- Rolf Wütherich
Rolf Wütherich (1927 –
July 22 1981 ) was a German race car driver, a former skydiver and a personal friend ofJames Dean . Wütherich became famous for being in the car with the actor in his fatal car crash onSeptember 30 ,1955 . Wütherich received hate mail from Dean fans who blamed him for the actor's death. He was suicidal, homicidal and mentally ill for the rest of his life. Wütherich himself died after a car crash in 1981 in Germany.Rolf Wütherich had been in
Porsche 's race car division. He survived numerous dangerous car crashes, including the one withJames Dean in 1955. In 1952, he drove his car off a motorway bridge and plunged to the lower federal road where it exploded. He survived this accident because he was ejected from the car. Six months after this accident, he survived a crash with a test car nearHeilbronn , Germany. And as a rally driver, he almost died "several times" in theFrench Alps . "He was "... obsessed with fast cars," says his friendEugen Böhringer ."I persuaded Dean to drive"
In 1950, Wütherich worked for
Porsche as a mechanic in the United States. There, he organized airfield car races and befriended the motorsport fanJames Dean . Wütherich coached Dean to drive his new Porsche Spyder 550, which Dean had nicknamed "Little Bastard." While the two were on the way to a race on September 30, 1955, Dean couldn't drive his Porsche Spyder 550 properly, so Wütherich told him he could take over and drive the car, but that he should drive below the speed limit.Not long after taking the wheel, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer issued Dean atraffic citation for speeding, and a few minutes later, the fatal accident happened, a mile east ofCholame ,California . It took four days in hospital for Rolf Wütherich to regain consciousness, and he remained in treatment in the United States for many months because of a skull fracture, pelvic fracture, and upper and lower leg fractures.He moved back to Germany and became a car mechanic and salesperson in
Stuttgart Zuffenhausen . Shortly thereafter, he had a nervous breakdown and flew back toCalifornia , where he underwent electro shock therapy in a psychiatric ward. In 1959, he returned toGermany , where he started to work with a psychotherapist, made progress and regained sanity. He felt stable and went back to work for Porsche, where he was again in charge of car racing. In 1965, he joined Böhringer in theRally Monte Carlo , where they came in second. He also won theVice-Europe Championship as a rally driver. During one race, he even climbed out of his car to help an injured cyclist and received the Fair Play sports award in that race. He also opened aGo-Kart race track inStuttgart for a while.His depression and suicidal tendencies got worse again over time. He was hospitalized after a failed suicide attempt in 1966. In 1967, he stabbed his wife 14 times with a kitchen knife in an attempt to kill both of them in a double suicide. After this incident, he moved to the small town of
Kupferzell , where he worked as a salesperson in a motorcycle shop. He continually received hate mail from Dean fans, who insisted that he was responsible for Dean's death, and never recovered from the feeling of guilt.In 1981, he died in a car crash in the town center of
Kupferzell ,Germany , when he was driving while intoxicated and ran hisHonda into a building.References
* [http://www.haukestruebing.com/frameset.php?/americathebeautiful/james_dean__i_miss_you_jimmy.htm James Dean - I Miss You Jimmy]
* [http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/d/James%20Dean/james_dean.htm The Death of James Dean]
* [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://ssl.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/artikel/367/61306/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=6&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DRolf%2BW%25C3%25BCtherich%26num%3D30%26hl%3Den%26newwindow%3D1%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG sueddeutsche.de]
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