Don Cornelius is dead

Just yesterday I was in a conversation on Google+, and I recalled something that Bernie Brillstein had said about Los Angeles. Brillstein was John Belushi's manager, and after his death Brillstein observed that people came out to beautiful Los Angeles and got all messed up. Except I don't think Brillstein used the phrase "messed up."

Then this morning I read this about Don Cornelius:

A person at the producer’s house on Mulholland Drive in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood called the police and reported that shots had been fired just before 4 a.m., a police spokesman, Chris No, said. When officers arrived, they were let into the house and found Mr. Cornelius lying lifeless on the floor. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was 75 years old.

Anyone of a certain age will recall Don Cornelius' voice, and while Dick Clark did the whole "play music and show people dancing" thing before Cornelius did, there's no doubt that his show "Soul Train" was influential throughout music, television, and society.

I just wonder what demons drove someone to kill Don Cornelius - or what drove Don Cornelius to kill himself. (As I write this, the circumstances of his death are still under investigation.)

This report suggests that Cornelius suffered from dementia, but I don't know if this has been confirmed.