Alabama Booster’s Gruesome Death Investigated: “I Have Never Seen That Much Blood at One Scene”

When police in Memphis, Tennessee were called to a home in a wealthy neighborhood on April 11, 2006 to investigate a death, they quickly realized it was a death that would get national attention.

“Logan Young Jr. was very well-known to everybody in the Memphis area,” said Sgt. Tim Helldorfer with the homicide division of the Memphis Police Dept., on Accident, Suicide or Murder, airing Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.

The 65-year-old was a University of Alabama football booster and had donated large amounts of money to the program over the years. He was found naked and dead by his bed with a large head wound. Blood in his home trailed from the kitchen, the hallway, the stairs, the bathroom, and the bedroom.

“It was a massive amount,” Helldorfer said. “I don’t know how much blood he had left in him. But with the blood that was throughout the house, in the bed, soaked in the bed clothing and on him, there couldn’t have been much left. Looks like he was beaten to death.”

Was it an accident or murder? Even though police ruled the case closed, the question still haunts many today.

“I think it’s just one of those cases that as hard as authorities in Memphis have tried to close the door, it keeps flying open every once in a while,” Paul Finebaum, ESPN Sports Analyst, said on Accident, Suicide or Murder. “I don’t think we’re ever going to know what happened when Logan Young started walking down those stairs. That’s how I land nearly 20 years later.”

Logan Young Jr. was a notorious face and name in college football when he died in his home.

“Logan Young got his money the old-fashioned way: he inherited it,” Finebaum said.

Young was a booster and contributed money to gain influence in the Alabama football program.

“He was just this larger-than-life character who was enthralled with Alabama football,” Finebaum said. “He ended up buying these players and leading them to Alabama. One of the greatest scandals in college sports history.”

In a federal indictment, Young was accused of paying high school standout Albert Means $150,000 to sign with Alabama in 2000.

“He cheated to get a player from Memphis. He was leading them to Alabama. Who only happened to be [University of] Tennessee’s biggest rival,” Finebaum explained. “Logan was despised by Tennessee fans, and quite frankly a lot of other fans, because he was creating an unfair advantage.”

After Young’s mysterious death, college football fans began theorizing he was murdered.

“Was some crazy fan starting to take revenge?” Finebaum said. “Alabama fans started accusing Tennessee fans of doing it.”

Logan Young III. Photo: Oxygen

There was no forced entry into Logan Young Jr.’s home when he died. He possessed valuable Alabama football memorabilia, but none of it appeared to be stolen or disturbed. One of the only physical pieces of evidence was a bloody footprint. There was no obvious weapon to cause the head injury.

Both Logan Young’s personal assistant and housekeeper didn’t know of any known enemies. But his personal assistant did tell police Young and his son, Logan Young III frequently got into arguments over drug use. Young III was staying in the home around the time of his father's death but was ruled out as a suspect following an interview with police.

“It was apparent that he had not taken a shower in days, and he was not covered in blood as if he had been involved in a homicide that was this bloody of a scene,” Helldorfer said. “You can’t have both. It just wasn’t there.”

Despite the vast blood trail, police focused their attention on one part of the home where they believed the trail began.

“What got my attention was the salad and the salad bowl and a cup that was on the stairs. That was unusual to me. So, in my mind, something happened, and he was caught off guard,” Helldorfer said. “Whatever happened started right there on the stairs.”

Detectives closely examined the staircase for more evidence.

“We looked closely at the spindles on the stairs,” Helldorfer. “We saw a little bit of hair and transfer of material on one of the spindles at the bottom of the stairs. In our mind, that matched the wound to his head.”

The medical examiner ruled Young’s cause of death as blunt force trauma, which fit the police theory of a fall down the stairs into the banister.

“They removed the banister, and it went to the morgue for the autopsy, and the medical examiner was able to match it up perfectly,” Helldorfer said.

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Police then investigated if Logan Young was pushed down the stairs, or accidentally fell. Although Young was discovered barefoot and naked, there was a bloody footprint in his home. Officers found slippers in Young’s room with blood and sent them to be analyzed with the footprint. They were a match.

“It wasn’t apparent that anyone else was home with him at the time that this happened,” said Sgt. Bill Ashton with the Memphis Police Dept. homicide division, on Accident, Suicide or Murder.

Sgt. Tim Helldorfer on Accident Suicide Murder Season 5 Episode 11. Photo: Oxygen

Police believed Logan Young Jr. was going upstairs, carrying a salad and drink, when he lost his balance at the top of the stairs.

“His moccasins — and we’ve all done it, we kind of scuff our feet a little bit. And you kind of stumble a little bit,” Helldorfer said. “We feel he did that when he was on the stairs.”

Police then believed Young fell down and injured his head by hitting the stair banister. They theorized he tried to clean up in the kitchen, and then went upstairs and tried to clean up in the bathroom — trailing blood the entire time.

“And then he realized, ‘Well, let’s get in the shower,’ which was a serious mistake,” Helldorfer said. “If you take a hot shower, it dilates your blood vessels. You bleed more.”

Officers said Young then went into his bedroom and laid down.

“And when he realized it was getting out of hand, that’s when I think he tried to call for help. And that’s when he fell out of bed [and died],” Helldorfer said.

One of the conspiracy theories involved the fact that Young passed several phones while trailing blood in the home, and never tried to call 911.

“Unfortunately, he passed multiple phones, instead of calling 911,” Helldorfer explained. “But he was definitely dazed from the fractured skull.”

Police added that Young lost a huge amount of blood.

“He died from bleeding out. The loss of blood is what he died from,” Ashton said. “It was not a homicide. It was not a murder. It was an accidental death.”

Finebaum said he was among the college football fans skeptical of the police ruling.

“I was suspicious going in. I came out of it shaking my head even more,” Finebaum said.

But police said they expected some people to disagree with the ruling.

“Well, there’s always going to be conspiracy theories when it’s someone of prominence… but we’ve done our due diligence. And collected all the evidence. There was nothing to indicate it was anything other than an accident,” Ashton said.

Watch all-new episodes of Accident, Suicide or Murder on Saturdays at 8/7c on Oxygen.