On
June 16th, 1959 sometime after 1 a.m., actor George Reeves was killed
by a single gunshot wound to his right temple. The rumors and
conspiracies that followed the tragic events of that night became a
whirlwind of confusion that remains unsolved even to this day.
George
Reeves was born, George Keefer Brewer on January 5th, 1914. His mother
Helen Lescher had become pregnant out of wedlock and by the time she was
five months pregnant she then married her beau Don Brewer, but later
the marriage fell apart.
She then married Frank Bessolo
in 1925, who later adopted George as his own son. It was not until
George was 15 that he learned from his mother that Frank had committed
suicide. It devastated him. Later he learned that his mother had lied to
him and that not only was Frank Bessolo alive and well but that he was
not his biological father. Needless to say George had issues with his
mother after that.
His Early Career-
George
studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse where he met his wife Ellenora
Needles. They married in 1940 and divorced in 1950 without having had
any children. During that time between 1939- 1950 Reeves had worked in
19 films including “Gone with the Wind”, playing the role of one of the
Tarleton twins. Although he was active in the Hollywood scene, he never
could seem to get the “big role” he had dreamed of his entire life.
Toni Mannix-
In
1951 George met Toni Mannix, wife of MGM Studios Manager Eddie Mannix.
Upon her pursuit for his affections he later learned that her marriage
was open, being that Eddie Mannix was openly in a relationship with an
Asian woman whom he took care of. Toni and George were seen dining
alongside Eddie and his Asian mistress at some of the finest dining
establishments in Los Angeles at that time. During that time is when
Reeves landed the role of Superman on a television program. His career
soon took off, and he became a household name and a hero that thousands
of children looked up to. In his mind though, he was a failure. After
becoming Superman he could not get any parts in decent film roles due to
being type casted, it seemed he was in a bigger rut then ever before.
The
relationship between Reeves and Toni lasted some 8 years until George
called it off around the same time he had met Lenore Lemmon in New York
while he was away on business.
Lenore Lemmon-
Lenore
was a money hungry party girl, who was the first woman in history to be
thrown out of Stork Club in New York for fist fighting. She married for
money twice, to Socialite Jacob Webb and then later to Musician Hamish
Menzies. She was later divorced before having met Reeves.
The
story that still floats around after all these years was that they were
engaged and going to be married. No where can you find that Reeves ever
confirmed this. Lenore wanted to be engaged to him. There was no
wedding planned in Mexico, in fact her friend (a girl friend) was
tagging along to the trip in Mexico because the trip was strictly a
publicity trip for Superman. Reeves schedule had him booked in Mexico,
Spain and Australia due to being signed on for another year playing
Superman and Lenore was just coming along for the trip- not getting
married. It was all wishful thinking on her part.
The fateful night-
So
the night is June 15th, 1959 and George had already retired for the
evening in the master bedroom which is located facing the back of the
house (not above the garage as many assume). Sometime around 12:30 a.m.
Lenore’s friends stopped by for a visit. George was awakened by the
noise and came down to see what the commotion was. He was not happy
about the late night visit as his open door policy of allowing guest in
to the home ended normally at 12 midnight, and this was well after that.
Nevertheless he welcomed his friends in and visited with them briefly
before bidding them goodnight and retiring back to the room.
Now
it has been said by the guests and Lenore herself, that she jokingly
mentioned “Oh he is probably going to go shoot himself now” as he went
up to bed. Whether that was some kind of joke or not, the shooting part
is exactly what happened.
So here is the part where we speak about the theories and the facts-
Some
say that Toni Mannix, who was so grief stricken from George having had
broken their relationship off to be with Lenore could have pushed her
over the edge to hire a hit man to kill George.
I don’t
buy that. Toni was a smart cookie, but definitely not a killer. She
taught George everything he knew about business and loved him dearly.
She was also much older than he was and knew how to maintain herself in
that element of scandals in Hollywood at that time.
Now
I won’t rule out that Eddie Mannix could have had something to do with
it. He loved his wife, although their relationship was far from a normal
one. He didn’t want to see her in pain and George did inflict pain on
his wife by breaking up with her. Eddie was known as the “Bulldog” of
MGM Studios and he had connections to high profile “fixers” with MGM
that were rumored to have possibly played a part in the death of Paul
Bern and other various scandals in Hollywood. It would not be a far fetched idea that Eddie was somehow involved.
But
what about Lenore? Ms. Lenore Lemmon was after his money and there
wasn’t a person out there that could say otherwise. Perhaps she found
out about George’s will and realized that even as his wife she would
still have had no rights to his estate. His will mentioned Toni Mannix
as the sole beneficiary.
George never agreed to marry
Lenore in the first place. Lenore went around telling everyone that she
was going to be George Reeves’ wife but there had never been an actual
engagement nor had there been any true plans for a wedding at all.
Saying you are engaged doesn’t mean that you are, and George was quoted
on several times actually replying “I never agreed to any of that” after
she had stated “we are engaged” to friends out in public places.
One
of the persons who was there the night of Reeves death later admitted
that Lenore had been upstairs when the shot rang out and that she rushed
downstairs distraught. She kept telling them over and over “You have to
say I was downstairs”. After pressuring her friends to cover for her
they then called the police to report the death, a whole 30 minutes
after the fact.
Then there is the mention of suicide-
George
was found on the bed, lying on his back. The gun was on the floor and
the shell casing was lying underneath him. There were no fingerprints on
the gun, and the police never checked for GSR on Reeves hands. His
head did not have GSR which shows that the gun was not touching his
temple at the time that the gun fired.
Now comes to the gun-
George’s
gun was a .30 caliber Luger Pistol. According to Bob Shell, a gun
expert and ammo maker “a .30 caliber Luger throws the casings to the
right & rear at various angles”. The gun would have had to have
been held upside down facing up in order for the casing to have shot out
and landed behind him before his body fell back onto the bed.
From
the trajectory of the gunshot wound, going from his right temple it
shows that the gun had to have been placed near his right temple at an
angle upwards.
Mind you, Reeves had a virtually
worthless right hand after having been severely injured in an auto
accident earlier. He was even on strong prescription pills for the pain
of his injury so it would have been nearly impossible for him to have
held the gun to his head, let alone pulled the trigger.
I
did my own little investigation and it is puzzling- if he had really
killed himself he would have had to have held the gun upside down in
order for the shell casing to have landed behind him, but at the same
time it is possible to think that someone else shot him as well. The
results remain inconclusive. In the police reports it is obvious that
their investigation had holes in it in the sense that they checked for
GSR on his head but not on his hands, and did not seem to find any
fingerprints on the gun, not even Reeves’.
So then if
he didn’t shoot himself and the gun was held upside down who did it, and
why? Obviously someone wanted to make it elaborately look like a
suicide?
Perhaps then it was just a tragic an accident?
Maybe
Lenore, being the big mouth she was, made a joke to him about shooting
himself and he chose to play a round of Russian roulette as he often
did. Perhaps he had her pretend to shoot him with it, and she did.
Maybe it wasn't a joke or Russian roulette at all. Maybe Lenore followed
George upstairs to belittle and criticize him as usual, perhaps she
had the gun and shot the gun to scare him. In the movie "Hollywood Land"
the first scenario of his death is quite possible. It would explain
how the two other bullet holes were made in the floor and how if George
was struggling to get the gun from Lenore's hand it could have been
facing upside down in the struggle and accidentally fired. Upon
realizing that she actually shot and killed him she rushed down the
stairs and conjured up a story for her friends to follow along with
until the police arrived.
The facts of the matter are
that George Reeves died. Could he have killed himself? Sure, anything is
possible. Could he have withstood the pain and disability in his right
hand to pull the trigger? I am sure it is possible. But why did he kill
himself a few days before his international trip to market the new
season of Superman?
Could Lenore have killed him either
intentionally or even by accident? I could say that is entirely
plausible and the most likely of all suspects. She was not a happy
person, she fought with George often and enjoyed belittling him any
chance she got. She was riding his coat tails as best as she could and
it is possible she got sick of him after he did not agree to marry her.
What
about Toni Mannix? I don’t believe she killed him or had anything to do
with his death. I do believe however that it is also a possibility that
Eddie Mannix her husband could have been involved without Toni having
any knowledge of it. Eddie Mannix was suspected of having his first wife
killed in a "make believe" car chase that ended in a fatal accident,
not unlike the car accident that Reeves' had been in that injured his
hand. There were rumors that the brakes had been cut or the brake fluid
had been drained in the Jaguar that Reeves was driving that crashed into
a brick wall. The police concluded that his car had slid on a patch of
oil in the road and crashed, however that theory had never been proven
to be true. The mystery of Eddie Mannix's first wife's death and the
car accident that injured Reeves' hand are still unsolved as well.
Sadly,
there is no way I can solve this mystery of how George Reeves died and
why. Reeves certainly isn’t talking. Unfortunately this will remain an
unsolved mystery that will be remembered in history.
The time that Superman wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet.
© J'aime Rubio- 2011 All Rights Reserved
originally published via Dreaming Casually 9/8/11
Sources:
Various Newspaper Archives
Gun Expert Bob Shell
http://writerbobshell.com/
