Bobby Fuller: Family, friends still question how, why

July 19, 1998

By Robert Seltzer
El Paso Times

Bobby Fuller died 32 years ago, on July 18, 1966, but to his friends and relatives, the death remains as painful and vivid as this morning's obituary section.

Fuller was found slumped in the front seat of his car, a can of gasoline by his side, outside his apartment in Hollywood.

Police concluded the death, due to inhalation of gasoline, was either a suicide or an accident.

Friends and family dispute that report, and the theories on the death are as varied as the individuals expressing them - including the theory that Fuller was murdered by an organized crime figure who became jealous because his girlfriend was attracted to the rock 'n' roller.

"There's a lot of speculation," said Rod Crosby, a friend and rival musician. "But we'll never know what really happened."

Police discovered blood and abrasions on the body, and skeptics point to that discovery as proof that the death was neither an accident nor a suicide.

"Who would pour gas on himself in a hot car?" Randy Fuller, the younger brother of the deceased rock star, asked rhetorically. "I just think he got in a bad situation that night, met the wrong dude and couldn't get out of it. I'm 99.9 percent sure that it wasn't an accident or a suicide."

Crosby agrees.

"He was not street-smart, so he did hurt himself, from the standpoint of not knowing how ugly things could be in LA," Crosby said.

"Story has it that he was having a fling with the girl of a low-level mobster. He wasn't aware of that until it was too late. My theory is that they just wanted to work him over, but things went awry. So it wasn't the result of organized crime so much as disorganized crime. ... But nothing's going to happen now, more than 30 years later. We'll just never know what really happened."

Lorraine Fuller, who was 79 when she died of a heart attack in 1989, was staying with her sons in Hollywood at the time Bobby Fuller died.

"Bobby would never have taken his own life," Randy Fuller said. "He would never have done that to my mother."

Boyd Elder, who had known Fuller since the late 1950s, was attending art school in Los Angeles when Fuller died.

"He was not self-destructive at all," said Elder, a graduate of Burges High who now lives in Valentine, Texas. "He seldom even drank. He was polite and gentlemanly, and the girls loved him. He was on his way to stardom. Whatever happened, it wasn't suicide."

The death remains shrouded in so much mystery that E, the Entertainment Channel, plans to produce a program on Fuller.

"Shooting will begin in the late fall," said Keith Fenimore, a public relations official for the cable network. "I'm not sure if they'll shoot in El Paso, and I'm not sure when it will air."

Comments

[Monkeyshines]

Trish, was Bobby Fuller from El Paso? The story never points out a local tie.

[Trish Long]

Bobby Fuller and family moved to El Paso in 1956 when he was 14. He left for Los Angeles in 1964.

Here is a link to an article on The Handbook of Texas Online:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffusz.html

[A Hillbilly]

Very interesting. I had moved from El Paso a few years before this story ran. When I read your blog yesterday I did recall a story -- had to have been in the mid-'80s -- that quoted Bobby Fuller's mother. As I recall, she was adamant in her belief he had been murdered. It would be interesting if some cold case detective re-opened the case, just to try to clear up the doubt. Even if everything did point to suicide or accident, it would, I think, make for an interesting episode of that "Forensics Files" show on TruTV.

[Mary Ann Childress Gillispie]

Bobby was my brother-in-law for 3 years and I know in my heart he did not commit suicide. He was so talented and had so much to give to the music world. I remember times when we would be watching TV, he would go into the den and sit at the piano and write a song in 30 minutes. It came to him so naturally. He didn't drink much and hated drugs. The world lost a gifted man on July 18, 1966

[Monkeyshines]

Thanks, Trish!

[Sterling]

Bobby Fuller lived a few blocks from me. He lived on Album Street and I lived on Rutherglen Street, which dead-ended on Album. Randy's father (Lawson) and my father worked for El Paso Natural Gas. Co. If I recall correctly, Lawson Fuller worked in either the purchasing or accounting department. Lorraine Fuller was a friend of my mom, and Mrs. Fuller on most afternoons came to our house on Rutherglen to have coffee. Randy was nine years older than me, and I only knew him as "young kid" who occasionally went to the Fuller home when my parents did. In their garage (I recall it was probably 1959) there were music related instruments but I was attracted to a pet squirrel they had in a cage.

Both Bobby and Randy (to me) were quite and very polite.

Here is a link to our neighborhood in Scotsdale (an aerial photo I took from my airplane) in September 2009.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/southwestusa/3894909116/