Unsolved murders are all too commonplace in Hollywood. The vast majority have become infamous. Say “Black Dhalia,” “Thelma Todd,” or “William Desmond Taylor” to anyone and they’ll likely start spewing theories and suspects. Some, though, have managed to fly under the radar, but remain no less mysterious. Take the 1943 slaying of David Bacon, for instance, the actor best known (posthumously) for having played the titular character in Republic Pictures’ “The Masked Marvel.” Even those well-versed in Hollywood lore have most likely never heard of David (born Gaspar Griswold Bacon Jr.) or his murder. I only became aware of the case last year thanks to an “Entertainment Weekly” story titled “Who Killed the Masked Marvel?” that a friend, who shares my affinity for true crime and locations, tore out and sent to me. Scrawled next to a photo of Bacon’s former Hollywood Hills residence that ran atop the article’s seventh page was a note from my friend reading, “Found it! 8444 Magnolia Drive. It’s been added to and remodeled, but parts are still the same today, including the two circular front windows.” The house, which Bacon dubbed “Caste Hill,” and the killing, of course, had me fixated from the start!
It was from the hilltop property that the actor headed to his death on the afternoon of Sunday, September 12th, 1943, though the events of that day are somewhat murky thanks to the differing stories his wife, Austrian singer Greta Keller, told authorities. Keller, who was pregnant at the time, initially informed detectives that Bacon invited her to go to the beach, but that her physician advised against it, so the couple instead spent the afternoon napping and writing letters (ah, the days before iPhones!). She later admitted to fighting with Bacon, though, and then napping solo. Regardless of the circumstances, when Greta awoke around 2 p.m., her husband was nowhere to be found.
The actor wasn’t seen again until 5 that evening when his car was spotted careening down Washington Boulevard in Venice, erratically veering across the road before finally coming to a stop in a dusty bean field. Bacon stumbled out of the car, wearing only a swimsuit and covered in blood, and dropped to the ground, dying a few minutes later from a knife wound to the back at the tender age of 29.
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Image Credit: Republic Pictures From the start, police, who had little to go on, ran into twists and turns. The medical examiner determined that David had been stabbed via a stiletto-like blade, likely while in his car leaning forward, but no prints besides Bacon’s were found in or on the vehicle. Eyewitnesses who spotted the car minutes before his death offered zero insight, some claiming two men were visible in the vehicle, some saying Bacon was alone, and still others attesting that a man and a woman were in the car with him. The only real clues police uncovered were Bacon’s bloodstained bathrobe, which he was believed to have been sitting on at the time of the stabbing, and a blue sweater sized much too small to have been the actor’s, which detectives surmised was likely the assailant’s.
Robbery apparently wasn’t a motive as Bacon was still wearing two expensive rings at the time of his killing and his wallet contained money. Another item found in his wallet? The key to a studio apartment located just over a quarter-mile from his Castle Hill estate at 8481 Kirkwood Drive, which David had rented a mere 13 days before his death. Greta told police that she and her husband had leased it for a gardener they were hoping to hire to do work on their home. But when detectives searched the unit, three women’s purses were found, as well as the torn sleeve of a woman’s blouse, and not much else. Though Greta claims to have been well-aware of the apartment, which newspapers quickly dubbed a “hideaway,” it sure smacked of being a secret rendezvous spot. Furthering the mystery, Bacon’s landlord stopped by the place two nights prior to the murder and discovered him there with a male whose face was “flushed like he was angry.” The man was eventually identified as a prospective gardener named Glenn Erwin Shaum and was cleared of being a suspect thanks to a solid alibi.
Police hit another roadblock a couple of weeks later when Blakely Patterson, claiming to be a friend of Bacon’s, came forward and said he knew who the assailant was. Those claims turned out to be complete fabrications – Patterson, a Hollywood hopeful, had never even met Bacon but thought getting his name in the papers tied to the actor might land him a role.
Yet another twist came in the form of Charles R. While, who confessed not once, but twice to Bacon’s murder, though police ruled him out as a suspect both times. Another actor vying for a role, perhaps?
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Image Credit: Republic Pictures Furthering the intrigue was the discovery that the roof of Bacon’s convertible had been knifed just a few weeks before his death. Much was also made of a secret diary written in code that Greta turned over to detectives, as well as a phone book of David’s that also had some entries written in cipher. As Wendy Grossman Kantor opined in her “EW” article, “The circumstances surrounding David Bacon’s death form a case that even the Masked Marvel would have had trouble cracking.” Indeed, no one has been able to crack it yet.
Tragically, Greta and David’s baby was delivered stillborn just 8 days after the murder. She is said to have never gotten over the killing, nor did she stay at Castle Hill long following David’s death. By the mid-40s another Hollywood ingenue, Madge Meredith (born Marjorie May Massow), had acquired it. She, too, soon found herself at the center of a bizarre crime, this one of the property dispute variety!
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Image Credit: RKO Radio Pictures Madge (above in a still from her 1946 starring turn in “The Falcon’s Adventure”) purchased Castle Hill in early 1946, along with her business manager, Nicholas Dan Gianaclis, and acting coach, Arthur Kachel. Though the trio agreed that they each would eventually own a third of the dwelling, Gianaclis fronted the money and they all lived together, along with Madge’s family, in the castle on the hill. But things quickly turned sour, with Kachel and then Madge and her family forced out. So what’s a girl to do, really, but plan an elaborate kidnapping? Meredith, along with some cohorts, abducted Gianaclis as well as his assistant, from Castle Hill, took them to a remote location, beat them, and held them at gunpoint. What she was hoping to accomplish with the kidnapping is unclear, but the two men managed to escape largely unscathed after just a few hours and Madge and her co-conspirators were tried and sent to jail. As the official complaint states “The record in this case narrates a series of events as bizarre and fantastic as could be invented by a fictionist.” Governor Earl Warren wound up commuting Madge’s sentence in 1951, saying “To put that case together again would be like trying to put Humpty-Dumpty together again . . . it is one of the most bizarre cases I have ever seen – more bizarre than a movie.” Not any more bizarre than the Bacon killing! Castle Hill certainly has a strange pedigree!
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake Unfortunately, outside of a gate and long driveway, not much of the estate is visible from the street. Per Homemetry, it last sold in August 1983, so MLS photos are also nonexistent.
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We have to go way back to 1943 for an image of the place! Interestingly, despite its name, the home bore no castle-like elements at the time.
It does now, though! Aerial views show that crenelations and towers are apparent at every turn.
Though expanded in the years since Bacon lived there, the home’s original outline is still evident. Of the pad, a 1943 “Boston Globe” article gushed “It is an amazing place, boasting a swimming pool on the second floor, and has 10 showers. All the windows are plate glass commanding a magnificent panoramic view of seven cities and the sea. The music room, containing Bacon’s most prized possessions of his wife’s European recordings, overlooks the rugged canyons of Laurel Canyon.” Per property records, the 1929 estate consists of 3 bedrooms and 3 baths in 2,596 square feet, though, which hardly seems enough room for an indoor upstairs pool, not to mention 10 showers! But, hey, apparently stranger things have happened. This article is a testament to that.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake With a scant six credits to his name, David Bacon achieved more fame in death than in life. As noted by the “Globe,” “Gaspar Bacon was not so well known in Hollywood because he never got the ‘breaks.’ Today, as his body rests in the coroner’s morgue at the City Hall, his name is on every lip in the cinema city.” Just another tale of woe along the boulevard of broken dreams.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Castle Hill, David Bacon’s former house, is located at 8444 Magnolia Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Disclaimer: Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.