James Dean Survived ‘Fatal’ Car Crash

James Dean did not die in a car crash in 1955 — but lived almost another seven years in a secret studio-owned bungalow!

That’s the shocking conclusion of a seven-month investigation by The National ENQUIRER that unearthed startling new evidence proving the Hollywood icon survived the horrific accident! Instead, his mangled body was swapped with that of a U.S. Army soldier who died in a car accident from the same injuries, on the same weekend, in the same town!

  “Dean had two unreleased films at the time of the accident, ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ and ‘Giant,’” spilled an insider who broke a decades-long silence in an exclusive interview with The ENQUIRER. “If the public saw Dean’s face twisted and scarred, those films would have died on the vine. So much money was at stake!”

The 24-year-old rising star was involved in a gruesome crash in his Porsche 550 Spyder near Cholame, Calif., around 5:45 p.m. on Sept. 30, 1955. Porsche mechanic Rolf Wütherich was also in the car. Following them were two Warner Bros. studio flunkies — stunt driver Bill Hickman, and photographer Sanford H. Roth. Bill testified he arrived at the crash “about two or three minutes” after it occurred.

He told a reporter, “I pulled (James) out of the car, and he was in my arms when he died … I heard the air coming out of his lungs the last time.” But other accounts prove Bill either was mistaken or flat-out lied! The second cop on the scene, officer Ron Nelson, drove more than 30 miles to get there, and would have arrived well after Bill’s alleged encounter. “I didn’t get a good look at (James) … but I could hear him, and he was breathing hard,” he said.

The first cop on the scene, Capt. Ernie Tripke, confirmed officer Nelson’s account, saying, “(James) was still alive at the time, but he obviously had a broken neck.” That same weekend, Bobby Joe Plant, a 19-year-old G.I., perished in a car crash in nearby Paso Robles. Officially, he died one day after James, on Oct. 1. Like James, he suffered a broken neck — and his body was taken to the same mortuary!

The ENQUIRER has obtained Bobby’s death certificate, coroner’s report and accident report, and found startling discrepancies that point to possible foul play — or document doctoring! Ambulance driver Paul Moreno later testified he got into a minor accident while ferrying James and Rolf to the hospital in Paso Robles.

According to some accounts, Paul stopped to trade information with the other motorist. “It’s at this point that Dean’s mangled body could have been swapped for Plant’s,” said our source. “Hickman or Roth had plenty of time to phone Warner Bros., or make the body switch on their own! “Remember, this is around the Golden Age of Hollywood. The studios wielded incredible influence. What studio bosses said was law.”

The on-call physician at the Paso Robles hospital, Dr. Robert Bossert, also supported the body-swapping theory. “Dean was in the ambulance feet first,” Dr. Bossert told a reporter. But a photo snapped at the crash site clearly showed he was loaded in headfirst! “Either Bossert is wrong, or the body’s position was altered — perhaps when they switched it!” said The ENQUIRER source. “The evidence suggests it was Plant’s body — and not Dean’s!”

  James’ body was taken from the hospital to the mortuary, where officials reportedly had a tough time drawing blood to test for alcohol. “If that was Plant’s body, and not Dean’s — and Plant had died earlier than his death certificate said — that would explain the difficulty in drawing blood,” noted our source. “You can’t draw blood from a person who has been dead for some time. It coagulates. But if that really was Dean’s body, they shouldn’t have had much trouble.

    The badly disfigured “East of Eden” star finally died April 14, 1962, after spending his sad last years in a tiny studio-owned bungalow in northern California near the Oregon border. “We saw him here,” a local resident told The ENQUIRER on the condition of anonymity. “He swore us to secrecy and not just because the studio ordered him to. I don’t think he wanted people to remember him that way.”