B. fuller was found dead in his car, more or less at the height of his career. Although the police ruled it a suicide, there were numerous circumstances that pointed to foul play. Virtually all people close to him say there's no way he committed suicide.

1. it was determined that he died of asphyxiation from swallowing gasoline (i'm no expert, but the stuff i've read about his death repeatedly quotes doctors saying it is impossible to force yourself to swallow enough gasoline to kill yourself)

2. he had been beaten up when his body was found, although not so badly that he could have died from the beating

3. he had just purchased a brand new car 2 days before his "suicide"

4. the car was found mid-day just around the corner from where he lived - long after friends and family had been looking for him all over the same neighborhood

5. his best friend claims that there was moisture on the ground under the exhaust pipe when the car (and his body) were discovered (#s 4 & 5 suggest that the car had only recently been moved to that location - an assertion also made by friends and family).

6. in the weeks before his death, he had been hanging around with a girl who had previously been dating a guy who was considered to be a serious thug

There were loads of other suspicious circumstances. for the definitive story refer to Kicks magazine - the article is a couple of years old, but not that hard to find.

instrumentally speaking, my favorite of all the instro stuff of his is the instro (actually demo - it was cut before words to the song were written by his best friend's mother) version of "my true love" in which he whistles the melody over an acoustic guitar. it's avail. on the bobby fuller tapes vol. 2 on voxx records.

Hey here's a well researched press release from Bryan Thomas, our publicity guy, on Bobby's strange death. We're tryin' to get a movie made and shows like Unsolved Myteries to do a spot on Bobby.

-Bryan Lasley

Press Release:

"WHO KILLED BOBBY FULLER?"

It was sometime during the hot late afternoon hours of Monday, July 18th, that Bobby Fuller's body was found, lying across the front seat of his mother's Oldsmobile,which was parked in the large lot beside the apartment he shared with his younger brother, bassist Randy Fuller. The car had mysteriously appeared after hours of searching the local area had not turned up any clues to his whereabouts. The doors were unlocked, the windows were closed tight, and no keys to the vehicle were found inside. When the first Hollywood-division police officers arrived and opened the driver's side door, they noticed there was a book of matches on the seat beside Fuller on the front seat. An eyewitness to the gruesome discovery remembers that Fuller had traces of dried blood around his chin and mouth, and that his face and chest were bruised as if he had been beaten. Fuller's hair and clothing were also soaked with gasoline, and his right hand still clenched a rubber siphoning-tube.

Crime scene investigators made so many baffling errors in judgment that it seems some kind of "police cover-up" may have actually taken place. An empty gas can, found in the back seat, was removed by a policeman (who apparently didn't consider it vital to the investigation) and thrown into a nearby dumpster. The Olds was not dusted for fingerprints, nor was it ever impounded and searched for further clues. Members of the radio and television press at the scene were told that it looked to be a clear case of "suicide," despite much visual evidence to the contrary, and this off-hand remark was the first news of Fuller's death to be broadcasted to the world. Many people still believe what they first heard that day to be the truth, and despite the fact that a coroner's autopsy report--which originally listed the death as suicide---was changed months later to read "accidental" due to "inhalation of gasoline." (The accompanying case report also stated that Fuller had been "despondent over job situation recently.")

There were also rumors that he had actually drank gasoline, though a Stanford University crime professor reported (in 1966) that "no one has ever successfully killed themselves by drinking gasoline. One could not be able to keep it down, if they could get it down. They would simply throw up before they could die from it." Another rumor was that Fuller had overdosed on LSD or some other kind of hallucinogenic drug at a Malibu Beach party the night before. The people at the parties were celebrities, and to avoid a scandal, they poured gasoline down his throat, saturated his hair and they planned to torch the car---to make it look like a "mob slaying"--yet no trace of drugs appear in the autopsy report, and no traces of gasoline had actually been swallowed.

Fuller was buried four days later at Forest Lawn Cemetary in Burbank. Case closed.

There was some truth to the fact that Fuller had been depressed in the weeks just prior to his death, but never suicidal. He had decided to break up the band and try his hand at a solo career, a decision he had been struggling with for months, asking the advice of a few close friends (including his New York girlfriend, Nancy Norton.) Months of touring across the U.S., even with the success of a hit single carrying them into the Top Ten, had taken its cumulative toll on all of the band's members, and they were not on good speaking terms with Fuller at the time of his death.

The band was drifting apart. Jim Reese, guitarist in the BF4, came home from the last tourdate to learn he'd just been drafted into the Army and was due to report in a few weeks. He made arrangements to sell his Jaguar to Bobby, who had long admired the car, and Fuller was actually supposed to pick it up the day he was found. Dalton Powell, the band's drummer, was also quitting the group, expecting to tell Fuller at a scheduled band meeting that he never showed up for. Then there is the disintegrating relationship between Bobby and his brother Randy; the two had played together since they were teens, but now they could hardly stand to be around eachother, and Bobby was looking for his own apartment.

Fuller was also disappointed that a planned European tour, where the band was immensely popular, had just been cancelled. Recording sessions for the new album (planned to be their last) had been very difficult, and was often so wrought with personality conflicts that Fuller clearly didn't feel up to continuing and he let everyone know how he felt. The bands only full-length albums (for the MUSTANG label, a subsidiary of Hollywood-based DEL-FI RECORDS) had produced several bona fied rock n' roll classics, including "Let Her Dance," and "I Fought The Law," (written by Sonny Curtis of The Crickets), but Fuller felt that he hadn't had time to write enough new songs for the album, and was depressed that he would again have to record someone else's songs.

Fuller had begun playing one particular sad ballad on his stereo over and over while sitting alone in his bedroom with the lights off, which may lead some to conclude that he was experiencing some kind of inner turmoil (though this isn't evidence of suicidal behavior--and frankly, is something musicians often do when learning how to play a new song.) Clearly, he had his reasons for being depressed and fed up, but none of these would necessarily cause him to take his own life in such a vicious, and disturbing, manner.

Thirty years later, the facts still don't add up to suicide. So what other possibilities are there? It has been reported that the autopsy report, released five months later, was inconclusive and provided few clues as to the actual cause of death. There were several numerous bruises on his face and upper torso; unmistakably, it was an act of extreme violence, and certainly not an "accidental death."

At the time of his death, Fuller had been keeping company with a young woman named "Melanie," whose ex-boyfriend was a jealous club owner reported to be tied to the local crime syndicate. After Fuller's death, she disappeared and has not been heard from since. Other mysterious circumstances took place in the days just after the discovery of Fuller's body. Dalton Powell had been confronted by "three real mean-looking dudes" who had come to the apartment he shared with Reese looking for the guitarist, telling Powell they would return, but Powell and Reese left town after Fuller's funeral and never returned to California. Randy Fuller and the band's road manager, Rick Stone, were nearly run off the road one evening by a car that had been following them. A private investigator, hired by Fuller's parents and Bob Keane, quit the case after a few days when he was shot at by a would-be assassin.

In June, DEL-FI RECORDS will re-issue the two original The Bobby Fuller Four albums, I FOUGHT THE LAW/KRLA- KING OF THE WHEELS, with seven additional bonus tracks, on one CD. This release marks the first time the BF4 have been released on their original label,Mustang Records, since 1965, and it is the first re-issue of the band's two full-length recordings since the Rhino Records-compilation, THE BEST OF THE BOBBY FULLER FOUR.

A complete Box Set of The Bobby Fuller Four is also being slated for release this summer. This long-awaited retrospective, a 3-CD set, includes all of the BF4 Texas singles (on YUCCA, EASTWOOD, EXETER, and TODD) as well as rarer-than-rare unreleased tracks from the original master tapes, supplied by Randy Fuller. The set also contains both of the Mustang albums, including the singles and unreleased tracks from the Mustang period. As a bonus, the third disc features the entire CELEBRITY NIGHT AT PJ's live recordings (from January, 1966), which have never fully been issued in any form. Complete liner notes and tons of rare photos make this Box Set a must-have collection for Rock & Roll fans everywhere.

Bobby Fuller's music still survives with the new re-issues of his two Mustang albums, and the upcoming Box Set retrospective. While the tragic death of one America's true Rock & Roll legends still makes headlines across the country and the world , and the enigma surrounding his life still attracts new generations of fans to the great Rock & Roll he performed, the question still lingers...

"WHO KILLED BOBBY FULLER?"

Bryan Thomas

VP of Creative Services

DEL-FI RECORDS