HOLLYWOOD - This news source has obtained a shocking photograph long rumored to exist but never before made public of beloved third "Stooge" Jerome "Curly" Howard being burned alive in 1946 by two Puerto Rican nationalists after Howard was kidnapped for ransom. Howard had just finished filming one of the Three Stooges' popular two-reelers, Half-Wits Holiday, when he was kidnapped on his way to his car on the Columbia Studios backlot. The kidnappers left a series of ransom notes over the next several days, but Howard's older brother, Moe, adopted a hard-line in dealing with the kidnappers and refused to accede to their demands.
Five days after he was reported missing, Howard was placed on a rotisserie and sauteed to death less than one mile from the studio he had helped establish as the screwball capital of the world. His body was recovered in woods beneath the giant "Hollywood" sign several weeks later, and his corpse was used by the always-frugal Columbia two-reeler division in several "haunted house" shorts.
Several years later the same two kidnappers unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. One of them was killed in that attempt, the other was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1994.
