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Bobby Fuller: Who Killed Bobby Fuller? · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: This is a story about one of the greatest pop
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: music heavyweights that never was.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: About the next Phil Spector that never happened.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: The next Brian Wilson that didn't exist, the next Barry
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Gordy who we never get to see fully formed. This
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: is a story about a so-called suicide, a hard-to-imagine accident,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: and a murder mystery. It's about undeniable talent, unrealized potential,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: and unimaginable violence. This is a story about one of
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: rock and roll's greatest mysteries, who killed Bobby Fuller, a
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: man who made great music. Unlike that music I played
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: for you at the top of the show. That wasn't
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: great music. That was a preset loop from my Mellotron
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: called Down Mexico Way, MK1. I played you that loop
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: because I can't afford the rights to Hanky Panky by
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Tommy James and the Shondells. And why would I play
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you that specific slice of Genovese cheese?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: song in America ever.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: On July 18th, 1966. And that was the day Bobby
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Fuller's body was discovered in the parking lot next to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: his Los Angeles apartment. On this episode, undeniable talent, unrealized potential,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: unimaginable violence, and getting to the bottom of one of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: rock and roll's greatest mysteries.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Who killed Bobby Fuller?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Who killed Bobby Fuller? That's one question. Who was Bobby Fuller?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: That's another question entirely, and we'll get into that more
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: fully in a moment. But the short answer is he
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: was the Southwest's next Phil Spector. He was George Harrison's
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: favorite rock and roller. He was an inspiration to The
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Clash's Joe Strummer, and one of the most talented musicians
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: to emerge from the 1960s, only to have his life
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: snuffed out under the hot LA sun in a cold
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: New York minute. So here's another question. How did Bobby
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Fuller die? This is a complicated one. Ask four different
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: people and you'll get four different answers. Wikipedia will tell
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you that Bobby's death was an accident. And the LAPD
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: will tell you that Bobby committed suicide. YouTube will tell
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: you a lot of things with big, dumb, sensationalized thumbnails.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: but in the end won't really tell you anything at all.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: And the rock and roll.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: History books, all but one anyway, will tell you that
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller's death is an unsolvable mystery.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: They're wrong.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller's death is completely solvable. In fact, by the
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: time you finish watching or listening to this episode, you'll
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: know exactly how Bobby Fuller died, who killed him, and why.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: On July 18th, 1966, Bobby Fuller was riding high on
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the success of his version of the Sonny Curtis song,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I Fought the Law.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: You've heard this song. Everyone has heard this song.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Not only has Bobby's version been covered by The Clash,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: it's also been featured in countless films on television and
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: referenced endlessly throughout pop culture since its release. Bobby's version,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: his second recorded version, climbed to number nine on the
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Billboard charts back at the end of 1965. And by
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: the summer of 66, the song had paved the way
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: for Bobby Fuller to make a real run at the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Beatles chart dominance. But that wasn't going to happen. Because
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: by July 18th, 1966, 23-year-old Bobby Fuller was dead. His
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: body was discovered by his mother in the parking lot
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: adjacent to his Los Angeles apartment. What was left of
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller lay prone on the front seat of his
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: mom's 1962 Oldsmobile. Bobby had been badly beaten and there
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: were scratches and bruises all over his neck and arms.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: One of his eyelids was missing and a finger was
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: bent back and broken. Stranger than all of this, Bobby
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Fuller's body was covered in gasoline.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: In fact.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: The entire seat of the car had been doused with gas.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And not only that, there was a gas can on
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the floor of the front seat and a hose. Despite
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: this evidence, or perhaps because of this evidence, the LAPD
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: detectives on the scene quickly made the assessment that Bobby
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: Fuller had committed suicide by, get.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: This, by drinking gasoline.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: The police completely ignored the fact that his body was beaten.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: The police threw the gas can from the front seat
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: of the car into a nearby trash can. The police
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: did not dust for fingerprints, not the gas can, not
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: the car, not anything. And that was it, right there
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: on the scene. LAPD decided Bobby Fuller killed himself. Just
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: another depressed dead kid, a rock and roller, likely on drugs,
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: case closed.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: What the hell just happened?
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Well, this is the story of what happened. This is
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the Bobby Fuller story.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller grew up in West Texas in the 1950s in.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: The shadow of Buddy Holly. To Bobby Fuller, Buddy Holly,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: the rock star from Lubbock, Texas, was a god. But
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: after Buddy Holly's plane went down in that Iowa cornfield
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: and they found Buddy's body scattered among the remains of
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: fellow rock stars, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper, there
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: would be no resurrection. Yet there would be a continuation
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: of Buddy Holly's Texas rock stardom. Bobby Fuller from El
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Paso saw himself as Buddy Holly's rightful heir.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: And for good reason. Bobby's talent was off the charts.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: He could sing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Play guitar, play drums, write, arrange, and engineer. He was
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: also a star attraction. He looked the part, handsome enough
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: for rock and roll with endless charisma on stage. Bobby
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Fuller was a Southwest Pied Piper. As a teenager and
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: a young adult in Texas, not only did Bobby Fuller
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: write and perform his own songs, he recorded those songs
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: in a studio he built in and released them on
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: wax on a record label he founded. Then he and
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: his band would put on DIY shows in an underage
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: club that he owned and operated. Bobby Fuller was everything.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: The singer, the songwriter, the studio, the label, and the
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: promoter all wrapped into one.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: But he was in Texas.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: And outside of Bobby Fuller, there really was no music
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: industry to speak of in Texas. There were no real
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: distributors or promoters, or the type of industry muscle needed
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: to take Bobby Fuller to the next level.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: It was 1963.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller had regional hits, but he wasn't breaking through.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: Farther west in California, Dick Dale's surf guitar had created
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: a wave of excitement that the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: was riding to pop music events. heights that Bobby had
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: never dreamed possible. Back east, Phil Spector was creating new
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: sounds with girl groups that sounded like orchestral teenage riots.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And up north in Detroit, Berry.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Gordy was producing an entirely new American soundtrack in his
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: Motown studio.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller knew that he had his own take on
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: rock and roll.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: A Texas take, rooted in Buddy Holly, but wholly his own.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: A new type of rock and roll, souped up for
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: the 60s. Switchblade serenades and rebel-rousing rave-ups, all swaggering with
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: drag strip courage. Bobby Fuller, from down by the border,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: built for speed. But if Bobby wanted to take Texas
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: to the charts to compete with the likes of Brian Wilson,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Phil Spector, and Barry Gordy, well.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: In order to.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Put Texas on the pop music map, Bobby Fuller needed
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to leave Texas. In 1964, Bobby Fuller, along with two
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: other members of his band, his younger brother Randy on
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: bass and guitarist Jim Reese, moved to Los Angeles. The
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: plan was to find a new drummer when they got there,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: and they did.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: His name was Dwayne Quirico.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: The Bobby Fuller Four, as the group would later be called,
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: quickly nabbed a gig promoted by a young DJ at
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: the time.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Named Casey Kasem.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: From there, the band continued to gig around Southern California,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: and word spread quickly.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: There was a new group in town, headed.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: Up by a wild Texan who could play anything on
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: his Fender Stratocaster in the band Cooks. The bookings came quick,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: and soon the Bobby Fuller Four was playing every night.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Not just for Casey Kasem, but at the Rendezvous, a
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: massive beachside teen center, and at Le Cave Pigalle, or
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: The Pig as it was affectionately referred to by clientele,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: a nightclub in the basement of the Ambassador Hotel.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: This is.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: where Phil Spector himself got wind of Bobby Fuller. Spector
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: was in attendance every night, and he even sat in
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: on stage with Bobby and his band on numerous occasions.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: It was official.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: By 1964 in Hollywood, Bobby Fuller was a sensation. But
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller, the innocent young Texan, was a long way
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: from El Paso. Out here by the ocean, he was
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: now swimming with sharks. At the moment, he and his
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: brother Randy were inside of a massive warehouse somewhere just
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: south of Los Angeles. Bobby had been sent here by
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Bob Keene, the head of Delphi Records, the record label
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: that Bobby and his band had just signed with. Delphi
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Records owned and controlled an imprint label called Mustang Records,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: which was the label that would eventually release Bobby's music.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: In lieu of cash, Bob Keene had sent Bobby down
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: to this warehouse owned by his distributor, an intimidating old
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: school music businessman named Larry Nunes. Nunes had a reputation
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: and a demeanor, and they both said the same thing.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Don't Fuck with me. It was at this warehouse that
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller and his brother Randy began to get an
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: understanding of the world that they were entering when they
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: signed their recording contract with Delphi Records. Delphi may have
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: been owned by Bob Keene, but it was the owner
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: of this warehouse, the label's distributor, Larry Nunes, who was
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: running the show at Delphi Records. Larry Nunes was big,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: dark complexion, more East Coast than West, and clearly in
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: control of every room he walked into. Pick out any
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: TV that you want. Bobby and Randy found one quickly
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: and then got the hell out of there.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Back to L.A. and back to playing shows.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: Larry Nunes was good for more than just television sets
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: that may or may not have fallen off the backs
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: of trucks.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: And within a few short.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Months of the Bobby Fuller Four signing with Delphi Records,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Nunes had secured a gig for the group at one
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: of the hottest clubs in town, PJ's. And the Bobby
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Fuller Four did not disappoint. 1965, Santa Monica Boulevard, outside
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: the nightclub. Klieg lights rocket up to the stars, beaming
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: back and forth across the West Hollywood skyline, letting everyone
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: know where they need to be, the center of the
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: celebrity universe that night, PJ's. You can tell by the
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: steady stream of Jaguars and Rolls Royces that make the
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: scene out front. Inside PJ's, the band is swinging. The
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller Four are in full glory, rocking the crowd
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: on the dance floor with an energy only hinted at
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: over the airwaves. Live and in person in 1965, rock
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: and roll when in the hands of a master like
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller is still a revelation. At the bar, blonde
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: starlets Linda Evans and Sharon Tate compete for Steve McQueen's attention.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: A young Sally Field looks on in awe. Elizabeth Taylor
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and Richard Burton argue at a nearby table. Paul Newman
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: and Joanne Woodward do not. George Harrison sits alone studying
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller's every move on stage. He also studies the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: moves of a young go-go dancer named Mia Farrow, who
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: is busy making eyes with Frank Sinatra. Frank's friend, handsome
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: Johnny Rosselli from the Chicago outfit, is in the house.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Johnny likes to call girls that hang.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Out at PJ's.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: He's now at a back table with some of the boys,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: as Frank calls them. They're in town a lot these days,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: and when they are, They're easy to find here at PJ's.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: PJ's isn't just a mob hangout. It's partially mob-owned.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: And it's operated by Paul Raffles, a man married into
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the mafia, a close personal friend of Larry Noon's, the
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: man who, for the time being anyway, controls the record
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: label that now controls Bobby Fuller's career. In 1965, Bobby
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Fuller wrote and released his first national hit, the glorious
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: Let Her Dance. It's hard for me to explain the
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: beauty of this song. It's pure rock and roll innocence,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: and if you're not paying attention, you might miss the
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: innovative nature of this tune.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: The bass line, played by Bobby's brother Randy, is relentless.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: The song's feel is such that Even to this day,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: 60 plus years after it was created, it's hard for
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: me to hear it and not move around. The song
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: is a masterful rock and roll tune, and when it
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: hits your ears, it's easy to understand why those who
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: knew Bobby Fuller back then saw him as a potential
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: rival to other pop music heavyweights like Phil Spector and
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Brian Wilson. Letter Dance went to 133 on the Billboard charts,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: but had Delphi Records not screwed up the single's release,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: it could have been a much bigger hit. Larry Nunes,
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Delphi's distributor, did his best to overcome the.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Botched release of Letter Dance.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: He showed up at Delphi while Bobby and his bandmates
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: were present and announced that local radio station KRLA was
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: going to start playing Letter Dance in heavy rotation. And
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: when they did, Bobby smelled a rat immediately. Bobby Fuller
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: was smart enough to know that Larry Nunes was relying
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: on a tried and true but illegal trick to guarantee airplay, payola,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: the act of paying DJs under the table to play music.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: A few years earlier, legendary.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Rock and roll DJ Alan Freed had been federally indicted
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: and publicly disgraced for his payola schemes, as were a
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: number of other DJs throughout the United States. Paola may
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: have helped Let Her Dance climb the charts on the
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: West Coast, but it wasn't going to move records nationally.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: For that, Larry Nunes needed an East Coast partner. And
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: that partner was the devil that Bobby Fuller was about
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: to make a deal with. Morris Levy, the owner of
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Roulette Records, sat at a table at the back of
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: an empty Manhattan club and listened to Bobby Fuller express
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: his disappointment with the other man sitting at the table,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: Bob Keene, president of Delphi Records. The sit-down had been
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: arranged by Larry Nunes, Delphi's distributor and longtime friend and
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: music industry associate of Morris Levy. Bobby was pissed that
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Delphi had botched the release of Letter Dance. Bobby was
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: pissed that half the shows they'd played on the tour
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: out to the East Coast were bullshit. Bobby was pissed
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: that despite Letter Dance charting, he'd yet to see a
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: penny in royalties. Most of all, Bobby was pissed that
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Delphi wanted him to record material that he didn't write.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy's lips curled around his cigar into a half-smile.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Was he amused? Bobby couldn't tell.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Whatever he was, he promised Bobby that he'd sort out
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: his problems for him. A talent like Bobby shouldn't have
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: to worry about the business side of things. What Bobby
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: knew about Morris Levy at that moment is a matter
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: of debate. At the very least, Bobby knew that Morris
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Levy and Roulette Records financed, produced, and released hits. Joey
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: D and the Starlighters, the Playmates, Jimmy Rogers, Jimmy Bowens,
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: By the early 60s, they all had roulette singles at
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: the top of either the Billboard Top 100 or R &
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: B charts. And right at this moment in the spring
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: of 1966, a new roulette artist, Tommy James, was about
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: to hit number one on the Billboard chart with his
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: recording of Hanky Panky. What Bobby probably didn't know was
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: that Morris Levy's Roulette Records was partially owned and operated
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: by by the Genovese crime family in New York City,
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: and that Morris Levy had been in business with the
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: Mafia his entire career. He most certainly didn't know that
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy never paid his artists royalties, and that Morris
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Levy made it a practice to legally wrestle control of
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: his artists' master recordings so that he could then re-release
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: those tunes as greatest hits albums, a concept some claim
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: that Morris Levy invented, by the way, and funnel those
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: air quotes new products to crooked distributors like Larry Nunes
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: to use a host of intimidation tactics and other scams
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: to get those albums back into stores with prime retail
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: positioning to sell over and over again. Owning an artist's
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: master recordings or the masters meant that Morris Levy could
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: do whatever he wanted with the artist's music.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: It was a.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: License to print money. And when that money came in,
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy never paid a dime to artists.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: What were they going to do? Complain?
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy was backed by the Genovese crime family. If
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: an artist complained, they got hit so fucking hard by
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Levy's enforcer, Nate McCalla, that.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: They never complained again.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: And if they were stupid enough to do so, well,
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: the mafia had a way of making its point. Roulette's
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: James Shepard wanted his royalties from Levy, and he wouldn't
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: stop telling everyone he came in contact with that Levy
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: was a thief who didn't pay his artists. They found
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: James Shepard in his car by the Long Island Expressway,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: brutally beaten to death with a blunt object. Roulette singer
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Jimmy Rogers made similar claims. He was pulled over by
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: crooked LAPD cops and beaten to within an inch of
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: his life. Two concert promoters in business with Levy had
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: a beef about ticket sales, and Nate McCalla, Levy's notorious enforcer,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: put an end to those complaints. Both promoters were shot
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: in the head and found dead next to the concert venue.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller likely didn't know that the Genovese family had
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: a nickname for Morris Levy.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: The Octopus.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Levy had his hands in everything. Concerts, publishing, radio promotion, distribution.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: And he had just installed his own personal sales manager
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: at Delphi Records to look after his newest investment, Bobby Fuller.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: As far as the music business went, Morris Levy controlled
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: nearly the entire means of production. The one thing he
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: couldn't do was write and record hits. For that, he
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: needed artists like Bobby Fuller. Bobby, meanwhile, needed a real professional,
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: someone he thought, like Morris Levy, who could guide his
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: career and get him the type of radio play and
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: distribution that he needed to break nationally. Morris Levy looked
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: over his cigar at Bobby Fuller seated across from him.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: He'd help him, sure. But Morris wanted something in return.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: He wanted to own the master recording of Letter Dance.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: In exchange, he'd pay.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: Bobby $ 50, 000 and 10K of it up front. In addition,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: he'd sort out Bob Keene, the hapless owner of Delphi Records,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: and make sure there'd be no more fuck-ups. Bobby Fuller
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: took Morris Levy's money, and before the end of the year,
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller would be dead.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this word, word, word.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy had invested in a lot more than just
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller, or at least the evidence suggests that by
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: the time Levy and Bobby had made their agreement at
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: that meeting in New York City, as witnessed by Bobby's brother,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Randy Morris Levy invested had not only by then invested
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: in Bobby Fuller by promising him $ 50, 000 for the master
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: recording of Let Her Dance, but Levy, the octopus, had
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: also begun to heavily involve himself in the business affairs
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: of Bobby's label Delphi Records. Levy had installed his own
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: sales manager at Delphi to keep an eye on his investment.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Levy had hooked up Delphi's distributor Larry Nunes with his
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: distributor on the East Coast. Levy had his own promotion
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: on the East Coast to augment whatever payola schemes Larry
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Nunes was running out West. And now, to Bobby's great annoyance,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Levy had set it up so that Bobby's next recording
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: would be a song written by another songwriter that he,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy, owned the publishing for. What very few people
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: knew in the early summer of 1966... was that Morris
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Levy had a million-dollar merger in the works with Delphi,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: a deal that would merge a new eight-track cassette manufacturing.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Business of Levy's with Delphi's business.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: The merged company would be called Stereo-Phi, and the problem
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: was that the only business Delphi had to bring to
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the merger was the business of Bobby Fuller. In 1966,
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Delphi Records had no other stars. and no other hitmakers.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller was all they had. Because Bobby was so
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: important to Delphi, the merger was risky business for both parties,
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: but neither worried because Delphi had taken out a million
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: dollar life insurance policy on Bobby Fuller. If something were
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: to happen to Bobby, then Delphi Records, or the business
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: that controlled Delphi, which was now a business called Stereophy,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: a business run by Morris Levy, well, whoever controlled that
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: business would collect the million-dollar payout. When it came to
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Delphi Records, Morris Levy now controlled the label's sales, its distribution, promotion,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the manufacturing of the new 8-track cassette business, the master
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: recording of their biggest hit, Bobby Fuller's Let Her Dance,
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: and the future master in publishing of Bobby Fuller's next recording.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: The only thing Morris Levy didn't control was the artist himself,
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller, an artist who, because he was the only
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: artist making anything on Delphi happen, represented outsized importance to
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy's investment in Delphi Records. But again, Delphi had
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: a million-dollar insurance policy on their star artist.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: To further protect their.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Investment, Larry Nunes instructed one of the call girls from PJ's,
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: a beautiful woman named Melody, to keep tabs on Bobby Fuller.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Melody struck up a relationship with Bobby and reported back
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: to Nunes, who in turn reported back to Morris Levy
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: everything Bobby told her. And Bobby Fuller was not happy.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: He explained to Melody that nothing had changed since he
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: made his deal with Levy. He still wasn't getting paid
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: royalties from his big hit single, and the gigs that
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Delphi booked for him outside of L.A. still sucked, and now, incredibly,
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Delphi wanted Bobby to record material that he didn't write,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: material Morris Levy owned, material Bobby deemed substandard. But Bobby
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: let Melody know he had other options. While the Bobby
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: Fuller Four performed numerous shows in New York City in
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: the spring of 1966, Atlantic Records president Ahmet Erdogan made
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: it clear to Bobby that Atlantic wanted to sign him.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Atlantic had a much better reputation regarding their treatment of
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: artists than Delphi or Morris.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Levy's Roulette Records did.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Atlantic had signed, nurtured, and shepherded the success of Bobby Darin,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Ray Charles, and Ben E.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: King, among many others.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Bobby would have to break his contract with Delphi, but
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: in his mind, Delphi had already broken their contract with
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: him by refusing to pay royalties for Let Her Dance.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Bobby would also have to renege on his deal with
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy. He'd most certainly never receive what was owed
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: to him for selling the master recording of Let Her Dance,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: but Bobby reasoned that that was only one song.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: With Atlantic, there would be other hits, and he'd be
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the one writing them.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Letter Dance was a small price to pay for his
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: creative and financial freedom. The problem was that Bobby Fuller
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: had already taken Morris Levy's money. And even though that
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: deal only involved one song, to a man like Morris Levy,
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: a Genovese-connected businessman, it meant that he and Bobby were
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: bound together in business forever. And you didn't renege on
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: a deal with a man like Morris Levy.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Ask James Shepard. Ask Jimmy Rogers. Ask those two promoters.
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: In July of 1966, Bobby Fuller left Morris Levy and
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Ahmed Erdogan behind in New York City and headed west
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: with his band. The Bobby Fuller Four's last tour dates
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: consisted of a residency in San Francisco. Midway through the run,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: Bobby walked out on the poorly promoted and scantily attended
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: gigs and and headed back to LA more frustrated than
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: ever with Delphi Records. The poor bookings were one thing.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: The unpaid royalties were another. Bobby had recently threatened Larry Nunes,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: telling him that he was planning on bringing in his
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: own accountant to audit Delphi's books. And when this failed
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: to result in royalty payments, Bobby made up his mind.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: He set a meeting with Larry Nunes' stooge, Bob Keene,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: for July 18th in Los Angeles. Bobby wanted the whole
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: band there, Bobby was going to tell them all. He
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: was leaving Delphi Records for Atlantic as a solo artist.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: On the evening of July 17th, 1966, Bobby Fuller sat
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: back in his Los Angeles apartment and tried to calm
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: his nerves with the sounds pumping in from his radio.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: But every hit he heard, Hungry by Mark Lindsay's Paul
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Revere and the Raiders, Dirty Water by the Standells, a
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: band Bobby had shared the stage with numerous times at PJ's,
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: Sweet Pea by Tommy Rowe, a song with a killer
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: beat that Bobby could have pulled off in his sleep,
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: and Hanky Panky by Morris Levy's newest roulette sensation, Tommy James,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: these tunes, all of They only served to further frustrate
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: young Bobby Fuller, because they all reminded Bobby of the
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: success he wasn't having.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: The phone rang. Bobby answered it.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Hello?
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Melody was on the other line.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: Melody was telling Bobby he should reconsider leaving Delphi, but
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Bobby wouldn't have any of it. He was as good
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: as gone. Delphi was done-zo. Atlantic was where it was at.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Melody told him he was too upset, and he should
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: come see her, and she'd make him feel better. Bobby
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Fuller hung up the phone sometime around 2 in the
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: morning on July 18th, grabbed the keys to his mother's Oldsmobile,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: and took off.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: In the middle of the night.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: The next morning, guitarist Mike Ticcarelli and drummer Ty Grimes
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: knocked on the door to apartment 317. Bobby Fuller's mother, Lorraine,
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: who'd made the trip west to spend time with Bobby
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: and Randy, answered. She hadn't seen or heard from Bobby
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: all morning, and she'd been up since 7 a.m. The
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: last she heard from her son was sometime around 2
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: that evening when he went out after receiving a phone call.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Mike and Ty split. They'd catch up with Bobby later.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: Bobby wanted to meet with the musicians to discuss having
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: them join his new band. First, Bobby had a business
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: meeting to attend to that morning to break it off
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: with the Bobby Fuller Four and the record label they
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: were under contract with. After that, Bobby could get down
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: to new business with Mike and Ty. The pair returned
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: to the Fuller apartment a few hours later.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Mrs.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: Fuller was now clearly distraught. She hadn't heard from Bobby
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: all day, and Randy had informed her that Bobby didn't
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: show for the business meeting at the Delphi offices that morning.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: Mike and Ty took off. Around 5 p.m., they returned
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: and pulled into the parking lot adjacent to Bobby's apartment complex.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: And there were no other cars in the lot.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: The two musicians headed up to Bobby's apartment, knocked, got
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: no answer, and headed back down the stairs out onto
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: the street and toward the lot with their car.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: That's when they saw her. Mrs.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: Fuller, Bobby's mother, hysterical, in the grasp of two thugs
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: being escorted into the apartment building from the.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Back of the complex.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: Mike and Ty ran toward the parking lot, where Lorraine
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: Fuller was being whisked away. The lot now had a
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: second car, Lorraine Fuller's blue Oldsmobile, Bobby's car. The driver's
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: side door, it was open. Mike and Ty could see
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: him lying right there on the front seat, his head
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: on the seat's edge. nearly hanging out of the car.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: There he was, plain as day and dead as Dillinger,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller. 23-year-old Bobby Fuller's death was ruled a suicide. Immediately,
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: LAPD came to this determination on the spot without conducting
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: any investigation. Instead, police began circulating word to the assembling
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: bystanders on the scene that Bobby Fuller was depressed and
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: had killed himself. The only problem was that no one
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: who knew Bobby Fuller thought that he was depressed. He
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: was upset, but being upset is a lot different than
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: being depressed. Bobby was upset with the state of his
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: career in the hands of Delphi Records, but he was
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: literally about to end his relationship with Delphi that morning
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: in order to put his career in the hands of
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: Ahmed Erdogan and Atlantic Records.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: For this, Bobby was hopeful, not depressed.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: Bobby's mother gave an unfortunate answer when the police asked
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: her if Bobby had been depressed.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: She said he was despondent.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: And this was all police needed to come to their
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: suicide conclusion. Lorraine Fuller said that her son was despondent
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: because the night prior, he'd been stewing over the big
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: meeting coming up with Delphi. Dusk hit the death scene
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: with the weight of a thousand broken teenage dreams.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Bobby Fuller lay.
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: Dead in the front seat of the Oldsmobile. Cops beat
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: back bystanders. Newspaper men shouted questions loaded with predetermined answers.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: The headlines would write themselves, they thought. Dead deadbeat deads
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: himself in dead-end parking lot. Detectives cracked wise in response.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Would there be an investigation? Hell no.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: LAPD didn't waste resources on dead delinquents. One reporter wanted
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: to know what was up with the gas can that
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: the cops had just pulled from the car with the
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: dead kid in it. The cops stonewalled him and threw
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: the can in a nearby trash bucket. Why weren't they
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: fingerprinting the can? And why weren't they fingerprinting the car?
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: And what was with that smell? The gas.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: The gas. The gas smell. It was overpowering. And it
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: was everywhere. All over Bobby Fuller's dead body. all over
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller's car, all over the front seat, the interior,
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: covering the outside of the car, pooling around the car
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: on the hot cement. The cops were saying Bobby drank
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: the gas, drank the gas to kill himself. Who douses
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: themselves completely with gas, their body, their car, inside and out,
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: and then drinks gas to kill themselves?
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: Nobody.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: That's who. And then there was Bobby's body. And they
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: all saw it.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Lorraine, Mike, and Ty, and now Randy and Jim Reese,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: who had also arrived. And they couldn't not see the
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: shape that Bobby's body was in. Scratches, bruises, the broken
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: index finger bent back and out of place, the missing eyelid,
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and the obvious rigor mortis.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: That was the thing.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: The rigor mortis. Rigor mortis takes three to six hours
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: to set in. But here was Bobby's body in full
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: rigor mortis after supposedly driving into the parking lot just
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: moments ago in that small window of time between when
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Bobby's future bandmates Mike and Ty showed up and parked
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: in an empty parking lot. And then went up to
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: Bobby's apartment, knocked on the door, got no answer, returned
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: to the parking lot moments later, and then there was
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: Bobby's car. How did it get there? The cops said
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: Bobby drove himself to the lot and killed himself. But
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: he was covered in gas, covered in scratches, his body
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: badly bruised.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: And broken, and in full rigor mortis. So he must
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: have been dead.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: But dead men don't drive. And they don't drive without
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: car keys either. Bobby Fuller's keys were never found. Because
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller didn't drive himself into that lot and kill himself,
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: in that incredibly small window of time because Bobby Fuller
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: did not commit suicide. Bobby Fuller was murdered. Motive means opportunity.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: The three elements you need to prove a murder suspect
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: is guilty. Let's look first at motive. Bobby Fuller was
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: going to leave Delphi.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Records for Atlantic Records.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: And at the time, Bobby Fuller was all Delphi had.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: There was literally no other value to the company other
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: than Bobby Fuller. Delphi had invested everything into Bobby Fuller.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: And Morris Levy had just invested heavily into Delphi and
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: into Bobby Fuller personally. And now, Bobby was about to
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: split for Atlantic. If that were to happen... Delphi would
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: be done. And Morris Levy's investment would be worthless. And
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: Morris Levy's investment in Bobby Fuller.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Would be lost forever.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: However, Delphi Records had a million dollar insurance policy on
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller. If something were to happen to Bobby, if
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: he were to turn up dead, Delphi would collect a
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: million dollars. Or to put it another way, whoever controlled.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Delphi would collect a million dollars.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: If Bobby Fuller wasn't going to be a part of
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Delphi Records, then Bobby Fuller was worth more dead.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Than he was alive.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: And Bobby had made it clear to his girlfriend Melody
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: that he was done with Delphi. And Melody made it
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: clear to Larry Nunes what Bobby's intentions were, and Nunes
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: most certainly relayed this information to Morris Levy.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: Now, let's look at means. Who would have the means
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: to murder Bobby Fuller?
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Well, Perhaps a crooked businessman connected to the Genovese crime
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: family would have the means to murder an innocent young
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: guitar player who was in over his head. Perhaps that
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: crooked businessman could deploy the same tactics he'd been alleged
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: to have used against James Shepherd Jimmy Rogers, and those
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: two dead promoters to make his Bobby Fuller problem go
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: away and to cash in that million-dollar hedge. Now, let's
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: look at Opportunity. Bobby Fuller needed to be drawn out
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: and killed before he left Delphi and made it known
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: publicly that he was leaving for Atlantic Records. Enter Melody,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: Larry Nunes' call girl from PJ's that he'd assigned to
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: keep an eye on his Delphi star. Melody called Bobby
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: that night. Bobby went to meet her, and Bobby.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Was never seen again. But wait a minute.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Insurance policies don't pay out on suicides.
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: This is true.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: And this is why shortly after LAPD had determined Bobby
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Fuller committed suicide, they then determined, again without investigating his
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: death for foul play, that Bobby Fuller's death was, drumroll,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: an accident. Meaning he accidentally died from inhaling gas fumes.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: And they never sought an explanation for why Bobby Fuller
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: was covered in gas or for why there was so
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: much gas in his system.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Because that didn't matter.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: All that mattered was that Bobby Fuller's new official cause
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: of death wasn't suicide, so that the insurance policy could
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: be paid out. Some suspect that Morris Levy used Genevieve's
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: crime family connections to lean on LAPD to come to
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: a different determination on Bobby's cause of death.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: You have to remember.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: This was 1966, during a period when the American Mafia
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: was its most powerful, and the LAPD was.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Its most corrupt.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: It was also the same week of LAPD Chief of
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: Police William Parker's death, an incredibly chaotic time for the department.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: All conjecture aside.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: Here's what I know based on the facts, based on
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: the recollections and statements from Bobby Fuller's mother, his brother
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: and his bandmates and the eyewitness testimony from the scene
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: and available evidence. Someone drew Bobby Fuller out of his
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: house that night, the night before he was going to
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: break his contract with his record label. Someone beat Bobby
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: Fuller badly, and someone forced him to drink gasoline. Two
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: men were seen strong-arming Bobby's mother away from the scene,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: and those two men were never seen again. I believe
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: those two men were Genovese soldiers who had murdered Bobby
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: Fuller the night before and had taken two cars to
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Bobby's apartment that afternoon. One man drove one car, the
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: getaway car.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: And parked it on a side street.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: And the other man drove Bobby's car, with Bobby dead
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: in the car, propped up Weekend at Bernie's style. And
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: they pulled that car into the parking lot, doused it
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: with gasoline. And right before they were going to strike
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: a match and blow Bobby to kingdom come outside of
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: his doorstep, similar to the way in which those two
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: promoters had met their maker outside their concert venue, just
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: as that was about to happen, the two thugs were
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: interrupted by Bobby's mother, who was busy checking the lot
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: out of worry.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Every 30 minutes.
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Lorraine Fuller went into hysterics at the sight of her
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: dead son, and the two men grabbed her, as witnessed
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: by Mike Ciccarelli and Ty Grimes, and escorted her to
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: her apartment. The two thugs then took off in the
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: second car, leaving the botched murder incomplete behind them with a.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Lot of unanswered questions.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: But why didn't Lorraine Fuller ever corroborate the story about
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: the two Genovese thugs on the scene?
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: Easy. She was petrified.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Her other son, Bobby's brother and bandmate, Randy, made his
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: fear known in various interviews over the years, as did
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: other members of the Bobby Fuller Four in their circle. Also,
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: Lorraine Fuller had another son, Bobby's older half-sibling.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Jack, who'd been murdered, actually, before in 1961.
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: And with Bobby now murdered, it stands to reason that
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Lorraine Fuller would be worried about the murder of her
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: only surviving son, Randy, If she were to talk.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: So who killed Bobby Fuller? Well, isn't it obvious?
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: In 1988, Morris Levy, who by then was riding high
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: on the success of his chain of record stores, Strawberries,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: was convicted of extortion and conspiracy in matters related to
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: roulette records. He was convicted alongside Genevieve's crime family capital regime,
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Dominic Cantorino. Morris Levy maintained his innocence throughout the entirety
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: of his trial, his sentencing, his appeal, and up until
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: the time of his death in 1990. Bobby Fuller's name
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: was never mentioned.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: During Morris Levy's trial.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller was talented and industrious enough to sing, play, write, record, distribute,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: and promote his own music back in Texas. Like the
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: music he made, Bobby was innocent enough and some would
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: say naive enough to believe that he could achieve pop
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: stardom by taking on L.A. and New York's most powerful
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: music men.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: He was wrong. Bobby Fuller said.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: That he fought the law and the law won. But
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: the fight he actually fought and lost was against the
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Genovese crime family.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: And that is a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan. This is Disgraceland.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: All right, guys, thanks for checking out this episode on
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Bobby Fuller.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: A question this week is very easy.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: Who do you think killed Bobby Fuller.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: And how do you think he died? Do you believe
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: what I laid out here in this episode?
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: 617-906-6638.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: Leave me a voicemail. Send me a text.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: You might hear your answer on the next bonus after
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: party episode of Disgraceland coming up right after this at
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: DisgracelandPod on the socials, DisgracelandPod at gmail.com.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: You want to email me. Here comes some credits.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: Disgraceland was created by yours truly and is produced in
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: partnership with Double Elvis, The Exactly Right Network, and iHeart Podcasts.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: notes page at disgracelandpod.com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
• 46:07
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• 46:09
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• 46:12
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• 46:14
  Speaker 2: by going to disgracelandpod.com slash membership. Members can listen to
• 46:19
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• 46:23
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• 46:26
  Speaker 2: DisgracelandPod and on YouTube at youtube.com.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Slash at DisgracelandPod. Rock and roll. He's a bad, bad man.