Died On This Date (July 7, 1993) Mia Zapata / The Gits

themusicsover July 7, 2010 1 Comment

Mia Zapata
August 25, 1965 – July 7, 1993

Member of the 27 Club

Mia Zapata was the powerful lead singer of the highly influential Seattle punk band, the Gits.   As a child growing up in Louisville, Zapata was exposed to music by some of the greatest voices in America, Hank Williams, Ray Charles, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.  While at a Ohio college during the mid ’80s, Zapata co-founded the Gits.  In 1989, the band moved to Seattle to be closer to what was quickly becoming a scene of like-minded bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney.  The band quickly built a local following partly due the release of a handful of solid singles and their critically acclaimed debut album, Frenching The Bully.   Things appeared to be on the verge of taking off for the band when tragedy struck.  In the early morning hours of July 7, 1993, Zapata left a friend’s apartment to presumably walk or catch a cab home.  She never made it.  Police reports indicate that she was beaten, raped and strangled at approximately 2:15 am, her body left in a “Christ like” pose in the middle of the street.  Her murder would go unsolved for ten years until a DNA match linked a Florida man to the crime.  He was convicted of Mia Zapata’s murder on March 25, 2004

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