Screaming Jay Hawkins was a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese in WWII. He told stories of being tortured, but never gave any information. The punishment continued until the captors eventually left him. He knew plenty, but explained that the US Army wouldn't tell a blackman when the sun was rising, never mind any important information. When the camp was liberated by his countrymen, he says he asked for time with the camp commander on his own. He tied him to a chair, pulled the pin on a hand grenade and ran out.
As a black performer in '50s and '60s America he was treated terribly and ripped off by promoters and record companies. When he went to the record company asking for some money from the platinum selling single, he was threatened with a grisly end that scared him so much he'd often booby trap his hotel rooms with live shotgun cartridges.
He was a champion boxer and married six times. When he died, at the age of 70, his current wife was 31. Jalacy Hawkins had a hell of a life.