Warren Talks About Rolf Wutherich

Rolf Wuetherich is seen here to  Dean's right just before leaving Hollywood for the Salinas race.He would be seriously injured some  three-hundred miles later in the accident that took Dean's life. Rolf is taken offguard by Dean's enthusiasm as Dean grabbed his arm and lifted it high for the photo op .

Rolf Wutherich is sort of a mystery figure isn't he?

And a fascinating character. He was a party animal who had two interests--cars and girls.

He survived the accident that killed James Dean, but was himself killed in a car wreck?

In Germany, he was killed after missing a curve. He hit a house, and it was asssumed he was drunk. They had to use the jaws of life to pry him out. He was asked about James Dean throughout his post-accident life and finally consented to an interview.

What did he have to say?

He told a few people that he actually had been sleeping at the time of the crash. That indicates he was not a reliable witness to how fast James Dean was driving, or to Dean's last words.

He did not testify at the inquest?

No, but he was deposed in the hospital bed. Both Ernest Tripke and a local Mennonite Minister helped translate. Rolf was apparently pretty out of it. But he estimated James Dean's average speed as 60-65 miles per hour. But Lee Raskin makes the point that Rolf had to have been referring to the tachometer. I don't beleive the Spyder even had a speedometer. And if that was the tach reading, the speed would have been much greater than 60 or 65 miles per hour.

James Dean was supposed to have said, "That guy's gotta stop"?  

Or variations of that, "He's gotta see us", That sort of thing (It should also be noted that another author reported Rolf as saying Dean's very last word  just before imapct with the Ford, was a very exasperating "Motherfucker" tb). But the accident survivors pick up a lot of detail from people after the event and naturally fill in the blank spots in their memory. Plus there is amnesia from the trama. So you have to take with a grain of salt the ghost-written recollections of Wuetherich concerning James Dean that appeared in the movie magazines of the Fifties on the anniversaries of the crash.

Rolf Wuetherich was gravely injured in the accident that killed James Dean?

He was hospitalized for eighteen months. He suffered headaches and towards the end of his life developed a stuttering problem. He became estranged from his family and they are reluctant to talk about him. James Dean's shadow hung over them the remainder of his life, though he was a gifted mechanic in his own right, and participated in numerous races.

How did  Dean's shadow hang over him?

Well, immediately after the accident there was some sentiment that he was somehow responsible--that as a seasoned mechanic and racer he should have slowed James Dean down that day.

Do some people think that at the time of the accident he was driving the Spyder instead of Dean?

I dissmissed that out of hand, because James Dean's feet were found tangled in the clutch and brake  pedals at the time of the accident. But Lew Bracker told me he would not be surprised if Rolf was driving instead of Dean, because he had that kind of personality.

What kind of personality?

He could be pushy and kind of imperious about things involving cars. He was impatient. Like Arnold Schwarzennegar, his difficulties with the English language didn't help. He would push people aside and take over. Don Dooley was a witness to the accident and he swears to this day James Dean was not driving. The mechanic was driving. He says he can only  imagine it was covered up to protect Rolf's career.

Did Rolf try to kill one of his wives?

He apparently had many, many problems after the death of James Dean. I've been told he was on medication and when he stopped taking it, he experienced episodes like the incident with his wife that resulted in him spending time in a sanitarium. He may have been manic-depressive (Bipolar). Apparently his life resumed a semblance of normalacy once he got back on his meds.

One of the news reports at the time he was killed, said he had recently signed a book contract to tell his story of his days with James Dean. Is that true?

Alex Von Wechmar of German TV is making a documentary of him and has interviewed a lot of people, located family members and talked to people who worked with Rolf both here and in Germany. 

Seen above, an Ernst Furhman designed 550 engine an engine designed to win races in its class with regularity. tb