Who was Peg Entwistle the Hollywood sign (jump) girl?

I'd heard the story of the actress who's said to have jumped from the H of the Hollywood sign to her death. But until I watched the Netflix miniseries Hollywood, I hadn't delved into what happened. 

Why would a beautiful, young, rising star in Hollywood who starred in a stage play with one of the greatest actors ever Humphrey Bogart throw herself from the very same Hollywood sign that had so first entranced her when she'd arrived in town as a teenager brimming with dreams?

The full story of what I discovered both fascinated and saddened me because I felt as if I was reading the story of an actor who died too soon. 

Peg's parents, both actors, had a very acrimonious divorce where - according to the BBC - her mother stated that she'd never loved her husband or her five-year-old daughter.

The psychological impact that might have had on such a young child can only be guessed at but can't have helped her mental state. But that wasn't tragic Peg's only heartbreak. 

Triple heartbreak for Peg 

In 1921 her stepmother actress Lauretta Ross died from meningitis. Peg adored her.

In 1922, 6 years after they'd immigrated to New York from the UK, Peg's beloved father Robert was killed in a hit and run. Peg was 13 at the time. Her uncle, an agent to an established Hollywood star took her and her two step-brothers who were now orphans into his home.

At the age of just 19, Peg married actor Robert Keith, a man who she later divorced for cruelty and failing to tell her he'd been married before and had a little boy who was 6*.

Behind the Hollywood glamour
there's heartbreak

In a career path full of disappointment and backstabbing, Peg might not have had the tools necessary to deal with disappointment even although she was used to it in her turbulent personal life.

But what led her to leap to her death (no foul play was ever suspected far less proved) at the point where she was starting to make it in Hollywood?

Peg was cast in her first and only movie Thirteen Women but after test audiences watched it her role was cut back. Even worse, her contract with film studio RKO was cut leaving her demoralised and penniless. The die had been cast.

Leaving a note saying she was off to visit friends, Peg made her last, tragic climb. She wasn't found for two days and only after another woman found her shoes and bag near the famous Hollywood sign along with a jacket that contained a goodbye note.

One thing they can't take away from Peg Entwistle is her influence on Bette Davis, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time.  She credits seeing Peg acting in the theatre play The Wild Duck as her inspiration for becoming an actress herself.

Without Peg Entwistle, we might never have got to see Bette Davis's eyes light up the screen. But the main reason Peg Entwistle will never be forgotten is that maybe in her crushed dreams we see our own. 

*Tragically his son, Brian Keith, later ended his own life using a shotgun at the age of 75. He had lung cancer and had lost his daughter Daisy to suicide. He has a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. 

The suspicious death of Scottish independence hero Willie McRrae - murder, cover up or suicide you decide

 

charismaticWillie McRae

I have always been fascinated by conspiracy theories even if I don't believe most of them. There is a fair few going around after former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's arrest and subsquent release in connection with alleged missing funds from the SNP an accusation which she vehemently denies. 

I can't comment on that when it's an ongoing police inquiry but many people I have spoken to don't trust the police and that's hardly new.

One of the many mysteries/conroversies that has always interested me was the death - or was it murder or execution of - Scottish independence hero Willie McRae. 

Who was Willie McRae?

Born in Falkrik, he was a razor sharp prominent lawyer and politician who had won cases against the then English based UK government (remember, this is many years before devolution). He didn't want Scotland used as a nuclear dustbin and was an advocate for Scottish independence. 

He also wasn't as cosetted as so many of today's politicians having served in WWII as a naval officer and then in the Royal Indian Navy. He was also an advocate for Indian independence.

Against nuclear power and pro- independence for both his beloved Scotland and India, these were considered dangerous views by some back then. 

The car crash?

In 1985, Mr McRae's apparently crashed car was found by two tourists who flagged down a passing car driven by Dr Dorothy Messer.  Immediately, the doctor attended to the man inside the car,  noticing that Willie McRae was still breathing but suspecting he might have brain damage, probably from the crash.

It was only in hospital when a nurse was washing Mr McRae's head that a bullet wound was found. He'd been shot. An x-ray proved this to be the case. 

What had first appeared to be a car crash now became something more sinister. Who shot Willie McRae? Or, did he really shoot himself? 

Suicide was suspected but the gun was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't until later it was found 60 feet away from the car's supposed resting place in a burn. How had it got there?

There were two theories - 

1. The car had been moved by the police and that's why the gun wasn't next to the car. Well, dead men can't throw guns away after they shoot themselves in the head can they? 

Note - later it was claimed that the police assumed the car has been in an accident and had it moved but they moved it back once they discovered McRae had been shot. 

If that was the case, it sounds like a sloppy investigation right from the start. Can we trust the findings of such sloppy police work? 

2. Someone else had shot Mr McRae. Friends believed the secret services had been following him. To give that theory credence, a former serving British police officer (at that time there was no Police Scotland) who had become a private investigator insisted he had been hired to keep tabs on Mr McRae. 

There was good reason to believe that Mr McRae had been got at.

A man of strong principles and an even stronger constitution, he was a boil on the backside of the pro-nuclear British establishment and a fervent believer in Scottish independence. Firmly anti-nuclear, he was credited with almost single-handedly having plans to dump nuclear waste in the Galloway Hills of Scotland turned down by the local authority. 

Could he have brought down the Thatcher government? 

There were rumours McRae had evidence of a paedophile ring at the heart of the Thatcher government which would be bad enough to bring down the whole English government. 

He was also currently working on stopping even more nuclear waste being dumped in Scotland. He was so paranoid about what he was working on that he carried a copy of his files around with him at all times. No such paperwork was found in the car. 

Had it been removed by someone else? Or had he suspected he'd been followed and hidden it somewhere?

Stolen files before his death

To make it even more suspicious, it was claimed the only other copy of his files had been stolen in a break-in at his home before his death. Nothing else had been stolen. Coincidence or something more sinister? Will we ever know? 

Yet more questions that still haven't been answered. 

Questions still abound and it doesn't kill off the conspiracy theories when those seen as part of the establishment have refused to - 

1. hold a FAI (Fatal Account Inquiry)

2. give them investigator Winnie Ewing who was a qualified lawyer and SNP President a copy of the police files.

3. meet with Fergus Ewing the son of Winnie. He requested a meeting with the Solicitor General for Scotland and was rebuffed. The Official Secrets Act may have been quoted. 

What do they have to fear from the truth? 

Then there was the investigation into his death conducted by 'A Justice for Willie' group. In the report in 2016 they said there was nothing to suggest that his death had been anything other than a suicide. 

Did that investigation put the tin lid on it? Well, sadly not.

The nurse who says someone shot McRae

In 2018, one of the nurses who treated the dying man, insisted that the bullet wound had been to the back of his head and not his temple. It's not completely impossible that someone could shoot themselves in the back of the head or neck but less likely than putting a gun to the temple of their head or the gun in their mouth and then pulling the trigger. 

Also, why would a man who respected the rights of other people to live their lives shoot himself whilst driving his own car, something that risked injuring or killing someone? 

With time marching on, maybe we will never find out the full truth of what happened to Willie McRae on that lonely road.  The one thing that is certain is that he was a great loss to the Scottish independence movement of which he was a strong advocate. 

5 things telenovelas can teach you about writing

Kate del Castillo the Queen of telenovelas 

(Photo (c) Netflix)

I came across some telenovelas on Netflix - and now I'm hooked. 

In case you don't know what a telenovela is, it combines the words television and novel for good reason. A telenovela is a serial drama mainly made in Latin America so usually in Spanish. Usually there's a hint of soap opera about them and they are very dramatic. 

My favourites so far have been Ingobernable (starring Kate del Castillo the Queen of telenovelas as the First Lady of Mexico), La Reina del Sur (the English language version is Queen of the South and it's about Teresa Mendoza who goes from grieving woman to drug lord - also played by Kate del Castillo) and The Marked Heart (A woman who's given the heart of a young mother who is murdered for her organs becomes part of her reluctant donor's family life). 

Watching them isn't just entertaining, it's also taught me a few things about writing - 

Telenovelas have lots of "WOW" moments 

1. How to keep people interested by using twists and turns - telenovelas seem to have a twist every 5-minutes. There is never a dull moment. If a telenovela was a book you would never put it down. At least not because you were bored. 

2. Having lots of characters isn't necessarily a bad thing - when it comes to the plot it gives you much more room for manoeuvre. Characters that seem like peripheral ones at the start can be given more of a storyline that can be just as good as the main storyline. Many characters means lots of threads to pull. Lots of subplots. 

Too much telling not showing in dialogue

3. How not to write dialogue - one thing that's very noticeable about telenovelas is the use (or should that be abuse?) of information dumping in dialogue.

Example - "I know that you found the letter in the jewellery box and read it and found out about me stealing the baby from the woman who lived downstairs."

Give your big reveals time to breathe

4. Give your big reveals time to breathe - they don't tend to do this in telenovellas which often means the big "WOW" moment you get is so fast you don't get to savour it. When writing your novel, give readers the chance to think, "WOW, I didn't see that coming" and to react to their surprise and absorb what it means for the story. 

5. Think about the music that would accompany the scenes in your novel - Telenovelas make use of music to illustrate what's happening in the story very well. 

Girl in the picture: Review - one of the most remarkable true crime documentaries you will ever watch

Photo: Netlix

Girl in the picture is one of the most remarkable true crime documentaries you will ever watch. It does something that not all true crime does and brings to life the person who was murdered to such an extent that you almost feel as if they are sitting watching it with you and saying "this is my story."

In this documentary, they speak to the woman's friends and the love and admiration for her shines out in amidst all the darkness of what happened to her. Despite the grim details of her life she was a good friend, vivacious and kind and everyone who met her instantly loved her whether it was at high school, the trailer park where she lived for a time, or the strip joint where she was forced to work by the man who always told her he was her father. 

She was super smart, driven and it was obvious she would have achieved amazing things. Had she lived long enough.

Best thing is you probably won't remember the killer's name

Another thing Girl in the Picture does amazingly well is put the perpetrator very much in the background. This documentary is no glorification or attempt to understand an evil man's actions. It's more a testimony of how a beautiful person inside and out with an intelligent mind, who had a scholarship to one of America's top colleges, was robbed of her future by a paedophile.

A truly shocking tale

The story doesn't seem that unusual when you first hear it. A woman is found seriously wounded after a suspected hit and run. It seems like a straightforward case. But when the police try to identify the woman who later dies of her injuries after battling against the odds to stay alive for 5 days, so begins an investigation with a plot more complex than any crime thriller I have ever read.

The police visit the lady they believe to be this young woman's mother to tell her that her daughter is dead which comes as a surprise. Her daughter died at the age of just 18 months. The woman on the road can't be her daughter so who is she?

And so begins a search for the truth that last for years with so many twists and turns at times you feel giddy. Imagine being the young woman who had to live through that all. And we do. Every vile detail feels like a boot in the gut.

The search reveals some horrifying details of the horrendous cruelties inflicted upon this young woman by a stepfather who abducted her when she was just 5 years old and later kidnapped and murdered her 6-year old son.

Suzanne was adbucted when she was 5

In case you haven't watched the show, I won't give the game away about what transpires. So, no spoiler alerts needed.

Thanks to these dedicated people who stopped at nothing to get to the truth, both law enforcement, jornalists and resaearchers, Suzanne Sevakis finally has her real name on her gravestone. She has people who truly mourn her. Her daughter can visit her mom's grave.

Yet, still you are left reeling with a feeling of deep sadness that this amazing young woman never got to fulfil her potential because of a sick psychopath. 

Girl in the Picture is on Netflix. 

Why my latest killer force-feeds their victims in Butcher City - Detective in a Coma Book 2 (the follow up to Vile City)

In Butcher City the killer's victims are force-fed in a similar way
Suffragettes were before they're killed

Years ago I lived on an island. Not one of those remote Islands but one of the most accessible ones you are likely to get. One day I was walking past a local restaurant and I was shocked to see something on the menu that's so cruel the production of it is banned in my country but not the sale. 

You can read about what happened next on my companion blog for my book Living Cruelty Free: Live a more Compassionate Life here 

That product was Foie gras which is made by ramming a metal or plastic pipe down a duck or goose's throat so their livers swell abnormally to around ten times their normal size. 

Foie gras is French and translates as fatty liver.​ 

There's never been an appetite for reversing the ban on producing it in the UK where I live because even farmers who could make money out of producing this vile 'foodstuff' find the cruelty involved too much. 

In Butcher City, DI Waddell investigates a sinister killer who's killing
people and removing their livers

When I was writing book 2 in the Detective in a Coma series (the follow up to Vile City) I wanted to do something a bit different. Come up with a different method of murder whilst also letting people who don't know into the sick little secret of how cruel a 'food' Foie gras is. 

In Butcher City, my killer craves Foie gras but is so sickened by how it's obtained he decides that he'll make a human version instead. Pretty gross but as well as coming up with a more novel way to kill people, it also gives folk an insight into one of the cruellest things humans eat. 

A food so cruel that when Scottish tennis star Andy Murray discovered what it was he banned it from being served in the hotel he owns. 

If you want to see how it's used in Butcher City you can check out the book now.

A killer is stalking his victims on Glasgow's streets.
Men are being abducted, kept tied up for weeks and force-fed, then strangled and their livers are being removed.

~from Jennifer Lee Thomson @jenthom72 and Diamond Crime~ 

#ButcherCity Detective in a Coma Book 2, the follow up to VILE CITY is out

now-

Amazon Kindle

Amazon paperback

#Kindle #paperback

SOLVED: The tragic case of Renee and baby Andrew MacRae - murdered by his own father

SOLVED - ONE OF SCOTLAND'S MOST BAFFLING UNSOLVED MURDER CASES dating back to 1976 has now been solved. 

In September 2022, William MacDowell, who was the man Renee MacRae had been having an affair with and allegedly meeting on the night of her death, was convicted of her murder and the killing of her 3-year-old son Andrew who was also his son. Their bodies have never been found. 

MacDowell who tried to blame the dead woman's husband for her murder, was given a minimum sentence of 30 years. As he's 80 years old, he's expected to die in prison. 

Renee who was described as a devoted mum, left behind an older son. Rennies sister and the police I have called on the callous killer to reveal where the bodies are buried.

Read on if you want to know more about the tragic case- 

The last picture of Renee and little Andrew

Usually when a child goes missing they don't have either of their parents with them. But in the case of the longest open missing persons case In Britain's history, 3-year-old son Andrew was with his mother Renee MacRae when he disappeared along with her, way back in 1976.

Renee was separated from her husband Gordon and dropped her oldest son Gordon who was 9-year-old off at her husband's in Inverness. She was meant to be going to see her sister in Kilmarnock and she was heading that way in her BMW when she was last seen.

The burning car

12 miles away that very same night, a train driver spotted a burning car in an isolated lay-by. It turned out to be Renee MacRae's car.

No trace of either her or the little boy was found. All that police found was a rug stained with blood that was tested and matched MacRae's blood type.

What happened to Renee and little Andrew?

So, how did a car carrying a mother and her child end up on fire and more importantly, where were Renee and little Andrew? Despite an intensive search no trace of either them was ever found.

The Sightings

Witnesses spotted a man dragging what looked like a dead sheep along the road where the mother and child were last spotted driving along. Renee MacRae was wearing a sheepskin coat when she was last seen.

Other witnesses saw a man with a pushchair near the quarry. Could it have been the little boy's?

The Theories

Unbeknown to her husband Renee had been having an affair with a married man called Bill MacDowell who worked for her husband. According to Renee's best friend she'd been going to see him that night and not her sister as she claimed. 

What's more she confided in her friend that wee Andrew was her lover's son. This friend claimed that Renee was planning to start a new life with her lover.

If that was true, Renee never got the chance of happiness. Her little boy never got the chance to enjoy his childhood.

Whatever happened to the pair that night it seems certain that they were murdered. Will their bodies ever be found so they can rest in peace?

Some hope

The man in charge of the search, Detective Sergeant Cathcart was convinced he'd found Renee and Andrew in a quarry after removing the topsoil and being hit with the stench of what he believed to be corpses. He hired a bulldozer, but was ordered to stop digging by a senior officer because the vehicle had to go back to the contractors due to lack of money.

Over twenty years later, the quarry was dug up again but there were no sign of any bodies. Had they been removed? We'll never know.

Could the tragic pair be buried beneath this motorway?

The prime suspect

Bill MacDowell, Renee's lover was the main person of interest. At one stage he went into a police station to make a statement, but was dragged out by his wife.

Had he been about to confess? He denied any involvement in Renee and Andrew's murder.

The prevailing theory appears to be that mother and child were killed and buried under the A9 motorway that was being upgraded. If that is this case, maybe one day future roadworks will give all unearth the tragic pair.

Update -

See "Suspect in MacRae case fled to US http://www.scotsman.com/news/suspect-in-macrae-case-fled-to-the-us-1-4383307

UPDATE - On September 2019 a 77-year-old man later named as William MacDowell was charged with the murders of Renee and little Andrew. MacDowell is allegedly the man Renee was having an affair with and who she was meant to be travelling to meet on the fateful night she went missing. There were rumours he was little Andrew's biological father.