The GHOST wives
Had jealousy driven her to kill?
As the Delta King riverboat made its way along the Sacramento River, a passenger decided to get some fresh air. It was 2.30am on Wednesday 7th September, 1932, and the boat had left San Francisco the previous evening to head up river to California’s state capital, Sacramento.
When the passenger reached the top deck, he spotted a lone woman staring down into the water. She was crying.
Two hours later, a night watchman found a woman’s coat and shoes on the deck. A female passenger was missing, but a search proved futile. What had happened to her?
A week later, fishermen dragged a woman’s body from the river. She was identified as 37-year-old Dorothy Millette, and her death would be linked to one of Hollywood’s greatest mysteries.
For the previous four months, Dorothy had been living at the Plaza Hotel in
San Francisco. But on 6th September, she heard something shocking on the radio that made her pack her bags and head to reception to settle her account. The news bulletin had announced the death of Paul Bern, husband of Hollywood’s hottest sex symbol at the time, Jean Harlow.
But why would such news upset Dorothy?
It would come to light that she had lost her benefactor. Bern had been paying all Dorothy’s bills at the hotel.
However, something else may have driven Dorothy to jump. Like Jean Harlow, she had lost her husband. The same husband in fact. She had married Bern 20 years before, and they had never divorced.
In the week following Paul Bern’s apparent suicide, the police had been looking for Dorothy, who they nicknamed ‘The Ghost Wife’. When her body turned up, there were even more questions.
Paul Bern was a powerful executive at MGM studios. The 42-year-old was serious and plain, so it came as a shock when he started dating 21-year-old blonde bombshell Jean Harlow.
After a short courtship, the pair were married in July 1932, and moved into a Bavarianstyle house in Beverly Hills.
But if the courtship was short, so was the marriage. On 5th September, while Harlow was staying with her mother, Bern’s butler discovered the movie executive lying dead on the bathroom floor with a gun in his hand. He had taken a bullet to the head.
When police arrived, they found a note that said: ‘Dearest Dear, Unfortuately (sic), this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and to wipe out my abject humiliation, I love you. Paul.’
Then as a PS he added: ‘You understand that last night was only a comedy.’
Even though the coroner ruled Bern’s death suicide, it left unanswered questions…
Why had a wealthy man, married to one of the most desirable women on Earth, taken his own life? And what did his note refer to?
The public wanted to know and the press was more than happy to come up with sordid suggestions. They speculated Bern’s ‘humiliation’ had been his inability to fulfil Harlow’s desire in the bedroom. There were rumours he was impotent.
However, what the public didn’t know was the first people on the scene when Bern’s body was discovered hadn’t been police. MGM executives had spent at least two hours in the house before cops arrived. Had they planted the suicide note?
If so, it worked in their favour… In Jean Harlow, MGM had a rising star whose sexual power was so great, one man couldn’t satisfy her.
Some pointed out the wording of the note was strange. Why would a distressed man finish writing his final message, then add a postscript? Some even disputed it was his handwriting.
Bern’s cook claimed she had seen a mystery woman at the house on the day her employer died. Later, the cook found two empty glasses by the swimming pool and a woman’s swimsuit.
Who had visited Bern? Was she involved?
There were suggestions the mystery woman was Dorothy Millette. She was known to have mental health issues and had spent time in a sanatorium. Had jealousy driven her to kill?
However, pointing the finger of blame at Dorothy didn’t add up. She was penniless and depended on Bern for financial help. Why would she want him dead?
Others began to wonder if it was Harlow who had pulled the trigger. The couple’s relationship had been stormy from the start, and their gardener testified he had often heard them fighting. Bern even continued an affair with his secretary during their marriage. Perhaps Harlow had found out, or had discovered the existence of his ‘ghost wife’ Dorothy.
Harlow’s ‘watertight alibi’ came from her mother. But was it true?
Many in Hollywood were under no illusions as to why the blonde siren had married Bern. With his connections, he could further her career.
If Jean had killed him, it would’ve been in the studio’s interests to fake Bern’s suicide in order to protect their bankable star.
For the remaining five years of her short life, Jean Harlow never commented on Bern’s death. In 1937, she died of kidney failure, aged just 26.
Over the following decades, the home the couple shared in Beverly Hills became known as the Harlow/Bern House – and many suspected it was haunted.
In 1963, it was bought by celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring. He began dating the aspiring actress Sharon Tate, who allegedly gave a magazine interview about a night she spent alone in the house.
She said she couldn’t sleep and had a strong feeling of an unseen presence. Suddenly a ‘creepy little man’ scuttled through the room, and she leapt from the bed. Rushing downstairs, she was confronted with a ghostly form tied to the banisters with its throat slashed.
Had Sharon encountered the ghost of Paul Bern? Many believed it was a premonition of the actress’ own terrible fate. In 1969, and now the partner of film director Roman Polanski, both she and Sebring were horrifically slain by the Manson gang. Sharon was almost nine months pregnant and aged 26 – the same age as Jean Harlow when she died.
Since then, others have claimed to have seen Jean’s spirit in the Harlow/Bern House, and it’s considered the most haunted property in Hollywood.
It seems when it came to marriage, Paul Bern didn’t have one ‘ghost wife’, but two.
But what really happened to him?
Theory 1
Was his suicide note legitimate, and did Paul kill himself because of some ‘abject humiliation’ – possibly relating to his sexual prowess?
Theory 2
Did ‘ghost wife’ Dorothy Millette murder her husband because she couldn’t stand the thought of him being married to someone else – then take her own life?
Theory 3
Was Jean Harlow responsible? The couple had a stormy relationship, and her mother could have easily given her a false alibi. Plus, it was in the studio’s interest to cover it up…