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Post by Monsters of Rock on May 3, 2021 13:03:38 GMT 10
Charges Unlikely in Rock Star’s Death (Tommy Bolin)
By John Huddy (submitted by Reed Wilson)
The Miami Herald – December 1976
Rock star Tommy Bolin, the victim of a multiple drug overdose only a few hours after a Miami performance one week ago, was buried before 400 friends and admirers Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa.
The 25-year-old guitar player, whose stormy career spanned nine years and two major rock groups, the James Gang and Deep Purple, continued to generate controversy and mystery, even in death:
After reviewing the circumstances of Bolin’s early Saturday death at a Sunny Isles hotel, Metro homicide investigators consulted with Assistant State Attorney Ed O’Donnell, exploring the possibility of an inquest and criminal charges. But unless new evidence appears in the few days, police say, Bolin’s death will be classified as accidental, and the case will be officially closed.
Homicide detective Denzil Erwin said Thursday that it’s not known when or where Bolin obtained the narcotics — heroin and cocaine — that autopsy tests blame for his death. Friends and band members deny seeing Bolin take the drugs, police report.
Erwin raised the possibility of criminal charges when a Miami doctor, Dr. Ira Jacobson, said he had received an early morning phone call from the room of the stricken rock musician. Jacobson reportedly urged that Bolin be rushed immediately to the nearest hospital emergency room, advice not followed by friends of the musician who discovered Bolin unconscious on the bathroom floor at 3:15 a.m. Saturday.
“But the doctor was not actually there. The only thing he knew was what he told the friends over the telephone,” Erwin said Thursday after the consultation with the state attorney’s office. After originally considering charges of criminal negligence — involving the failure to summon an ambulance and follow the physician’s advice — police decided to take no action.
“The doctor was not there, and, after all, Bolin did drink a lot. And it wasn’t unusual to find him in such a condition,” Erwin said. “Had the doctor been present, it might be a different story.”
Although the Bolin death was officially an unclassified death by late Thursday, a police spokesman said a final report by the medical examiner’s office — advising police that Bolin died of a “multiple drug intoxication” — would close the affair.
The autopsy report, made public by Dr. Ronald Wright of the medical examiner’s office earlier this week, states that Bolin died of a drug overdose, and that both urine and bile laboratory tests revealed the presence of heroin (in the form of morphine), cocaine and other drugs. Other tests, however, indicated that Bolin had not been a long-term drug user, and may have turned to hard narcotics while in Miami.
Witnesses backstage at the Miami Jai-Alai Fronton, where Bolin performed his final rock concert, as a warmup act for Jeff Beck, give conflicting accounts of Bolin’s pre-show physical condition.
“I’ve seen a lotta people a lot higher than Tommy was. He looked fine to me,” Mary Fleming, a sound consultant, told The Herald. Heidi Alspach, a free-lance photographer, saw Bolin differently. “What a metamorphosis,” she said. “He looked terrible on Friday night — completely strung out.”
After services at the St. Thomas Syrian Church, Bolin was buried Thursday morning in Calvary Cemetery, in Sioux City.
Tommy Bolin website
By John Huddy (submitted by Reed Wilson)
The Miami Herald – December 1976
Rock star Tommy Bolin, the victim of a multiple drug overdose only a few hours after a Miami performance one week ago, was buried before 400 friends and admirers Thursday in Sioux City, Iowa.
The 25-year-old guitar player, whose stormy career spanned nine years and two major rock groups, the James Gang and Deep Purple, continued to generate controversy and mystery, even in death:
After reviewing the circumstances of Bolin’s early Saturday death at a Sunny Isles hotel, Metro homicide investigators consulted with Assistant State Attorney Ed O’Donnell, exploring the possibility of an inquest and criminal charges. But unless new evidence appears in the few days, police say, Bolin’s death will be classified as accidental, and the case will be officially closed.
Homicide detective Denzil Erwin said Thursday that it’s not known when or where Bolin obtained the narcotics — heroin and cocaine — that autopsy tests blame for his death. Friends and band members deny seeing Bolin take the drugs, police report.
Erwin raised the possibility of criminal charges when a Miami doctor, Dr. Ira Jacobson, said he had received an early morning phone call from the room of the stricken rock musician. Jacobson reportedly urged that Bolin be rushed immediately to the nearest hospital emergency room, advice not followed by friends of the musician who discovered Bolin unconscious on the bathroom floor at 3:15 a.m. Saturday.
“But the doctor was not actually there. The only thing he knew was what he told the friends over the telephone,” Erwin said Thursday after the consultation with the state attorney’s office. After originally considering charges of criminal negligence — involving the failure to summon an ambulance and follow the physician’s advice — police decided to take no action.
“The doctor was not there, and, after all, Bolin did drink a lot. And it wasn’t unusual to find him in such a condition,” Erwin said. “Had the doctor been present, it might be a different story.”
Although the Bolin death was officially an unclassified death by late Thursday, a police spokesman said a final report by the medical examiner’s office — advising police that Bolin died of a “multiple drug intoxication” — would close the affair.
The autopsy report, made public by Dr. Ronald Wright of the medical examiner’s office earlier this week, states that Bolin died of a drug overdose, and that both urine and bile laboratory tests revealed the presence of heroin (in the form of morphine), cocaine and other drugs. Other tests, however, indicated that Bolin had not been a long-term drug user, and may have turned to hard narcotics while in Miami.
Witnesses backstage at the Miami Jai-Alai Fronton, where Bolin performed his final rock concert, as a warmup act for Jeff Beck, give conflicting accounts of Bolin’s pre-show physical condition.
“I’ve seen a lotta people a lot higher than Tommy was. He looked fine to me,” Mary Fleming, a sound consultant, told The Herald. Heidi Alspach, a free-lance photographer, saw Bolin differently. “What a metamorphosis,” she said. “He looked terrible on Friday night — completely strung out.”
After services at the St. Thomas Syrian Church, Bolin was buried Thursday morning in Calvary Cemetery, in Sioux City.
Tommy Bolin website
