The Trail Went Cold - Episode 164 - Jean Spangler

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

Tv & Film, True Crime

4.5 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2020

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

October 7, 1949. Los Angeles, California. 26-year old actress Jean Spangler leaves her home and asks her sister-in-law to watch over her daughter. Jean says she is planning to meet with her ex-husband and spend the night working on a film shoot, but she soon vanishes without a trace. Two days later, Jean’s purse is discovered in Griffith Park, containing a cryptic note addressed to someone named “Kirk”. Since Jean had recently worked on a film starring actor Kirk Douglas, there is speculation that the note might be addressed to him, but he denies any knowledge of what happened. There are numerous theories surrounding Jean’s disappearance, including speculation about a botched abortion, rumours about her becoming involved with organized crime figures, and even a potential connection to the “Black Dahlia” murder. On this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”, we shall cover an unsolved missing persons case which has remained one of Hollywood’s most baffling mysteries. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Spangler http://charleyproject.org/case/jean-elizabeth-spangler https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-oct-20-me-then20-story.html https://www.palmspringslife.com/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-jean-spangler/ https://welkerlots.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/the-jean-spangler-premonition/ “Hard Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles” by Jon Lewis “Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story” by Steve Hodel “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	October 7th, 1949, Los Angeles, California.
0:06.0	26-year-old actress Jean Spangler leaves her home and tells her sister-in-law that she is planning to visit her ex-husband and spend the night working on a film shoot, but she never returns.
0:17.5	Two days later, Jean's purse is discovered in Griffith Park,
0:21.5	containing a cryptic note addressed to someone named Kirk.
0:25.6	Since Jean had recently worked on a film starring Kirk Douglas, there is speculation that the note
0:30.7	might be addressed to him, but he denies any knowledge of what happened.
0:34.8	The case would contain numerous theories, including rumors of a botched abortion,
0:40.3	alleged ties to organized crime, and speculation that Jean's disappearance was connected to the blocked Dollya murder,
0:47.0	but no trace of her is ever found.
0:50.0	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, well, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, and uh, and uh,
1:14.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh,
1:16.0	uh, uh,
1:18.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail went cold.
1:31.0	I'm your host Robin Warder and we've got ourselves a pretty famous
1:35.0	Hollywood mystery to cover today. The 1949 disappearance of Jean Spangler.
1:40.0	Needless to say, this is a case I've been wanting to do an episode about since the inception of this podcast.
1:47.0	Jean Spangler was an aspiring actress who was attempting to launch a movie career
1:52.0	and while she had managed to obtain some uncredited
1:54.4	bit parts in Hollywood productions, stardom still alluded her.
1:59.0	Jean was also a single mother, and one night, she asked her sister-in-law to look after her daughter while she spent the
2:05.3	evening working on a film shoot, but Jean subsequently vanished without a trace, and it turned
2:10.6	out there were no movies being filmed in Los Angeles that night.
	...

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