James Caan’s ex-girlfriend claims he threatened to kill her mother and mistreated her just weeks before he passed away
After learning about the death of the actor from “The Godfather,” Leesa Rowland said, “I feel like I’m free and no longer have a danger that someone is going to hurt me.”
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK:
It has been said that James Caan’s passing has given his ex-girlfriend the confidence to speak out against him. Leesa Rowland has spoken out about the harassment and threats she received from the actor from “The Godfather” more than a month after his passing. Rowland has also made some alarming revelations regarding a friend who allegedly fell to his death.
Caan passed away on July 6 after years of struggling with his health. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Rowland said of the 82-year-old man following his passing, “I feel like I’m free and no longer have a danger that someone’s going to hurt me.” The 57-year-old claimed that while their relationship started out amicably, things took a turn for the worst after the death of their common friend Mark Schwartz, who was dating Ola Ray at the time, in 1993.
Who were the spouses of James Caan?
Even though Schwartz’s death was initially investigated as a homicide, it was ultimately determined to be an accident. Caan was later exonerated of all allegations as well, although Rowland has been troubled by some unresolved issues. The actress revealed that Schwartz was with her and Caan the night he died. But the ‘Thief’ actor firmly told her not to speak about it else he will kill her mother.
According to Rowland, who goes by Jimmy, she first met Caan in 1992 when she was 25 years old. The actor, who was 52 at the time, was already well-known in Hollywood while she was just starting out. “When I first met him, I didn’t really know who he was. Jimmy was all he was. He claimed to be a rodeo cowboy, which is what I initially assumed him to be because he was wearing a belt buckle from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. But he wasn’t, of course. She said that he was an actor.
Soon after, the two got romantically involved and began spending time together in his Beverly Hills home and a suite at the Le Parc Hotel. He was consistently charming and kind. The fairy tale phase ended on September 18, 1993, although she claimed that they got along well and frequently hung around. Rowland told DailyMail.com that she was in a friend’s apartment in the Wilshire Corridor building “the night he died” and added, “I was with Jimmy and Mark.”
Jimmy and I were at the flat since I had an audition the following day, she said. Jimmy called Mark and requested that he print my script. He took it home, printed it out, ordered pizza, and delivered it to the flat. He brings it up and after spending some time with Mark, he calls him “pleasant and charming.” He was a roadie for The Gap Band and stood 6’3 with a gorgeous face. He eventually wanted to control music,” she stated.
Then, according to Rowland, Schwartz departed the area before returning later that evening. She recalled, “We were chatting, laughing, and looking at photo albums of him and Ola with another acquaintance. It was all right and typical. He wasn’t intoxicated as the papers said. According to the author of “Discovering the It Factor Within You: Developing Your Charismatic Personality,” she went to sleep but woke up “in the morning to homicide cops.”
The police claim to have James in another [police] car and that he failed to recognise the body, the woman stated. When we get to the flat, it has been designated a crime scene. He is the body when they remove the cloth from it and lead us over to the scene. Due to the wound on his head, at first I believed it to be a gunshot. In my entire life, I have never seen a dead person, much less my friend. I was sobbing uncontrollably. I raised my eyes, and it looks so clear that he had fallen from the apartment’s balcony.
Rowland further suggested to the detectives that Mark “may have tried climbing the fire escape and fell” because Caan had already informed the police that Schwartz did not enter the apartment and was sleeping when he “fell.” That was noted by the officer, who then took me in for a seven-hour interrogation. He ultimately lost his balance and plummeted to his death, LA Detective Vic Pietrantoni wrote in his report. It was determined through an autopsy that the fall was the cause of death.
Rowland, who questioned why the man said he didn’t recognise the deceased, was unconvinced by the investigation’s findings. The person I met Caan via ought to be aware of who he is if I am to know who he is. Our entire relationship was affected because I was constantly attempting to understand what had happened to Mark.
The “Slaughter Daughter” actress continued, “I had emotions of guilt, thinking that if I hadn’t left the flat or hadn’t gone to sleep, he wouldn’t have left. He never wanted to discover out what happened to him. We spoke about the incident a lot and saw one other frequently. Jimmy initially treated the situation nicely, comforted me, and made efforts to improve my mood. He was adamant about sleeping through it.
Rowland claimed that following Schwartz’s passing, Caan started abusing drugs and alcohol before entering treatment in 1994. “A few months later the news reports the incident, and I jokingly ask him, “Can you believe they utilised my theory that he fell from the fire escape?” she recalled. It’s clear that he dropped from the balcony. What’s going on there?” That wasn’t funny to him, at all.
“His entire mood changed, and he threatened to kill your mother if he ever caught you talking, Leesa. He then grabbed my neck with his bare hands and threatened to murder me. He then started striking me, choked me, and just went crazy. The door finally opens, and he throws me into the corridor. I couldn’t stop picturing him torturing Mark. Has Mark experienced this? Across the balcony? It was a flashback of Mark being killed as a result of the way he had thrown me, she said.
Rowland added that she went to the police and “prepared a police report…as life insurance” after leaving Caan’s house. I would have this in case something were to happen to me. After she filed a lawsuit against him for physical battery, Gloria Allred, an advocate for women’s rights, represented her. She won $86,000 as part of a settlement that was reached outside of court.
However, her problems didn’t really start there. “I used to get a lot of TV bookings and have people offer me scripts, but then everything stopped. I received zero audition offers. I couldn’t and didn’t want to talk about Jimmy, even though my agent just wanted me to do things talking about him. I couldn’t explain to them where the abuse came from since I just wanted to get my work done. Thus, I kept quiet for thirty years,” she added.
According to Rowland, “My entire manner altered after that.” DailyMail.com It was a crucial moment in my life. I was constantly anxious. The worst aspect was that I couldn’t speak. I was so concerned that someone would infer that I was discussing the incident when I wasn’t. He threatened to kill my mother, but I was unable to notify anyone. Even now, I’m hesitant to speak because I can still hear Jimmy shrieking at me that if I do, he’ll hit my mother—my mother passed away in 2003.