Robert Anthony Marcucci was 38 years old when he died on Monday, July 28, 2003, in Mid-City Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 4809 St. Elmo Drive. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles Police Department case handled by the department's Wilshire Division.
He was known as Bobby, and he was the son of Bob Marcucci, the music manager and producer who launched the careers of teen idols Frankie Avalon and Fabian and whose life inspired the 1980 film "The Idolmaker." As a young man he worked as an actor, and he is credited with roles in "The Sure Thing" and other films of the mid-1980s. When his father died in 2011, The Philadelphia Inquirer noted that he had been "predeceased by another son, Robert Marcucci, an actor who died in 2003."
The Los Angeles Times reported on his death three days after it happened. According to police, he was in an area "well-known for crack-cocaine sales" that Monday. "About 6:40 p.m. a group of suspected gang members chased him from Rimpau Boulevard to the 4800 block of St. Elmo Drive, police said. Marcucci fell as he was trying to escape and was struck in the head by a block that one of the gang members threw as he screamed for help." The Times reported that his attackers stood over him, "chuckling as he writhed." He died a few hours later at a nearby hospital.
The article described a long struggle with drug addiction that began when he was a teenager, years of treatment programs, and a period when he got clean and, with his father's help, opened a drug-rehab center before falling back into drug use. "When people are loaded, they are not the same people," his wife, Denyce Marcucci, told the paper. "It's a wasted life. He left behind a lot of people that care about him." His father said, "I just don't want his death to be in vain."
LAPD Det. Frank Carrillo told The Times it was unclear whether Marcucci knew his assailants or was buying drugs that evening. "Police have detained one suspect and are searching for others," the paper reported. No later report on that suspect, or on anyone else in the group, could be found.
St. Elmo Drive and Rimpau Boulevard lie in the Mid-City area, a stretch of older bungalows, duplexes and apartment buildings south of Wilshire Boulevard.
Los Angeles still recorded roughly 480 to 520 homicides a year in the mid-2000s, and many of those killings were never solved.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Robert Anthony Marcucci could be found in news archives or public records beyond the detention reported in 2003. More than 22 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was near Rimpau Boulevard or St. Elmo Drive on the evening of July 28, 2003, or who knows who was in the group that chased him, may hold information that could help detectives. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Los Angeles Police Department at 877-527-3247 or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
