The Hitchhiker's name was Turnupseed.

From Warren Beath's Annotations to the James Dean Inquest of October 11, 1955

The testimony of neither policeman addresses the question of how Donald Turnupseed, his car wrecked, got home that night of the crash. The issue was resolved when Carole Roberts of the San Luis Obispo Telgram-Tribune located and interviewed Dale "Blackie" Kimes, a Pismo Beach resident who gave Turnupseed a ride home to Tulare.

In his words as he came upon the aftermath of the crash:

"The ambulance was there, the Highway Patrol and about a half dozen cars. Donald Turnupseed's car was still in the middle of the road. I'm the one he hitched a ride with. None of us at the scene knew Dean was dead. I knew who Dean was, but he wasn't an icon to me like he was to those boys. He (Turnupseed) kept saying over and over again, 'I hope he's going to be all right'. "

According to Carole Roberts' interview with Kimes, they stopped in Reef City so Turnupseed could call his parents to meet him in Stratford and tell them he'd been in an accident. But by then Dean's death was on the radio.

 When Turnupseed went to call and then use the restroom in an outbuilding, Kimes said he went into the cafe there "where everybody was talking about the accident and saying that Dean was dead." He asked the occupants not to say anything about it when Turnupseed came inside.

"I wanted him to be with his family when he found out, not with a bunch of strangers." Again according to Roberts' interview and according to Kimes, "Turnupseed seemed undecided about whether he was really at fault in the accident because Dean had been going so fast." Kimes said during the ride Turnupseed told "how he tried to pull his car to the right once he saw Dean's Porsche bearing down on him."

"One salesman (at the scene) that night said Dean had passed him going about eighty-miles-per-hour shortly before the accident. I heard later that Dean had gotten a ticket for speeding down the Grapevine south of Bakersfield that day. He (Turnupseed) seemed like such a nice caring kid. He was so worried about Dean being hurt."

"When Turnupseed's parents finally arrived in Stratford, Turnupseed got out of the car to wait for his family. But he turned back to thank me for the ride...You know, I never did think Donald Turnupseed was at fault for Dean's death. The fault was Dean's excessive speed."