When Judas Priest were accused of inducing two fans to kill themselves: A chronicle of the most infamous trial in music history

When Judas Priest were accused of inducing two fans to kill themselves: A chronicle of the most infamous trial in music history

On December 23, 1985, two young men made a suicide pact in Sparks, a town of about 100,000 inhabitants in Nevada. That afternoon, they had been drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana and listening for six hours straight to the album Stained Class (1978) by the heavy metal band Judas Priest. At nightfall, they went to a playground next to a church with a 12-gauge shotgun. Raymond Belknap, 18, put the barrel under his chin, pulled the trigger, and…