Suzanne Gargiulo - Lon Chaneys Shadow - John Jeske and the Chaney Mystique

Introduction

L on Chaney was the greatest actor Hollywood ever produced and a bona fide genius who single-handedly created the art of motion picture make-up. There was never anyone like him before or since, and I have an incredible amount of respect for his work and the honorable way he tried to live his life. In almost all of the books and articles I read about Chaney, I was struck by the repeated revelations of how he fiercely guarded his privacy and had very few close friends friends who were carefully selected to be completely loyal to him and discreet. Chaney was no fool, and neither was his shrewd second wife, Hazel. Both could spot pretentious phonies miles away, and Chaney avoided all the hangers-on and yes men and women that seemed to swarm around motion picture stars like so many parasites. All that sort of thing sickened Chaney to his core, and he was only able to relax and enjoy the company of those who did not expect anything of him, or made unreasonable demands upon his time. The picture that formed in my mind of Chaney was not of someone who could be such an utterly poor judge of character that he would forge a close, personal bond with a foreigner who was nothing more than a greedy opportunist plotting to sleep with his wife behind his back and steal his money. That is the perception of John Fred Jeske given by Chaneys modern biographers, and it just doesnt fit the detailed profile of Chaneys obvious intelligence and intuitive ability in regards to assessing an individuals character.

I had to know who this John Jeske really was. How could Lon and Hazel Chaney have been so wrong about a man they claimed to be their cherished and dependable friend? I never imagined this search would be such a long and arduous one, nor did I think it would lead to another book. Even the most mundane details I thought would be so readily forthcoming have proven to be as elusive as the Holy Grail. Jeske had no children, he wasnt close to his family, nearly everyone who would have known him is dead the situation seemed bleak. Not all was lost, though, merely hidden under heavy layers of time. Through processing the information located from court documents, newspaper articles, census reports, voter registration records, historical maps, public and private collections, historical societies, ships manifests, surviving Jeske family members, and the many individuals who have been so kind to offer whatever help they can, I have been able to reconstruct Jeskes life. In doing so, I came to the conclusion that John Jeske was a man who had, as Chaney wrote in his will two months before his death, at all times been loyal to the only true friends he had in the world Lon and Hazel Chaney.

Jeske represents just one life out of the millions of lives that have nearly passed over into oblivion. His hopes and dreams, likes and dislikes, everything that made up the man he was has nearly faded away. Even his dead body was unceremoniously dumped into an unmarked grave that no one but the cemetery staff know is there. It took a lot of work to find him so many phone calls to so many different cemeteries throughout the Los Angeles area. After researching the mortuary that handled the burial back in 1944, I located an article from the same time period about another man who died without a will or family to care about him. I was intrigued to learn he was buried in Inglewood. On a hunch, I called the Inglewood Park Cemetery and discovered that John Fred Jeske was indeed buried there.

Why should anyone really care, you may say? I wish I had the means to convey the urgency I feel about the need to tell John Jeskes true story for the very first time. Maybe its my inherent love of justice, and the deep interest I have in the people I feel to have been wronged by history in some way. I believe Jeske is one of those people, and since there is no one left to pick up the gauntlet, I have taken on the very difficult task to attempt to set the record straight. Jeske had his faults, but he doesnt deserve the harsh indictment of his character that is presented in the precious little of his life story that survives today. I, for one, have grown to care about this forgotten man, and I honestly feel that all who read this book with an open mind and heart will too.

The full chronicle of the events of John Jeskes life and amazing career as Chaneys chauffeur, assistant, companion, confidant, and man of all jobs, is full of sharp twists and turns and, ultimately, tragedy. I couldnt help but be affected by the sadness surrounding Chaneys early death at age 47 in 1930, and Hazels collapse at his funeral where her soul-searing cries of Why? Why? reverberated throughout the church. The emotional pain of Creighton Chaneys love-hate relationship with his father that fuelled his descent into alcoholism also touched me. What caused him to be so distant from his step-mother after his father died, and why did Hazel feel the need to protect herself from the Chaney family to such an extreme that she contemplated marrying Jeske? Some of these questions I can provide an answer to, but so many others will never truthfully be known. There are conflicting accounts that further muddy the already murky waters, and at this late date one can only sift through the remaining evidence and make up their own minds as to what really happened.

Jeske appears to have been a pawn in the game being played by the son and his step-mother, and ended up an easy target for vicious rumors and ridicule. After all, this was a time in America the early 1930s when a person of German heritage was often vilified for all the damage done by Germany during World War I, and the fear growing out of the looming malevolence of Adolph Hitler and his Third Reich. With his German background and noticeable accent, Jeske was especially hated by Creighton Chaney, who had an obsessive dislike of all foreigners. The confused and bizarre events that occurred around the time of Hazels death in 1933 only fanned the flames of hatred already present in Creightons heart, and the fact that Jeske was to receive $25,000 from his fathers estate and yet Hazel had effectively disinherited him, was the last straw. The story of what followed the reading of Hazels will, and the incredible series of events over the course of the next eight months would culminate in the kidnapping and robbery of Jeske and his new bride by thugs who had inside information regarding Jeskes relationship to Hazel Chaney. When the kidnappers were finally apprehended after the Jeskes suffered a harrowing two-week ordeal, Jeske told the Sheriff that one of the kidnappers was a relative of Lon Chaneys first wife Creighton Chaneys mother. Could Creightons hatred of Jeske have escalated to the point of setting Jeske up for the crime in order to get back the inheritance he believed to be rightfully his? There is tantalizing evidence of his involvement, but such an act seems almost too vicious to be believed. Perhaps, its more a matter of not wanting to believe it could be true.