The Murder of Bobby Fuller, A Rock & Roll Mystery

The Murder of Bobby Fuller

A Rock & Roll Mystery

Talkin’ Music – By Jack Coll

3-9-14

     Bobby Fuller was a rising rock and roll star, he understood music, rock, pop and the blues.  He understood Buddy Holly and the Beatles, and he also understood the music industry.  Bobby was riding high following the success of his band’s hit “I Fought The Law,” in February of 1966.  Months later, on July 18, 1966 Bobby Fuller was found dead in his mother’s car, badly beaten, with a gasoline soaked rag stuffed in his mouth.  Bobby’s body was found outside the apartment building that he lived in with his mother, reports of his death some 47 years ago included media sources that stated that he had died in an automobile accident.  The Los Angeles Police Department ruled Bobby’s death was a suicide from drinking gasoline citing, “no evidence of foul play.”  Bobby’s brother Randy, a member of the band, claimed the police were involved in a cover-up, a key piece of evidence was the gas can found in the car with Bobby, the gas can was disposed of at the scene of the crime, and the police never even checked the car for fingerprints.  The death was ruled as asphyxiation, but it’s hard to die from drinking gasoline, a liquid the body can’t keep down, his face and arms were cut and bruised and what about all the broken bones in his body at the time of death.

Just as the band was on the cusp of making it really big Bobby was looking at breaking up the band that had worked so hard to reach the top, Bobby was looking to take his music in a another direction.  he was going to split from his current record company and start recording and producing on his own, his record company had this huge insurance policy on him, not the band just Bobby.  The record company also had another huge star die that happened to be more valuable dead than alive, was it a conspiracy, Bobby’s murder is and was surrounded with inconsistencies that make a couch television detective like me wonder, “What the hell happened to Bobby Fuller?”

Bobby Fuller was born on October 22, 1942, in Baytown Texas, and his father moved the family to El Paso Texas at a very young age.  At the age of 12, Bobby liked the sound and look of Elvis Presley but he idolized Buddy Holly.  (Many of the Bobby Fuller Four sound tracks sound identical to Buddy Holly and the Crickets.)  Bobby assembled a band that included his younger brother Randy on bass and a rotating drummer and guitarist, Bobby honed his skills in and around Texas before splitting for L.A.

When the Fuller brothers hit L.A. they were known as “The Fanatics,” but that changed when they signed a contract with Del-Fi Records, Bobby was particularly excited because Del-Fi Records was the same label that represented Richie Valens before he went down on a plane with Buddy Holly and “The Big Bopper,” J. P. Richardson flying out of Clear Lake, Iowa. It was Del-Fi Records that changed the band’s name from the ‘Fanatics’, to “The Bobby Fuller Four,” the rest of the band wasn’t so thrilled about the name change but executives at Del-Fi Records recognized that Bobby was gonna be a big star.  The Bobby Fuller Four introduced themselves to the wild and well known L.A. club circuit and before long were playing too sold out clubs throughout the county night after night.

Ironically, when the British invasion hit, the movement stepped on a lot of American Bands, however the Beatles were finding bands like Buddy Holly, B. B. King, and Chuck Berry, but Bobby Fuller never left it, he was actually one step ahead of the bands that had crossed the pond to play in America.  The Bobby Fuller Four caught the attention of the Western part of the United States with “Let Her Dance”, a song that topped the charts in the L.A. region.  “Let Her Dance” was followed by “Never to Be Forgotten” that featured some surf sound guitars but it was their fourth release that went national.  “I Fought The Law” was written by Sonny Curtis, Curtis, ironically played with The Crickets, following Buddy Holly’s death.  The Crickets featured the song on a post Holly death album but the song was buried in the album with no airplay.  (Sonny Curtis also penned “Love Is All Around,” the theme song from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.)  When “I Fought The Law” hit the national charts Bobby Fuller found his band sharing the top 10 with the Beatles and Stones, Four Seasons and Beach Boys.

With the success of “I Fought The Law” a tour followed accompanied by a grueling schedule that included bit parts in movies like “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini,” where Bobby backs up singer Nancy Sinatra on the song “Geronimo,” and is later part of a scene in a swimming pool.  Bobby also made an appearance with the band on the show hosted by a young Casey Kasem called “Shebang.”

Then the mystery of Bobby Fuller’s death starts to take shape.  When he arrived back from the short tour he canceled a number of live shows in the San Francisco much to the dismay of the record company.  It has been stated on many occasions that the record company had mob ties and the mob fronted the company a lot of the production money.  The record company was banking on Bobby Fuller to record a long line of hit records.  Bobby had written a number of what he thought were hit records, but the record company wanted to steer the bands career and ordered another song from the Brill Building up in New York, when the song bombed, (The Magic Touch) Bobby made it clear that he would be using his own songs, wanted to go back to more traditional “Blues” sounding recordings and not top pop music. Bobby also wanted to break up the band, record and produce his own records with his own record production company.   Record company executives were livid, a lot of money was at stake for Del-Fi Records if Bobby departed for greener pastures.

It’s not clear if the record company assigned a girl named Melody or if Bobby just met her and became friends with Melody but the two became joined at the hip.  It was reported the relationship wasn’t a sexual one, Bobby had a girlfriend and things were good, but Melody seemed to mirror Bobby’s every move.  It was also reported that Melody was a call girl and had ties to the L.A. mob, she was assigned to Bobby to extract information about his future as far as leaving the record company.

Ten days after canceling San Francisco, and making his future plans known to a number of people, Bobby Fuller was found dead.  The facts of the case were this:

On July 18, 1966

Bobby Fuller’s lifeless body was found in the front seat of the family’s car by his mother, Loraine.

Musicians who were on the verge of joining with Bobby’s new band stopped by Bobby’s apartment complex and noticed his car wasn’t in the lot,(it was the last day Bobby was seen alive) it had been gone since 3 A.M. that day.

Bobby’s brother Randy stated in an interview that Bobby got a phone call at 2 A.M. and left to meet with someone.

 Sometime after the musicians showed up at Bobby’s apartment complex the car re-appeared in the parking lot where Bobby’s mother found his body inside the car.

His mother Loraine opened the car door and was overwhelmed by the smell of gasoline.  Loraine

also stated that the key was in the ignition, with his hand on the key.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office official autopsy report read:

“Deceased was found lying face down in front seat of car, a gas can, one third full with the cover open.  Windows were all rolled up and doors shut, not locked, keys not in ignition.” (Although Loraine had stated the keys were in the ignition)  The autopsy further read:

“There was excessive bruising on his chest and shoulders, and attributed the cause of death to asphyxiation “due to inhalation of gasoline.” 

Bobby was soaked in gas, clothes and hair, his body was found in a full state of rigor mortis, indicating he had been dead at least three full hours maybe more.   

Eyewitnesses testified that Bobby looked battered, as if he had been in a fight or worked over, his right index finger had been bent back and broken.

Each of the other band members had insurance policies paid for by Del-Fi Records, the policies were reported to be worth $100,000 each.  Four days after Bobby’s death three armed men showed up at the apartment shared by two other band members Jim Reese and Dalton Powell, they hid from the gunmen and the next day they called Del-Fi and had them cancel the insurance policies and left town.

Dalton was quoted as saying, “We worked off and on four some real ugly people, they were people behind the scenes who just considered us an investment, we were worth more money dead than alive.”

     The LAPD ruled Bobby’s death a suicide; the official report stated that, “There was no evidence of foul play.  The case was closed and Bobby was buried on July 20, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Burbank.

There was a problem with the suicide ruling, the record company had an insurance policy that would pay out somewhere between $800,000 and one million dollars for Bobby’s death, but the policy didn’t pay out for suicides, days later the official death certificate read the cause of death was accidental.

So here are a few theories on the death of Bobby Fuller, and a few points to consider:

The car wasn’t there, and then it was there.

The gas can found in the car was placed in a nearby trash can by the police without checking for fingerprints, would Bobby’s finger prints have been found on the can if it was suicide?

The keys were in the ignition, then they weren’t.

Suicide, but his body was beaten.

Del-Fi records had collected on the death of Richie Valens.

Bobby Fuller had started asking questions, Where’s the money from the records?

Bobby was going to go solo.

Record company owners had mob ties, did the mob lend money to the record company to produce Bobby Fuller Four records, and hadn’t made enough back to pay off the debt to mob.

When Bobby threatened to go solo, did the mob send someone out to rough up Bobby, but went too far.

A relative of Sam Cooke noted that Sam Cook’s death and Bobby Fuller’s death had similarities.

And finally Jim Reese suspected that Charles Manson may have had something to do with Bobby’s death but never provided any credible evidence.

So what happened to Bobby Fuller, was he murdered, did he commit suicide?

If he was murdered, who was involved, and why.  

Bobby was 23 years old when he died.

Bobby Fuller’s case simply goes down in history as one of the many Rock & Roll conspiracies.

I Fought The Law

Breakin’ rocks in the hot sun

I fought the law and the… law won

I fought the law and the… law won

I needed money ‘cause I…had none

I fought the law and the …law won

I fought the law and the… law won

I left my baby and it feels so bad

Guess my race is run

She’s the best girl I ever had

I fought the law and the …law won

I fought the law and the……………….

Robbin people with a …six gun

I fought the law and the …law won

I fought the law and the…law won

I miss my baby and I miss my fun

I fought the law and the …law won

I miss my baby and I feel so sad

I guess my race is won

She’s the best girl I ever had

I fought the law and the …law won

I fought the law and the… law won

Other versions over the years have been covered by

Sam Neely   1975

Hank Williams Jr.   1978

The Clash   1979

Dead Kennedys   1987

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band   1992

Colin Farrell (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)   1992

Mike Ness, (of Social Distortion)  1999

Green Day   2004

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