Murder With My Husband - 185. The Mysterious Death of Rockstar Bobby Fuller

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

On this episode, Payton discusses the rising rockstar Bobby Fuller and how he, along with his band, almost reached the top before tragedy struck. https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband “I Fought the Law: The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller” by Randell Fuller and Miriam Linna The El Paso Times - https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/2016/06/25/broken-melody-bobby-fuller-story-part-1/86139192/ LA Times - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-bobby-fuller-i-fought-the-law-death-book-signing-20150304-story.html#:~:text=Texas%20guitarist%20and%20singer%20Bobby,He%20was%2023. The Hollywood Reporter - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/celebrating-a-disturbing-new-bio-780611/ Far Out Magazine - https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-strange-death-of-bobby-fuller/ Grunge.com - https://www.grunge.com/307646/the-biggest-mysteries-in-classic-rock-still-unsolved-today/ Loudersound.com - https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-death-of-bobby-fuller-an-untimely-tragedy-and-an-unsolved-mystery AllThatsInteresting.com - https://allthatsinteresting.com/bobby-fuller TheGuardian.com - https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/16/the-short-life-and-mysterious-death-of-bobby-fuller-rocknroll-king-of-texas UDiscovermusic.com - https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/bobby-fuller-short-life-strange-death/ Unsolved.com - https://unsolved.com/gallery/bobby-fuller/ MusicInfluence.com - https://musicinfluence.com/rock-and-roll-tales/the-unsolved-murder-of-bobby-fuller/ WayBackAttack.com - https://www.waybackattack.com/rodgersjimmie.html#:~:text=Yet%20his%20entire%20life%20took,though%20Jimmie%20has%20said%20he History.com - https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-cooke-dies-under-suspicious-circumstances-in-la Wikipedia.com - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Fought_the_Law Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to an ONO media podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder with my husband. I'm Payton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband real quick before we get into everything we just wanted to say that. We currently have no merch for sale. So anything you see out there that's

or sell or wondering why links aren't working. We don't have any merch at the moment. We're working on some new designs, we're working on changing some things up. So we were sorry for the delay and we are hoping to have some here soon, but we just wanted to kind of update everyone because we have been getting some questions.

All right, I think that just jumps us over to your 10 seconds for this episode. Well, I'm pretty good at my fantasy football leagues. I'm not doing so well in one because I forgot to sub some of my players So that kind of screwed me. It's okay. I'll come back pretty confident. I'm gonna get first Chargers pulled out another win. We needed that. I was clutch because they would have been in pretty bad shape Go chargers. I don't know who watched the Jets and Chiefs game But if you did and your chiefs fan, I mean, I don't

know, you guys definitely paid the rest. You mean the Jets and Taylor Swift game? Is that the game you're talking about? No. Oh, I must have missed that one. Did you watch that one? Yeah, the Jets versus the Taylor Swift. I'd Taylor Swift do out there.

Oh, so good. You should see her. She's catching all the balls. No, no, she was just up in the sand. Oh, okay. Yeah, this whole Taylor Swift Kelsey thing is pretty nuts. I Don't know because let me tell you something. Okay. Okay. I saw this video of the Kelsey brothers talking about Twilight And he was like I watched the Twilight series and it sucked. So

My thought is I think Taylor Swift could do a little better. Hmm, he's got a decent point there. And... No. Yes. No. So yeah, other than Travis Kelsey and my fantasy team's doing pretty well. It's all I got for my 10 seconds this week.

Our sources for this episode are, I Fight the Law, The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller, by Randall Fuller and Miriam Lena, the El Paso Times, LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, far out magazine, grunge.com, loudersound.com, allitsinteresting.com, theguardian.com, udscovermusic.com, unsolved.com, musicinfluence.com, way back attack.com,

history.com, and Wikipedia.com. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That's been the unofficial motto of the music industry for probably close to a century now. It's a business filled with temptation, greed, lust, and in all around, I don't give a attitude. But when many big dreamers move out to the city looking to catch a break, they don't consider the people behind the industry. The ones who really pull the strings, call the shots, and profit off of their talent.

22-year-old Bobby Fuller certainly didn't consider this when he moved out to Los Angeles in 1964 with his band members. He thought they'd caught their lucky break as they rose the charts on their way to becoming one of the country's biggest pop bands at the time. But just before they exploded, Bobby was found dead,

leaving many to wonder. Was the sex drugs and rock'n'roll too much for the small town Bobby Fuller? Or did he just piss off the wrong guy. All right, I've never heard this case yet again. It was 1936, inside a small coffee shop in Big Spring, Texas. A recently divorced mother of one, Eva Lorraine Barrett was waiting tables when she locked eyes with Lawson Fuller. And it was a love it for sight. The two got married and Lawson helped care for Lorraine's son, Jack, as his own.

Then six years after tying the knot, the couple had their first child together. He arrived on October 22, 1942. They named him Robert Bobby Fuller. The 12-year-old Jack was thrilled to finally have a little brother and was even more thrilled when another one named Randall came in January of 1944. Their tight connection made the constant moves from city to city a little easier on the boys because loss in at the time worked for the oil industry. And while the money was good, he took the family wherever the business was, which meant moving from Texas to New Mexico to Salt Lake City over the span of a few quick years. But Bobby also adjusted well. He did so by finding an

anchor, a passion that could travel with him wherever his family went. And that anchor was music. At age five, Bobby began playing the piano and it was clear to his family he was a natural musician. Randy desperately tried to keep up with Bobby, sharing his interest in music. And while he was talented, he wasn't quite the natural, his brother Bobby was. It was obvious that as long as Randy followed him Bobby's footsteps, he'd be living in his shadow, which became more apparent as Bobby performed in recitals and relished in the attention. Eventually, the piano led to trumpet, which led to the drums,

but the truth was Bobby was one of those people who could pick up any instrument and have it down by the end of the week. So lucky. I wish I could do that. By the time he was 12, Bobby was part of a Salt Lake City jazz trio who played in local coffee shop. Wait, is another Utah case? For now. They move around a lot. Got it.

He was also forming bands of his own and had big dreams of making his own home recording studio. Bobby was desperate to recreate the sounds of some rock and roll legends like Elvis Presley, Richie Valent, and Buddy Holly. But just as Bobby was finding his musical groove in Salt Lake City, his father lost and came home to tell the family it was time to pick up and go once again. He was being transferred and the family was going to move back to Texas, more specifically El Paso. It was 1957 when the 14-year-old Bobby and 13-year-old Randy moved to the Lone Star State

with their parents. Only 11 miles from the border of Mexico, El Paso was a cultural melting pot. I don't know how El Paso was that close to the border. And it was unlike anything the Fuller boys had experienced back in Salt Lake City. It was also crawling with hormonal teenagers looking to rebel from the social norms of the 1950s. Bobby, with his piercing green eyes and musical charm,

fit right in. He also discovered a new style of music. He began to mesh the classic styles of jazz and rock and roll with a western twing. And before long, Bobby was integrating himself in the El Paso music scene, which meant leaving his little brother Randy in the dust as he made new friends and began joining bands without him. But in 1959, one event rocked the music industry to its core, lighting a fire under the young Bobby Fuller. On February 3rd, Bobby's biggest idols, JP Richardson, Richie Valens, and Buddy Holly all died when their plane crashed in Iowa just minutes after

takeoff. All of the artists were under 30 years old and hadn't even reached the peak of their fame. off. All of the artists were under 30 years old and hadn't even reached the peak of their fame. It was known all around the world as the day the music died. That's when Bobby's dedication to his music changed. Music was no longer going to be a hobby for the young team. This was going to be his career. In their honor, he was going to carry on the legacy of Buddy and Richie and achieve the fame they never got to see. By the end of the year, Bobby and his friend Jim Reese had assembled a band called The Embers, and Bobby was following through on those plans to build an at-home recording studio. Together, he and Randy took over the family garage. From scratch,

they constructed a modest but efficient studio with a control booth and an echo chamber that would later be used by other local performers in the area. Bobby even started his own label so he could release his own music. And this was all before graduating from high school. Around the same time, Bobby ditched the drums for a guitar, which, again, he quickly taught himself. Over the next few years, Bobby became the frontman of his musical group, winning local competitions under band names like The Regents and The Fanatics.

Over time, Bobby Fuller and his bandmates became local legends. The El Paso Herald post even wrote, England has the Beatles, but El Paso has Bobby. But while Bobby was riding the high of local success, family tragedy struck, bringing the young artist back down to Earth. By 1961, it had been some years since Bobby had seen his older half-brother, the now 31-year-old Jack. After working a series of odd jobs around the country, Jack

was once again living close to the family in El Paso, Texas while he studied to become a barber. During one of his shifts, he befriended a client who asked if Jack would be interested in going shooting one afternoon. On February 22, Jack went out to arrange with his client and was setting up the shooting target when the man unloaded his gun into the back of Jack's head. The man then took Jack's money, stole his car, and took off. For three weeks, Jack's parents thought he was missing until police pulled his killer over in Jack's stolen vehicle. He eventually confessed to killing the 31-year-old man and led them back to Jack's body.

By that point, Jack's remains were almost unrecognizable. But this event made Bobby realize just how short life really was. A sense of urgency descended upon Bobby as he realized he had to make his dreams come true. Fast, because you never know when it's going to be too late. That same year, 1961, Bobby and his band recorded their first single titled, Your in Love. By November, it was getting massive airplay with local radio stations. By 1962, Bobby and the band went on to record one of their biggest hits to date.

A cover that had been done by the crickets, but Bobby Fuller and his band were the ones who really put it on the map, to the point where it was covered again by the clash in 1977. It's called, I Fight the Law and the Law One, a single that would really put Bobby on the map over the next few years. But in 1963, Bobby took a break from recording

to do a Southwest tour. That's when he found himself in Los Angeles for the first time trying to catch his first real break. It's a typical story of he's made it in his hometown, but can he make it in the United States and then worldwide? And then LA, it felt like crazy. Everyone goes LA, which I'm surprised was, I don't

know, because a while ago was Nashville not is popular at that moment. It seems like the type of music that he's playing. It would be more of a Nashville type of thing, but I'm not sure. And I think it's kind of crazy because Garrett and I have been on a concert kick lately. We have gone to quite a few concerts. And Ed Sheeran was talking about the first time he ever played in the league. And he talked exactly about that making it in the UK. Was one thing. That was his dream.

But then he was like trying to make it in worldwide. And then we'll come to the US and making it in the US as well was a whole another project. Yes. With his brother Randy by his side, Bobby left copies of his record at nearly every major label in the city, capital, RCA, Liberty Records, you name it. But none of them seemed very interested

in Bobby Fuller and the fanatics. That is, until they stumbled into offices of Delphi Records and introduced themselves to the founder, Bob Keene. Shockingly, Keene invited the young performer into his office to listen to their demo tape. And while Keene didn't agree to a deal then and there, he told Bobby to go home, practice for a year,

then come back and see him. He saw great potential, but the band was still pretty green. Bobby left the offices that day filling dejected, mainly because Delphi was home to Bobby's idol, Richie Valens, before his tragic plane crash. But the trip to California wasn't a total wash. While visiting Newport Beach, Bobby stumbled upon some inspiration. Newport Beach. A place called the rendezvous ballroom, a music venue and dance club geared specifically toward teens. I wonder if it's still there. It's my stomping grounds.

Bobby vowed to return to California in a year with more music to show Bob Keane, but for now he saw a hole in the market. He returned to Texas with a plan to open up his own rendezvous ballroom, a place where he could have his own residency and build his own fame. He would be the main singer at his teen club. Bobby convinced his father to help him with the investment and on December 23rd, 1963, Bobby Fuller's teen rendezvous was opened for business. While the club didn't serve alcohol, it was still a major local hit. And Bobby Fuller and the fanatic's stage presence drew massive crowds.

The club had its own membership cards, regularly scheduled dance contests, even a security guard that kept anyone over 21 out of the venue. Bobby Fuller had built his own little kingdom, a place where he could sing, say, or do almost anything. Which meant Bobby often found himself getting into fights with some of the customers. And over the next several months, things got to be a little too much fun at the rendezvous. Underaged kids were sneaking in their own alcohol. Brawls became a weekly occurrence, including a close call with an illegal fire arm.

So did not sound like a very classy club? No, or safe for teenagers. Yeah. I mean, and I guess this is kind of what happens when no one over 21 is allowed in. Like, it's kind of like where the wild things are. Yeah, I'm going to spend a bunch of teens to dance and seeing and party. It's like the Lord of Flies. Yes. I think so. Yeah. The club got hit with a distress warrant after the fullers failed to pay the hefty bills. Plus, the El Paso Federation of Musicians had filed charges against Bobby for failing

to follow Union protocols when hiring other musicians to play the club. This episode is brought to you by Coca-Cola Creations. The sights and sounds of the future are a mystery to us, accessible only through our imaginations. But for the first time ever, the taste of tomorrow is closer than ever. New from Coca-Cola creations?

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plan. It's the perfect deal for anyone who could use some savings right now. Subscribe today at publicmobile.ca. Different is calling. So in the summer of 1964, the rendezvous closed its doors. It was short-lived, but worth it. Because Bobby had accomplished what he'd set out to do. By that point, everyone in a 50 mile radius of El Paso knew Bobby Fuller's name. Plus, Bobby was ready for the next chapter to begin. It had been nearly a year since he'd ventured out to California and met with Bob Keane at Delphi.

It was time for him to return. Show him some new music the fanatics had been working on since they last spoke. It was time for Bobby to take his career to the next level. So in November of 1964, Bobby Randy Jim Reese, their friend and drummer Duane Cuirico, along with Mrs. Fuller, all packed into the family Oldsmobile. They made the drive 800 miles west to the city of Los Angeles and rented a small house right in the center of Hollywood. And of course, one of their first stops was the Delphi offices to revisit Bob Keane. So crazy because I wondered that long ago, like how much it was to rent an off rent a house in the middle of Hollywood. Oh, you just had a

bring a cow. Okay. Yeah. Just such a different time, you know. Yeah. Even more impressed with the band than he was last time, Keen upheld his promise. He signed the fanatics and helped them lock down a residency at the Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard, which began in December of 1964. He also secured the fanatics a manager, a man named Larry Nunez, who was also a silent partner in Delphi Records, who promised to help the group top the charts within a year. But Keane felt Bobby Fuller was the real reason the band would go far, and he decided it was best to market the group as such.

That's when he insisted the band should go from calling themselves the fanatics to the Bobby Fuller 4. While Randy Jim and Dwayne weren't crazy about being seen as the backup talent, there wasn't much they could do to push back. Keen was the one fronting the bills and calling the shots now. And honestly, he seemed to know what he was doing, at least at first. Because 1965 was a great year for the Bobby Fuller 4. The band released their first album under Delphi with a new and improved version of Because 1965 was a great year for the Bobby Fuller 4. The band released their first album under Delphi with a new and improved version of, I Thought the Law.

Meanwhile, their original hit, Letter Dance, put them on the regional charts. They made their first televised appearances. They were featured on the cover of 17 magazine. And they booked one of their largest venues yet. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena. That's hilarious. We were just there. Just there for a cold place. It is huge. The Rose Bowl is ginormous. That's the first time I've ever been there and it was not. It was insane. Bobby and Randy became sex symbols with young women recognizing them in supermarkets and airports. The band partied with celebrities like Sally Field and Nancy Sinatra. They were for all intents and purposes on their way to becoming the American Beatles.

By March of 1966, I fought the law had reached the billboards top 10. But is around that time that things started to sour between Bob Keane and the Bobby Fuller 4. It's so sad that I have no idea who these guys are. I don't. I'm sorry if that sounds unculturedish just in a time that I was not even close to alive. Well, I also think they're not Elvis Presley. You know what I mean?

Well, the way you're explaining them, it sounds like they're pretty big. They were on their way, but I don't think they necessarily ever reached their big break. Keen focused a lot of the band's energy on going out on the road, touring and promoting, but Bobby felt their time was best spent in the recording studio, recording new music. Plus, according to other members of the band, Keen always went for a quantity over quality. He didn't really care about how good the music was, just that there was plenty of it. For all those who have agents and managers out there,

keep an eye on them, you never know what's going on. Stick to your gun. You just never know what's going on. And if our agent who represents us is listening to this, we always got an eye out. We're watching you, Azaz. We're always watching. Keen was always bringing Bobby new songs to record, and Bobby felt anything in his repertoire

was infinitely better than some of this stuff Keen had brought him. And perhaps worst of all, Keen was always signing the band up for what they considered cheesy gimmicks, including a cameo in a B movie called The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. But on the other end, Keen complained about Bobby too, so now it's not good because he has a lead singer and Bobby complaining about Keen and Keen complaining about Bobby. He said the guy only cared about recreating the career of his idol, but he holly, something that would never happen. This rift between Keenan Bobby eventually caused the singer to act out. During one concert at Disneyland, Jim Reese claimed that Bobby Fuller may have been high on acid.

Something that according to another friend of Bobby's wasn't totally shocking. She claimed Bobby had admitted to her that he had tried LSD a couple of times since moving to Los Angeles and that he was the kind of guy who wanted to experience everything. But Keendant seemed to mind how Bobby performed just as long as he was there. Don't try LSD by the way for you listening. Have you tried LSD? No. Neither.

Okay. Seems kind of fun. Okay. As long as Keend was profiting off Bobby, he didn't care, which is why in 1996 Keen was working on a new distribution deal with another record label called Roulette Records, headed by the so-called Godfather of the American Music Business, Morris Levy. Levy, wanting his piece of the Bobby Fuller 4, reached out to Keene and asked if he could have one of his songwriters Penetune for Bobby in the band.

Keene, eager to partner with Roulette for some additional cash, of course took the offer on Bobby's behalf. But this was just another project Keene had signed them up for without their full consent. Needless to say, Bobby wasn't thrilled, but it seemed his hands were tied. Meanwhile, Keen had arranged a nationwide tour for the Bobby Fuller 4, that spring. The concerts kicked off in April 1966, sending the four across the country to Grand Rapids Michigan, followed by a series of shows in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But it wasn't as successful as everyone had hoped. Most of the

time they were playing to crowds who never even heard of the band before. If the venues were even booked with crowds at all. Hotels weren't properly arranged for the band, leaving them often to fend for themselves to pay their own tab. At one point their tour van was caught for speeding and impounded, along with all of their equipment. And if you asked Jim Reese, Bobby's use of LSD was just getting a bit out of hand. By time the East Coast tour was over, the Bobby Fuller 4 was fed up, mostly with one another. It had taken a toll on their friendships as joking banter turned to constant bickering

and name calling. When Bobby returned to LA in June, he told Keen he wanted to cancel a number of their upcoming shows in Northern California. But by this point, Delphi and Now Roulette had sunk a lot of stock into the future of the Bobby Fuller 4, so letting down the fans was not an option. However, Bobby had other plans in mind. He was dreaming of going solo, of signing with a new label, one that understood his vision. Even if that meant abandoning his younger

brother and two of his oldest friends. And if that didn't go as planned, well, Bobby was just as happy giving it all up, moving back to El Paso and opening another nightclub. And he was prepared to break all of this to Keen and the band members at a meeting on July 18th. Despite the hard times the band had fallen on, Bobby still seemed to be in good spirit that July. He was excited about the new Corvette he was getting ready to purchase and had a few girlfriends from El Paso in town visiting him. On the Sunday night of July 17th, Bobby, his tour manager Rick Stone and two of his female guests

were all hanging around Bobby's apartment, drinking beers, and watching television. The girls left around 11.30 pm, and Rick, who had a few too many, planned to crash on Bobby's couch for that night. Bobby messed around on his guitar for the next hour or so as Rick started to nod off. Bobby's mom, Lorraine, who'd been staying with the boys even came in to say goodnight around 1am. But shortly after, Bobby told Rick he was going out for a bit. A girl named Melody, who he'd met at one of the clubs they performed at, had called him.

According to Rick, she had some LSD Bobby could buy. Plus, she was going to take him around to some parties, introduce him to some Hollywood big shots. LSD must have been a very popular drug at this time because we've done multiple cases from around this time. And I feel like LSD's always involved. Now, Rick knew Bobby had an important meeting with Keen and the rest of the band, the following morning at 9.30 a, the meeting where he was going to tell him, he wanted to go solo or he

wanted to quit the band. For Keen and the other three of Bobby Foulders 4, this meeting was about the future direction of the band, about a European tour that was in the works and it's possible re-negotiation of their contract. But obviously to Bobby, we know what it meant to him. Rick figured there was no way Bobby was going to misimede as important as this one. But the following morning, Rick woke up to Bobby's mom, Mrs. Fuller, shaking him. She was visibly concerned. She told Rick that Bobby hadn't come home with their oldsmobile yet. So Rick got dressed and went over to the studio. But 930 turned to 1030, which turned to noon, with no sign of Bobby. The rest of the bandmates ordered lunch and complained that he was just acting like a

diva. Eventually, they all called it a day with plans to reschedule. Meanwhile, back at Bobby's Hollywood apartment, Lorraine continued to check the lot for his car. Every half hour, she would wander down to the lot for his car. Every half hour she would wander down to the parking area to see if Bobby had at least brought the car back. And this continued until about 5 p.m. That's when Lorraine went through the back corridor and down the staircase to the parking spots once more.

And this time she saw it, the family's old mobile with Texas plates. Filling a momentary sigh of relief, Lorraine wandered over to the driver's side door, and that's when she let out a horrified scream. Bobby was sitting in the driver's seat. His body slumped over, covered in dry blood. It looked as though he'd been badly beaten and then thrown into the car.

The keys were still in the ignition with one of Bobby's hands placed upon them. Worst of all, Bobby was holding a hose that ran to a can of gasoline. When they opened the door, it appeared he'd also been doused in the stuff because he reaked of a gasoline smell. Lorraine rushed upstairs to call the cops and just after they arrived, Randy and the rest of the band pulled up to Bobby's apartment to realize something was very, very wrong. So also as I was thinking about the gasoline and the fire, I don't know much about this, but I would assume it's a thing to get high from the smell of gasoline and the fumes as well.

So that could be why he's also holding a thing of gas, but I'm sure we'll get into it. Oh, gas does smell good. That smells pretty good. It didn't take long for the band to understand that Bobby wasn't just being a diva when he had missed that morning's meeting. He didn't intentionally do that. Bobby Fuller was dead.

But the police, well, before they'd even gotten there, they seemed to create their own narrative of what happened to the up andand-coming rock-and-roll singer. Almost immediately, they wrote Bobby's death off as a suicide. Especially after one quick conversation with Lorraine, who admitted, sure her son seemed a little upset over the last month about the way his career was going, but he didn't seem depressed. Still, that was all they needed to hear. They figured Bobby had drank that gasoline to take his own life. They didn't take into consideration that Bobby had cuts and bruises all over his body. What's crazy is the police report didn't

even mention the fact that he had been beaten at all. They also didn't find it suspicious that his car wasn't in the lot 30 minutes earlier when Lorraine had gone out to check for the umpteenth time. Remember, she had been checking all day. It just randomly appeared. Even stranger Bob Keen said when he arrived on the scene, he noticed one of the police officers take the canister of gasoline and toss it into a dumpster. He then heard the officer mumbles something about another rock and roll punk who died by suicide. And by that evening, the newspapers were following the police's lead.

They printed the narrative that Bobby Fuller had taken his own life. But those who knew Bobby and knew the state of the crime scene insisted there had to be more to the story that maybe Bobby Fuller's suicide was actually just a cover-up for something else. Bobby's autopsy was performed that same day, and while it would take months for the report to be released, it was clear that even the pathologist couldn't make heads or tails of the case. While Rani and Lorraine insisted they saw blood and bruises all over Bobby, the report mentioned nothing about external injuries. However, it did mention that Bobby's bladder was full, which showed he would have been unconscious for a while before he died. It also confirmed

that he had been in an advanced state of rigor mortis, and as far as I'm aware, dead men can't drive cars. Ultimately, his cause of death was listed as its fixation due to inhalation of gasoline. And the coroner left a question mark next to the box marked suicide and accident. Still, because no foul play was listed in the police report, Bobby Fuller's death never received a proper investigation, which meant no evidence was collected.

Bobby's car was never impounded, but instead turned it back over to the foolers, who were left to clean out the putrid smell of gasoline and blood all by themselves. Now some people do say that the reason the police dropped the ball on Bobby's case was due to some really poor timing. Apparently just two nights before Bobby's death, the long-time chief of police for the LAPD died of a heart attack. Which meant when Bobby's death occurred, the entire police department was in a frenzy rearranging their whole regime to accommodate the sudden loss. And I guess a 23-year-old rock-and-roll star wasn't really a top priority for them. However, when Bobby's father and uncle went to the new chief of police demanding Bobby's

death be treated as a murder, this guy gave them one swift, bone-chilling reply. He said, quote, if you know what's good for you, you'll keep your mouth shut. Oh, frickin' way. That's crazy. Yeah, clearly something more was going on here. Yeah. But for now, all the fullers could really do is give their son a proper burial and hope the truth would come out in time. That's insane. Could you imagine hearing that from the chief of police? No, I mean not. So on Friday, July 22nd, Bobby's family held his funeral at the church of the hills in Los Angeles.

He was then buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills. But those close to Bobby couldn't shake the thought of what really happened to him in the hours before he died. And of course, there were theories, some more solid than others. One of the possibilities was that Bobby might have overdosed or had an allergic reaction to some bad drugs he'd taken the night before he died. Those close to Bobby, including his brother Randy, claimed the musician had an interest in experimenting with LSD. Remember, his band member James Reese believed he was using the drug during their Disneyland

show. There were even rumors that Bobby had introduced Nancy Sinatra to the drug while filming The Ghost and the In the invisible bikini together. One scenario, according to Bobby's brother Randy, goes like this. Perhaps Bobby suffered an accident while on the drug, maybe he'd fallen down, which would explain some of the blood and bruising they'd found on him. But then someone would have needed to drive him home, and maybe they staged a suicide to keep themselves from getting into any trouble.

Bobby's autopsy did come back negative for barbituits and things like valium, but they didn't test specifically for LSD. So there's no way to confirm whether the drug was in Bobby's system the night he died. Still, Bobby's mother finds it hard to believe it was just drugs. She thinks there's more to this story. It seems like it's pretty obvious that someone beat him and then forced him to drink the can of gasoline. He died and drove him back to the apartment because he didn't drive himself.

I feel like that's, I feel like it seems pretty obvious. So remember how I mentioned the woman named Melody that Bobby had been spending time with before his death, the girl he met at the club where he was performing. Well, according to Rick Stone, that two Bobby went out to meet the night before he showed up. But let me share a little bit more about Melody. She was kind of a cagey character in Bobby's life. Some say they were messing around, others claimed their relationship was strictly platonic.

What little information people do know about Melody was that she was very well connected in Hollywood and offered to introduce Bobby to some important people around town. However, according to some sources, Melody also had a strong connection to the LA mob. In fact, she was rumored to be dating a mobster. And allegedly, he wasn't too keen on her co-seeing up

to the local pop star. I didn't even know there was an LA mob. Oh, baby, there's a mob everywhere. It's apparently. And Bobby might have even been aware of the threat. See, Rick Stone claimed that there was one evening when he and Bobby went to meet up with Melody at her place. But when they got there, Bobby spotted another car

in the driveway and told Rick, just keep on driving. Whoever owned that car was someone Bobby did not want to deal with someone he was obviously afraid of. But there are other sources that say Bobby and Melody didn't meet by coincidence. She was actually hired by someone to keep an eye on Bobby and report back on any secrets he divulged about his career. Someone Bobby knew well. Bob Keen, which leads us to our next theory. So the head of Delphi Records might have seemed like all business to some, but the truth was, Keene lived a rock-and-roll lifestyle just as much as his client stood. The 44-year-old threw wild parties where it wasn't unusual for a guest to overdose on drugs or alcohol.

Keene admitted there would be days where he would come home from the office to find strangers still strewn upon his house, strung out on drugs. He also admitted to dabbling with speed. All to say, this was a guy who certainly cared more about money and partying than he did the well-being of his clients, which was proven to be true just hours after Bobby's funeral.

When he called Lawson Fuller to say Bobby owned him Thousands of dollars in debt and he'd be holding the family accountable for his bill. So his client dies And then he calls the family hours after the funeral and says by the way You owe me money, but Keen was known to do other sketchy things as well like take expensive insurance policies out on his clients When it came to Bobby Fuller he had an $800,000 life insurance policy out on the singer. It's it seems weird that you can even do that You can take a life insurance policy out on anybody. It just seems so strange that that's even loud like I feel like it should it should only be your family that that's even loud like I feel like it should it should only be your family. Does it make any sense that you can take him out of other people? Well, and it wasn't just Bobby. He had a hundred thousand dollar policy out on the

additional members of the fuller four. Why can't I take one out on Daisy, then? He's gonna die at some point. That is that is. I think because she's a dog. But that's what I'm saying. And interestingly enough, Bobby was the third artist under Delphi Records to die in what some called disputed circumstances. But you have to remember it was ruled a suicide so it would void the policy, so that doesn't make for a very good motive. So ultimately, no one was ever charged for playing a role in Bobby Fuller's death.

And to this day, there's a lot of questions that linger. Like if this was a hit performed by the Mafia, why would they risk returning Bobby's car to the parking lot of his apartment? How did they even know where he lived? Why was he doused in gasoline? Yeah, he was, I mean, just good kind of going back to my point. It seems obvious.

That it's not a suicide. Yeah, it's not a suicide. What happened and there's obviously something behind it. But did someone plan to light him on fire and then just check it out? Or was the plan to never murder Bobby but only rough him up a bit? Scare him and to staying with the group only things got a little too out of hand. It had been. In 2015 Bobby's brother Randy claimed it was these burning questions that made it hard for the family to have any closure. He said in an interview, it's just always eating

away at you. If you just knew what happened, you could get over it, but you know, it's just always there. But the biggest lingering question might be, what would the music industry look like? Had the Bobby Fuller 4 reached their full potential and Bobby Fuller wasn't murdered? Wait, that's a co-case? Oh my gosh, I'm sorry everybody. I didn't know it was a co-case. I apologize, we can all get mad at paying now. Well, I feel like it's important to cover because it's ruled a suicide,

but it feels like very obviously that it's not a suicide. I mean, it's also hard. I feel like in the 20s to the 50s, 60s, like you said, there was mobs. There was a lot of things that I'm sure still happens now just in different ways. I feel like it was like it was pretty common like that's what happened Sure, like the mobs to be a part of it and the chief police say hey, it's out of it Yeah, and what can you do? It's either okay? You can start digging into it and then you get killed

And I think it's pretty obvious to say, like, not even really at the fall of the police, but if the chief of police died of a hard attack two days before, your case probably got overlooked a little bit. Well, and then also the other chief of police says, if you know what's good for you, stay out of it. What are you supposed to do? Yeah. And Melody somehow connected to the mob, but then you also have Mr. Levy, who had invested

all this money into him. And now he's wanting to leave the, I mean, they're, they're kind of are a lot of possibilities of who would want to hurt Bobby Fuller. I also don't know much about Bobby Fuller. So I don't know how big he was. Um, I'm going to go look it up after this. Sh, uh, I don't know. It's interesting.

Like, was it that big of a deal that he needed to die? They were like, oh, we got to kill this guy. I feel like they would have wanted to get the money out of him So I don't believe it was keen or or Mr. Levy. Yeah, I can see that or even his bandmates Yeah, that's a good point and like because they could have convinced him to maybe or just forced him It could have been a burglar that killed him and that went wrong I mean or they were trying to scare him and that went wrong. I mean, I don't know. Or they were trying to scare him into staying and like I said, it went a little wrong.

Yeah, it's all crazy. All right, everyone, that was our case for this week. And we will see you next time with another episode. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye. you