"The Mysterious Death of George Reeves" is a video made by Ryan Bergara and Shane Madej, uploaded onto YouTube on June 18, 2021. It was the first episode of the eighth season of BuzzFeed Unsolved: True Crime, and the one hundredth and eleventh episode overall. You can find it here.
Description[]
A Hollywood actor is found dead - was it suicide or murder?
Background[]
George Keefer Brewster was born in Woolstock, Iowa on January 5th, 1914. When he was 15, George moved to Pasadena, California with his mother. There, he excelled as a musician, an amateur boxer, and an actor at the Pasadena Playhouse where he was discovered by a casting director. He signed a contract with Warner Brothers and was cast any minor role in "Gone with the Wind."
In 1943, George played the lead in the film "So Proudly We Hail" and was on the cusp of stardom before being sent to war. After returning, George struggled to regain traction in his movie career and shifted to the burgeoning world of live television.
In 1952, Reeves was cast as the lead in the television show "Adventures of Superman." Today, being selected as the lead of a comic book-based series means you're financially set. But in the 50s, neither comic books nor television were the big money makers they are today. While the show didn't make Reeves rich, it did make him famous, specifically as the face of Superman.
Unfortunately for Reeves, because everyone knew him as the Man of Steel, Reeves found it impossible to book any non-Kryptonian roles. George began to struggle with alcohol and sought ways to take better financial advantage of being Superman. Reeves began appearing in promotions in his Superman costume and booking exhibition wrestling events. While they provided a little extra cash, these extra appearances also involved assuming more danger. One unverified his story featured a young boy attending a Superman appearance with a loaded gun, hoping to see if bullets really did bounce off his hero. According to the story, Reeves quickly explained to the boy that while the bullets would indeed bounce off of him, they would then ricochet into the crowd and take down innocent bystanders. The fib worked, and the boy was disarmed.
By 1959, Reeves had appeared in over 100 episodes of "Superman." He had begun dating Leonore Lemmon, a New York socialite who had previously been married to a Vanderbilt heir, and reports even state he and Lemmon were making plans to soon be married. On June 15th, the couple left Reeves's home at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills for dinner and drinks. House guest and writer Robert Condon, who was planning on writing a book on Reeves, stayed behind. Reeves and Lemmon returned to the house around 11:00 PM. Around midnight, Reeves climbed the steps to the upstairs bedroom, retiring for the night. Around this time, reports say Lemmon went to turn on the porch light, a signal meant to indicate the home was open for visitors, even though it was after midnight in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Lemmon's inviting light apparently did the trick, as soon, two neighbors swung by, William Bliss and Carol Van Ronkel. There were rumors that Van Ronkel was having an affair with Condon, but Bliss was likely a total stranger in the Reeves household. Around 1:00 AM, Reeves came back downstairs, "in no mood for a party". Reeves was reportedly visibly irritated and threatened to throw Bliss out of his home.
After a bit, Reeves apologized for his bad mood and turned to walk back upstairs. Police reports describe what happened next. Lemmon, Condon, Van Ronkel, and Bliss listened as Reeves climbed the stairs. They heard his bedside drawer slide open and then a single gunshot. Bliss ran upstairs and discovered the dead body of George Reeves on the bed. When police arrived, Lemmon, Condon, Bliss, and Van Ronkel were drinking together downstairs. Reeves was found naked, lying on the blood-soaked bed with his feet on the ground. He had been shot in the right temple. A bullet casing was found under his body, and a nine-millimeter German Luger was on the ground between his feet. Blood splatter traveled all the way to the ceiling where the bullet was lodged.
Theories[]
- The first theory is the same conclusion drawn by the Los Angeles coroner's office, suicide. According to the coroner's report, "the position of Reeves's body on the bed, the angle of the bullet's path, and the autopsy findings all point to suicide." Reeves had put the gun to his right temple and fired, simple as that.
- Somewhat suspiciously, Lemmon, Reeves's fiance, jokingly predicted George was gonna kill himself moments before his death. The police report states that when Reeves left to go back upstairs, Lemmon told the downstairs group, "he is going to shoot himself." When the foursome next heard the bedside drawer open, Lemmon went further saying, "he is getting the gun out now, and he is going to shoot himself." According to the "LA Times" report the next day, Lemmon claimed she was "only kidding" as she grimly narrated the death of her fiance.
- Many point to Reeves's stalled career as a potential explanation for taking his own life. The only non Superman roles he'd had of late were either greatly scaled back or featured him wearing heavy disguises so audiences wouldn't associate him with the Man of Steel. Turner Classic Movies, however, has reported that rumors about Reeves's stagnated career may have been exaggerated. TCM suggests that apart from upcoming seasons of "Superman," Reeves was being considered for the role of Detective Milton Arbogast in Alfred Hitchcock's upcoming film "Psycho."
- According to EJ Fleming, author of the book "The Fixers," which in part details the circumstances around George's death, there were also several incongruities with the way in which the body was found. Reeves was totally naked, meaning he'd either had to have been naked when he went downstairs, a detail that the guests likely would have remembered, or between returning to his bedroom and shooting himself, he would have had to strip to the nude, an uncommon occurrence in suicides. The location of the body, bullet, gun, and shell casing relative to one another are also somewhat suspicious. Fleming argues that George most likely would have fallen forward, not backwards onto the bed. For the bullet to make it to the ceiling, George's head would have had to have been nearly horizontal at the time of firing. For this to have been true, one would expect the gun to have been found either on George's side or still in his hand, not on the floor between his feet. Finally, the bullet casing would likely have been on the floor, not underneath the body, according to Fleming.
- Reeves's mother publicly contested the suicide theory, convinced her son would not have killed himself and there were no reports of a suicide note. There are some reports that, before a full autopsy could take place, the body had already been embalmed or at least washed, meaning traces of gunpowder that would have been on his hands or face had he fired the gun himself were long gone.
- Some reports also detail unexplained bruises on his body, and, according to Fleming, George's trainer who had seen him earlier that day did not see any bruises on him.
- George was accidentally shot, perhaps by Lemmon. Lemmon was known for her "Vesuvian" temper tantrums, and despite the fact that she claimed she and George were about to be wed, George apparently never publicly acknowledged this. An article in April even reported their wedding was off. Perhaps Lemmon was upset at George's lack of commitment, resulting in a fight where Lemmon accidentally shot George.
- Bolstering this theory's case is the fact that, in addition to the one that had passed through George's brain, two other bullets from the same gun had been shot through the floor of the bedroom. When asked about these, Lemmon claimed one was from an accident a few days prior when she was "fooling around" with the Luger. No explanation was ever given for the other bullet. Despite this, LA police chief William Parker told the press he believed the extra bullets were of no significance. Soon after George's death, Lemmon left for New York, never to return to LA again.
- Reeves was murdered, possibly the result of being ensnared in a web of bitter lovers. While reports state that Reeves was set to marry Lemmon, he had only begun seeing her about six months before his death. For most of the 1950s, George was practically married to a different woman, one Toni Mannix.
- Practically married was the best the couple could do, as Toni was already married to one Eddie Mannix. Eddie was an infamous fixer in Hollywood who built a career for himself solving "problems" for MGM co-founder and studio head Louis B. Mayer. Such problems ranged from gambling to the mob from abortions to even rape and death. Eddie's life even loosely inspired the film "Hail, Caesar!" Because of this job, Mannix would have been very familiar with using dirty methods to get what he wanted. He had grown up with unsolved alumnus Bugsy Siegel and was said to have connections with LA mobster Mickey Cohen. Eddie was even thought to have had his first wife killed in 1937 in a car accident.
- Despite Eddie's serious line of business, George likely did not feel threatened by Mannix while he was dating the fixer's wife. In fact, by all appearances, Eddie fully supported Toni and George's affair. Eddie would sometimes tag along with Toni on her dates with George, sometimes as a third wheel, other times bringing his own mistress along. There are even reports that George would go on vacation with the Mannixes with Eddie bringing another woman in addition to his wife. At the time of his death, Reeves's house, car, even his clothes had all been paid for by Toni.
- Due to Eddie's tolerance and even encouragement of Toni and George's relationship, it's not the affair but the disillusion of the affair that leads some to suspect either of the Mannixes. Toni was reportedly inconsolable after Reeves left her for Lemmon. According to rumors, she even stole George's pet Schnauzer for revenge, knowing it would break his heart. Some suspect Eddie could have planned George's death out of devotion to his upset wife. It's also possible Toni herself commissioned George's death with some of Eddie's guys without Eddie's knowledge.
- Lending credence to this theory, author EJ Fleming details that George survived a series of suspicious "accidents" in the months before his death, which would jive with Eddie's modus operandi. In April, for instance, George was in a horrific car accident on the street he lived on. He crashed into a cement pole and was partially ejected through his windshield, resulting in a days-long hospitalization. A mechanic found George's car had had its brake fluid seemingly drained.
- Some sources claimed the gun that killed Reeves belonged to Eddie, though the police stated Reeves had bought the gun. Unfortunately, the gun ended up being less helpful than it could have been in the investigation. The firearm had recently been oiled and did not retain any fingerprints. Casting doubt on the murder theory is the fact that the bedroom upstairs reportedly had no windows, meaning an assassin would have had to sneak past the four people downstairs to get to their target. Some people point to William Bliss's appearance as being suspicious for this reason. Perhaps Bliss who, recall, was essentially unknown to Reeves but nevertheless at his house at 1:00 AM on a Tuesday was used as a distraction while a second man went upstairs to kill Reeves. This would also explain why Bliss was the one to dash upstairs after hearing the gunshot, despite being the one least connected to the actor.
- Perhaps no one was as convinced that Reeves had been murdered as Toni Mannix. At 4:30 AM on the morning George died, Toni placed a call to Phyllis Coates who played Lois Lane in the first season of "Adventures of Superman." Coates claimed years later that Toni told her, "the boy is dead. He's been murdered." In 1999, publicist Edward Lozzi, who had become close to Toni when she was in her 70s, detailed being in the room when Toni who was "absolutely terrified of going to hell," confessed to a priest that she and Eddie had had Reeves killed. Lozzi claimed that the priest told him not to tell anyone about the confession or it would endanger his life. Lozzi only came forward after he believed anyone who could do anything to him was already dead.