13 James Dean: A Love For Speed & A Brutal Crash
James Dean was the coolest man around, with looks that made women (and men) weak in the knees. His role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause turned him into an instant star but it was his premature and tragic death in a car crash that cemented him as the legend he is today.
His love for racing was overshadowing his love for acting to the extent that Warner Bros banned him from racing while his last movie, Giant, was still in production. As soon as Giant was wrapped up, Dean was itching to get some speed. On September 30, 1955, Dean was scheduled to compete at a racing event in Salinas, California and so on the request of Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean’s Porsche 550 Spyder “Little Bastard,” Dean decided to drive the car there to break it in. Following them in another car were stunt coordinator Bill Hickman and photographer Sanford Roth. They drive down Route 466 when suddenly at 5:15 in the evening, Dean slammed into the driver’s side of a Ford Tudor that was passing through an intersection. Rolf was thrown from the car but James Dean sustained many injuries and snapped his neck, dying almost instantaneously. The crime scene photos of the wreckage barely resemble a car, as James is carried away on a stretcher to be pronounced dead later.
12 Marilyn Monroe: Of Depression & Unrequited Love
Marilyn Monroe has been a symbol of beauty and sex since the 60s and her early and tragic death, shrouded in mystery and rumors, made her a sex symbol lasting generations. Born to an impoverished background and having been abandoned by her mother, sexually assaulted as a child, and bounced from one foster home to another, Marilyn’s search for love only got her fame and leering attention. As beautiful as she was on the outside, Marilyn’s heart remained dark, brooding, and tragically unhappy. Plagued with unhappy marriages that ended too fast, short-term love affairs, and a business that kept thinking she was indeed a dumb blonde, along with health problems and a drug addiction, Marilyn did not have an easy time. Despite her fame and fortune, happiness seemed to elude her, and being linked to the then-president, JFK, did not help her mental balance either.
Finally, at 36 years old, Marilyn seemingly called it a day, overdosing on barbiturates. She died on August 5, 1962, after having consumed far more than the prescribed dosage of these drugs, but due to an absence of a suicide note, her death was dubbed a probable suicide. The crime scene photos show a tragic story of a bright star extinguished too soon.
11 John F Kennedy: The Assassinated President
When Marilyn died, rumors floated left, right and center about her being murdered to cover up the supposed affair between her and the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. Police have long since cleared any evidence of foul play in her death but believers will believe what they want to. And ironically, JFK was also killed, or assassinated, a little after Marilyn’s death, on November 22, 1963, aged 46.
A famous or rather infamous incident in American history, JFK was traveling in the presidential motorcade, waving to all his loving Americans, along with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, when he was shot. One bullet entered his back and exited via his throat which is when he keeled over to Jackie and she is shown cradling him. The second one basically blew out his brains and then there is the famous shot of Jackie scrambling over the back of the car, later explained as her trying to get back a part of JFK’s skull. Jackie O’s memorable pink suit remained in the memory of Americans as she wore the same bloodstained suit for the next 24 hours be it to give a statement or for the swearing in of the President saying, “I want them to see what they have done to John…”
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