Myth

Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967) American actress and sex symbol met a truly tragic end in the front passenger seat of her 1966 Buick Electra.


On the early morning of June 29 1967, Mansfield died in a car accident on U.S. Highway 90 near Slidell, Louisiana. She was riding in the front seat of the 1966 Buick Electra with Harrison and Brody, and her children were sleeping in back, as the roadway became obscured by a white haze from a distant mosquito sprayer, which prevented the driver Harrison from seeing a slow-moving tractor-trailer ahead.

They crashed into the truck at speed ending up under the trailer as the cars top sheered away. Mansfield's three children in the rear of the vehicle survived with minor injuries, but all three adults were instantly killed.

When police arrived on the scene they found that Jayne, in truly macabre fashion for a woman so bless with good looks, had been completed decapitated.

In some versions of this story there is mention that the act of decapitation was carried out by a scarf she was wearing at the time.

Reality

As horrific and tragic as the accident was, Jayne Mansfield was not decapitated. Ms Mansfield was killed by massive head trauma and it is felt (hoped) she died instantly. The crushing was so severe that the top part of her scalp was removed.

Links to the scarf are simply confusion with the circumstances of 20's American dancer Isadora Duncan (1878-1927) death. She was bizarrely and tragically killed when her flowing scarf was caught in the spoke wheel of her friend Ivan Falchetto's Bugatti automobile. She was dragged from the passenger seat and thrown onto the road, then dragged for several yards. She died instantly from a broken neck.

Tags: Jayne Mansfield