Jenny Maxwell was a Hollywood starlet who got the chance to appear alongside such luminaries
as Elvis Presley and James Stewart during her tragically short lifetime.
In fact, Jenny’s first Hollywood experience was screen testing alongside Frank Sinatra!
Sadly, things all came crashing down for Jenny when she and her husband were murdered.
Many continue to consider the murder to be unsolved, but the fact of the matter is that
the true story of what happened to Jenny just wasn’t that widely publicized.
Now, the facts about what happened to Jenny Maxwell are finally being revealed, which
is perfect timing given the release of the new movie Elvis!
Join Facts Verse as we explore how Elvis girl Jenny Maxwell’s death has been solved after
40 years.
Jenny Maxwell’s Early Life Jenny Maxwell was born on the third of September,
1941, in Brooklyn.
She was an only child, which led to her parents spoiling her a great deal.
This, in turn, led to Jenny being a fairly strong-willed child that was always dead set
on getting her way.
This strong will would carry over into Jenny's adulthood, and it would cause trouble in her
relationships.
In fact, it may even be said that it was Jenny's strong will and spoiled nature that led to
her untimely demise at the age of 39.
Though the coddling of Jenny’s parents made the young girl spoiled, it also gave her the
opportunity to explore her talents and imagination from a young age.
Jenny had a penchant for fantasy ever since her early childhood, and it was no surprise
when the young woman decided to pursue a career on the stage upon her coming of age.
She began attending a local drama school, but she didn’t have to struggle through
the ranks very long before she was given a lucrative opportunity to come out to Hollywood.
This opportunity came by way of a Hollywood director by the name of Vincente Minnelli,
who spotted young Jenny during a performance.
Vincente brought Jenny Maxwell out to Hollywood, and her first job was to screen test alongside
legendary performer Frank Sinatra!
Every woman who came out to Hollywood around that time was likely hoping for nothing more
than the opportunity to stand alongside Frank Sinatra, and Jenny got the opportunity immediately!
Though Jenny didn’t end up getting the role in the Frank Sinatra film that she was screen
testing for, which was a film by the name of Some Came Running, it was still certainly
evident that big things were in store for Hollywood’s most recent arrival.
Jenny Maxwell’s Hollywood Career Jenny Maxwell was disappointed about losing
out on the chance to star alongside Frank Sinatra in her screen debut, but that didn’t
mean that the burgeoning starlet’s career was over before it had begun!
The aspiring star began receiving steady work on television, with one of the most notable
television roles from her early career being on the hit sitcom Father Knows Best.
Around this same time, Jenny met the man that was soon to become her first husband.
Jenny Maxwell was only 17 years old when she married her first husband Paul Rapp.
Paul was an assistant director, and Jenny had met him on the job.
The two fell in love relatively fast and eloped.
Their marriage occurred in 1959, and 17-year-old Jenny didn’t even bother to inform her parents.
A year later, Jenny gave birth to a son.
However, even though she was now a mother, Jenny was still insistent on becoming a star.
Thankfully, she was continuing to make waves in Hollywood as an actress, and was given
the designation of "Hollywood Deb Star of 1960".
This gave Jenny the opportunity to appear on The Bob Hope Show, where both Bob Hope
and Joan Crawford formally introduced her to the television audience.
It certainly honored Jenny Maxwell to be introduced by two huge stars.
Following her appearance on The Bob Hope Show as the Hollywood Deb Star of 1960, Jenny continued
to make notable television appearances before eventually receiving her big break.
This big break came in the form of 1961’s Blue Hawaii, which Jenny co-starred in alongside
musical legend Elvis Presley.
Some of the many popular television programs that Jenny could be seen on around the time
included Bonanza and The Twilight Zone, but it was her appearance alongside Elvis Presley
that solidified her star status.
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Jenny Liked to Party Given that Jenny Maxwell came into Hollywood
success at a relatively young age, it shouldn’t come as much surprise that the actress ended
up getting into the party lifestyle.
Jenny was said to have enjoyed her drugs, and she was rumored to have partied a lot
with Charles Manson victim Sharon Tate.
Despite Jenny’s propensity for partying, it wouldn’t be her hard-partying ways that
ended up causing her untimely end.
Instead, the thing that caused Jenny’s tragic demise was something that few around her could’ve
predicted, and it was also something that took the cops a while to figure out.
Jenny Maxwell’s career seemed to go fine with appearances alongside such luminaries
as James Stewart in the film Take Her, She’s Mine, but things weren’t going so well for
Jenny in her personal life.
Jenny began having troubles with her aforementioned first husband.
They ended up getting divorced, and Jenny’s hard-partying lifestyle made it easy for her
husband to get custody of their kid.
Following this, Jenny was only able to see her son sporadically.
At the same time, Jenny wasn’t getting along with her parents.
Jenny realized that she needed to make a change in her life, and she eventually did so.
Jenny Maxwell managed to get her act together after divorcing her first husband and losing
custody of her son.
She was able to secure partial custody of her son after giving up drugs, and she was
also continuing to get notable work on television.
Around this time, Jenny met and fell in love with a much older man by the name of Tip Roeder.
Tip would go on to become Jenny’s second husband, and he was also the man that she
was murdered alongside.
Tip Roeder Was Jenny’s Second Husband Tip Roeder was a Hollywood lawyer with an
intimidating reputation.
The lawyer liked to tell people that he had connections to the mob, and he probably wasn’t
lying.
Jenny ended up falling for the man despite his unbecoming reputation, and the two went
on to tie the knot in 1970.
A little over a decade later, both Jenny and Tip would be shot dead while eating lunch
together at a diner.
Following their wedding ceremony, Jenny and Tip moved into a house in Beverly Hills and
attempted to live amicably together.
Jenny came into the marriage with the intention of being a housewife.
She had partial custody of her son from her previous marriage, and Tip had five children
of his own.
Despite Jenny’s initial investment in her marriage to Tip, the union ended up falling
apart not long after it started.
It seems that Jenny and Tip begun having trouble in their marriage early on, though Jenny was
advised by her personal lawyer to remain married to Tip for at least ten years.
According to the lawyer, this would allow Jenny to get a bigger settlement.
Jenny took the advice, and her choice to go for that larger settlement instead of getting
out of the marriage when she felt that it had soured would go on to inspire her murder.
As soon as her and Tip had been married for ten years, Jenny Maxwell gave the announcement
that she wanted a divorce.
She already had her own condominium lined up, and she already had her legal team in
place.
It has since become common knowledge that both Tip and Jenny were involved with numerous
other people over the course of their marriage, and some have even suggested that Jenny would
brag to Tip about all the different men that she slept with.
Tip couldn’t have been too surprised about Jenny’s cry for a divorce, but he was certainly
shocked at the settlement that she was asking for.
Tip became incredibly angry when he realized that Jenny had pulled one over on him by prolonging
the marriage so that she could get a bigger settlement.
As soon as Tip caught wind of his soon-to-be ex-wife’s plan, he went about coming up
with a plan of his own.
Who Killed Jenny Maxwell?
Numerous people have come forward saying that, shortly before his and Jenny’s murder, Tip
approached them with the business proposal of murdering his wife.
One man even suggested that Tip had asked him to murder both his wife and Tip himself,
suggesting that Tip had become so distraught by the whole episode involving Jenny that
he was now suicidal.
All of these men ended up turning down Tip’s request, but it seems that Tip still managed
to find someone to do the job.
This is how Jenny’s life came to its tragic end.
In June of 1981, Jenny Maxwell had a minor surgery scheduled and she needed a ride home
from the hospital afterward.
Tip offered to drive Jenny home, and she accepted the offer without thinking much of it.
On the ride back, Tip and Jenny stopped for lunch.
It was during this lunch that the two of them were murdered.
Authorities initially chalked the murder up to a botched robbery, and that was the story
that went through the presses.
The presses never bothered to share the story of the mystery being solved not long afterward.
As it turns out, the event that killed Jenny Maxwell wasn’t a botched robbery.
As keen viewers will have already deduced, Tip made good on his attempts to find someone
to put both his and his wife’s lives to an end.
Jenny Maxwell remains best known nowadays for her roles alongside such Hollywood luminaries
as Elvis Presley and James Stewart, but the story of her strange murder is slowly
becoming more and more legendary.
Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Jenny Maxwell married her first
husband when she was only 17 and that she prolonged her second marriage so that she
could get a bigger divorce settlement?
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