In the sweltering heat of a Phoenix, Arizona evening on August 9, 1929, Special Agent Paul E. Reynolds, a man of 29 years, departed from his hotel after renting an automobile. Three days later, his body was discovered floating in a canal near the city. An autopsy would later reveal the grim truth: Reynolds had been killed by a gunshot wound to the heart.
Born in Illinois, Paul E.
Reynolds had dedicated his life to law enforcement, first as a Prohibition agent after graduating from the University of Idaho, and then for eight years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His career had taken him to various offices, including Nashville and Los Angeles, before his assignment in Phoenix. He was a married man and a father.
The investigation into his death was extensive, yet it yielded no arrests and the identity of his killer or killers remains a mystery to this day. The official narrative is that he was killed by unknown assailants. Investigators at the time theorized that he may have been ambushed, forced from his vehicle, shot, and then his body disposed of in the canal. His death is considered the only unsolved killing of an FBI agent in the history of the United States.
Over the decades, whispers and alternative theories have surfaced regarding the circumstances of that fateful night. Some retired FBI agents have put forth the possibility that Reynolds may have taken his own life, staging the scene to look like a murder so that his family could collect on a life insurance policy. These speculations point to personal struggles, including health problems and recent insurance purchases. However, the FBI has never officially altered its conclusion, and the case of who killed Paul E. Reynolds remains an unsolved chapter in the annals of law enforcement history.
