Saturday, April 30, 2005

Bookie Charges Hold 12 in Raid

April 30, 1947
City Terrace, East Los Angeles

Lt. Carl Pearson of the Sheriff's Vice Squad caught a dozen bookies in their lair behind an upholstery shop at 1435 N. Miller Ave. today, three of them of the feminine variety. The miscreants worked out of a secret room wired with nine telephones, and kept their records on scratch sheets tucked inside a secret wall panel. Booked at the East L.A. substation on suspicion of felonious bookmaking were Alice Melvin, 26, Howard Sternberg, 30, Maurice Bach, 45, Adelbert McLaughlin, 33, Juanita Silver, 34, Sidney Corsen, 38, Harry Faln, 47, Marjorie Burns, 40, Stephen Walsh, 32, Phil Miller, 25, Paul Searle, 22 and David Drobman, 30. It is unknown if the phone company ratted them out.

Friday, April 29, 2005

Young Widow Slays Prowler in Self-defense

April 29, 1947
Hollywood

Parking on the street was not an option for 18-year-old assistant theater manager Mrs. Ginerva Knight, but she just didn't like the look of that heavy shrubbery on the way to her garage at 1515 Courtney Avenue. Hence her unusual routine: come home from work after one a.m. and pull her convertible coupe partway into the driveway, enter the living room and obtain her .38 snubnosed revolver (for which she had no carrying permit), return to the car and only then ease it up towards the garage. That's where Thomas Housos, 24-year-old transient, was waiting to wrap his hand around her mouth and instruct "If you scream, I'll kill you. I'm taking you and the car and backing out of here!"

Mrs. Knight was pushed down to the floorboards as Housos lowered his own pistol to begin the delicate process of backing out the driveway. She pleaded loudly in order to drown out the sound of her gun cocking, then shot Housos in the belly. "You killed me!" he screamed, and attacked the woman. They struggled, she banged his head with her gun, and when he wouldn't die finally shot him in the face. He collapsed, and the car lurched into the side of the house. He was declared dead at the scene.

Housos' own car, a black coupe, was found parked at Sunset and Courtney. In it were his identification papers and a document attesting to his marriage last week to a girl in San Francisco. Housos was honorably discharged from the Air Force in December 1943. He was a member of the Oaklawn Jockey Club in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and played a bit part as a jockey in a film in June 1944. In January, 1945, he was convicted in Texas on charges of entering a woman's car at a traffic signal in San Antonio and robbing her. He was sentenced to ten years, but paroled in September, 1946.

Mrs. Knight, a war widow whose husband was killed in the merchant marine, lives at the home on Courtney with her 16-month-old son Ian, her mother, Mrs. Adelaide Boeing, and her grandmother Mrs. Hariet M. Ryer. Mrs. Boeing, whose late former husband was no relation to the aircraft manufacturer, once flew under the name Adelaide Cellina with Amelia Earhart in the Cleveland National Air Races.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Birthday Raiders Strip Apartment of All Furniture

April 28, 1947
Hollywood

Don't rent a room from Mrs. L.E. Manners--she hasn't got any! That's the word from Coast Guard vet Richard Hier and wife Patti, who returned from a birthday party last night to their brand new apartment on the second floor of the home at 5732 Harold Way to find the door off the hinges, their possessions dumped onto the floor, and every stick of furniture--including stove, fridge, even the lightbulbs--gone. Mrs. Manners too was out of the picture. For now Mr. H. is bunking in his old hammock, the same one the torpedo blew him out of during his South Pacific service, while the lady wife tosses on the wooden floor wrapped in a quilt.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Runaway Cab Helps House Dismantler

April 27, 1947
Echo Park

A household chore turned terrifying today when an unoccupied Veteran's Transit taxicab careened down a hillside and into Mrs. F.C. Plantz' house at 1505 Ewing Street. At the time, Plantz' friend Myron Fales (35, of 530 S. Pasadena Ave in Whittier) was standing on a stepladder peeling off siding. Fales heard the cab coming down through the brush, and was able to jump to safety just before the cab burst through the siding and splintered the house's wall. The driver, Mitchell Parrino of 1731 W. 18th Street, told police he had left his cab parked up the hill in front of 2019 Avon Street.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Cellar Blasted, 3 Boys Hurt in Hail of Metal From Shell

April 26, 1947
Los Angeles

Darn that Seely boy!

Lee Seely, 11, invited Jackie Cooper (12, of 4172 Yosemite Way) and Charles Gullihur (9, 2838 Delevan Drive) over to his house at 4053 W. Avenue 42 to mess around in the basement. Someone got frisky with one of the 40-mm anti-aircraft shells stored down among the cobwebs and canned peaches, and it blew. The house didn't fare well: the basement door shot twenty feet off its hinges, windows shattered and the walls shifted on the foundations. Strafed with shrapnel, Lee and Jack were rushed to General Hospital for emergency surgery; they were in critical condition this afternoon, Jackie with leg wounds that will almost certainly require amputation, Lee with a gut full of metal.

Charles, who was maybe too little to be trusted with the important task of blowing up a basement and nearly killing himself, was shaken but unhurt.

Monday, April 25, 2005

Stolen Taxicab Chase Ends in Crash, Suicide

April 25, 1947
Echo Park

Police are still trying to make sense of a last night's mysterious car chase in Echo Park. It all started when Motorcycle Office Carl Ericson spotted a taxicab that has been suspiciously repainted blue. He gave chase, and the vehicle turned onto Echo Park Avenue, racing past the lake and south towards Beverly. In front of 512 Echo Park Ave., the cab collided with a car driven by Walter Cliburne, 35, of 1947 Preston Ave. Cliburne's car ended up atop both the cab and a parked car. An ambulence was called, and the attendants directed their attention to the injured, still-unidentified cab driver. Suddenly he brought a vial of poison up to his mouth and made as to swallow. Attempts to wrest it away were fruitless, and the mystery man said, "I am going to die, so let me die." He did, shortly afterwards, in the ambulence.

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

Craig Rice's Mate Wins Divorce on Talkfest Plea

April 24, 1947
Santa Monica

Lawrence Lipton couldn't take it anymore. His wife, best-selling crime novelist Craig Rice, insisted he stay up with her until four or five every morning, while she talked, talked and talked. He couldn't write his own books on two hours of sleep. "It made me ill," he complained. She humiliated him in front of friends and servants, disrupting his attempts at conversation with a lordly, "Don't pay any attention to him." Despite their household staff, she insisted Lipton clean out the fireplaces. And as for having business conversations around her? Impossible. Lipton's witness, Raymond J. Healy of Simon & Schuster told Judge Alfred E. Paonessa that Rice routinely told Lipton to "Shut up," and seemed both personally and professionally jealous of her spouse.

Judge Paonessa granted the divorce decree, noting that under an agreement worked out by the parties, Miss Rice would retain ownership of the 15-room house at 351 23rd Street, Santa Monica, they would own their own copyrights, and maintain joint ownership of collarborative works. The couple were married at Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin on March 31, 1940, and separated last October 4.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Wife Beaten, Mate Held After Cutting Throat

April 23, 1947
Echo Park

Clara Anzis, 64, had decided to leave her husband Max, 79. He knew it, and was despondent, angry, lurking in the darkness of their kitchen like a wounded dog. Clara came to the door asking for her clothing. Max made a pretence of pushing it through a tiny opening.

“Don’t come in here, Clara!” But a lady needs a change of clothes when she’s leaving, even if it’s just to an empty apartment in the building they own together at 1225 Boston Street. She came in. Max fell on her with a huge pipe wrench. She got the wrench away from the old man and leaned out the window hollering. Her screams alerted their tenants, who found the pair in the kitchen, Clara bloodied and beaten, Max calmly cutting his throat with the bread knife. Tenant Charles N. Morris told Radio Officers D. K. Jones and F. Batelle that when he divested Anzis of this weapon, his landlord merely picked up the paring knife and continued his excavations.

Mr. Anzis, who is expected to recover, was taken to General Hospital’s prison ward where he was booked for suspicion of assault to commit murder. His wife was treated for three lacerations to her head, and for shock.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Woman Tells of Love Gifts

April 22, 1947
Los Angeles

Deposed in the office of Attorney Paul Overtorf, newlywed Mrs. Dorothy Evelyn Burks Stoner, 25, denied the claims of cosmetics manufacturer Andrew Norman, 60, that she had relieved him of a $75,000 home and $25,000 in jewels by means of “female arts.” Why, she had been anxious to marry the gentleman, if he would only divorce his wife.

Mrs. Stoner painted a picture of a relationship that commenced in 1943 and continued until September 1946, when the pair went to Las Vegas to attend the wedding of mutual friends. Inflamed by the matrimonial urge, and wearing the seven-karat diamond engagement ring Norman had given her before a June visit to her family in Kansas, Miss Burks spent some evening hours unloading her woes into the friendly ears of C. Earl Stoner, automobile distributor and acquaintance, whom she encountered in a Las Vegas café. On their return to Los Angeles, Burks and Stoner continued the conversation, and two weeks later they were wed.

As for that house at 348 Homewood in Brentwood? A gift from Mr. Norman, made sometime between March and June, as scant compensation for a lass who was wasting her fertility on a stubborn old goat who wouldn’t give her the home and children she craved. Oh, sorry, I meant to say, “I loved him like a father,” as stated by Mrs. Stoner in deposition today.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

One-Armed Painter Injured in Crash

April 21, 1947
Los Angeles

Joseph Scarantino, 39, of 8845 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys, suffered facial lacerations and possible broken ribs early today, when his car was dragged 450 feet by a Southern Pacific train at a grade crossing near his home. Scarantino, a painter, is missing one arm as the result of a similar accident some years ago.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

"No Regrets," Says Boy Who Killed Sweetheart

April 20, 1947
Los Angeles

For as long as there’s been a highway into the hills, young lovers have gone up into Angeles National Forest on Saturday nights to be alone in the dark. Gerald Snow Welch brought his beloved Dolores Fewkes, 16-year-old Montebello High student, to the deserted Horse Flats picnic grounds. He also brought his .22 rifle.

What Welch swore was a suicide pact went awry when both shells he had brought proved necessary to extinguish the young lady’s existence. In fact, he had to beat her roundly with both stock and barrel of his gun to finish the job. Then he carried her body down the mountain to the cops, stated his “purpose in life had been completed,” and expressed impatience for the State to execute him.

From suicide watch in a padded Pasadena Police Station cell, Welch told officers that it was he who wished to die; Dolores had begged to join him. His depression could immediately be blamed on three miserable months spent in the Navy, which culminated in a medical discharge. In service, suffering “religious disillusionment,” Welch came to doubt the things he’d been told in Sunday school. He went to the library and read Plato, Schopenhauer and Emerson. In Schopenhauer, he found justification for suicide. Bu the roots of Welch’s troubles go back a decade, when the then-eight-year-old saw a neighbor, fleeing police after murdering her husband, blow her brains out in front of him.

Welch said he loved Miss Fewkes and longed to join her in heaven. For now, he appreciated the padded cell, a quiet place where he could be alone with his thoughts. And if the State declined to kill him, he would be happy to finish the job himself.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Parents' Part in Juvenile Delinquency

April 19, 1947
Washington, D.C.

Myron E. Gurnea, the F.B.I.'s Washington expert on matters of juvenile delinquency, released a statement today describing it as the nation's biggest criminal problem.

Gurnea blames the rise in delinquency during the war years, when the stabilizing influence of fathers, mothers and older siblings was lost, as the former went to war and the latter into the factories. Those bad kids are now aged 17-21, and are being arrested in droves.

Pointing a finger at neglectful families who shirk their disciplinary responsibilities and expect government agencies to control their children, Gurnea notes that very few parents accompany their brats into traffic court. The answer may be to hold more parents financially responsible for their children’s crimes, a tact that is stymied by the growing number of broken homes.

Additionally, Gurnea sniffs at fears that returning soldiers are monsters “trained for crime,” stating that it was a big army, with criminals and ordinary people, but the criminals were already so disposed.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Gang Beating Victim Attacked In Own Yard

April 18, 1947
Los Angeles

Arriving at his home at 7143 Hollywood Blvd. tonight, James Utley, 43, tangled with Herbert Robertson, 45, who was lurking in the yard. Hearing gunfire, Utley’s wife and daughter called police. Utley’s is a name well known among crime crusaders, so Detective G.L. Smith went to the scene with patrol officers.

Utley refused to sign a complaint against Robertson, who he admitted had recently written him a letter demanding $500. Nevertheless, police arrested Robertson on suspicion of robbery. Robertson told officers that he was also a resident of 7143 Hollywood Blvd., although the address on his social security card read 1907 W. Sixth Street.

Utley claimed Robertson had pulled a revolver, which Utley deflected, causing the shot to go wild. Robertson countered that Utley had fired the shot. The gun was found in a car parked in the yard.

James Utley is best remembered for a shocking incident on August, 16, 1946, when two men followed him into popular Hollywood watering hole Lucey’s Restaurant (5444 Melrose Ave.) during the lunch rush. While one man held the other diners –among them Joel McCrea, Eddie Cantor, Stephen Crane and Joan Davis—at gunpoint, the other administered a thorough blackjacking to Utley. This was assumed by many diners to be a movie stunt. The assailants then fled through the crowd of autograph hunters outside the restaurant.

Utley, former operator of the bingo concession on Tony Cornero’s Lux gambling ship (and then under indictment for these activities), former investigator for politically ambitious Clifton’s Cafeteria owner Clifford E. Clinton, acquitted in 1939 on charges of extortion and bribery, convicted two years later of violating Federal Narcotics laws and sentenced to two years in prison, refused to identify his attackers, suggest any reason for the attack or in fact to make any statement at all.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Bus Driver Plus Wine Blamed For Wild Ride

April 17, 1947
Santa Monica

Mrs. Thomas Wright of 2425 29th St., Santa Monica, only intended a short trip by bus, but driver F.O. Rogers, 27, was loaded and wanted company. He compelled the lady to remain on his bus as he looped erratically through downtown Santa Monica and back to her home.

"It was the wildest ride I ever had!" said Mrs. Wright, once safely in the company of Officers Robert Chapman and Kenneth Aitken. A bottle of wine was found in driver Rogers' possession, and investigation physician Dr. R. J. O'Donnell determined that he was intoxicated.

Pleading guilty before Judge Thurlow Taft of the Santa Monica Municipal Court (bail set at $250, probationary hearing scheduled for April 30), Rogers blamed his Mr. Toad-like behavior on "war nerves," which had bedevilled him since suffering injury in the South Pacific with the Navy.

Friday, April 15, 2005

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Brawl Aboard Airliner Results in Jail Term

April 15, 1947
Las Vegas

William E. Barrett, 33, and Franklin T. Murphy, 32, were in high spirits Monday afternoon, when they boarded a Western Air Lines flight bound for Las Vegas at Los Angeles Airport. Those spirits only rose as the pair began imbibing from an open liquor bottle, in violation of WAL and Civil Aeronautics Board regulations.

The men became rambunctious, and other passengers joined in the fray, some in panic, others in amusement. The fracas was ended by the intervention of off-duty Los Angeles Police Sgt. E. A. Duarte, who presented the men to local authorities when the four-engine plane landed, ten minutes late due to the commotion.

In Justice of the Peace Harvey McDonald's court today, Barrett (of 1123 Pine St., Pasadena) pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in the Las Vegas jail, the maximum possible penalty. McDonald stated that he wished he could make the sentence longer. Murphy, of Oklahoma City, denied guilt, and will stand trial tomorrow on a charge of misconduct in a public conveyance.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Don't Light Up in Court if You Hope to Get Divorce

April 14, 1947
Los Angeles

Everything was going swimmingly in would-be divorcee Fanny S. Greenwald's case against jewelry-jobber husband Isador in Superior Court Judge Paul Vallee's courtroom today. She'd just described Izzy's insulting treatment of her before their friends and children, and their 19-year-old son was being sworn in to corraborate. That's when the lady, seated with counsel, lit a cigarette.

"Mr. Clerk!" raged Judge Vallee, "eject this person from the courtroom. You will have to leave the courtroom, madam!"

The Judge continued the case for six weeks, explaining, "I do not want to decide it now. Her smoking so irritated me that I might do the woman an injustice."

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Holdup Men Menace Bel-Air Hotel Guests

April 13, 1947
Bel Air

A pair of snazzy robbers in sports coats, shades and gloves shook down the Bel-Air Hotel's lobby at gunpoint yesterday morning, divesting the hotel and five guests of nearly $2400 in cash.

The theft began when the two men crossed the hotel's bridged moat and accosted bellhop Charles Berg, showing their weapons and demanding to see the manager. The pair vaulted the counter and held employees hostage as they ransacked the office. While stuffing the $1500 take from the till into a laundry sack, the shorter of the men sighed to his associate, "Well, Joe, this haul isn't a very hot deal."

They then turned their attention to the guests in the lobby, relieving Richard L. Casselman (of 15905 Chase Street, San Fernando) of $18, B. Charles Gould (650 Ocean Ave., Brooklyn) of $250, Paul Payette (414 St. James Place, Montreal) of $540, Davis H. Hannah ( 11024 Strathmore Street) of $40 and Charles Carroll (231 N. Oxford Street) of $20.

Bellhop Berg told police that he recognized at least one of men, and the hotel guests said they would be able to indentify their assailants.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Man Hauled Out of Sewer

April 12, 1947
Los Angeles

Citizens alerted police and fire officials today to a person crawling around in the sewer beneath Bunker Hill Ave. and Sunset Blvd. After fighting rush hour traffic to reach the scene, Fireman Gordon Davis heard breathing and lowered himself through the manhole. Within was a half-naked and muddy James W. Holland, 32, of Newport, Tenn. Davis suggested Holland resurface, where he told Officers J.P. Brennan and C.G. Cunning that he had been "looking for my baby." Holland was taken to jail for a shower and additional questioning.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Just 'Duck Soup' For Vegetarian To Land In City Jail

11 April 1947
Lincoln Heights

A wayward vegetarian today ensured himself a more traditional diet after Radio Officers B. Gonzales and C.A. Boughton responded to the sound of gunfire at Lincoln Park. There they discovered Trinidad C. Quroz, 29, of 338 Clarence St. and his trusty .22 rifle, both some way out into the lake. Called to shore, Quroz reported that he had become tired of his vegetarian diet and, craving duck, had shot the specimen that floated, yonder. Taken into custody on suspicion of illegally discharging a firearm, Quroz pled guily before Municipal Judge Louis W. Kaufman and was sentenced to a 20-day culinary tour of the City Jail.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Woman Found Stabbed To Death In Home

April 10, 1947
East Los Angeles

Shouting to a neighbor "Look after the kids!," 32-year-old scrap yard worker Efren Saenz bolted from the family home at 4032 Princeton St. yesterday, leaving wife Amelia, 28, dead in a bedroom closet with several knife wounds in her left breast. The couple's daughters Irma, 7, and Maria Teresa, 3, were playing in the yard at the time of the murder.

East L.A. substation Sheriff's Deputies Tommy R. Johnson and Robert E. McHaney told reporters that Saenz, who they were seeking, was also arrested in late March on an assault with a deadly weapon charge for throwing a table radio at Mrs. Saenz.

Saturday, April 09, 2005

Sinatra Arrested And Freed On Bail In Row With Writer

April 9, 1947
Los Angeles

Deputy Sheriffs today broke up a rehearsal in a Vine Street radio studio in order to charge bobby-soxer dreamboat Frank Sinatra with a misdemeanor battery charge, incurred Tuesday night outside Sunset Strip hotspot Ciro's. New York Daily Mirror columnist Lee Mortimer claims someone sucker-punched him, and Sinatra then beat the 42-year-old writer while goons held him down. This effectively broke up Mortimer's working date with Miss Kay Kino, Chinese songbird whom Mortimer was grooming for a role in a show he'd written for New York's China Doll Cafe.

Sinatra initially admitted involvement in the fracas, noting "For two years he has been needling me. He called me a dago --------. I saw red. He gave me a look. I can't describe it. It was one of those 'Who do you amount to?' looks. I followed him outside. I hit him. I'm all mixed up." Later, through his attorney, Albert Pearlson, the story became one of an unprovoked name calling and physical attack from Mortimer--who has written searing columns on the singer's relationship with gangster Lucky Luciano--on the sheepish Sinatra.

Judge Bert P. Woodward set bail at $500 and trial for May 28. Sinatra pled not guilty, and hopped a flight to NY to receive the Thomas Jefferson Award from the Council Against Intollerance in America.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Crowd Perils Attack Prisoner

April 8, 1947
Los Angeles

Robert Ahlberg, 21, late of Denver, was happy to see police officers M. C. Jacobsen and L.O. Sheets early today, even as they handcuffed him.

Alerted by his victim's cries, two students in a nearby hotel saw Ahlberg attacking a 46-year-old woman in City Library Park (Fifth and Hope Streets) and dragging her 75 feet into the bushes. A crowd several dozen stong gathered at the scene, but did not rescue the woman, telling arriving officers they were afraid her attacker might have a gun.

Officers Jacobsen and Sheets dragged Ahlberg from the bushes, divesting him of a knife with which he had threatened his victim. At this point, the crowd became brave, and cried out "Let us have him!"

Ahlberg was booked into Central Jail, where he gave his local address as 621 1/2 W. Sixth Street, just a short stroll from the assault scene.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Fumes Kill Girl Re-Enacting Scene From Film

Cheyenne, WY
April 6, 1947

On Sunday, 10-year-old Irene Josephine Spirk watched a movie in which a nurse anesthetised a patient. Today she acted out the scene with her little brother, substituting a bottle of cleaning fluid for ether. Irene inhaled more of the fumes than the little fellow, and died in the hospital of chemical poisoning.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Woman Near Death in Accidental Shooting

April 6, 1947
Los Angeles

Mae Romero, 45, divorced wife of former police detective Frank Romero, and her 22-year-old daughter Mrs. Doris Burrell accepted a ride home from a party last night with Officer Horton Putman of the Highland Park Station. Mrs. Romero was still talking when the ambulance arrived at 3716 McKenzie Ave. to take her to General Hospital with a bullet wound in her chest, but her condition quickly deteriorated.

Officer Putman reported he had decided to show his gun to the lady, and it discharged. Panicking, Officer Putman tossed the gun and three live cartridges onto the front lawn, where they were recovered by investigators. Mrs. Burrell awoke to the sound of gunfire, and discovered her wounded mother in the kitchen, Officer Putman calling for aid.

Police are terming it an accidental shooting.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Hundreds Fathered by G.I.s

April 5, 1947
Frankfurt, Germany

According to Mrs. Jean McCool of the newly-incorporated American charity Orphans, Inc., 450 abandoned babies are living in terrible conditions in local orphanages where there is little or no milk, food, medicines, linens or clothes for the infants. More than half of the foundlings are the illegitimate children of American servicemen.

Monday, April 04, 2005

April 4, 1947
Los Angeles

On March 19, after his third grade classes at Allesandro School, 9-year-old Murl Duncan Cooke, Jr. failed to return to the home he shared at 2910 Gilroy Avenue with brother Newton, 10, and their widowed mother Pearl.

Since then, the boy has been sleeping rough, eating whatever people gave him. Juvenile Officers W.B. Smith and J.W. Scheck finally spotted the kid huddling in a liquor store doorway near where Beverly meets Vermont last night, and brought him into Georgia Street juvenile division for a big slice of banana cream pie and a warm cot.

Why was little Murl alone on the street? The next morning, he told officers, "I ran away once before. I didn't go home till after 8 o'clock and I got a whippin' for it. That's why I didn't want to go home this time." He was returned to his mother's care.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Fireman Injured in $230,000 Fire on Miracle Mile

April 3, 1947
Los Angeles

Fanned by high winds, a two-alarm fire that started today on the kitchen roof of the Melody Lane Cafe (5351 Wilshire Blvd.) spread to five other businesses and did extensive damage to their second stories. Affected were the storerooms of the Pig 'n Whistle candy and pastry shop (5353), Randall Optomotrist (5355), McKlernan's Fashions (5357), Horton & Converse Pharmacy (5359) and Staber's Beauty Salon (5361). Fire Captain Noble Swanson suffered back injuries and abrasions when a section of roof collapsed, and damages to McKlernan's store alone were estimated by owner M. J. McKlernan at $30,000, despite rubber blankets laid down by firemen.

Saturday, April 02, 2005

Police Hold Six After Dope Raid

April 2, 1947
Los Angeles

Latest residents of the City Jail are two young women and four men arrested by Central Vice Squad officers in East Hollywood early today on suspicion of violating the State Narcotics Act.

Det. Sgt. J.A. DiBetta and Officers Paul Stevens and Joe Aguirre state that they observed a group inside a home at 504 N. Westmoreland Ave., among them Betty Thomas, 19, a model, who was seen injecting fluid into her arm. At this point, the officers entered the home, where they arrested Thomas, Sherry Kenton (23, phone operator, Riverside), Roman Mapili (51, 504 N. Westmoreland Ave.), Theodorico Mangosing (38, 821 Thayer Ave.), Cleto Edwarte (45, 439 N. Lake Ave.) and Felix Benigno (39, a transient). Taken into evidence were assorted narcotics and accessories, among them heroin with syrettes, amytal, nembutal and unidentified pills.

Following her arrest, Miss Kenton became hysterical, threatened suicide, and managed to slash her left wrist with her compact mirror before being restrained. Perhaps she was worried she would lose her phone operator gig if news of the arrest made the papers.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Wife Slaying Case in Court

April 1, 1947
Los Angeles

Hermenegildo G. Robles Jr., 25, scion of a Mexican soap manufacturer, had recovered sufficiently today to appear at a preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Leo Freund. Robles stands accused of a fatal assault on his pregant, estranged wife Guillermina, 26, last February 4.

His head swathed in bandages, Robles heard testimony from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Mary Doolan, 128 1/2 W. 43rd Place, who stated that she left her home for a few minutes on that date, and returned to find her daughter dead in the bedroom.

"A few minutes later some police officers came to the house and said that Hermenegildo had shot himself," she said. "I took them into the bedroom and said, 'He shot her, too.'"

After shooting his wife, with whom he had quarreled about money, and from whom he had been separated for two weeks, Robles boarded a streetcar outside the home, alighting at St. Agnes' Church at the corner of Vermont and Adams. After praying, Robles stood on the steps of the church, pulled out a .32 caliber revolver, and shot himself beneath the chin.

Officers said that they had found scribbled notes in Spanish in Robles' pockets in which he confessed to the crime and asked forgiveness. The suspect was taken to General Hospital, and on regaining consciousness arrested.