According to officials at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, John Basco, 48, was found unresponsive in his cell early Sunday morning. Back in 2019, Basco and several other inmates held at the Oklahoma County Jail filed a lawsuit claiming they were tortured by jail staff who repeatedly played the children’s tune. The 2021 lawsuit alleged that the plaintiffs were “forced to listen to the song over and over again while physically restrained in the attorney’s visiting room” at a volume “so loud it echoed through the hallways.” While Basco’s cause of death has not yet been determined, a prison spokesman told The Oklahoman, “One of the possibilities being investigated is that it was a drug overdose.” Meanwhile, Basco’s attorney Cameron Spradling told Rolling Stone that he considers his client’s death suspicious. “Two plus two does not make four,” Spradling said. “It was very fortuitous for this prison and these detention officers that John Basco died. … There is a criminal case and a federal civil rights case pending against three former detention officers, including a longtime lieutenant. One of the ‘Baby Shark’ torture victims is conveniently dead within three days of his arrival.”
