Rolf Wütherich

Rudolf Karl "Rolf" Wütherich (; 5 August 1927 – 22 July 1981) was a German automotive engineer, mechanic and racer. He was the passenger in James Dean's Porsche at the time of Dean's death in a car crash in 1955. He experienced many personal difficulties as a result of the crash and himself died in a car crash 25 years later.

Early life and education Wütherich was born in Heilbronn, Württemberg, Germany on 5 August 1927. He served as a Luftwaffe glider pilot, paratrooper, and aircraft mechanic before joining the Daimler-Benz ( Mercedes) factory racing department. In 1950 he joined the Porsche factory, becoming the second employee of their racing department. Wütherich participated as a factory team member at the 24 Hours of Le Mans races in 1952, 1953, and 1954. Wütherich was also a factory team member for the Porsche endurance racing and formula racing team at the AVUS, Mille Miglia, 12 Hours of Reims, and 6 Hours of Nürburgring races.

Career The Porsche factory sent Wütherich to the United States as a field engineer for Johnny von Neumann's Competition Motors in Los Angeles, where the new 550 Spyder racing cars were being distributed. He arrived in April 1955 and met actor James Dean, a Porsche Speedster racer, at the Bakersfield races. He befriended Dean and began to work on Dean's Speedster for race events. "Jimmy's and my nerves were pretty frayed when we finally pulled away from Competition Motors," Wütherich told Bill Barrett. "Our first stop was at a service station on Ventura Blvd.", he said. The inquest was only looking into the possibility of criminal wrongdoing by Turnupseed ("What we want to find out is who this person was, and how he came to his death, whether there was negligence on the part of Mr. Turnupseed, or whether there wasn’t."), such that the final landing position of Wütherich, on the road next to the driver's side after being ejected from the spinning Spyder, was not germane to the inquest.

James Dean had been cut from the Spyder's mangled cockpit after his left foot was crushed between the clutch and brake pedal. Dean was severely injured and was put in an ambulance. The barely conscious Wütherich, who had been thrown from the Spyder onto the shoulder of the road next to the Porsche, was loaded in next. Dean and Wütherich were taken to the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital, twenty-eight miles away. Dean was pronounced dead on arrival.

Wütherich was married four times and had one son. His first marriage was to a Hungarian woman named Julia and ended in 1954. A second marriage to a woman named Gudrun ended shortly after she accused him of killing James Dean. Wütherich married for a third time to a woman named Inge whom he met on vacation in Rimini. This marriage produced his son Bernd. They divorced after four years.

Wütherich's fourth and final marriage was to a woman named Doris. On 1 May 1967, he stabbed Doris while she slept after he had attempted to kill himself. Wütherich was arrested and, in 1969, was found guilty of attempted manslaughter. Due to his mental instability, Wütherich was ultimately sent to a mental institution in Weissenau in lieu of prison.

Later career and death Wütherich began to 'freelance' as a Porsche mechanic after the James Dean crash, but legal and psychological problems arose. He returned to West Germany, where Porsche invited him back to work with the factory's testing department. Wütherich eventually went back to the U.S. with the Porsche racing team, but only for the 12 Hours of Sebring races in 1957 and 1958.

In 1965, Wütherich established himself as a skilled rally navigator for the Porsche factory at the Monte Carlo Rally, where he teamed with driver Eugen Böhringer in a factory-sponsored 904 GTS Porsche to finish second overall and first in class. In 1966, Wütherich and Günter Klass teamed in a factory-sponsored 911S Coupe to finish fifth overall and first in class for the European Rally Championship season. In 1968, Wütherich was dismissed by the Porsche factory after 18 years of service. In 1979, he joined a Honda dealer in Hohenlohe, near his native Heilbronn.

In July 1981, he signed a contract for 20,000 Deutsche Marks for a feature TV show about him discussing the death of James Dean. On 22 July, an intoxicated Wütherich was killed when he lost control of his Honda Civic and crashed into the wall of a residence in Kupferzell. Like James Dean, Wütherich had to be cut from the wreck and was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 53 years old.