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= Death of James Dean =
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Introduction
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Hollywood actor James Dean was killed at the age of 24 in an auto
accident on September 30, 1955, near Cholame, California. He had
previously competed in several auto racing events, and was traveling
to a sports car racing competition when he was involved in a car crash
at the junction of U.S. Route 466 (US 466, now State Route 46 [SR 46])
and SR 41.
Racing career background
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In April 1954, after securing the co-starring role of Cal Trask in
'East of Eden,' James Dean purchased a 1955 Triumph Tiger T110 650 cc
motorcycle and, later, a used red 1953 MG TD sports car. In March
1955, Dean traded the MG for a new 1955 Porsche Speedster purchased
from Competition Motors in Hollywood, California. He traded the
Triumph T110 for a 1955 Triumph TR5 Trophy three days after filming
wrapped on 'East of Eden'. Just before filming began on 'Rebel Without
a Cause', Dean competed in the Palm Springs Road Races with the
Speedster on March 26-27. He finished first overall in Saturday's
novice class, and second overall in the Sunday main event. Dean also
raced the Speedster at Bakersfield on May 1-2, finishing first in
class and third overall. His final race with the Speedster was at
Santa Barbara on Memorial Day, May 30, where he started in the
eighteenth position, working his way up to fourth before over-revving
his engine and blowing a piston. He did not finish the race.
During the filming of 'Giant' from June through mid-September, Warner
Brothers had barred Dean from all racing activities. In July, Dean put
down a deposit on a new Lotus Mark IX sports racer with Jay
Chamberlain, a dealer in Burbank. Dean was told that the Lotus
delivery would be delayed until autumn. On September 21, as Dean was
finishing 'Giant', he suddenly traded in his Speedster at Competition
Motors for a new, more powerful and faster 1955 Porsche 550 Spyder and
entered the upcoming Salinas Road Race event scheduled for October
1-2. He also purchased a new 1955 Ford Country Squire station wagon to
use for towing the "Little Bastard" to and from the races on an open
wheel car trailer.
According to Lee Raskin, Porsche historian and author of 'James Dean:
At Speed', Dean asked custom car painter and pinstriper Dean Jeffries
to paint "Little Bastard" on the car:
Dean Jeffries, who had a paint shop next to [[George Barris (auto
customizer)|[George] Barris]], did the customizing work which
consisted of: painting '130' in black non-permanent paint on the front
hood, doors and rear deck lid. He also painted "Little Bastard" in
script across the rear cowling. The red leather bucket seats and red
tail stripes were original. The tail stripes were painted by the
Stuttgart factory, which was customary on the Spyders for racing ID.
Purportedly, Dean had been given the nickname "Little Bastard" by Bill
Hickman, a Warner Bros. stunt driver whom Dean befriended. Hickman was
part of Dean's group driving to the Salinas Road Races on September
30, 1955. Hickman says he called Dean "little bastard", and Dean
called Hickman "big bastard". Another version of the "Little Bastard"
origin - corroborated by two of Dean's close friends, Phil Stern and
Lew Bracker - is that Warner Bros. president Jack L. Warner had once
referred to Dean as a little bastard after he refused to vacate his
temporary 'East of Eden' trailer on the studio's lot. And Dean wanted
to get "even" with Warner by naming his race car "Little Bastard" and
defiantly show that despite the racing ban during all filming, he
would be racing the "Little Bastard" in between projects.
Car crash
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On September 30, 1955, Dean and his Porsche factory-trained mechanic,
Rolf Wütherich, were at Competition Motors in Hollywood preparing the
"Little Bastard" for the weekend sports car races at Salinas. Dean
originally intended to tow the Porsche behind his 1955 Ford Country
Squire station wagon, driven by Hickman and accompanied by
professional photographer Sanford H. Roth, who was planning a photo
story about Dean at the races for 'Collier's' magazine. Because the
Spyder had not yet been driven enough miles to qualify for the race,
Wütherich recommended that Dean drive it to Salinas to accrue more
time behind the wheel. The group had coffee and donuts at the
Hollywood Ranch Market on Vine Street across from Competition Motors
before leaving around 1:15 p.m. PST. They stopped for gas at a Mobil
station on Ventura Boulevard at Beverly Glen Boulevard in Sherman Oaks
at around 2:00 p.m. They then headed north on the Golden State Highway
(US 99, now part of Interstate 5) and then through Grapevine toward
Bakersfield.
At 3:30 p.m, Dean was stopped by California Highway Patrol officer
Otie V. Hunter at Mettler Station, south of Bakersfield, for driving
65 mph in a 55 mph zone. Hickman, following the Spyder in the Ford
Country Squire with the trailer, was also ticketed for driving 20 mph
over the limit, as the speed limit for vehicles towing a trailer was
45 mph. After receiving the citations, Dean and Hickman headed west
onto SR 166/SR 33 to avoid Bakersfield's slow 25 mph downtown
district. SR 166/SR 33 was a known shortcut for sports car drivers
traveling to Salinas, called "the racer's road", which led to
Blackwells Corner at US 466 (later SR 46). However, Dean biographer
and expert Warren Beath disagrees with this account, citing
Wütherich's inquest deposition stating that they had driven through
Bakersfield and turned left on US 466. Beath, who lives in
Bakersfield, emphasizes that SR 99 does not traverse downtown
Bakersfield but instead skirts the city on the east side. In Hunter's
testimony, he stated that Dean continued on to Bakersfield.
At Blackwells Corner, Dean stopped briefly for refreshments and met
fellow racers Lance Reventlow and Bruce Kessler, who were also driving
to Salinas in Reventlow's Mercedes-Benz 300 SL coupe. As Reventlow and
Kessler were leaving, they and Dean's group agreed to meet for dinner
in Paso Robles.
At approximately 5:15 p.m., Dean and Hickman left Blackwells Corner,
driving west on US 466 toward Paso Robles, approximately 60 mi away.
Dean accelerated in the Spyder and left the Ford station wagon far
behind. Further along on US 466, Dean crested Polonio Pass and headed
down the long Antelope Grade, passing cars along the way toward the
junction of US 466 and SR 41.
At approximately 5:45 p.m., a two-tone black and white 1950 Ford Tudor
was headed east on US 466, just west of the junction near Shandon. Its
driver, 23-year-old Navy veteran and Cal Poly student Donald
Turnupseed, turned left onto SR 41 headed north toward Fresno. As
Turnupseed's Ford crossed the center line, Dean—clearly recognizing
the imminent crash—tried to steer the Spyder in a "side-stepping"
racing maneuver, but with insufficient time and space, the two cars
collided almost head-on. Witness John Robert White reported that the
Spyder smashed into the ground two or three times in cartwheels and
landed in a gully beside the shoulder of the road, northwest of the
junction. The velocity of the impact sent the much heavier Ford
broad-sliding 39 ft down US 466 in the opposing lane. The collision
was witnessed by several people who stopped to help. A woman with
nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse in his
neck.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) captain Ernest Tripke and corporal
Ronald Nelson were called to the scene. Before Tripke and Nelson
arrived, Dean had been extricated from the Spyder's mangled wreckage,
his left foot having been crushed between the clutch pedal and the
brake pedal. He was critically injured because his vehicle had
absorbed the brunt of the crash, and he suffered a broken neck and
massive internal and external injuries. Hickman and Roth arrived at
the scene approximately ten minutes after the crash, and Hickman
assisted in the extrication of Dean from the wreckage. Nelson
witnessed Dean, unconscious and dying, as he was placed into an
ambulance and Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder, lying
nearly unconscious on the shoulder of the road next to the wrecked
vehicle.
Dean and Wütherich were taken in the same ambulance to the Paso Robles
War Memorial Hospital, 28 mi away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival
at 6:20 p.m. by the attending emergency room physician, Dr. Robert
Bossert. The cause of death listed on Dean's death certificate is
listed as a broken neck, multiple fractures of the upper and lower
jaw, both arms broken and internal injuries. Beath wrote that Dean had
died in the arms of his friend Hickman. Despite reports that Dean had
been driving approximately 85 mph, Nelson estimated that the actual
speed was around 55 mph based on the wreckage and the position of
Dean's body.
Wütherich survived the impact with a broken jaw and serious hip and
femur injuries that required immediate surgery. Turnupseed was not
seriously injured in the crash. He sustained facial bruises and a
bloodied nose. After being interviewed by the CHP, Turnupseed
hitchhiked in the dark to his home in Tulare. Roth took photographs of
the crash scene later acquired by Seita Ohnishi, a retired Japanese
businessman who erected a memorial near the site.
Some sources attest that Dean's last known words, uttered just before
impact after Wütherich told Dean to decelerate as the Ford Tudor
pulled into their lane, as: "That guy's gotta stop ... He'll see us."
Lee Raskin believes that any reports that Dean and Wütherich spoke
just prior to the crash are pure conjecture. According to the
coroner's deposition of Wütherich taken in the hospital, and later in
a 1960 interview, Wütherich could not recall any of the exact moments
directly preceding or following the crash.
Inquest and aftermath
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The official sheriff-coroner called for an inquest, held at the
council chambers in San Luis Obispo on October 11, 1955. Turnupseed
told the jury that he did not see the low-profile Spyder until after
he was turning left onto SR 41. After other testimony by the CHP and
witnesses, the coroner's jury returned a verdict of accidental death
with no criminal intent, finding Turnupseed not guilty of any
contributory wrongdoing in the death of Dean.
Though not charged with any offense, Turnupseed had nevertheless been
dealt a devastating blow that would haunt him for the rest of his
life. He granted just one interview to the 'Tulare Advance-Register'
newspaper immediately following the crash, but after that, he refused
to speak publicly about the accident. Turnupseed later owned and
operated a very successful family electrical contracting business in
Tulare. He died at the age of 63 from lung cancer in 1995.
Wütherich, after enduring several complicated surgeries on his hip and
femur, returned to West Germany in 1957 with psychological and legal
problems. He worked for Porsche's testing department and international
rally and racing teams during the 1960s. He died in July 1981 at the
age of 53 in Kupferzell, West Germany when he lost control of his car
and crashed into a residence. As with Dean, Wütherich was extricated
from the wreck and died at the scene.
While filming 'Giant', Dean filmed a short public-service announcement
with actor Gig Young for the National Safety Council. It featured Dean
dressed as Jett Rink talking about how excessive speed on the highway
may be more dangerous than racing on the track. At the end of the
segment, instead of reading the scripted phrase "The life you save may
be your own," Dean ad-libbed the line as "The life you might save
might be mine."
Funeral and memorial
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Dean's funeral was held on October 8, 1955, at the Fairmount Friends
Church in Fairmount, Indiana. The coffin remained closed to conceal
the severe injuries to his upper torso and face. An estimated 600
mourners were in attendance, while another 2,400 fans gathered outside
the church during the procession. Dean's body is buried at Park
Cemetery in Fairmount, less than a mile from where he was raised on
his aunt and uncle's farm.
In 1977, a memorial to Dean was erected in Cholame, California. The
stylized sculpture is composed of stainless steel around a tree of
heaven growing in front of the former Cholame post-office building.
The sculpture was designed in Japan and transported to Cholame,
accompanied by the project's benefactor, Seita Ohnishi of Kobe.
Ohnishi chose the site after examining the location of the crash scene
less than a mile away. The original Highway 41 and 46 junction where
the collision occurred has shifted slightly as the two roadways were
realigned over the decades to improve safety. In April 2023,
construction began on a new elevated interchange that will eliminate
the left turn across traffic from Highway 46 across Highway 41. On
September 30, 2005, the junction at SR 46 and SR 41 was dedicated as
the James Dean Memorial Junction as part of California's official
commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dean's death.
The dates and hours of Dean's birth and death are etched into the
sculpture along with a handwritten description by Dean's friend
William Bast quoting one of Dean's favorite lines from Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince': "What is essential is invisible
to the eye." It also includes an infinity symbol next to the date of
Dean's death to indicate that he will never be forgotten.
"Curse" of Dean's car
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The "curse" of James Dean's car, the "Little Bastard", has become part
of America's cultural mythology. The story of the "curse" begins
before the car itself had been involved in any crash; in his 1985
autobiography 'Blessings in Disguise', British actor Alec Guinness
relates that on his first night in Los Angeles on September 23, 1955,
after leaving a restaurant with no table available and starting to
look elsewhere, he and his friend Thelma Moss met Dean, who invited
them to dine with him at his table at the place that they had just
left. Dean showed them his silver Porsche and said: "It's just been
delivered." Guinness allegedly warned Dean to never enter the car:
"Please, never get in it. It is now ten o'clock, Friday the 23rd of
September, 1955. If you get in that car you will be found dead in it
by this time next week." The following Friday, his prediction came
true.
After the fatal crash, Warren Beath, a James Dean archivist and
author, attributes the existence of the "curse" to George Barris, the
self-described "King of the ," who says he was the first to purchase
the wrecked car. Barris promoted the "curse" after he placed the wreck
on public display in 1956. Over the years, Barris described a
mysterious series of accidents and car crashes that occurred from 1956
to 1960 involving the "Little Bastard" that resulted in serious
injuries to spectators and even a truck driver's death. Raskin states
many claims regarding the "curse" appear to have been based on
Barris's 1974 book 'Cars of the Stars'.
Raskin's 2005 book 'James Dean: At Speed' states that the wrecked
Spyder was declared as a total loss by the insurance company, which
paid Dean's father Winton fair-market value as a settlement. The
insurance company, through a salvage yard in Burbank, sold the Spyder
to Dr. William F. Eschrich, who had competed against Dean in his own
sports car at three race events in 1955. Eschrich dismantled the
engine and mechanical parts and installed the Porsche four-cam engine
in his Lotus IX race car chassis. Eschrich then raced the
Porsche-powered Lotus, which he called a "Potus," at seven California
Sports Car Club events during 1956. While driving the car at the
Pomona Sports Car Races on October 21, 1956, Eschrich was involved in
a minor "shunt" with another driver.
Barris's 'Cars of the Stars' states that a Dr. McHenry, "driving a car
powered by the engine from Dean's car, was killed when his vehicle
went out of control and struck a tree in the first race in which the
motor had been used since Dean's mishap. Another doctor, of Burbank,
was injured in the same race when his car, which contained the
drivetrain from Dean's car, rolled over." Eschrich, interviewed a day
after McHenry's fatal crash, said he had loaned the Dean transmission
and several other parts to McHenry: "I don't believe he was using the
transmission when he crashed, but he was using the back swinging arms
which holds the rear end." McHenry appears to have the distinction of
being the only bona fide victim of the "curse".
Raskin states that although Barris may have customized several cars
for 'Rebel Without a Cause', he never customized any of Dean's
personal cars and neither of his Porsches. Lew Bracker, Dean's best
friend in Los Angeles and fellow Porsche racer, maintains that Barris
was not involved with Dean's racing activities; he was never
considered to be part of Dean's "inner circle" invited to go to
Salinas on September 30, 1955. It is not known exactly how Barris knew
Eschrich, but he was given the Spyder's mangled body after Eschrich
had stripped out the Porsche. In 1956, Barris announced that he was
going to rebuild the "Little Bastard", but that proved to be a
Herculean task as the wrecked chassis had no remaining integral
strength. Instead, Barris decided to weld aluminum sheet metal over
the caved-in left front fender and cockpit area. He proceeded to beat
on the aluminum panels with a 2x4 to try to simulate what would appear
to be collision damage. Later in 1956, Barris loaned out the "Little
Bastard" to the Los Angeles chapter of the National Safety Council for
a local rod and custom car show. The gruesome display was promoted as:
"James Dean's Last Sports Car". During 1957-1959, the exhibit was
toured in various rod and custom car shows, movie theatres, bowling
alleys, and highway safety displays throughout California.
There are few stories associated with the "curse" that can be
corroborated. For example, a wire service story on March 12, 1959,
reported that the "Little Bastard", temporarily stored in a garage at
3158 Hamilton Avenue in Fresno, caught fire "awaiting display as a
safety exhibit in a coming sports and custom automobile show".
However, on May 12, 1959, 'The Fresno Bee', reported that the fire
occurred on the night of March 11 and only slight damage occurred to
the Spyder without any damage to other cars or property in the garage.
No one was injured: "The cause of the fire is unknown. It burned two
tires and scorched the paint on the vehicle." Later that year, the
"Little Bastard" toured national auto shows and traffic safety
exhibitions. Legend also holds that the "Little Bastard" mysteriously
disappeared in 1960. According to Barris, the Spyder was returning
from a traffic safety exhibit in Florida in a sealed truck. In Barris'
book and in many TV interviews, he said the "Little Bastard" was being
shipped back in a sealed boxcar. When the train arrived in Los
Angeles, Barris said he signed the manifest and verified that the seal
was intact—but the boxcar was empty.
Raskin believes that Barris's "Little Bastard" side show had lost its
fan appeal just as the 1960s pop culture began to focus on "big block"
Muscle Cars. Raskin also believes that Barris opted to misplace the
"Little Bastard". The mysterious disappearance stories were Barris's
way of perpetuating the Dean myth, especially on the milestone
anniversaries of Dean's death.
Although the "Little Bastard" remains missing as of 2022, Historic
Auto Attractions in Roscoe, Illinois, claims to have an original piece
of Dean's Spyder on display. It is a small chunk of aluminum, a few
square inches in size, that was stolen from an area near the broken
windscreen while the Spyder was being stored in the Cholame Garage
following the crash. In 2005, for the 50th anniversary of Dean's
death, the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois, announced they were
displaying what was purported to be the passenger door of the "Little
Bastard". Volo and Barris offered $1,000,000 to anyone who could prove
that they owned the remains of the "Little Bastard". No one came forth
to claim the prize.
The 4-Cam Porsche engine (#90059), along with the original California
Owner's Registration listing the engine number, is still in the
possession of the family of the late Dr. Eschrich. The Porsche's
transaxle assembly (#10046), is currently owned by Porsche collector
and restorer Jack Styles in Massachusetts. Raskin originally
documented and published all the serial numbers (VINs) for the Spyder
(chassis, engine, transmission), as well as for his 356 Super
Speedster. To date, neither of Dean's Porsches have been located.
Documentary
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On February 15, 2009, all three of the California Highway Patrol (CHP)
officers who dealt with Dean on the day of his death - Officer Otie
Hunter, who ticketed Dean for speeding, and Officers Ernie Tripke and
Ronald Nelson, who investigated the fatal crash - participated and
shared their memories of that fateful day in an SCVTV documentary
titled 'The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride', co-produced by
the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.
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