July 19, 1998 
 
 By Robert Seltzer 
 
 El Paso Times 
 
 Bobby Fuller died 32 years ago, on July 18, 1966, but to his friends and relatives, the death remains as painful and vivid as this morning's obituary section. 
 
 Fuller was found slumped in the front seat of his car, a can of gasoline by his side, outside his apartment in Hollywood. 
 
 Police concluded the death, due to inhalation of gasoline, was either a suicide or an accident. 
 
 Friends and family dispute that report, and the theories on the death are as varied as the individuals expressing them - including the theory that Fuller was murdered by an organized crime figure who became jealous because his girlfriend was attracted to the rock 'n' roller. 
 
 "There's a lot of speculation," said Rod Crosby, a friend and rival musician. "But we'll never know what really happened." 
 
 Police discovered blood and abrasions on the body, and skeptics point to that discovery as proof that the death was neither an accident nor a suicide. 
 
 "Who would pour gas on himself in a hot car?" Randy Fuller, the younger brother of the deceased rock star, asked rhetorically. "I just think he got in a bad situation that night, met the wrong dude and couldn't get out of it. I'm 99.9 percent sure that it wasn't an accident or a suicide." 
 
 Crosby agrees. 
 
 "He was not street-smart, so he did hurt himself, from the standpoint of not knowing how ugly things could be in LA," Crosby said. 
 
 "Story has it that he was having a fling with the girl of a low-level mobster. He wasn't aware of that until it was too late. My theory is that they just wanted to work him over, but things went awry. So it wasn't the result of organized crime so much as disorganized crime. ... But nothing's going to happen now, more than 30 years later. We'll just never know what really happened." 
 
 Lorraine Fuller, who was 79 when she died of a heart attack in 1989, was staying with her sons in Hollywood at the time Bobby Fuller died. 
 
 "Bobby would never have taken his own life," Randy Fuller said. "He would never have done that to my mother." 
 
 Boyd Elder, who had known Fuller since the late 1950s, was attending art school in Los Angeles when Fuller died. 
 
 "He was not self-destructive at all," said Elder, a graduate of Burges High who now lives in Valentine, Texas. "He seldom even drank. He was polite and gentlemanly, and the girls loved him. He was on his way to stardom. Whatever happened, it wasn't suicide." 
 
 The death remains shrouded in so much mystery that E, the Entertainment Channel, plans to produce a program on Fuller. 
 
 "Shooting will begin in the late fall," said Keith Fenimore, a public relations official for the cable network. "I'm not sure if they'll shoot in El Paso, and I'm not sure when it will air." ||||| The coroner's investigation into the death of Whitney Houston came to a close Wednesday with a final autopsy report that described the singer submerged face-down in hot water in the bathtub of her Beverly Hills hotel suite with a unidentified white powdery residue left in a spoon on the bathroom counter.The report released Wednesday confirmed that the 48-year-old singer drowned in a bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use listed as contributing factors. It concluded that Houston's death was accidental.A personal assistant found her dead in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the report said. The water was described as "extremely hot," and the singer had scalding burns when she was examined.Houston was last seen alive by her personal assistant Feb. 11 between 2:45 p.m. and 3 p.m., the report stated.The singer had complained of having a sore throat in the days leading up to her death. Before the assistant left, she told Houston to "take a bath to start getting ready for tonight," referring to a pre-Grammy party thrown by her mentor, producer Clive Davis.The personal assistant left to pick up items at Neiman Marcus and returned to the locked hotel room at 3:36 p.m. When she went into the bathroom, she found Houston face-down and unresponsive in the tub, the report stated.She called out to a bodyguard, the report stated, and they pulled Houston out of the bathtub. The assistant ran to call the front desk and told them to call 911.On a counter in the bathroom, investigators found an ashtray filled with cigarette butts and a "small spoon with a white crystal-like substance in it, and a rolled-up piece of white paper." They also found prescription drug bottles on the counter and a small plastic bag that had been ripped open. In a drawer, they found a portable mirror with more remnants of a white, powdery substance. Coroner's officials said they did not test the powder, saying that was a job for police. The Beverly Hills Police Department did not release any information about the substance Wednesday.Houston had battled drug addiction for years, and the report found that she had a perforation in her nose typical of habitual cocaine users. Toxicology test results showed that she had cocaine in her system at the time of death. The coroner's office also found traces of several other drugs — including marijuana, the anti-anxiety medication Xanax , the muscle relaxant Flexeril as well as Benadryl — in her system.Dr. Nachman Brautbar, a toxicologist and professor emeritus at USC who reviewed the toxicology report, said the level of cocaine in Houston's system was not at a toxic level. He estimated that she had taken the cocaine two hours or more before getting in the tub.Brautbar said none of the drugs on their own were at a toxic level, but the combination might have contributed to her losing consciousness and slipping under water."The combination was toxic for her," he said.The release of the report also means that police will be able to wrap up their investigation into Houston's death. Lt. Mark Rosen, a spokesman for the Beverly Hills Police Department, said the investigation had been on hold pending release of the final coroner's report. ||||| By Jen Heger – Radar Legal Editor 
 
 Sparkle, the movie that could have been Whitney Houston‘s acting comeback, is going to be released earlier than the original August release date, because of the tragic death of the singer, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting. 
 
 Houston passed away on Saturday, after she was found unconscious and unresponsive at in her hotel room at the Beverly Hilton. The award winning singer was declared dead by paramedics at the iconic hotel at 3:55 p.m. PST. She was 48. 
 
 PHOTOS: Last Pictures Taken Of Whitney Houston Alive 
 
 “Dates are being discussed, and it’s still early, but the reasoning is that Whitney’s fans will want to see her in this movie, in which she gives a remarkable performance,” a studio insider tells RadarOnline.com. “This absolutely isn’t being done to make money. The IMDB website for the Sparkle movie has received record traffic in the hours since Whitney died. 
 
 “The movie is in post-production right now, and it could be released as soon as Memorial Day. The studio bosses want the public to remember Whitney as a brilliant performer and stunning actress. The execs are going to be sensitive to her death and will communicate with her family at an appropriate time.” 
 
 PHOTOS: Bobby Brown Arrives In L.A. 
 
 Whitney plays the mother of Jordin Spark’s character, who is trying to break into show business as a singer of part of a trio. The movie is a remake the 1976 version, which is loosely based on the story of The Supremes. 
 
 As RadarOnline.com previously reported, law enforcement confiscated a “plethora” of sedatives from Whitney’s hotel room. 
 
 PHOTOS: Celebrities Found Dead In Famous Hotels 
 
 Bobby Brown‘s ex-wife had “a plethora of sedatives including Lorazepam, Valium, Xanax, and a sleeping medication that was found in her hotel room,” a law enforcement source says. 
 
 The prescription drugs were officially taken into custody by the Beverly Hills Police Department, who is handling the investigation. 
 
 “Investigators from BHPD will be there when the autopsy is done. This is routinely done in cases when someone relatively young dies and there are no signs of foul play,” the insider tells RadarOnline.com. 
 
 PHOTO: Crime Lab Van At The Beverly Hilton Hotel 
 
 Meanwhile, Bobbi Kristina, Houston’s daughter with Bobbi Brown, was taken to the hospital twice in twelve hours following her mother’s tragic death. 
 
 “She tried to ease the pain of losing her mother by having a few alcoholic drinks,” the insider said. “She was distraught, on the verge of a complete breakdown. Not knowing what to do members of her mother’s entourage tried to calm her down with a sedative. The two were an unfortunate mix and she ended up passing out.” 
 
 Tell us in the comments section below if you agree with the decision to release Whitney’s movie earlier than previously scheduled. 
 
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– You've probably heard the song—"I Fought the Law"—but maybe not the story of the singer who made it famous in 1966. Bobby Fuller had just struck it big with his cover of the song when his body was found in a parked car. The 23-year-old had died of asphyxiation, his body doused in gasoline and seemingly beaten, recounts the Los Angeles Times; he reportedly died due to inhaled gasoline. It was officially ruled a suicide, and now a new biography of Fuller co-written by his brother revisits the case, which the LAT calls "one of rock's strangest deaths." Randy Fuller, who played in Bobby's band, never believed the suicide story, and few others who knew him well did, either. The LAT says various theories, including one involving the mob, have surfaced over the ensuing decades without verification. ("Who would pour gas on himself in a hot car?" Randy Fuller said in 1998. “I just think he got in a bad situation that night, met the wrong dude and couldn't get out of it.") The book, I Fought The Law: The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller apparently doesn't try to solve the mystery as much as resurrect it. Fuller died just a few months after recording his big hit, notes LA Magazine. (Click for more unsolved Hollywood mysteries.)