The Story of The Killers’ Murder Trilogy

It’s fitting that a band called The Killers has a trio of songs about a murder. Dubbed The Murder Trilogy, three of the band’s songs can be pieced together to tell a tale about love, heartbreak, and revenge, based on a true story.

The Murder Trilogy

The three songs composing the trilogy are “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” and “Midnight Show” from their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss, and “Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf” from B-sides and rarities compilation album Sawdust.

The story begins with “Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf,” which details a breakup between the song’s narrator and his girlfriend, Jenny, who leaves him for another man. “Give me one more chance tonight,” he asks, “and I swear I’ll make it right,” he sings.

The second song, “Midnight Show,” presents the murder itself. Jenny meets with the narrator—it’s unclear whether this is willingly or by force—and he tries to convince her to stay with him. He sings of how as a couple, they “were such a good thing” and asks her to “make it go away without a word” and “promise me you’ll stay and fix these things I’ve heard.” When she refuses, he kills her: “I took my baby’s breath beneath the chandelier of stars in atmosphere/and watched her disappear.” He then dumps her body in the ocean, singing, “A crashing tide can’t hide a guilty girl.”

“Jenny Was a Friend of Mine,” the final song in the trilogy and the opening track of Hot Fuss, explores the aftermath of Jenny’s death, particularly the police investigation. “She couldn’t scream when I held her close/I swore I’d never let her go,” the narrator sings, unwilling to accept she didn’t want to be with him. “There ain’t no motive for this crime,” he tells police. “Jenny was a friend of mine.”

The trilogy was inspired by the actual killing of Jennifer Levin. Frontman Brandon Flowers was also inspired by Morrissey’s 1988 song “Sister, I’m a Poet,” particularly the lyric “the romance of crime.”

“I studied that line a lot,” he told The Guardian. “And it’s kind of embedded in me.”

Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns