CELEBRITY DEATHS THAT ARE STILL UNSOLVED
Added on: 30th Apr 2016
MARY MEYER
Mary Meyer was an American socialite and former wife of
CIA official Cord Meyer. There were also rumours she was one
of the many mistresses of John F. Kennedy. On October 12th,
1964, Meyer finished a painting and went for a walk along the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal towpath in Georgetown.
A mechanic named Henry Wiggins was trying to fix a car on
Canal Road and heard a woman cry for help. He claimed he
heard two gunshots and ran to a low wall overlooking the path
where he saw “a black man in a light jacket, dark slacks and
a dark cap standing over the body of a white woman.”
Meyer’s murder stirred speculation relating to Kennedy’s
presidency and assassination, but her case remains unsolved.
BARBARA COLBY
On July 24th, 1975, just three episodes into the TV series Phyllis,
American actress Barbara Colby and a colleague, James Kiernan,
where walking to their car following an acting class in Venice,
California, when they were shot inside a parking area. Colby was
killed instantly; Kiernan, however, was able to describe the
shooters to police before he too succumbed to his wounds.
Kiernan said he did not recognize the two men, and that the
shooting had occurred without warning, reason, or provocation.
Police noted there was no attempt to rob the pair and
concluded it was a random drive-by shooting. The killers
were never identified and the case remains open.
PETER IVERS
Peter Ivers was the host of the New Wave Theatre when he was
found bludgeoned to death in his bed in downtown LA in 1983.
Evidence was later unearthed by the Los Angeles Police Department
to reopen the investigation. Upon his death, many of his friends
went to Ivers’s apartment to mourn him, though in doing so, they
accidentally tampered with the evidence. A number of theories
abound about the cause for his murder. Some say he was killed
as the result of a robbery, while others speculate that he was
killed by one of the attendees of the New Wave Theatre.
The case remains open.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH
Anna Nicole Smith was a famous American model, actress, and
television personality. She first gained popularity in Playboy and
was the 1993 Playmate of the Year. She is best remembered,
however, for her mysterious death and the media drama
surrounding it. Initially, her behaviour on her reality show
started to become increasingly bizarre, but when her son died
of an overdose in 2006 she literally broke down. She died
six months later after suffering from severe depression, under
the influence of a similar drug cocktail her son had died from.
But what remains unknown is whether Smith took her own life
or if someone prescribed the fatal cocktail.
JACK NANCE
Nance was an American actor known for his work with
director David Lynch, particularly for his role in the film
Eraserhead. He died in South Pasadena, California, on December
30th, 1996, under mysterious circumstances. Nance told friends
a young homeless man had beaten him outside a Winchell’s
Donuts store in the early hours of December 29th. Later that day,
he lunched with friends who noticed a visible
“crescent-shaped bruise” under his eye. After lunch he
went home, complaining of a headache. The injuries he
received caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death
the following morning. A subsequent police investigation
failed to find evidence of the alleged fight.
JOHNNY STOMPANATO
The murder of Stompanato, a bodyguard for LA’s notorious
Mickey Cohen, a member of the Jewish Mafia, was a major
television event, with both Stompanato’s girlfriend, actress
Lana Turner, and Cohen testifying in court. According to
rumours, Stompanato was a very violent bodyguard, a
blackmailer, and allegedly abusive to Turner. Though the
star’s daughter, Cheryl Crane, was found guilty of justifiable
homicide for stabbing Stompanato with a kitchen knife at
Turner’s house while he was attacking Turner, rumours
Persisted that Turner had murdered Stompanato and passed
the crime on to her daughter, who was fourteen at the time.
RONNI CHASEN
Chasen was an American publicist who once represented
such actors as Michael Douglas, as well as musicians such
as Hans Zimmer and Mark Isham, among others. She was
shot in Beverly Hills on November 16th, 2010, at approximately
12:28 a.m., as she was driving home from the Hollywood
premiere of the film Burlesque. No one knows who killed her
and what motivation he/she had for doing so and
five years later her murder still remains a mystery.
DAVID CARRADINE
On June 4th, 2009, Carradine was found dead in his hotel room in
Bangkok, where he was shooting a movie. The actor’s body was
found hanging in the closet with a rope tied around his neck,
wrist, and genitals, in an apparent act of autoerotic asphyxiation.
Following his death, two of Carradine’s ex-wives, Gail Jensen
and Marina Anderson, stated that Carradine did indeed have
a self-bondage fetish and an overall penchant for “deviant
sexual behaviour.” Since then, Anderson has publicly
claimed she conducted her own investigation into
Carradine’s death, claiming he was murdered.
JILL DANDO
Jill Dando was a famous English journalist and television
presenter who worked for the BBC for fourteen years. She was
killed by a single gunshot wound to the head on April 26th, 1999,
after leaving the home of her fiancé. Her death sparked
Operation Oxborough, the biggest murder inquiry and
largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the
Yorkshire Ripper, but her murder remains unsolved.
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