In 1938 Bryon returned to San Francisco and to the offices of the Chronicle, where he presented the editors with some of the evidence he and Ann had accumulated and his idea for a massive expose of the mental hospital system. A note found from this meeting however shows that the editorial staff were far from receptive to Bryon's proposal and doubted the truth of what he said. Bryon was devastated. The following day, his body was found in an alley behind the hotel he was staying at in San Francisco. After what most people felt was a half-hearted and totally ineffective investigation, the San Francisco police closed the case as "Unsolved."
NOTE: Much of this information has come from personal effects of Bryon Fitzsimmons that have come into my possession during my research, including some of the actual postcards from Ann to Bryon while she was in various institutions, as well as letters between the two from the same time frame.
