[2] The Los Angeles Coroner ruled Prinze's death a suicide. In 1983, deciding a civil case which contested whether his mother, Maria Preutzel, would receive some $600,000 in insurance money, a jury ruled the death accidental for the purposes of the civil suit. This did not alter the coroner's ruling, and it should be noted that the jury might be swayed by the fact that the bereaved mother, then subsisting on $397/mo from Social Security, would receive nothing had it ruled otherwise.
Father: Karl Pruetzel (Hungarian Jewish)
Mother: Maria (Roman Catholic, Puerto Rican)
Girlfriend: Kitty Bruce (dau. of Lenny Bruce, broken engagement)
Girlfriend: Pam Grier
Wife: Kathy Cochran (m. 1975, until his death, one son)
Son: Freddie Prinze, Jr. (actor, b. 8-Mar-1976)
High School: LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (dropped out)
Driving While Intoxicated Arrested 16-Nov-1976
Shot: Self-Inflicted Los Angeles, CA (29-Jan-1977)
Autopsy
Hungarian Ancestry Paternal
Jewish Ancestry Paternal
Puerto Rican Ancestry Maternal
Risk Factors: Cocaine
TELEVISION
Chico and the Man Francisco "Chico" Rodriguez (1974-77)
AKA Frederick Karl Pruetzel