A mystery worthy of Hollywood,
but tragically it's no fiction.
Ronni Chasen was one of
the most high-profile
and high-powered publicists
in all of Hollywood.
Inside Hollywood,
she was a towering figure.
So I would like to dedicate
this star in loving memory
to my friend,
the great Ronni Chasen.
She was driving down Sunset
to turn left on Whittier Drive.
Four b*ll*ts
shatter her passenger window.
The Hollywood blogosphere
is consumed
by this real-life whodunit.
These are the things of which
conspiracy theories are made.
I call this an unsolved m*rder
because I was never
totally convinced.
What would lead somebody
to hire a hitman?
Maybe she owed money
to powerful people.
There was one theory
that Ronni Chasen
was k*lled over
an art deal that went bad.
We're learning more now
about the large fortune
Chasen left behind.
All roads kinda lead back
to the Russian mob.
They shot her four times, and
all four sh*ts hit their target.
Something just didn't add up.
They just couldn't find anything.
This is where we get into
some weird stuff, right?
911 Emergency.
The official narrative
doesn't tell the whole story.
But you really have to look
at everything.
You still have to go down
that rabbit hole.
You still have to go down
that path.
When a celebrity dies, the
search for answers moves online,
and the truth
may be one click away.
It's just past midnight
on November 16, 2010,
in the heart of Beverly Hills.
Suddenly, the sounds
of crunching metal
and breaking glass shatter
the early-morning silence.
But this is no mere car accident.
The crime is m*rder.
And when the victim is identified,
all of Hollywood is shocked.
The driver
is 64-year-old Ronni Chasen,
publicist to movie stars
and studio moguls.
When police arrive at the scene,
she is barely alive.
She dies less than an hour later
at the hospital.
Ronni Chasen was one
of the Hollywood elite.
She was a behind-the-scenes
power broker
whose influence rivaled
that of movie stars
and studio executives.
I'm Pete Hammond, and I work
in the entertainment business.
When she died, it was just
such a blow to people.
I always thought that she was
a very generous and good person.
My name is Ryan Katzenbach,
and I am an independent
film producer/documentarian.
Ronni definitely moved in a...
in an A-list environment.
She was definitely
very, very well known.
And she was very good
at what she did.
So Ronni grew up a New Yorker,
along with her brother
Larry Cohen.
And, of course, Larry, as we know,
became a filmmaker
in his own right.
Her brother Larry Cohen...
kind of protective of her,
I think, growing up.
You know, the big brother,
the younger sister.
In the 1970s, Ronni Cohen
arrives in Hollywood
with dreams of becoming an actor.
Instead, she discovers she has
a knack for public relations.
Ronni Cohen becomes Ronni Chasen.
She takes her new name
from a famous
Beverly Hills restaurant.
During the 1980s and '90s,
Ronni Chasen rises
to the upper echelon of
the Hollywood publicity elite.
A celebrity among celebrities,
she pulls the strings behind
multi-million dollar deals
and blockbuster Oscar campaigns.
So she became an expert
in the soundtrack business
of film composers.
And that was... At that time,
nobody specialized in that.
And she had big people,
like John Williams,
that were devoted to her.
I would like to dedicate this star
in loving memory to my friend,
the great Ronni Chasen.
She was really the person
who sort of invented the way
that movies and producers
campaign for Academy Awards.
Ronni Chasen's clients
accumulate Oscar gold,
and the upward trajectory of
her career seems unstoppable...
until one fateful night.
News of Ronni Chasen's death
sends a shock wave
through Hollywood.
This is jaw-droppingly shocking.
I mean, I couldn't believe it.
My wife and I
were just crestfallen.
We were stunned.
It was definitely major,
major news in the industry.
There's no question about it.
While Ronni Chasen's friends
and family mourn,
the mystery over her death grows.
Before long, Hollywood
becomes obsessed
with Ronni Chasen's m*rder.
Movie publicist Ronni Chasen...
- Ronni Chasen...
- Ronni Chasen...
- Ronni Chasen...
- Ronni Chasen...
The breaking news
of Ronni Chasen's death
was almost as big
as when Sharon Tate was k*lled
by the Manson family
because both crimes were senseless
and both crimes
targeted celebrities.
Adding to the mystery
is the fact that
for weeks after the m*rder,
police announce no suspects,
and no motive.
Beverly Hills investigators
scramble
to put the pieces
of the crime together.
And the police, in the course
of two weeks,
just really came up empty-handed.
They couldn't find anything.
In desperation, Ronni's
high-roller friends
offer a reward
for information leading
to the arrest
and conviction of her m*rder*r.
Harold Matzner,
who is the chairman
of the Palm Springs
International Film Festival,
who had worked with Ronni
for many decades,
put up a $100,000 reward
for the arrest and conviction
of Ronni's k*ller.
The reward leads to
the first break in the case.
After the money is mentioned
on "America's Most Wanted,"
a tipster calls the TV show.
An individual called
"America's Most Wanted,"
stating that he lived
in an apartment building
in East Hollywood...
the Harvey Apartments
on Santa Monica Boulevard.
And he stated that he had
a neighbor
that lived in the building that
he felt was acting suspicious,
and that he believed
that this individual
was the perpetrator
of Ronni Chasen's m*rder.
So "America's Most Wanted"
relayed that phone tip
to the Beverly Hills
Police Department.
Police descend on the dingy
Harvey Apartments building.
And then, a shocking twist
worthy of a Hollywood movie.
Just as police are about
to question the man
identified by the tipster,
he pulls out a g*n
and sh**t himself in the head.
The dead man is identified
as Harold Smith,
a petty criminal
with a history of robbery.
And a week later, the Beverly
Hills Police Department
holds a press conference,
and they announce
that Harold Smith
is the guy that...
that committed the crime.
They also state that the g*n
that he was carrying
was the same g*n
used to k*ll Ronni Chasen.
Police conclude that after
riding his bicycle
from Hollywood to Beverly Hills,
Harold Smith k*lled Ronni Chasen
during a botched robbery attempt.
Eight months later,
they close the case.
But to Ronni's family and friends,
as well as a legion
of Internet investigators,
the police version
simply doesn't hold up.
It made no sense to me.
Just a random act like that?
I call this an unsolved m*rder
because I was never
totally convinced.
This... This...
Something just didn't add up.
Things like this don't happen
in Beverly Hills.
You know, Beverly Hills
likes to think
that it is this mecca
of... of luxury and safety,
that crime like this does not
come knocking on their doors.
A lot of people didn't trust
in the, you know,
Beverly Hills mayor's office,
where they want to shut
these things up right away.
You have a community
of very rich people
who do not want crime
running rampant there,
and the police know that.
So there was great pressure on
this department to solve this.
And I feel like they were gonna
do whatever they needed to
to bring this case to a close.
Police consider the m*rder solved.
But in online chat rooms,
conspiracy websites,
and even TikTok videos,
the investigation
becomes an obsession.
Theories multiply,
claiming that Ronni Chasen
was the victim
of a targeted hit...
for family gambling debts...
an art fraud scheme
turned deadly...
or for some other reason
closer to home.
My name is Justin Ling.
I am a freelance
investigative journalist
who specializes in misinformation,
conspiracy theories,
and crazy nonsense.
As an investigative journalist,
I obviously have access
to some tools
that regular people don't have,
whether that's legal databases,
financial databases.
But a lot of the times,
investigating is really just
about knowing what to look for,
what to ask for.
That can get you
some pretty effective results.
Ronni Chasen's death had
all the elements of a story
that I could really
sink my teeth into.
You have a seemingly
random m*rder,
a quick police investigation
that comes up
with only one suspect,
who doesn't really fit the bill.
The suspect's dead, so you
never actually get a confession.
And on top of that,
there's all of these theories
flying around about the real
motivation for the m*rder.
There's really a feeling
like justice was never done here
and there's still work
that needs doing.
There are a lot of people
that I talk to in this industry
that, like me, don't feel
that the real m*rder*r
of Ronni Chasen
has ever been apprehended.
So my name is Deanna Thompson,
and I
am, like, what they would
call a "Web sleuth."
And I investigate crimes
that happen on the Internet
on my nights and weekends.
My work was featured
in a documentary called
"Don't 'F' with Cats."
I have, like, an insatiable thirst
for justice and fairness.
I don't like when people
are bullied
or being treated unfairly
by the justice system.
Ronni was, like,
an A-type personality.
She stood up for her clients,
her friends, her family.
She was successful in a
really male-dominated industry.
I can totally relate to that,
so I empathize greatly with Ronni.
As an experienced Internet sleuth,
Deanna often works in secret.
She uses a series
of alternate accounts
to observe conversations
unfolding online
and to troll for clues.
So, like, if there's a thread
about Ronni Chasen, right,
I'll revive it many years later
and say something like,
"So what do you guys really
think happened to Ronni Chasen?"
And I'll just, like, kind of,
like, light a spark again
to get people talking about it.
In the case
of Ronni Chasen's m*rder,
Deanna discovers
that widespread skepticism
about the case persists,
kept alive by Ronni's friends
and by social media.
Welcome back to Part 3
of the Ronni Chasen case,
and now we're gonna talk about
why the investigation seemed
to have been done haphazardly.
The source of much of the doubt
about the case
comes from serious questions
about how the Beverly Hills
Police Department
handled the crime scene during
their initial investigation.
So the Beverly Hills
Police Department
investigated this crime,
and their lack
of investigative skills
when it comes to homicides
was evident from the get-go.
Like, when you think
of Beverly Hills,
you don't think of m*rder.
So, they don't have a lot
of experience
in investigating homicide.
We don't have crimes like this
in the city of Beverly Hills,
so it is a surprise to us.
We've got numerous investigators
at the scene
that are trying
to piece this thing together.
What there is,
is a police investigation
that frankly doesn't
look complete to me.
The things that the
Beverly Hills Police Department
did not do in the course
of this investigation
dealing with ballistics
and fingerprints...
It was absolutely shocking to me.
That is going to raise suspicions
about the case, for sure.
What happened in the six
minutes between the phone call
and when Ronni Chasen was shot?
Nobody can place Harold Smith
at the scene of the crime.
And that makes me wonder if
there's actually
still a suspect out there.
Superstar publicist Ronni Chasen
has a roster of A-list talent
in her pocket
and the keys to Hollywood
in her hand.
When people talk about
the Hollywood elite,
picture Ronni Chasen.
When her meteoric rise
is cut short by m*rder,
the Beverly Hills
Police Department
says it's simply
a robbery gone bad.
But Internet sleuths suspect
there is more to the case
than meets the eye.
In an attempt to come up with
their own theories
about what really happened,
cyber detectives turn their
attention to the final hours
leading up
to Ronni Chasen's death.
Fittingly, her last night on earth
begins with a red-carpet
movie premiere.
So she was at a party
for a movie premiere
called "Burlesque."
And she was mingling
and talking with people
and generally seen
as a jovial person at the party.
After the premiere,
Chasen's next stop
was the afterparty
at the W Hollywood Hotel.
It was packed with celebrities,
including, amongst others,
Christina Aguilera.
Around midnight,
she left the party
in her 2010 black Mercedes.
She was going home to her
apartment on Wilshire Boulevard.
She was driving down Sunset,
and she was planning
to turn left on Whittier Drive,
which is, like, a really
common Beverly Hills shortcut.
At 12:22 a.m., she calls her
office and leaves instructions
to her staff for the next morning.
Six minutes or so
after she finished
that last phone call
was when Beverly Hills
got the phone call
that there had been a solo
car collision on Whittier Drive.
And that's when the
Beverly Hills Police Department
responded to the scene.
What happened in the six minutes
between the phone call
and when Ronni Chasen was shot?
We know very little.
This is the Beverly Hills
Police Department's
report number 62 in the file.
It says that Harold Smith
approached Ronni Chasen
on the early morning hours
of November 16th,
that he may have come up to her
for the purpose
of asking her for change
or money or whatever,
that Ronni put
the window down a few inches,
she said something
that pissed him off,
and that he then proceeded
to walk around
the car to the passenger side,
where he simply walks up
to the passenger side window,
produces this .38 handgun,
and sh**t her four times.
So Ronni did not die instantly.
She was able to make
the left-hand turn,
and she kind of, like, crashed
into, like, a light pole.
So then the neighbors come out,
they see her kind of slumped over.
The police arrive very soon after,
and they don't find a pulse.
She's, like, rushed
to Cedars-Sinai Hospital,
and she's pronounced dead
at 1:12 a.m.
The official police report
seems compelling... at first.
But to trained
cyber investigators,
there are serious shortcomings
in this version of events.
I'm a true crime author,
and I'm a criminal investigator
for my local sheriff's department.
My background is
in Army counterintelligence.
I also have experience
and training in forensic science
and criminal justice.
Generally the first couple days
after a m*rder occurs
are the most important
in the investigation.
It's your best chance
of finding witnesses,
of finding video surveillance,
of getting tips.
Within those first couple days,
the Beverly Hills P.D.
had no solid leads.
They had no suspects.
After two weeks, few details
are released to the public.
It seems as if the investigation
has already hit a dead end.
Ronni's m*rder came across
as almost a purely random event.
As Internet sleuths scrutinize
the evidence,
cracks begin to appear
in the police account,
starting with their handling
of the crime scene.
In fact, it appears
some rudimentary
investigative procedures
weren't followed.
In the documents
that were released,
there was no mention of them
dusting the passenger side
of her car for fingerprints.
So they didn't investigate
the scene properly.
They didn't properly
document information.
They didn't take video evidence
of the scene.
They didn't fingerprint the car.
They just didn't process
the scene properly.
So, when you miss that first step,
like, this really important
step in the investigation,
everything that comes after it
is suspect.
As cyber detectives delve deeper
into the police version of events,
even more doubts come to light.
For example, the police claim
that Harold Smith's motive
was robbery.
But nothing was stolen.
We have photos
from the crime scene.
Her purse is literally
just sitting there
on the passenger seat.
It would have taken, like,
seconds to grab.
And he didn't.
It just seemed so weird, you know.
Why wouldn't they rob her?
Why wouldn't they take stuff?
But the biggest blow
to the police version of events
is the fact
that not a single eyewitness
can place Harold Smith
anywhere near the scene
of the crime.
And not one camera anywhere
caught Harold Smith.
It's Beverly Hills, okay?
There's surveillance cameras
every 3 feet.
I find that very suspicious.
So you have this black man
in Beverly Hills in 2010
at 12:30 at night riding
his bike down Sunset Boulevard,
and literally nobody saw it?
He would have stood out
like a sore thumb.
A black man standing around
with a bike
in this very affluent area
of Los Angeles...
It never would have happened.
And it's disgusting
to... to say that,
but that's just the society
we live in.
In fact, the only evidence
police have that links
Harold Smith to the m*rder
is the g*n found in his hand
at the time of his su1c1de.
They found
those Hydra-Shok b*ll*ts
loaded in the g*n
that Harold shot himself with.
These are b*ll*ts,
hollow-point b*ll*ts.
The point is literally hollow.
And, of course, when it comes
in contact with bone and tissue,
it opens up like this
for the purpose of doing
as much damage as possible.
I mean, if you sh**t somebody
with a hollow-point b*llet,
your intention is to k*ll them.
They also found those b*ll*ts
present in Ronni's body
when they did the autopsy.
It looks like a strong connection.
But Hydra-Shok is a popular type
of amm*nit*on.
And the police ballistics report
can't say for sure
that the g*n found on Harold Smith
is a match for the w*apon
used to k*ll Ronni Chasen.
The ballistics report is
not entirely conclusive, okay?
It's... The language in it
is something, like, "You know,
this g*n
could have fired that b*llet.
It could have fired
this caliber of b*llet."
But it doesn't distinctly say,
"Yes,
this is a 100% absolute match."
With so many questions
hanging over the case,
it seems baffling police
would declare
Ronni Chasen's m*rder solved.
So we're to believe that
he managed to find a firearm,
that he was a perfect shot,
that he managed to steal exactly
nothing, yet left a woman dead.
And that's the explanation we get?
There's a phrase called
"confirmation bias,"
and that occurs when
an investigator kind of latches
onto a particular suspect
and they will take in information
that supports their theory
and supports their suspect.
And that makes me wonder
if other information got ignored
or pushed aside
and if there's actually
still a suspect out there.
My name is Myrl Stebens.
I've been doing criminal defense
investigations since 1980.
I've been practicing
as a licensed investigator
and forensics expert
in Fresno County since 1988.
If you was to take this to trial,
and you had an impartial,
truly impartial jury,
a good defense attorney,
there is reasonable doubt
as to whether Harold actually
did this or not.
To me, it was a...
a glossed-over investigation
by Beverly Hills Police Department
to get it off the front page.
With doubts undermining
the official narrative
that Ronni Chasen's m*rder
was simply
a tragically bungled robbery,
Internet sleuths investigate
an alternative explanation...
that Chasen was possibly the
victim of a professional hit.
It was a nice,
steady g*nsh*t... bam, bam.
It wasn't somebody that was
a novice with a w*apon.
All four sh*ts hit their target.
Did someone hand Harold
this g*n thinking or hoping
the m*rder
would get pinned on him?
In Hollywood, Ronni Chasen's
celebrity rivals
that of movie stars.
When she is m*rder*d,
police say it's simply case
of robbery gone bad,
but her friends and family believe
there is more to the story
than meets the eye.
It seemed like a random crime
because that's the way
they painted it.
A lot of people didn't trust
in the Beverly Hills
mayor's office,
where they want to shut
these things up right away,
find a culprit,
bring them to justice quickly,
and calm the community.
That's the way of the world
in Beverly Hills.
After carefully scrutinizing
the police version of events,
Internet detectives
take their search online...
and discover evidence
that points not to a robbery,
but to the work
of a professional hitman.
At first, I thought, "Nah.
Like, let me tackle
that theory
and disprove that one first.
It seems the easiest
to disprove."
The problem was,
I couldn't disprove it.
Whoever shot Ronni
meant to k*ll her.
They shot her four times, and
all four sh*ts hit their target.
The four sh*ts to her body
tell us the sh**t had intent
to k*ll the person
in that driver's seat.
It was alleged at that time
that this was
not a professional hit
because of the number...
the placement
of the injury sites on her chest.
But when I looked at it,
I looked at it differently.
And the shot group were...
was really tight in particular
around her shoulder area,
the entrance, and then
the exit wounds on her back,
and then across
to her breast areas.
That demonstrated to me
that it was a nice,
steady g*nsh*t... bam, bam.
The shot pattern that... that
Ronni endured was here,
here, here, and here, through
the breasts and into the arm,
you know, and that was
a very tight cluster.
And...
that would seem to indicate,
you know,
somebody who is
a professional sharpsh**ter,
somebody who's definitely
got a background in firearms,
someone who probably
goes to the firing range
and keeps that skill very honed.
I go to the g*n range
probably once a week.
And if I can have the kind
of accuracy
that is portrayed
in Ronni's pattern,
then I'm doing pretty good.
So for me, the person sh**ting
the w*apon has some experience.
The hitman theory raises the
possibility that Harold Smith,
if, in fact, he was present
at the crime scene,
wasn't simply a robber,
but a hired assassin.
So the idea of this hit is,
either there was
a professional assassin who was
dispatched to k*ll Chasen
or somebody paid Smith to do it,
knowing
they probably wouldn't
be linked back to it.
In fact, some of Smith's neighbors
say that he was bragging
about the hit
and that he had been paid
$10,000 to do it.
He was telling my husband,
"Someone hired me.
And I'm just getting a big payoff.
And I'll be expecting $10,000."
But to experts,
the idea that Harold Smith
was a hitman sounds absurd.
- My name is Jay Albanese.
- I am a criminologist.
I specialize in the study of
organized crime and corruption.
He was low-rent.
He was not, you know,
in that category.
He clearly didn't belong
to any organized crime group,
was not affiliated in any way,
all right?
That would be the first case in
the history of organized crime
committed by a felon on a bicycle,
because obviously
in that line of work,
you always have to have
an escape route.
And a bicycle is a pretty
horrible escape route.
Harold Smith was just...
He was a burglar.
He was a robber.
He spent quite a bit
of time in prison for doing so.
He seemed pretty desperate
for money,
at least by all accounts from,
like, the people that knew him.
He was often bragging
that he was going to be
getting a... a payout soon.
He did not want to go back
to prison.
He made that very clear with...
in talking with people
that he knew.
The other thing about this
that you have to remember
is that...
if the g*n that Harold had
was the g*n used
to k*ll Ronni Chasen,
we have no idea when he got it.
We have no idea if he picked
that g*n up that afternoon.
We have nothing that proves
that he had that g*n
for any duration of time.
Did someone hand Harold this g*n
thinking or hoping the m*rder
would get pinned on him?
By closely reviewing
the crime scene photos,
independent investigators
discover an even more disturbing
possibility.
When you look at his right hand,
he has the w*apon
in the palm of his hand
with the butt of the w*apon
in the palm of his hand.
That's not how you fall.
That... That...
Pull the trigger here. Relax.
He's not gonna grip that
all the way down to the ground.
And even on impact,
that g*n is gonna bounce.
So there's a lot of questions
that... that I have about
that particular reported incident.
So there is some maybe
speculation that the detective
shot Harold Smith
and, like, planted the g*n.
Even the g*n has a shady past.
The g*n that Harold Smith
used allegedly to k*ll himself,
that is also the g*n
that allegedly k*lled
Ronni Chasen, belonged to
a former LAPD officer.
We don't know what
the confrontation looked like
between the police department
and Harold Smith.
We actually know from some of
the investigative files
that police did pursue
the idea that gambling debt
may have been involved
in Chasen's death.
Ronni Chasen is
a publicist to the stars
and a Hollywood celebrity
in her own right.
After she is gunned down,
independent investigators
make a shocking discovery
about the w*apon police claim
was used in her m*rder.
The g*n that Harold Smith
supposedly had in his possession
at the time of his su1c1de...
The g*n belonged
to a retired LAPD officer.
An LAPD officer's home
was... was burglarized,
and his g*n was stolen.
So there is some maybe speculation
that they shot Harold...
you know, the detective shot
Harold Smith
and, like, planted the g*n.
I mean, was Harold a patsy?
There's no evidence of that.
But because the Beverly Hills
Police Department has been
so secretive with the information,
it just kind of fuels
those conspiracy theories.
It made it seem to others
that Smith, a black man,
was an easy scapegoat since he
had a previous criminal record
and spent almost two decades
in prison.
There was a surveillance camera
in the lobby
of the apartment complex
that Harold Smith
k*lled himself at.
But the footage has never
been released,
so we don't know what
the confrontation looked like
between the police department
and Harold Smith.
After repeated attempts,
Beverly Hills Police Department
has still never released to me
the surveillance footage
from the lobby
that shows that su1c1de,
if, in fact, it was a su1c1de.
While there is no evidence
Harold Smith was a mob assassin,
some online commentators
continue to speculate
that a professional k*ller
might have been responsible
for Ronni Chasen's m*rder.
So whenever you're
investigating the possibility
that something was
a professional hit,
you want to look for
a couple of things.
You know, why would somebody
want them dead?
But also why would someone
want to pay for it?
There has to be pretty
big stakes on the table
in order for this level of risk
and cost to be worth it.
Ronni didn't do anything
other than work.
I mean, she just worked.
The woman never...
never stopped working, you know.
And that's the thing.
I mean, why would anyone
want to k*ll her?
So when police did these
background checks on Chasen,
they didn't really find anything.
She was, by all accounts,
squeaky clean.
There was no mob connections,
no huge pile of gambling debt.
It just did not seem like
anyone would want her dead.
Ronni Chasen might have had
a spotless record,
but some online commentators
speculate
that someone close to her
might have owed
the mob half-a-million dollars
in unpaid gambling debts.
We actually know from some of
the investigative files
that police did pursue the idea
that gambling debt
may have been involved
in Chasen's death.
In fact, they honed in on
Larry Cohen, Chasen's brother.
They'd asked him
about whether or not he owed
any significant amount of money
because of gambling.
Much of the gambling
in Los Angeles
is known to be controlled
by a particularly brutal
faction of organized crime.
I've reported on a lot
of high-profile
crime stories over the years.
Everything from serial K*llers,
to unsolved disappearances,
to organized crime writ large.
It's pretty well known
that the Russian mob controls
most of the gambling in L.A.
So, if there were
any significant debts
that got incurred,
chances are the Russian mob
would be the ones
coming to collect.
So when the mob needs to collect
money it believes they're owed,
and they can't shake down
the person
who's actually
racked up the debts,
sometimes they will turn
to friends or family members
who might be good for the money.
The idea here goes that Chasen
became the de facto person
responsible for this possible debt
and that the mob wanted
their money from her.
Following this theory,
it is possible
that they had her k*lled.
Larry Cohen, who died in 2019
of natural causes,
strongly denied
ever having gambling debts.
Now, he has flatly denied this
both to police and in the public,
saying he doesn't play poker,
he doesn't play slots,
he doesn't gamble at all.
But nevertheless, the idea that
there was potentially
hundreds of thousands of dollars
in money owed to the mob,
it's lingered.
Without hard evidence,
the theory that Larry Cohen
or someone else close to
Ronni Chasen owed the mob money
for gambling debts
remains mere speculation.
And there is another problem
with the gambling debt theory.
Organized crime doesn't tend
to go straight to m*rder.
When you start k*lling people
and their families,
they don't tend to be more willing
to give you the money
they owe you.
That tends to be a final point,
not a starting
of the negotiations.
The only time a m*rder would occur
is to set examples for others.
So the motive would be
very plain to anybody.
Otherwise, it has no point,
because you would only do it
for, you know, a deterrent purpose
within the...
the loan-sharking world.
With no evidence or leads,
the gambling theory
seems to hit a dead end.
But as independent investigators
continue to sift
through media reports
and Internet chatter,
they discover
another theory spreading online.
Ronni had expensive taste,
and she surrounded herself with,
like, this really beautiful,
exquisite art.
After her death, some of
Chasen's friends told media
they believed that she was k*lled
because of an art deal gone south.
A lot of art deals
go down in cash,
which, of course,
is preferred by organized crime.
Ronni Chasen was an art collector,
and that is a known fact,
for sure.
These are the things of which
conspiracy theories are made.
Ronni Chasen is
a behind-the-scenes
Hollywood puppetmaster,
guiding careers
and directing Oscar campaigns.
Ronni Chasen was a big celebrity
in the celebrity circle.
So she was famous
to famous people.
When she is m*rder*d,
Internet sleuths explore
the theory she was the victim
of a professional hit
and look for a possible motive.
After her death, some of
Chasen's friends told media
they believed that she was k*lled
because of an art deal gone south.
We've known for many years
that organized crime
loves to push dirty money
through shady art deals.
So why would the Russian mob
be interested in art?
Well, there's a couple
of possible reasons.
I mean, for one, if you're the mob
and you have a piece of
stolen art or counterfeit art,
if you put it through
an intermediary,
somebody who has cachet,
someone who's
kind of high profile,
neither the buyer, nor the cops,
are probably gonna look
too closely at that transaction.
The other thing about art
is that it has no set price.
So it's potentially
a great vehicle to move money
that you may have earned
illicitly,
like through drug dealing.
A lot of art deals go down
in cash,
which, of course, is preferred
by organized crime.
$30,000 cash is a big burden
because you can't go
into a car dealership
and buy a car with it, right?
They have to report big cash,
right?
It'd be much easier
to buy a piece of art
because generally it would be
a private exchange.
It wouldn't involve a bank.
So that would make it easier
to launder that money.
Then you hold on to it
for a while,
and then you would sell the art
at some auction somewhere.
It's possible that Chasen
found herself
on the wrong end
of one of those deals.
Adding fuel to this theory online
is the fact that Ronni Chasen's
connection to the art world
isn't simply business...
It's personal.
Ronni Chasen had
a very good friend
who was a very prominent,
very well-known art dealer
in Los Angeles.
She always had nice art in her
in her condo
because he would loan her art
and she would hang it
in her condo for a few weeks
or a few months until he needed
it back for his gallery,
and then he would replace it
with a new piece.
It naturally suggests that
he may have some knowledge
about what happened.
Police looked into him
on the possibility
that he could have been
the one behind it,
but nothing turned up.
But while this theory hits a wall,
there's a tantalizing coincidence
that suggests to some
that an art deal
may have played a role
in Chasen's m*rder.
Some people have pointed out
the irony in the fact
that Harold Smith shares a name
with one
of the most famous detectives
who investigated art theft.
That Harold Smith was
an insurance company detective
who investigated the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum robbery
in 1990.
Nearly half-a-billion dollars
worth of fine art was stolen.
The robbery was never solved
and remains the largest
art heist in history.
Yeah, the fact that the name
was the same
is... is interesting.
And these are the things
of which conspiracy theories
are made.
However, I haven't seen any link
between that Harold Smith,
the former detective involved
in art theft,
and the Harold Smith who
allegedly k*lled Ronni Chasen.
Harold Smith shares a name
with a famous detective
who investigated art theft.
But so do thousands
of other Harold Smiths
across the country.
To independent investigators,
the art-deal-gone-bad theory
seems to be nothing more
than Internet speculation.
There's absolutely no evidence
or no validity
to that rumor whatsoever.
One of the biggest indicators
that Chasen was not involved
in some shady art dealing
is the fact
that of her whole collection,
which is pretty impressive,
not a single piece
was worth more than $30,000.
No one's ever been able
to provide any details
to back up this theory
beyond some rampant speculation.
While there may not be enough
evidence to support the theory
that Ronni Chasen was m*rder*d
over an art deal gone bad,
the topic of her financial
worth raises a new
and intriguing rabbit hole
for the online investigators...
that Ronni Chasen
was k*lled for her money.
The media reported that Ronni
was worth $6.1 million,
okay, which is, of course,
a substantial amount of money.
But the reality is, is that
Ronni was worth more than that,
considerably more than that.
There's been some media reports
that her brother Larry Cohen
believed that shortly
before her death,
Ronni changed her will.
One of her nieces
got quite the snub.
She only got $10
from Chasen's estate.
Some people think
there may have been a grudge.
After Hollywood insider
Ronni Chasen
is brutally gunned down
in what police claim
is a botched robbery,
she leaves a fortune
of more than $6 million.
Ronni did
very, very well in her life.
She did well for herself.
She was very wealthy at the time
that she was m*rder*d.
And in any homicide case,
you have to look at the people
closest to the victim,
and you have to look
at who got the money.
Who stands to benefit
from the death?
And the first place you would look
would be at... at legal documents.
She had a family,
she had insurance.
She had a will.
Yeah, you'd want to be looking
very carefully
at all of those
potential beneficiaries.
Ronni was married once
when she was young,
but it didn't last long,
and she never remarried.
She had a niece that she adored,
but she didn't have
any children of her own.
Ronni Chasen actually
has two nieces...
daughters of her brother
Larry Cohen.
She left the bulk
of her fortune to one niece,
but considerably less
to the other.
One thing that arose suspicion
after Chasen's death was her will.
One of her nieces
got quite the snub.
She only got $10
from Chasen's estate.
That led to some people think
there may have been a grudge.
She left Melissa the entire
residue of her estate, you know.
So Jill got $10, and Melissa
basically got everything else.
That would probably sting
a little bit, yeah.
The reason for the unequal
division in the will
is shrouded in mystery.
But it is unusual enough that
the police interview Jill Gatsby
about her relationship
with her aunt.
Jill Gatsby publicly states
she does not bear
her late aunt any ill will,
and there seems to be no
evidence suggesting otherwise.
So in a letter
to the website Showbiz411,
Jill Gatsby stated,
"As for the $10,
that's a real family secret
regarding Ronni
and my career as a writer,
which I am choosing
to keep to myself at this time.
Perhaps one day
the whole truth will be told.
But for now, it's time to mourn
and pray
that whoever did this
is brought to justice."
Ultimately, speculation
that the unequal inheritance
in Ronni Chasen's will
might have some connection
to her m*rder leads nowhere.
There's really nothing
supporting it.
It is just another dead end
in a perplexing
and frustrating story.
But to some people
following the case,
there remains yet another twist.
Online commentators wonder
if a second version
of Chasen's will might exist.
There's been some media reports
that her brother Larry Cohen
believed that shortly
before her death,
Ronni changed her will.
Larry Cohen, Chasen's brother,
seemed to believe that
Chasen had amended her will
shortly before her death
and it had gone missing.
Friends backed up this idea,
saying that Chasen had talked
pretty openly about changing
her will in the months
before her death,
but it never really appeared.
It really seems to be
yet another loose end
in a story that is full of them.
Like many of the theories
swirling around
Ronni Chasen's m*rder,
the topic of her will
raises fascinating questions,
but provides
no definitive answers.
The troubling part of
the Ronni Chasen m*rder
is the fact that we have
no idea who committed it.
What there is,
is a police investigation
that frankly
doesn't look complete to me.
And I can imagine
that her family and her friends
probably still have
a lot of questions
about what really happened
because the official narrative,
this idea of a random k*lling,
it doesn't quite fit.
Police might call it solved,
but I guarantee you
a lot of people
who cared about Chasen
don't consider this case closed.
In November 2022, The Hollywood
Reporter posted an article,
and it was kind of
like a call to action
to reopen the Ronni Chasen case.
There is such a feeling
that justice has not been done
for Ronni Chasen.
And, you know, this article
coming out 12 years
after her m*rder
really just proves
and gives credibility
to that fact.
Her family and friends and Ronni
herself deserve some justice.
In order to do right by Ronni,
who's the victim in this case,
I do think the m*rder
needs to be re-examined.
I personally do not feel
justice was completely done
for Ronni Chasen,
and I hope someday it will be.
What gnaws at me in this story
is justice.
This woman who was doing
nothing wrong,
she met a horrific fate
that she did not deserve.
I would like to see justice
for her.
01x12 - Ronni Chasen
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Internet sleuths and professional investigators re-open some of Hollywood's most notorious and controversial celebrity deaths.
Internet sleuths and professional investigators re-open some of Hollywood's most notorious and controversial celebrity deaths.