What about the extra bullet holes?

There has always been a question mark about
how many bullet holes were in George's bedroom, and his house.
The police and news reports say there were two.

However, Gene LeBell insists that there were five bullet holes in the bedroom floor.
Throughout the years various stories surround the actual number of holes throughout the house.

The father of Robert Shayne's dentist was hired to patch up the holes months later.
He told Robert there were bullet holes all over the house.

Noel Neill also told a story about extra bullet holes.
"You only hear about the four or five in the floor, but there were many others that were in the walls.
I had a friend whose husband was later hired to repair the drywall in George's bedroom.
He said the place was literally riddled with bullet holes."

Lenore received a phone call from Chief William Parker asking about the extra bullet holes in the bedroom.
She answered that she had fired the gun into the floor some time before, just to impress a friend.
She didn't know about the other bullet hole.
The newspapers later reported that a female friend of Lenore's confirmed that she had indeed fired a bullet into the floor.

All these years later, the number of bullet holes is still a question mark.
Keep in mind that if a bullet was fired into the bedroom floor,
it would cause two holes in the downstairs living room.

However, the extra bullet holes can be explained.

Forty percent of all gunshot suicides, in previous days or weeks, have done a 'practice shot'.
A Phoenix police officer friend told me that when he arrives at a gunshot suicide scene,
he will look for an extra bullet hole...

It appears that many times a person thinking about killing themselves with a gun will have previously fired it.
It's as though they just want to hear what it sounds like.

I believe that George Reeves would periodically fire his gun inside his home.

He was angry. He was depressed.
He was suicidal...

1579 Benedict Canyon Road, George Reeves' home. Photo taken in 2015.

George wasn't alone in firing a gun in his house.
Elvis Presley fired, at least once, a bullet into his television.

Pete Duel was a good looking actor who was co-starring in a popular TV series titled, 'Alias Smith and Jones'.
He hated it. He wanted to make movies. He called acting in a TV series the ultimate trap.
He was an alcoholic. His driver's license had been taken away.

Just prior to his death, he had been in a cheerful mood.
But he was just covering up a tortured soul.

A longtime friend saw him walking his dog, miles from his home.
Concerned, the friend pulled over. Pete said that everything was cool.
Then he leaned into the car window and asked, "Have I ever told you that I've tried to kill myself?"

One night, Pete watched television with his girlfriend, and got drunk.
She went to bed; he got a gun from the nightstand, went into the living room and shot himself.
He was naked. He was 31 years old.

The police found that a second bullet had been fired from the revolver.
About a week or so before, Pete had received a telegram that he didn't like.
He pinned it to a wall and shot a bullet through it.

There are interesting parallels with the deaths of Pete Duel and George Reeves.

Frank Sinatra was going through bad times.
He was borrowing money and he was very much in love with Ava Gardner.
Their relationship was on the rocks. Ava was trying to get away from him.

Ava Gardner told the story,
"It was another of those nights that I refused to sleep with Frank.
I was half asleep in my room in the suite and I heard this gunshot.
It scared the bejesus out of me. I didn't know what I was going to find.
His brains blown out? He was always threatening to do it.
Instead he was sitting on the bed grinning like a drunken school kid, a smoking gun in his hand.
He'd fired the gun into the pillow.
What a night that was, it was a cry for help."

The home that George Reeves lived in was a violent home.
Two people were drinking excessively
and there were all those pressures and anger.
A gun was being fired inside the house...

See The case for suicide

Return to my main George Reeves page.


The premiere George Reeves researcher, JimNolt.com