Thelma Todd
American actress Thelma Todd died in 1935 of carbon monoxide poisoning. Todd, 29, was found slumped over the steering wheel of her Lincoln. The engine wasn’t running, however, and Todd’s throat showed signs of trauma, as if something like a hose or a pipe had been forced into her mouth by an assailant.
Suspects included her ex-husband, her current lover, and the gangster, Lucky Luciano. In the weeks before her death, she had received several notes demanding she pay $10,000 or be killed, reported the L.A. Times. The grand jury impaneled to investigate was unable to come to a conclusion, remaining hopelessly split between those who believed she’d been murdered and those who believed she’d died accidentally.
