The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (42 page)

Dekker’s career was spent for the most part moving between the mediums of movies and theatre, and he achieved great success on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s play,
Death of a Salesman
. In the movies he acquired a name for himself as a “barrel-chested character actor”, and at one point in the 1940s he even tried his hand at politics, serving as the Democratic Assemblyman for the 57th district in California. However, this achievement got in the way of his acting career, so he stepped down at the end of his term, although he maintained a fairly outspoken interest in politics and at one point even found himself on Senator McCarthy’s anticommunist “blacklist”, much to his surprise.

In 1929 he married Esther Guernini and they had three children before later divorcing, though they kept in touch for the sake of their children. In April 1957, while Dekker was in Palm Beach, Florida, appearing in the Agatha Christie play,
Witness for the Prosecution
, their son Jan was found dead in the family home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. According to Dekker, the sixteen-year-old Jan had been experimenting with constructing a rifle silencer when the gun suddenly went off, piercing his right eye and killing him immediately. He was found in his bedroom by his mother, lying on a .22 calibre rifle and clutching a piece of cloth in his left hand. The tragic death was later pronounced as accidental by the coroner, though questions remained, mainly involving why he was in possession of a highly dangerous weapon in the first place.

After the tragedy, Albert Dekker’s film career started to wind down somewhat, and as he got older he resigned himself to no longer trying to make it big in the movies. Instead, he was happy with the parts he was able to win and concentrated on making appearances on television shows such as
Bonanza
and
Mission: Impossible
.

In his personal life, the divorced Dekker eventually became involved with a woman called Geraldine Saunders, who later told reporters they were due to be married in summer 1968. However, this date never came for the couple, as death was about to come knocking on Dekker’s door . . .

The actor had just returned from filming on location in Mexico, and on 2 May 1968 he and Saunders went to the Huntingdon Hartford Theatre, where they enjoyed their last evening together, at the opening of Zero Mostel’s play
The Latent Heterosexual
. Dekker then made plans to see Saunders the next evening before returning to his apartment at 1731 North Normandie Avenue, Los Angeles. However, when he did not show up as planned, Saunders became worried and tried to reach him many times over the course of the next few days. Strangely, all calls went unanswered, so finally the woman decided to go round to Dekker’s apartment to see for herself what had happened to her fiancé.

On 5 May, Geraldine arrived at Dekker’s apartment where she was shocked to find his door covered in notes from concerned friends desperate to get hold of him. A sense of foreboding overcame her and she was so concerned that something awful had happened that she immediately ran down to alert the manager of the building, telling him that she had been unable to contact her partner for several days and was now worried that he was ill – or worse – inside his apartment.

The manager listened to her story and made the decision to use his pass key, opening the door to the actor’s apartment and gingerly entering with Geraldine. They were both apprehensive about what they might find inside, but at first all looked to be okay. Certainly there was no sign of an intruder or a burglary, but there was also no sign of the actor either, which was rather concerning.

The two shouted his name over and over but to no avail, until finally the only room left to look in was the bathroom, which they were disturbed to discover was locked from the inside by a chain. By this point it was obvious that if Dekker was anywhere in the apartment, it had to be in this room, so the couple managed to break in and discovered a sight they would remember for the rest of their lives.

There was Albert Dekker, naked and kneeling in the bathtub with a noose tied one end around his neck and the other around the shower rod. The body was in “complicated knots” according to detective Daniel K. Stewart, who appeared on the scene shortly afterwards; his hands were cuffed; and hypodermic needles stuck out of his arms. Not only that but explicit words were scrawled over his body and on closer inspection the apartment contained a large number of women’s clothes, whips and chains.

At first it looked as though the death was a suicide and was listed that way by the authorities. However, this was soon changed by the Deputy Coroner Herbert McRoy, who declared, “We have no information that this individual planned to take his own life, so it will be listed as an accidental death.” But in spite of the ruling, everyone had to admit that the whole thing was bizarre: “This is certainly a strange death,” McRoy told reporters. “But just because there was a rope around his neck does not mean that he committed suicide.”

Still, an accidental death seemed a rather bizarre theory, given the way the man was found, and it was not long before rumours began to circulate that Albert Dekker had been murdered after a robbery gone wrong, as various items were discovered to be missing from his apartment. It could very well be the case that the man was killed after a bungled theft, but this would in no way explain the bizarre way Dekker was found. For a burglar to kill someone who has come home unexpectedly is not unheard of, but for him to then truss the victim up like a turkey and hang him from the shower rail calls for a little too much imagination.

Over the years it has become more and more likely that neither murder or suicide were the real reasons for the death of Albert Dekker, and instead it has been put forward that perhaps Dekker was a fan of autoerotic asphyxiation – cutting off the air supply to heighten orgasm. This would certainly account for the rope around his neck, but this theory has in turn presented further questions, such as was he alone when the deed happened?

It would seem possible that he was, given the fact that the bathroom was chained from the inside with no other way of gaining exit. However, it still doesn’t explain how he managed to cuff his hands, stick needles into his body and then finally place a noose around his neck and over the shower rail. Unless, of course, this was a well-practised event – a way of releasing tension that the actor had performed on many occasions over the years.

In spite of all the rumours, stories and hearsay, it seems as though we will never know the full story of how and why Albert Dekker passed away, and his death will always be something of a mystery. But one thing’s for sure – his bizarre and unexplained death has ensured he will be remembered for many years to come, though unfortunately, mainly for the wrong reasons.

It has long been reported that the Christmas and New Year period sees a shockingly high rate of people falling into depression and even committing suicide. This is easy to believe, with the cheer and goodwill experienced by many manifesting itself as deep sadness in others, but in actual fact the idea that suicide rates go up around the holidays is false. There are exceptions, of course, and certainly in the case of actor Pete Duel, Christmas 1971 was neither merry nor bright, and the sadness he had felt for many years came to an abrupt and tragic conclusion.

Born on 24 February 1940, Peter Ellstrom Deuel grew up in Penfield, New York, where he paid no real attention to his studies, but had a very keen interest in performing in school plays and taking part in sports. He was a scout, enjoyed counselling others, loved aeroplanes, and had a great fascination with nature and the countryside. Summer vacations at a log cabin in Canada were something both Peter and his siblings greatly looked forward to, especially since it was one of the only times they could have the full attention of their busy doctor father.

When he turned seventeen, Peter tried to join the Air Force but was rejected due to vision impairment. He took the news badly as it had been his dream to join up, though he eventually pulled himself together and headed off to college to study liberal arts. Unfortunately, what should have been a carefree time as a student turned to tragedy when his life was almost ended in a horrific car crash, which broke his pelvis and almost severed his tongue. The crash shook his entire world, but luckily he made a complete recovery, and ultimately it changed his life by forcing him to realize that what he really wanted to do was move to New York and study to be an actor. He did well and it wasn’t long before his ambitions took him to Los Angeles to find fame and fortune under the name of Pete Duel.

Out in California, Duel managed to find regular work in television programmes such as
Channing
with Jason Evers and a comedy series entitled
Gidget
. Another sitcom followed in the shape of
Love on a Rooftop
, although when that was cancelled after just one series, Duel decided to expand his career by trying his hand at more serious roles and movies.

It was a good move and Duel became very successful in both television and movies, before also dabbling in politics in the late 1960s. However, his private life was not easy; he suffered from epilepsy which was made worse by drinking alcohol, and despite having various female admirers over the years, Duel never seemed to find the right person with whom to settle down. He once told a reporter, “Having a marriage when you’re in show business and making it work is damn hard. It’s damn hard for anybody. We weren’t built to be with just one person all the time.”

In spite of his pessimism in the area of love, Duel finally found love with Kim Darby, an actress he had met while working on the film
Generation
. However, despite introducing her to his parents and declaring that she was “the one”, his world came crashing down in early 1970 when she broke the news that she was to marry a man she had only just met. Duel was extremely distraught, particularly when reporters started knocking on his door for a statement and then describing the spurned lover’s failed relationship in all its glory in their newspapers.

For reasons known only to herself, Kim Darby had decided to marry the virtual stranger over Duel, but as one might expect, it did not work out the way she had thought. Just a short time after her wedding the relationship broke down and Darby immediately began contacting Pete Duel again. Her attempts at reconciliation were futile, however, as he had by now moved on to a relationship with a woman called Dianne Ray, and was said to be happily settled.

Around this time, Duel was offered the role of outlaw Hannibal Heyes, aka Joshua Smith, in
Alias Smith and Jones
. Unfortunately, the glow of winning another acting job quickly wore off when faced with the long and tiring hours involved in working on the series. Having no time for a social life was stifling and it wasn’t long before Duel was complaining that he had no time for anything outside of work. Inevitably this meant that there was virtually no time for his love life either, and his relationship with Dianne Ray slowly became increasingly strained.

Then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, devastation came when Duel crashed his car into another vehicle while intoxicated. Fortunately he had not been physically injured in the crash, but the people in the other car were hurt, and this knowledge played on his conscience for the rest of his days. He felt so bad, in fact, that during his subsequent trial, the actor sat down to write a long, heartfelt letter about his feelings regarding the tragedy, and presented it to the judge. The actor was then placed on two years’ probation and his licence was understandably revoked.

Professionally things were becoming a nuisance for Pete Duel, and the long hours spent on the set of
Alias Smith and Jones
were increasingly getting him down. It wasn’t so much the nature of the show that bothered him, but the regimented system of working on one programme one day, then another the day after. Duel wished he could have more time to prepare, but the schedule just would not allow it and the frustration took its toll. Added to his frustration was the fact that he now had to be driven to and from work, which made him feel as though he had no freedom in his life whatsoever; every day seemed to be controlled from morning until night by the studio.

In December 1971, he spoke to columnist Cecil Smith, and expressed his dislike for working on television: “Any series is a big fat drag to an actor who has any interest in his work,” he said. “You slowly lose any artistic thing you may have. It’s utterly destructive.” When asked if he would be happier working on another series, he shrugged. “Exchange one kind of trash for another,” he replied and complained that the whole thing made him weary.

Then as the year started to draw to a close, the actor became more and more tired and depressed over what he saw as the lack of fulfilment in his career. He had applied to become a member of the board of directors at the Screen Actors Guild, but shortly before Christmas received a telegram breaking the news that he had been unsuccessful. Distraught, he pulled out his .38 calibre revolver and took a shot at the unwelcome telegram.

The Christmas season was depressing; his health had been failing during the last year; and he had become despondent due to heavy drinking and flashbacks of the car accident earlier in the year. He expressed his concerns to both his brother, Geoffrey, and girlfriend, Dianne, both of whom were particularly concerned by his state of mind.

On 31 December 1971, Pete Duel spent the evening at his home, watching television with Dianne Ray. Both the day and the year came to an end, and Duel’s girlfriend retired to the bedroom for what she hoped would be a good night’s sleep. However, this was not to be, when Duel later entered the room himself. According to police reports, he walked over to some drawers and took out his pistol. “I’ll see you later,” he told Ray, before quietly leaving the room.

Not long after, Dianne Ray heard a gunshot coming from the living room, rushed in and found her boyfriend lying next to the Christmas tree, with the gun at his feet. He was dead.