The Mysterious Death of George Reeves

this week on the season premiere of the final season of buzzfeed unsolved true crime we covered the death of superman or at least a man who played superman on tv george reeves let's put some kryptonite in his cocoa puffs already being a addicted hey we're having fun it's good to be back on the desk that's right before we started uh rolling here shane actually walked around and slithered around the set like a slug making sure all parts of his body got much slime everywhere do you know anything about uh georgia reeves i know this is one of the many incarnations of superman but no i was always more of a batman guy who brought this uh this twitter avatar to life a guy who's gonna air out a grievance about batman versus superman on camera my parents my mark insurance date they brought me to life they said oh this one's going to be good for the internet jesus christ and they were wrong let's get into it george kieffer brewster hellmuth you're you're gonna get into banter after saying three words i think it can't go without saying that that's a fun name george kiefer 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 in a minor role in gone with the wind i love a multi-hyphenate yeah you're moldy hyphenate right host actor [ __ ] puppet man puppet man um we own bridge big head owner yeah what else do you guys well i want to be a tap dancer but you won't go to those classes with me i've offlined with you several times about getting those tap dance lessons and you never really well suddenly it was oh there's a pandemic we can't go tap dancing excuses excuses 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 fun yeah that's basically today's version of becoming a streamer so he shows up there's an orchestra or something yeah i'm just doing ads for cigarettes doing a little dance shaking his heinie i'm gonna be superman one day punch me that's gonna be uh gift or jif depending on what camp i don't know what you're talking about 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 sorry to stop us again that's the worst combination that was just gonna say stinks yeah when you're famous and not rich not a good thing to be because he can't go to the places where people will be priced out i guess the one benefit to it is if someone stops you in a park you could be like yes i am superman can you give me some money well i was going to say that would look like a cry for help if you were like please i'm famous give me some money but then i realized that's basically just cameos cameo should we start doing that no it's our final seasonal that's cameo no that's not hi it's me a ghost hunter that your children love hey jan someone told me it's your birthday and i want to say wow hope it's spooky now check out what i'm about to do with this ping pong ball 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 supermen 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 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 that's very smart i wonder what got this kid in the mindset that this guy's obviously an imposter like he's treating superman like santa claus like i've never thought i'm gonna put the fireplace on when santa comes and see if he's actually special yeah i'd hate to see what happens at this kid's house on christmas morning dad's going to put the presents under the tree and in the dark part of the corner of the room you just see a cigarette get lit he thought you could fool me huh pops just sitting in the chair with his loaded cup just like this another christmas huh flicks it at the tree it just lights up like the joker another lie by 1959 reeves had appeared in over 100 episodes of superman he had begun dating leonore lemon a new york socialite who had previously been married to a vanderbilt heir and reports even state he and lemon were making plans to soon be married on june 15th the couple left reeves 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 lemon returned to the house around 11 pm around midnight reeves climbed the steps to the upstairs bedroom retiring for the night around this time reports say lemon 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 that's a cheeky little system turn on the porch light stop on bye is that a thing maybe that's a 50s thing i i know now i turn on the porch light to ward off would-be intruders and to let them know that i mean business yeah you got that katana drawing ready and the thing is it's a warning but it's also an invite because they open that door and you're there he doesn't sleep oh no i'd be waiting there and i'd be like i've been waiting for this moment welcome to your end the quick like and you're like did he twitch and then suddenly you just slide i love that moment in any samurai film when someone does like a quick movement and you're like did he miss he didn't did bergara never misses i never miss no except when he hunts ghosts lemon's inviting light apparently did the trick as soon two neighbors swung by william bliss and carol van ronkl there were rumors that van ronkl was having an affair with condon but bliss was likely a total stranger in the reeves household around 1am reeves came back downstairs quote in no mood for a party end quote reeves was reportedly visibly irritated and threatened to throw bliss out of his home that's fair it's 1am on a tuesday yeah i mean anybody showed up to my house on a 1am on a tuesday i'm calling the police have you actually ever said get out of my home to anybody no that sounds thrilling though i know right get out of my home go please see yourself out that's good too that's good or just do one of these you can leave now don't let the door hit you where the good lord split ya [Laughter] after a bit reeves apologized for his bad mood and turned to walk back upstairs police reports describe what happened next lemon content van ronkle 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 lemon condon bliss and van ronkl 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 i assume they're drinking nervously at this point i feel like maybe though i hear a gunshot and my husband's upstairs it's not let's pour another cocktail also weird that the one person who ran up the stairs was the guy he didn't even know it was bliss he probably went up saw it and was like look there's okay nothing we can do here you need to call the police i think that's fair maybe they they were rattled and you you you've been rattled enough you'd like to pour yourself a cold one yeah that's me in every haunted house i go into and i can barely get the glass to my lips it just goes all over my clothes so we'll see let's see where this goes okay with the crime scene set it's time to go into theories about what happened to george reeves our first theory is the same conclusion drawn by the los angeles coroner's office suicide according to the coroner's report quote the position of reeves body on the bed the angle of the bullet's path and the autopsy findings all point to suicide end quote reeves had put the gun to his right temple and fired simple as that somewhat suspiciously his fiancee jokingly predicted george was going to kill himself moments before his death the police report states that when reeves left to go back upstairs lemon told the downstairs group quote he is going to shoot himself end quote when the foursome next heard the bedside drawer open lemon went further saying quote he is getting the gun out now and he is going to shoot himself end quote according to the la times report the next day lemon claimed she was quote only kidding as she grimly narrated the death of her fiance do you think she kept going like well i bet he shot himself they're taking the body out oh i guess he's dead first off even if she is joking it is weird that she had enough context to make that joke to assume that that's that's what he's going to do if you have a fiance who clearly is distressed you don't go upstairs to check on him i don't i don't even bother i'm having drinks with my friends it's just an odd it's an odd scenario it's all i'm saying strange many point to reeves 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 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 also want to point out and it goes without saying a lot of times we see this in these cases where we have suicide as a theory and people often say well he had no reason to commit suicide he didn't show any signs that's often not the case you don't need a sign to commit suicide i think we could put a the kibosh on that line of thought right yeah apparently lemon knew though i could say that she seemed like she have a pretty finger on the pulse on that one i'm not saying that she's nostradamus but she sure seemed to have the inside scoop 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 i just think the way gravity works in the way the positioning if your head has to be horizontal like this you're leaned over to an extent so i would think you would fall forward so his head would have to be sort of facing the ceiling but then the force of it i would think would sort of knock him back a little oh because of the actual the force of the bullet hitting you yeah i guess then the gun could fall between his legs yeah so maybe it's possible i don't think it's likely reeves 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 we've talked about the lapd a lot and sort of the whole system they seem like they've long been not up to regulation on a lot of things we've also seen the co-mingling of the studio system with l.a yeah pd yeah and we've seen how that could kind of work out so not saying that that's the case here it's a possibility though 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 he didn't have any bruises when i was beating the [ __ ] out of him earlier he didn't have any bruises when he was training with me i just don't think that's a thing the bruises could appear later he could have like bumped into something i just dubbed my toe you know ow ah yeah that broke out oh yeah maybe i fall hit the coffee table the thing is the table shatters all over you may be not replaceable and i had to explain it wasn't it at home you're in a pool of your own blood she's like ryan what happened we've all been there it's really like it's no big deal were you there how did you know did you bug my house our next theory is that george was accidentally shot perhaps by lemon this would of course mean the three other people in the house covered for her which seems like a bit of a long shot but bear with me lemon was known for her quote 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 lemon was upset at george's lack of commitment resulting in a fight where lemon 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 lemon claimed one was from an accident a few days prior when she was quote 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 lemon left for new york never to return to l.a again first off they absolutely are of significance because this is somebody with the murder weapon who has shot said weapon in the room the person was conceivably murdered and i feel like that's pretty significant but i'm not a cop it's fishy business right there i still don't think there's funny business going on here but an inching away from that the body was washed she shot the gun i'm inching all right i'm just saying these little worms that's me i'm slowly moving away from the old inch your way away from me our final theory is that reeves was murdered possibly the result of being ensnared in a web of bitter lovers while reports state that reeves was set to marry lemon 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 tony manix practically married was the best the couple could do as tony was already married to one eddie mannix eddie was an infamous fixer in hollywood who built a career for himself solving quote 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 ellie mobster mickey cohen eddie was even thought to have had his first wife killed in 1937 in a car accident i would say in the echelon of dudes who you don't want to fool around with his wife probably up there yeah it's like sleeping with al capone's wife or like i don't know a shack a shack shaquille o'neal sleeping with his wife probably a bad call well he could sleep with his own wife no no if i were to sleep with this oh if you were to sleep with shaquille o'neal's wife all respect to shaq i'll respect that's what i'm saying ryan is not going to sleep shaq you have my word i will never ever sleep with your wife your girlfriend or whoever you're seeing at the time you have it despite eddie's serious line of business george likely did not feel threatened by manix while he was dating the fixer's wife in fact by all appearances eddie fully supported tony and george's affair eddie would sometimes tag along with tony 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 manixes with eddie bringing another woman in addition to his wife at the time of his death reeves house car even his clothes had all been paid for by tony well this sounds fun this seems very progressive actually yeah this has been a very dark story so i like the whimsical turn here i just like the idea of them all just getting breakfast together they're at the polynesian in disney world or something he's like hey did you [ __ ] my wife last night yeah did you pass the syrup we're all [ __ ] each other isn't that great pass the cantaloupe they have like a little clock and timer set a scoreboard maybe in the room like all right tagging subs he still sounds like a piece of [ __ ] due to eddie's tolerance and even encouragement of tony and george's relationship it's not the affair but the disillusion of the affair that leads some to suspect either of the mannixes tony was reportedly inconsolable after reeves left her for lemon 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 tony herself commissioned george's death with some of eddie's guys without eddie's knowledge lending credence to this theory author e.j 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 i know it doesn't take a lot to get me paranoid but this is a one-way ticket to paranoid town for ryan bergara if you drain my car of brake fluid don't do it unless you want to see my katana in your nightmares you have a bad dream about ryan with a katana you wake up and you go oh oh god oh and you're in the corner they wake up and ryan's katana can't hurt me and i whisper yes it can some sources claim 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 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 so maybe in this scenario i guess he is in cahoots with somebody who hasn't been named maybe someone could have played the long game hidden in a closet sure and just waited what is this room with no windows that sounds awful sounds like vegas why would you want to stay in a casino put some windows on that thing bro perhaps no one was as convinced that reeves had been murdered as tony mannix at 4 30 a.m on the morning george died tony placed a call to phyllis coats who played lois lane in the first season of adventures of superman coates claimed years later that tony told her quote the boy is dead he's been murdered end quote in 1999 publicist edward lozy who had become close to tony when she was in her 70s detailed being in the room when tony who was quote absolutely terrified of going to hell confessed to a priest that she and eddie had had reeves killed lozie claimed that the priest told him not to tell anyone about the confession or it would endanger his life lozie only came forward after he believed anyone who could do anything to him was already dead of course the big mystery remains how could a murderer get away with four potential witnesses sitting downstairs you befriend an older woman okay she's like in her seventies i am listening you you go to the retirement home every friday there you start this beautiful friendship you play chess with this old woman wait what about like uh uh the sort of the water uh yoga or whatever am i like carrying her around no i'm thinking like we have the whole montager you're pushing her in a wheelchair through the long beach aquarium is she smooching me no no no no no you're playing chess you're watching funny old movies that she's telling you from her time and you're laughing popcorn and then one day while you're doing chess and you move the horse and you're just like all right your move she goes shane i killed jfk is that where you're going with that yeah it was actually like god damn what was it like you would ask what did it feel like when someone says i murdered somebody i think you might be a murderer is that all that's been holding you back i would only ask about jfk because it's such a historical happening you know if she was like i killed a dog i'd be like all right i'd push her into the pool and leave while reeves may have been frustrated with his career it's hard to overstate the impact he had on the public 35 million people regularly tuned in to watch him fight evil as superman unlike his character however the man behind the costume was not invulnerable and his life ended in tragedy whether george reeves died by suicide accident or murder remains unsolved crazy story that's wild if you're putting your money on a theory what are you going with here i i'm gonna have to go with um suicide i'm gonna have to go with murder i really do think he was murdered oh wait yeah i'll go with murder i changed my mind well that was quick you turned the corner pretty fast i forgot she confessed it feels right it's either them or the would-be wife who's just yeah let's see if this gun works or could also be suicide it could be anyone so okay [Music] you

Channel: BuzzFeed Unsolved Network

Views: 6,025,012

Keywords: SffZ, buzzfeed, buzzfeed unsolved, buzzfeed unsolved network, buzzfeed unsolved true crime, cold case, creepy, final season, investigation, mystery, ryan and shane, ryan bergara, scary, shane madej, spooky, true crime, unsolved true crime final season

Id: pLwHTqU2r_Y

Length: 26min 52sec (1612 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021