The Death of the Original Superman, George Reeves

**Discussion begins at 5:00**

Before there was Henry Cavill, Tom Welling, Dean Cain, or Christopher Reeve… there was the OG Superman… George Reeves was an actor in the 1930s, who’s burgeoning career stalled when he enlisted in WW2.  After the war he struggled to find parts, and in need of money, he begrudgingly accepted the role of Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman. The show was a hit, but led to type casting.  As a result, he had difficulty being taken seriously for other acting opportunities.  Off-screen, Reeves' personal life was tumultuous. He had a long-term affair with Toni Mannix, the wife of MGM executive Eddie Mannix, and later became engaged to a younger woman, Leonore Lemmon.  These overlapping relationships, combined with career frustrations and financial stress, ultimately led to him being found dead of a a gunshot wound to the head in his Beverly Hills home on June 16, 1959 – a home his former girlfriend Toni had bought him.  Was it suicide, as is listed as the official cause of death?  The death was never adequately investigated, and there were discrepancies in the scene.  Witnesses in the house gave conflicting stories, there were delays in calling the police, and multiple bullet holes were reportedly found in the room.  Additionally, Reeves’ fingerprints were not found on the gun, and some friends claimed he was in good spirits in the days leading up to his death.  Who had motive?  Was it his fiancée - annoyed by his behavior that night and frustrated that he wasn't committed to getting married?  Was it his ex, Toni Mannix, who was heartbroken and had been stalking the engaged couple to the point that he had attempted to obtain a restraining order?  Or was it her husband, Eddie Mannix who was to blame? After all, he had mob and police connections as the VP of MGM, and was tired of hearing his wife obsess over George.  

Transcript

Welcome back.

We told the people, Kait is on medical leave, but I do think she's been experiencing some of the-

Big Pharma.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're anti-Big Pharma.

Yeah.

So maybe she'll have some findings for us when she comes back in two weeks.

Woohoo.

This is our last-

Regular episode.

Regular episode of Season 2.

Season 2.

Oh my God.

We'll come back next week.

We'll have the season.

The season of love.

Then we'll have wrapped up two years of the podcast.

I know.

Oh my God.

That's crazy.

Anything new you want to share with the people?

Today we're recording from a new location.

Yes.

This is the first recording at Colleen's new apartment.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Megan came and did all my chores for me.

She hung my lights.

She's going to hang my curtains.

Well, can we just pause when I said I would come help her.

This morning I sent her a text.

I said, do you have a drill?

Oh, yeah.

Do you have bits?

She said, I have a nail and hammers and she's got these light fixtures she wants mounted.

I mean, I had a screwdriver.

Do you think I could have done that with a screwdriver?

No.

Oh.

I was just picturing you with a hammer banging your light fixture.

Well, I mean, you're not not wrong, but I probably would have put it up with command strips at one point, would have tried that.

But the lamp shade is solid glass and heavy.

Yeah.

Well, you know what, though, we all have our strengths.

You had quite a vision.

I think this place is coming together beautifully.

I think it looks pretty cute.

It does.

And next time maybe we'll be recording from Kate's new location.

Yeah, Kate's new location is cute, too.

And we're just making Megan be our handyman.

Well, to be fair, I think she had some.

She had her dad and her father-in-law.

That's true.

And probably Bourbon Boy playing with the stud finder.

Yeah.

Megan brought her own stud finder today, guys.

I was so...

And I said...

I was like, oh my God.

If I were Bourbon Boy, I'd be cracking some joke about where the stud is, you know?

And then Kate...

And then Kate promptly goes, did anyone make a joke about where the stud is?

Because Bourbon Boy would have done that.

And I was like, yep, I was 30 minutes ahead of you on that joke.

Okay.

So before we get into it, let's do our...

Drink check.

Drink check.

This is one of Kate's faves.

So sorry she's missing it.

I don't know if I've ever had like a legit one of these.

Bourbon Boy hasn't made you an old fashioned?

No, because he knows better.

Oh.

I don't always drink straight liquor.

Well, what do you think of this?

I think it tastes good.

It's kind of sweet.

It's a nice bourbon.

What was the bourbon of choice for this one?

We're using Buffalo Trace.

Buffalo Trace.

Oh, it's got like a smoky flavor to it.

Because we did the extra step.

I made the old-fashioned.

We used Buffalo Trace.

My dad gave me a couple of his bourbon-flavored cherries and we topped it off with the smoker, so.

Yeah, the smoke really pulls through.

You know how much you would pay for this at a bar?

A drink like this, I bet it would be 15 on the cheaper side.

I was thinking like 20.

15 to 18 is probably what I was gonna say.

But I think I greatly enjoy it.

I love the quality of ice it came with.

The giant ice cube, I always find those so impressive.

I love some ice balls.

Yep.

So let's get into it.

This is a listener request.

Who requested this?

Jillian.

Oh, Jillian, okay.

Yeah, Jillian said, you know what's coming out next week?

And we said, what, Jillian?

The Superman movie.

Oh, yeah.

Is it that Marvel?

That's DC.

Oh, I should have known that, because when I get into this, when I get into the story, there's a lot of DC.

It talks about DC, yeah.

You're right.

My bad.

That's so embarrassing.

That is kind of embarrassing on your part.

And historically, the DC re-do's have not been doing well.

So I'm intrigued just to hear how this one goes.

Well, I don't even know who's playing Superman.

He looks like Superman, I'll tell you what, tall, dark hair, curly, handsome.

I can't remember what else he's in.

But it's not Henry.

David Cornsweat.

Is Superman.

Is Superman.

What's his previous work?

I'm trying to see.

I don't know if I've...

He was in Twisters, which I still haven't seen.

The new one?

Yeah.

Oh.

Twisters.

We should watch that.

Oh, he was in House of Cards.

He was in House of Cards.

The Politician, Hollywood.

Look both ways.

Pearl.

We own this city.

Lady and the Lake.

All of this is to say that next week, the new Superman movie is coming out.

And in honor of that, we are going to revisit the Superman curse and specifically the original Superman, George Reeves and his mysterious death.

Oh, I didn't...

How many Superman...

Is this like James Bond?

How many have there been?

Well, this is my introduction.

Oh, it's all a part of the intro.

Just know, here's what I wrote.

Before there was Henry Cavill or Tom Welling, Dean Cain or Christopher Reeve, we had the OG Superman, George Reeves.

So initially Superman was a cartoon.

George Reeves was the first Superman on television.

Then we had Christopher Reeve in the movies.

I remember he had that tragic...

I actually only know Henry Cavill as Superman.

So Christopher Reeve had a horseback riding accident in Culpepper, Virginia.

Oh, he's a local.

Broke his neck.

Oh my God.

And paralyzed for a number of years before eventually dying.

I can't believe you aren't familiar.

And then there was Chris, remember Dean Cain was in...

What does Christopher Reeves look like?

Maybe I do know him.

You know him.

Dean Cain was in the Superman TV show with Terry Hatcher, who was Lois Lane.

Okay.

That was sort of like when I was growing.

This is the OG Superman right here.

This is Christopher Reeve.

Show me.

Oh, okay.

No, I recognize him now.

Yeah.

I don't know if I've seen this Superman, though.

And then we had some.

He was handsome.

And then so then we had Dean Cain.

That was a TV show.

And then when I was in high school, Smallville.

Oh, I used to beg to stay up to watch Smallville.

I loved that show.

I've just been rewatching it on something.

I can't remember what it's on now.

Well, what you'll note is.

The guy in that one.

Oh, my gosh.

Maybe not so much Dean Cain.

He's doing like Lifetime and Hallmark movies.

But all of these like Tom Welling really hasn't done.

He's had a couple little movie parts.

That's the Smallville one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's not really been in much.

They all just like get the Superman curse and they get typecast and they can't get other roles.

So we'll talk about that today.

Well, Henry Cavill is doing pretty good.

And then we had Henry Cavill.

Yeah.

Well, maybe it's because he's British.

And he just did like one.

I mean, again, these people were all in like in.

I mean, what else did Henry Cavill do?

I mean, Tom Welling had like 10 seasons or something of Smallville, right?

And like and Christopher Reeve, I think was in multiple movie.

I think it's like maybe maybe just Henry Cavill doing like a well.

And Henry Cavill did Superman and then like The Witcher.

Like what else has he done now other than those two?

And he's no longer The Witcher.

I don't know.

I also I talk a lot of talk, but I don't I don't follow him.

So I really wouldn't know what he's doing.

Oh, he's been actually he was a Batman versus Superman and Man of Steel.

That were all not good.

They were all not good.

Justice League.

He was good in the the the gnome.

The movie.

He was an Argyle, which isn't that the one that they allegedly was by Taylor Smith.

I forgot about that.

The tutors.

He's been in stuff.

He's had a career.

Maybe the difference too is that he had a career before.

He's kind of a family man.

I thought Smallville had like 10 seasons.

Yes, 10 seasons.

I love Smallville.

He was so handsome.

He was also in like.

I remember he was in Cheaper by the Dozen.

Yeah, I was just going to say Cheaper by the Dozen.

He was like the older brother.

Yeah.

He's handsome.

He was in Lucifer.

I liked Lucifer.

Oh, the show?

Yeah.

I didn't know you watched that show.

I like that show.

OK.

I'm sorry.

It's like a police procedural show.

Yeah, you're right.

I kind of forgot.

But it's also sci-fi.

I feel like you don't really watch sci-fi.

Not so much.

Anyways.

So that was a nice little recap.

But again, we're talking about George Reeves, who again...

Horseback guy.

No, that's Christopher Reeve.

Oh.

Christopher Reeve.

Oh my God.

Wait, I didn't...

That's what I'm saying.

That's two different names.

That's what I'm saying.

There's a superman curse.

OK.

So we're talking about George Reeves.

OK.

The very first human to play, like before this, they had a cartoon, right?

But the very first person who portrayed Superman, George Reeves.

OK.

So he was an actor in the 1930s.

He had this burgeoning career that sort of stalled when he enlisted in World War II.

And he was promised, like, you know, when you come back from the war, we're going to make you a star.

Right.

So unfortunately, though, after the war, he struggled to find parts because the movie industry was sort of struggling and he just didn't have that forward momentum that he had had.

So, in need of money, he begrudgingly accepted the role of Superman in the television series Adventures of Superman.

The show was a hit, but led to typecasting and he had difficulty being taken seriously for other acting opportunities.

Off screen, Reeves' personal life was tumultuous.

He had a long-term affair with Toni Mannix, the wife of MGM executive Eddie Mannix, and later became engaged to a younger woman, Leonore Lemmon.

Ooh, I like her name.

These overlapping relationships, combined with career frustrations and financial stress, ultimately led to him being found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in his Beverly Hills home on June 16th, 1959, a home his former girlfriend, Toni Mannix, had purchased for him.

Oh my gosh.

Was it truly suicide?

The death was never adequately investigated, and there were discrepancies in the scenes.

Witnesses in the house gave conflicting stories, there were delays in calling the police, and multiple bullet holes were reportedly found in the room.

Additionally, Reeves fingerprints were not found on the gun, and some friends claimed that he was in good spirits in the days leading up to his death.

So who had motive?

Was it his fiancee that he had been fighting with and potentially planning to cancel the wedding?

Was it his ex-girlfriend, Toni Mannix, who was heartbroken and had been stalking the engaged couple to the point that he had attempted to obtain a restraining order?

Or was it her husband, Eddie Mannix, who was to blame?

After all, he had mob and police connections as the VP of MGM.

Was he tired of just hearing his wife obsess over George?

Mob and police connections?

Red flag.

This is a different era.

That sounds like a red flag to me.

So knowing nothing, you're intrigued by Eddie Mannix?

I am.

I'm intrigued.

I mean, no fingerprints on the gun, but they think it was suicide?

Was he wearing a goddamn glove?

Like, no, no, not a single print.

No prints.

No, I don't believe it was suicide at all then.

Well, hold on, wait, what year was this?

Fact check?

They were doing fingerprints then.

Oh, okay.

That's where I was going.

You said that once on an earlier episode.

And we've already searched it.

Hathi lost her mind because she was like, they've been fingerprinting since like the 1800s.

Okay.

This was 1959.

But how accurate, you know what I mean?

I think fingerprints were pretty accurate.

Like they would have found prints if they were prints.

Like we'll talk about the gunshot residue.

That is something that maybe was not routinely checked for at this time.

But like, I think fingerprints.

Okay.

I don't know what the limit is.

You know what I mean?

I don't know what's too modern to ask.

I was born in the era of everything growing and developing.

I know.

And that's why Hathi is like, there was a whole world before 1990.

And I believe you, but it was not nearly as advanced as it is now.

97, yeah.

You're right.

I've been thinking, we have done a number now of deaths.

And like possible suicides.

And as someone who says that she's not a conspiracy theorist, that's me, I do feel like I seem to always think the deaths are 100% a cover up.

Every time.

Well, you're also a crime junkie, right?

So you have a perspective on crime too.

And like, you look for these patterns already.

And already it's sounding like...

You're giving me a lot of credit.

Thank you.

Yeah.

You could solve a murder.

So I did want to go into this with like an open mind.

Cause I was like, why do I just always think that these...

But you know what?

It's cause it's always fishy.

Every time.

They don't make it easy for us.

I'm like...

So let me give you some more details here and then we'll see, see where you stand.

Okay?

Let's hear it.

So George Reeves was born George Keifer Brewer.

He was an American actor, best known for playing Superman in the 1950s television series Adventures of Superman.

He was initially born in Wollstock, Iowa on January 5th, 1914, and he moved to California with his mother several years later.

During high school, he got into singing and acting, and he was performing at the Pasadena Playhouse, where he was recruited for a small part in the opening scene of Gone with the Wind.

Have you seen it?

I feel like that'd be up your alley.

Gone with the Wind?

Yeah.

I think I would greatly enjoy it.

I've just never, it's kind of a long movie, isn't it?

Yeah.

If it's more than an hour and a half, I have a hard time.

Okay, so this led him to contracts with Warner Brothers and then later 20th Century Fox.

But again, he sounds like he had kind of a mid career.

He was in a lot of B-list movies.

And he was, I'm unclear if he was drafted or he volunteered, but he went into the US Army Air Forces in 1943.

It's like the OG Air Force.

And he was in their first motion picture unit where he was on a Broadway show.

So I didn't know you could be in the military.

And that was your commitment.

Thank you for serving, sir.

Sounds like a cover up for something else.

And then he went into making all these like training videos and everything.

This is like Captain America, how Captain America does all like the, he toured while they were at war and saying to all the soldiers, it always goes back to Marvel.

After the war, he returns to Hollywood and again, he has like, he's getting some work, but like nothing great.

He was, he starred in two best picture films, so that's kind of exciting.

But again, he just didn't really take off.

His career had stalled, he wasn't getting a lot of parts.

And in 1951, he was offered the role of Superman, who was the protagonist of a comic strip created by two young Jewish immigrants who were high school classmates.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster.

It had previously been adapted for radio, and now they wanted to adapt it to a TV show.

And he didn't really want this role because TV was sort of considered like menial work.

It's obviously a lot of work because you have to film a lot of episodes, but like not everyone was watching TV back then.

It was a TV show.

It was like a morning.

Yeah.

And then there's like a lot of things about, was he upset that like he only had fame with children?

But then a lot of people are like, that's not true.

He knew he had adult fans and like some people are like, he really resented this role.

But people say like, he really didn't talk that negatively about it.

Took it seriously.

So assumptions.

Hard to say, but the rumors are that he was like, he never really loved this role, but this was like, he had to pay his bills.

You know?

Okay.

The show was a huge success, but his contract had a clause that the studio could call him to film with 30 Days of Notice.

So like it's really, you can't really be in the middle of like a movie if you constantly had to go back for the show.

But have to go back to the show.

But don't they go through seasons of recording?

It wasn't like that.

Yeah, it sounds like they were doing a lot of it.

And I think I saw this also in some of the early Superman movies with like the Christopher Reeve movie.

I saw they were recording like the first and the filming the first and second at the same time.

But like, for example, they would film all of the Daily Planet scenes for like the whole season at once to save money.

Yeah.

And then, oh, and then had to refilm for edits.

And then if they get through it, they're like, oh, we need, yeah, then you.

Oh, that's annoying.

Yeah.

And so again, he was able to book some other work, but it was kind of few and far between.

And really, he just became known for Superman.

He had to supplement his income.

So he would do a lot of like character engagements and tours of Superman.

But people say, you know, in his mid 40s, he was he was kind of right at the time of his death when he was 45.

He was getting concerned about his ability to like, how long can I wear this costume and do these stunts and people believe I'm Superman, you know?

Accurate.

Yeah.

Like, you know, Superman is also not supposed to age.

Is that true?

Actually, I don't know.

I thought he doesn't age, but maybe I don't know.

I mean, how did Tom Welling grow up?

Well, I don't think he looked that old.

Like, I don't make it.

I don't know.

I know.

I don't know.

I mean, Tom Welling in Captain America doesn't age.

So maybe I'm just morphing them.

I mean, in Smallville, he's found as a baby or as a toddler.

Oh, wait, hold up.

You're right.

And then he goes through high school and he grows up and then he moves to the metropolis.

Does he become an old man or does he like flat toe for a while?

I don't know.

Why don't you Google that?

I'm so confused.

Why don't you look that up?

Superman does age, but significantly slower than humans.

His Kryptonian physiology combined with the Yellow Sun's energy allows him to absorb and metabolize solar radiation, which both enhances his powers and slows down cellular decay, a primary cause of aging.

So Lois Lane is going to be 100 and he's going to still look 50?

Yeah, it's like Bella and Edward.

Some other fun facts I do have about George, though, the actor.

He actually was in the 1932 Olympics boxing.

Really?

That's a flex.

He, there's this rumor, and I couldn't actually find proof of it.

So this might just be like a story that's been circulating, but there is this story that he was like, again, he had to supplement his income by going to like fairs and stuff dressed up as Superman.

And there was this interaction with this young boy who had taken a Luger from his father, who had brought it home from World War II, and brought it to this vent, and wanted to see if Superman was really...

Super strong.

Was really impenetrable, right?

Okay, oh no.

And that Reeves actually convinced the boy to give him the gun by saying that, yeah, those guns are not, those bullets are not going to hurt me, but they're going to ricochet off me and kill someone else.

Oh my God.

And the boy handed him the gun and he de-escalated the thing.

And that's the story that people like always reference, like look at what this like great guy was, and he was so good with the kids.

But I don't have any proof that that happened.

But he definitely did like, he eventually gave up smoking because he was trying to be like a good...

Oh, he knew kids were looking at him.

And he has, we're going to talk a lot.

Yeah, we're going to talk a lot about his personal life, but he tried to really keep that out of the world.

Yeah.

But anyway, in his personal life, because that's going to, when we get into the murder scene...

You're not going to tell me he's a bad guy.

No, I don't think so.

But let's just talk about, because we got to figure out like what, if he didn't kill himself, who had motives.

Let me tell you about his personal life.

Okay.

He had gotten married when he was young, with someone he met at the Pasadena Playhouse.

They were married for almost a decade, never had any children.

When he came back from the war, he divorced her.

It was a change.

That was the end of it.

All that trauma he saw on Broadway.

TSC.

So leading up to his death, he had had a relationship with Toni Mannix.

She was a show girl who was eight years older than him.

And also the wife of a studio executive, former MGM vice president, Eddie Mannix, who, as I said, had mob and police connections.

So apparently Eddie knew about the affair, but didn't really care.

Like this was a pretty open relationship and they were all good.

But that's the story.

But again, she bought him his car.

She bought him this house.

She was like a sugar mama.

Yes, she was a sugar mama.

How old was he at this time?

Like in his 20s?

Probably like 40.

Oh, he's older.

Yeah.

Okay.

But then he meets Lenore Lemmon.

I like that name.

A New York socialite lounge singer.

She was a little bit younger.

So he drops his sugar mama and proposes to, how do I pronounce her name?

Leonore.

Looks like it should be Lenore, but Leonore is how, when I Googled pronunciation.

Leonore Lemmon.

That sounds like a fake name.

Not the show name.

So he ends it with Toni and he proposes to Lenore six months into their relationship.

Okay.

Little risque.

Was she pregnant?

No, but they had a very turbulent relationship because there are rumors that like, so she was sort of problematic to begin with.

She had been banned from a lot of clubs in New York.

She got into fights a lot.

Everyone's like, they were just doing a lot of drinking together and they were fighting a lot.

There's also stories like she thought she was marrying Superman and then she finds out that like he's really not that financially well off and really his ex-girlfriend had been financially everything.

Exactly.

And so were they having some issues?

They were supposedly going to be married three days later, but another theory is that maybe he was like, you know what, I don't want this in my life and he wasn't going to marry her.

That's brutal.

So that's kind of what was happening.

Also, he had had three serious car accidents leading up to his death.

Oh, something's wrong with him.

He had had a brain concussion.

Oh, no.

He was prescribed painkillers and we know he was mixing with heavy alcohol use.

And so potentially was he like, you know, more volatile leading up to his death?

Okay.

Maybe I'm getting more convinced.

Yeah.

That's potential suicide.

Yeah.

Okay.

So sounds like a minty bee.

The evening of June 15th, Robert Condon.

Condom?

C-O-N-D-O-N.

Well, Condon.

Robert Condon.

Condon?

I don't know.

He's a writer.

He was doing an article on, there was actually going to make an exhibition boxy match because again, he's like just trying to find ways to make money.

And so this writer was doing a piece on them.

And so Leonore, Robert and Reeves, they go out to dinner, they're out drinking, they come home around 11 o'clock, George goes to bed and then their neighbors, Bill Bliss and Carol Bonronkel come knocking on the door at about midnight.

So they come in, they join Leonore and Robert and they're having some drinks.

And apparently, George comes downstairs in his bathrobe and he's like ranting at them about like, it's after midnight.

Oh no.

You know, you're being loud.

What are you doing here?

You guys should go home.

Then apparently they said he sat down, he had a drink with the guests, and then he went upstairs to go to bed.

And he shot himself.

Lemmon, now there's, and we're gonna talk more details about this a little bit later, but Lemmon starts telling the other guests that he's sulking, he's probably gonna go shoot himself now.

And then they claim they heard a single gunshot, and they go up and they discover him dead in his bed.

It takes them 45 minutes before they call 911.

Hold on, I'm being convinced other ways now.

Back and forth.

Hold up.

45 minutes.

45 minutes.

Why?

So George Reeves was upstairs on his bed naked.

Apparently that's an odd way to commit suicide, totally naked, is what the Google tells me.

I mean, I wouldn't want to be found naked ever.

No, but that's also how Marilyn Monroe was found.

Well, we didn't believe in Gildergo either.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

So he was naked with a luger on the floor between his feet.

That's a gun.

That's a gun.

And a single bullet hole in the head.

This is gruesome, but like where in the head?

I'm so happy you asked.

It went in his right temple, out his left temple, and lodged in the ceiling.

And he's a righty.

Yes.

And then when he shot himself, it appears as though he fell back onto his back.

The case was open and shut.

In fact, there were no photos taken of the scene, and nobody was ever brought in for questioning.

Because it looked that obvious as a suicide, is what they claim, I assume.

And we're going to talk about also part of why, maybe why that wasn't investigated.

Yeah, hold on.

And Reeves' mother disagreed with the suicide theory.

She actually hired an investigator who found a lot of discrepancies.

He claimed to believe that he thought George Reeves was a victim of foul play, but he could not definitively prove it.

And so then George Reeves gets buried.

His mother eventually exumes him to cremate him.

And then he is now interned between his mom and his aunt in a California cemetery.

Okay.

So some of the discrepancies that we're going to discuss here in the crime scene.

Will you ask why did they wait 45 minutes?

Were they cleaning up a crime or were they just frazzled because they were all at this like crazy level of intoxication?

Okay, but like frazzled for 45 minutes?

Well, people like, were they trying to sober up?

Were they trying to clean up a crime scene?

It's not like they were going to get arrested for being drunk in their own home.

Call 911.

So 45 minutes to get a phone call.

That's like red flag number one.

The witnesses were so inebriated, they weren't able to provide a straight statement to the police.

So we have-

Even after 45 minutes?

Well, we have, yes, we have four people-

They're that drunk.

In the house.

Hold on, okay.

Four people in the house, and the police asked some questions in that moment.

They all are giving these wild different stories, then they're all clearly drunk, but they never say like, hey, why don't you come on down to the-

Resinct and give us a-

Or even like, hey, sober up and come back tomorrow.

There was no follow-up question.

This is a throwback to Marilyn Monroe.

Guess where the sheets were when-

In the wash?

In the wash.

I bet they were faking being drunk.

Well, we know he was for sure drunk.

There were no fingerprints on the gun.

None at all.

None.

So it was wiped.

Completely wiped.

Not Reeves' fingerprints.

No.

No one in this house.

Zero fingerprints.

Red flag.

Remember I told you, the witnesses, while giving kind of discombobulated statements, they all said they heard one shot.

How many bullets were missing?

Well, we don't know how many were missing the gun because no one ever counted.

But there were two additional bullets discovered embedded in the bedroom floor.

All three of the bullets had been fired from the weapon found at Reeves' feet, though all witnesses agreed they'd only heard one shot.

Leonore claimed that she was playing with the gun on another occasion several days earlier and it accidentally discharged and that's all that was.

But weird.

If she played with it days before and her prints weren't on the gun.

This is weird.

The no prints is the biggest red flag to me.

Yeah.

The police never checked Reeves' fingers for gunshot wound residue, because again, I think it was probably less common then, but they did check his body, his head.

There was no gunshot residue on his head, indicating that the gun would have had to have been over a foot away from his head.

Somebody shot him.

The shell casing from the spent bullet was found underneath his back.

He was laying on top of the spent shell casing from the gun, and everyone's saying that the casing should have flown away from the body.

It should have been found maybe elsewhere on the bed or on the ground, but how did he end up on top of the spent casing?

Yeah, what?

That investigation that his mother did noted bruises to his head and body.

No one ever investigated where did these bruises come from?

I don't know.

He was like a Superman.

Yeah, and he was a boxer.

Yeah, he was getting ready for boxing, so maybe that's not as exciting.

There are theories we're getting to that someone came into the room and shot him.

I will say there was no evidence that someone else was in the room either.

We just have evidence that the bullet wasn't.

We just have evidence that there were multiple gun bullets shot.

And then it likely wasn't from next to him.

That it wasn't from up against his head, as one would usually shoot themselves.

Right.

And he was naked, which is odd.

It's all so weird.

I will also say, even though the mom is adamant that this wasn't suicide, I did discover they were not super close.

Oh, him and his mother?

Yeah.

She had actually lied to him about who his birth father was.

Oh, my God.

So she was pregnant.

She got pregnant out of wedlock and they hurried up and got married.

And so he was born five months into the marriage.

But that's a no-no.

So she was lying to him his entire life about his birthday.

In fact, when she buried him, she put the wrong birthday on his-

She put his lied birthday or the-

No, she just messed up.

She just put it random.

She didn't even know the day she'd been lying to him about.

Oh, my God.

What a horrible mom.

And when he was visiting family, his stepdad, who he thought was his dad, who had actually adopted him.

Okay.

He sounds like a good man.

His stepdad left.

Okay.

So George's mom tells George, oh, your dad died while you were gone.

But he just left.

But he had just left.

So he thinks for like a decade that his real dad, who's not even his dad, has died.

And the stepdad's probably like, why hasn't he reached out to me this whole time?

I mean, or maybe this-

Yeah, I don't know.

Or maybe the stepdad was like, I need space from this crazy woman, who was George's mom.

Who's this that?

So anyway, the point is that they actually didn't speak for like a decade.

It sounds like they were on good terms at the time of his death, but I'm just saying that maybe she didn't really know everything there was to know about him and his current life.

Yeah, I was like, come on.

But she adamant, I mean, she died saying like, he did not kill himself.

He was murdered.

Was there a letter?

There was no note.

So, you're leaning towards murder.

I don't know.

Like, I could probably believe that his mental state wasn't well after knowing everything.

Well, let me tell you.

But the No Prince is crazy to me.

Yeah.

I'm having a really hard time.

The gunshot residue too is, okay.

So let me give you the theories here then.

So theory one, the official story, suicide.

Again, his fiance claims that he was so depressed, he was struggling to find work outside of Superman.

But his co-worker who was on the show with him, Noelle Neal, disagrees that he was depressed, said that she had just spoken to him about how excited he was.

He was going to direct, they were going to let him direct the next season of the show, the season of Superman.

He was like, I'm ready to get behind the camera.

He actually was talking to her about making a few films he wanted to be a part of.

He was trying to launch his own production company.

After he got married, he was going to take a tour.

He and his new wife were going to go to Australia, where he was going to have a bunch of press opportunities, and he was supposed to be making like $20,000 off of that.

Oh my gosh.

Everyone thought, like, you know, he was, he seemed to be doing the good.

Good.

In a good place, yeah.

And this goes with his mother saying he wasn't depressed, but does the mother know?

I don't know.

Yeah, what does, to what extent?

I guess to say, on the pro-suicide kind of column, at the time of his autopsy, his blood alcohol level was 0.27.

That is a lot of alcohol.

Maybe he couldn't hold the gun right and shot himself from that.

Well, because you know what else he had in the system?

Coke.

Narcotics.

Yeah.

Because he had had these three car accidents.

Oh.

If you don't believe suicide, then you would think murder, right?

The murder, I told you, we have three potential suspects.

So the first suspect, the fiancee.

As I mentioned, she was a socialite lounge singer, but kind of a little rough around the edges.

She had been banned from clubs.

She was very controlling.

She had quite a temper.

Again, everyone had been drinking.

And as I mentioned-

And drinking a lot.

Drinking a lot, and the neighbors came over and knocked on the door, and apparently he came down and he was yelling at them that he wanted them out of the house.

And then I know he sat down and had a drink with them.

But the point is, was Leonore embarrassed that he had spoken to her and her friends like that?

Was that her motive to go upstairs and they have a little fight and she shoots him?

The other theory is that again, they were supposed to be getting married three days after his death.

Three days.

But people say that he was having second thoughts.

Oh, I'm thinking he killed himself.

Oh, you think he killed himself because the wedding was three days ago?

Well, people are theorizing that maybe she killed him because he was like, I'm not marrying you, and then she killed him.

I don't know.

But the argument then would be, well, he's not going to marry you if you shoot him.

He's sounding mentally ill.

Yeah, what else?

So I told you that Leonore said, oh, he's upstairs moping, he's probably going to shoot himself now, right?

Right.

That was a quote.

Yes.

But I told you, all of these witnesses had different.

Perspectives.

Different quotes because they were, were they all just drunk and didn't know, could they knock up their drink straight?

Yeah.

So Bill Bliss told Millicent Trent, she wasn't there, that he was having a drink when he heard the shot ring out, and that Leonore Lemmon ran downstairs and said, tell them I was down here, tell them I was down here.

Okay.

So she upstairs, he wasn't upstairs.

That's one person.

But you know what else?

Other witnesses said that when he went upstairs, she, it wasn't just her saying, watch, she's going to shoot himself.

She actually narrated it.

She said, he's going upstairs to shoot himself.

Then they heard a sound from the bedroom and she said, see, he's opening the drawer to get the gun.

And then a single shot rang out and she said, I told you, he shot himself.

What?

That's weird.

That is so weird.

Sociopathic.

She left California the day after.

This happened forever, never came back.

We don't know what happened to her?

Or she just didn't come back?

She's now dead, but she just didn't come back.

And actually it gets weirder because she did, well, she did come back once because she broke through the police tape to steal food, alcohol and cashier's checks, then left and never returned.

So she returned to the crime scene.

Yes.

Like most killers do.

Helped herself to some items in the house.

Probably took some evidence.

And then left, but she didn't go to his funeral.

Oh my God.

Yeah.

Oh, I don't know what I want to believe.

I'm all over the place.

She sounds crazy.

I keep flipping.

Every time you tell me something new, I flip.

Okay, then we have the Mannixes.

Could it be Eddie or Toni or both?

Okay.

Teddy or Toni.

So, okay.

Toni, they had been, they were in a very long relationship, I think earlier, three years, but I think it was like almost a decade.

Toni was in a relationship with George for almost a decade.

Oh, this was the sugar mama.

Yes.

And he broke up with her and she was so heartbroken.

So people are like, was that her motive?

Was she heartbroken?

Supposedly, this goes beyond just her being heartbroken.

She had actually been stalking him.

Oh, no.

He had been receiving death threats on his unlisted telephone line.

Most of them came late at night.

There were sometimes 20 or more phone calls each day.

Often, the anonymous caller would just hang up.

Reeve said, I know it's her.

So he actually filed a police report with the Beverly Hills Police Department.

He had a complaint with the LA District Attorney's Office.

The restraining order?

Yes.

He said, I think it's Toni Mannix.

And the DA said, well, it can't be Toni, because Toni is also receiving phone calls.

Oh my god.

But the DA, do we trust them?

How do we know Toni is receiving phone calls?

Is she just saying she's receiving phone calls?

I don't know.

He's just saying she's.

But no, I believe he was being stalked.

And he returnelled the lawyer, and he said, I need to get a restraining order.

He is harassing me and my fiance.

So that's leading up to it.

Despite these rumors of harassment, though, Toni was apparently just devastated by his death.

She wore black for years.

She held Catholic masses in his name.

And according to some accounts, she actually made a deathbed confession.

A deathbed confession.

They claim that she went to confession and said, like, I am responsible for his death.

But we have no proof proof that this happened.

Yeah, because aren't confessions secret.

Yeah.

And it's like, it's just like it's hearsay.

Yeah.

Oh, I don't know about that, but that is a rumor.

And the other thing that's interesting is that she at 430 in the morning, she called Phyllis Coates.

So Phyllis Coates was one of the actors who played Lois Lane opposite him and said, the boy's dead.

He's been murdered.

430 in the morning.

Hey, how'd she know so quickly?

I guess maybe the house was in her name.

I don't know.

Also, though, how did she know he was murdered when everyone else thought it was suicide?

Yeah.

You know, so Toni Mannix.

And then our last potential suspect is her husband, Eddie.

So he was the MGM vice president, again, mafia and police ties, Toni's husband.

Right.

He was known as MGM's fixer.

So his job was to protect the stars from scandals.

Remember this, like all of these actors were owned by the studios.

Okay.

And so if they, you know, now we're like, they can go out and make an ass of themselves and they're just going to impact themselves.

But like this, they would be a detriment to the studio.

So his job was like to clean up after them, keep them squeaky, clean images, like covered up abortions, affairs, addictions, alleged crimes.

And this often meant bribing police and silencing reporters to make things disappear.

Oh, he cleaned the scene up.

He also had, or the Hollywood of this time, the studios also worked with organized crime, particularly in labor unions, nightclubs and the distribution side of the business.

So a lot of studio figures had close ties with mob figures.

And so the thought is like MGM was the biggest studio at the time, they for sure would have also had mafia ties.

So the theory here is that Mannix, even though it might not have even been that he killed him because he had an affair with his wife, because he seemed to really like let them be out in public doing their thing.

More likely was he like, my wife is so devastated and she won't stop talking about George Reeves.

Let's kill this guy.

And so that was his motive.

I don't know if that's, I don't know.

So you don't believe that, huh?

Let me just give you one more interesting story, see if it changes your mind.

Okay.

So I told you he had three car accidents leading up to his death.

Yeah, he was on chronic, chronic pain meds.

So the first accident, his car was nearly crushed by two trucks on the freeway.

Second accident, a speeding car nearly killed him, but he survived.

Third time, his brakes failed on a narrow, twisted road.

It sounds like somebody's-

Guess what the car, when he took his car in, guess what they told him?

Somebody cut the cables.

All of the brake fluid had been drained.

The mechanic said, your system is in perfect working order.

All we can say is that you don't have any brake fluid.

I think that someone pumped the fluid out of your brakes.

What was the timing of all of these?

The months leading up to this?

He had three separate car accidents in a couple months.

Yeah, but they were all suspicious.

Two trucks almost...

What's the likelihood of having one accident, yet alone three?

What's the likelihood of your brakes failing and then someone just pumped all the brake fluid out?

Oh, my God.

Oh, somebody killed him.

Sounds like at first he was like, I don't believe that.

I don't think that's what's going on.

But then when he was also getting those calls and threats against his life, he was like, that's why he was like, wait, my brake fluid was drained and I'm getting threatening calls.

I need a restraining order.

And that's what prompted him to get the police involved.

Yeah, this is wild.

Those are the theories.

Unfortunately, all of these potential suspects have died.

So we don't have an answer now.

We probably will never have an answer.

But yeah, what do you think?

You're thinking Eddie Mannix?

I think I flip.

Well, I don't know who the killer is, but I do think his death is suspicious.

Like I don't think you can blatantly say suicide.

That's where I'm at.

I don't know if it's Eddie.

I don't know if it's Leonore.

She sounds crazy though.

Yeah.

And the way she returned and left is a red flag.

Yeah.

It's so hard.

I honestly, I feel like the last couple episodes here, I've been like, I have no opinion, but I just don't really know where I fall.

Cause I think, I mean, the man is on narcotics and a ton of alcohol.

I forgot how drunk he was.

Why wouldn't we just say, you know, he was frustrated and he was in this rough relationship and he was really drunk and on pain meds and high risk to kill himself, right?

Like, why were there no prints?

Yeah.

I don't know.

How did he fall on top of the spent casing?

Why were there no prints?

Why was it further than a foot?

It was like a foot and a half from his head because it's not likely that he was.

Also, why was the gun just getting fired all the time?

So that's kind of, if you believe that he was murdered, like if you watch Unsolved Mysteries, the OG Unsolved Mysteries.

Right, right, right.

They covered this and they talk about the theory is someone snuck up into the room because again, this house was actually in the Mannix name.

So anybody could have come in.

They could have just come in.

Everyone else is drunk and like the parlor hanging out.

So someone could just come upstairs.

Was he naked?

Well, he did come down.

I think he was in bed.

So he came down in a robe.

Oh, so he sleeps naked.

And he was in a room and he had a drink.

I don't know.

I mean, also, if he was that drunk, maybe he stripped.

Maybe he didn't care.

Yeah, I get it.

I'm like, I would be thinking like, that's not how I want to be found.

Exactly.

But if you're so drunk and high, maybe you don't care.

Yeah, maybe it doesn't matter.

But I do think it's weird that, I guess that's kind of why it goes back to, could it have been the studios?

Like, how did these police show up?

We have a celebrity.

You don't take a single photo of the scene.

You had four people.

It's also weird that this guy died with four people in the house.

I'm like, also, somebody that well-known, I don't think you should always rule out everything.

Yeah.

But if the police were in the Mannix's pocket, they're just like, up, case closed.

Suicide.

Suicide.

We don't need to investigate.

I think I'm still 50-50.

I don't think I can solidly say one way or the other right now.

Yeah.

I guess I would not be surprised either way.

I think, I don't know, I was leaning towards either suicide or his fiance, but then I also, what's up with the break fluid?

Well, she could have done that.

But I feel like she just seems like she was probably like a heat of the moment emotional.

Versus break fluid sounds more like planned.

Yeah.

Well, she probably could have connections to the mob too.

Yeah.

But I mean, I think her motive, her motive is just feels much more like not premeditated.

Yeah.

Whereas like the threats and all of that was going on for months, that feels more like premeditation.

If the police had just actually investigated, then we could probably all accept suicide and move on.

Yeah.

But it just lacked really too bad that all of these people have died and there was zero investigation.

Again, not even a crime scene photo for us to look at and be like, you know.

So, all right.

So it's kind of a bummer for our listeners.

Yes, sorry, 50-50.

We're leaving.

No.

Okay, well, like, do you at Love Pass, why don't you guys reach out and let us know what you think?

Because we have no freaking clue.

We don't know.

And sadly, I don't think it will ever be known.

Rest in peace, though, buddy.

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