Behind-the-scenes look at how we made the Murder on Music Row season 2 podcast

The dog hooked me.

That's the truth. I heard about a murder case involving a dog not long after I moved to Middle Tennessee in 2021. I was talking with someone who mentioned there was a murder in 1998 in Printers Alley.

And this is the line that stuck with me: A dog was the only witness.

I launched on Season 1 of the Murder on Music Row podcast (the story of the Kevin Hughes case in which he was gunned down on 16th Avenue South), and the Printers Alley murder faded a bit in my memory.

When we were considering which case to pursue for Season 2, I learned about David "Skull" Schulman. He was the former owner of Skull's Rainbow Room, the anchor of Printers Alley. Skull was attacked in the club he ran for 50 years on Jan. 21, 1998.

And he loved French poodles.

Wait, this was the dog case.

His French poodle Angel may have been the only witness.

The best part about Murder on Music Row Season 2: The Skull at the End of the Rainbow is that I got the chance to work with my desk neighbor Kirsten Fiscus. She had been so interested in Season 1, and we had talked about that case so much in the office, it was a natural fit that she would start working with me on Season 2.

We hustled all over Nashville to get the details of the 27-year-old murder case. We went to the courthouse, the police department, the cemetery and a Skull's burlesque show to find out as much truth as we could.

Then one Saturday in December I was sitting at the arcade in Spring Hill waiting for my son, and I got a call from an unknown number.

When you're a reporter, you take calls from unknown numbers.

It was a woman. She asked me if I wanted to speak to James Caveye.

I knew that name. Caveye was convicted in the murder of Skull Schulman. Caveye had been 17 at the time. He has been in prison since 2000.

I didn't have a notebook or any way to record the interview. So we just talked that first time when I was in the car.

Caveye, now 45, was smart and funny and depressed and a bit of a broken person. He said he didn't commit the crime, which I expected him to say. That call lead to several others. I questioned him about every detail of the case.

He kept hammering home the point. There is nothing tying him to Skull's Rainbow Room. No DNA evidence. No fingerprints. No hair follicles. No nothing.

He's right.

There was, however, a human who claimed to be a witness (not the poodle).

The written exchange I had with that witness may turn this case upside down.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Skulls Rainbow Room in Printers Alley was the site of deadly attack