All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S07E11.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[actors scuffling and screaming]

- [Larence] Tonight,

the sudden death of an
invincible icon.

- [Matthew] He was on the
verge of becoming

the world's biggest superstar

and the person who would
change martial arts

for the rest of time.

- [John] He's the closest
thing there is

to a real life superhero

and then suddenly he's gone.

- Is it a freak accident,

a medical episode,

or something more sinister?

- [Kavitha] The autopsy shows
that his death was due to

swelling of the brain
from unknown causes,

but nobody is satisfied
with that answer.

- [Rebecca] They've been told
something different

from his manager

and of course, the first
thing everyone comes to

is a conclusion that
this must be foul play.

- [Laurence] Now, we explore
the top theories

surrounding the death of
this martial arts legend.

- [Daryl] Bruce was in a place
where he shouldn't have been.

He was at the apartment
of his mistress.

- [Zachary] Bruce Lee is someone
who loves to push boundaries,

but the Chinese
mafia is ruthless

and those two things
come into conflict.

- [John] As Bruce Lee's
star power grows,

so does the target on his back.

- What or who really
killed Bruce Lee?

[tense dramatic music]

- [Laurence] July 20th, 1973,
10:30 PM.

An ambulance speeds
through Hong Kong

on its way to Queen
Elizabeth General Hospital,

but this is no
ordinary emergency.

Inside the vehicle is one of
the biggest stars of the day.

Bruce Lee.

- Bruce Lee has already become

the biggest martial arts star.

In fact, the biggest movie
star in all of Hong Kong.

He's really on the steps of
becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

- [Laurence] His movie
"Enter the Dragon"

is about to be released,

the first to combine martial
arts with spy elements

and expectations are high.

- [John] He had to be at the
absolute top of his game

for the filming of
"Enter the Dragon."

He insisted that
the fight scenes

be as authentic as possible,

which meant that essentially
the fighting was real

and incredibly
physically taxing.

- [Katie] His next film "Game of
Death"

is an even more ambitious film.

Bruce Lee is not only starring

and choreographing the
fights in this film,

but he's also moving into
the director's chair.

- [Daryl] He's bringing new
techniques to film.

He's doing things
that are creative.

He's doing things that
haven't been seen before.

He's really charting
new territory.

[Bruce screams]

- [Kavitha] No matter the
movie,

Bruce Lee is this larger
than life character.

He seems completely
indestructible

and here he is on this
day lying in an ambulance

without a pulse.

- [Rebecca] Upon arrival, they
initiate resuscitation

procedures, they're injecting
chemicals into his heart.

They're using defibrillator
pads to try to bring him back,

but nothing's working.

- [Daryl] Bruce's wife Linda,
she arrives at the hospital

to see them doing
resuscitation on Bruce.

They're trying desperately
to restart his heart.

No matter what they do,
he remains flatlined.

[monitor beeping]

- [Laurence] It's just after
11:30 PM when the news leaks.

Hong Kong's favorite
son, Bruce Lee,

is dead at the age of 32.

- [John] There is no
official announcement,

although journalists have a
sense that something is up,

so they started to gather and
they're demanding answers.

So, his business
partner, Raymond Chow,

puts together a brief statement.

He says that Bruce Lee was out

walking in his
garden with his wife

when he suddenly collapsed and
was rushed to the hospital.

- [Laurence] But Lee's fans
find this story hard to believe.

- [Kavitha] Around 15,000 of
his devastated fans

take to the street and its
utter pandemonium.

Police are forced to
restrain the crowd.

- [Laurence] Everyone's
asking how a man

so fit and powerful
could die so suddenly.

- [Daryl] The hospital states
that Bruce Lee died

from cerebral edema, which
is swelling of the brain

in which the pressure
becomes too great

and then physical functions
begin to shut down.

- [Rebecca] When the brain fills
up with too much fluid,

what will happen is it
will first start to expand

and then it gets stuck
against the skull,

which is very firm.

If you have this
situation where the brain

is starting to crush
downwards onto the brainstem,

that's the part that controls
all of your bodily functions

like your heartbeat,
your breathing,

and if it is caught in time,

there are things you
can do to reverse it.

But if it's not caught
in time, it is lethal.

- [Katie] The initial autopsy
suggests

that his brain swelled past
the capacity of his body.

It was actually 13% larger than

what a normal brain
is supposed to be,

which is incredibly dangerous.

- [Daryl] Swelling of the brain
is known as the cause

for Bruce Lee's death.

But the real question is

what caused that
swelling of the brain?

- [Laurence] With
doctors unable to explain

what triggered Lee's
lethal condition?

Speculation abounds
until the next morning.

- [Kavitha] Hong Kong's leading
newspaper.

The morning post runs
a front page headline

and the article states
that Bruce Lee had been ill

for two months
prior to his death.

- [John] In that article,
Raymond Chow reveals

that two months earlier, in May,

Bruce Lee suffered a seizure

caused by cerebral
edema the same thing

that would cause his
death two months later.

- [Kavitha] Chow goes on to say
that prior to his seizure,

Bruce Lee had suffered
several hard blows to the head

while filming
"Enter the Dragon."

These blows could have been
far more severe and dangerous

than anyone at the
time might have known.

[tense dramatic music]

- [John] During the filming
of "Enter the Dragon,"

Bruce Lee is going
full throttle.

He is pushing himself
to whole new levels.

His training has been ramped up.

He is insisting that
every fighting scene

has to be absolutely authentic.

He does report having headaches,
but he just powers through.

- [Daryl] July 20th was not the
first time that Bruce had

collapsed. In fact, in
remarkably similar conditions,

he had collapsed on May 10th.

At that time he had been
finished with the filming

of "Enter the Dragon"

and he began to feel dizzy

to complain about
feeling nauseous.

He goes to the bathroom
where he collapses.

- [John] Bruce Lee suffers a
seizure,

he's rushed to the hospital

and on that occasion,
doctors managed

to reduce the swelling,

but one doctor reports

that if he had not been
brought there immediately,

he surely would have died.

- [Laurence] Doctors can't
specify

what caused Lee's
brain to swell,

but many people believe

his years of intense
combat are to blame.

- [Rebecca] One of the reasons
Bruce Lee is so remarkable

is because he really pushed
himself to the limit.

Psychologically, physiologically

he was so good at
demonstrating the outer limits

of what the human
body was capable of.

- [Kavitha] It's also well-known
that he's willing to fight

against anyone that's willing
to face off against him

and that includes
strikes to the head,

which are a crucial
part of kung fu.

- [Rebecca] With repeated
cerebral trauma,

over time this can build

and if it doesn't get
time to repair itself

because you're working as
hard as he was every day

to do over the top things,

he might end up with
permanent damage

and it could very easily lead

to swelling of the
brain or cerebral edema.

- [Kavitha] Most of the time Lee
would train with protective

headgear which would
dampen the blows,

but we know of at least one
time in his earlier years

when he was training without
any protection at all.

- [Laurence] It's a fight
that would define his career

but may have also
shortened his life.

- [Katie] In 1964, Bruce Lee's a
23-year-old in Oakland.

He's co-running a
kung fu studio there

and developing his
chops as a teacher,

but also figuring out his
style as a martial artist

and word gets out about him.

He has this bravado,
a bit of arrogance.

He has an ego so people
start to learn about him

and not everyone is a fan.

- [Daryl] He had given a
demonstration in San Francisco's

Chinatown where he
had lost his temper

when he was challenged
by other martial artists

and he had declared that he
was the best martial artist

and challenged anyone
to prove him wrong.

- [Rebecca] One of the
well-known martial artists at

the time named Wong Jack-man
decides to take him up on the

challenge. So he goes to Lee's
place in Oakland to have a fight

just to see who really is
the best martial artist.

- [Kavitha] Adding fuel to the
fire, in addition to Lee's

arrogance, Wong is also incensed

that Bruce Lee is revealing

the secrets of kung
fu to Westerners,

which he considers to
be deeply disrespectful

of their heritage.

- [John] The two men meet up
at Bruce Lee's studio

and it's an extremely intense
fight from the very beginning.

Neither one clearly
gets the advantage,

but at one point when it
looks like Wong Jack-man

is retreating under a
series of blows from Lee,

he suddenly fires off a
series of windmill kicks

to Bruce Lee's head.

- [Rebecca] He ends up taking
the full force of this kick

even though it ended up
being sort of unclear

who really won that fight.

There was no question
that at least

with that sort of
vicious spin kick,

Bruce Lee was injured
with no protective gear.

- [Laurence] This could have
been the first

of many brain injuries

that would ultimately lead to
Lee's death nine years later.

But not everyone's convinced.

- [Kavitha] Skeptics do say that

while Lee wasn't wearing
protective headgear

during this sparring
session with Wong,

he constantly did wear
protective head gear

during his training sessions.

- [Katie] The reason many
believed that Bruce Lee

didn't have a
traumatic brain injury

is because he wasn't
experiencing forgetfulness.

He didn't have
lapses in his memory.

He wasn't acting erratically.

So clearly he was
competent and capable

and able to deal with these
really intense situations.

- [Kavitha] People are also
having a hard time believing the

story of Lee just
suddenly collapsing

during a nighttime stroll
in his garden with his wife,

especially since he was
rushed to a hospital

that's pretty far
from his residence.

- [Daryl] The story that Bruce
had collapsed while taking a

walk falls apart and it
opened up the floodgates

to people wanting to know the
truth.

- July 22nd, 1973.

It's been two days since
Bruce Lee's shocking death

and a local journalist
has grown suspicious

of the official story

and begins calling his
sources at the hospital

to dig up more information.

- [Matthew] At that time, every
Hong Kong hospital

kept an ambulance record

of where a patient
was picked up from.

And so, he tracked
down the ambulance log

and found out that the
address that Bruce Lee's body

had been picked up from wasn't
the same as his home address.

- [John] He is shocked to notice

that the ambulance was
actually dispatched

to 67 Beacon Hill Road.

67 Beacon Hill Road was
where Betty Ting Pei lived.

- Betty Ting Pei is a beautiful,
young Taiwanese actress

who's been making a name for
herself in Chinese cinema.

She first meets
Bruce Lee in 1972

while he's filming
"Way of the Dragon."

And while he is
married at the time,

the two become close and
rumors start circulating

about an affair between them.

Those rumors become even
louder when news circulates

that Betty will be
cast as a lead role

in Bruce Lee's upcoming
film "Game of Death."

- [Katie] When people find out
the truth

about where Bruce
Lee was when he died,

they're pretty mad

and they're also
completely suspicious

of the entire situation.

If Raymond Chow has
concocted this other story,

what else is he leaving out?

- [Daryl] Their willingness to
lie about the circumstances

under which Bruce died
only opened up speculation

about what they might be lying
about

regarding the cause of his
death.

- [John] The press picks up the
story

and Betty Ting Pei comes
under all kinds of scrutiny.

Now, at first she says, "I
wasn't even home that night."

That immediately gets shot down.

Her neighbor's mention
having seen her.

Moreover, her neighbors mention

that Bruce Lee has
been a regular visitor

to her place for months now.

- [Laurence] Soon more
information is revealed

casting Bruce Lee's final hours
in a more troubling light.

- [Kavitha] After a few days the
findings of the autopsy confirm

that the cause of death
was this cerebral edema,

but there's a new
piece of information.

It says that the
cause of that edema

could have been some kind
of drug intoxication.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Matthew] The coroner found
two foreign substances

in Bruce's stomach.

One was hashish

and the other was this
pill called Equagesic,

which was a kind of
common pain reliever,

mostly prescribed to women
for menstrual cramps.

It had aspirin and meprobamate,

which was a kind
of muscle relaxant.

- [Laurence] Authorities
need to figure out

if these substances,
alone or in combination,

contributed to
Bruce Lee's death.

- [Kavitha] In an effort to
determine the cause of

Bruce Lee's death,

the Hong Kong courts launch
a formal investigation.

- [John] The coroner's inquest
takes place over several days

where witnesses are called
and evidence brought forward.

- [Matthew] Betty Ting Pei
testified, Linda Lee testified,

Raymond Chow testified.

All the experts and all
the doctors involved

with Bruce Lee's
death were brought in

to be interviewed by
the various lawyers.

- [John] It's a media circus.

Bruce Lee's fans
are out in force.

They're pushing up
against the barricades.

More than anything else

they wanna try to catch a
glimpse of Betty Ting Pei.

- [Katie] In her testimony,
Betty finally admits

that she was there the
evening that Bruce died.

They had been there
at the apartment

with Raymond Chow earlier

discussing plans
for "Game of Death"

and afterwards
when Raymond left,

Bruce was complaining
of a headache,

so she gave him Equagesic

and then he went to lay
down and take a nap.

- [John] Betty admits that he
then ate a couple of hash

brownies and then she
came to wake him up

to go for their dinner plan,
but he's non-responsive.

- [Kavitha] Initially, during
the inquest,

investigators are
focused on the hash

found in Lee's stomach.

At that time, hash is thought
by the Hong Kong government

to be a particularly
dangerous drug

and people speculate
about whether or not

Lee had an allergic
reaction to it.

The deadly hash theory,
however, is quickly put to rest

when medical experts testify

that there has never
been a substantiated case

of death caused by cannabis.

- [Laurence] The focus
of the inquest then turns

to that painkiller Lee took
not long before his death.

- [John] Dr. Robert Donald
Teare, a British pathologist,

looks into this case

and says that he believes
that death could be caused

by a reaction to something
in the Equagesic,

either to the aspirin
or to the meprobamate

or to some combination
of the two.

- [Matthew] Aspirin can cause
anaphylactic shock,

which can result
in cerebral edema

in people who die from it.

And so, Professor Teare decided

that the most likely explanation

was that Bruce Lee had
a hyperallergic reaction

and that's what caused
Bruce Lee's cerebral edema,

which caused his death.

- [Laurence] Five days
after Bruce Lee dies,

on July 25th, 1973, an open
casket funeral is held.

A photo taken inside the funeral
parlor raises new concerns.

- [John] A news photographer
captures an image

of Bruce Lee in his casket

and it shows that his
face is horribly bloated.

- [Katie] People are so
mistrusting at this point of

everything that has been said
about Bruce's death

that when they see
this photograph

and he looks different
than he did in life,

it calls into question
a lot of other things.

Why does he look this way?

Could there possibly
be foul play?

- [Laurence] On September 24th,
1973,

after seven tense days,

the jury comes back
with their verdict.

Death by misadventure.

- [Katie] Death by misadventure
is a confusing way to say

that he essentially
died by accident.

- [Kavitha] Many of Lee's fans
just don't accept

the death by
misadventure verdict.

They refuse to accept
that their hero

could have died
from a painkiller

that contains aspirin
and meprobamate.

Attention turns back
to Lee's mistress,

the last person to see him alive

and people start to believe

that she might know more
about his final hours

than she initially revealed.

- [Laurence] As rumors continue
to swirl

around Lee's cause of death,

the spotlight turns on the
woman Bruce Lee was with

on the night he died,

Lee's mistress, Betty Ting Pei.

- [John] The press is fascinated
by the relationship

between Bruce Lee
and Betty Ting Pei.

When they meet on the set of
"Way of the Dragon" in 1972,

they quickly become
romantically linked.

- [Zachary] He certainly wasn't
trying to be discreet

about their relationship.

People observed them
out in public together

and that led a lot
of people to believe

that he was having an
extramarital affair.

- [Katie] Bruce Lee's connection
with Betty Ting Pei

is definitely scandalous

because he's
married to Linda Lee

and he has two small children.

Of course that puts Linda in
a very uncomfortable position.

- [Kavitha] In December 1972,
Bruce Lee supposedly tries

to cut off ties with Betty.

She's so distraught
that she swallows

a handful of sleeping pills

and is rushed to Queen
Elizabeth Hospital.

- [John] Betty recovers

but from that point on,
her relationship with Bruce

becomes increasingly strained.

She is upset that he
won't leave his wife.

She is reportedly
consumed by jealousy

and maybe she thinks
if she can't have him,

nobody else can either.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Katie] So there are some
theories that start to circulate

that perhaps someone has
purposely killed him.

And of course the obvious
person becomes Betty Ting Pei.

She's the other woman.

She's taking him away from
his family and his wife.

So they start to
run with this theory

that perhaps she was
the jealous lover

and that potentially she
might have poisoned him.

- [Laurence] And they say
there's reason to believe

she tried it before.

- [John] There are rumors that
Betty has been laying the

groundwork for this for months.

- [Kavitha] There's no actual
proof of this.

There's no sign of anything
toxic in Bruce's bloodstream,

but people still believe

that she may have
used some substance

that wouldn't have shown up
on a toxicology report

because she comes from
a family of doctors.

- [Zachary] The other strange
thing is the timeline of all

this. When she realizes that
he's unconscious, he's

unresponsive. Why doesn't she
call emergency services?

Instead, she calls Raymond Chow.

- [John] By calling the manager

instead of immediately
calling an ambulance,

she's losing precious time.

He needs immediate
medical attention.

- [Kavitha] Even though she
repeatedly denies any

wrongdoing, the news media
continues to publish

story after story
implicating her.

- [John] The public response to
this is highly negative.

Students in Malaysia are
marching around with signs

saying "Betty killed Bruce."

In August 1973, Hong Kong
police receive a bomb threat.

They go to investigate but
they don't find a bomb,

they find a suspicious package.

Inside is a note saying,

"Betty knows the cause
of Bruce's death."

- [Zachary] There's no evidence
of foul play,

but that doesn't prevent the
greater public from continuing

to find different stories
that they want to believe in

in terms of Bruce Lee's demise.

And so, this hastens
the speculation

that someone is involved
in some kind of conspiracy

to kill Bruce Lee.

The most obvious person would
have been Betty Ting Pei.

- [Laurence] There's
also speculation

that Betty might not
have acted alone.

- [Kavitha] Going back to
those chaotic hours

following Bruce Lee's death,

one has to wonder why
his business partner

and confidant Raymond
Chow put out a statement

about where he died that
was so easily disproven.

- [Katie] Part of the story
that Raymond leaves out

when he creates
that false narrative

is the fact that
he was also there

when Bruce was at
Betty's apartment.

- [Kavitha] After Bruce Lee
first stops breathing,

Betty summons Raymond
Chow to her apartment.

When he gets there, Raymond
Chow inexplicably tells Betty

not to call an ambulance.

He tells her to call instead
her personal physician.

- [Katie] Raymond had seen Bruce
suffer a similar episode

just two months prior,

so he knew he would have to get
medical treatment right away

in order to reverse
the condition.

So it's very strange that
he would wait so long

to get urgent care for him.

- [John] It's not until 10:30 at
night

that the ambulance
arrives to take him away.

By that time it's
already too late.

- [Laurence] For many
the question remains,

was the delay a
willful decision?

- [Kavitha] Around the time of
his death,

Bruce Lee's relationship with
business partner Raymond Chow

reportedly started to fracture

when they formed their
production company,

Concord Productions in 1972,

they initially had a 50/50
split between the two of them.

But by summer of 1973,

Bruce Lee is working
on an independent film

and he is reportedly threatening

to walk away from
Chow altogether.

- [Zachary] Given the level of
money that Bruce Lee

is generating at the box office,

with Bruce Lee out
of the picture,

Raymond Chow has a lot to gain.

- [Katie] If you add together
Raymond Chow's financial

interests and Bruce Lee's work

and the fact that they
might be disagreeing

on the future of how
they collaborate,

this starts to
look really fishy.

Like was this intentional?

- [Kavitha] Betty and Raymond
Chow are both cleared,

- [Kavitha] Betty and Raymond
Chow are both cleared,

but people still believe
in a murder conspiracy

this time with just a
different set of suspects.

- A month after
Bruce Lee's death,

his final film
"Enter the Dragon"

premieres in Los
Angeles to rave reviews.

Lee plays a spy set on taking
down the narcotics kingpin

who killed his sister.

The story may be fictional,

but fans are left wondering
if, like his character,

but fans are left wondering
if, like his character,

Lee became entangled with
powerful gang members

and has paid with his life.

Attention turns to a dark
encounter from his early days.

- [Daryl] Although Bruce was
born in San Francisco,

Hong Kong really is the
place where Bruce grows up.

He enters the movie industry

because his father is a
Cantonese opera performer.

So by the time
he's 18 years old,

Bruce has appeared in
films not as a star,

but certainly as a known actor.

- [Katie] As Bruce is getting
older in Hong Kong,

he's actually getting
into a lot of trouble

and sometimes he's mixing
with the wrong people.

- [Matthew] Bruce Lee was a
little street fighter

and he ran across a
kid named William Chung

who was better than him.

So, he asked William Cheung,
how are you this good?

And William Cheung said, "I
study under the master Ip Man."

- [John] Ip Man is a master of a
particular style of kung fu

called Wing Chun.

Wing Chun emphasizes
close quarters fighting

involving a blitz of lightning
fast kicks and fast punches,

ideal for street fighting.

- [Matthew] Ip Man was impressed
by how intense

Bruce's obsession with
the martial arts was.

And so, he would say to
Bruce, "Don't believe me.

Try it out yourself.

If you don't think I'm
telling you the truth,

go out in the streets and
test what I've taught you."

- [John] So Lee organized a
group of his friends into a gang

that calls itself the
Junction Street Eight Tigers.

- [Laurence] On one of these
outings,

Bruce Lee picks a fight
with the wrong guy.

- [Kavitha] He roughs up this
teenager pretty badly

and it turns out that
the guy's parents

have connections to the
Chinese mob, the Triad.

- [John] The Triad came from
all over Mainland China

when the Communist Revolution
of the late 1940s takes place

and a lot of them
end up in Hong Kong

where they're taking
over just about

every avenue that organized
crime might control.

- [Katie] The Triad are very
astute.

They know how to
adapt with the market

and in Hong Kong, one
of the major industries

is the film industry.

So they wanna have a
piece of the action too.

- [Kavitha] They're putting up
the money for films

and controlling production

and they, of course,
target actors

that they think
have crossed them,

which is Lee's first of
several reported run-ins

with the Chinese mafia.

- [John] Like most mobsters,
the Triad makes its money

from extortion and kickbacks,

and as Bruce Lee's
star power grows,

so does the target on his back.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Daryl] Bruce's life was
actually in danger

because he had harmed the
son of a Triad member.

- [Kavitha] His father becomes
really worried about his safety

that the mob would
try and retaliate.

So he sends Bruce to go live
with relatives in Seattle,

but many people believe

that the threat from the Triad
doesn't actually go away.

When Bruce is living in Seattle,

the Triad is
operating in America,

but they're kinda
operating underground.

So when he decides
he's gonna open

a martial arts
school in Seattle,

the Triads pay him a
visit demanding money

to allow him to open a
school in their turf.

- [Daryl] He was not off
anybody's radar,

but Bruce wasn't the type
to do as he was told.

- [John] In 1964, Lee has
dropped out of college

and has married his
longtime sweetheart, Linda,

and a year later their
son Brandon is born.

A couple years after that,

his career really takes
off when he gets cast

in the role of Kato,

the sidekick in the ABC
series, "The Green Hornet."

- [Laurence] In 1971, Bruce
Lee returns to Hong Kong

and once again reportedly
crosses paths with the Triad.

- [Kavitha] He's just released
the film, "The Big Boss,"

which makes him a huge
star back in Hong Kong.

He gets a visit from a stranger

who's offering him
200,000 Hong Kong dollars.

And when he asks what it's
for, he says, "Just a gift."

Now this is right out
of the Triad playbook

of giving money to curry favor

and hold some leverage over you.

- [John] Lee angrily rebuffs
him, but he knows what this

means. The Triad likes to
control people by giving them

cash and it's
dangerous to turn down

an offer of cash from the Triad.

So from that point on, Lee
starts wearing a knife,

carrying a gun with him

thinking that he can come
under attack at any time.

- [Laurence] Just
days before his death,

Lee gets into an altercation

with a Triad-linked director.

- [Matthew] Lo Wei had been the
director of Bruce Lee's

first two movies that had
become such a huge success

and they ended up
fighting over who

got to take credit
for the success.

One day Bruce Lee
heard that Lo Wei

was in the screening room

and he went down to give
Lo Wei a piece of his mind.

- [John] He gets in his face,
they start a shouting match,

and soon afterward, Lee
pulls a knife on him

and aims it right at his chest

and Lee has to be
dragged out of the room

to keep this from
turning violent.

- [Laurence] But the
Chinese director is rumored

to have connections that Lee
may not be taking into account.

- [John] When Lee threatens Lo
like that,

this is a direct
affront to the Triad

who are assumed to
be connected to him.

- [Katie] Maybe the Triads
wanted Bruce Lee dead

and his altercation with Lo
Wei in the screening room

was kind of the last straw.

- [John] Hong Kong police
understand the danger of the

Triad, so they look into this
aspect of Lee's death,

but they have no active leads.

There are no outward signs
of a physical attack,

so, the potential connection
to the Triad goes cold.

- [Laurence] In the weeks
after Bruce Lee's death,

rumors abound, but there's
still no clear new lead

that challenges the idea
that he died accidentally.

Then in 1974, one year
after Lee's death,

a new theory emerges

with a plot straight
out of a kung fu film.

- [Kavitha] There's a journalist
who's investigating Bruce Lee's

death and he starts
developing this theory

that Bruce Lee could
have been assassinated

by a cabal of kung fu masters

using a technique
known as Dim Mak.

- [Matthew] Dim Mak is this idea
that you can hit somebody

on their acupuncture lines

or pushing a kind of chi power,

and after you touch them, you
can control when they die.

So it's a delayed death touch.

- [John] It's rumored that some
martial arts masters

have this ability to strike at
just the right pressure point

to bring about death
if not immediately,

days, weeks, or
even months later.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Daryl] Bruce certainly was at
odds

with many of the martial arts
practitioners of Hong Kong.

Some people think it's
because he had taught

what was supposed to
be a Chinese secret

art to Westerners.

- [Kavitha] Bruce Lee is this
arrogant, burgeoning

international film star and he
really doesn't jive

with this old school mentality.

- [Katie] Bruce had created his
own form of martial arts.

He called it Jeet Kune Do

or the way of the
intercepting fist,

and it incorporated elements

from a lot of different
martial arts styles,

combining his street fighting
with fencing and boxing.

What he was after
was trying to become

a more efficient fighter

and finding moves that were
practical versus theoretical

that didn't actually
have any power in them.

- [Kavitha] So the journalist
theorizes

that in order to stop
him from continuing

to change these
ancient traditions,

the group of kung fu masters
sends out an assassin

to kill Bruce Lee
with the death touch.

- [Matthew] Dim Mak, like
everything in kung fu,

is linked back to
the Shaolin temple,

the location of where
kung fu originated,

and there are various theories

that link to the Shaolin monks,

the idea that they could
use special acupuncture

or acupressure points to
affect the human body.

- [Kavitha] They say that
Bruce might have died

from a touch on
his pressure point

that blocked his energy

and led to his death
days or weeks later.

- [Laurence] While
this is speculative,

certain types of punches and
kicks are known to be lethal.

- [John] A blow to the chest
delivered just right

at a certain point in
the cardiac process

can cause an immediate
cardiac arrest.

But it's exceptionally rare

for a blow to cause
a delayed death.

While this theory is
intriguing to many,

there's no real evidence
that supports it

and it's pretty much relegated
to martial arts mythology.

- [Laurence] The death
of Bruce Lee remains

shrouded in mystery
for the next 45 years.

Then in 2018, a
new theory emerges.

- [Katie] Matthew Polly writes
a biography of Bruce Lee

and he posits a new
theory around his death

because he looks very
closely at the two instances

of cerebral edema.

- [Kavitha] Polly postulates
that he could have died from an

inability to regulate his own
body temperature.

He examines the May 10th
collapse

when Lee was rushed to the
hospital with a cerebral edema

and was able to be revived.

- [Matthew] On May 10th, he was
re dubbing lines in a room

that was super hot

because they turned off
the air conditioning

to make sure that it didn't
interfere with the sound.

During that process, he
started to feel dizzy and faint

and he ended up collapsing
and going into seizures.

They rushed him to the hospital

and the doctors diagnosed
him with cerebral edema

and they gave him mannitol to
cause the swelling to go down.

- [Katie] The doctors do note
that Bruce was covered in sweat

and he had a high fever.

And according to Polly,
those are classic symptoms

of heat stroke and perhaps
this went undiagnosed.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Laurence] If it is
heatstroke,

why is it happening
to Bruce Lee,

one of the fittest men alive?

- [Matthew] He had complained
many times

about how sweaty
his armpits were.

This affected his work

because on screen they kept
having to switch his shirts out.

Six months prior to
his initial collapse,

he had cosmetic surgery
removing the sweat glands

from underneath his armpits.

At that time, people
were offering that.

It has since been discontinued

because it's considered
extremely dangerous

because it affects your
ability to process heat.

And so, having those
removed would've made him

more susceptible to heat stroke.

- [John] On July 20th, 1973,

that's the hottest day of
the month in Hong Kong.

He is in Betty Ting Pei's
apartment running over lines.

What happens there
is eerily similar

to what happened back in May.

He starts complaining about
headaches and feeling faint.

He falls into Betty's bed
and he never wakes up.

- [Matthew] He collapses in a
situation

in which he's in
a sauna-like room,

and then 10 weeks after that
he dies on a very hot day.

To me, that suggests
that he potentially died

from heat stroke.

- [John] But sweat is produced
all over the body

and the attending
doctors back in May

reported that he has sweat
pouring out of him all over.

So, you'd think that would
regulate body temperature.

- [Kavitha] Despite those minor
flaws and the logic,

it still does provide
a plausible theory

as to the cause of
Bruce Lee's death.

- [Laurence] 50 years
after Bruce Lee's death,

researchers are still
looking for clues

to explain what killed him.

- [Daryl] In 2022, a group of
Spanish kidney specialists

come out with a novel theory

for what happened to Bruce Lee.

Their theory was that he
was suffering from retaining

an excess of fluid which can
lead to swelling of the brain.

- [Kavitha] It's a little ironic
because Bruce Lee's famous quote

was, "Be water, my friend,"

kinda speaking to the fluidity

of the body during martial arts.

But it turns out that it
might have been too much water

that could have killed him.

[tense dramatic music]

- [Katie] The scientists also go
back

and look at the autopsy results

and one of the things
that strikes them

is the fact that his brain
had swollen to the point

where it was 3.5 pounds,

which is a half pound heavier
than the average human brain.

And what caused the
swelling was water.

- [Rebecca] The kidneys actually
are filters for the body

and also regulate water.

If you get enough of
a buildup of toxins,

the kidneys can actually
not function properly.

- [Katie] On May 10th when he
collapsed for the first time

and was examined by the doctor,

there were some
unexplained high levels

of waste in his kidneys,

and so, that also signals
that he had kidney disease.

- [Kavitha] The levels were so
high

that the doctors actually
thought it was a typo.

- [Laurence] At the time,
doctors were more worried

about Lee's brain
than his kidneys.

The researchers
from Spain believe

that may have been
a grave mistake.

- [Kavitha] If the kidneys
aren't working

then they can't get rid of
excess water in the body.

And if there's a
buildup of water

that creates a somewhat
catastrophic situation.

- [John] The water dilutes the
sodium in the human body

and it creates a situation
called hyponatremia.

And if it is not immediately
addressed, it leads to death.

- [Laurence] But why is Bruce
consuming so much water on July

20th, the day of his death?

- [John] Earlier in the day,

even before he goes
to Betty's apartment,

he has consumed some
hashish brownies.

In fact, he writes
to a friend that day

that he's stoned as hell.

- [Kavitha] It would make sense
if Lee's water intake

were high that day.

We already know that he
was eating a hash brownie,

so that would cause some thirst

and he would be
drinking more water.

He was also running lines
for his upcoming film,

so the physical exertion
and the exercise

would've caused him to
drink more water as well.

- [Rebecca] He's a martial
artist.

He's getting body
blows all the time.

So it's also possible that he
might have actually sustained

some physical trauma to
some areas of the kidneys

such that maybe they're not
working at top capacity.

One of the things of note is
that he had very low sodium,

which is something that happens

when you've had too much water.

- [Daryl] During this period,

he certainly had been
on a very extreme diet

of only eating or drinking
apple and carrot juice.

So, he may not have been
taking in the nutrients

that he needed to maintain
healthy levels of sodium.

- [Rebecca] When you're over
hydrated, you allow a shift of

fluids such that you can
get a fluid buildup

in a place that normally
wouldn't have

one like the brain. But water is
also what makes up 60% or more

of our bodies. It's
the giver of life.

Ironically, in his situation,

taking in too much water can
result in something fatal.

- [Laurence] No matter
how Bruce Lee died,

his mystique and the mystery
of his final hours lives on.

- [Kavitha] It makes a lot of
sense that there would be

so many theories surrounding
the death of Bruce Lee,

ranging from the mundane
to the mythological.

- [Matthew] Bruce Lee's death
really ties

into who he was as a megastar

because he was able
to kinda elevate

the kung fu hero to
international status.

And in dying, he became
the athlete who dies young.

He died in his perfect
form, in perfect shape,

so that we could project
our own hopes and dreams

and mysteries onto him.

- [Daryl] With a figure like
Bruce who was larger than life,

it makes so much sense
that people would want

a dramatic answer as to how

his life could have ended.

- Some believe that regardless
of how Bruce Lee died,

he was destined to
live a short life

in a tragic twist of fate
that some define as a curse.

Males in Bruce's
family have died young.

Bruce's older brother
died as a toddler

and Bruce's son Brandon
Lee was shot by accident

on a movie set in 1993.

Tragedies that have helped the
legend of Bruce Lee live on.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching
"History's Greatest Mysteries."

[dark music]