What Happened To Jean Spangler? A Vintage Mystery

hello everybody welcome back to my channel and thank you for joining me for another mystery video this case is insane so many twists so many turns i've been obsessed with it for the last week and i cannot wait to share it with you we've all heard about the black dahlia but elizabeth short was not the only aspiring starlet to encounter foul play while on the cruel streets of hollywood where not everything that glimmers is gold 26 year old jean elizabeth spangler also had dreams of fame and fortune which she would never see realized because on october 7th 1949 jean walked out of her apartment and was never seen again the only difference between elizabeth short and jean spangler is that elizabeth was eventually found but gene spangler never was and to this day her disappearance and eventual fate still remain a mystery and what a mystery this is one you couldn't even pull out of the imagination of the most talented fiction writer gene's story has a little bit of everything love triangles custody battles a kirk douglas connection george hodel the mob buckle up grab a snack and let's go to old hollywood before we get started however i want to have a word from our sponsor and our sponsor for this video is magellan tv magellan tv is a new kind of documentary streaming service built by filmmakers made for people like us who enjoy the thrill of a story well told whether you have an interest in true crime history science nature anything really magellan tv has something for you it's magellan tv's mission to bring you the finest documentaries from around the world they believe in the power of telling real stories that have defined the human experience and point the way to the future they call it television worth watching and it really is television worth watching there's so many documentary movies and tv series on magellan tv that i want to watch and that i have on a list of things i want to watch but it's still one of my favorite things to do every week to pull up the app and 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that month it's very very reasonably priced and in my opinion well worth it thank you so much to magellantv for sponsoring this video as always thank you to all of you who listen and respect that we need sponsors to keep this channel afloat i appreciate you let's get on with the video gene was born on september 2nd 1923 in seattle washington to her parents florence and cecil spangler even from a young age jean was a social butterfly and she had what seemed to be an inexhaustible energy during her childhood her family moved around a lap but finally ended up in los angeles during the mid-1930s where she began attending franklin high school when she graduated in 1941 she already knew she wanted to be a big star and she also knew she would work tirelessly and do whatever it took to get there but even at this young age jean was aware that it was more about who you knew than what you knew and already having a strong social game she made it her mission to make connections with the rich powerful and famous in the hollywood scene after graduating she worked many small jobs here and there one of them being as a model for a local department store but soon she would find herself being given the best opportunity an aspiring actress nla could hope for the chance to work for earl carroll at his hollywood vegas-themed theater as a showgirl the earl carroll theater named for its founder who had produced and directed a number of broadway shows and had a flair for the dramatic was located on sunset boulevard and was the epitome of the era's dinner theater mashup it presented shows on a massive stage featuring a double revolving turntable and a spiral staircase as well as swings that could be lowered from the ceiling diners could enjoy their world-class meals while watching 60 showgirls dressed in sequins and feathers dance their hearts out and put on a show that rivaled the best vegas had to offer this was earl's second theater the first being in his hometown of new york city and it opened on december 26 1938 all visitors being welcomed by these words etched into the entrance through these portals past the most beautiful girls in the world and just to let his patrons know he wasn't kidding the building facade showcased a 20-foot tall neon portrait of beryl wallace carol's long-term girlfriend and undoubtedly a beautiful woman as you can imagine from how he made his living carol had gained quite the reputation his nickname was the troubadour of the nude and he was well known as the most notorious connoisseur of female flesh in the history of show business he was arrested in 1926 after pulling off a publicity stunt where he placed a naked showgirl in a bathtub of illegal champagne during prohibition the scandal had driven him out of new york so he and beryl went to la where people don't judge you for such things the theater in la flourished packing its 1 000 seats almost every night and becoming a popular place for the most famous stars at the time to see and be seen so you can imagine how over the moon gene spangler would have been to be presented with this chance not only did it qualify her as one of the most beautiful girls in the world but it would put her in the perfect position to rub elbows with those who could get her ahead one of jean's fellow dancers commented that being an earl carroll girl was as much a trophy of beauty as being miss america she began dancing at the theater when she was just 18 and she worked tirelessly she never sat still she grabbed as many shifts as she could she was itching for the world to see her as the star that she knew she was and she could sleep when she was dead it was here amongst the clink of champagne glasses and the dazzling lights that jean did meet someone but this man wasn't a hollywood actor or director he was a plastics manufacturer named dexter benner he was three years older than jean born and bred in los angeles a graduate of the university of southern california and he was financially comfortable although not technically rich he was also handsome in that 1940s traditional sort of way and although it wasn't difficult to figure out what dexter saw in the beautiful and outgoing gene very few could figure out what had drawn her to him they had very different personalities he was pretty conservative a businessman she was a flirtatious showgirl who would never be able to give any one man her undivided attention that wouldn't be good business she had dreams of stardom and he had dreams of a quiet life in the suburbs with a little family and a wife at home cooking his dinner in the kitchen and greeting him with a fresh martini at the door every evening no one who knew jean ever saw her as the domestic type and they had figured she would end up with another actor or a studio owner a partner to match her high aspirations whatever it was that she saw in dexter benner within a few months of meeting in 1942 they were married and as expected as soon as he had put a ring on it he expected her to change to quit the club and stay home so he could get her pregnant and have the life of his dreams not really caring that it wasn't the life of her dreams jean refused to leave her job as a showgirl and from the start the marriage was a tumultuous one even though he'd been a regular at the earl carroll theater dexter looked down at the girls who danced there and didn't want his wife to be one of them he knew how they were expected to treat male patrons and it drove him crazy sitting at home wondering how much skin his wife was showing and how many men she had winked at that evening she wouldn't get home from work until very late in the evening sometimes after midnight even and they would bicker constantly into the early hours of the morning eventually these small fights turned into physical abuse a year and a half after they had said i do gene filed for divorce citing cruelty at the hands of her husband she later drafted the suit and they remained together but her circumstances did not improve and then she became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter christine on april 22 1944. obviously having a child in the picture made the situation more not less complicated dexter assumed that becoming a mother would settle gene down and jean did love her daughter but jean didn't see why she couldn't raise a child and still become a famous movie star the abuse continued but world war ii was heating up quickly and in 1944 dexter banner was drafted into the army and sent to the pacific front with her oppressive husband out of the way jean felt a newfound freedom to be a good mother to christine while still pushing towards her dreams she also found comfort in the arms of other men many other men reportedly she began working more and more networking with a new fervor carol's theater was a beacon for servicemen on leave during the war and one of these uniformed lotharios drew jean in the only name we have for this man is lieutenant scotty poor jean went from the frying pan to the fire with scotty he had an aggressive personality and before you knew it he had moved into the home she shared with her husband he was driving her car which he eventually totaled and spending her money which eventually ran out worst of all according to other women who worked with gene he was beating her she would show up to the club with bruises and black eyes and tell her friends that she didn't know what to do every time she tried to kick scottie out he would hit her he'd even threatened to kill her she didn't want to be with him anymore but she was scared and felt powerless she didn't have to tell her friends that scotty was bad news however they all knew it the couple had not been very private about their relationship and they would often get into loud public arguments at the club when dexter benner was discharged in 1944 he came home to a disaster the car was wrecked the bank accounts were drained and it did not take long for the news of his wife's infidelity to get back to him he immediately filed for divorce and sued for custody of christine who was now just a year old the entirety of 1946 and much of the following years was filled with venomous custody battles during which dexter told jean he was going to fix it so that she never saw christine again dexter did get full custody but the judge granted gene visitation during which she could get her life back on track and continue to fight to get christine back and she did she never stopped fighting for that little girl even though dexter outright defied the court's orders and refused gene visits with christine on 23 separate occasions in 1948 dexter and jean went to court for another custody hearing during which dexter did everything in his power to paint jean as an unfit mother she danced half naked on a stage he pointed out she jumped into bed with any man who would have her he cruelly claimed what kind of role model could she be for a little girl surprisingly the judge did not agree with dexter and when i say surprisingly it's because we do have to consider the times this was the 40s where it was abnormal for a woman to work outside the home and a husband's affairs were to be expected he needed some sort of release for all the stress he was under but women having affairs was severely frowned upon however world war ii had seen so many men being called away the women left behind had been forced to join the workforce to provide for their families the judge felt that gene's job as a dancer and her hollywood ambitions didn't make her any different from any other woman or mother who was just trying to stay afloat he also felt that her questionable conduct was far in the past and that's where it should stay additionally dexter had not made a friend of this court or this judge when he willfully went against their orders and refused to let jean see her daughter on her legally granted visitation days jean triumphantly took christine back to the home that she now occupied with her mother florence and her sister-in-law sophie jean's brother and sophie's husband had sadly died during the war but they'd managed to find a nice albeit small apartment in the park la brea complex on colgate avenue reunited with her daughter jean could now put her focus back on making it big and that same year she was given a role as an extra in 1948's the miracle of the bells jean would go on to play the role of pretty girl in the 1948 short film mommy's dummies and a chorus girl in when my baby smiles at me also in 1948 in 1949 she played a dancer in chicken every sunday and a showgirl in wabash avenue all of these roles were uncredited which basically means she'd be in the movies but her name would not appear in the credits gene spangler would never make it out of uncredited territory and there really is no way of knowing had she been given more time if she ever would have she did however proudly join the screen actors guild which is considered a rite of passage for every actor broadcaster and recording artist a rite of passage that can be acquired by paying a fee of course she actually lived right around the corner from their headquarters and being a part of the guild made her feel more legitimized as an actress and even though she never landed a part bigger than an uncredited extra she took everything that was offered to her because she needed the money she now had a daughter to support and her father's health was failing so she needed every penny to help with his medical expenses it wasn't all work and no play for jean's bangler though because as far as she was concerned part of her job was to get out there meet people rub elbows with those who were in the position you wanted to be in in the three months leading up to her disappearance she was seen and photographed with several high-profile figures including ronald reagan who at that time was still just an actor and not yet the president of the united states reagan and his family attended gene's church and they were close friends she was also reported to have been familiar with retired boxer and current mob boss mickey cohen cohen was born in september of 1913 into an orthodox jewish family from brooklyn when he was six his mother moved them to the boyle heights area of los angeles where he became a newspaper boy fought in illegal underground boxing matches and started down a path that would transform him into a career criminal he left california for a bit spending time in new york and chicago but in 1939 he found himself back in the golden state working as a henchman of bugsy siegel cohen was a big figure in la especially when he found a way to integrate himself into the movie business basically controlling the unions and then extorting the producers telling them that if they wanted their actors back to work they'd have to pay him he didn't stop there however he was known for hiring good-looking young men who would get cozy with up-and-coming starlets get dirt on them and then bring the information back to mickey who would use it to blackmail them it is said that mickey cohen was responsible for making sex tapes of marilyn monroe he was close to big stars of the day including lana turner and frank sinatra many believe the theory that he was used as an extension of the kennedys to put an end to the marilyn monroe scandal overall jean was making connections good or bad and her lawyer at the time claimed quote she must have slept with 50 men in three months end quote in the months leading up to her disappearance many of jean's friends claimed that she'd been telling them she was about to find herself coming into a lot of money and they felt this windfall would be as a result of some kind of romantic relationship and possibly extortion her sister-in-law sophie would say many years later that she had also been told by jean that she was about to come into some money a large sum of money that her ex-husband dexter benner had promised her jean had also told several friends that she was pregnant and that she knew who the father was but she never revealed his name to any of them one of her co-stars robert cummings who had acted with her on the movie pretty girl claimed that he'd talked to her the wednesday before she went missing he said he was sitting in his dressing room on the side of the movie when she'd walked by whistling and he remarked that she sounded happy to which she replied i am i have a new romance he asked her if it was serious and she said not exactly but i'm having the time of my life unfortunately jean didn't tell robert or any of her friends the name of this new love interest on the evening of october 7th jean walked down the stairs of her apartment to where her sister-in-law sophie was sitting with her own daughter and jean's daughter christine jean was wearing a wool blouse green slacks and a short white coat and she asked sophie how she looked jean told sophie she was working on a movie set later that night but beforehand she was meeting with her ex-husband dexter benner to discuss an increase in her child support and to find out why the current payment was a week late before she left she winked at sophie and said wish me luck sophie said she was sitting at the table with the kids so she didn't really know how jean had left but usually jean would call a cab or take the bus or get picked up by a friend jean's mother florence was out of town at this time visiting relatives in kentucky when jean left that evening around 5 30 p.m it was a night like any other but sophie later claimed she had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that just wouldn't go away a few hours previously sophie had told jean that she was feeling unsettled and that the night before she'd had a bad dream a reoccurring bad dream that she had often found herself trapped in always waking up in a cold sweat the dream centered on a young woman lying in a casket in a funeral home according to sophie in her dream she was looking down into this casket when this woman opened her eyes looked directly at her and said it's not finished yet when sophie worried over this bad omen to jean jean left and brushed it off not taking it seriously when jean walked out of her home that day she never returned she called to check on christine two hours later at that time letting sophie know that she wouldn't be home early and was required to work the full eight hours that night any time jean was away for the evening she would always call to check in on christine at bedtime so this was not unusual and sophie went to bed pushing the dark dream out of her thoughts but when she woke up the next morning and jean wasn't asleep in her bed sophie knew something was wrong jeanne never stayed out overnight without letting someone know sophie called the police and attempted to file a missing person's report but we are talking about 1940s era lapd so as is par for the course they did nothing at first they figured jean was a girl who liked to go out and party she was a showgirl after all didn't they all just stay out drinking and going home with strange men jean would make her way home once the gin wore off and whatever guy she was with kicked her to the curb they told sophie not to worry and they hung up it was only when her black cloth handbag was found in griffith park with its handles ripped off as if it had been snatched during a burglary that the police finally took notice the purse was found adjacent to ferndell canyon and all of her things remained inside including her lucky silver dollar sophie said that jean was pretty much broke so she wouldn't have had any other money besides that silver dollar which she always carried so the police couldn't really write it off as a robbery gone wrong an unfinished unsigned handwritten note was also found in the purse that read kirk can't wait any longer going to see dr scott it will work best this way while mother is away it was unsigned but a handwriting expert was brought in and it was confirmed that this letter was written by jean but who was kirk and who was dr scott and where was gene spangler well according to the press release that the lapd put out she was ill but she'd be back when she was feeling better after they put this out to the papers they began to look for her leading the investigation team was police chief thad brown who'd also been on the black dahlia case 200 people came out to search the massive 4 000 acre griffith park some on foot some on horseback they were searching for more evidence but ultimately they knew it could be a body they were looking for while the search was going on the police tried to put the pieces together between the time jean left her apartment and her purse was found there were several sightings of her sightings that make this case all the more unsettling the first one took place right after she left her apartment at a farmers market just down the street from where she lived the owner claimed that she was there for roughly two hours but she wasn't perusing for fresh vegetables or fruit it looked like she was waiting for someone anxiously sometime after 7pm she was seen at a sunset boulevard restaurant called the cheeseboy eating hot dogs with a tall man who appeared to be about 35. he had dark hair and was described as being neat in appearance we can't be sure whether gene called sophie from the farmer's market or the cheese boy but we do know it was the last time she would place a call to check in on her daughter at 2 am she was seen again at the same place sitting with two men at a table l the shake lazar who was known to do tableside radio interviews from the restaurant headed over to their table but was waved roughly away by one of these men he said the tension was palpable and they were all clearly arguing so just to clear it up al lazar it seems like he was a radio dj and he would go to restaurants and you know bring his microphone and a recording device or whatever and then go up to tables if he saw like movie stars or something and try to interview them for his show and so that's why this guy was just walking around going up to tables and interviewing people that's what happened i had to look that up because i was a little confused initially a few hours later as the sun rose a nearby gas station attendant named art rogers claimed to have seen a woman who looked like gene and an unknown male driver pull up to his pump the man told him to fill the tank as they were headed for fresno while the woman sat slumped and silent in the passenger seat art filled the tank of a car he described as a blue gray convertible and took the money but as the convertible pulled away the woman sat up suddenly and yelled to him have the police follow this car art did call the police but they were unable to track the vehicle additionally an actor friend of jeans named robert stack had told police he'd been walking past jean's house the night of october 7 when he saw a figure lurking by one of her windows evidently trying to get in on the street outside of her apartment a single gold earring of jeans was found law enforcement had no way of knowing whether the earring had just fallen off perhaps not being properly fastened in her haste to get wherever she was going or if she'd been grabbed at that time and place and in the struggle it had loosened and dropped to the ground since she had told sophie her plans for that evening police questioned her ex-husband dexter benner on what they had discussed during their meeting but dexter claimed that no meeting had been planned in fact he said he hadn't even talked to gene in several weeks his wife of one month lynn lasky verified his alibi saying that she was with him all night the police's next steps were to figure out which movie set she'd been on but when they questioned the screen actors guild and central casting they were told that there had been no confirmed film shoot scheduled for the evening of october 7th had gene been lying to sophie telling her she was meeting with dexter and going to a movie set when in fact she'd been sneaking out for some secret romantic rendezvous gone wrong well it's not that simple and we'll get to that in a moment the two names in the letter had to be investigated they knew jean had written the letter and she must have written it recently since she referred to her mother being out of town they started with dr scott the person she had talked about going to see in the letter however after tracking down all the doctors with the first and last name scott in the la area they were unable to find any who had jean spengler as a patient or had an appointment set to see her they began talking to people from the club scene that gene was a part of and that's when they heard rumor of a former medical student who would perform illegal operations in the sunset boulevard area for money and this guy went by the nicknames scott and doc it was rumored that he was the reckless and entitled son of some wealthy east coast family but that was all anyone knew confirming such a person existed was the first step locating him was the second and they never could maybe he had left town maybe he'd heard the cops were sniffing around so he laid low but the police were never able to find or question this dr scott the investigation hadn't even started on who the kirk in the letter might be when the precinct received a call from a movie star kirk douglas himself self-proclaimed ladies man and alleged rapist in his autobiography douglas claimed to have been seduced by his teacher mrs livingston when he was just 14 years old in 1954 a 15 year old natalie wood was invited to the hotel room of an older actor to audition for a role in his movie but instead she was brutally raped she never publicly named this actor but many of her close friends and her own sister lana admitted she had told them it was kirk douglas it was also rumored that he abused many other young and aspiring starlets and then when he would get them pregnant he'd pressure them into getting abortions allegedly allegedly don't come for me douglas family but even michael douglas claimed that his father was so sex-crazed and just obsessed with women and sex that he couldn't even bring girls home because his dad would like flirt with them so pretty much the epitome of a creepy old man who i do believe assaulted natalie wood but that's just my opinion anyways these police officers they weren't even thinking that kirk douglas could be the kirk that gene spangler had referred to in her no when he called the los angeles times reported that douglas called and spoke to chief brown on october 13th claiming that at first he didn't remember gene until a friend of his jogged his memory see jean's bangler was currently an extra on a movie that kirk was starring in called young man with a horn and douglas said he remembered seeing her around the set and maybe he joked with her a little bit as he did with any other females that he worked with but they'd never seen each other outside of a movie and there was no romantic relationship between them so this dude calls to remove himself from the suspect list before he's even a suspect kirk described jean as the tall girl in the green dress and then hastily gave an alibi that no one asked for on the night of october 7th he said he was in palm springs recovering from the flu very convenient kirk douglas spoke to the police on the phone twice but he was never interviewed in person and i can't say for sure whether his alibi was ever checked out but it was the lapd during a time when cops were known to look the other way in crimes involving celebrities so i'm just gonna go ahead and say not but that's just my opinion there was also another man a dr kirk who was known to also perform illegal abortions for a fee and he also had a tendency of calling his patients and threatening them it's worth noting that one of his associates also completely vanished without a trace but they were never able to really connect this dr kirk with dr scott and i think it was kind of a reach anyways since scott was the name of the doctor and kirk was the name of the guy she was writing to tell him she was going to the doctor so it just seems like kind of like a reach though dr kirk was surely a scumbag he was most likely not the guy as no one had ever heard him go by the nicknames or aliases scott or scotty okay let's talk about theories one of the first theories is that jean had gotten pregnant and she realized that it wasn't a good time as her career was just kind of getting started and taking off and every extra cent she had went to her father's medical bills and to her daughter christine now this procedure would not be legal in the united states until roe v wade in 1973. jean lived in a time before such a thing was legal when birth control was certainly not readily available and right before the depression era when it became an economical issue to prevent having too many mouths to feed and specialists kind of went about their business unbothered by the law so basically what i'm saying is the 1940s was not a good time to get pregnant if you didn't want to be pregnant once the 50s hit and things like that it was a little easier because like i said there was the depression the country was economically in a bad position and everyone kind of looked the other way like police and things would kind of look the other way and let these doctors or pretend doctors do what they needed to do but during the time that jean was alive if a young woman needed to go down such a path she'd have to seek out the lowest of the low and get some back alley procedure done not always sanitary and certainly not safe in the year 1930 abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2 700 women it's possible that gene might have gone to see one of these people who took care of problems and it went wrong she could have died on the table and if that had happened there would have been no one around to help her or to report it she would have been taken care of her body hidden somewhere the mess cleaned up and forgotten the room readied for the next patient many question why this doctor would have dumped her purse so close to an entrance of a well-traveled place such as griffith park and on top of that why would he have left the note in her purse with his name on it most likely because he either hadn't checked to see what was in the purse just wanting to kind of get rid of it not having in his possession or he didn't care because dr scott wasn't his real name maybe this person gave a different name to each woman he met never allowing anyone to know his real identity but was kirk douglas the father of gene's baby it's true that no one had ever seen them together outside of the movie set but jean had told people she was in a new relationship and filming on that movie had just started jean's mother and her sister-in-law sophie had never heard gene mention any other kirk besides kirk douglas mentioning that she'd seen him on set but there was a man named kirk who had picked gene up from home twice choosing to remain in his car instead of coming to the door like a gentleman to get her florence and sophie figured that they were just one in the same and it does suggest a little bit of a guilty conscience when we find out that kirk douglas actually told on himself you know he called the police himself preemptively striking himself off the suspect list using an alibi that would be very hard to confirm oh yes mr douglas sir where were you on the evening of october 7th why i was in palm springs recovering from the flu recovering from the flu sir can anyone confirm this why of course not officer i was alone i had the flu i wouldn't want anyone else to catch the flu yes yes right mr douglas i see very responsible sir very responsible you're very aware of public health and we appreciate it here at the lapd all right no further questions we don't even need to talk to you in person have a nice day there are also a lot of people who believe gene is much more similar to the black dahlia than just on a surface level and that they might share the same killer george hodel now i can't go into any kind of serious detail on george hodel in this video it would be much too long because it's a crazy and extensive story but i do cover it pretty in-depth in my black dahlia video which i will link in the description box if you haven't seen it yet george hodel was a rich and really kind of evil genius sort of guy a practicing surgeon who lived in los angeles in the famous sodon house his own son grew up to be a homicide investigator with the lapd and this son steve hodel believes his father was responsible for the death of elizabeth short as well as many others including gene spangler steve hodell thinks that one of his father's first victims may have been a six-year-old girl named suzanne deegan who lived in chicago a place george hodel would often visit for business on january 7 1946 she was kidnapped from her home mutilated killed and dismembered her body parts would turn up in different locations for several months to follow but her arms were found six weeks later a mile from her home off a street named hollywood her body had been surgically bisected sliced through the second and third lumbar vertebrae which is the only way to cut a body in half without cutting bone a year later one week before the first anniversary of little suzanne's death elizabeth short was found on diegnan boulevard mutilated and bisected in the exact same way steve hodel does not think this is a coincidence in recent years a letter has surfaced written by a man named w glenn martin who was a former lapd informant he wrote on the envelope in case of margaret ellen's or glenna jean's deaths these were the names of his two teenage daughters inside the letter told a story of a man referred to only as gh and the consequences of keeping his dark secrets martin writes quote i believe choat framed this with macaulay to let gh get out of it as the known black dahlia killer now joe choet was the former la county deputy d.a and kenneth mccauley was an internal affairs officer with the lapd mccauley would assign his informant w glenn martin the letter writer certain tasks and one of these allegedly was to get close to this gh guy and gather information that would be passed back to the lapd when martin became worried that gh had found out what he was doing he got paranoid and he worried that something would happen to his daughters which was the reason he was writing this letter martin wrote in the letter that the investigating officers became friends with gh so they dropped it and then gh threatened to get even with martin since the day elizabeth short had been found on the side of the road other attacks on young women in the area happened one after the other the last was just two weeks before jean's bangler disappeared the daily news reported on october 11th fear new dahlia death some of the officers working the case are inclined to believe that she might be the 10th victim in a series of unsolved female mutilation murders additionally george hodel was known to go by different aliases when he would carry on affairs behind his wife's back as soon as gene's mother heard that her daughter was missing she left kentucky and came right home directly to the police florence told the officers that she was convinced her daughter was murdered and she gave the name of a man she felt was responsible the real name of jean's ex-boyfriend lieutenant scotty the violent air force pilot she had been scared of who had threatened to kill her the police never revealed this name but they claimed he'd been questioned at great length and they didn't believe he had anything to do with it could lieutenant scotty just have been another alias used by george hodel but somehow florence had figured out his real name and had given it to the lapd who were already covering up for him so they just said they interviewed him and didn't think he had anything to do with it additionally one of the men last seen with gene matched the description of george hodell tall hodel was over 6-1 dark-haired hodel had dark hair neat in appearance hodel was fastidious about his appearance and on top of that the place her handbag was found fern park was only a quarter of a mile away from his residence the soden house steve hodel believes that his father had brought some of his victims back to the basement of his home to torture and kill them when dr hodel was under surveillance by the police in the years following gene's disappearance they heard him say let's say i did kill the black dahlia they can't prove it now my secretary is dead hodel's secretary ruth spalding had also been a lover of his and she died of a mysterious drug overdose while working late at hodel's office shortly before he made this recorded statement the surveillance team also captured the screams of a woman coming from the house one night followed by the sounds of digging but they never saw a woman go in or out of the house wanting to investigate further steve hodel went to his childhood home with forensic anthropologist arpadvas in 2012. the house and its surrounding land was now owned by actress laura preppin they brought with them a cadaver dog named buster buster alerted to three separate areas in the basement and the rear alley behind the house and the hillside behind the house they took soil samples from these areas and when the samples were tested they came back positive for decomposition and more specifically human decomposition dr voss believed a likely burial site could be located in the backyard where buster had indicated but then laura preppin's attorney notified steve hodell that he had recommended she not allow any further investigation on her property so steve hodel wrote her a letter personally in november of 2013 stating quote based on my investigation it is my belief that if there is a victim buried on your property it would most likely be miss jean spangler a 26 year old film actress her body was never found but her purse and identification were discovered just a quarter of a mile away from sodon house a note found in her purse indicated she was most likely seeking an abortion at the time she was slain d.a documents confirm my father was both performing and securing abortions for women just months before gene's disappearance additionally he was arrested for incest and child molestation and had bailed out of jail the day prior to jean's kidnap murder end quote now whether it was laura preppin or her lawyer the request was denied and steve hodel was never granted access to the property again now laura preppin is a known scientologist and in 2017 she took part in the cults i mean church's efforts to shame and silence an alleged rape victim of her that 70 show co-star danny masterson the victim herself had also been a member of the church of scientology and when she made allegations against danny the the cult church they began to punish her and they threatened to label her as a suppressive person which would mean that she could be excommunicated from the church now that may not seem like a horrible thing to you guys and me because we obviously look at the church of scientology and say we would never want to be a part of that but people who are very entrenched in the church all of their family and friends are as well and if you're labeled a suppressive person and you're excommunicated you would be disowned by your family members your friends everybody you would basically have nothing depending on how many people you knew and loved were a part of the church as well so basically she was threatened and told you know if you if you exhibit any sp behavior we're watching we're going to write you up and we're going to kick you out and then you'll have no one they even made this victim pay 15 000 for past life therapy one day the victim saw laura preppin in the parking lot and laura basically allegedly questioned her about why this victim wasn't hanging out with them anymore as if she had no idea what had gone down and what happened as if she wasn't a close and personal friend of danny masterson's the victim was you know traumatized and triggered by having this woman stand in front of her and act like the abuse that she had allegedly gone through was just you know vapor never happened but the victim also knew if she let on that anything was wrong or she was upset laura would report her i guess in scientology you can be reported for being rude or being kind of like indifferent to your fellow scientology members or sort of you know being hostile or snarky in any way i would not make it i would not make it and if you get enough of those reports you're pretty much in trouble and you'll be excommunicated so this victim put on a smile feeling completely terrified and helpless so i guess what i'm saying is it might not be the victims of george hodel buried in the yard at soden house scientology has left many bodies in their wake just joking just joking i kid i get i'm just i'm just joking i'm just kidding i'm sure there's no like ax members or enemies of scientology buried on the property of laura preppin that's crazy george hodel did also flee the country the following march to go live in the philippines for a bunch of years where similar crimes took place and nothing ever happened to him so it's certainly a possible theory the next theory is there was a mob connection due to her supposed relationship with gangster mickey cohen as well as the fact that when her purse was found her address book was inside of it and allegedly it contained the numbers of many prominent people from both sides of the law including a few notable henchmen of cohen's davey ogle and frank nikolai what's interesting about this theory is both ogle and nikolai disappeared as well frank nicolai vanished off a public street in santa barbara in september of 1949 and davey went missing just two days after gene spangler there were reports from customs agents at the el paso border of davey ogle and nikolai traveling with an unknown woman who matched jean's description and it was thought that they might possibly be trying to leave the country sightings of gene and these two men just kept coming in some claim that they were seen in el paso in march of 1950 some sightings came from as far as mexico city i don't think any of these sightings were legitimate i think that you have two pretty prominent gangsters and a missing actress and it was an interesting theory kind of like a i don't know a movie and people just kind of saw what they wanted to see or they were just completely making it up to add fuel to the fire both men had been arrested along with mickey cohen the previous april 2nd and cohen was the one who posted their bond to the amount of over 70 000 which he would have had to forfeit when they dropped off the face of the earth did these gangsters run away to avoid prosecution if so why did they take gene with them was she romantically involved with one or both of them was she kidnapped by them and taken as leverage to be used against cohen or one of his hollywood friends to ensure that they weren't followed there was an enemy crime family prowling the streets of la led by sicilian mob boss jack dragna dragna had been trying to lure the italian members of cohen's outfit over to his side using one of his lieutenants jimmy the weasel fretiano jimmy the weasel and frank nikolai had known each other for 13 years they were kind of friends they'd even done time together in an ohio penitentiary and that's really what cements like a gangster friendship is doing time together according to jimmy dragna had told him jimmy you know frankie nikolai tell him to leave give him one warning and then we're gonna go kill him it seems that frankie turned down this offer and then he went missing leaving behind only his car keys in the middle of the road three decades later jimmy the weasel became a government witness pointing the finger at all of the guys he'd once worked with and confessing to many of his own dirty deeds in exchange for being brought into the witness protection program he admitted to killing at least five men and one of these was his former friend frankie nicolai he claims later they buried nikolai in a vineyard in san bernardino a place that they had buried several bodies over the years gotta check my wine cellar and make sure i don't have any wine from san bernardino so there's the answer to what happened to frankie he's dead and we can only assume that davey ogle faced the same fate it was rumored however that both of these men were getting ready to testify against their boss mickey cohen in order to make a deal that would save themselves and after they disappeared mickey cohen was yeah out of their bond money like he lost that money but he was also acquitted once their valuable eyewitness testimony was gone it could be he bailed them out simply to put them back on the streets so he could take care of them himself maybe frank nicolai was a loyal guy which is illustrated by the fact that he declined switching sides when asked and threatened with his life but maybe davey ogle wasn't so loyal and word had gotten back to mickey that he was thinking of testifying against him they had all been there when cohen had beaten a bookie within an inch of his life and was charged with conspiracy obstruction of justice and assault with a deadly weapon cohen may have seen the benefits in tying up loose ends but the most likely theory in my opinion points to a man who had a motive dexter benner jean's ex-husband almost as soon as jean had disappeared dexter had snatched their daughter christine back from florence causing another series of bitter court battles all florence really wanted was to be able to visit with christine and keep gene's memory alive for the six-year-old girl gene's lawyer ss han told the los angeles times that gene had certainly not left of her own free will since one of the stipulations of the custody arrangement required her to inform him whenever she left the state and she had just called him three or four days prior to her disappearance expressing her love for christine and seeing how happy she was to be raising her he said she seemed perfectly normal and that her mind was at ease on october 10th han appeared before superior judge thomas cunningham to request florence be appointed as christine's guardian the court battle officially began in april dexter benner told the court that florence was upsetting his daughter constantly talking about her real mother which was inconvenient for him since he tried to have his new wife legally adopt christine and it seemed as if they would both have preferred to act as if gene had never really existed dexter also told the court about a doll that florence had given christine for christmas which she had named jean elizabeth after the girl's missing mother florence had to get on the stand and she denied that she'd named the doll at all or that she had suggested christine think of her mother every time she held the doll which is ridiculous because what's actually wrong with that a little girl is missing her mother and this doll she may have named this doll after her mother and she does think of her and feel closer to her when she holds it but apparently that was a crime that she had to deny florence also denied that her daughter jean had any affiliation with mickey cohen or any of his henchmen but dexter contested this claiming the name of a known mickey cohen associate had been found in jean's address book now here's the thing dexter benner was one to talk about mob connections and he may have been a lot more familiar with the world of gangsters than he led on considering his new wife and the woman who had been his alibi was lynn lasky considering his new wife and alibi was lynn lasky a woman who had previously been married to eli lasky a part of the mob and a close friend of mickey cohen and the plot thickens turns out that lynn had given up custody of her own children after her divorce from eli and florence's lawyers argued that such a woman wasn't fit to be the mother of christine dexter pushed back and requested that florence's monthly visits be terminated because she was confusing and upsetting his daughter by talking about her real mother on april 5th 1950 the judge took little christine into his chambers to have a private conversation with her so that he could decide whether she would be in good hands living with her father and his wife judge doyle said christine was one of the smartest children of her age that he had ever seen he wanted florence to come in the next day so they could all work together to find an arrangement that would benefit christine the judge felt after talking with the little girl that she was receiving good care from dexter and lynn but he also felt that her grandmother florence cared for her as well and since they all loved christine couldn't they figure out a way to make this work figure out how to do this civilly saving christine from any more distress he said quote at least we can try i want to say i'd like to have that baby myself end quote but dexter benner was not interested in working together between the end of 1949 and may 15 of 1953 he failed to appear to 14 scheduled court dates intended to settle the dispute as a result he was charged with contempt of court and scheduled to 15 days in jail but before this could be enforced dexter and lynn left town with christine and moved to florida never to return to california again on october 27 1953 the supreme court of la officially restrained benner from denying visitation to florence but it was too late no one knew where he was years later jean's sister-in-law sophie revealed that when benner had come to pick up christine after gene went missing he had horrible scratches covering his face she'd never told anybody about this before she told the police but she never told anybody else publicly and when dexter was questioned about his injuries he claimed he'd dropped a crate of glasses at work the police excavated his garage of all things but found nothing additionally in police files was a report of a boating document that had been uncovered showing that the very same night gene went missing dexter had requested permission to take his small boat out onto the water neither he nor lynn ever revealed this little late night boat trip to the police when questioned about their whereabouts that evening in 1991 jean's mother florence spangler died never knowing what had happened to her daughter and never seeing her granddaughter christine again dexter benner died in 2007 in florida and if he knew something about what happened to his ex-wife his secrets died with him i certainly think dexter had the motive he'd been trying to keep custody of christine when gene had won in court additionally he would have had to have paid child support which was late quite a bit and if what gene told her friends and her sister-in-law was true that she was about to come into some money it's possible that dexter could have used the promise of a one-time large payment to draw her out and convince her to meet with him at which point he killed her and put her body in his boat and dumped in the ocean this would have solved many problems for him right he would have had christine back he wouldn't be making payments every month to a woman who had cheated on him spent all his money and brought another man to live in his home while he was fighting in a war additionally having connections to the mafia through his new wife lynn would have been helpful in covering all of this up and the fact that he didn't even want florence to mention jean's name to christine shows a deep resentment and a desire to wipe gene's memory from his life as well as their daughters but as always i would love to know what you think about all this of all the theories which one do you think is the most plausible if you liked this video go ahead and like it share it if you think it's worth sharing make sure you're still subscribed because youtube loves to unsubscribe people from my channel and make sure your notifications are turned on so you can be notified whenever i post a new video and if you've been here for a while and you've been watching the videos and you're not subscribed what are you waiting for come on and join us we have a great community here follow me on instagram and twitter where i talk about some cases that i'm looking into and just current events that i'm following and i give updates thank you so much to magellantv for sponsoring this video thank you to my patreons who keep me going every single day and have early access to my videos so they get to let me know what they think about it before i put it out to all of you so it's very very helpful and thank you to everyone out there who keeps coming back watching these videos and giving me so much love and support in the comments i appreciate you i appreciate all of you stay kind stay beautiful and i will see you again really [Music] soon [Music] is [Music] to let it go i got blood blood on the stream

Channel: Stephanie Harlowe

Views: 235,545

Rating: 4.9354787 out of 5

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Id: -jhkwNJwoZQ

Length: 57min 32sec (3452 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020