Dear Flynnmates,
here is another accurate account about Errol Flynn`s best man Suicide Freddie McEvoy.
When together, they could meow the birds from the trees.
But his panache got the playboy literally in deep waters.
The circumstances of his drowning a few meters off the coast of Morocco are as murky as his past.
He supposedly died trying to save his newly wed wife from going under.
The truth may not be as romantic as the legend.
Three crew members survived the shipwreck.
One was Manfred Lentner, a convicted murderer from Austria.
He gave three different versions of what happened that night.
Errol immediately wanted to salvage Freddie Mac`s yacht with his own money.
Why, you ask me!?
I believe the motif to be buried within the EF Enterprises script “Deep Waters”, which was supposed to be filmed in South France.
Barry Mahon was to produce and cute Corinne Calvet was to star.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Heinz Holmes! Has anyone found a copy of the screenplay for “Deep Waters”? Thanks!
Doc Whatson, I was able to trace it back to a Christie`s lot (www.christies.com…)- Will Tell resides there too!- and managed to get hold of the seller from England. But she sold the papers as originals and didn`t copy anything. Some Aflynncionado now has the goods and doesn`t know his good fortunes.
When I interviewed the last wife of M. Lentner, her intro went like this “Now, what am I gonna do with you, Mr. Kampel?” It were rather the pieces of the story she left out, than those she fed me, that made me curious. Serial Fred (he was a bigamist) never seized to talk about his time with Freddie Mac at the Cote Azure. His nephew, who I became friendly with while mountain climbing, told me, his uncle could draw the Kangaroa Yacht from memory. His brother in law, a police man, said you wouldn´t feel a trace of the criminal energy within Lentner. His much younger sister maintains his innocence. While in hiding he sent her to Vienna`s top lawyer baiting him to represent him at the Austrian trial of the century…without pay. She was then a mere 11 years old.
So the script holds the definitive clue whether or not Freddie met his match in Fred.
So, Freddie was a suicide when he drowned? Can you explain?
Witty Dave, Suicide Freddie got his nickname from fearlessly participating in the Cresta Run and other high speed sports like speed boating (a little known fact) and auto racing- both officially as in the Vanderbilt Cup and unofficially in a cannonball race from Paris to Nice. But taking on a crew of criminals on a transatlantic cruise with a dubious cargo was pure harakiri on his part.
Ok, I see. I just don’t know much about Freddy MacAvoy. Do you know how he became associated with this crew and what the cargo was?
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Yes, since two of the cutthroat crew were Austrians I was able to retrace how the events of this fateful voyage unfolded. This will make for a good script one day. The 2 meter tall and 120 kilogramm weighting Manfred Lentner aka Walter Praxmarer (above) was searched for by Interpol for the murder of a prostitute in after war Berlin. Another man went to the gallows (one of the last men to be put to death in Germany) as his complice while Lentner was at large. He changed his name various times and married different women along the way. When Austrian authorities were closing in (he even managed to escape from prison once) he took the so called rat line to Rome. Only recently it became common historic knowledge that another Austrian, Bishop Hudal, was procuring ex-nazis with official papers. The Vatican saw taking sides as their holy duty in the cold war against Communism. Lentner then went to the Italian port of Genoa and planned to ship himself out to South America. He met Freddie McEvoy there and became his heavy. The other scoundrel was a Viennese named Krotil, who robbed jewish refugees at gunpoint after they paid him to get them out of the „Heimat of Hitler“. The table was set set for a high end drama at sea. Lentner‘s wife told me Freddie never paid them a dime for one and a half years.
Ok..but what does this have to do with Errol? Freddie needed crew and sometimes you just get what you get. I honestly dont care about the past of the two men he hired. International travel by water can be dangerous and honestly you dont what to hire sissies. Are you trying to prove that Freddie was a pro nazi and so Errol?
Why would Errol want Freddie’s yacht for a movie? He had the Zaca..or i completely misunderstood your post. I like Freddie personally. He is to much maligned
These are articles that go into detail with the accident. The police only found bottles on the ship. Nothing else. The rumors were spread by the press that like always they love to lie. Also rumors went from cigarettes to weapons to dismonds..none is true. Freddie was not a bad guy, not in my book. Errol was friend of him because as he said he was his antagonist and he completed him. True. Fredie loved money, fast cars and wome. What’s so bad about it,?
Arthur Conan Heinz;
I think this makes for fascinating reading. I hope you put it all together in a book!
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Thanks for the encouragement, RR. I think so too, once the evidence is conclusive. There is a neat story within the story, when Errol met Lentner for the first time. Bear in mind Errol‘s films had not been shown in Europe until after the war, so he was not always recognized instantly and S-Fred was S-Freddies watchdog-henchman. Our Hollywood dropped by for a drink at the Kangaroa unannounced when Freddie was out…
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