Bobby Fuller Mysterious Death
Bobby Fuller Mysterious Death
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00:00Bobby Fuller. In the early 1960s, this handsome, wholesome singer-songwriter was quickly climbing
00:07up the rock and roll ranks. His hit song, I Fought the Law, earned Fuller instant fame
00:12and top billing at L.A.'s hottest night spots. But in 1966, Bobby Fuller's rise ended when
00:18at age 23, he was found dead in the front seat of his mother's car. Friends and family
00:23members who saw Fuller's body were shocked by its appearance, but the cops ruled his
00:27ugly death a suicide. He had everything to live for. What happened? I don't know. On
00:34this episode of Mysteries and Scandals, we'll dissect the many theories of how and why this
00:38tragedy took place. He had scratch marks and scrapes on his arms, like he had been dragged
00:44on asphalt or gravel. And we'll try to figure out who wanted Fuller dead. Was there a connection
00:51to the underworld? The mob saw his potential success and wanted in on it. And for the first
00:59time in decades, a mystery woman breaks her silence about the deadly events of that night.
01:04His mom had called me and said that she thought he was walking downstairs to meet me. I'm
01:11J.J. Benzia. Join me as we explore the strange and senseless death of Bobby Fuller.
01:37On a hot summer evening in 1966, the battered corpse of 23-year-old rock and roll star Bobby
01:42Fuller was discovered by his mother outside the family's Hollywood apartment. Bobby's brother,
01:47Randy Fuller, recalls the gruesome scene. A lot of people say he was slumped over the steering
01:52wheel, but I don't remember that. All I remember, he was down in the seat, and I could see that part
01:56of his eyebrow was torn. And then there was a puddle of blood under his face. Bobby's bizarre
02:03death came as a shock to his family and friends. Among the mourners was Bob Keene, the president
02:08of Delphi Records, where Bobby Fuller recorded his greatest hit. He was a young, very talented
02:13young man from a little town in America, and he came up to the big city, and it killed him,
02:19because I believe he was naive. Robert Gaston Fuller came into this world on October 22nd,
02:261942, in Goose Creek, Texas. Bobby was the first son born to his doting parents, Lawson and Lorraine
02:32Fuller. Edna Gunderson is a music critic for USA Today. He had a younger brother, Randy,
02:38and they were quite close. They were both interested in music. Bobby started out playing
02:42trumpet. He played piano. He played drums. He played guitar. Very early on, it was established
02:48that Bobby was the leader and the sort of the controlling force of their music. Well,
02:55growing up in El Paso was kind of boring. There wasn't a whole lot to do, and all that we could
03:01ever think about was getting out of there. In 1959, 17-year-old Bobby graduated from high
03:08school and decided to pursue a career in music. Then in 1962, 20-year-old Bobby formed his own
03:14band. He was the only sort of rock star to ever come out of El Paso, really. When he left and
03:21went to Los Angeles, people in El Paso sort of had high expectations. In the summer of 1963,
03:28Bobby's popularity rose when he blended his West Texas rock with the West Coast craze,
03:32surf music. But that sound was soon replaced due to something called the British Invasion.
03:37That was in the 60s, and the Beatles had just come in, and it was the beginning of a whole
03:44new thing musically. Bobby was right on the edge of it. He had a new sound, and his band was so
03:53incredible when he was playing live. I mean, he was just so driving, so much energy. That stage
03:59presence paid off for 22-year-old Bobby. In 1964, Bobby and his band were offered a recording
04:05contract with Delphi Records. The Bobby Fuller Four recorded the song, Let Her Dance. That single
04:11was followed up by the 1965 release of Bobby's chart-topper, I Fought the Law. Journalist Dan
04:17Epstein. I Fought the Law went straight into the top ten. All of a sudden, Bobby Fuller Four were
04:22a national man.
04:53In the early 1960s, renowned radio and television fixture Casey Kasem hosted a teen dance show for
05:00local television called Shabang. Hi, my name's Casey Kasem. We'd like to welcome you to the
05:07next 60 Minutes of Shabang. I hired Bobby Fuller Four, and that was the best thing I'd ever done,
05:14because this four-piece band had those people on their feet dancing. They would stand up close to
05:20the bandstand because watching the band perform was very exciting. Especially to their female
05:25fans. The Bobby Fuller Four thrilled Los Angeles audiences at popular bars such as the Whiskey
05:30A Go-Go, Ciro's, and the nightclub It's Boss. You would have 4,000 kids packing a club any
05:37given night to see Bobby Fuller. It was a very active youth culture, and you know,
05:43sort of the seeds of what would become the whole Sunset Strip craziness really were sown in this
05:49period. The hip LA club scene enticed the innocent rock-and-roller. There were also a lot
05:54of rumors that Bobby had been frequenting nightclubs with a lot of unsavory characters,
06:00mob-connected people, prostitutes, drug dealers, as well as movie stars, this sort of thing. He
06:07was kind of hungry for the experience of Hollywood. But what's crystal clear is that on July 18th,
06:151966, 23-year-old Bobby paid the ultimate price for his loss of innocence. You see,
06:21he got a phone call in the morning, and he said, Mom, I'll be back. I won't be going too long. He
06:27took off. Then Bobby left the building shortly thereafter. Witnesses have said that they saw a
06:34white car driving up and down the street kind of quickly around four in the morning. Around five
06:41o'clock that evening, Bobby's worried mother, Lorraine, noticed that her car mysteriously
06:45reappeared. And she walked over to it and opened the door and was just hit by this stench of
06:53gasoline. Cop came up, made some remark about another rock-and-roller ODing and his obvious
06:59suicide. But was it a suicide? Bobby Fuller was in his prime, healthy, beginning to live his
07:07rock-and-roll dreams. After the break, clues, red herrings, and the drugs of the 60s as we
07:13tried to determine if Bobby's mysterious death was really cold-blooded murder. On July 18th,
07:201966, the body of rising rock-and-roll star 23-year-old Bobby Fuller was found inside his
07:26mother's Oldsmobile. Bobby was bruised and beaten, and his clothing was soaked with gasoline. Yet,
07:31despite the obvious signs of foul play, LAPD investigators insisted Bobby's death was a
07:36suicide. Delphi Records President Bob Keene disagrees. Cop came up, opened the door,
07:42and there was an empty can of gas there, a big can. He took that and threw it in the dumpster.
07:46At that point, I said, hey, that's evidence. How do we know that he wasn't killed or murdered
07:51or something like that? For some reason, the cops decided it was an open-and-shut case. The
07:56sloppy police work enraged Bobby's longtime friend, Charlene Novak. And I said, how's your
08:02investigation going? And they said, well, you know, it's suicide. And I said, no, it wasn't.
08:08He was on the verge of major success, but I would never believe that he took his own life.
08:14This was not a man who just suddenly decided, my life is not worth living. I'm gonna go and
08:20kill myself. He didn't have a suicidal bone in his body. He was telling me how much he
08:25was looking forward to the future. Okay, so if Bobby Fuller didn't kill himself,
08:29then what happened? We know he got a phone call in the middle of the night and took off in his
08:33mom's car. Fourteen hours later, the car's back and Bobby's inside, dead. He had bruises on his
08:39body and that he had scratch marks and scrapes on his arms, like he had been dragged on asphalt
08:45or gravel. Well, it sure sounds like Bobby was roughed up. But still, there was a theory that
08:50the young musician died from a drug trip gone bad. That day, rather, before he died, he told
08:58me that they were going to go to a party that night and take LSD. There was a lot of high-class
09:04people. Bobby was supposed to go to an LSD party in Malibu. This was 1966. LSD was legal still for
09:15at least the first couple months of the year and everybody was talking about it. Bobby was a very
09:21high-strung young man and I doubt whether he could handle LSD. It's very possible that he had a bad
09:28trip, somehow or other, fell off a cliff or who knows what happened. There's only one problem with
09:35this explanation. The medical examiner found no traces of mind-altering substances in his blood
09:40stream. There was no indication of drugs. They ran a number of blood tests for that, which cast some
09:48doubt on the theory that he was at a wild LSD party. The party didn't actually happen. Bobby
09:54was still at his apartment building at about 3 o'clock in the morning on the 18th and still in
10:02his just hanging around the house clothes. He hadn't gotten dressed up to go out anywhere. Bobby
10:08was in a fine mood and was on his way to meet a girl. He's been linked with a woman by the name
10:13of Melody, who some say was his girlfriend, some say was just a friend, and many think had something
10:20to do with his eventual demise. My relationship with Bobby primarily was to watch him and talk
10:31to him. I was like the go-between to talk to Bobby and see what was on his mind, what bothered him
10:40and stuff like that. Until now this mystery woman Melody has never spoken on camera about Bobby
10:46Fuller or the incidents surrounding his suspicious death. Coming up, what information does Melody have
10:51about that fateful night and why she convinced Bobby's death was not a suicide? Bobby Fuller
10:57is remembered for singing the catchy lyric, I fought the law and the law won. It might have
11:01been more than a one-hit wonder if Fuller hadn't died under mysterious circumstances in 1966. At
11:07first the cops called the 23-year-old singer's death a suicide, but Fuller's family and friends
11:12didn't buy that theory. Many believe Bobby got mixed up with some shady characters, including a
11:16woman named Melody and her so-called pals in organized crime. The mob was certainly present
11:22in the music industry in Los Angeles in the 60s. There are rumors that Melody was a call girl and
11:28as well as rumors that she was the girlfriend of a prominent local mob figure and club owner. Melody
11:37became the cops only lead in the brief investigation of Bobby's death. This is Melody's
11:42first televised interview and she's requested anonymity. Homicide detectives questioned me
11:47about stuff, but all they were interested in were drugs and I started to get angry with them and I
11:55kept saying he was not a suicide. Why don't you find out? But the police never did find out what
12:01happened. Instead, a slew of questions remain unanswered. For one, was one of the partners at
12:07Delphi Records, Larry Noon, connected to the mob? And two, what was Larry Noon's relationship to Melody?
12:12And Larry was my best friend. He was the money behind the record company that Bobby worked for.
12:21Yeah, there was a lot of gaiola going on. One of the major stations that played music, this guy had
12:34complete control of what records were going to be played. But Larry was paying about $150 or $200 a
12:43week to promote. I thought a lot. I think they'd spend a lot of money on us. There was a lot of
12:51money owed because of the producing of everything and publicity. Wherever the money was going,
13:00Fuller didn't feel he was seeing his fair share. I really don't know how much money they were
13:04making because I wasn't getting any of it. Things went from bad to worse when his follow-up single
13:09The Magic Touched Bond. Bobby blamed his record company execs. He wanted more creative control.
13:14Fuller also wanted a better accounting for money supposedly spent to promote his records. So one
13:20theory is that the mob, allegedly the muscle behind the music industry in the 1960s, tried to
13:25get Bobby to play the game. They put what I call a rough-up contract out. You know, go and rough
13:32this kid up so we can put the fear of God into this guy who owes me money. But they overdid it.
13:41They went too far. But Randy Fuller doesn't think there was anything accidental about his brother
13:47Bobby's death. It was either a freak thing or somebody set him up with that phone call. I can't
13:53think of any other reason why somebody called him at 2 in the morning and left unless it was
13:58something like I run out of gas and to me that's where that gas can't come into the picture. His
14:03mom called me Sunday to see if he had spent the night at my house and I said I hadn't spoken to
14:09him. He met somebody obviously down there. It wasn't me. So if Bobby's death wasn't a freak
14:16accident, what was the motive for killing Fuller and who could profit? Well I just know that there
14:21was an insurance policy. They claimed it wasn't. But I remember that they there was I even think
14:30there was one on the rest of the band for something like $100,000 each or something. But
14:34Bobby was something like $800,000. And the beneficiary of the policy was none other than
14:39Bobby's financier and Delphi Records partner Larry Noone. He was the backer. So maybe anything that
14:48pertained to money was all in Larry's name. Bobby was killed as a way of recouping some of the money
14:57that was lost trying to promote the magic touch. Yeah but to collect on the insurance policy Bobby's
15:04death could not be ruled a suicide. So guess what? Two months later the LA County coroner reclassified
15:10the cause of Fuller's death. It was now ruled an accident due to asphyxiation from the inhalation
15:15of gasoline fumes. Now keen silent partner Larry Noone could collect on the policy. Oh yeah well I
15:23didn't know about it. I had partners and apparently they had taken out a policy which I didn't know
15:29anything about. Meanwhile Melody insists her friend Larry Noone was totally on the level. Larry was
15:36as clean as the dirt and snow. He was a legitimate businessman. Had no connection with mob. And why
15:45kill a musician whose next hit album could earn more money than the insurance payoff? That is unless
15:50there wasn't going to be a next hit album. Straight ahead Bobby Fuller's final days and the clues he
15:55may have left behind. In 1966 the mysterious death of 23 year old pop sensation Bobby Fuller stunned
16:02his fans. Authorities were persuaded to change Bobby's death certificate from suicide to accidental
16:08death by asphyxiation. Still many suspect Bobby Fuller was murdered. Laurie Jacobson is the author
16:14of Hollywood Haunted. It is well known that he was planning to break up the band to go solo
16:21and perhaps he was thinking of changing managers that may have been part of it. So you've got any
16:29number of people here who are upset, discouraged, distraught. But tension also existed between Bobby
16:37and the bosses of his record company Bob Keene and Keene's silent partner Larry Noone. Shortly before
16:42his death the Bobby Fuller four had been contracted to play some shows up in San Francisco. Bobby
16:50being weary of being on the road and just needing some time to get his head together
16:56had canceled those gigs. Apparently Fuller's record company lost big bucks when Bobby bailed
17:00on the concert tour they'd sponsored. And less than 10 days after he returned home Bobby Fuller
17:06was dead. There were a lot of stories about maybe I did it, maybe his brother did it, maybe you know
17:10I mean it was all that kind of stuff. There are so many theories in this case. Suicide, accident,
17:18mob hit, insurance fraud, revenge. The trail of evidence is as cold as an agent's heart.
17:23Every question we ask seems to open up another puzzle. Are you asking me if I think that somebody
17:29killed him? It didn't happen out there in his mom's car. He was put in that car with the gasoline.
17:39When your most important clues are disappeared it's never an accident.
17:47It's always on purpose. The police department didn't follow up.
17:51They didn't interrogate me. They didn't interrogate anybody as far as I know.
17:56Either the cop on the scene had to be the most inexperienced rookie
18:03to throw away the gas can when someone is obviously drenched from gasoline from that can.
18:12Either this cop was so inexperienced or so stupid or was protecting somebody right from the start.
18:21I never spoke to Randy or his mom again after Bobby died. Never. I was going to call the mother
18:29but Larry called me. She was a basket case so you know I never did and like I said it wasn't
18:41anything personal. All these years later the impact of Bobby Fuller's death is still felt
18:47by those who loved him. Now I never got married and people have asked me over the years was it
18:54because of Bobby. I always looked for a Bobby Fuller but I couldn't find one so I stopped
19:02looking. He was very handsome and and you know always kind of came on very well dressed and neat
19:08but that didn't get in the way of you know his his rock and roll. My brother once told me and
19:15I believe he says he said that it's funny how when somebody dies their music becomes more popular.
19:24Well Bobby Fuller certainly wasn't a one-hit wonder. He was on his way. He had a couple of
19:30top 40 hits and I think it was just the beginning of a career that would have been
19:35magnificent. He had the talent. He had the charm. He knew what his goals were
19:42and I think nothing would have stopped him but something did.
19:47Bobby Fuller came up fast and went down even faster. If he lived he might have enjoyed a huge
19:55career or earned a tribute in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Instead Bobby Fuller is the answer
19:59to the trivia question who sang the song I Fought the Law? I'm AJ Benza. Join me the next time on
20:05Paths Crossed in a state of mind called Hollywood.