Jayne Mansfield's Death Certificate Uncovered Some Seriously Tragic Details

This article includes graphic descriptions from a fatal car accident. 

When it comes to lists of celebs who've died in seriously unfortunate ways, Jayne Mansfield regularly features. In 1967, at the age of just 34, Mansfield was killed in a horrific accident. According to her death certificate, her skull was crushed. It's unsurprising, then, that her undertaker shared in the '90s that her injuries were amongst the worst he'd ever seen. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the tragic story of Mariska Hargitay's mother's demise, Mansfield had been traveling to New Orleans with her children, her boyfriend, her dogs, and a driver when they crashed into the back of a semi-trailer truck. According to reports, there had been a truck spraying mosquito repellent in the swamps, which created a thick cloud on the road. Sadly, that meant Mansfield's driver didn't realize there was a semi right in front of them. As a result, he didn't slow down, and the car smashed right into the back of it. The front of the vehicle hit the truck so hard that its engine was forced into the car, and the vehicle's roof was also broken off in some places.  

Devastatingly, the blow from the engine crushed Mansfield's skull, and speaking to The New York Times 30 years after the accident, her undertaker, Jim Roberts, described her injuries as "as bad as you get in this business." He also shared that preparing her remains for her family had been a very difficult task, given the circumstances. "She had a lot of makeup with her ... and I used it all," he recounted.  

As if the real-life horror of Jayne Mansfield's fatal accident wasn't devastating enough, a rumor that she'd been decapitated began doing the rounds almost immediately after. However, though the official report from the accident noted that part of Mansfield's head had been severed, the fact that her entire skull had been crushed meant it wasn't a decapitation so much as part of her skull being detached. It's likely the rumor started after the wig Mansfield had been wearing was seen a ways away from the accident itself. It probably ended up there because of the impact of the accident. 

In his interview with The New York Times in 1997, Jim Roberts rubbished the decapitation claims. "Her head was attached as much as mine is," he told the outlet. He also mused that the rumor pointed to the sad reality that Mansfield had always been misunderstood. "People always figured wrong about Jayne ... About the way she lived and the way she died," he said. 

Heartbreakingly, even though Mansfield's children survived the horror crash, they weren't without injuries. Mariska Hargitay's scar is a sad reminder of the loss she faced at such a young age. However, she's spoken very openly about the bigger emotional impact her mother's death had on her. In a 2009 interview with Redbook, she shared, "Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul." In November 2024, she also revealed at the Hope for Depression Research Foundation luncheon that her mental health took a backseat for most of her childhood because there was simply too much trauma in the family to zone in on just one person, per Us Weekly. We have no doubts that the horrific rumors surrounding her mom's death only added to what was already a devastating loss.