Jean Spangler

Jean Elizabeth Spangler (September 2, 1923 – disappeared October 7, 1949) was an American actress who appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood films in the late 1940s. She garnered public attention for her mysterious disappearance in late 1949.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Spangler attended high school in Los Angeles, California, before beginning a career in film in 1948, appearing as a dancer in several uncredited roles, including in Walter Lang's When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), the comedy Chicken Every Sunday (1949), and the musical drama Young Man with a Horn (1950).

On the evening of October 7, 1949, Spangler left her home in Los Angeles, telling her sister-in-law that she was going to meet with her ex-husband before going to work as an extra on a film set. She was last seen alive at a grocery store several blocks from her home at approximately 6:00 p.m. Two days later, Spangler's tattered purse was discovered in a remote area of Griffith Park, approximately from her home; inside was a letter addressed to a "Kirk", which mentioned seeing a doctor. Given Spangler's recent work on the film Young Man with a Horn starring Kirk Douglas, he called police to clear his name, telling them he was in Palm Springs at the time, which police accepted. She had two brothers, Richard Martin and Edward Franklin Spangler, and an older sister, Betsy Anne Shreckengaust. She attended Franklin High School in Los Angeles, California, and graduated in 1941. As a teen, Spangler had danced with the Earl Carroll Theatre and Florentine Gardens.

In 1942, Spangler married manufacturer Dexter Benner. They had a daughter, Christine, and divorced in 1946. Spangler and Benner engaged in a long custody battle over their daughter, until Spangler was eventually awarded custody in 1948. At the time of her disappearance, she lived with her mother Florence, five-year-old daughter Christine, brother Edward, and sister-in-law Sophie, on Colgate Avenue in the Park La Brea residential complex near Wilshire Boulevard. The following morning, October 8, Sophie went to the police and filed a missing person report after Spangler failed to return home.

Neither "Kirk" nor "Dr. Scott" could be located, and neither Spangler's family nor her friends knew anyone by those names. When Spangler's mother, Florence, returned to Los Angeles, she told police that someone named "Kirk" had picked up Jean at her house twice but stayed in his car and did not come in. Police questioned every doctor with the last name Scott in Los Angeles, but none of them had a patient with the last name Spangler or Benner, her married name. Spangler had once been involved with an abusive man she called "Scotty", but her lawyer said she had not seen him since 1945. Griffith Park was searched over the following week by over 200 volunteers and law enforcement. Later, when interviewed via telephone by the head of the investigating team, Douglas admitted that he had "talked and kidded with her a bit" on set, but that he had never spent time with her outside of the film production. On October 12, Douglas gave a formal press statement in which he said: "I told Detective Chief Thad Brown that I didn't remember the girl or the name until a friend recalled it was she who worked as an extra in a scene with me in my picture Young Man with a Horn ... then I recalled that she was a tall girl in a green dress. I talked and kidded with her a bit on the set ... But I never saw her before or after that and have never been out with her."

Spangler's friends told police that she was three months pregnant when she disappeared and that she had talked about having an abortion, which at the time was illegal. Witnesses, who frequented the same nightclubs and bars as Spangler, told police they had heard of a former medical student known as "Doc", who performed abortions for money, but police could not locate him, nor prove that he existed. Another theory investigated by police was that Spangler's disappearance was related to Los Angeles gangsters with whom she purportedly was associated. According to historian Jon Lewis in his book Hard-Boiled Hollywood: Crime and Punishment in Postwar Los Angeles, Spangler had worked for a time as a dancer at Florentine Gardens, a nightclub owned by Mark Hansen and Nils Thor Granlund. Lewis claims that her acquaintance with Hansen and Granlund "put her in the orbits" of various mob affiliates, including Anthony Cornero and Mickey Cohen. Spangler had allegedly been seen with Davy Ogul, an associate of Cohen's, in Palm Springs, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Ogul and Frank Niccoli, another associate of Cohen's. When the men's bodies were later found – probably the victims of a mob hit – it was Jean's mother, Florence, who insisted that her daughter was not the kind of girl to get mixed up with gangsters.

In 1950, a customs agent in El Paso, Texas, reported seeing Ogul and a woman who looked like Spangler in a local hotel. The hotel clerk identified Spangler from a photograph, but neither Ogul nor Spangler's names appeared on the hotel register.

Aftermath Shortly after Spangler disappeared, custody of her and Benner's daughter, Christine, was temporarily awarded to Benner on October 27, 1949. The following year, a custody battle ensued between Benner and Florence, to whom he denied visitation with Christine.

The LAPD continued the search and circulated Spangler's picture for several years, in an unsuccessful attempt to find her or any reliable leads.

Filmography Year Title RoleNotes 1948 The Miracle of the Bells Extra in Church 1948 When My Baby Smiles at Me Chorus Girl 1950 The Petty Girl Nightclub Patron

In popular culture Spangler's disappearance was fictionalized by Megan Abbott in her novel The Song Is You (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006), ISBN 978-0743291712.