Who was Will Rothschild? Nature of reclusive family member's alleged death in Hollywood Hills house fire comes under scrutiny

Will Rothschild, a member of the renowned British-German Rothschild family, reportedly died in a house fire in Hollywood Hills on November 27. The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to the blaze at a hillside home on Lookout Mountain Avenue around 4:40 p.m. PT. It took 45 firefighters about 33 minutes to extinguish the fire.

While the fire was restricted to the first floor of the property, firefighters found an elderly man dead, presumed to be Will Rothschild. However, the exact cause of death is yet to be determined and is currently under investigation by the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Amid this now-viral news, the internet has put the matter under scrutiny. Here are some of the comments from the social media platform, X, speculating on the nature of death.

“Maybe he was trying not to be part of that family,” a person wrote.

“This is totally a look over here while this happens over there… #psyop,” one person wrote.

“CIA orchestrated,” wrote another.

“It's never a coincidence,” a user wrote.

Others questioned whether or not any of the concerned family members died in the fire.

“People outright believe the story... For shame. Question everything. Probably a coverup, so the real Rothschild can disappear,” a netizen wrote.

“House fire? Good way to hide the evidence,” another netizen wrote.

“Run a DNA sample. Chances are, that body is not him,” an individual wrote.

“There is a lot that doesn’t really add up,” another individual wrote.

The cause of the fire has also not yet been officially announced. No other injuries were reported.

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Exploring further about the Rothschild family member who reportedly died in the Hollywood Hills house fire

Will Rothschild was a millionaire recluse who reportedly lived in an 825-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bathroom Laurel Canyon property in Hollywood Hills, worth $1,076,000 and built in 1937.

According to his neighbors, the man in his mid-80s seemingly owned multiple properties and dozens of luxury cars. While some neighbors told local news outlet KABC how they had never seen him and assumed that the property was vacant, a few recalled knowing him.

“It is very sad. He was a good guy. A good neighbor,” neighbor Jim Moore shared.

Another neighbor Brian Linse told NBC Los Angeles how Mr. Will’s "thing was cars. He was an expert on vintage race cars, and he would show me some of his vintage race cars, and he knew so much about them.”

“He had a vintage race car that had belonged to Frank Sinatra, and another one [red Porsche] that had belonged to Michael Jordan,” Linse added.

Neighbor Dana Gladstone who has lived on the street for long, told Yahoo! News that Mr. Will was in his late 70s, friendly, described himself as a Yale University alumnus, and was a dedicated owner of an Afghan hound.

Others remembered him for his vintage car collection and houses decorated with busts of Raphael and Michaelangelo, and for having many surveillance cameras installed.

Meanwhile, investigators found a magazine inside the house addressed to WM DE ROTHSCHILD. Yahoo! News obtained voter registration records that revealed that a certain William A. De Rothschild, 87, lived at the residence. However, another database showed that a man with a similar name but aged 77 owned the property.

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The Rothschild family, originally from Frankfurt, Germany, has been influential since the 15th century, known for their banking business across Europe, especially in England and France. Today, the family is spread worldwide and remains powerful in finance, politics, real estate, mining, energy, and more, with a fortune worth billions of dollars.

Another prominent member, Lord Jacob Rothschild, passed away in February at age 87. He joined the family banking in 1963 and later founded Windmill Hill Asset Management and co-founded J Rothschild Assurance Group (now St James's Place) in 1980.

At one point, Lord Jacob was the deputy chairman of BSkyB Television, the chairman of trustees at The National Gallery, and the president of the Institute of Jewish Affairs (now the Institute for Jewish Policy Research) in 1992.