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"We worked out that morning, as we were getting ready to head over to Australia for a show. And that stuff about him being typecast was – again, in my opinion – baloney. He was told that he would be the lead in the Wagon Train series, and if that didn't work out, he was going to direct. In fact, he said that if the Wagon Train series came about, he was going to make me a an actor, giving me the part of the cook. He was not depressed at all, and when I left that day, we made plans to meet again the next day." Then LeBell, whose mother, the late Aileen Eaton was the first female boxing and wrestling promoter in the country, got an early morning wake-up call. "My phone rang very early that morning, and a friend of mine told me he'd heard on the radio that George had shot himself. I got dressed and went right over to the house, and went upstairs to the bedroom. The officer, who looked like Edward G. Robinson, asked me who I was and what I wanted. I explained to him that I'd been with George earlier in the day, and that everything was fine then. I walked around the room, and then tripped over a throw rug that was on the floor – a rug that wasn't there earlier in the day. As I accidentally kicked it out of the way, I saw five bullet holes in the floor, and they certainly weren't there that afternoon." (The official police report states that there were just two bullet holes, one of which Lemmon admitted to putting there one day when she was messing around with the Luger.)  Martial Arts HOF member Gene Lebell was with Reeves the day he died. "Well, the detective got tired of me being there and pointing things out and asking questions," said LeBell, "and he told me to leave or I'd be arrested. So I left. But there's no way you'll ever convince me that George Reeves killed himself." So, what did happen? Leanore was, in LeBell's opinion, a major alcoholic and prone to juvenile fits, and feels that Lemmon became very upset when Reeves wouldn't participate in the drinking festivities downstairs that night. "I think she went upstairs, grabbed the gun, and started firing it in the floor, trying to get George's attention. Like I said, nothing bothered the man, so I think he just looked at her and told her to put the gun down and go back to the party. There was no reason for him to think she was going to shoot him, because she'd done things like that before, and I think she really did love him. And he really was crazy about her, so he probably thought she'd just calm down like she always did. But I think her final move was to point the gun at George and demand that he come downstairs, and while she was swinging it around, it went off and killed him. "In my mind, it wasn't murder and it wasn't suicide. It was just a tragic, tragic accident." No matter what happened, though, LeBell wants everyone to know one thing – that George Reeves was a Superman in real-life. "He was like a father-figure to me. I lost my father when I was just a kid, and he filled that void for me. He treated me and everyone else like we were as important and well known as he was. He was all class. And I still miss him very much." Joe McDonnell is an award-winning radio talk show host and investigative reporter. You can reach him at
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