Tragically on July 5, 1948 Carole was found dead in her Pacific Palisades home. She had committed suicide at the young age of twenty-nine.
Carole had spent her last night alive with her married lover Rex Harrison. Let's examine what happened during her sad final hours -
SUNDAY, JULY 4
12:00 PM - Carole hosts a pool party for a dozen friends including Rex Harrison. She goes swimming and appears to be in good spirits. Carole tells her friends they have to leave early because she is having a private dinner with Rex Harrison. This is the seventh night in a row that the couple had dinner together. Rex Harrison is married to actress Lilli Palmer and has a four year old son. Carole has been having an affair with him for over a year. Because of the affair she had filed for divorce from her husband Horace Schmidlapp in March. Financial problems had also forced her to put her Pacific Palisades home up for sale.
5:00 PM - Carole puts on a plaid skirt, a white blouse, and gold sandals. She is also wearing her favorite gold cross and a St. Christopher medal. Before dinner Carole and Rex Harrison each have a Scotch and Soda. They dine on cold roast chicken, a tossed salad, and lemon chiffon pie that Carole had baked herself. She plays "Warm Kiss, Cold Heart" on her phonograph. Rex Harrison will later claim they had a pleasant evening discussing Carole's career. The truth is that Carole is hopelessly in love with him and desperately wants him to leave his wife. During the evening she gives him an ultimatum and he ends their relationship.
9:00 PM - Rex Harrison leaves Carole's house and tells her he is going to visit his best friends Roland and Nan Culver. He is the last person to ever see her alive. Rex Harrison drives to the Culver's house which is a few blocks away from Capri Drive. Carole is heartbroken over the end of their affair and makes a decision to end her life. She collects all of the photos and mementos from their relationship and puts them in a suitcase. Then she drives to the Culver's house and leaves the suitcase in their driveway. The next day Nan Culver finds the suitcase and gives it to Rex Harrison. He takes it home and burns everything that is in it.
MONDAY, JULY 5
12:00 AM - Carole returns home and has a few drinks. Her autopsy would later show that her blood alcohol level was .12 which meant she was not drunk. She tries to call several friends including Marguerite Haymes but no one is home. Marguerite will get Carole's message later that evening but decides it's too late to call her back. Carole decides to write two final notes on her personal stationary. First she writes a four line lovers farewell to Rex Harrison. The she writes a heartbreaking note to her beloved mother. She folds the note to her mother and puts it on her dresser next to some perfume bottles.
"Dearest Mommie - I'm sorry, really sorry, to put you through this but there is no way to avoid it - I love you darling you have been the most wonderful mom ever And that applies to all our family. I love each and every one of them dearly - Everything goes to you - Look in the files and there is a will which decrees everything - Good bye, my angel - Pray for me - Your Baby"
2:00 AM - Carole goes into her upstairs bathroom and takes an envelope filled with Secanol out of her cabinet. She was not a chronic user of Secanol. Her doctor had given her a prescription when she was hospitalized in October 1946. It appears that this was the first time she took any of the pills. There is writing on the envelope that says "Red - quick - 2 hours. Yellow, about 5, Can take 2. Use for severe pain". Carole swallows approximately forty Secanol tablets. She leaves the envelope and a glass of water on the bathroom counter. Then Carole goes into her bedroom and lays down on the bed for several minutes.
3:00 AM - She walks back into the bathroom where she collapses. Sadly Carole will die alone on the bathroom floor. She is lying on a carpet next to an open cabinet. Her arms are bent as if she had been trying to raise herself up. Carole's head is resting on a jewelry box and her left hand she is holding a satin bookmark with the Lord's Prayer on it. She had taken five times the amount of Secanol needed to cause death. Carole had often suffered from depression throughout her life and it is believed she was bi-polar. This was at least the third time she had attempted suicide but in the past she had always been rescued by friends.
11:00 AM - Rex Harrison calls several times but the maid, Fannie Mae Bolden, tells him Carole is not awake yet. He goes to the house and tells Fannie "Well, I think she's dead". They go to the upstairs bathroom where they find Carole's body. Rex Harrison says "Oh, no, my darling, why did you do it?". He will later claim that he felt Carole's wrist and there was a slight pulse. Instead of calling for an ambulance he goes back to his house and calls his boss Darryl Zanuck. Fannie goes to a neighbors house where she calls the police and Florence Wasson, Carole's best friend. The police arrive and take photographs of Carole's body.
4:00 PM - Florence calls Dorothy Ross, Carole's sister, in Long Beach to tell her what happened. Rex Harrison returns and is questioned by the police. They find the note for Carole's mother but there are conflicting reports about the second note. Florence claims that it was actually a memo that Carole wrote about taking her cat to the vet. Lilli Palmer later admits that an officer found a note Carole wrote to Rex Harrison in the bathroom. Rex Harrison pays the officer five hundred dollars and destroys the note. There are dozens of reporters at the house. The press speculates that Carole was broke and having health problems.
7:00 PM - Carole's mother, Clara Ridste, and her sister, arrive at the house. Her mother says "Oh my baby, I want to see my baby. Why didn't somebody call me?" and then collapses. Carole's body is taken to Bogg's and Mashmeyer's funeral home. Rumors circulate that she was pregnant with Rex Harrison's love child. Her autopsy confirms that she was not pregnant. Carole was unable to have children because she suffered from endometriosis. The official cause of her death is "barbituate poisoning due to ingestion of overdose of Secanol". Her funeral is scheduled for Saturday, July 10 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
* On Thursday, July 8 Coroner Ben Brown held an informal inquest to find out what the motive was for Carole's suicide. Rex Harrison arrived at the hearing with his boss Darryl F. Zanuck. When Rex Harrison was asked why Carole had taken her life he said. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you any explanation for it at all. We talked about scripts of a new play I had and the possibilities of her playing in it. We also discussed her project of returning to England. I told her I might be able to help." He claimed that Carole was having financial problems and suffered from an amoebic infection. Carole's maid Fannie Mae Bolden and her best friend Florence Wasson also testified at the hearing. When it was over Coroner Brown told the press "I've gone as far as I can. I have gone to the limits of my authority. The testimony itself revealed no criminal action, and I cannot go further". Carole's family refused to believe that she took her own life. They thought that Rex Harrison was in some way responsible for her death and that he paid the police to cover it up. Her family even hired a private investigator but they were never able to prove Rex Harrison did anything illegal. Although he was never charged with a crime it seems clear that Harrison was not honest about what happened that night.
What Carole Said . . .
About marrying Rex Harrison: "Oh, I'd love to marry him but you know how those things are."
About Lupe Velez's 1944 suicide: "I know just how Lupe Velez felt. You go just so far, and then what have you got to face? There's always the fear of being washed up. You begin to worry. You get bitter and disillusioned. You fear the future because there's only one way to go and that's down.".
On July 2, 1948: "I've never been so happy in all my life. The sun's shining. It's a wonderful day!"
Carole Landis' body was found today. Her maid and Actor Rex Harrison found her sprawled in an upstairs bathroom."
