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00:08Tonight, the sudden death of an invincible icon.
00:11He was on the verge of becoming the world's biggest superstar
00:14and the person who would change martial arts for the rest of time.
00:18He's the closest thing there is to a real-life superhero.
00:22And then suddenly, he's gone.
00:23Is it a freak accident, a medical episode, or something more sinister?
00:28The autopsy shows that his death was due to swelling of the brain from unknown causes,
00:34but nobody is satisfied with that answer.
00:36They've been told something different from his manager.
00:39And, of course, the first thing everyone comes to is the conclusion that this must be foul play.
00:44Now, we explore the top theories surrounding the death of this martial arts legend.
00:50Bruce was in a place where he shouldn't have been.
00:53He was at the apartment of his mistress.
00:56Bruce Lee is someone who loves to push boundaries, but the Chinese mafia is ruthless.
01:02And those two things come into conflict.
01:05As Bruce Lee's star power grows, so does the target on his back.
01:11What or who really killed Bruce Lee?
01:29July 20th, 1973, 10.30 p.m.
01:34An ambulance speeds through Hong Kong on its way to Queen Elizabeth General Hospital.
01:40But this is no ordinary emergency.
01:42Inside the vehicle is one of the biggest stars of the day, Bruce Lee.
01:49Bruce Lee has already become the biggest martial arts star.
01:53In fact, the biggest movie star in all of Hong Kong.
01:56He's really on the steps of becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
02:02His movie, Enter the Dragon, is about to be released.
02:06The first to combine martial arts with spy elements.
02:10And expectations are high.
02:13He had to be at the absolute top of his game for the filming of Enter the Dragon.
02:17He insisted that the fight scenes be as authentic as possible.
02:21Which meant that, essentially, the fighting was real.
02:26And incredibly physically taxing.
02:29His next film, Game of Death, is an even more ambitious film.
02:33Bruce Lee is not only starring and choreographing the fights in this film, but he's also moving into the director's
02:39chair.
02:40He's bringing new techniques to film.
02:44He's doing things that are creative.
02:46He's doing things that haven't been seen before.
02:49He's really charting new territory.
02:52No matter the movie, Bruce Lee is this larger-than-life character.
02:56He seems completely indestructible.
02:58And here he is on this day, lying in an ambulance without a pulse.
03:04Upon arrival, they initiate resuscitation procedures.
03:07They're injecting chemicals into his heart.
03:09They're using defibrillator pads to try to break him back.
03:13But nothing's working.
03:15Bruce's wife, Linda, she arrives at the hospital to see them doing resuscitation on Bruce.
03:22They're trying desperately to restart his heart.
03:25No matter what they do, he remains flat-lined.
03:30It's just after 11.30 p.m. when the news leaks.
03:34Hong Kong's favorite son, Bruce Lee, is dead at the age of 32.
03:40There is no official announcement, although journalists have a sense that something is up.
03:45So they started to gather, and they're demanding answers.
03:48So his business partner, Raymond Chow, puts together a brief statement.
03:53He says that Bruce Lee was out walking in his garden with his wife when he suddenly collapsed and was
04:00rushed to the hospital.
04:01But Lee's fans find this story hard to believe.
04:06Around 15,000 of his devastated fans take to the street, and it's utter pandemonium.
04:12Police are forced to restrain the crowd.
04:16Everyone's asking how a man so fit and powerful could die so suddenly.
04:21The hospital states that Bruce Lee died from cerebral edema, which is swelling of the brain, in which the pressure
04:28becomes too great, and then physical functions begin to shut down.
04:33When the brain fills up with too much fluid, what will happen is it will first start to expand, and
04:38then it gets stuck against the skull, which is very firm.
04:40If you have this situation where the brain is starting to crush downwards onto the brain stem, that's the part
04:48that controls all of your bodily functions, like your heartbeat, your breathing.
04:53And if it is caught in time, there are things you can do to reverse it.
04:56But if it's not caught in time, it is lethal.
05:01The initial autopsy suggests that his brain swelled past the capacity of his body.
05:07It was actually 13% larger than what a normal brain is supposed to be, which is incredibly dangerous.
05:14Swelling of the brain is known as the cause for Bruce Lee's death.
05:18But the real question is, what caused that swelling of the brain?
05:23With doctors unable to explain what triggered Lee's lethal condition, speculation abounds, until the next morning.
05:32Hong Kong's leading newspaper, The Morning Post, runs a front-page headline, and the article states that Bruce Lee had
05:38been ill for two months prior to his death.
05:41In that article, Raymond Chow reveals that two months earlier, in May, Bruce Lee suffered a seizure caused by cerebral
05:51edema, the same thing that would cause his death two months later.
05:56Chow goes on to say that prior to his seizure, Bruce Lee had suffered several hard blows to the head
06:02while filming Enter the Dragon.
06:04These blows could have been far more severe and dangerous than anyone at the time might have known.
06:16During the filming of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee is going full throttle.
06:22He is pushing himself to whole new levels.
06:25His training has been ramped up.
06:28He is insisting that every fighting scene has to be absolutely authentic.
06:33He does report having headaches, but he just powers through.
06:37July 20th was not the first time that Bruce had collapsed.
06:42In fact, in remarkably similar conditions, he had collapsed on May 10th.
06:48At that time, he had been finished with the filming of Enter the Dragon, and he began to feel dizzy,
06:56to complain about feeling nauseous.
06:59He goes to the bathroom, where he collapses.
07:03Bruce Lee suffers a seizure, is rushed to the hospital, and on that occasion, doctors managed to reduce the swelling.
07:11But one doctor reports that if he had not been brought there immediately, he surely would have died.
07:20Doctors can't specify what caused Lee's brain to swell, but many people believe his years of intense combat are to
07:28blame.
07:28One of the reasons Bruce Lee is so remarkable is because he really pushed himself to the limit.
07:36Psychologically, physiologically, he was so good at demonstrating the outer limits of what the human body was capable of.
07:46It's also well known that he's willing to fight against anyone that's willing to face off against him, and that
07:51includes strikes to the head, which are a crucial part of Kung Fu.
07:58With repeated cerebral trauma, over time, this can build, and if it doesn't get time to repair itself, because you're
08:04working as hard as he was every day to do over-the-top things, you might end up with permanent
08:10damage.
08:11And it could very easily lead to swelling of the brain or cerebral edema.
08:17Most of the time, Lee would train with protective headgear, which would dampen the blows.
08:21But we know of at least one time in his earlier years, when he was training without any protection at
08:27all.
08:29It's a fight that would define his career, but may have also shortened his life.
08:35In 1964, Bruce Lee is a 23-year-old in Oakland.
08:39He's co-running a Kung Fu studio there and developing his chops as a teacher, but also figuring out his
08:46style as a martial artist.
08:48And word gets out about him.
08:50He has this bravado, a bit of arrogance.
08:52He has an ego.
08:53So people start to learn about him, and not everyone is a fan.
08:57He had given a demonstration in San Francisco's Chinatown, where he had lost his temper, when he was challenged by
09:05other martial artists.
09:07And he had declared that he was the best martial artist, and challenged anyone to prove him wrong.
09:14One of the well-known martial artists at the time, named Wong Jack Mann, decides to take him up on
09:21the challenge.
09:21So he goes to Lee's place in Oakland, to have a fight, just to see who really is the best
09:29martial artist.
09:30Adding fuel to the fire, in addition to Lee's arrogance, Wong is also incensed that Bruce Lee is revealing the
09:38secrets of Kung Fu to Westerners,
09:40which he considers to be deeply disrespectful of their heritage.
09:46The two men meet up at Bruce Lee's studio, and it's an extremely intense fight from the very beginning.
09:55Neither one clearly gets the advantage.
09:58But at one point, when it looks like Wong Jack Mann is retreating under a series of blows from Lee,
10:05he suddenly fires off a series of windmill kicks to Bruce Lee's head.
10:11He ends up taking the full force of this kick.
10:15Even though it ended up being sort of unclear who really won that fight,
10:18there was no question that at least with that sort of vicious spin kick,
10:22Bruce Lee was injured with no protective gear.
10:27This could have been the first of many brain injuries that would ultimately lead to Lee's death nine years later.
10:34But not everyone's convinced.
10:37Skeptics do say that while Lee wasn't wearing protective headgear during this sparring session with Wong,
10:44he constantly did wear protective headgear during his training sessions.
10:48The reason many believe that Bruce Lee didn't have a traumatic brain injury is because he wasn't experiencing forgetfulness.
10:55He didn't have lapses in his memory.
10:56He wasn't acting erratically.
10:59So clearly he was competent and capable and able to deal with these really intense situations.
11:04People are also having a hard time believing the story of Lee just suddenly collapsing during a nighttime stroll in
11:12his garden with his wife,
11:13especially since he was rushed to a hospital that's pretty far from his residence.
11:18The story that Bruce had collapsed while taking a walk falls apart and it opened up the floodgates to people
11:26wanting to know the truth.
11:33It's been two days since Bruce Lee's shocking death and a local journalist has grown suspicious of the official story
11:41and begins calling his sources at the hospital to dig up more information.
11:46At that time, every Hong Kong hospital kept an ambulance record of where a patient was picked up from.
11:52And so he tracked down the ambulance log and found out that the address that Bruce Lee's body had been
11:58picked up from wasn't the same as his home address.
12:01He is shocked to notice that the ambulance was actually dispatched to 67 Beacon Hill Road.
12:0867 Beacon Hill Road was where Betty Ting Pei lived.
12:13Betty Ting Pei is a beautiful young Taiwanese actress who's been making a name for herself in Chinese cinema.
12:20She first meets Bruce Lee in 1972 while he's filming Way of the Dragon.
12:25And while he is married at the time, the two become close and rumors start circulating about an affair between
12:32them.
12:32Those rumors become even louder when news circulates that Betty will be cast as a lead role in Bruce Lee's
12:39upcoming film Game of Death.
12:42When people find out the truth about where Bruce Lee was when he died, they're pretty mad.
12:48And they're also completely suspicious of the entire situation.
12:53If Raymond Chow has concocted this other story, what else is he leaving out?
12:58Their willingness to lie about the circumstances under which Bruce died
13:02only opened up speculation about what they might be lying about regarding the cause of his death.
13:09The press picks up the story and Betty Ting Pei comes under all kinds of scrutiny.
13:14Now, at first, she says, I wasn't even home that night.
13:18That immediately gets shot down, her neighbors mention having seen her.
13:22Moreover, her neighbors mention that Bruce Lee has been a regular visitor to her place for months now.
13:31Soon, more information is revealed, casting Bruce Lee's final hours in a more troubling light.
13:38After a few days, the findings of the autopsy confirm that the cause of death was this cerebral edema.
13:44But there's a new piece of information.
13:46It says that the cause of that edema could have been some kind of drug intoxication.
13:58The coroner found two foreign substances in Bruce's stomach.
14:03One was hashish, and the other was this pill called equagesic, which was a kind of common pain reliever,
14:09mostly prescribed to women for menstrual cramps.
14:12It had aspirin and nephrabamate, which was a kind of muscle relaxant.
14:18Authorities need to figure out if these substances, alone or in combination, contributed to Bruce Lee's death.
14:26In an effort to determine the cause of Bruce Lee's death, the Hong Kong courts launch a formal investigation.
14:33The coroner's inquest takes place over several days, where witnesses are called and evidence brought forward.
14:39Betty Ting Pei testified, Linda Lee testified, Raymond Chow testified.
14:44All the experts and all the doctors involved with Bruce Lee's death were brought in to be interviewed by the
14:51various lawyers.
14:52It's a media circus.
14:54Bruce Lee's fans are out in force.
14:56They're pushing up against the barricades.
14:58More than anything else, they want to try to catch a glimpse of Betty Ting Pei.
15:04In her testimony, Betty finally admits that she was there the evening that Bruce died.
15:09They had been there at the apartment with Raymond Chow earlier, discussing plans for Game of Death.
15:15And afterwards, when Raymond left, Bruce was complaining of a headache.
15:19So she gave him an equagesic, and then he went to lay down and take a nap.
15:24Betty admits that he then ate a couple of hash brownies,
15:28and then she came to wake him up to go for their dinner plan, but he's non-responsive.
15:35Initially during the inquest, investigators are focused on the hash found in Lee's stomach.
15:41At that time, hash is thought by the Hong Kong government to be a particularly dangerous drug,
15:46and people speculate about whether or not Lee had an allergic reaction to it.
15:50The deadly hash theory, however, is quickly put to rest when medical experts testify
15:56that there has never been a substantiated case of death caused by cannabis.
16:02The focus of the inquest then turns to that painkiller Lee took not long before his death.
16:08Dr. Robert Donald Teer, a British pathologist,
16:12looks into this case and says that he believes the death could be caused
16:16by a reaction to something in the equagesic.
16:19Either to the aspirin, or to the meprobamate, or to some combination of the two.
16:25Aspirin can cause anaphylactic shock,
16:27which can result in cerebral edema in people who die from it.
16:31And so Professor Teer decided that the most likely explanation
16:36was that Bruce Lee had a hyperallergic reaction,
16:39and that's what caused Bruce Lee's cerebral edema, which caused his death.
16:44Five days after Bruce Lee dies, on July 25th, 1973,
16:49an open casket funeral is held.
16:52A photo taken inside the funeral parlor raises new concerns.
16:57A news photographer captures an image of Bruce Lee in his casket,
17:02and it shows that his face is horribly bloated.
17:07People are so mistrusting at this point of everything that has been said about Bruce's death,
17:13that when they see this photograph and he looks different than he did in life,
17:18it calls into question a lot of other things.
17:21Why does he look this way?
17:23Could there possibly be foul play?
17:28On September 24th, 1973, after seven tense days,
17:34the jury comes back with their verdict.
17:36Death by misadventure.
17:38Death by misadventure is a confusing way to say that he essentially died by accident.
17:44Many of Lee's fans just don't accept the death by misadventure verdict.
17:49They refuse to accept that their hero could have died from a painkiller
17:53that contains aspirin and Meprobamate.
17:56Attention turns back to Lee's mistress, the last person to see him alive,
18:01and people start to believe that she might know more about his final hours
18:05than she initially revealed.
18:09As rumors continue to swirl around Lee's cause of death,
18:13the spotlight turns on the woman Bruce Lee was with on the night he died,
18:18Lee's mistress, Betty Ting Pei.
18:21The press is fascinated by the relationship between Bruce Lee and Betty Ting Pei.
18:27When they meet on the set of Way of the Dragon in 1972,
18:32they quickly become romantically linked.
18:34He certainly wasn't trying to be discreet about their relationship.
18:38People observed them out in public together,
18:41and that led a lot of people to believe that he was having an extramarital affair.
18:47Bruce Lee's connection with Betty Ting Pei is definitely scandalous
18:52because he's married to Linda Lee, and he has two small children.
18:56Of course, that puts Linda in a very uncomfortable position.
19:01In December 1972, Bruce Lee supposedly tries to cut off ties with Betty.
19:06Betty, she's so distraught that she swallows a handful of sleeping pills
19:10and is rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
19:13Betty recovers, but from that point on,
19:17her relationship with Bruce becomes increasingly strange.
19:20She is upset that he won't leave his wife.
19:23She is reportedly consumed by jealousy,
19:25and maybe she thinks if she can't have him, nobody else can either.
19:38So there are some theories that start to circulate
19:41that perhaps someone has purposely killed him.
19:44And of course, the obvious person becomes Betty Ting Pei.
19:49She's the other woman.
19:51She's taking him away from his family and his wife.
19:53So they start to run with this theory
19:55that perhaps she was the jealous lover,
19:57and that potentially she might have poisoned him.
20:02And they say there's reason to believe she tried it before.
20:06There are rumors that Betty has been laying the groundwork for this for months.
20:12There's no actual proof of this.
20:14There's no sign of anything toxic in Bruce's bloodstream.
20:17But people still believe that she may have used some substance
20:21that wouldn't have shown up on a toxicology report
20:23because she comes from a family of doctors.
20:25The other strange thing is the timeline of all this.
20:29When she realizes that he's unconscious, he's unresponsive,
20:33why doesn't she call emergency services?
20:36Instead, she calls Raymond Chow.
20:40By calling the manager instead of immediately calling an ambulance,
20:44she's losing precious time.
20:47He needs immediate medical attention.
20:50Even though she repeatedly denies any wrongdoing,
20:54the news media continues to publish story after story implicating her.
20:58The public response to this is highly negative.
21:03Students in Malaysia are marching around with signs saying,
21:07Betty killed Bruce.
21:08In August 1973, Hong Kong police receive a bomb threat.
21:13They go to investigate, but they don't find a bomb.
21:16They find a suspicious package.
21:18Inside, it's a note saying,
21:20Betty knows the cause of Bruce's death.
21:24There's no evidence of foul play,
21:26but that doesn't prevent the greater public from continuing to find different stories
21:32that they want to believe in in terms of Bruce Lee's demise.
21:35And so this hastens the speculation that someone is involved in some kind of conspiracy to kill Bruce Lee.
21:41The most obvious person would have been Betty Ting Pei.
21:48There's also speculation that Betty might not have acted alone.
21:52Going back to those chaotic hours following Bruce Lee's death,
21:56one has to wonder why his business partner and confidant, Raymond Chow,
22:00put out a statement about where he died that was so easily disproven.
22:06Part of the story that Raymond leaves out when he creates that false narrative
22:11is the fact that he was also there when Bruce was at Betty's apartment.
22:16After Bruce Lee first stops breathing,
22:19Betty summons Raymond Chow to her apartment.
22:21When he gets there, Raymond Chow inexplicably tells Betty not to call an ambulance.
22:26He tells her to call instead her personal physician.
22:30Raymond had seen Bruce suffer a similar episode just two months prior,
22:34so he knew he would have to get medical treatment right away
22:37in order to reverse the condition.
22:39So it's very strange that he would wait so long to get urgent care for him.
22:45It's not until 10.30 at night that the ambulance arrives to take him away.
22:49By that time, it's already too late.
22:52For many, the question remains, was the delay a willful decision?
22:58Around the time of his death,
22:59Bruce Lee's relationship with business partner Raymond Chow
23:03reportedly started to fracture.
23:05When they formed their production company, Concord Productions, in 1972,
23:09they initially had a 50-50 split between the two of them.
23:13But by summer of 1973, Bruce Lee is working on an independent film,
23:18and he is reportedly threatening to walk away from Chow altogether.
23:23Given the level of money that Bruce Lee is generating at the box office,
23:29with Bruce Lee out of the picture, Raymond Chow has a lot to gain.
23:35If you add together Raymond Chow's financial interests and Bruce Lee's work,
23:39and the fact that they might be disagreeing on the future of how they collaborate,
23:43this starts to look really fishy.
23:45Like, was this intentional?
23:46Betty and Raymond Chow are both cleared,
23:50but people still believe in a murder conspiracy,
23:53this time with just a different set of suspects.
23:57A month after Bruce Lee's death,
24:00his final film, Enter the Dragon, premieres in Los Angeles to rave reviews.
24:05Lee plays a spy set on taking down the narcotics kingpin who killed his sister.
24:10The story may be fictional, but fans are left wondering if,
24:14like his character, Lee became entangled with powerful gang members
24:19and has paid with his life.
24:21Attention turns to a dark encounter from his early days.
24:25Although Bruce was born in San Francisco,
24:29Hong Kong really is the place where Bruce grows up.
24:33He enters the movie industry because his father is a Cantonese opera performer.
24:38So by the time he's 18 years old, Bruce has appeared in films,
24:44not as a star, but certainly as a known actor.
24:49As Bruce is getting older in Hong Kong,
24:51he's actually getting into a lot of trouble.
24:53And sometimes he's mixing with the wrong people.
24:56Bruce Lee was a little street fighter,
24:58and he ran across a kid named William Chung who was better than him.
25:02So he asked William Chung, how are you this good?
25:05And William Chung said, I studied under the master, Ip Man.
25:09Ip Man is a master of a particular style of kung fu called Wing Chun.
25:15Wing Chun emphasizes close quarters fighting,
25:18involving a blitz of lightning-fast kicks and fast punches,
25:23ideal for street fighting.
25:25Ip Man was impressed by how intense Bruce's obsession with the martial arts was.
25:30And so he would say to Bruce, don't believe me, try it out yourself.
25:34If you don't think I'm telling you the truth,
25:35go out in the streets and test what I've taught you.
25:38So Lee organizes a group of his friends
25:41into a gang that calls itself the Junction Street 8 Tigers.
25:48On one of these outings, Bruce Lee picks a fight with the wrong guy.
25:53He roughs up this teenager pretty badly,
25:55and it turns out that the guy's parents have connections to the Chinese mob.
25:59The triad.
26:01The triad came from all over mainland China
26:05when the communist revolution of the late 1940s takes place.
26:09And a lot of them end up in Hong Kong,
26:11where they're taking over just about every avenue
26:15that organized crime might control.
26:17The triads are very astute.
26:19They know how to adapt with the market.
26:21And in Hong Kong, one of the major industries is the film industry.
26:24So they want to have a piece of the action, too.
26:27They're putting up the money for films and controlling production,
26:30and they, of course, target actors that they think have crossed them,
26:35which is Lee's first of several reported run-ins with the Chinese mafia.
26:40Like most mobsters, the triad makes its money from extortion and kickbacks.
26:45And as Bruce Lee's star power grows, so does the target on his back.
26:58Bruce's life was actually in danger
27:01because he had harmed the son of a triad member.
27:05His father becomes really worried about his safety,
27:09that the mob would try and retaliate.
27:11So he sends Bruce to go live with relatives in Seattle,
27:14but many people believe that the threat from the triad doesn't actually go away.
27:19When Bruce is living in Seattle, the triad is operating in America,
27:23but they're kind of operating underground.
27:25So when he decides he's going to open a martial arts school in Seattle,
27:29the triads pay him a visit demanding money
27:31to allow him to open a school in their turf.
27:35He was not off anybody's radar,
27:37but Bruce wasn't the type to do as he was told.
27:42In 1964, Lee has dropped out of college
27:44and has married his longtime sweetheart, Linda,
27:47and a year later, their son Brandon is born.
27:50A couple years after that, his career really takes off
27:53when he gets cast in the role of Cato,
27:56the sidekick in the ABC series The Green Hornet.
28:01In 1971, Bruce Lee returns to Hong Kong
28:04and once again reportedly crosses paths with the triad.
28:09He's just released the film The Big Boss,
28:12which makes him a huge star back in Hong Kong.
28:15He gets a visit from a stranger who's offering him
28:18$200,000 Hong Kong dollars,
28:21and when he asks what it's for,
28:22he says, just a gift.
28:24Now, this is right out of the triad playbook
28:26of giving money to a curry favor
28:29and hold some leverage over you.
28:31Lee angrily rebuffs him,
28:33but he knows what this means.
28:35The triad likes to control people
28:39by giving them cash,
28:40and it's dangerous to turn down
28:43an offer of cash from the triad.
28:45So from that point on,
28:48Lee starts wearing a knife,
28:50carrying a gun with him,
28:51thinking that he can come under attack
28:53at any time.
28:55Just days before his death,
28:57Lee gets into an altercation
28:59with a triad-linked director.
29:02Lo Wei had been the director
29:03of Bruce Lee's first two movies
29:05that had become such a huge success,
29:07and they ended up fighting over
29:09who got to take credit for the success.
29:11One day, Bruce Lee heard that Lo Wei
29:14was in the screening room,
29:15and he went down to give Lo Wei
29:17a piece of his mind.
29:18He gets in his face,
29:20they start a shouting match,
29:21and soon afterward,
29:23Lee pulls a knife on him
29:24and aims it right at his chest.
29:26And Lee has to be dragged out of the room
29:28to keep this from turning violent.
29:31But the Chinese director is rumored
29:34to have connections that Lee
29:35may not be taking into account.
29:37When Lee threatens Lo like that,
29:39this is a direct affront to the triad
29:43who are assumed to be connected to him.
29:46Maybe the triads wanted Bruce Lee dead,
29:48and his altercation with Lo Wei
29:51in the screening room
29:52was kind of the last straw.
29:55Hong Kong police understand
29:57the danger of the triad,
29:59so they look into this aspect
30:01of Lee's death.
30:02But they have no active leads,
30:04there are no outward signs
30:06of a physical attack,
30:07so the potential connection
30:08to the triad goes cold.
30:12In the weeks after Bruce Lee's death,
30:15rumors abound,
30:16but there's still no clear new lead
30:18that challenges the idea
30:20that he died accidentally.
30:22Then, in 1974,
30:24one year after Lee's death,
30:26a new theory emerges
30:27with a plot straight out of a kung fu film.
30:31There's a journalist
30:33who's investigating Bruce Lee's death,
30:35and he starts developing this theory
30:37that Bruce Lee could have been assassinated
30:39by a cabal of kung fu masters
30:42using a technique known as dimmock.
30:47Dimmock is this idea
30:48that you can hit somebody
30:49on their acupuncture lines
30:51or pushing a kind of chi power,
30:53and after you touch them,
30:55you can control when they die.
30:58So it's a delayed death touch.
31:00It's rumored
31:01that some martial arts masters
31:04have this ability
31:05to strike at just the right pressure point
31:08to bring about death,
31:10if not immediately,
31:12days, weeks,
31:12or even months later.
31:21Bruce certainly was at odds
31:24with many of the martial arts practitioners
31:26of Hong Kong.
31:28Some people think
31:29it's because he had taught
31:30what was supposed to be
31:31a Chinese secret art to Westerners.
31:35Bruce Lee is this arrogant,
31:37burgeoning international film star,
31:39and he really doesn't jibe
31:41with this old-school mentality.
31:43Bruce had created
31:44his own form of martial arts.
31:46He called it Jeet Kune Do,
31:48or the way of the intercepting fist,
31:50and it incorporated elements
31:51from a lot of different
31:52martial arts styles,
31:54combining his street fighting
31:56with fencing and boxing.
31:58What he was after
31:59was trying to become
32:00a more efficient fighter
32:01and finding moves
32:03that were practical
32:05versus theoretical
32:06that didn't actually have
32:08any power in them.
32:10So the journalist theorizes
32:11that in order to stop him
32:13from continuing to change
32:15these ancient traditions,
32:16the group of kung fu masters
32:18sends out an assassin
32:19to kill Bruce Lee
32:20with the death touch.
32:23Denmark, like everything in kung fu,
32:26is linked back
32:26to the Shaolin Temple,
32:28the location of where
32:30kung fu originated,
32:31and there are various theories
32:33that link to the Shaolin monks.
32:35The idea that they could use
32:37special acupuncture
32:38and acupressure points
32:40to affect the human body.
32:42They say that Bruce
32:44might have died
32:45from a touch
32:46on his pressure point
32:47that blocked his energy
32:48and led to his death
32:49days or weeks later.
32:52While this is speculative,
32:54certain types of punches
32:55and kicks
32:56are known to be lethal.
32:58A blow to the chest
33:00delivered just right
33:02at a certain point
33:04in the cardiac process
33:05can cause
33:06an immediate cardiac arrest.
33:08But it's exceptionally rare
33:10for a blow
33:11to cause
33:12a delayed death.
33:14While this theory
33:15is intriguing
33:16to many,
33:17there's no real evidence
33:18that supports it,
33:19and it's pretty much
33:20relegated
33:21to martial arts mythology.
33:24The death of Bruce Lee
33:26remains shrouded
33:27in mystery
33:28for the next 45 years.
33:31Then, in 2018,
33:33a new theory emerges.
33:35Matthew Pauley
33:36writes a biography
33:37of Bruce Lee,
33:38and he posits
33:39a new theory
33:40around his death
33:41because he looks
33:42very closely
33:42at the two instances
33:44of cerebral edema.
33:46Pauley postulates
33:47that he could have died
33:48from an inability
33:49to regulate
33:50his own body temperature.
33:51He examines
33:52the May 10th collapse
33:53when Lee was rushed
33:55to the hospital
33:55with a cerebral edema
33:56and was able
33:58to be revived.
34:00On May 10th,
34:01he was redubbing lines
34:03in a room
34:03that was super hot
34:04because they turned off
34:05the air conditioning
34:06to make sure
34:07that it didn't interfere
34:08with the sound.
34:10During that process,
34:11he started to feel
34:11dizzy and faint,
34:12and he ended up collapsing
34:14and going into seizures.
34:15They rushed him
34:16to the hospital,
34:17and the doctors
34:18diagnosed him
34:19with cerebral edema,
34:20and they gave him
34:21mannitol
34:22to cause the swelling
34:23to go down.
34:24The doctors do note
34:25that Bruce was
34:27covered in sweat,
34:28and he had a high fever,
34:29and according to Pauley,
34:31those are classic
34:32symptoms of heat stroke,
34:33and perhaps
34:33this went undiagnosed.
34:42If it is heat stroke,
34:44why is it happening
34:45to Bruce Lee,
34:46one of the fittest men alive?
34:49He had complained
34:50many times
34:51about how sweaty
34:52his armpits were.
34:53This affected his work
34:55because on screen,
34:56they kept having
34:57to switch his shirts out.
34:58Six months prior
34:59to his initial collapse,
35:01he had cosmetic surgery,
35:03removing the sweat glands
35:04from underneath
35:05his armpits.
35:06At that time,
35:07people were offering that.
35:08It has since been discontinued
35:09because it's considered
35:10extremely dangerous
35:11because it affects
35:13your ability
35:13to process heat,
35:15and so having those removed
35:16would have made him
35:17more susceptible
35:18to heat stroke.
35:19On July 20, 1973,
35:22that's the hottest day
35:23of the month
35:24in Hong Kong.
35:25He is in
35:26Betty Ting Pei's apartment,
35:27running over lines.
35:29What happens there
35:30is eerily similar
35:31to what happened
35:32back in May.
35:33He starts complaining
35:35about headaches
35:36and feeling faint.
35:37He falls into Betty's bed,
35:38and he never wakes up.
35:40He collapses
35:41in a situation
35:42in which he's
35:43in a sauna-like room,
35:44and then 10 weeks
35:46after that,
35:46he dies
35:47on a very hot day.
35:49To me,
35:49that suggests
35:50that he potentially
35:51died from heat stroke.
35:53But sweat is produced
35:55all over the body,
35:56and the attending doctors
35:58back in May
35:59reported that
36:00he has sweat
36:01pouring out of him
36:02all over.
36:03So you'd think
36:04that would regulate
36:05body temperature.
36:06Despite those
36:07minor flaws
36:08in the logic,
36:09it still does provide
36:10a plausible theory
36:11as to the cause
36:13of Bruce Lee's death.
36:16Fifty years
36:17after Bruce Lee's death,
36:19researchers are still
36:20looking for clues
36:21to explain
36:22what killed him.
36:23In 2022,
36:24a group of Spanish
36:26kidney specialists
36:27come out with
36:28a novel theory
36:30for what happened
36:31to Bruce Lee.
36:32Their theory
36:33was that he
36:34was suffering
36:35from retaining
36:36an excess of fluid,
36:37which can lead
36:39to swelling
36:40of the brain.
36:41It's a little ironic
36:42because Bruce Lee's
36:43famous quote was,
36:45be water, my friend,
36:46kind of speaking
36:46to the fluidity
36:47of the body
36:48during martial arts.
36:49But it turns out
36:50that it might have been
36:51too much water
36:52that could have killed him.
37:01The scientists
37:02also go back
37:03and look at
37:03the autopsy results
37:05and one of the things
37:06that strikes them
37:07is the fact
37:08that his brain
37:09had swollen
37:09to the point
37:10where it was
37:113.5 pounds,
37:13which is a half pound
37:14heavier than
37:14the average human brain.
37:16And what caused
37:17the swelling
37:18was water.
37:19The kidneys
37:20actually are filters
37:22for the body
37:22and also regulate water.
37:25If you get enough
37:25of a buildup
37:26of toxins,
37:28the kidneys
37:29can actually
37:29not function properly.
37:32On May 10th,
37:33when he collapsed
37:33for the first time
37:34and was examined
37:35by the doctor,
37:37there were
37:37some unexplained
37:38high levels
37:39of waste
37:40in his kidneys.
37:40and so that also
37:42signals that
37:43he had kidney disease.
37:45The levels
37:45were so high
37:47that the doctors
37:48actually thought
37:48it was a typo.
37:51At the time,
37:52doctors were more
37:53worried about Lee's brain
37:55than his kidneys.
37:56The researchers
37:57from Spain believe
37:58that may have been
37:59a grave mistake.
38:01If the kidneys
38:02aren't working,
38:02then they can't get rid
38:04of excess water
38:04in the body.
38:05And if there's
38:06a buildup of water,
38:07that creates
38:08a somewhat
38:09catastrophic situation.
38:11The water dilutes
38:13the sodium
38:13in the human body
38:15and it creates
38:17a situation
38:17called hyponatremia.
38:19And if it is not
38:21immediately addressed,
38:23it leads to death.
38:26But why is Bruce
38:28consuming so much water
38:29on July 20th,
38:30the day of his death?
38:31Earlier in the day,
38:33even before he goes
38:35to Betty's apartment,
38:37he has consumed
38:38some hashish brownies.
38:40In fact,
38:40he writes to a friend
38:42that day
38:42that he's stoned as hell.
38:45It would make sense
38:46if Lee's water intake
38:47were high that day.
38:49We already know
38:50that he was eating
38:51a hash brownie,
38:52so that would cause
38:53some thirst
38:54and he would be
38:55drinking more water.
38:55He was also running lines
38:57for his upcoming film,
38:58so the physical exertion
39:00and the exercise
39:01would have caused him
39:01to drink more water
39:02as well.
39:04He's a martial artist.
39:06He's getting body blows
39:07all the time.
39:08So it's also possible
39:10that he might have
39:10actually sustained
39:11some physical trauma
39:13to some areas
39:13of the kidneys
39:14such that maybe
39:15they're not working
39:16at top capacity.
39:17One of the things of note
39:18is that he had
39:19very low sodium,
39:21which is something
39:22that happens
39:23when you've had
39:24too much water.
39:26During this period,
39:27he certainly had been
39:29on a very extreme diet
39:32of only eating
39:33or drinking
39:34apple and carrot juice,
39:36so he may not
39:38have been taking
39:39in the nutrients
39:40that he needed
39:40to maintain
39:41healthy levels
39:42of sodium.
39:43When you're overhydrated,
39:45you allow a shift
39:47of fluids
39:47such that you can
39:49get a fluid buildup
39:50in a place
39:50that normally
39:51wouldn't have one
39:51like the brain.
39:52But water is also
39:54what makes up
39:5560% or more
39:56of our bodies.
39:56It's the giver of life.
39:58Ironically,
39:59in his situation,
40:00taking in too much water
40:02can result
40:03in something fatal.
40:06No matter how
40:07Bruce Lee died,
40:08his mystique
40:09and the mystery
40:10of his final hours
40:11lives on.
40:13It makes a lot of sense
40:14that there would be
40:14so many theories
40:15surrounding the death
40:17of Bruce Lee,
40:18ranging from
40:19the mundane
40:19to the mythological.
40:22Bruce Lee's death
40:23really ties into
40:24who he was
40:24as a megastar.
40:25because he was able
40:27to kind of elevate
40:28the kung fu hero
40:29to international status.
40:31And in dying,
40:32he became the athlete
40:33who dies young.
40:34He died in his
40:35perfect form,
40:36in perfect shape,
40:37so that we could
40:39project our own hopes
40:40and dreams
40:40and mysteries
40:41onto him.
40:42With a figure like Bruce,
40:45who was larger than life,
40:47it makes so much sense
40:49that people would want
40:50a dramatic answer
40:53as to how
40:54his life could have ended.
40:58Some believe that
40:59regardless of how
41:00Bruce Lee died,
41:01he was destined
41:02to live a short life.
41:04In a tragic twist of fate
41:06that some define
41:07as a curse,
41:09males in Bruce's family
41:10have died young.
41:12Bruce's older brother
41:13died as a toddler.
41:14and Bruce's son,
41:16Brandon Lee,
41:17was shot by accident
41:18on a movie set
41:19in 1993.
41:21Tragedies that have
41:22helped the legend
41:23of Bruce Lee live on.
41:24I'm Lawrence Fishburne.
41:27Thank you for watching
41:28History's Greatest Mysteries.
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