own show.”

Soul Train aired nationally from 1971 to 2006. It still holds the record of being the longest running syndicated TV show ever. Cornelius created an initial road show locally in Chicago in the late 1960s.

By 1970, he convinced a local station to aired the same road show, Soul Train, as a TV show. The show was such a big hit its first year locally that it was cleared for fifteen markets for national syndication the next year, a remarkable feat even by today’s standards. The Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards, the Soul Train Christmas Starfest, and the Soul Train Awards would later follow.

Don Cornelius once told news “I figured as long as the music stayed hot and important and good, that there would always be a reason for Soul Train.” Funeral arrangements have not been announced. Send your love.

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