Mysterious Murders

Kennedy scored major victories when he won both the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4. He addressed his supporters shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, in a ballroom at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Leaving the ballroom, he went through the hotel kitchen after being told it was a shortcut to a press room. He did this despite being advised by his bodyguard—former FBI agent Bill Barry—to avoid the kitchen. In a crowded kitchen passageway, Kennedy turned to his left and shook hands with hotel busboy Juan Romero just as Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, opened fire with a .22-caliber revolver. Kennedy was hit three times, and five other people were wounded. George Plimpton, former decathlete Rafer Johnson, and former professional football player Rosey Grier are credited with wrestling Sirhan to the ground after he shot the senator. As Kennedy lay mortally wounded, Romero cradled his head and placed a rosary in his hand. Kennedy asked Romero, "Is everybody OK?", and Romero responded, "Yes, everybody's OK." Kennedy then turned away from Romero and said, "Everything's going to be OK." After several minutes, medical attendants arrived and lifted the senator onto a stretcher, prompting him to whisper, "Don't lift me", which were his last words. He lost consciousness shortly thereafter. He was rushed first to Los Angeles' Central Receiving Hospital, less than 2 miles (3.2 km) east of the Ambassador Hotel, and then to the adjoining (one city block distant) Good Samaritan Hospital. Despite extensive neurosurgery to remove the bullet and bone fragments from his brain, Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. (PDT) on June 6, nearly 26 hours after the shooting. Robert Kennedy's death, like the 1963 assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, has been the subject of conspiracy theories.

Crane frequently videotaped and photographed his own sexual escapades. During the run of Hogan's Heroes, Dawson introduced him to John Henry Carpenter, a regional sales manager for Sony Electronics, who often helped famous clients with their video equipment. The two men struck up a friendship and began going to bars together. Crane attracted many women due to his celebrity status, and he introduced Carpenter to them as his manager. Crane and Carpenter videotaped their joint sexual encounters. Crane's son Robert later insisted that all of the women were aware of the videotaping and consented to it, but some said they had no idea that they had been recorded until they were informed by Scottsdale police after Crane's murder. Carpenter later became national sales manager at Akai, and he arranged his business trips to coincide with Crane's dinner-theater touring schedule so that the two could continue videotaping their sexual encounters. In June 1978, Crane was living in the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale during a run of Beginner's Luck at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the afternoon of June 29, his co-star Victoria Ann Berry entered his apartment after he failed to show up for a lunch meeting, and discovered his body. Crane had been bludgeoned with a weapon that was never identified, though investigators believed it to be a camera tripod. An electrical cord had been tied around his neck. Crane's funeral was held on July 5, 1978, at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Westwood, Los Angeles. An estimated 200 family members and friends attended, including Patty Duke, John Astin, and Carroll O'Connor. Pallbearers included Hogan's Heroes producer Edward Feldman, co-stars Larry Hovis and Robert Clary, and Crane's son Robert. He was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California. Patricia Olson later had his remains relocated to Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood, and she was buried beside him in 2007 under her stage name Sigrid Valdis.

On the morning of Monday, December 16, 1935, Todd was found dead, wearing a mauve and silver gown, mink wrap and expensive jewelry, in her chocolate-colored 1934 Lincoln Phaeton convertible inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and former wife of Todd's lover and business partner Roland West. Carmen's house was approximately a block from the topmost side of Todd's restaurant. Her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. West is quoted in a contemporaneous newspaper account as having locked her out, which may have caused her to seek refuge and warmth in the car. Todd had a wide circle of friends and associates and a busy social life. Police investigations revealed that she had spent the previous Saturday night (December 14) at the Trocadero, a popular Hollywood restaurant, at a party hosted by entertainer Stanley Lupino and his actress daughter Ida. She had a brief but unpleasant exchange there with her ex-husband, Pat DiCicco. However, her friends stated that she was in good spirits and were aware of nothing in her life that suggested a reason for her to commit suicide. She was driven home from the party in the early hours of December 15 by her chauffeur, Ernest O. Peters. LAPD detectives concluded that Todd's death was accidental, the result of her either warming up the car to drive it or using the heater to keep herself warm. A coroner's inquest into the death was held on December 18, 1935. Autopsy surgeon A. P. Wagner testified that there were "no marks of violence anywhere upon or within the body" with only a "superficial contusion on the lower lip." There are informal accounts of greater signs of injury. The jury ruled that the death appeared accidental, but recommended "further investigation to be made into the case, by proper authorities." A grand jury probe was subsequently held to determine whether Todd was murdered. After four weeks of testimony, the inquiry concluded with no evidence of foul play. The case was closed by the Homicide Bureau, which declared the death "accidental with possible suicide tendencies." However, investigators found no motive for suicide, and Todd left no suicide note. Todd's memorial service was held at Pierce Brothers Mortuary at 720 West Washington Blvd in Los Angeles. The body was cremated. After her mother's death in 1969, Todd's remains were placed in her mother's casket and buried in Bellevue Cemetery in her hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

On March 3, 1983, Peter Ivers was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in his Los Angeles loft space apartment. The murderer was never identified. In the hours following his death, LAPD officers sent to Ivers' home failed to secure the scene, allowing many of Ivers' friends and acquaintances to traffic through the loft space. The scene was contaminated and officers even allowed David Jove to leave with the blood-stained blankets from Ivers' bed. Several of Ivers friends told biographer Josh Frank they suspected David Jove, with whom the musician had a sometimes contentious relationship. Harold Ramis noted, "As I grew to know David a little better, it just accumulated: all the clues and evidence just made me think he was capable of anything. I couldn't say with certainty that he'd done anything but of all the people I knew, he was the one person I couldn't rule out." However, Derf Scratch (of the band Fear) and several other members of the Los Angeles punk and new wave scene maintained Jove's innocence. At the time of his death, Ivers had been dating film executive Lucy Fisher for many years. About five weeks after the murder, Fisher paid for a private investigator named David Charbonneau to investigate the crime. Charbonneau interviewed a number of people who knew Ivers but due to the botched initial investigation, lack of evidence and few witnesses, the renewed investigation came to nothing. Charbonneau stated: "I do not believe it was a break-in. I do not believe it was just someone off the street that Peter brought in because he was a nice guy that night and fell asleep trusting them. I'm not buying it."

David Carradine arrived in Bangkok, Thailand on May 31, 2009, to shoot his latest film, titled Stretch. He was last seen alive on June 3, but his assistant and other film staffers could not reach Carradine when they were going to have dinner and decided to leave without him. Carradine called the assistant an hour later but was told the group was across town and he would have to make his own arrangements that evening.

On June 4 (Thursday), at the age of 72, Carradine was found dead in his room at the Swissôtel Nai Lert Park Hotel, located on 2 Witthayu Road, in central Bangkok. Lt. Teerapop Luanseng, Lt. Col. Pirom Jantrapirom, and Col. Somprasong Yenthuam, Superintendent of the nearby Lumphini Police Station (139 Witthayu Road), said that Carradine was found naked, had hanged himself in the room's closet with a cord used with the curtains. Police said he had been dead for at least 12 hours and found no sign of struggle. Chasen was shot in Beverly Hills on November 16, 2010, at approximately 12:28 a.m. PST, as she was driving home from the Hollywood premiere of the film Burlesque. Neighbors near the intersection of Whittier Drive and Sunset Boulevard in the city of Beverly Hills originally reported hearing gunshots in front of their homes, but more calls came into the 911 call center a few moments later stating that a late model, black Mercedes-Benz had run a curb, then hit and toppled a concrete street light. When police arrived, they found Chasen slumped in the driver's seat, the steering wheel airbag inflated, with blood emanating from her nose and chest area, in and out of consciousness with the front passenger side window shattered. Chasen was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Chasen was buried at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. She was the sister of film director Larry Cohen who died in 2019.

On November 29, 1981, Wood died under mysterious circumstances at age 43 during the making of Brainstorm. She had been on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island on board her husband Robert Wagner's 58-foot (18 m) motoryacht Splendour. Other than the fact that she drowned, many of the circumstances are unknown; for example, it has never been determined how she entered the water. Wood was with Wagner, Brainstorm co-star Christopher Walken, and Splendour's captain Dennis Davern on the evening of November 28. Authorities recovered her body at 8 a.m. on November 29, one mile (1.6 km) away from the boat, with a small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. Wagner said that she was not with him when he went to bed. The autopsy report revealed that she had bruises on her body and arms, as well as an abrasion on her left cheek, but no indication as to how or when the injuries occurred. Davern had previously stated that Wood and Wagner argued that evening, which Wagner denied at the time. In his memoir Pieces of My Heart, Wagner admitted that he had an argument with Wood before she disappeared. The autopsy found that Wood's blood alcohol content was 0.14% and that there were traces of a motion-sickness pill and a painkiller in her bloodstream, both of which increase the effects of alcohol. Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi ruled the cause of her death to be accidental drowning and hypothermia. According to Noguchi, Wood had been drinking and she may have slipped while trying to re-board the dinghy. Her sister Lana expressed doubts, alleging that Wood could not swim and had been "terrified" of water all her life, and that she would never have left the yacht on her own by dinghy. Two witnesses who were on a nearby boat stated that they had heard a woman scream for help during the night. Wood was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Representatives of international media, photographers, and members of the public tried to attend her funeral, but all were required to remain outside the cemetery walls. Among the celebrities were Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Rock Hudson, David Niven, Gregory Peck, Gene Kelly, Elia Kazan, and Laurence Olivier. Olivier flew in from London in order to attend the service.

The case was reopened in November 2011 after Davern publicly stated that he had lied to police during the initial investigation and that Wood and Wagner had an argument that evening. He alleged that Wood had been flirting with Walken, that Wagner was jealous and enraged, and that Wagner had prevented Davern from turning on the search lights and notifying authorities after Wood's disappearance. Davern alleged that Wagner was responsible for her death. Walken hired a lawyer, cooperated with the investigation, and was not considered a suspect by authorities. In 2012, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran amended Wood's death certificate and changed the cause of death from accidental drowning to "drowning and other undetermined factors". The amended document included a statement that it is "not clearly established" how Wood ended up in the water. Detectives instructed the coroner's office not to discuss or comment on the case. On January 14, 2013, the Los Angeles County coroner's office offered a 10-page addendum to Wood's autopsy report. The addendum stated that Wood might have sustained some of the bruises on her body before she went into the water, but that this could not be definitively determined. Forensic pathologist Michael Hunter speculated that Wood was particularly susceptible to bruising because she had taken the drug Synthroid. In 2020, a medical doctor and former intern of Noguchi at the time of Wood's death stated that the bruises were substantial and fitting for someone thrown out of a boat. He claimed that he made those observations to Noguchi. In February 2018, Wagner was named a person of interest by the police in the investigation. The police stated that they know that Wagner was the last person to be with Wood before she disappeared. In a 2018 report, the Los Angeles Times cited the coroner's report from 2013 saying that Wood had unexplained fresh bruising on her right forearm, left wrist, and right knee, a scratch on her neck, and a superficial scrape on her forehead. Officials said that it is possible that she was assaulted before she drowned.

On the evening of April 4, 1958, 14-year-old Cheryl Crane stabbed 32-year-old Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of her mother, actress Lana Turner, at Turner's rented home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California. Stompanato, an ex-Marine and affiliate of the Cohen crime family, had been in a year-long relationship with Turner which had been rocky and marked with physical abuse. Crane and Turner alleged that the former had stabbed Stompanato in the stomach when Turner was ushering him out of her bedroom during a violent argument. Crane had heard the fighting and took a knife from the kitchen, planning to defend her mother. After Crane turned herself in to police in the early morning hours of April 5, she was interred in a juvenile hall. A coroner's inquest was held on April 11, during which the homicide was deemed justifiable, and Crane was exonerated of any wrongdoing. She was released in late April, and placed under the guardianship of her grandmother. Public response to the case was divisive, and numerous press outlets published articles criticizing Turner and likened her testimony during the inquest to that of a performance. Though Crane was cleared of wrongdoing, Stompanato's ex-wife filed a wrongful death lawsuit in June 1958 on behalf of herself and her son with Stompanato, against Crane, her father Stephen, and Turner, seeking $750,000 in damages. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1962 for a sum of $20,000. In the intervening years, Stompanato's homicide has been subject of conspiracy theories that Turner had in fact stabbed him, and that Crane had taken the blame to protect her mother, though Crane has denied this. Stompanato's killing has also been depicted in various media, and was the inspiration for the novel Where Love Has Gone (1962), as well as its subsequent film adaptation. In 2007, Time magazine deemed the case one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century. Police chief Clinton Anderson, who arrived at Turner's home shortly after emergency medical services, stated that Turner had pleaded to him, "Please, let me say I did it," after Cheryl had confessed to the stabbing to her father, Stephen, who had also arrived at the home after receiving the frantic phone call from his daughter. Within one hour of the homicide, Turner and her ex-husband had retained attorney Jerry Giesler to represent Cheryl. In the early morning hours of April 5, Cheryl was surrendered at the Beverly Hills Police Department, where she was booked on a holding charge. There, she gave a formal statement to Chief Anderson, detailing her hearing Stompanato's threats against her mother, and her subsequent stabbing of him in the bedroom doorway. After Crane had provided her statement, Turner, Stephen, and Giesler left the station house at the insistence of the police department, as the press had already "gathered like vultures outside."

In the interim pending further legal proceedings, Crane was interned in a juvenile hall. Reeves died of a gunshot wound to the head in the upstairs bedroom of his home at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Benedict Canyon between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. on June 16, 1959, according to the Los Angeles Police Department report. In contemporary news articles, Lemmon attributed Reeves' alleged suicide to depression caused by his "failed career" and inability to find more work. The report made by the Los Angeles Police states, "[Reeves was]... depressed because he couldn't get the sort of parts he wanted." Newspapers and wire-service reports quoted LAPD Sergeant V.A. Peterson as saying: "Miss Lemmon blurted, 'He's probably going to go shoot himself.' A noise was heard upstairs. She continued, 'He's opening a drawer to get the gun.' A shot was heard. 'See there—I told you so!'"' The official story given by Lemmon to the police placed her in the living room with party guests at the time of the shooting, but hearsay statements from Fred Crane, Reeves' friend and colleague from Gone With The Wind, put Lemmon either inside or in direct proximity to Reeves' bedroom. According to Crane (who was not present), Bill Bliss had told Millicent Trent after the shot rang out, while Bliss was having a drink, that Leonore Lemmon came downstairs and said, “Tell them I was down here, tell them I was down here!” A number of questionable physical findings were reported by investigators and others: No fingerprints were recovered from the gun. No gunpowder residue was found on Reeves' hands. (Some sources contend that it may not have been looked for, as gunshot residue testing was not routinely performed in 1959). The bullet that killed Reeves was recovered from the bedroom ceiling, and the spent shell casing was found under his body. Two additional bullets were discovered embedded in the bedroom floor. All three bullets had been fired from the weapon found at Reeves' feet, though all witnesses agreed they heard only one gunshot, and there was no sign of forced entry or other physical evidence that a second person was in the room. Despite the unanswered questions, Reeves' death was officially ruled a suicide, based on witness statements, physical evidence at the scene, and the autopsy report. Reeves' mother thought the ruling premature and peremptory, and retained attorney Jerry Giesler to petition for a reinvestigation of the case as a possible homicide. The findings of a second autopsy, conducted at Giesler's request, were the same as the first, except for a series of bruises of unknown origin about the head and body. A month later, having uncovered no evidence contradicting the official finding, Giesler announced that he was satisfied that the gunshot wound had been self-inflicted, and withdrew. Reeves is interred at Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California. In 1960, Reeves was awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard for his contributions to the TV industry. In 1985, he was posthumously named one of the honorees by DC Comics in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.

On May 10, 1973, Lee collapsed during an automated dialogue replacement session for Enter the Dragon at Golden Harvest film studio in Hong Kong. Because he was having seizures and headaches, he was immediately rushed to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital, where doctors diagnosed cerebral edema. They were able to reduce the swelling through the administration of mannitol. The headache and cerebral edema that occurred in his first collapse were later repeated on the day of his death. On Friday, July 20, 1973, Lee was in Hong Kong to have dinner with actor George Lazenby, with whom he intended to make a film. According to Lee's wife Linda, Lee met producer Raymond Chow at 2 p.m. at home to discuss the making of the film Game of Death. They worked until 4 p.m. and then drove together to the home of Lee's colleague Betty Ting Pei, a Taiwanese actress. The three went over the script at Ting's home, and then Chow left to attend a dinner meeting. Later, Lee complained of a headache, and Ting gave him the painkiller Equagesic, which contained both aspirin and the tranquiliser meprobamate. Around 7:30 p.m., he went to lie down for a nap. When Lee did not come for dinner, Chow came to the apartment, but he was unable to wake Lee up. A doctor was summoned, and spent ten minutes attempting to revive Lee before sending him by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Lee was declared dead on arrival at the age of 32. There was no visible external injury; however, according to autopsy reports, Lee's brain had swollen considerably, from 1,400 to 1,575 grams (a 13% increase). The autopsy found Equagesic in his system. On October 15, 2005, Chow stated in an interview that Lee died from an allergic reaction to the tranquiliser meprobamate, the main ingredient in Equagesic, which Chow described as an ingredient commonly used in painkillers. When the doctors announced Lee's death, it was officially ruled a "death by misadventure". Lee's wife Linda returned to her hometown of Seattle, and had Lee's body buried in Lake View Cemetery in Seattle. Pallbearers at Lee's funeral on July 25, 1973, included Taky Kimura, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Dan Inosanto, Peter Chin, and Lee's brother Robert. Around the time of Lee's death, numerous rumours appeared in the media. Lee's iconic status and untimely death fed many wild rumours and theories. These included murder involving the triads and a supposed curse on him and his family, rumors that persist to the present day.

Donald Teare, a forensic scientist, recommended by Scotland Yard, who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic. Although there was initial speculation that cannabis found in Lee's stomach may have contributed to his death, Teare said it would "be both 'irresponsible and irrational' to say that [cannabis] might have triggered either the events of Bruce's collapse on May 10 or his death on July 20". Dr. R. R. Lycette, the clinical pathologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, reported at the coroner hearing that the death could not have been caused by cannabis. In a 2018 biography, author Matthew Polly consulted with medical experts and theorised that the cerebral edema that killed Lee had been caused by over-exertion and heat stroke; heat stroke was not considered at the time because it was then a poorly understood condition. Furthermore, Lee had his underarm sweat glands removed in late 1972, in the apparent belief that underarm sweat was unphotogenic on film. Polly further theorised that this caused Lee's body to overheat while practising in hot temperatures on May 10 and July 20, 1973, resulting in heat stroke that in turn exacerbated the cerebral edema that led to his death.

The circumstances of Rappe's death in 1921 became a Hollywood scandal and were covered widely and sensationalized by the media of the time. During a party held on Labor Day, September 5, 1921, in Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's suite at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, Rappe allegedly suffered a trauma. She died four days later on September 9 from a ruptured bladder and secondary peritonitis. She was buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Grave of Virginia Rappe at Hollywood Forever Cemetery The exact events of the party remain unclear, with witnesses relating numerous versions of what happened. It was alleged that Rappe had died as a result of a violent sexual assault by Arbuckle. Arbuckle's accuser, Bambina Maude Delmont, had accompanied Rappe to the party; she had first met Rappe only a few days earlier. Delmont had a police record for extortion, prostitution and blackmail. Subsequent witnesses testified that Rappe had for some time suffered from cystitis, a condition which could have been aggravated by consuming alcohol.[14] Witnesses also testified that Rappe had previously suffered from venereal disease, so there were allegations that her death was brought on by her health rather than by an assault. After three manslaughter trials, Arbuckle was formally acquitted; his acquittal in the third trial was accompanied by an unprecedented statement of apology from the jury stating, in part, that, "Acquittal is not enough for Roscoe Arbuckle. We feel that a great injustice has been done him… there was not the slightest proof adduced to connect him in any way with the commission of a crime." Nevertheless, Arbuckle's reputation and career were ruined because of the scandal.

On December 29, 1996, Nance lunched with friends Leo Bulgarini and Catherine Case. Nance had a visible "crescent shaped bruise" under his eye; and, when asked about it, he related to them the story about a brawl outside a Winchell's Donuts store that morning. He described the incident as, "I guess I got what I deserved." He soon went home, complaining of a headache. The injuries he sustained caused a subdural hematoma, resulting in his death the following morning. His body was discovered on the bathroom floor of his South Pasadena, California apartment by Bulgarini, on December 30, 1996. An autopsy revealed that the actor's blood alcohol level was 0.24% at the time of his death.

At 7:30 am on the morning of Thursday, 2 February 1922, Taylor's body was found inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments, 404-B South Alvarado Street, in Westlake, Los Angeles, a trendy and affluent neighborhood. A crowd gathered inside, and someone identifying himself as a doctor stepped forward, made a cursory examination of the body, and declared Taylor had died of a stomach hemorrhage. The doctor was never seen again; when doubts later arose, the body was rolled over by forensic investigators revealing that the 49-year-old film director had been shot at least once in the back with what appeared to have been a small-caliber pistol, which was not found at the scene. Taylor's funeral took place on 7 February 1922, in St. Paul's Cathedral. After an Episcopal ceremony, he was interred in a mausoleum at Hollywood Cemetery, now named Hollywood Forever Cemetery, on Santa Monica Boulevard. The inscription on his crypt reads, "In Memory of William C. Deane-Tanner, Beloved Father of Ethel Deane-Tanner. Died 1 February 1922."

In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained earlier that day in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, and Henri Paul, their chauffeur, were found dead inside the car. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who was seriously injured, was the only survivor of the crash. Some media claimed the erratic behaviour of the paparazzi following the car, as reported by the BBC, had contributed to the crash. In 1999, a French investigation found that Paul, who lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated by alcohol and under the effects of prescription drugs, was solely responsible for the crash. He was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz and had earlier goaded paparazzi waiting for Diana and Fayed outside the hotel. Anti-depressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his blood might have worsened Paul's inebriation. In 2008, the jury at a British inquest, Operation Paget, returned a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the following paparazzi vehicles. Some media reports claimed Rees-Jones survived because he was wearing a seat belt, but other investigations revealed that none of the occupants of the car were wearing them. Diana was 36 years old when she died. Her death sparked an unprecedented outpouring of public grief in the United Kingdom and worldwide, and her televised funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. The royal family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana's death. Public interest in Diana has remained high and she has retained regular press coverage in the decades since her death.

Details are disputed concerning Hendrix's last day and death. He spent much of September 17, 1970, with Monika Dannemann in London, the only witness to his final hours. Dannemann said that she prepared a meal for them at her apartment in the Samarkand Hotel around 11 p.m., when they shared a bottle of wine. She drove him to the residence of an acquaintance at approximately 1:45 a.m., where he remained for about an hour before she picked him up and drove them back to her flat at 3 a.m. She said that they talked until around 7 a.m., when they went to sleep. Dannemann awoke around 11 a.m. and found Hendrix breathing but unconscious and unresponsive. She called for an ambulance at 11:18 a.m., and it arrived nine minutes later. Ambulancemen transported Hendrix to St Mary Abbots Hospital where Dr. John Bannister pronounced him dead at 12:45 p.m. on September 18. Coroner Gavin Thurston ordered a post-mortem examination which was performed on September 21 by Professor Robert Donald Teare, a forensic pathologist. Thurston completed the inquest on September 28 and concluded that Hendrix aspirated his own vomit and died of asphyxia while intoxicated with barbiturates. Citing "insufficient evidence of the circumstances", he declared an open verdict. Dannemann later revealed that Hendrix had taken nine of her prescribed Vesparax sleeping tablets, 18 times the recommended dosage. Desmond Henley embalmed Hendrix's body which was flown to Seattle on September 29. Hendrix's family and friends held a service at Dunlap Baptist Church in Seattle's Rainier Valley on Thursday, October 1; his body was interred at Greenwood Cemetery in nearby Renton, the location of his mother's grave. Family and friends traveled in 24 limousines, and more than 200 people attended the funeral, including Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Miles Davis, John Hammond, and Johnny Winter. Hendrix is often cited as one example of an allegedly disproportionate number of musicians dying at age 27, including Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin in the same era, a phenomenon referred to as the 27 Club.

On Wednesday, October 30, 2002, at 7:30 pm, Mizell was fatally shot in New York City in his recording studio on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens. Another person in the room, 25-year-old Urieco Rincon, was shot in the ankle and survived. Following Mizell's death, several artists expressed their grief for the loss in the hip hop community and remembered him for his influence on music and the genre. Mizell was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York. In 2003, Kenneth McGriff, a convicted drug dealer and longtime friend of Murder Inc. Records founders Irving "Irv Gotti" Lorenzo and his older brother Christopher, were investigated for targeting Mizell because the DJ defied an industry blacklist of rapper 50 Cent that was imposed because of "Ghetto Qu'ran", a song 50 Cent wrote about McGriff's drug history. In December 2003, Playboy magazine published an article by investigative journalist Frank Owen, "The Last Days of Jam Master Jay", which traced the murder to a drug deal gone bad.[6] Owen said he uncovered evidence Mizell, not normally involved in crime as an adult, had turned to cocaine distribution to pay mounting bills. Mizell owed substantial debts to the Internal Revenue Service, among others, after his music career stalled in the late 1990s. According to Owen, several sources indicated Mizell traveled to Washington, D.C., on July 31, 2002, to obtain 10 kilograms (22 lb) of cocaine valued at about a quarter-million dollars from a trafficker known as "Uncle". Mizell reportedly agreed to pay for the drugs in about a week. However, Mizell failed to repay Uncle, who allegedly arranged to have Mizell murdered. In April 2007, federal prosecutors named Ronald Washington as an accomplice in the murder. Washington also is a suspect in the 1995 murder of Randy "Stretch" Walker, a former close associate of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was also murdered. According to court papers filed by the prosecution, Washington allegedly "pointed his gun at those present in the studio, ordered them to get on the ground and provided cover for his associate to shoot and kill Jason Mizell." However, he was never convicted. In 2018, Netflix released a documentary analyzing the circumstances of his murder. ReMastered: Who Killed Jam Master Jay?, the third episode of Netflix's ReMastered music documentary series, interviews several of Mizell's friends, family members and acquaintances who share stories they have heard regarding suspects in his murder. The documentary does not come to a conclusion regarding who the murderer(s) are. Also in 2018, former prosecutor Marcia Clark featured Jam Master Jay's murder in an episode of her series Marcia Clark Investigates The First 48 on A&E where she examined several scenarios and suspects for the murder. She spoke to former Run DMC road manager Darren "Big D" Jordan, who denied allegations of involvement made against him by Ronald Washington. Clark further interviewed Owen, who stood by his 2003 article as largely accurate and stated he did not know who shot Mizell but believed the murder was facilitated by Mizell's close friend Ronald Washington.