How Did Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin Die Exactly?
Question by PALLINA: How did Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin die exactly?
Wikipedia says heroin overdose, but other sources suggest it was rather an off vein injection, or an air bubble (trombosis)…
Does anyone know exactly? I need it for an article I’m working at.
Thanks
Best answer:
Answer by Beatle fanatic
These are the details according to Rolling Stone magazine:
Rolling Stone – Tommy Bolin died in his hotel room on December 4th from an overdose of heroin and other substances, including alcohol, cocaine and barbiturates. The former James Gang and Deep Purple guitarist was 25 years old.
Bolin, who was living in L.S, at the time, had been in Miami with his band to open a concert for Jeff Beck at the Jai-Alai Fronton the evening of December 3rd. Following a well-received set, he returned to the Newport Hotel where he had several drinks in the bar with friends. Sometime after 1 a.m. he visited his bodyguard, L.C, Clayton, in his room, where he stayed for about half an hour. There he met a childhood friend, Phillip Tolimeni, and an acquaintance identified only as “Art.”
According to Tolimeni: “There were about 20 people in the room. Tommy said he wanted to talk in privacy. He was interested in investing in a limousine service. I had some brochures.” (Barry Fey, Bolin’s personal business manager, who was not in Miami at the time, confirmed that Bolin had been considering such and investment.) The three men went into Clayton’s bathroom for about six minutes.
Bolin, Tolimeni and Art then walked to Bolin’s room where, according to Tolimeni, they continued their discussion of the limousine business. An hour later, still in his room, Bolin slumped over in the middle of a phone conversation. Tolimeni, who was in the room at the time, called Clayton’s room for help. Clayton, Valeria Monzeglio (Bolin’s girlfriend of four months) and roadies David Brown and Jeff Ocheltree responded.
Clayton and Ocheltree placed Bolin in the shower and asked what he had taken. Both recall hearing from Tolimeni and Art that Bolin had taken heroin. “Art said, ‘He shot H,’ and when we asked again a little later, Phillip said, ‘No, ho, he snorted heroin,'” said Ocheltree. Tolimeni denies this version of events and does not remember what he said.
Some color returned to Bolin’s cheeks and his breathing became less labored, so they put him to bed. At 3:12 a.m., David Brown called the hotel emergency line and reached Dr. Ira Jacobson, the physician on duty.
“Brown said Bolin had taken Valium and alcohol and they couldn’t wake him up,” said Jacobson. “I suspected from the way he was talking that Bolin’s condition was a lot worse. I told Brown that Bolin should be taken immediately to North Miami General Hospital or he might die. He said he was afraid of the publicity. I told him there was no choice. Brown assured me he would.”
Brown denied the doctor said Bolin might die, or that he assured the doctor he would take him to the hospital. Bolin was left in bed, where he suffocated four hours later as a result of muscular arrest caused by his overdose.
“I got a bit worried a few times in the past when he drank a bit too much and passed out,” said Brown. “He looked the same, acted the same. I’m not a doctor. I asked Jacobson what was the main way to judge things like that and he said, ‘Is he conscious?’ Soon after that I heard him mutter a couple of sentences. He said, ‘L.C., I’m glad you’re here.’ He was groggy and rubbed his eyes. It’s happened many, many times before. If I had called an ambulance and had an emergency squad come down here, the publicity would have jeopardized the band that he’d worked very hard to keep with him.”
Clayton said he rubbed Bolin’s body for about an hour to keep his circulation going and found no fresh needle marks (the coroner found four fresh needle marks, but no tracks, indicating that Bolin was not a junkie). Both Clayton and Monzeglio said Bolin opened his eyes once or twice, and according to Brown, talked briefly. The hospital was never called. Clayton, Art, Tolimeni and Brown left the room, leaving Monzeglio alone with Bolin. After finding his pulse very low, she finally called for an ambulance a little after 7 a.m. When the ambulance arrived, Bolin was dead.
“The police only asked me a couple of questions,” said Clayton, who was also summoned to the room. “Things like, ‘Did he sleep in the nude?’ and ‘Did his family have a history of heart attack?’ There must have been a thousand maids and bellboys in the hall. It was a circus.”
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