The Mysterious Death and Ghost of Thelma Todd

Hollywood actress Thelma Todd has been dead for more than 70 years, but that hasn't slowed down her ghost. Oddly enough she doesn't haunt the home where she died, but a place very close by.

Todd arrived in Hollywood just as the movie industry was transitioning from silent films to talking movies and needed a new breed of actor. She appeared alongside the Marx Brothers and became good friends with Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy. Before long her career was jumping and she was seldom without work.

The woman had a strong professional life, but her personal life was less than stellar. She had bad luck with the opposite sex and continually found herself being dumped. She married once, but the marriage ended in failure. She jumped into bed with a variety of men before falling for Roland West, the director of her latest movie in 1931.

Despite the fact that the man was married at the time, the two fell in love. They purchased a small building and turned it into Thelma Todd's Roadside Rest Café. The two lived in the same building and loved to invite their famous friends over. The café became just as popular as the actress and director.

Rumors about Todd persisted, especially when Lucky Luciano came knocking on her door. The infamous gangster thought her little café was the perfect place to host a little underground gambling. He wanted to use her Hollywood connections to get his illegal business up and running. He'd do most of the work and cut her in on the profits, but Todd didn't even consider the idea.

The night Thelma Todd died, she attended a part in Hollywood. She had been working on her latest film and was excited about playing a different role than she had previously. The actress ran into her ex-husband at the party and after the two fought, she drank heavily. A driver took her home, but one of the party goers called West and told him that the drunk actress should be home soon. West never saw her alive again.

The house of Roland West, a Hollywood movie director, was the scene of a grisly sight in 1935. Film actress Thelma Todd sat dead in the garage and even today people wonder what happened. There were rumors that it was suicide and the coroner admitted that she died of carbon monoxide fumes when the car was left running in the closed space. Yet others pointed out that the woman had blood on her face and clothing and was missing a tooth.

The suicide theory became even more confusing when people started to receive Christmas gifts and cards in the mail in the coming days. Some claimed the woman wouldn't send those things if she was planning to kill herself, others said it was clear that she was tying up loose ends before the suicide.

Going against the suicide theory was the fact that she had bruises covering her body, a few broken ribs and even a broken nose. Oddly enough police found that the woman had no sand on her body or her clothing, despite the fact that she had supposedly been at the café on the beach.

More theories appeared when witnesses began to speak up. Neighbors swore they saw the woman that night outside their apartment at the café, screaming at West. Yet her body was found at his house. The friend who called West also came forward, which made people wonder if her lover had killed her and faked her suicide, it was one of the most popular theories. Some even claimed the man used a body double while actually killing Todd.

West himself spoke out about the accusations. He claimed that he didn't like Todd when she was drunk and had purposefully locked the apartment door so she couldn't get inside. That explained why people heard her screaming at him that night. West also claimed that he heard someone inside the apartment in the middle of the night and went back to sleep because he assumed that his girlfriend was already home.

West was never a real suspect in the case though the wife he left for Thelma came forward with her own story. She said she had seen the woman and an attractive man in Hollywood the same morning her body was found. Some claimed she was covering for him while others wondered if she might have seen the mysterious double that morning.

Theories also appeared that maybe Luciano was behind her death. Some believed that he was more upset over her refusal than he let on. The DA briefly considered opening an official inquest into the matter, but was talked out of the idea by others in his office. In 1936 the case was officially closed with the only decision made being that Todd died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The café closed and was torn down, but that hasn't stopped her ghost. A production company now owns the land where the café was located and dozens of people over the years have seen this ghost. The woman always appears in clothing from the time period and never speaks to anyone in the room. Those who have seen her often spot the woman walking down a staircase in the building.

Thelma Todd's ghost is also rumored to haunt the garage where her body was found. Some former residents claimed they smelled carbon monoxide in the area, even when the garage wasn't used to house cars. Others have heard a car running, once again when there were no cars inside.

It seems like this former actress isn't yet ready to move onto the next life.

Sources:

http://www.prairieghosts.com/hollywood8.htmlhttp://www.1halloween.net/html/stthelma.html