If we believe the stories Hollywood tells us, then any death involving a girl and a gun might be regarded as suspicious.
But that wasn’t the conclusion drawn by the two police officers who arrived at 1579 Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, in the early hours of June 16 1959.
Officers Johnson and Korby found a few drunken houseguests and a body on a bed, shot through the head by a bullet that had left a hole in the ceiling and its casing beneath the victim’s back. The Luger lay between his feet, which were still on the floor, as if he’d been sitting on the edge of the bed before falling back. He was naked, a burly six foot two, and his blood was spreading out on the sheets beneath him like a billowing red cape.
It didn’t take the officers long to discover that the deceased was George Reeves, the 45-year-old actor who had become famous for playing the only bulletproof character on television: Superman.