When it comes to Texas musicians they always seem to pass away before their time. Buddy Holly and Stevie Ray Vaughan both went before they reached their peak. Their tragedies were straightforward in terms of their untimely demise. However, there was another musician from Texas who had a mysterious death that still hasn’t been cleared up to this day. For the last 55 years, fans have been trying to work out what happened on the day Bobby Fuller died. Today the Beat Marches on to 18th July 1966.
Bobby Fuller may not be as famous as Buddy Holly or Stevie Ray Vaughan, but he never had the chance. Dying at the young age of 23 was way before he reached his prime in the music industry. It turns out to be one of the music ‘what-ifs’ that has happened with so many artists whose lives are cut short.
Growing up in Texas Fuller took to music from a young age. He fell in love with the early ‘Rock and Roll’ stars in the mid-1950s like Elvis Presley and Little Richard but it was fellow Texan Buddy Holly who became his idol. Originally taking up the drums and eventually transitioning to the guitar, Bobby started to play in bands with his brother Randy in his hometown of El Paso.
It wasn’t just the musical side of the industry that Fuller had a flair for. Interested in the technical side of music he built a recording studio in his parent’s back garden. Not just for his band, but other local acts went to the studio to cut a record.
In the early 1960s Fuller and his band, The Bobby Fuller Four were local heroes and one of the top live acts in El Paso. That’s when, in 1964, the bright lights of Los Angeles would come calling. Signing to Del-Fi Records (who later changed their name to Mustang Records) by Bob Keane who also had “La Bamba” singer Richie Valens signed to the label, The band were quickly making a name for themselves in Tinseltown.
Unlike most acts of the time who catered to the British Invasion sound as it was the popular sound of the time, the Bobby Fuller Four kept more to the American rock and roll sound of the fifties that his idol produced. Their biggest hit was a cover of the post-Buddy Holly Crickets song “I Fought the Law” (to be made famous later by The Clash) This made the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 in 1966.
The hit single was where the trouble began. As soon as the popularity of the band started growing everyone wanted to be a part of the action. Keane, looking to capitalize on the hit single put the band in cheesy gimmicks like putting them in a B-movie and adlibbing to songs that weren’t even recorded by them, and a hot rod drag racing EP a la grease lightning.
The gimmicks upset Bobby Fuller as he wanted to concentrate on the music. He was considering leaving the label and going somewhere where he could be more appreciated as an artist. Unfortunately, he would never get the wish after tragedy struck.
In the late evening of July 17th/early hours of July 18th, Bobby Fuller received a phone call. After the call, he borrowed his mother’s car, who was visiting for a few days and went out. This wasn’t unusual for the singer as he was a night owl and often went out for a nightcap or a meal.
Later in the day, the car returned but there was no sign of Fuller. After about 30 minutes his mother went out to check the car. There was a stench of gasoline even before she got to the car. Then as she approached the front of the car, she found her son lying across the front seat covered in gasoline with a rubber tube in his hands and a gas canister about one-third full.
The police arrived on the scene and dismissed it as a suicide pretty much right away. They threw away the gas can in the bin without even checking it (they probably would’ve gotten rid of the rubber tube too, but rigour Mortis had already set in). They didn’t even bother questioning any bandmates or family members at the scene.
Witnesses noticed bruises on Fuller’s arm and body and there was one report that one of his fingers was broken creating more questions than answers. It made the police open and shut the case look conspicuous. As did the coroner’s report which described the death as a suicide on one page and question marks over accident and suicide on another page.
As soon as the report was made public the people who knew Fuller were aware that the report was baloney. Even top 40 DJ Casey Kasem was quoted as saying ‘That’s not the Bobby I know’ when it was called a suicide.
The rumour mill started to swirl with numerous different theories because of how preposterous it was. With the body doused in gasoline and the way the police quickly closed the case, many people assumed the mafia were involved and the policemen on the scene were bribed, and when the mafia and music were involved, another name came up: Morris Levy.
Levy who is becoming an ever-present feature on this blog, had just gained distribution rights for the record label. With Fuller looking to leave and venture out Morris possibly used his mob ties to convince the singer to change his mind and they were over-exuberant.
Another theory has to do with drugs. At this time in southern California, the counterculture was just about to break out and LSD was the drug of choice for them. The bandmates of Fuller knew that he dabbled in some experimentation with the drug. It is possible that this was a bad trip and he did this to himself, but it does raise the question of how did he get back to his home? Also, the Coroner’s report said that there were no drugs in his system.
There were rumours that Fuller’s boss, Bob Keane at Mustang Records was behind his death. There are stories of an insurance policy taken out on the singer worth $850,000 (over $7.1million in today’s money) Previous mysterious circumstances surround the deaths of artists Sam Cooke and Ritchie Valens who were also on the same label with Keane cashing in life insurance policies. Keane has always denied these rumours.
Those were the three major rumours about Bobby Fuller’s death. There were others but not a lot of substance to them. There was a rumour that he was linked to the Charlie Manson murders but Manson was in prison at this time and the ‘family’ wasn’t formed yet. Another one where Fuller slept with a mobster’s wife is more believable than the Manson one but close friends and bandmembers debunked it. Jim Reese the guitarist for the Bobby Fuller Four said in an interview four days after Fuller’s death that around the time of the Fuller’s death armed men knocked on the door looking for the singer. Reese and the drummer of the band fled back to El Paso after the incident.
It’s been 55 years since Fuller was found in the front seat of his car and we are still wondering what the cause was. We probably never will. All that we can do, like his idol Buddy Holly, is wonder what might have been in his career. Like so many before and after in the music industry, it’s another star on the cusp of breaking out who would never reach their full potential.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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Websites used for research are:
Bobby Fuller – Unsolved Mysteries
The Death of Bobby Fuller – Legacy.com
50 Years Ago: ‘I Fought the Law’ Singer Bobby Fuller Dies Mysteriously (ultimateclassicrock.com)
The Mysterious Death Of Bobby Fuller (grunge.com)
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