Sha Na Na was a doo-wop music group from the ’70s that won music praise from Jimi Hendrix but their history involves a convicted murderer making a career out of impersonating a dead rock star in plain sight.
Daniel Catalana Moves to Florida
The Tampa Bay Times interviewed Raymond Westlund. A man that went by the name of Daniel Catalana (or Danny C) had moved into his Florida apartment building. Danny C claimed to be Vinnie Taylor, guitarist and original member of Sha Na Na. The problem was the real Vinnie Taylor, whose legal name was Chris Donald passed away in 1974 from a drug overdose.
Danny C seemed to play the part well, having a gold satin Sha Na Na jacket and necklace. He had the shades. He could play guitar and he could really sing.
The Bad Boy is Back
Westlund was convinced that his new neighbour was who he said he was. He accompanied him to gigs in West Florida where he played charity shows, sat in on other bands and had adoring female fans. Danny C even had a website that announced the bad boy is back, claiming he was the most controversial member of Sha Na Na.
In case anyone questioned his credibility, Danny C had a fake birth and baptism certificate, as well as a social security card for Chris Donald. If anyone claimed that the real Vinnie Taylor was dead, Danny C would claim he faked his death and adopted a new alias because he worked for the CIA.
Danny C had a girlfriend named Jessica who told the writer Burt Kearns that her boyfriend was at times, deeply paranoid. “He would be in bed at night and he would just jump out of the bed and run to the window. He never wanted people to come into the apartment and he would tell me a lot of times, ‘Whatever you do, just don’t bring up the Sha Na Na thing.'”
Danny C is Arrested and Returned to Prison
One night Danny C was at a local pier fishing in 2001 when several US Marshals hauled him away in handcuffs. As Westlund soon learned, his neighbour was not a member of Sha Na Na but rather a convicted murderer who had escaped from prison and had been hiding in plain sight for over 25 years.
This wasn’t the only time a person or persons were pretending to be the Sha Na Nas. The band’s pianist told Burt Kearns, “There was a band out of Louisiana that was kind of a bar band, a showband that called themselves Na Na Sha.”
Elmer Edward Solly Convicted of Murder
Who was this imposter known as Danny C? His real name was Elmer Edward Solly. His criminal history began 5 years prior to the real Vinnie Taylor’s death when in 1969, he was convicted of beating his then-girlfriend’s 2-year-old child to death in New Jersey.
Solly was sentenced to 25 years in state prison. Shortly after being sent to jail, Solly was transferred between prisons and became friends with the jail psychologist. He convinced the psychologist that he should be allowed to visit his mother, who he claimed was terminally ill.
During the first 2 visits, he was on his best behaviour but on his third trip, Solly asked to visit his girlfriend. He walked through the front door and escaped out the back. His disappearance wasn’t reported for nearly 6 hours, giving him a leg up on the authorities. He wasn’t seen or heard of for nearly 25 years.
Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office Revisits the Cold Case
In 1999, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office revisited the cold case as technology had drastically changed in the 2.5 decades since he escaped. They worked with a forensic artist who digitally aged Solly’s photos to show what he would look like in the present day. Those digitally-aged photos pretty closely matched Solly’s website photos.
Solly’s website, where he impersonated Vinnie Taylor, showed photos of him with politicians and police officers. The website also included some things that weren’t true, including a section showing his supposed 6-bedroom mansion with a recording studio. In reality, the imposter lived in an apartment.
Peter Erlinson, Sales and Marketing Director for Sha Na Na who, at the time, still toured for half the year, told the Tampa Bay Times that he received emails from the people claiming the impostor duped them out of thousands of dollars. “I would tell them the truth and then receive threatening emails from him.”
“We really thought he was a flake.” – Peter Erlinson
Why didn’t they just sue him? Erlinson told the paper that Solly would have loved being in the spotlight. “We really thought he was a flake. We had no idea and how could we, that this guy was a murderer. What a way to hide out.”
Erlinson admitted to the Tampa Bay Times that he bought one of the imposter’s albums. “If it’s him, it’s pretty good and I emailed him once saying, if this is really you, you should have the guts to strike out on your own or impersonate someone really famous like John Lennon.”
Solly’s mother passed away in 2000 and it was her who kept the rest of her family in line about talking about her son’s whereabouts. Once she bit the dust, his family started to talk to investigators. It was his stepfather who told the authorities that Solly was living in Florida.
The county sheriff’s office was about to use the digitally-aged photos on the nationally syndicated program America’s Most Wanted but before they could do so, US Marshals had arrested Solly while he was fishing in Florida.
“After all those years, he probably didn’t think we’d ever catch up to him.” – Billy Holmes, Deputy Marshal
Deputy Marshal, Billy Holmes told the Tampa Bay Times, “He was shocked. After all those years, he probably didn’t think we’d ever catch up to him.”
Two years after Solly’s arrest in 2001, he was granted parole for good behaviour. Following his release from prison, he was last reported to be living in a welfare motel in New Jersey in 2004. He passed away 3 years later in 2007.
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