page_title: Zachary Smith Reynolds
section_title: Death
hierarchical_section_title: Zachary Smith Reynolds / Death
caption_attribution_description: English: Family grave of R.J. Reynolds (1850-1918) immediate family and descendants in Salem Cemetery, Old Salem Historic District.
context_page_description: Zachary Smith Reynolds
  was an American amateur aviator and younger son of R. J. Reynolds.
  The Zachary Smith Reynolds story was the basis for two movies, Reckless, starring Jean Harlow, and the popular 1950s classic, Written on the Wind. The latter was loosely based on a novel by Robert Wilder. In addition, the 1933 film Sing, Sinner, Sing was loosely based upon the allegations surrounding Reynolds' death.
context_section_description: Reynolds died under mysterious circumstances from a shot to his head from a semi-automatic Mauser .32 caliber pistol on the early morning of July 6, 1932, after a 21st birthday party for his friend Charles Gideon Hill, Jr. (July 5, 1911 - October 18, 1960), who was also Anne Cannon Reynolds's first cousin, at his Winston-Salem, North Carolina estate known as Reynolda. His wife Libby Holman Reynolds was pregnant with their child.
  Reynolds' boyhood friend and personal assistant Albert Bailey "Ab" Walker had stayed over after the party, and he reported that he heard a gunshot from downstairs and immediately afterwards Holman ran to the balcony and shouted, "Smith's killed himself!" Walker said he found Reynolds bleeding and unconscious upstairs, with a bullet wound in his right temple. With Holman's help, Walker brought Reynolds to North Carolina Baptist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead four hours later at 5:25 am on July 6.
  The death was originally ruled a suicide, but a coroner's inquiry subsequently ruled the death a murder.  Both Walker and Holman were considered suspects in his death and were both indicted for first-degree murder of Reynolds—Holman for the murder itself and Walker as an accomplice. The murder attracted national attention. Reporters printed allegations that Holman had conducted an affair with Walker. Reynolds' uncle William Neal Reynolds told the district attorney that the family supported dropping the charges; the prosecutor eventually did so for lack of evidence, and no trial was ever held.
  Zachary Smith Reynolds is buried in the Salem Cemetery in Winston-Salem.
caption: Reynolds family grave in Salem Cemetery, Winston-Salem, NC.
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