Jayne Mansfield Died In 1967′ Crash, And Daughter Mariska Hargitay Was In Backseat, New Story Of Loss Emerges

There’s been a lot written about the death of Jayne Mansfield through the years, starting with the rumors coming out of the tragic accident that took her life. This has continued with reports since her death with rumors of Jayne’s ghost emerging. Today, there is a new story that is ready to be told, and it is from someone whose life was changed forever due to Jayne Mansfield’s fatal crash, although she is not related to the late celebrity.

Back in 1967, there was a young lady in love, Elaine Stevens. She was just 17 and pregnant at the time and about to marry the father of her child, who was Jayne Mansfield’s driver that ill-fated night, according to Fox News.

Along with the famous actress Jayne Mansfield, two other adults died in that accident on Route 90 just outside of Biloxi, Mississippi, on that June night. One of them was about to become Stevens’ husband in just 72 hours if not for that crash. Much of the news of that day was centered on Jayne Mansfield, with the other fatalities taking a backseat to the news of the 34-year-old celebrity’s death.

The famous actress left five children behind, which was called a miracle at the time because three of her kids were in the accident with her. Three of her five young children were in the backseat of the car when Jayne Mansfield and the two other adults in the front seat lost their lives in that tragic accident.

One of Jayne’s children in the car that night was Mariska Hargitay, who would grow up and become famous herself. Mariska plays Olivia Benson on Law & Order SUV. The children sustained injuries in the crash, but they all recovered. The three little ones had been sound asleep in the backseat when the car hit a truck.

That accident instantly sparked gruesome rumors of Mansfield being decapitated in the crash, but that was not the case, according to the undertaker Jim Roberts, who took charge of her remains. Perhaps the reason for the rumors was the bloody blonde hair tangled in the car’s windshield, which was seen at the accident site that night, suggests Road Trippers.

Jayne, her driver, Ronald B. Harrison, and Samuel S. Brody, her lawyer, who was also referred to as her “lover” by Road Trippers, were sitting in the front seat of the car, and all three died instantly. They had been going along Route 90 at a good clip when they came upon a fog that was coming from a truck spraying for mosquitoes. Reports suggest they weren’t aware that the thick fog was coming from a slow-moving truck.

The fog was thick, and by the time they saw that truck through the fog, it was too late. The car smashed into the back of the vehicle, and the front of the car went underneath the truck. The three adults who were sitting in the front seat were instantly killed as the force of the crash took part of the vehicle’s roof off.

Stevens parents did not know she was pregnant until the night of that accident. She was forced to give her baby daughter up for adoption to “avoid a scandal.” The accident that killed the famous Hollywood actress, and it changed Stevens’ life forever.

In 1999, Stevens reunited with her daughter, who was searching for her birth mother at that time, and the two still keep in touch today. According to Fox News, “Stevens admitted it bothered her over the years how Mansfield’s death overshadowed Harrison’s passing.” While the rest of the nation mourned the loss of a star, the thought of that accident reminds Stevens of her loss.

Stevens said, at the time, it was painful to hear the press refer to her boyfriend as “the boy” or “the chauffeur” in reports of the accident. He was a 19-year-old man now dead without a face or a name in the media. They were calling him just “a boy” or “a chauffeur,” yet she was about to have his child. She called herself and her little daughter “just collateral damage” of the Jayne Mansfield crash story, and that is why she wants to tell her own story today. Stevens said that she no longer feels any resentment toward Mansfield, but it took meeting her daughter for that to completely diminish.

Jayne Mansfield’s death is mentioned now and then in the media. Reports of her ghost haunting the home she loved and the home that she shared with her children have surfaced from time to time through the decades. American Hauntings calls this haunting, “The Ghost Of the Pink Palace,” because Jayne’s home was pink.

Linda Mudrick, who was Jayne’s personal assistant for many years, reported that she would often hear Jayne’s son Miklos talking to someone who was not there. Miklos had been injured in the crash that took his mom’s life. The little boy would tell Mudrick that he was talking to his mother when she knew he was alone in his room. Jayne’s assistant did believe that the little boy was somehow communicating with his mother, who came to see him from the “other side.”

Many celebrities have moved in and out of the house through the years, from Englebert Humperdinck to Ringo Star. Humperdinck, who was reportedly once romantically involved with Mansfield, had the house blessed before moving in. He did, however, report a few unsettling incidents that might be attributed to the ghost of Jayne.

Ringo Starr had the pink interior walls painted white when he owned the home, only for the walls to turn pink once again despite the paint-over. Thinking the pink was just too bright to be covered, professionals repainted the walls using a sealer. “Much to the bewilderment of paint consultants and chemists,” the walls once again turned pink.

Along with the rumors of ghosts, tragic accidents occurred to the people who lived in or visited the house, reports American Hauntings. The house was eventually painted white again, and this time, it remained white until it was purchased by a developer and torn down, ending all the rumors of a Jayne Mansfield ghost.