JEAN SPANGLER
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Jean Spangler was a ’40s actress on the brink of becoming a star. One evening in 1949, she told her sister-in-law that she was going to meet her ex-husband and then to a film shoot that would last into the night. She never returned. Later, her purse was found in a park with the straps ripped. Inside, a note read: “Can’t wait any longer. Going to see Dr. Scott. It will work best this way while mother is away.”
The note was addressed to Kirk. Famous actor Kirk Douglas called the police specifically to say that it wasn’t him, but Spangler had been in his last film, and Kirk isn’t all that common a name. Plus, calling the police specifically to tell them they shouldn’t suspect you are, well, a little suspicious. A friend of Spangler’s would later say that she was on her way to having an abortion, which was illegal at the time and usually done unsafely. Nobody is quite sure whether she died in the process or something happened to her on the way there.