Superman. The Man of Steel. Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Unfortunately, this is all just fiction created by Superman creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. A mere human is not bulletproof. On the night of June 16th, 1959, The Adventures of Supermanactor who played the titular character, George Reeves, seemingly died from a gunshot wound by his own hand... or so it was ruled. There are inconsistencies that suggest maybe he was murdered.
George awoke around one o'clock in the morning and went downstairs to yell at his neighbors, Carol Von Ronkel and Willaim Bliss, for stopping by after midnight . After going back upstairs, his fiance, Lenore Lemmon, writer Robert Condon, and the two neighbors continued to drink alcohol. A moment later, is when he supposedly killed himself.
His death was ruled a suicide after finding him naked in his bed with a .30 calibur Luger between his feet, and a gun shot wound in his head. Evidence also included a shell casing under his body. How could that be if he pulled the trigger? Some people say that the casing would have landed away from George if he had killed himself. Above the bed, the bullet that killed him was also lodged in the ceiling, which would have been at the wrong angle if he did kill himself. There was also a forty-five minute delay before anyone called the police. There was no evidence of fingerprints on the gun, nor were there any powder burns on his hands or head. Five bullet holes were found in the room. For one of the holes, Lenore explained that she was fooling around with the gun one day and accidentally discharged the weapon. The other four were never explained. All of this is why some people believe George was murdered.
One suspect was Lenore. As George went back into his room upstairs, Lemmon started describing what he was doing. She joked that he was going to kill himself, and then, they heard the shot.
Other suspects were Eddie Mannix, the Vice President at MGM, and his wife, Toni. George was dating Toni, which Eddie encouraged. Eventhough she bought him a house, and a car, he still called it quits with her in late 1958. A theory suggests that Mr. Mannix was upset enough with George over breaking it off with Toni, that he may have had someone go to his house, and kill him. People also believe that Toni may have been behind the three car accidents that George was involved in. In one accident in particular, it has looked like someone had drained all the break fluid from his car, resulting in a head injury.
Even with all evidence considered, there is still no way to tell what exactly happened that fateful night. Everyone that was there has now passed on. This case, just as Superman himself, is up in the air.
