Oh, Mother!

September 9, 1947
Santa Monica

Three cars full of cops hid on the dark highway just outside of town, waiting for the trio who'd robbed a Ventura cafe of $26 earlier in the evening. Around midnight, the fly was snagged in one of the lawmens' webs.

Pulled from the car was 14-year-old Mrs. Beverly Lynch, blonde-haired mother of a 2-year-old daughter and 7-month-old son, all residing at 723 1/2 W. 8th Street. Also her husband Robert David, 19, and their 20-year-old accomplice Leroy Ulrey, Jr. of 806 S. Westlake Ave.

It's believed that in this as in four previous robberies in the Los Angeles area, the Lynches stayed in the car while Ulrey went inside and held up victims with a .22 caliber revolver. Wonder how much of the loot went to pay the babysitter?

Further reading: The Encyclopedia of Robberies, Heists, and Capers

Lucky Lady

September 8, 1947
Inglewood

Flora Killingsworth, 18, has only been waitressing for three days, but she's already hit the food service jackpot when a customer put a hundred dollar bill down on her counter and told her to keep the change. His order: ham and eggs. Flora ran after the guy to see if he realized what a big bill he'd dropped, but he was nowhere to be found.

Officers said a man matching his description had been freely passing hundreds for small services in the Hermosa Beach area. There was, they hastened to add, no law against it.

The House of Bosko Goes Boom

September 7, 1947
Beverly Hills

A smoldering fire in the basement of a motion picture stock storage house burst into open flame yesterday, blasting out a fire door and injuring six men, among them city firemen. The blaze, beneath the Harman-Ising cartooning studio at 9713 Santa Monica Blvd., caused acculumated gasses to explode even as firefighters attempted to break inside to quash it.

The fire made multicolored smoke to pour from the building's vents, causing traffic policeman C.J. Verhaar to quip it was the first Technicolor fire he'd ever witnessed.

Firemen wore gas masks as they fought the acrid flames.

Meanwhile, out on the sidewalk, displaced alterations gal Mrs. Natalie Nikitin calmly mended some trousers, which she said she had promised to a nice man whose name she did not know.

Smoke and water damage to the first floor shops has yet to be calculated, but appears extensive.

Recommended cartoon viewing: Uncensored Bosko Vol. 1

No deposit, no return

September 6, 1947
El Monte

Bicycling home with a basket full of pop, 10-year-old David Jensen wiped out in front of 3353 S. Double Drive, a couple blocks from his home at #3502. The bottles broke in the fall, and punctured David's belly, prompting Sheriff's deputies to drive him to Alhambra Hospital for an emergency operation. The boy is in satisfactory, but serious, condition at press time.

Further research: Petretti's Soda Pop Collectibles Price Guide: The Encyclopedia of Soda-Pop Collectibles

It's really hard to quit

September 5, 1947
East Los Angeles

It was midnight when 24-year-old Richard Durant of 340 1/2 N. Kern Street sent wife Mary, 25, out for cigarettes. When she returned, she found him making love to her younger sister, Marjorie. Afraid of what she might do, Mary called the sheriffs. And waited. Waited...

And after a while, she got out an icepick and stabbed Richard just beside the heart. So Richard spent the rest of the night in General Hospital and Mary in custody, while the luckless Marjorie watched the Durants' four kids.

When Richard realized his wife was in stir, he checked himself out against doctors' orders and went to the Sheriff's Station, where he told officers he didn't intend to file charges. And the Tiger Lady wants her man back, so it seems like it's going to be all sunshine back on Kern Street, at least for the moment.

Recommended reading: Not "Just Friends" : Protect Your Relationship from Infidelity and Heal the Trauma of Betrayal

It's not all failed chorines and dancing boys

September 4, 1947
Detroit

It was a year ago that prosperous dentist Jules Goldsmith, 42, packed up his wife and three kids and moved them to 201 S. Hamel Drive, Beverly Hills. The good DDS wanted to be not dentist to the stars, but a star himself.

And so he burned through the family's savings, returning to Detroit alone several weeks ago, when he saw how dire circumstances had become. His sister's maid found him hanging from a basement beam, with a note that read: "Big mistake in leaving hometown and all my friends. Lack of work all my fault. Motion pictures just a gag. We have good children. Betty should remain on the coast."

Betty and the children were on their way to Detroit at last report.

Suggested reading for starstruck fang-polishers: How to Make it in Hollywood : Second Edition

Family Food Costs Double Since 1942

September 3, 1947
United States

Based on three polls conducted over the past five years by Princeton, N.J. based American Institute of Public Opinion, non-farm families are spending nearly twice as much on their weekly food budgets as they were in 1942 (national median has risen from $11 to $21). However, professional and business class families are spending more than both white collar and manual laboring ones ($24 versus $20), suggesting that some of that increase is by choice, not necessity.

Hmm, honey, how about we send the kids to the movies, you grill a couple steaks and I'll mix up a pitcher of mai tais...?

Further reading: Beachbum Berry's Grog Log and The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipies of the 20th Century

A Flood of Youths

September 2, 1947
San Francisco

According to a poll conducted by the California Committee for the Study of Transient Youth at the state borders and in 15 California cities, up to 400 young people, 18-22, are entering California each day without their families. Most have left jobs in their home states in the belief that prospects for employment are better in California, and are "puzzled and resentful" to find this is not the case.

Further reading: A World of Its Own: Race, Labor, and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles, 1900-1970

Everybody's in Showbiz

September 1, 1947
West Hollywood

Yesterday, Marguerite Kelly's apartment door, at 1334 Olive Drive just off the Sunset Strip, was framed with fragrant honeysuckle. Today, the County Coroner defaced it with a sticker meant to seal the contents until her next of kin could be notified.

Marguerite, 29, was a blues chanteuse who never quite made it. After seven years in Hollywood, her small trust fund was nearly depleted and occasional cafe gigs weren't replenishing it. Her longtime friend Charles T. Young, 59-year-old retired market exec, took her out to fancy dinners, but seemed disinterested in making things more permanent. She began making notes to herself, analyzing her sad situation.

So after one such evening out with Mr. Young, Marguerite topped off the champagne cocktails with a shot of gas from the stove. Arriving the next morning, Young smelled rotten eggs mixed with the floral vines. With the aid of apartment manager W.J. Ferry, he forced the triple-locked and bolted door.

Inside lay Marguerite, nude, tangled in her blankets, nearly dead. Beside her, a note to Young, calling him the greatest man in the world. It begged "don't cut my hair, just cremate me."

Young expressed surprise that his ladyfriend had felt so strongly for him, and suggested that had he known, he might have done something about it. Too late now. She died and was taken to Utter-McKinley mortuary.

Marguerite has a sister in Milwaukee who may come and claim her sheet music and other remnants of life in Los Angeles.

Suggested reading: Hollywood Babylon : The Legendary Underground Classic of Hollywood's Darkest and Best Kept Secrets

Careful Who You Stop For...

When electrician Walter Haselbuch saw two men waving red-bulbed flashlights at the intersection of Jefferson Blvd. and Harcourt Ave., he assumed they were police officers, perhaps operating one of the LAPD's celebrated (and ACLU-defying) crime-stopping blockades. But when he pulled over, the men robbed him of $186 in cash, a $150 watch and a ring valued at $1700.

Suggested listening for prospective flashlight bandits: Waiting for the Electrician Or Someone Like Him (Firesign Theater)

Incident on Primrose Ave.

August 30, 1947
Hollywood

18-month-old Robin Maria Dier found a little piece of metal, a bolt or a screw, at her home at 6323 Primrose Ave., and playfully stuck it in her mouth. Her mother saw her do it, and tried to take it away, but the child toddled off without releasing her prize.

A few moments later, she was gasping and turning blue. The Fire Department inhalator squad arrived and fed oxygen to Robin for 90 minutes, while Dr. Nicholas Mamulario of Hollywood Receiving Hospital performed a tracheotomy. Her condition appeared to be improving, so the technicians prepared the child for the trip to Children's Hospital. Then she died.

Suggested reading: How to Baby-Proof Your Home

Et in Ann Arbor Ergo

August 27, 1947
Arcadia

She’s home!

Ruth Alice McLaren, 15-year-old runaway, has turned up in Ann Arbor, Michigan after her overly generous tips to a beautician raised the snipper’s suspicions. Now her mother is heading East to reclaim the young lady from the local juvenile hall, while Ruth’s invalid father Russell steams at home at 23 Fano Street.

What of the $2400 in cash (meant for the girl’s college education) that she pinched from the fruit jar last time she left the house? While the girl initially told officers she was a war widow on the run from her in-laws, she quickly ‘fessed up. Seems she met a man in a Pasadena movie theater, and agreed to pay both their ways to Ann Arbor, where her friend said he planned to enroll at the University.

Ruth was a big spender—but mainly on herself. In addition to visiting the beauty parlor, she bought a fur coat, flashy duds and a radio. So who can blame her pal for taking a powder with $1000 of the fruit jar bounty soon after they reached the Mitten State?

But there’s $402 left in the kitty. Which should be just about enough, after travel expenses, to pay Ruth’s way through beauty school, where if she’s very lucky she’ll run into tippers as big as herself.

Suggested reading: Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth-Century American Girls' Cultures

My Mother-in-Law is SO Tough...

August 26, 1947
Los Angeles

Mothers-in-law are bad enough—but no one ever told David Richard, 22, what a pain in the caboose his STEP mother-in-law would be.

When young David left his room at 424 N. Alfred Ave. today on his way to the wholesale house where he works, he discovered his wife’s stepmother, Mrs. Rose Wolfeld, 54, snoozing in his car.

In retrospect, he ought to have taken a trolley, but he woke the woman--and was she ever in a mood. She began by berating him for failing to provide a home for her poor grayed head, and when he got behind the wheel she whipped out a metal bar and clocked him a few times on the noggin. He ran to the house with step-mamma in mad pursuit, while wife Louise, 19, watched in horror.

The victim never did make it to work, spending the day at the Hollywood Receiving Hospital getting stitches in his scalp and on his right wrist (defensive wounds). Mrs. Wolfeld meanwhile was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

David told police that he and Louise married last March, and had been fending off Mrs. Wolfeld ever since. She insisted the couple provide a home for her, but when they moved into the single room on Alfred Ave. three weeks ago, they made it clear that there was no room for the extended family.

Mind you, if Mrs. W had gotten in a couple more whacks, there just might have been….

Suggested reading: Mothers-In-Law Do Everything Wrong: M.I.L.D.E.W.

The Case of the Bride in the Bath

August 25, 1947
Los Angeles

Police are investigating the strange death of Mrs. Susanne Smith Castillo, 23-year-old bride of Dr. Manuel De J. Castillo, who operates "medical clinics" at his home at 480 West Vernon Ave. and at 1250 West Santa Barbara Ave. Mrs. Castillo, a native of Charlottesville, VA and widow of a wealthy New York patent attorney, was discovered dead in a half-filled bath at the Vernon Ave. address by Jesus M. Castillo, her brother-in-law and a technician at the clinic. There were bruises on her head and a laceration near her temple. An autopsy is pending

Sweethearts

August 24, 1947
Los Angeles

On Saturday night, officers B.J. Daily and R. W. Douglas broke up a fight between a couple who were brawling in the middle of Santa Monica Blvd. at Purdue Ave. The man had a gash between his eyes, and both seemed drunk, so while they seemed a little more refined than most of the lushes, down they went to Lincoln Heights Jail with the rest.
Turns out “refined” is the right word—the gent was John D. Spreckels III, 36, debt-ridden heir to the sugar fortune, the lady his 37-year-old wife. Lou Dell Spreckels denied that she was drunk, explaining that they were fighting because she had refused to give John money to go gambling, and so he had struck her. “What are you going to do when someone starts hitting you? So we had a fight.” Makes sense to us!

Both gave their address as a motel at 2500 Santa Monica Blvd. They were each released on a $20 bond and ordered to appear in court at 2pm today to answer the public intoxication charge.

Further reading: Claus Spreckels: The Sugar King in Hawaii

Laurel Canyon Gas Leak Blaze Perils Residences

August 23, 1947
Laurel Canyon

Palmer Ledoux, a DWP worker , set a road work lantern down on Laurel Canyon Blvd. north of Kirkwood Drive today, and ignited undetected natural gas that was seeping from the main beside the road.

Ledoux said, “There was a flash, and by the time I could look around, the fire got out of hand. It seemed that every pocket on the hillside was filled with gas. You never saw flames go faster.”

The fire burned a 200 foot path across a steep hill before being brought under control by firefighters, just shy of the home sculptor Rostand D. Kelly is building on the crest.

In Rossian Roulette, the Rules Are Different

August 22, 1947
Burbank

Benjamin A. Ross, 19, had a peculiar idea of an evening’s entertainment at home with wife Zelda. He occupied himself fitting five cartridges into his six-shot revolver, spinning the barrel, and pointing it at various objects in the living room at 420 N. Moss Street, while the lady wife begged him to stop. Having bucked the odds and avoided shattering any lamps or ottomans, Ross pressed his luck with one final shot, into his own forehead. He died at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

1947project interview at 8763 Wonderland

Our fellow Los Angeles blogger Rodger Jacobs was kind enough to ask Nathan and I a few questions about this project, and the results (be patient, it's now an archive.org link) are on his site 8763 Wonderland today. If you click over to read it, we recommend you stay a while and explore some of the contemporary local crime tales Rodger has to share. He'd become a magnet for them--even getting caught in the middle of a bank robber search in Glendale last week.

And because Rodger's blog and ours share a uniquely dark local bent, we've combined the syndicated feeds from 1947project and 8763 Wonderland into a joint feed called LA Noir. We welcome fellow dark Los Angeles bloggers to contact us and join the feed, but for now it's a time-travel true crime anthology, jumping from 1947 to 2005 and back with daily tales of greed, lust and shame.

If you read blogs in a blog reader (I like bloglines.com), here's the RSS feed
http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/MB0TAXN45L.rss

If you read blogs on the web, try
http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/MB0TAXN45L.html

Chemical Plant Blaze Like A Bikini Spectacle

August 21, 1947
Huntington Park

A suspicious fire at the Charles F. Willard Chemical Co. plant at 5810 S. Soto Street today ignited thousands of 5 gallon tins of auramine dye powder, an extremely flammable product extracted from surplus Army flares. The exploding dye sent a mushroom cloud more than 1000 feet into the air, and caused an estimated $100,000 damage to the plant.

None of the five employees on the scene was injured, and Charles Willard stated that he believed the explosion was triggered by burning weeds in an adjacent lot. This explanation was doubted by Assistant Chief W.H. Burwell of Huntington Park Fire Department, one of five municipal fire departments to respond to the blaze, who suspects the fire began inside the yard, and said his department would investigate.

Confessed Killer Locates Victim's Body in Desert

August 18, 1947
San Bernardino

After several days fruitless “searching,” Robert F. Mehaffey, 37-year-old ex-con, finally stopped lying to Sheriff James Stocker when the latter told him that they were going to walk through the desert sands until they found Lewis D. Edds’ body.

Edds was the 65-year-old amateur prospector who vanished in April while on a vacation from his work as a steel plant guard. He was last seen in the company of a younger man. War Bonds belonging to Edds were later tracked from San Francisco to Texas and thence to Mehaffey, a hitchhiker whom the elderly man had befriended.

Following the Sheriff’s threat, Mehaffey replied “That won’t be necessary” and led him straight to a set of dessicated remains, located stuffed in a drain pipe just off the Lancaster-Palmdale Highway, two miles south of Victorville. This was 55 miles from the last spot Mehaffey had suggested.

Pending examination of dental records, the Sheriff assumes they’ve found the missing Mr Edds.

Suggested reading: Recreational Gold Prospecting for Fun & Profit

Billboard's Top 30 hits for 1947

Francis Craig- near you
Hermonicats- peg o my heart
Ted Weems- Heartaches
Ray Noble & Buddy Clark- Linda
Tex Williams- smoke, smoke that cigarette
Vaughn Monroe- I wish I didnt love you so
Three suns- peg o my heart
Al Jolson- Anniversery song
Larry Green- near you
Sammy kaye- That's My desire
Vaughn Monroe- Ballerina
Art Lund- Mam'selle
Freddy Martin- Managua Nicaragua
Perry Como- Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba
Red Ingle & Jo Stafford- Timtayshun
Ted Weems & Perry Como- I wonder whos kissing her now
Andrews Sisters- near you
Perry Como- When you were sweet sixteen
Jack Owens- How soon
Arthur Godfrey- Too Fat Polka
Eddy Howard- I wonder, I wonder, i wonder
Eddy Howard- My adobe Hacienda
Hoagy Carmichael- huggin and chalkin
Hoagy Carmichael- buttermilk sky
King Cole Trio- I love you for sentimental reasons
Dick Haymes- mam'selle
Vaughn Monroe- you do
Guy Lombardo- Anniversary Song
Bing Crosby- white Christmas

(found on the music trading message group TweedleeDumsDrive-In)

On the Pike

August 17, 1947
Long Beach

With his divorce papers burning a hole in his pocket, and his heart, 30-year-old James Parker of 2246 Clifford Street stopped today at Marie Baines’ shooting gallery at 315 W. Pike Street and laid down a 5-spot. He picked up the .22 automatic pistol that was chained to the counter and fired at four targets. The fifth bullet found a home in Parker’s right temple. He died at Seaside Hospital at 6:15pm.

When police examined the court papers found on the body, they discovered Parker’s penciled notes denying each of his wife’s allegations. He was next due in court at 9:30am Friday.

Suggested reading: Long Beach: In Vintage Postcards

Angeleno Pair Quizzed on His Wounded Hand

August 16, 1947
San Francisco

Speaking on behalf of the citizens of the great City of San Francisco, we'd just as soon you runaway SoCal lovebirds keep your shenanigans South of Tehachapi.

Seems SF police were called to a hospital here to talk with William Farley, 24, of 2217 Cahuenga Blvd., and his flame-tressed friend Mrs. Bobbie Mai Edkins of 1063 1/2 S. Sycamore. Mr. Farley had a bullet in his hand--in their car engine pan, cops found a pistol. The pair claimed they went over a bump and the gun fell from the flove box and discharged (so why the subterfuge?). Later, the story mutated to one of Farley shooting himself to prove his love for Mrs. Edkins. The dope even works with his hands--he's a watchmaker. Sheesh.

And yes, there is a Mr. Edkins, Harry by name, back in LA. Unamused, officers booked the tourists on a joint charge of assault.

Suggested reading: Murder by the Bay : Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco

The Honeymoon's Off

August 15, 1947
Los Angeles

He told the pretty young widow he was getting a divorce, that he was studying architecture and ship building at USC and that he would buy her a yacht that they could pilot on a love-trip once they were wed. So Mrs. Frances Wells O'Donnell, mother of a 4-year-old boy, who lost her second lieutenant Marine husband in the invasion of Peleliu in '44, put $46,000 into a joint account. And Richard Barth, 30, took that "joint" business seriously--he picked up a 52-foot sea-going number called The Otter, and spent another $13,000 on a honeymoon cottage in Woodland Hills.

But when Frances wasn't looking, Richard sold that pad they were to share, remarried his wife, and purchased a home for the two of them at 906 S. Stanley Ave. Frances cried foul when she finally checked the bank book and found $47.50 remaining.

The accused louse surrendered in court today accompanied by his attorney, Sid Kaufman. Bond was set at $3000. Also set into motion was a civil suit on the same matter, originally filed two months ago. Barth denied the charges and insisted his honor would be proven at trial.

Suggested reading: Con Man : A Master Swindler’s Own Story

Husband Sobs Out Story of Domestic Tragedy

August 14, 1947
Bell Gardens

A hangover made him do it. That's what Frank Vogel, 52-year-old machinist/cement worker and author of an unfinished book on Technocracy, said after turning himself in to police officers at City Hall yesterday.

It seemed he'd just shot his wife. Mrs. Hilda Vogel, 45, a secretary at Bell Gardens Junior High School, in an argument over his belief that she encouraged the romantic intentions of other men. She in turn had spoken of divorce.

He suddenly blacked out, and when he came to found her dead on the kitchen floor of their 3-room home at 5613 Clara Street. He put the gun onto the table and, without even getting his coat or hat, drove his wife's car straight to City Hall.

Mrs. Vogel is survived by Jean Aurand, 18, her daughter by a former marriage. Frank Vogel, inconsolable, is in County Jail, booked on suspicion of murder.

Suggested reading: Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941

Woman, Rescuer, Officer Shot in Downtown Battle

August 13, 1947
Downtown

The morning rush hour today was disrupted with a flurry of gunfire, as a jilted Filipino cook sought vengeance on his former paramour, then ran through the streets shooting, endangering police and citizens.

The fight erupted in a food stand in a parking lot at 526 S. Hill Street, when Benedicto Ilamin (aka Bill Sipa), 25, asked his ex-girlfriend Opal Johnston, 33, for a cup of coffee. As she turned to get it, he aimed his .38 and shot her in the hip. Charles Dubou, a 31-year-old waiter who was a customer, attempted to disarm Ilamin and was himself shot in the mouth.

Ilamin ran from the hot dog stand through the parking lot, where he encountered Edward Hubbell, 51, a special officer, who gave chase. The two exchanged shots, and Hubbell was wounded in the leg. As Ilamin crouched to reload, Hubbell grabbed and disarmed him. At this point, a passing traffic officer, Dean Doolan, appeared on the scene and effected Ilamin's surrender.

From her hospital bed, Johnston explained that she had lived with the much younger man at 721 California Street until about a month ago, when she left him after he tried to knife her. She went to Las Vegas, then returned to Los Angeles, where Ilamin had begun annoying her again. He had been into the stand begging her to come back to him on Tuesday night, then again early this morning. His tears turned to rage and he told her "You won't be working her tomorrow!" before shooting her.

All three of his victims are hospitalized. Meanwhile, Ilamin has an explanation for his rampage: "I wanted to talk to her in a nice way, but she wouldn't let me."

Suggested reading: Street Food (Ryland, Peters and Small International Cookbooks , Vol 1, No 4)

Seven in Migratory Family Treated for Food Poisoning

August 12, 1947
Van Nuys

An extended family of seven migratory farm workers was transported from Van Nuys Receiving Hospital to General Hospital today in serious condition after they became violently ill near Agoura after eating a roast chicken. Among the stricken are Lupe Herrera, 45, his 39-year-old wife Frances, their children Sarah, 10, Ernest, 8, Aurelia, 5, the children’s grandfather Jose Murietta, 60, and Lupe’s 43-year-old brother Elesia. The family was en route from Mesa, Arizona to San Jose when they encountered the unsanitary bird.

Suggested reading: How to Prevent Food Poisoning : A Practical Guide to Safe Cooking, Eating, and Food Handling

Burglar Robs Film Couples

August 11, 1947
Hollywood

In a daring, dawn-time raid, a dashing cat burglar entered the exclusive Sunset Tower apartment house at 8358 Sunset Boulevard and stole cash and jewelry from the homes of two motion picture executives while they and their wives slept.

Gladys Burroughs, wife of George Burroughs, vice-president and treasurer of Monogram Pictures, was relieved of two diamond rings valued at $3000 and $1200 and about $75 in cash. Mrs. Burroughs woke up while the thief, whom she described as tall, swarthy and dark-haired, was riffling her dressing table. When he saw her sitting up in bed, too terrified to scream, he fled before he could find her box of really good stuff.

Also victimized was Emanuel Waxberg of RKO, who lost $121 in cash.

It appears the burglar entered through a jimmied patio door leading into the boiler room, took the stairs to the 8th floor, and gained access to the Waxberg and Burroughs apartments through unlocked kitchen doors.

Suggested reading: Memoir of a Retired Cat Burglar
Suggested viewing: To Catch a Thief

Air Error

August 10, 1947
Los Angeles

Ladera Park was filled with picnickers, friends and families enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. One group was comprised of co-workers from Douglas Aircraft. Among them, George Porter, 33, of 531 Richmond Street, El Segundo. Porter decided to leave the party, but not entirely—he returned to Ladera Park later in the afternoon in his two-seater plane and buzzed the ampitheatre down at tree-top level. Three times he circled the bowl, terrorizing those on the ground. Recreation Director George T. Blair squinted at the craft to get the numbers so he could report the reckless pilot. But there was no need: on the fourth go-round, one wing hit a branch and down into the ravine came George Porter and his flying death machine.

Instantly killed were Porter, Mrs. Eula Walters, 29, of 1731 West 51st Place and two-year-old Myrna Lynn Coffey, of 1135 ½ E. 68th Street. The baby was in her mother’s arms when wreckage from the plane hit them both. Also injured was Mrs. Walters’ 4-month-old, Kenneth Dale, whose baby buggy was spattered with engine oil. Mrs. Walters and Mrs. Coffey had just been on the croquet grounds, where their husbands heard the impact and raced to discover the horror.

Porter’s passenger, wife Brownie Belle Porter, survived the crash and is in fairly good condition at Harbor General, with a fractured collar bone, mild concussion, dislocated hip and possible internal injuries.

Captain Sewell Griggers of the Sheriff’s aero squad is attempting to determine from what airport Porter took off, while Vermont subdivision deputy Sheriffs James E. Christian and W.J. Grater examined the wreckage.

Suggested reading: The Illustrated History of McDonnell Douglas Aircraft : From Cloudster to Boeing

A Percher's Tale

August 9, 1947
Los Angeles

For the past week, Smokey has been perching precariously atop a 75-foot palm tree at the home of her mistress, Mrs. Gilbert Waters, 145 W. 59th Street. It was this inauspicious spot that the little gray cat chose to go when it came time to have her kittens; three little ones fell dead from the tree.

But Smokey herself remained in the air, despite the cries of family and friends. Yesterday a brave tree climber from the SPCA scaled the palm, and Smokey promptly leapt to the ground and hid under the porch. A few hours later, she came out and permitted Mrs. Waters to feed and water her. “She was pretty hungry and dirty,” said her mistress, “but we’re so happy she’s down.”

"Crime Crusher" Blockade Status Studied By Court

August 8, 1947
Los Angeles

ACLU representative A.L. Wirin, an attorney, is asking Superior Judge Henry M. Willis to rule that those recent “crime crusher” street blockades are unconstitutional and must be stopped. The search and seizure of property belonging to people who just happen to be driving through a blockaded intersection is, Wirin states, “intolerable and unreasonable.”

Police claim a decrease of 18.2 percent in reported crimes in the blockades sections of the city, and seek to continue the practice. In an affidavit filed at the Court, Assistant Chief of Police Joseph Reed insisted that only cars containing “suspicious characters” were being searched, and that for law-abiding citizens, the stop was no more inconvenient than a traffic light. A side issue is the fact that public funds are being used to finance the blockades.

Judge Willis took the case under submission.

Suggested reading: In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU

Shot On Phone Brings Help

August 7, 1947
Reseda

While chatting with his gal on the phone, Robert Davis, 21-year-old trucker, spun the revolver he’d been cleaning around on his finger. The gun discharged, expelling a bullet into Robert’s gut. Kay Hite heard the explosion, then silence, and raced from her home at 7461 Darby Ave. to Robert’s place, 7348 Jamieson Ave., where she found him lying on the floor. Currently, Robert is at Birmingham General Hospital in serious condition. He’ll be in worse shape when his brother Donald, a Valley Division cop, finds out what the kid did with his .38 Colt Commando.

A Legal Thorn

August 6, 1947
Richmond, VA

Before Valentine B. Lawless went off to war in 1944, he indulged himself in a little piece of fancy. At 36, he was still as romantic as his unusual name suggested. And so he left a special provision to his will, to be read only in the event of his death by his brother Edward.

After Valentine did die, in a plane crash at Linz in October 1944, Edward discovered that his brother had been hopelessly besotted with a girl who loved another. In death, he wished that his estate--$3600—be used to support the weekly delivery of one perfect, anonymous rose to his secret beloved. It was his idea, he wrote, “to furnish the girl with the pleasure of receiving the rose, not to have her think of me because I sent it to her.”

But just as Valentine’s personal name reflected his character, so did the familial surname reflect sister Margaret’s. She contested the will on the grounds that it was “not practical,” and in so doing caused Valentine’s secret wish to become fodder for the national press, as well as the local rags. It is reported that the unnamed lady of the bequest is married and living in the Virginia Tidewater section.

Youngster Kept Chained to Bed for Five Months

August 5, 1947
Los Angeles

Mrs. Edith Velasquez, 28, can’t handle her son, but her husband can.

Earl L. Daily is 12, and big and strong as a grown man—unfortunately, he still has the brain and impulse control of a child. When husband Florian, a laborer, is at work, Edith cares for her six other children—Marcellina, 11, Florian, 9, Geraldine, 6, Marie, 5, Winona, 4 and Dickie, 3. And she chains Earl, her child by a previous relationship, to a bed in their 3-room house at 19006 Wilmington Ave.

For the past four years, Edith has been trying to get Earl admitted to the Pacific Colony Home, but the institution hasn’t had room for the boy. Lately he’s taken to running away. So he spends his days padlocked to the bed in the room he shares with five of his siblings, with occasional visits to the yard. He’s only unlocked when his stepfather is home and can control him, and catch him if he runs.

It must have been one of those chained stays in the yard that led to the visit from the juvenile division officers, who came to inquire and learned that Earl and his 6-foot length of chain had been intimate for the past five months. They’re working on arranging a formal committal to an institution, which will leave the Velasquez family free to concentrate on their other children.

Edith expressed hope that Earl might fare better in his new home. “It will be so much better for him there. He’s never been to school, and maybe at the right place they can teach him something. Last year he’d try to get on the school bus with my other children. But the driver knew him and would always send him back home. He’s always talking about school.”

See also: A history of the National Association for Retarded Children (ARC)

Monkey, Free for Week-end, Brought Home

August 4, 1947
Pasadena

Monkey on the loose! Tiny Chris, a Panamanian Rhesus monkey recently mailed to Pasadena as a household pet, spent the weekend swinging around the 1100 block of Rose Avenue, ignoring the increasingly frenzied calls of owner Mrs. Ruby Whitehead. The little guy spent his freedom hopping from tree to tree, occasionally dipping down to harass a chicken in its coop.

Neighbor Pearl Scanlon spotted him at 1151 Vinedo Street and called the police. The cops turned the matter over to the Humane Society, but they couldn’t catch him, either.

Chris’ lost weekend came to a natural end when he got weak from hunger and hung listlessly from a eucalyptus. When Ruby came by, Chris permitted her to bring him home to 1103 Rose Ave., where he feasted on grapes and bananas and was repeatedly reminded what a bad little sweet wee rotten monkey darling he was.

Suggested reading: The Complete Adventures of Curious George

Ex-Murder Hoax Figure Back in the Papers

August 3, 1947
Woodland Hills

Remember Eugene H. White, the 31-year-old engineer who apparently vanished out of his blood-splattered car over the Valentine’s Day weekend, only to show up two weeks later in Seattle-town with an eight page manifesto blaming his troubles on a civilian version of combat fatigue? Well, Geno’s in the news again today.

Seems city inspectors complained that the addition he was putting on the White manse at 22304 Providencia St. sported a ceiling that was five inches too low—fine if he was building for snakes, not so good for a growing family. So Eugene, unemployed since the Seattle incident and harried from housebuilding while wife Elizabeth and the kids summered with family in Ann Arbor, did what any frustrated home builder would do: he set the house on fire.

As it burned he became remorseful and tried to stop the licking flames with his handy hose, but by then it was too late, and neither Eugene nor the combined hoses of four Reseda and Canoga Park fire companies could save the six-room structure. Arson officers arrested Eugene as he watched it burn.

Down at the Van Nuys Jail, he told reporters that the house had been a jinx all along. We’ll see if his wife agrees when she returns from Michigan.

Champ Crow Hunter Boasts Kill of 1423

August 2, 1947
Los Angeles

The crows and ravens of the Santa Barbara orange and walnut groves cower on the wing before the 20-, 16- and 12-gauge shotguns of Richey Haddon, bloodthirsty claimant of more bounties on the pesky avians than any other Californian. Fish and Game pays 15 cents a bird, so Haddon shoots them out of the sky--4681 since the bounty was enacted in September 1945 (that’s $213.45 in crow cash).

Haddon doesn’t just shoot crows—he eats them, and sleeps on a mattress stuffed with their pin feathers.

The Killer of Crows lives at 1209 W. 38th Street, an address migrating birds will want to avoid (or perhaps crap on, under cover of night).

Quarts & measures

August 1, 1947
Sacramento

The state is growing, but it's becoming less thirsty--or so it appears from a State Board of Equalization report issued today, which pegs the May 1946 liquor consumtion rate at 1,891,669 gallons of the hard stuff, May 1947 a paltry 1,192,228. The liquor industry is nervously suggesting a return to the 25¢ cocktail.... but mayhap the numbers aren't what they seem to be. We can think of any number of misleading reasons for such a drop. Take the poll below to chime in with yours (multiple answers are okay).

Why might it appear less sauce was sipped in May '47?
	Free drinks for returning servicemen.
	Slippery accounting practices.
	B-girls' beverages don't count.
	Numbers accurate; matched by surprising spike in soda orders.
	More liquor smuggled in from TJ now that gas rationing finito.
	Soused barman can't count so hot.
	Other (email your answer to amscray@gmail.com and I'll add it to this entry)
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Additional comments: Elisabeth says "I think Larry's got it: All those drunk driving busts thinned the herd."

Angel Garcia's Last Dive

July 31, 1947
Hollywood

Tongues are wagging over reports that earlier this week in Acapulco, Johnny Weissmuller's stunt double Angel Garcia was killed when waves dashed him back against the base of the cliff from which he had just executed a spectacular high dive for the production Tarzan and the Mermaids.

Better Days For Ant Paste Girl?

July 30 1947
Los Angeles

Times have been tough for the Harold Johnson family, but the barely averted poisoning of daughter Janet could be a harbinger of better things.

About a year ago, the Johnsons and their three kids were evicted from their home, and while mom was packing, she contracted polio and was hospitalized for ten months. Church friends found the family a new home at 540 N. Commonwealth Ave. and helped dad look after the little ones. Mom's out of the hospital now and rebuilding her strength. But last week, the family car was totaled, and yesterday, 5-year-old Janet found some poisonous ant paste, determined it looked enough like honey to be tasty, and ate quite a lot of it.

But here’s where the Johnsons ill luck took a possibly happy turn. The ant paste girl was taken to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, where she made a positive impression on a newsman, who alerted a casting agent to the hard luck cutie. This morning, she was called down to meet Hal Roach Jr. for an informal audition for an unspecified future kid flick. Roach liked the little miss, so peel an eye for her on a silver screen near you.

Suggested reading: A History Of The Hal Roach Studios

Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

July 29, 1947
Los Angeles

Home on leave from Alaska for his grandmother’s funeral, 22-year-old technician 5th grade Richard DeSpain quaffed a lot of bay rum and got into an altercation with some Negro youths, whom he said robbed him. Determined to settle the score, he returned to his mother’s home at 323 E. 109th Street and retrieved his Japanese pistol.

The boy’s mother is Reverend Emma DeSpain, one-time follower of Aimee Semple McPherson and until recently minister at the now-closed Victory Chapel, 10700 Avalon Blvd. Reverend Emma was hosting a luncheon for several nice Christian ladies, but left her guests to plead with the boy to be more peaceable. In the course of their struggle, the gun, clutched in Richard’s pocket, fired, shattering mama’s thighbone.

Richard ran off, but soon returned to face the consequences. Cops are turning him over to military authorities, since his emergency leave expired two weeks ago, and the good Reverend says her injury is a small thing if it means her hard-drinking boy will start to live right. Here’s hoping!

Suggested reading: Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson

Contaminated Soya Sauce Dumped in Drain

July 28, 1947
Los Angeles

Police still don't know who did it--adulterated the city's soya sauce supply with quantities of arsenic nearly sufficient to cause death. Dozens of Japanese residents became ill earlier this month after ingesting rice seasoned with the poison, but all have since recovered.

Health inspectors today supervised the dumping of about 1500 gallons of suspect soya sauce, tipping drums down drains at a Little Tokyo wholesale business at 114 Weller Street. Another 48,500 gallons will soon face the same fate.

The sickly sweet odor of the sauce lingered on the air, bearing with it perhaps a hint of death, as the men from the health department acted to protect all citizens, even those of Axis descent.

Sugar Sugar

July 27, 1947
Washington

Congress has just one day left to extend the industrial and institutional sugar rations, as requested by the Agriculture Department. Should they not vote the funds to continue keeping sugar from bakers, confectioners, food processors, bottlers, hotels and hospitals, the sweet stuff will commence flowing as it did before the Nazis ruined everything.

So hold your breath and make a wish that your representatives drag their feet tomorrow, and ajourn with the rationing bill untouched. Otherwise the rations will continue until (dear Lord, those Aggies are so cruel, so very cruel) Hallowe'en.

Further research: The Bubblegum Achievement Awards, October 7, 2005, at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in downtown Los Angeles

Mortuary Car Hit By Auto Crashes Store

[There are some stories from 1947 that seem custom-tailored by some benevolent Surrealist god who seeks only to delight my co-blogger Nathan Marsak. This is one of those stories...]

July 26, 1947
Los Angeles

David James Cline, an 18-year-old transient from Ohio, smashed into a hearse today at Pico and Crenshaw Blvds., sending the mortuary car hurtling into the corner candy store. The back of the hearse flew open, and the stretcher shot through the front door of the shop.

Don Luke, the hearse's 31-year-old driver, 284 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, was slightly injured, but his assistant Chester Hanson, 29, 8301 Kenyon Ave., had his back, leg, right hand and nose broken.

Cline bolted from the scene, but was captured by witnesses. He's been booked for felony hit-and-run.
suggested reading: American Funeral Vehicles 1883-2003: An Illustrated History

Recipe for annulment

July 25, 1947
Los Angeles

Take one blonde "freelance actress" (Mildred Jenkins, aka The Bride)
Add one Alameda County rancher (A. Q. Bonnet, Jr., The Groom)
Marry them in Las Vegas

Immediately after their wedding breakfast, have the groom take the bride and her female roommate to a gambling house, where he loses all his money and repeatedly demands that his new missus stake him, because what’s hers is his now. When she refuses, have him tell her that she takes the marriage too seriously, and that to him it’s just a good gag. Then have him drive back to the bride’s apartment at 145 S. Reeves Drive, Beverly Hills, where he leaves Mrs. Bonnet and her roommate, Jane Adrian, never to return.

Superior Court Judge J.A. Smith said that was as a fine example of an annullable marriage as he'd lately heard, and granted the request.

Mass Vacination Set for All Aboard Train

July 24, 1947
San Bernardino

Ray Thompson, 38-year-old waiter on the Santa Fe Grand Canyon Limited, had a rash. It looked a lot like chickenpox, but after doctors offloaded him Wednesday it was determined he was suffering from smallpox.

Health officers now plan to board the train this morning in San Bernardino, and inoculate the 138 persons still on board before its 11am arrival at Union Station. Anyone who refuses the shot will be taken directly from the train to their home and quarantined for two weeks.

Among the passengers are five carloads of delegates en route to the west coast Lions Club International convention. (What’s a little shot between lions?)

Post-hypnotic suggestion?

July 23, 1947
Los Angeles

Remember Lula Colias, yesterday's unfortunate whose Hindu yoga teacher took her for $20,000 while she sat helpless? Police picked her up this evening at Fifth and Main.

Det. Sgt. F.I. Ellis explains that the lady took a long cab ride (Long Beach to Ocean Park, and thence downtown), hopped out of the cab and created a disturbance. Is she bats, in a trance, or just driven batty by her recent loss? Lula's under observation at the General Hospital psych ward, so maybe an answer is forthcoming.

Suggested reading (again): The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism

Woman Says Hypnotist Vanished with $15,000

July 22, 1947
Los Angeles

Lula Colias, art student and would-be publisher of books on mystic arts, called police today to report that the Hindu mystic with whom she has been studying yoga and spiritualism, and whom she last week loaned $5000 for publication of a book on hypnotism and “secrets of the Far East,” is no fake.

It seems the Hindu dropped in to see Miss Colias, 35, of 615 W. 35th Street on Monday evening and carried on a seemingly normal conversation with her before suddenly intoning, “You can’t move!”

And indeed she could not, and watched helplessly as her spiritual friend made straight for the cash box, liberated $15,000, and waltzed out the door. When the lady regained her senses, she dropped a dime on her holy hustler. Bunco is investigating.

Suggested reading: The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism

Marooned Travelers Make Rail Station 'Home'

July 21, 1947Downtown Los Angeles

The train engineers are on strike, and Union Station is beginning to look like a flophouse. Guitar-strumming Mexican actor Jose Y. Torvay made the mistake of cashing in the bus ticket he’d bought in Mexico City after the Warner Brothers gave him train ticket as an après-shooting gift. There’s now a two-week waiting list for southbound bus seats, and no hint of when the engineers will return to work. Fifty manual laborers bound for Portland kibitz in the patio, and a big brown Boxer dog named Duchess swelters in her crate, while a dame in El Paso waits for the living symbol of puppy love she’d been promised from a West Coast Romeo (that’s Albert J. Kallis of 1300 S. Mansfield Ave.—sorry, gals--and sci fi poster geeks--he’s taken!).

Suggested reading: Science Fiction Poster Art

'Hobo Camp' Estate Gift Made to Santa Barbara

July 20, 1947
Santa Barbara

The hobos of Santa Barbara's Jungleville gave a rousing cheer tonight as news filtered through their encampment that their great, but aging, benefactress Mrs. John Howard Child had ensured their protection for the foreseeable future by deeding her estate Vega Mar—17 acres on East Cabrillo Boulevard between the Mar Monte Hotel and the Mrs. William A. Clark Estate, currently valued at more than $100,000—to the city.

A previous attempt to give the property to the University of California foundered when the school was unwilling to allow Mrs. Child to remain in her home. Some years ago, she sold the section of property where the hobos camped to the Mar Monte Hotel people, and personally supervised the moving of their ragged dwellings to the new location.

Mrs. Child retains a life interest in the property, and has declared that the hobos shall not be moved so long as she survives.






Suggested reading: Riding the Rails by Errol Lincoln Uys

He was kind to dogs

July 19, 1947
El Monte

When traffic officers busted 14-year-old Leonard Kiter of 521 S. Muscatel Avenue, San Gabriel last night for jumping a signal on his motor scooter at Five Points in El Monte, they opened up a hornet’s nest. For it seems young Leonard was carrying the wallet of his grandfather William, and could give police and his father Leland no explanation for it.

Leland was concerned, and went with officers to the campsite near Big Bear where the 70-year-old was staying (in town, he lived at 2511 Las Flores Ave., Alhambra). There they found William Kiter, dead from axe wounds, laying on a cot.

The boy initially denied knowledge of his grandfather’s death, but soon confessed to killing him. They had spent the morning fishing, and the old man was mad about a lost anchor and anchor rope. Before that, there were fights over William’s refusal to rent horses and motorbikes for Leonard. So when William went to take a nap, Leonard crept up and whacked him.

Suddenly helpful, Leonard showed police where he hid both parts of the axe, about a quarter mile away from the camp site, in two places. And he told them how before the killing, he’d carefully placed a blanket over his little dog to spare the creature the terrible sight.*

suggested reading: Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us by Robert D. Hare

[* a note from 2005: Leonard was charged with murder the next day, and not a single mention of the boy or his crime ever again appeared in the pages of the L.A. Times.]

'Hecate' Seller Found Guilty

July 18, 1947
Hollywood

Are dirty books being sold in Hollywood? According to an 8 woman/ 4 man jury in Municipal Judge Mildred L. Lillie’s court, yes. Although the conviction of bookseller Harry Wepplo and the Pickwick Book Shop Corp. was previously dismissed following a reversal in the State Supreme Court, the City of L.A. made a fresh charge. The offense was selling Edmund Wilson’s racy “The Memoirs of Hecate County,” and Judge Lillie insisted that every word of its six short stories be read aloud in her courtroom. It was no defense for Wepplo to claim ignorance of the content: if the jury found the book dirty, it was their civic duty to convict.

And so they did. Harry Wepplo was released on his OR, and attorney Raymond Stanbury stated he would ask for dismissal when court reconvened on Friday.

And from the uppity New York literary critic who wrote the filthy tome, or Doubleday, the fly-by-night smut merchants who published it, not a peep was heard.

Mother Tells Plight of Self and Sandy

July 17, 1947
Los Angeles

On July 7, a pretty blonde woman came to the home of Mrs. Marie J. Crow, 344 W. 82nd Street, to inquire about the classified ad she’d posted, offering a room for a mother and a child. With her was a little girl, around 4 ½ years of age. Mrs. Crow explained that the room had been rented, but she agreed to care for and board the child for $15 a week.

The blonde eagerly accepted the offer. She introduced herself as Toni, and explained that she and her daughter Sandy had just come from Seattle, that she was a cocktail waitress, separated from her husband, and that she had sold her house to finance an operation for the child, who was born blind but could now see. And if Mrs. Crow would just keep an eye on Sandy, she’d just go down to the post office and get some money…

And of course that was the last Mrs. Crow saw of Sandy’s mother. After a week, she phoned police, and Sandy was taken to Juvenile Hall as an abandoned child. A story in the Times about the little girl’s plight quickly rousted the errant mother, Mrs. Iona (Toni) DuBose, 30. She told reporters that she was broke and had no friends in Los Angeles, that Sandy was hungry, and she couldn’t stand to see the child suffer.

She’d come to town looking for her estranged husband, a barman by the name of James (Slim) DuBose, in hopes that he would pony up some cash for Sandy’s eye treatments—astigmatism had made her blind from birth until an operation last fall. Since leaving Mrs. Crow’s house, Toni had found a bar girl’s gig at a café on Main Street, and had rented a hotel room.

After interviewing the mother, Juvenile Officer Alice Owen said, “This woman needs help more than punishment,” and declined to file charges. The case is being turned over to County Probation for hearing and disposition.

Suggested reading: Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls : True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors by Edward E. Leslie

Woman Dies After Police Get Kin Suicide's Note

July 16, 1947
Lincoln Heights

Visiting the in-laws can be such a drag. But there’s no excuse for behaving like the late Raymond Scott did during his stay with Mrs. Eva Utzinger, 74-year-old mother of Scott’s widow Lucille.

The Scotts were on vacation at the Utzinger home, 368 S. Ave. 21, when Eva turned up with a broken skull at the foot of the outside stairs leading into the cellar. Detectives found a red-stained hatchet in the cellar, and turned it over to the lab to see if the stains were blood.

Also nearby, an unsigned note in Scott’s handwriting. “I must end the source of trouble in this house. You know whom I mean. I find I cannot escape a breakdown. And so, I am jumping from the N. Broadway Bridge. You have been a wonderful family. Here is insurance to get you well.”

Scott, who was 60, and a schoolteacher at Taft, was indeed found gravely injured at the base of the Broadway and Pasadena Avenue bridge. He died at Hollywood Presbyterian. Lucille confirmed that both she and her son had been ill.



Suggested listening: Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights by the other Raymond Scott

Hot Rod Boys Spend Afternoon in Court

July 15, 1947
Compton

Compton Justice Court Justice Harry R. Simon spent this afternoon lecturing twenty fidgety, t-shirt and jeans-clad youngsters on how very, very, very naughty it was that they had turned a local street into a hot rod race track last July 8. All were caught when local police blockaded the street and snared the drivers.

Fines ranging from $2 to $5 were levied on 9 of the boys, and all were charged for having defective gear on their cars, with a requirement that they produce evidence of repair. “If we catch you racing your hot rods in Compton again,” said Justice Simon,” I am going to throw you all in jail. You had better behave yourselves, because we’re not going to have that kind of driving in this town.”



suggested reading: Hot Rod Pin-ups by David Perry (intro by Robert Williams)

Broken Marriage Ends in Slaying, Suicide Try

July 13, 1947
Los Angeles

When Mrs. Dorothea Lee, 35, left husband Horace last May 9, she might have thought she was rid of him. But Horace wasn’t finished with Dorothea. Last night, there were noises in the backyard of 559 W. 90th Street, disturbing the dog. Dorothea’s parents were visiting from Portland, so her father, George C. Brooks, went out to see what it was. He was promptly felled by three shots to the head. Dorothea and her mother saw Horace standing over him and ran to a neighbor’s to call the police. Then they went back to the house (ah, such innocent times). There on the living room floor with a bullet in the head, the estranged Horace. Brooks died on the scene, but his son-in-law lingers. They’ve moved him to the prison ward at General Hospital for now, and if he lives will do what they can to kill him.


suggested reading: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Horace McCoy

Woman Shot as She Sits on Bus-Stop Bench

July 12, 1947
Los Angeles

Was it shame, pride or loss of blood that made Dorothy Hawkins, 24-year-old waitress, half-rise from her General Hospital bed to grit her teeth and insist the man (tall, slim, 20s, brown suit) who shot her as she sat on a bus bench at Wilshire and Vermont was a stranger? And the stranger was polite. After shooting her, he said “I am sorry that happened. I’ll go and call and ambulance.”

But when police visited Miss Hawkins’ apartment at 1214 W. 8th Street, they found the door smashed in. Neighbor Frances Darby described a man busting it down, arguing with Hawkins, and leaving with some boxes not long before the 2:30am shooting.

Former Folsom prisoner Aubrey Jones, 26, was raised on the horn and asked to come down to the station. He admitted he’d spent some time with Miss Hawkins, but declined to meet officers as requested. A bulletin was issued for his arrest.

Meanwhile, the lady has less than a 50% chance of surviving. Gut shots are tricky that way.

suggested reading: Fast Food : Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age ... or pre-order Kevin Roderick's Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles
(out next month)

Soya Sauce Poison Tests Stir Seizure

July 11, 1947
Los Angeles

The war is over—so who is trying to poison the Japanese-American citizens of Little Tokyo? Forty people took ill two nights ago, and the cause was quickly found to be near-fatal quantities of arsenic adulterating the strange salty black soya sauce of which that population is so fond. In what seems to be an ingenious targeted attack—which has thus far failed to kill anyone, because the parts per pound were 2.3 grains instead of 2.7—at least one brand of soya sauce proved potentially life-threatening.

Not taking chances, city and state health department workers cooperated with officers of the Pure Food and Drug Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to seize some 8000 gallons of soya sauce throughout the southland. And while there have been no deaths, Captain Jack Donohoe of the police homicide department is on the case.

All roads lead first to the Staley Manufacturing Company (Decatur, Illinois), which ships soya sauce out to the coast for repackaging by local dealers. Representatives of the firm insist that there’s no way such large quantities of arsenic entered the food chain on their end—so the question becomes, at which local bottler did the deadly powder find its way into the dark and highly-flavored medium?

suggested reading: The Whole Soy Story : The Dark Side of Americas Favorite Health Food

Woman Says She Booked Bets, but Only as Favor to Friends

July 9, 1947
Hollywood

It’s a friend indeed who sits around the house all day, taking horse-race bets from her buddies and passing ‘em along to a real bookie, for nothing but the joy of helping out.

This is the happy task claimed by Mrs. Kleo Marie Prince, 43, of 1737 N. Whitley Ave. While the perfectly-named officers G.F. Tillett and D.J. Lightfoot, who raided their apartment, report that Kleo and hubby Edmond, 38, Hollywood Boulevard shoe store owner, were both heard taking bets, and that they tossed the slips out the window when the cops busted in.

Mais no! says Kleo. Edmond was just home for a little lunch, and knew nothing of her hobby. Superior Court Judge Walter S. Gates evidently found this a convincing explanation—aquitting the husband while convicting the missus on a charge of bookmaking.

And not for the first time in these pages, I wish my great-grandpa Louis Prupis was still around. He had a shoe store on Hollywood Boulevard around this time, and was a betting man. I’m quite certain he had the dirt on the Princes and their little Whitley Flats operation.

suggested reading: Love Me, Love My Bookie: A Novel About Gambling and Marriage

Slain Woman's Stripped Body Found in Gutter

July 8, 1947
Lincoln Heights

It was 1:00 am when the divorce papers came, informing Antonio Mondragon, sheet metal worker of 1925 ½ Gates Street that his four-year marriage to Rosenda, 20, was ending. Of course, it was no surprise—she’d moved out of the house she shared with Antonio and her sister, Mrs. Trinidad Vigil, two months previously, and was living at 826 S. Crocker Street.

So the papers were served, and then about an hour later Rosenda herself appeared—drunk, said Antonio. They argued, and she left. Antonio followed, and saw his wife get into a car.

Or did she? William Moore, market clerk, says a woman matching Rosenda’s description called a cab from his store (location: N. Main and Mission Road) around 2:15am, telling the dispatcher she wanted a ride to San Pedro and 9th Street (a block from her home). But a car came by before the cab did, and the lady thumbed a ride with a husky blondish fellow in a dark coupe.

Flash forward a couple of hours to the early dawn, when mail clerk Newton Josha finds a gruesome package in a gutter on Elmyra Street near North Main: Rosenda Mondragon’s naked corpse, a silk stocking tightly tied around her throat. No signs of sexual attack. The likelihood that she had been killed elsewhere and pushed from a moving car.

Officers promptly gave Antonio a lie detector test, found his story at odds with his nosy neighbors, and booked him on suspicion of murder at University Division Jail.

Was it a husband scorned? The Black Dahlia’s killer, making a more northerly assault? Or an entirely new threat to the women of Los Angeles, striking near the city’s heart with a still-warm victim dumped by the train yards just up the road from the halls of commerce and of law? And how drunk did one have to be to thumb a ride, with Liz Short's killer still on the loose? Drunk enough so it didn't hurt to die?

We can only hope so.

Wife Backs Up Mate She Says Fired At Her

July 7, 1947
Los Angeles

Who will ever understand the mind of a woman?

Nellie Robison was chased screaming from her home at 129 West Century Blvd. last night by husband Frank, 48-year-old welder. She was smart to run: Frank was firing .22-caliber bullets. Nellie found safety at a neighbor's house, and cops finally rousted her old man after firing tear gas canisters (and gassing themselves on the upwind). Once Frank was cuffed, Nellie ran out and embraced him, calling him "Honey Boy," and urging him to go along with the officers. Frank and his red-eyed captors adjourned to Georgia Street Receiving Hospital for eyewashes, and Frank was later booked at 77th Street Station on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

We'll assume his sweet Nellie will be waiting when, and if, he gets out.

A selection of vintage Los Angeles images available for purchase

Hobbled Bird Chases Cat Out of Home

July 6, 1947
Los Angeles

It was a black day for Dingbat, long-haired tabby cat companion of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Patton of 571 S. Coronado Street. The Pattons found a weird black bird out on the lawn, its feet tied with a leather thong, and, with typical human foolishness, thought it would be a good idea to bring the hellish creature into the apartment.

The raven (or mynah, reports differ) promptly chased Dingbat out the door, and if it weren't bad enough that every kid and cat and bird in the neighborhood knew of Dingbat's shame, the man from the newspaper came and made kitty pose with the fowl interloper.

Dingbat won't be letting his owners out again for a long time.






suggested listening: The Story of the Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and Pussycat [ABRIDGED] (Audio Cassette) by Eric Idle

Thrill-Seeking Children Injured by Fireworks

July 5, 1947
Lynwood

Scores of kids ended up in area hospitals from firecracker-related injury over the July 4th weekend, but one young man in Lynwood set a sad record for carelessness and maiming.

Billy Wells, 13, of 2650 E. Century Blvd., insisted on playing with a 4-inch cylindrical professional pyrotechnic device that he found at a South Gate fireworks display. Ignoring the warnings of Joseph S. Dodson of 13715 Wright Lane, the father of a playmate, he punctured the tube and poured black powder on the porch of the Dodson residence.

Then, of course, he lit a match. Dodson was thrown backwards and momentarily blinded by the flash, while Billy's shattered hand was amputated by doctors at St. Francis Hospital, and he may lose the sight in one or both eyes. The condition of the Dodson porch is not known at press time.




Recommended reading: Firecrackers: The Art and History

Alert Officer Blocks Bridge Leap of Model

July 4, 1947
Santa Monica

What was 25-year-old model and movie bit-player Marjorie Jane White doing standing on the Ocean Avenue bridge overlooking Colorado Avenue at 3:30 in the morning? Thinking about money troubles and how nobody liked her, poor dear.

When Sgt. James Vitale saw her gazing down at the traffic, he knew he might have a jumper on his hands... so he crept up and grabbed the lass, and pulled her away from the brink.

"I don't think I would have had the nerve to jump," she sobbed, "But I'm glad you stopped me!" Marjorie's dad Paul Parr Smith picked her up and drove her home to Inglewood. She's a contestant in the July 17 Miss Hollywood contest, so judges: give the girl a break!

P.S. Change the name, kiddo. Hollywood memory is short, but not that short.





suggested reading, Santa Monica Bay: Paradise by the Sea : A Pictorial History of Santa Monica, Venice, Marina Del Rey, Ocean Part, Pacific Palisades, Topanga & Malibu

Film Cinderella Sought For Kidnap Questioning

July 2, 1947
Los Angeles

Madge Meredith—what went wrong? The little Iowa City blonde, discovered while working as a cashier in the 20th Century-Fox commissary, later signed to RKO where she starred in “Child of Divorce” and “The Falcon’s Adventure,” though her contract recently lapsed, is today a fugitive, wanted on kidnap charges!

Two men are in custody following the daring escape from remote Lopez Canyon of Miss Meredith’s former business manager, 38-year-old Nicholas Dan Gianaclis and his assistant Verne Vinson Davis.

The men were allegedly shanghaid when they arrived at the base of Laurel Canyon Boulevard for a planned meeting with Miss Meredith. She turned up in a new red convertible, and motioned for them to follow her to Gianaclis' house up the hill. Near it, she used her car to block Gianaclis’ car while pointing him out to three associates in a third vehicle, one of whom administered a blackjack beating while the others held guns. Gianaclis and Davis were forced into their assailants’ car and driven for more than an hour, with blows punctuating every move they made. On arrival in Lopez Canyon, they were held at gunpoint for six hours, until they managed to escape and find aid at Slocum Ranch.

What’s it all about, Madgey? The lady recently made noise about suing her former manager for substituting a grant deed for a mortgage paper on the house at 8444 Magnolia Drive where until recently she and her family lived, and where the two hostages now reside, though after some initial testimony, the matter was dropped. Gianaclis identified one of his attackers as William Klinkenburg, 32-year-old cook, 6439 Agnes Street. When arrested, Klinkenburg was holding a gun belonging to Barclay Leon Thomas, 33, of 6936 Woody Trail. Barclay’s three-year marriage to Gianaclis’ daughter was annulled last week. Thomas denies any knowledge of the kidnapping and assault.

Madge Meredith’s mother, Mrs. Laura Massow, reached at her home at 8942 West 24th Street, said she had no idea where her daughter, who came home only occasionally, might be.

Police are still looking for the actress, and two mysterious men named “Jim” and “Bill,” and trying to determine motive for the strange incident.

[usually at 1947project we leave our cases frozen in time, but this one is just too juicy not to share further reference material. Miss Meredith turned herself in and served more than two years in prison at Tehachapi before her sentence was commuted by Governor Warren in 1951; Gianaclis had his citizenship denied for reasons of poor character; and in the end the lady got her house back, married a doctor (though it didn't last) and apparently made some films in Europe.]

Butler Drowns in Swimming Pool

July 1, 1947
Bel Air

Oh, it's simply too ghastly! Algie Atkins, 23-year-old butler of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Silbert, dove into their pool at 250 Carolwood Drive, and never came back up. And you know, Mrs. Atkins was there, but the poor thing can't swim, so she couldn't rescue Algie. Neither could the Fire Department rescue squad, when they showed up.

Algie Atkins, kid butler, R.I.P.