Death of a Hollywood Starlet

Like, what does this mean, Robert, is it the mill map? Yes, mail man man. Welcome to Scary Mystery Surprise, where we talk about scary things that surprised us around the Internet. I'm Edwin and I'm Michelle Edwin. It's nineteen thirty five and you're throwing a party in Hollywood. Who everyone, who's anyone is going to be there? The Black Value murder case is twelve years later. If that helps to put it in a timeline. Okay, it does. Actually you're there yelling at the caterers to put the flowers in order. They just never do anything right. So frustrating. It's so frustrating. Your maid walks up to you and hands you the phone. I have a maid. You have a maid. You're in a posh Hollywood establishment fansai. Okay, yeah, you are in the it zone of Hollywood in the thirties. Could this be the call you've been waiting for? Will you be taking over four Boris Karloff in the Bride of Frankenstein. You'd be playing the Frankenstein Monster. Will it be you? No, it's just your front Thelma. And that's fine too. You know she's supposed to come to the party. And she's calling and she's just like, I'm coming to this party on Saturday, and she asks if it's okay if she wears her same clothes that she wore the night before. It's like no woman, and you're like, oh, okay, fine, whatever. So you know, she's just checking into me, make sure it's okay. Image it's important, you know, it's Hollywood. An Thelma goes on on the phone and she's like, you'll never believe who I'm bringing. You'll drop dead when you see who I'm bringing as my guest. Who you ask? But she's hung up the phone. What I know. So annoying but typical Thelma. And so you get back yelling at your caterers and arranging your flowers and the place settings. But you'll never find out who. Actress Thelma Tod Is found dead that morning, slumped over the wheel of her car, still wearing her party clothes, draped in furs and jewels, with perfectly styled hair. Dang it, Thelma told you not to wear the furs, which is weird because you can look at the crime scene photos. I don't know if you've ever done that with old crime scene photos. But her hair is like perfectly quaffed. Who killed Thelma Tod? This has been a popular unsolved case for almost one hundred years. I'm looking at the crime scene photos, but like, even the images look classier in black and white. I feel you know why that is right, It's because they used to shoot on four by five film. You know, those big cameras that go and there'd be a big flash. So they're shooting. The negative is this big, So that's why it looks so good, Like four by five is beautiful and it's so expensive to shoot on now, but that was just the film they used. So that's why old old crime photos are beautiful. Yeah, it looks so crisp and yeah, well that's it because of bigger negative you capture more information. So and who's carrying her away because they're in suits the police or like in suits wow, yeah, like suiting ties and like hats and neatly coming yea. By the way, Michelle used to photographer for those who everyone knows. Unfortunately everyone knows. So anyway, let's talk about Thelma. I'd actually seen some of her movies before. She was actually kind of a well known actress and comedian. If you ever see the movie Horse Feathers with the Marx Brothers in it. She's very funny in these she plays like the blonde in these movies, like she's just like her nickname is the ice cream Blonde. Oh that's nice. But initially she wasn't going to be in Hollywood. She'd studied to be a teacher, and then she won a Miss Massachusetts beauty contest, but she was from Massachusetts. Paramount Pictures basically scouted her and then sent her to actress school, like the weird little camp that they'd send anyone that they thought might be a potential actor. She graduated from that and then ended up starring in some silent movies, and then she transitioned into talkie films really easily because a lot of actors didn't because they had funny voices or accents. And the peak of her career was in nineteen thirty one when she signed with the popular producer Hal Roach and worked on comedy shorts with the Marx Brothers. She was in a lot of Laurel and Hardy's. Hal Roach is famous for doing the little rascals, so he was like doing all of those things. Hal Roach tried to make her like part of a female Laurel and Hardy, so she often co starred with other famous actresses such as Zuzu Pitts, who Olive Oil from Popeye is based on, and then Patsy Kelly, and she appeared in almost forty films with them. So Thelma Todd in nineteen thirty one starred in this film called Corsair, where she met the director Roland West. They started a love affair. Roland, of course, was married to the silent film star Jule Cameron, so they couldn't be together and Thelma continued working and modeling and socializing kind of on the rebound. She married this guy named Pat de Chico, who was this like a wealth the Italian guy from New York. And for some reason it says he got his wealth in the broccoli business. But I don't think that's correct. I don't think no. I think he was cousins with someone with the last name Broccoli. I don't think he was in the broccoli business. I don't know which one sawn is more likely. I don't know either, but unless the audience decide, but potentially he was connected to the Italian mafia. He was also known to have a temper and rage and drinking, and so they were married in nineteen thirty two, well for divorce in nineteen thirty four. Obviously she was like abuse, which you know, he's not a great guy. And so Thelma found herself single and pushing thirty. Oh no, I know, Oh god, what will I do? So she decided to invest in a hospitality business, opening Thelma Todd's Cafe in Malibu. Do you ever drive the PCA. We have visitors. So there is this large building on the PCH and it's still there, and it was like this Spanish colonial revival building that had its windows boarded up for a long time, and it has a pedestrian walkway that goes over to the beach. And that was Selma Toad's cafe. That's still there. That building is still there. You're going to recognize it when you see it. Oh no way? Yeah? Yeah. I thought it was like a horse stables or something. But then she had an apartment above that and she lived there with Roland. Before I knew this story, I'd always drive by that and be like, what is that place and why is it empty? Like for years it was like boarded up. I think now it's just become like office spaces, but like for years it was kind of like nothing. I don't know, the windows were always boarded up. Piece of history right there. I know. It's cool. So anyway, of course she invests this in this cafe she lived upstairs. The cafe hosted a high end restaurant called La Joya upstairs and had a series of rooms for private events. And of course Thelma invested in this with her married boyfriend Roland West, so they were fifty to fifty lived in the apartment. Just a great idea. Can't commit to you in life, but can commit to you in business. Perfect thirties man, the thirties. Look it's swinging time. I mean, if I do the epilogue of this or some of the characters did some other weird stuff. That's all back to the night that Thelma died. Thelma's invited to a dinner party at the Cafe True Cadero, thrown by actress and friend Ida l Apino Saturday, December fourteen. Her maid placed money and a gate key into her purse. Thelma then left for dinner, and as she was leaving, Roland told her to be home at two am sharp, and Thelma laughed and said two five am, dang a sassy melassy, and she got into her chauffeured car. Thelma shows up at dinner, and so does her ex pat Ta Chico. Court documents and witness testimonies claimed that Thelma and Pat barely spoke to one another, but when they did it was perfectly cordial, and that she really didn't pay him any mine because she was dating a secret man. In San Francisco. At two thirty, the head waiter called Roland and told him that Thelma was on her way home in her Chaufford car and that she drank a lot. Thelma had actually had to start being chauffeured because she had had too many drunk driving accidents and then in the thirties that's really something, and basically wasn't allowed to drive herself anywhere anymore. How fast were people driving in the thirties, But I'm just curious, like are they like? Just it wasn't sixty miles an hour. I don't remember what it was, but it was definitely not what it is now, so it should have been less. But he had gotten in so many accidents they were like no more. I used to work for a lawyer who had a Dui and I had to drive him around and he had hired Shiver. It's also it's nice if you have the money, why not You know that chauffeur guy that used to drive him around had the stories about him. Oh Man. So Thelma was last physically seen by her driver between three fifteen am and four am. She was dropped off at the bottom of the stairs on the pch drive headed northwest on the sidewalk underneath the public footbridge. Her driver said in court that he had asked if she wanted to be dropped off closer to the apartment and Thelma had said no. And then on Monday, December sixteenth, Thelma's body was found slumped over the wheel of her car in the garage. She was dead and court wrecords indicate that she had a blood alcohol of zero point one three and seventy five to eighty percent blood saturation of carbon monoxide. The car battery was dead and the car was almost out of gas. The almost body was moved. It wasn't picked up or carried, but was originally slumped over to the side, then she was slumped over the wheel. Then she was slumped over to the side like the other side which is weird. It wasn't her like her coming back from the dead, and that's what's weird. Like this is why it's kind of a mystery. It said that she had a broken nose and broken ribs, but we both just looked at the crime photos. You can't really see anything that looks like she was beat up in those photos. But if that was in the autopsy, so be it. But there was like a little blood on her lips, but it didn't seem like there was any external bruising. There wasn't any like blood under her fingernails. There wasn't any sign of a struggle. Her gown still had its wilted boot near and she was still wearing twenty thousand dollars worth of jewelry. Wow, they didn't try to steal. Yeah, no one stole anything. There wasn't a struggle. There was a handprint smudge on the car door. The garage window was found to be open, and her maid like insisted that how could Thelma have died of carbon monoxide poisoning if the garage window was open, Because it was speculated that Thelma had come home drunk and gone to the car to be warm, and like turned on the car in the garage and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. It's also speculated that it had been a suicide, that she'd done that intentionally, but the trunk of the car was full of Christmas presents for people because it was December and she just had a photo shoot to do her Christmas cards that year, so people weren't quite buying that she had committed suicide, I mean, obviously, following her death, it became headline news. With headline news, you always get a list of suspects and theories, and there's been conspiracy theories all up and down this forever. So I'm gonna list some of the suspects and theories. Roland West, of course, the married boyfriend, Like he's the easiest one. Apparently he had locked Thelma out of the house on purpose before because she'd come home so drunk and to like teach her a lesson, and she had had to break the window to get into her house, so like clearly and as had happened before. But also, you know, one of the points someone was making is that, oh, she was so bold and so self assured that she'd just break the window and make noise, Like why would she just go to fall asleep in her car? You know, like, why would she just go do that? Oh? Did he find out that she had a secret boyfriend in San Francisco and you know, have an argument locker in the garage and causing the carbon monoxide poisoning or whatever. You have an argument? What you hit her in the face and then turn on the car and walk, Like would Roland have locked her in? And then she would have had to have been like, oh, I'm cold, and like turned the car on and then just done that. I'm cold, I'm gonna sit and sleep in the car. I mean, I guess, yeah, I believe he might have locked her out. I believe he might have done that, that's for sure. And then another suspect, Jewel Carmen Roland's wife, She testified in court that she had seen Thelma in Hollywood at eleven fifteen PM, which Thelma was driving in a car with an unidentified male passenger. However, none of that was true, so she testified in court like, it's pretty weird that she kind of inserted herself into the story. She wants to be part of the Hollywood court case. Yeah, it was kind of weird. Then Jewel changed her story again and said she hadn't seen Thelma for weeks. What, okay, and she's still a credible witness. Yeah, And then she said then she privately told the media that there's no way Thelma could have just died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Did Jewles secretly kill or hire a hit man to take out her husband's lover? Number three? Pat t Chico, the ex husband who was known to have ties to the mafia. Yes, so he was rich, had gone through a public divorce with Thelma well, and he'd spent most of his money on this divorce. He was known to be have a problem with alcohol, domestic abuser. Apparently, he was said to be dating somebody new and so like, when Thelma and him saw each other at that dinner, they were fine because Thelma already had her new boyfriend in San Francisco. Apparently, But the day that Thelma was found, Pat t Chico had boarded a plane to New York and they had to issue a warrant for him to come back. And so that was kind of suspicious, except that it was the start of the holiday season and all of his family lived in New York. She'd slandered his name in public. Ever, like that was a theory that that had happened. And plus, you know, a domestic abuser, problems with alcohol. Who knows what kind of grudges he was holding underneath it all another suspect or theory the Italian mob in general, not just yeah, you know, there's a conspiracy that Lucky Luciano might have been involved in her killing, but it seems like that might have been added to the story later in the eighties. He was like under surveillance by the FBI at that point, so I don't imagine that he was able to like hide and come out here. I don't know. It just seems strange. Rumors floated everywhere that there was like illegal gambling and other mafia ploys like in the upper floors, you know, that were for special events, and that the mafia had been extorting cash from Thelma and used the restaurant as a credible front for their organized crime upstairs. So that's how Yeah, there's this weird theory. She had a stalker. Less than a year before Thelma's death, she started getting these weird ransom notes and vague threats saying things like our friends in San Francisco will take care of you again. So here's like San Francisco coming into play twice in this case. With zero leads. The threats became so frequent that Thelma consistently contacted the police and even published notes in the newspaper with the threats. Because Thelma was scared for her life, she actually did a press release photo where she showed herself with a handgun and a dog beside her in her apartment above the cafe, which is pretty bad ass. It's like a don't mess with mean. Eventually, the FBI claimed to have found the guy, who was allegedly a man in an Astoria Queen's apartment in New York, a crazed fan who said he wanted to keep Thelma receiving her note a riot and celebrity status and he was in love with her, and he ended up admitting it, and there was no trial and everybody just washed their hands of everything. What's really weird is that her husband, her ex husband, Pat Dichico, was from Astoria Queens, New York. Small world, I guess. And then finally we get to the secret boyfriend, who the hell is He will never know that either. I thought you're reveal because Thelma's body was undisturbed when they found her, like pretty much undisturbed. You know a lot of Thelma YouTube videos and Thelma POD's claim that she had a broken rib and her nose, which doesn't look to be true in the photos. No one heard any screams that night that she died. The night watchman who did patrols in the neighborhood didn't hear anything, so there was no struggle. So if she had actually been intending to meet up with someone from San Francisco, then she willingly went at this person. The speculation is like, oh, what if she was injected with something, or more likely drank too much and passed out. But anyway, the media headlines were like absolutely wild. The case was closed shortly after New Year's in nineteen thirty six. They said it was a suicide, even though it had all these weird loose ends. There's a theory that the jury was paid off and that loops back to the mob again. But the funeral was held and the restaurant slowly fell into obscurity. But what about that call you received, Edwin? Did you ever get cast in the Bride of Frankenstein? No, you didn't, But that call actually happened to her friend Martha Ford. She received a call from Thelma, and she swears it was Thelma. But we'll never find out who she was going to bring to the party because she was the one who quote unquote dropped dead before she could share that was the killer. It might have been or it was someone establishing an alibi. I don't even know. I don't even know. Yeah, I'm sorry you didn't get cast in the Bride of Franketston. That's all right, I'll try it again. What do you think happened to her? The suicide thing, yeah, makes logical sense, I get it. But did she normally get that drunk? Yes, yeah, she had a bit of a drinking problem. Yes, it would make sense if she hadn't been with a broken nose or flipped like I like the weirdly positioned. It just doesn't make sense to me now because she have gotten hurt because she was so drunk, maybe bumped her nose against the car door. It happens. But like I smashed my finger closing a preas when I left the uber at the airport, it happens, and it turns the same thing. But I mean the carbon monoxide thing makes sense to me. It seems like it was probably a carbon monoxide accident, Like she came home drunk, and if it was suicide, it was like she comes home, she gets locked out, she's like and instead of like making a big scene, you just don't have the end and you go and you just want to go sleep it off. Yeah, it seems like an accident because I mean a lot of people don't know about it. You know, when you start a car and then that happens, you can die. And not a lot of people know about bleach either, Like you could if you mix bleach with it, like anything, you can die at home. Yeah. Yeah, that's weird, that chemical reaction. Yeah, I like all these other theories. Though. Turns out Roland West and Jewel Cameron weren't even really married. They just were severely embedded in each other's lives, so Roland West could have married her at any time. But also West was like find over tax issues and connected to a friend who ran a legal gambling with movie stars and the mafia, again weaving in the mafia connections, which is weird. And then there's a weird rumor that Roland West admitted to the murder on his deathbed, which is not substantiated in any way. It's just a weird theory that he admitted to. It sounds made up. Although out of everyone, he would have been like probably if she was murdered, that's like the easiest scenario. Hollywood man, Yeah, Hollywood man. But then I just want to just do this caveat about Pat de Chico. Two years later, he was back at Cafe Trucadero and he beat up the actor Ted Healy, who created the Three Stooges, and Ted Healy dies like this, Pat did Chico killed Ted Healy and then somehow didn't go to jail. What Yeah, Ted fell into a coma and died and no one was arrested for his death. Then he weaseled his way into the Vanderbilt dynasty and married Gloria Vanderbilt in nineteen forty one when he was only sixteen and he was thirty two, And once again, the marriage ended in divorce and Gloria cited alcoholism and domestic abuse. How did he do it? Half your age plus seven? That's the rule and he broke it? Is that the rule? I've not I think I've heard that, but not a couple, not a while, not a while. I mean, Jesus, that guy was a weirdo. And then Thelma's mother actually established in Massachusetts. There's a film festival in Thelma Todd's honor every year, or at least there was for a long time. I'm not sure if it's still going on post COVID, but there was. Hollywood. It so sounds so insane back then. It was insane now too, like drugs, murders. Yeah, what's up with the taxes? Like, why do you struggle so much with taxes? Guys, Like, come on, it's not like you don't have them money. I mean, Wesley Snipes, I mean, it's still it's still freaking happens. Shakira, pay your taxes to Spain please. I don't know if she did so already, but I think she did. Jail. Yeah, you don't want her to go to jail. It'd be so sad. Luckily Shakira is not in jail. And what are we going to talk about next week, Edwin, I don't know. I think it'll be a surprise, scary. Mystery Surprise is hosted by Michelle Newman and Edwin Kovarubias. This podcast was edited and sound designed by Sarah Vorhez Wendel a VW Sound