tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-115197312012-02-06T21:33:09.385-08:00Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.comBlogger5731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142543415427224182006-03-16T13:07:00.000-08:002011-07-03T22:42:26.517-07:00

On March 13, 2006, 1947project completed its mission to spend one year documenting the offbeat and criminal history of 1947 Los Angeles. You've found our archive site.Come explore our other time travel blogs:1947project.com (1907 and 1927 Los Angeles crimes)On Bunker Hill, a lost neighborhood found In SRO Land, lost lore of the historic core Or climb aboard the Esotouric bus to discover the

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139189877122811802006-03-15T17:33:00.000-08:002010-12-03T20:06:12.751-08:00

Esotouric bus adventures mailing list1947project online store

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142322344623275442006-03-13T23:23:00.000-08:002006-03-14T00:01:34.280-08:00

March 13, 1947Los AngelesDetectives questioned James Joseph Tiernan Jr., 30, tonight about his movements Monday night, both before and after the time he claimed that Evelyn Winters, 42, left his hotel room at 912 W. Sixth Street. Winters turned up dead just after midnight Tuesday in the railyard at Ducommun Street, her clothes in disarray, with a blood alcohol level of .28, a nearly fatal

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142332658175538622006-03-13T23:11:00.000-08:002006-03-14T02:53:53.146-08:00

1947—a lot of women-killing, a lot of booze. It’s enough to turn one into a teetotaling sub. Almost.And here, a woman killing herself. With booze. Nowadays, her family would call up A&E and she’d be on Intervention. Perfect fodder for the show—someone: somewhere once, nowhere now. Our identified family member has hit bottom. Get them into treatment. God, give me the strength to blame those

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142288852714672762006-03-12T14:07:00.000-08:002006-03-13T14:27:34.113-08:00

March 12, 1947WhittierSheriff's deputies have obtained a confession from shaggy-haired Myron Funk, 23, in the shocking slaying of Mae Lorena Lund, the 46-year-old ladyfriend of Funk's father Frank (aka Hardrock).Lund's strangled body was found in the shallows of the San Gabriel River in Norwalk, several miles from her home at 115 Burton Street, Bellflower. Funk admitted that he had returned

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142308467003772972006-03-12T11:54:00.000-08:002006-03-13T21:28:03.413-08:00

We take for granted all that easily obtainable marihuana of our teens, and that ever-so-precious peyote gobbled in our twenties, and all this easily obtainable Xanax of our thirties; back in the day, there was just booze. You didn’t have to go cop, and everything you did score had rigorous quality control. Your only worry was making sure you got to Manny’s Grog n’ Groc before the Tick Tock

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142192365244115042006-03-12T11:31:00.000-08:002006-03-13T10:47:37.700-08:00

Oh, you delightful sickniks! After tabulating the votes for the next Crime Bus date, I see that the majority of respondents have asked for the tour to roll on Easter Sunday, 4/16.And so it shall. If you would like a seat on the Easter Sunday Crime Bus tour, featuring strange and horrible tales from the history of downtown Los Angeles, please visit this site to purchase through paypal.You may also

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142191040053606712006-03-12T11:14:00.000-08:002006-03-12T11:17:20.466-08:00

Henceforth you will find us at our own URL, 1947project.com.Our RSS feed will be published exclusively through feedburner.And a whole new adventure begins...

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142112919876818042006-03-11T13:26:00.000-08:002006-03-11T13:35:20.740-08:00

March 11, 1947Los AngelesA shiny new dime glinted brieflyat the bottom of a hole at East 58th Street and Naomi Ave. before being topped by a trolley pole, the first of many to planted as part of a new electrical trackless trolley system.B.M. (Barney) Larrick, L.A. Transit Lines operating manager, dropped the dime as a symbolic good luck offering to the new coach route which, once it opens on June

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142060554671062022006-03-10T22:54:00.000-08:002006-03-10T23:02:34.746-08:00

March 10, 1947Los AngelesJames Edwards, 57-year-old busboy in a Broadway cafeteria, is one of those folks who doesn't trust banks. He's been saving for many years with the dream of owning his own home.This morning, near East Second and Los Angeles Streets, a robber clouted him over the head and emptied his wallet. When checked into the Georgia Street Receiving Hospital, Edwards still wore his

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142304693386313282006-03-10T22:48:00.000-08:002006-03-13T18:54:04.683-08:00

Lucky Jim Edwards. He had been watched over, from the southwest, by the kindly St. Vibiana’s (Kyzor/Mathews, 1876). 58 years later, he would have been less well looked after from the northwest by the breathtakingly BorgCube Caltrans VII building (Thom Mayne/Morphosis, 2005), its 216,000sf having turned its back to the action.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142059475938642982006-03-10T22:42:00.000-08:002006-03-10T22:44:36.216-08:00

Gentle riders,The 1947project bloggers have been hard at work, uncovering some of themost ghastly tales ever to unfold in the great central heart of ourcity. In April, you can discover these horrors on a little bus tourwe're calling Nightmares of Bunker Hill.To give us a sense of how much demand there is for seats, we ask yourassistance. If you would be interested in attending this tour,

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141971365846602152006-03-09T22:09:00.000-08:002006-03-09T22:16:06.120-08:00

March 9, 1947Santa AnaFlummoxed partway through the ride home to El Toro Marine Base, when the Negro cabbie suggested he come up front and take the wheel as he was feeling sleepy, Patrick Crawford accomodated the snoring driver by delivering him straight to the Santa Ana cops. It was a good instinct on the young Marine's part: investigation revealed that sleepy Mervin Wilturner, 21, was likely

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141842431383427642006-03-08T10:22:00.000-08:002006-03-08T10:27:11.866-08:00

March 8, 1947AlhambraWhile busting Robert Chelsea Putter, 49, on a forgery charge, officers made a delightful discovery. Putter had written an 18-page booklet instructing would-be forgers on the rules of the trade. Unfortunately, he had neglected to follow his own advice, and landed in the pokey.The specific rules not followed? "When you don't succeed in passing a check, get out of town but fast.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141802754378219722006-03-07T23:22:00.000-08:002006-03-07T23:26:03.166-08:00

March 7, 1947Portland, ORIn the course of fining a driver who admitted to driving 38mph in a 20mph zone, Judge J.J. Quillin quipped that he admired the fellow's forbearance, for he was the first California driver he'd ever known to drive under 50!

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141698418198131172006-03-06T18:25:00.000-08:002006-03-06T18:26:58.393-08:00

March 5, 1947VeniceHis curtains blazing, Charles Mason, 71, raced towards the heat of the flames and fought bravely to extinguish them. He gave no thought to his blindness and merely did all he could to staunch the fire and save his furnishings--and succeeded, though not without injury. When his roomate William H. Watson came home to the flat at 1126 Washington Blvd., he found Charles terribly

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141697973455809892006-03-04T18:13:00.000-08:002006-03-06T18:19:33.673-08:00

March 4, 1947Los AngelesWhen two Pacific Electric freight cars derailed near Firestone Blvd. and Maie Avenue, Helen Gil, 25, observed the carnage from a prudent 40 yards away... prudent, that is, until the fence beside which she was standing crumpled under the weight of the cars and collapsed, fracturing her ankle and giving her a possible concussion.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142149007413427442006-03-04T11:30:00.000-08:002006-03-12T00:25:27.206-08:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about trains since they started building that mighty railroad over in Griffith Park. You know, from the paper three days ago. So I’m on my way down to South Gate to watch the derailed trains roll by, maybe get a piece of fence stuck in me, when I became entranced by some car fire near Hoover and Venice. When it dawns, do you really want to see another serene scene of

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141447782790088642006-03-03T19:32:00.000-08:002006-03-03T20:49:43.103-08:00

March 3, 1947Los AngelesSince 1944, Sarah Shirley Ruenker, 32, has suffered crippling claustrophobia, an ailment that today nearly kept her from filing for divorce against her machinist husband Carl. Accompanied by her attorney Barry Woodmansee, she bravely stepped into the tiny elevator at City Hall... then crumpled in tears and had to be carried out by Woodmansee and the operator. After

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141443068017389962006-03-02T19:21:00.000-08:002006-03-03T19:31:08.256-08:00

March 2, 1947Los AngelesCabbie Clifford Brown is fortunate to be alive tonight after an encounter with an armed robber at 110th and Central. A fare asked him to wait there while he picked up a buddy, but the buddy came packing heat. Before Brown had a chance to respond, the gunman's finger twitched, and a bullet tore into the cabbie's breast pocket. The pocket was stuffed full of change, which

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141371799889230242006-03-01T23:37:00.000-08:002006-03-02T23:43:54.730-08:00

March 1, 1947Los FelizThe long-awaited midget railroad in Griffith Park is nearing completion, and wee tykes citywide can scarcely hold their water as they anticipate the thrill of circling the figure-eight-shaped, half-mile track near the Riverside Drive side of the Park.The new concession is work of Floyd Wells and Sam Bornstein, its $50,000 cost covered by the city in return for $150 monthly

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142282808603493312006-03-01T00:42:00.000-08:002006-03-13T18:57:49.603-08:00

No, these men aren’t burying children, they’re building a railroad…for now. Don’t they know what railroads do? Don’t they know that all trains are capable of is buckling and derailment? Wait til they read the papers on March 4 to see what happened to Helen Gil. Here, an earthen roof will be put over this cut to make a tiny tunnel, where a tiny Taggart Transcontinental can…you know the

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141354836915414532006-02-28T18:55:00.000-08:002006-03-02T19:00:37.200-08:00

February 28, 1947near Long Beach'tis the season for faked abductions, with yesterday's nude 17-year-old found bound in her underpants with a cigarette burn on her wrist confessing to police that she had "dreamed up" the sinister man who attacked her, and had tied and injured herself. She's Jacqueline Mae Stang of 2009 Chestnut Ave., Long Beach, currently in custody of the Long Beach juvenile

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141273518646391992006-02-27T20:18:00.000-08:002006-03-01T20:25:19.053-08:00

February 27, 1947near Long BeachFiends are loose in the city, and no girl or woman is safe! The latest victim is a 17-year-old high school girl--found naked and bound with her own underclothes, with a cigarette burn on her wrist--near the Union Pacific underpass at Willow Street. After treatment at Seaside Hospital, which revealed no sign of criminal assault, the shaken girl recovered

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1141107389978991102006-02-26T22:10:00.000-08:002006-02-27T22:16:30.333-08:00

February 26, 1947Seattle, WARemember Eugene White, the businessman who disappeared on Valentine's Eve, leaving his coat, wallet, bloodstained car and gifts for the Missus? Police speculated he'd been robbed, beaten and tossed into a passing freight car, but it turns out he's fine and well, and camped out with a pal in Seattle. It was the wife of that friend, Jay Stevens, who convinced White to

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142112684447974102006-02-26T01:30:00.000-08:002006-03-11T13:31:24.576-08:00

Gifts for the missus.Awwwww.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140941359182589282006-02-26T00:05:00.000-08:002006-02-26T00:09:19.376-08:00

February 25, 1947Los AngelesJuggling-act partners Elizabeth Reinke, 25, and Walter Beemer, 77, married in 1943 and divorced in 1946, stepped into judge's chambers today to re-knot their troth. The lady explained, "It was not the same after our divorce. We both worried. It once caused him to drop an Indian club on my foot." We hope the pair have many happy years ahead of them, with no broken toes

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140940800938221642006-02-24T23:51:00.000-08:002006-02-26T00:04:36.753-08:00

February 24, 1947ComptonLittle Patti Sue Roeder, stricken with polio before she turned two, has become the pet of the Textile Association of Los Angeles. The group vowed to donate the child's weight in ten cent pieces to the March of Dimes. When she stepped onto the scale today, it read 33 pounds... and while the TALA had raised 37 pounds of coinage, they decided to let the difference slide. The

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1142110518644749282006-02-24T00:53:00.000-08:002006-03-11T12:55:18.900-08:00

Perhaps an image of a house in Compton doesn’t make you think of the March of Dimes, but who cares. Look at that curved entry canopy! On a numismatic note, just last year the dimers had moved from using these—to these:

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140664899052029802006-02-22T19:16:00.000-08:002006-02-22T19:21:39.336-08:00

February 22, 1947Los AngelesTen hours after the plating factory explosion on East Pico Blvd., 20-year-old Charles Batye turned on a machine at the creamery at 1120 Towne Avenue and was badly injured when a shard of glass, a by-product of the explosion, flew out and hit him in the left eye.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140751358121823782006-02-22T17:21:00.000-08:002006-02-23T19:24:09.323-08:00

Funny, there was a creamery here yesterday.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140586635778744432006-02-21T21:26:00.000-08:002006-02-21T21:37:16.113-08:00

A message from our pal Jonathon at the essential L.A. Time Machines site, who is speaking at this March 18 event:The group we are forming will focus on Los Angeles Restaurant History in general, with an emphasis on restaurant memorabilia collectors, writers on restaurant history and the oral history of classic restaurant employees and owners. Scheduled to speak at our first meeting are Jim

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140576843798900542006-02-21T18:28:00.000-08:002006-02-21T18:54:04.133-08:00

February 21, 1947Los AngelesThe city continues to reel under the horrific impact of yesterday's chemical explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Company, 926 E. Pico Blvd., which leveled the factory, damaged 116 homes, injured hundreds and killed more than a dozen persons.City officials scattered rat poison around the blast site to deter vermin, while others condemned the contents of local

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140242015885656742006-02-21T17:53:00.000-08:002006-02-23T23:26:47.986-08:00

I don't know about you, no, really, I don't know about you, but I get hot for chemical journals what discuss that unpredictably violent and violently unpredictable perchloric acid. You'd think Bob O'Connor, as manager/secretary of O'Connor Electro-Plating Corp., would be similarly obsesssed. You'd think wrong. Bob was a sales and business tool. When some other cat named Bob--they stick

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140485676428330252006-02-20T17:24:00.000-08:002006-02-20T17:34:36.823-08:00

February 20, 1947Los AngelesWhen Walter John Munro, 29-year-old plumber and amateur pilot, lurched out of his new plane at the Torrance Airport, after an erratic low altitude flight over Hawthorne last December 8, he claimed that air sickness and not alcohol was the cause. He was so anxious to land that he touched down in Torrance, and not Compton, where he'd begun his flight. Clifford Cottam,

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140408142937060062006-02-19T19:52:00.000-08:002006-02-19T20:02:23.260-08:00

February 19, 1947PasadenaHarry L. Roberts, 53, died today in a fire that began when a cigarette fell into his bedclothes. The one-time Forest Lawn advertising manager and Tournament of Roses publicist had spent the past four years struggling with a mysterious illness that gradually paralyzed his limbs, and had most recently been laboriously typing a memoir of his sickness in hopes of discovering

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140760413172683582006-02-19T09:50:00.000-08:002006-02-23T21:53:33.236-08:00

Smoke poured from here. The Stone Man calcified.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140335723033938102006-02-18T23:55:00.000-08:002006-02-18T23:55:23.360-08:00

February 18, 1947Los AngelesAll evidence suggests that, while driving west on Washington Boulevard under the overpass near Santa Fe Avenue, trucker Robert Frazer was struck by a piece of falling concrete. He then drove more than eight miles, in heavy traffic, before careening onto the sidewalk at his place of employ, at Firestone and Paramount Blvds. Co-workers rushed to his aid, and found Frazer

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140760822590228052006-02-18T21:58:00.000-08:002006-02-23T22:00:22.663-08:00

Here’s exactly how and where he was driving…tooling west, not a care in the world…Note the large chunk of concrete beneath the Santa Fe overpass. It tolls for thee.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140240644085671362006-02-17T21:21:00.000-08:002006-02-17T22:30:18.956-08:00

February 17, 1947Long BeachThe truck filled with empty milk bottles hit the car on Santa Fe near 23rd Street yesterday, and both drivers were launched forward through space, where they smashed together as surely as their machines had. Truck driver Abner Teachout, 49, is in Compton Clinic, his condition serious, while 24-year-old Phil Meyers is in critical condition at Seaside Hospital, Long Beach.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140149156334128662006-02-16T19:14:00.000-08:002006-02-16T20:05:57.063-08:00

February 16, 1947Los AngelesPolice and railroad officials continue their search today for Eugene Hamilton White, 31, tool company executive missing since Valentine's Eve, when he cashed his paycheck and left his office en route to his Woodland Hills home.His bloodstained car was discovered near a Southern Pacific loading spur and warehouse, between 50th and 51st Streets, Long Beach Avenue and

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140145110286756372006-02-16T18:53:00.000-08:002006-02-16T18:58:30.566-08:00

Our friends at the LAist are blogging one of the more notorious crimes in Beverly Hills history, the mysterious Ned Doheny killing, when the son of the oil heir ended up dead steps away from his similarly gun-shot male secretary. Was it a simple murder-suicide, a lover's quarrel, or the work of Doheny's spurned bride? Carolyn Kellogg looks into the mussed clues and controversy, and shares an

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140068011052675412006-02-15T21:33:00.000-08:002006-02-15T21:33:31.330-08:00

February 15, 1947San FernandoLeila Nichols, 18, had dated 22-year-old William Hunter once prior to their interaction this evening. Hunter, who spent 3 1/2 years in a Japanese prison camp, accosted the girl as she crossed a vacant lot after midnight, en route to her home, bashing her in the head with a lead pipe. The assault was interrupted when Nichols' brother-in-law John T. Rust drove by and

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139977428862706662006-02-14T20:10:00.000-08:002006-02-14T20:23:49.083-08:00

February 14, 1947Los AngelesAlcohol is a terrible drug. It lured Jeanne French, mother and wife, out to gin halls, where, in the words of her sobbing son David Y. Wrather, "She made friends easy, awful easy. She went out alone sometimes. She's gone now, and I'm sure she would want me to say the right thing. She made a lot of her own trouble. Her husband tolerated a lot from her. He was a tolerant

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139853198187098212006-02-13T09:43:00.000-08:002006-02-17T22:29:11.580-08:00

February 13, 1947Beverly HillsSheriffs' officers came all the way from Fresno today to arrest Barbara Land, 27, the gal who married gambler Tony Cornero Stralla last fall, after which they divorced and subsequently remarried.The charge is burglary of the Snow Line Lodge, near General Grant Park. Miss Land and her pals Elaine Rodgers, 29, and Robert Cabaniss, 31, allegedly visited the tavern, but

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139796093206504152006-02-12T17:50:00.000-08:002006-02-12T18:01:33.480-08:00

February 12, 1947Los AngelesNightclub owner Paul Rubin is a cautious fellow... at least he likes to think he is. So when he stopped at the bank near his club at 1571 W. Washington Blvd. to withdraw two $500 bills, he put his antennae up. While shopping in the drugstore around the corner at Washington and Vermont Ave., those antennae detected a strange man who seemed inordinantly interested in his

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140233285840197972006-02-12T16:27:00.000-08:002006-02-17T19:31:22.506-08:00

No surprises here—didn’t see any honest men (or even Diogenes) or Rubin’s club, but as you may possibly note in the photo, our tale's drug store is still down on the corner in its current incarnation as a Rite Aid.Down the street, though, I did see my Fave House in LA, dear to me not only for her architectonic charms, but for the shocking disconnect between her and her surroundings. Like that

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139729265705540372006-02-11T23:27:00.000-08:002006-02-11T23:27:46.483-08:00

February 11, 1947Los AngelesWhile visiting the home of producer Ray Stark and his wife, actress Gene Tierney stumbled on a rug and fell backwards down some steps, breaking her left foot. Miss Tierney is confined to a wheelchair and will be unable to return to work for two weeks.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139728707864150862006-02-10T23:15:00.000-08:002006-02-11T23:18:28.110-08:00

Larry Harnisch takes a breather from blogging the Big Bad Wolfe Book to requesta Moment of Silence, Please Today is the anniversary of the Feb. 10, 1947, Jeanne French murder. Frequently linked to the Black Dahlia in the popular imagination and absurdly claimed as one of the umpteen victims of Dr. George “Evil Genius” Hodel in “Black Dahlia Avenger,” French was a tragic, broken-down alcoholic.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139587704470424582006-02-09T08:08:00.000-08:002006-02-10T08:09:05.090-08:00

February 9, 1947CarsonMemo from Alex J. Wysocki: "if you wanna rob my liquor store, don't start by saying 'Hi, Pop'!"That was the message learned the hard way by the young gunman who held Wysocki up at 21923 S. Main Street for $150 and two bottles of whiskey, then went in the back to rummage for more plunder. Meanwhile, Wysocki fumed. "Pop? Pop?!" When the kid emerged from the storeroom, Wysocki

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139467981572944862006-02-08T22:46:00.000-08:002006-02-08T22:53:01.606-08:00

February 8, 1947Lincoln HeightsTransient Richard Dennis, 33, broke into Mrs. G.B. Blakeley's home at 2730 Medford Street and absconded with the one thing most appealing to a sleepy sneak thief: an alarm clock. Unfortunately, he made it no farther than the front lawn before tucking in for a nice snooze. When the alarm went off, Richard slept right through it, but neighbors copped the buzz and

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139381659817690642006-02-07T22:44:00.000-08:002006-02-07T22:54:19.850-08:00

February 7, 1947West Los AngelesHarry Crocker will be making his own breakfast if his neighbors on N. Westbourne Drive have anything to do with it. Six of them have successfully sued to have Mrs. Isabel Crocker and daughters Alicia, Jean and Muriel evicted on the grounds that the mother is 3/4 Indian and the girls half so afflicted.Although Superior Judge Ruben S. Schmidt ruled Thursday that the

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140230759878560192006-02-07T18:07:00.000-08:002006-02-17T22:32:11.353-08:00

Wait. What kind of Indian? Nowadays I’d wonder if they’re Kayastha Jats or perhaps of the Sudra Varna. But this is 1947, and one can only assume God-fearing White folk were disinclined to share a sewer system with the heathen Gabrielino. Or terrifying Chumash from the North!Here’s the house. I mean, it’s fine, yeah, it’s West Hollywood, so you’re there for the schools or the nightlife or

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139276652851232522006-02-06T17:38:00.000-08:002006-02-06T17:44:12.886-08:00

February 6, 1947DowntownWhile helping to unload a 15-ton marble slab from a freight car at his place of employment, 1801 South Soto Street, Ray Hunt, 43, was crushed to death. The dead man lived at 1706 Wall Street.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140235062680227662006-02-06T07:53:00.000-08:002006-02-17T19:57:42.743-08:00

Tombstone? Of marble? Nah, they’re more often made of Indiana granite (or were in 1947—they’re now that embarrassing black Chinese stuff). 15-ton slabs of marble were reserved for the finest of mausolea, so Ray Hunt (no relation) was definitely going for something beyond his station. The sin of pride.The marble company, its freight car—have been lost to the ticking clock. As shall happen to

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139207115631365372006-02-05T22:12:00.000-08:002006-02-05T22:25:15.690-08:00

When Nathan and I spoke with Donald H. Wolfe, author of "The Black Dahlia Files," at a book signing recently, we brought visual aids with which to draw his attention to his plagiarism of our colleague Larry Harnisch's L.A. Times Dahlia article and website. (The entirety of page 295 is Larry's writing, improperly credited to John Douglas.)Mr. Wolfe seemed flabbergasted, said he had paid Douglas'

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139204169963937102006-02-05T21:28:00.000-08:002006-02-05T21:36:10.006-08:00

February 5, 1947Burbank The war came home to the Valley today when an A-26 bomber conducting airflow tests accidentally disgorged an unarmed 12' missile, which crashed to the ground in a parking lot uncomfortably close to a home at 1730 Keeler Street.Worried neighbors circled warily until Burbank Police Lt. K.K. Kipers determined the torpedo posed no danger to the public. The plane meanwhile

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1140227607048782102006-02-05T17:53:00.000-08:002006-02-17T19:43:24.576-08:00

1947 is best known to the Angeleno for the Dahlia, and on the world stage there’s—what—the War for Hebraic Self-Determination, or the Kon-Tiki sailing about, but for America-at-large, 1947 means Roswell. Crazy things were flying around in our skies all the time, which, fans of little green men will be sorry to hear, were most likely secret US military whatnot. And radio controlled bombings of

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139114679247956672006-02-04T20:12:00.000-08:002006-02-04T20:44:39.310-08:00

February 4, 1947Culver CityMiss Isabel Foster feels lucky to be alive tonight after being accosted by a man in a 1940 sedan while she was waiting for a bus at West Adams and Redondo Blvd. He asked if she needed a ride, and when she demurred showed a butcher knife and demanded she climb into the passenger seat. Terrified, she complied."Where'dya live?""3-3-3-3895 M-m-m-main Street.""Stop

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1139032371642246422006-02-03T21:41:00.000-08:002006-02-03T21:52:51.706-08:00

February 3, 1947Los AngelesMore than two weeks after the body of Elizabeth Short, 22, a Massachusetts-born transient, was discovered cut into two halves in the weeds in a Leimert Park lot, homicide detectives continued beating the pavement seeking clues to the baffling and gruesome crime.On the town's west side, a search was on for a young blond man seen driving an unlicensed coupe with a stained

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138941319964222832006-02-02T20:27:00.000-08:002006-02-02T20:35:20.076-08:00

February 2, 1947Los AngelesThe Better Business Bureau has issued a public service warning about three bold swindles perpetrated against city residents in the past week.BEWARE: the door-to-door baby shoe bronzer, who will disappear with mama's deposit and baby's footwear, never to be seen again...DON'T PAY: the frantic "exterminator" who rushes into a business with a sack of "the DDT the boss

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138899834798422722006-02-02T08:58:00.000-08:002006-02-02T09:03:54.840-08:00

Dear Editor of the Woburn (MA) Advocate:As one of three (not two) hosts of the 1947project Crime Bus Tour savaged by Jon Hartmere in your pages recently, I'd like to ask why he felt compelled to so thoroughly fictionalize his experience while maintaining the pretense of reportage? The tour guides were myself (Kim Cooper), Nathan Marsak and Larry Harnisch, and we have the reasonable expectation

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138860860150983872006-02-01T21:59:00.000-08:002006-02-01T22:14:20.186-08:00

February 1, 1947DowntownTearing down Bixel Street towards Seventh came death in the shape of two teenage boys in a Jeep. Richard McCrary, 16, 1317 Connecticut Street, missed his turn and careened into a fire hydrant, then two pedestrians. Water gushed out over Cornelius Enright, 50, of 121 Manhattan Place and Camille Tendeza, 61.Enright died at the scene, while Camille was rushed to Georgia

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138303758793259452006-02-01T21:47:00.000-08:002006-02-02T08:53:34.866-08:00

Weeeeeeee!Oops.No evidence of army surplus GP fun-time anymore. (Also no evidence of the Victorian homes that once graced the area.)

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138859376612484332006-02-01T21:44:00.000-08:002006-02-01T21:49:36.646-08:00

The long awaited story on the Dahlia Days Crime Bus tour has been rescheduled for this Saturday night, during the 10pm Fox-11 news broadcast in Los Angeles. Tune in and enjoy.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138771010188482922006-01-31T20:57:00.000-08:002006-01-31T21:16:50.243-08:00

January 30, 1947HollywoodGet miffy at tennis pro hubby when a lady tennis player calls to suggest they team up in a tournament match, cry as he splits for the L.A. Tennis Club, drink a shot of iodine, follow it up with an antidote of flour and eggs, then telephone sweetums to tell 'im what you've done. He'll race home and speed your upsy tummy to Hollywood Receiving Hospital for emergency

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138294835931497652006-01-31T18:56:00.000-08:002006-01-31T21:47:32.146-08:00

Awwww. The happy couple.Bernice and camera lock unblinking eye: this is the happiest day of my life, and everything is going to be perfect from hereonin. Tom, he's espied some other skirt already.Of all the houses on the block—that one on the left a typical example—only the Falkenburg home, right, has a giant wall of flora shielding it from the eyes of man. What are they hiding? The shame,

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138758251189889132006-01-31T17:41:00.000-08:002006-01-31T22:09:55.280-08:00

We, the undersigned, as consumers with an abiding fondness for the striking, historic and uniquely Californian blue and orange ball-shaped Union 76 logo, be it on tall metal poles or car antennae (since 1967), hereby call on ConocoPhillips to reconsider their alteration of the 115-year-old brand, to cease replacing spherical blue and orange 76 balls at gas stations with flattened blue and red

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138683353503641022006-01-30T20:44:00.000-08:002006-01-30T20:55:53.556-08:00

January 30, 1947Venice"Here, kitty kitty!" was the song of Millwood Avenue as the neighborhood joined in urging pussycat Middy to alight from her perch, 75 feet up in a palm near her home at number 750.After six days, Middy's mistress Mrs. Don Bowser was at her wit's end, her throat raw and neck sore from craning. Although the fire department declined to assist, Boy Scouts from Venice Troop 75

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138298501165993412006-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:002006-01-31T08:39:33.626-08:00

This is too damn suspicious. Sure, go ahead and argue it's likely there's some sort of giant feline-bolixing lodestone under Venice sending cats up trees, or a scientist shooting suicidal brainwaves to the pussy population...tell yourself anything you want...but the disturbing fact remains that the last time we blogged about a cat leaping from a tree, it was one block away. My instinct tells me

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138586646708411842006-01-29T17:52:00.000-08:002006-01-29T18:04:06.776-08:00

January 29, 1947San PedroDaniel Baccarat, 50-year-old liquor store proprietor until recently serving customers at 211 W. Ninth Street is on the run after City Health Inspectors discovered that the possibly infectious leper was working with the public. An attorney who called the Health Department to inquire if a warrant had been issued for Baccarat's arrest rang off the line when asked if he

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138301009989369112006-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:002006-01-30T08:26:31.700-08:00

The liquor store is now a parking lot. Of course it is. It had to be burned. It had LEPROSY!!!I can see Baccarat now. His mottled porcelain white-skin. The nasal ulcers. The eyebrows falling off. "You want the pint or the fifth?" His cytokines and activated macrophages raising all manner of lesion and nodule…"your change, sir!" Ah, leprosy. That most biblical of afflictions. We think

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138569876191581012006-01-29T12:59:00.000-08:002006-01-29T13:24:36.273-08:00

January 17, 1947DowntownGentle readers,In the excitement of leading the Crime Bus tour, we inadvertently neglected to blog one of the stories that, when first reading the 1947 papers with an eye to writing a book ten years ago, made it obvious that I'd stumbled onto a very interesting shadow L.A. And so we bring you, twelve days late, The Hotfoot That Slipped Through The Cracks.Thomas Gant, 40,

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138515306297160542006-01-28T22:07:00.000-08:002006-01-28T22:15:06.340-08:00

January 28, 1947Santa MonicaJack Gillette, 68-year-old aircraft worker, was called into Judge Thurlow T. Taft's courtroom today to answer a charge of firing, without provocation, a miniature gun of his own manufacture at the lower body of Venice cabbie Jack Stewart, 29. The bullet, half the size of a .22, left a nasty bruise on the younger man's hip. Gillette declared that he had merely wanted to

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138429628745681362006-01-27T22:14:00.000-08:002006-01-27T22:27:08.820-08:00

January 27, 1947Hollywood HillsHarry Babasin, 25, was just sitting down to a chess game with William Haller, 24, when all heck broke loose. Sixteen State and L.A.P.D. Narcotics officers busted into the large home at 5751 Tuxedo Terrace and placed the whole joint under arrest. In addition to Babasin, a member of Benny Goodman's band, and Haller, late of Freddie Slack's outfit, this included Nelson

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138142125232044222006-01-27T14:34:00.000-08:002006-01-28T12:05:37.310-08:00

I don’t get the Hollywood Hills. It’s cramped, there’s nowhere to park, and every time you run out of liquor it’s twenty arduous minutes to the store. But I suppose that’s the price you pay for privacy.Looks private enough— —and it is an impressive three-story structure……but that sixteen narcos would wind there way up there to bust some tea-blowing agony piper, that puts me off the Hills for

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138334989443126332006-01-26T20:01:00.000-08:002006-01-26T20:09:49.506-08:00

January 26, 1947Terminal IslandGrizzled mariners are baffled by the mysterious development of a perfect lover's knot in the anchor chain of the Navy oiler U.S.S. Caliente. When anchor was dropped in 9 fathoms of water, the chain hung perfectly straight--but when they went to move her into dry dock, the knot made it impossible to weigh anchor.Sailors cut the knot with torches and moved the ship on

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138262356408900982006-01-25T23:48:00.000-08:002006-01-25T23:59:16.463-08:00

January 25, 1947Albuquerque, N.M.Actor Dean Jagger, 42, proposed to his lady friend Gloria Joan Ling, 24, a Fortune mag staffer. She said yes.Oh, joyful day! But when the Santa Monica registry office refused to issue a marriage license due to the bride's Chinese heritage, the couple had to roam as far east as Albuquerque, where a call from director King Vidor succeeded in urging clerk May

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138257977638062382006-01-25T22:36:00.000-08:002006-01-25T22:47:15.493-08:00

It was our pleasure to host the Times' intrepid Cindy Chang on our Dahlia Day Crime Bus tour to sites macabre and fascinating. Her story is a terrific snapshot of the mood of the tour and our aims in writing the blog and dragging folks around the city.We were thrilled to discover we could sell out two full sized tour busses with only minimal publicity on this and other blogs, and in the L.A.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138168700000557512006-01-24T21:31:00.000-08:002006-01-24T21:58:20.046-08:00

January 24, 1947West HollywoodTwo days after Eviction Day at the fabulous Mount Kalmia Castle, fancy flophouse at 8311 Sunset Blvd., the 38 hapless lodgers of ex-Follies star "Queen" Patricia Noblesse Hogan continue to hustle for new homes. Back in February, the grand, turreted residence overlooking the Sunset Strip was sold to dentist Manuel H. Haig at auction for $83,000, but Her Majesty had

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138158338191104092006-01-24T21:29:00.000-08:002006-01-25T08:01:03.766-08:00

(Since there’s so much to go on [and on] about Mt. Kalmia, check out the comments section for all the fine print.)When I read that there was a twenty-room Norman castle fronting Sunset Boulevard, of course, I knew it was gone. 1933:And 2006, same view...wait...could something be lurking behind that fifty-foot-high frontage of foliage?A-HA! Mt. Kalmia lives!But back to 1947--here are the

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138165806192206672006-01-24T21:01:00.000-08:002006-01-24T21:10:06.256-08:00

Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, Fox-11 News in Los Angeles features the 1947project Crime Bus Tour during the 10pm newscast. And on Thursday, pick up the L.A. Times Calendar section to read all about the Dahlia Day tour and the folks behind the blog and Crime Bus.We anticipate a lot of interest in seats on future Crime Bus tours, so please remind your friends who are interested in riding to subscribe

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138092651923748522006-01-24T00:42:00.000-08:002006-01-24T00:50:51.963-08:00

January 24, 1947ChicagoFuture singer-songwriter, and mythologizer of a uniquely seedy '70s noir L.A., Warren Zevon is born today.

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138087266720190362006-01-23T23:15:00.000-08:002006-01-23T23:21:06.753-08:00

Taking a momentary break from historic gore and wackiness, I'd like to extend an invitation to SoCal readers to join me at Book Soup on the Sunset Strip on Weds., February 8, at 7pm for a reading, book signing and q&a for my 33 1/3 book "Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea.'" This is the oral history of a fascinating and influential psychedelic rock band of the nineties who spun

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138074682162232452006-01-23T19:01:00.000-08:002006-01-23T19:51:22.280-08:00

January 23, 1947BellTheodore K. Oakvid, now 64, was young and spry in November 1928, when he murdered his 12-year-old daughter Sophia with a hammer, then slashed his own throat in a failed suicide attempt. The victim was found by her brother Algird in her bedroom at 7026 Flora Avenue when he went to wake her up.When revived, Oakvid explained that he had feared for the child's sanity, and had

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138141191595936182006-01-23T05:46:00.000-08:002006-01-25T08:17:16.416-08:00

Oakvid feared his child was not sane. Sometimes we see too much of ourselves in our children.Theodore Oakvid and his little Sophy:Apparently Theo was under the thrall of Social Darwinism, but took it a little too far. Contemporary accounts note “the patient asserted he sincerely believed that only the fit should live and that his daughter was among those unfit.”Those who take their Herbert

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137998300366058602006-01-22T22:06:00.000-08:002006-01-23T09:28:22.066-08:00

January 22, 1947Los Angeles18 months ago, the tensions between Mrs. Lillian Goldberg, 1921 Garth Ave., and Mrs. Martha Kelly, of 1917, exploded. For more than a year, the families had endured mutual accusations of destroyed fences, ripped up landscaping, tossed rocks and ill-aimed hoses.Then, under the pretense of making peace, La Goldberg asked La Kelly over to meet a prospective buyer for the

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138138054266730202006-01-22T13:03:00.000-08:002006-01-24T13:29:27.520-08:00

The age-old battle between the Papacy and ZOG for world domination takes many forms, this gladiatorial duel a footnote in that long and terrible struggle. Each woman's domicile, Kelly house in the foreground.And it was here, at the Goldberg's, where ladies battered each other, a cowboy emerged to fire his six-gun, and a flower bed was assaulted.The vicissitudes of the wrestling match had been

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137902892927155562006-01-21T19:57:00.000-08:002006-01-21T20:08:12.980-08:00

January 21, 1947San PedroWhen Jay Dee Chitwood fell in front of a truck near 203rd Street and Western Avenue in August 1944, the coroner thought he had a simple accidental death on his table. But look closer. Cause of death: punctured lung? Hardly a typical injury for someone hit by a car.Only nobody did look closer until today, when officers picked up Mrs. Helen Chitwood, who had been yapping to

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138135703488468152006-01-21T12:45:00.000-08:002006-01-24T12:48:23.523-08:00

Those Chitwoods. Always stirring the pot. Torrance had had a two-year period of zero traffic fatalities before J. D.'s death that August day in ’44, and as a result the City Council built a decomposed granite sidewalk on the east side of Western, which had heretofore been pavement, which was just fine before the Lumia Trailer Park went up and folks started walking in the street.And then the pot

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137874457507610912006-01-21T12:07:00.000-08:002006-01-22T19:00:57.056-08:00

A landfill full of splintered spindlework. Endless acres of white oak and Douglas Fir torn asunder, the bulldozer demolishing uncountable Queen Annes and Eastlakes, its unquenchable hunger for turreted towers and gabled gothic left unchecked. Midcentury Los Angeles was hot for Bunker Hill and Orange Grove Avenue and the very street you live on. The widows walk no more.That was then, and this

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137818385408944522006-01-20T20:27:00.000-08:002006-01-20T20:39:45.450-08:00

January 20, 1947Los FelizEveryone says Henry R. Smith, 20, was a different boy when he came home after his Navy service. Morose, nervous. Still, two months ago he was all smiles when he married Barbara Anne Chilton, 19. The newlyweds moved into Barbara's parents' home at 1612 Hillhurst. Chester Chilton is a building contractor, and Henry went to work as his assistant.Last night the young couple

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138134142418089152006-01-20T19:20:00.000-08:002006-01-24T12:25:30.496-08:00

One would suspect that the Chilton home would be gone. Who could live in a house where the terrible smell of cordite and burning meat lay heavy in the air? And as Hillhurst is mostly commercial now, I figured as such. But there, behind those vans, that Enterprise RentACar— —that’s the Chilton home if ever there was one.Interestingly, three weeks later one John E. Westover killed a man in a bar

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137817401095778032006-01-19T20:18:00.000-08:002006-01-24T17:16:47.836-08:00

January 19, 1947HollywoodStepping from a restaurant at 7050 Hollywood Boulevard towards their parked car, Hollywood Roosevelt Orchestra leader Freddy Rhea, his contractor roommate David Picken and Bunny Gravert, songbird with Rhea's outfit, were robbed by a trio of trash-talkin' banditos who relieved both men of their watches and Rhea of $70 in cash and $2000 in checks. The lady escaped

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138128964730294582006-01-19T10:46:00.000-08:002006-01-24T10:56:50.280-08:00

7050 H'wood was the 1920s Gotham Delicatessen, which by 1947 had morphed into the Gotham of Hollywood Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge. They went bankrupt in '58 and it subsequently became Restaurant Sweden, fulfilling all your smorgasbord needs. It eventually fell to this character:

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137641290235255492006-01-18T18:58:00.000-08:002006-01-18T19:28:10.326-08:00

January 18, 1947South GateTwo years ago, when she was 20, Mrs. Elaine Chatt Shedden gave birth to her second son, Robert, and suffered a nervous breakdown. She was voluntarily committed to Camarillo State Hospital, and spent three months there. Her marriage fell apart, and Mr. Shedden moved to Chicago. Elaine and the children settled in with her parents at 9230 Virginia Ave. and for a while

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138127169312314232006-01-18T10:22:00.000-08:002006-01-25T10:16:52.003-08:00

From Nero to Ed Kemper, matricide has sadly been a male-dominated activity. Nice to see the ladyfolk making strides. Perhaps she was a role model for those nice Parker-Hulme girls.The earth below this grass still has Mater Terwilliger’s DNA soaked thereinto, but the house, and its damned dirty dishes, has been replaced thusly:Though apparently the developers left the garage. No dishes in there

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137564349648840332006-01-17T21:57:00.000-08:002006-01-17T22:05:49.680-08:00

January 17, 1947Los AngelesMrs. Jessie Founder, all 100 pounds and 64-years of her, betrayed bravery beyond her station when a would-be burglar was spotted on her back porch. Matthew R. Rudolph, 21, armed with a 2 x 4 and a bottle, grappled with Mr. Founder for the latter's gun, so Miz Jessie crept up behind the louse with a lead pipe and started swinging. Rudolph suffered head injuries and died

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1138126586334011362006-01-17T19:13:00.000-08:002006-01-24T10:16:26.376-08:00

Our leaders may decry black-on-black violence, but they mistakenly discount diminuative pipe-wielding sexagenarian grandmothers. We’re yet to hear Glen Ford of Radio BC address that issue.Miz Jessie’s home has fallen to the Charles Drew Univeristy of Medicine,but here’s the house across the street, which likely represents the lost character of the street.

Nathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08454235257085416864noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11519731.post-1137465404284400062006-01-16T18:26:00.000-08:002006-01-16T18:36:44.330-08:00

January 16, 1947Banning Homes, San PedroAfter a lengthy search, the body of 4-year-old Bert F. Long was discovered yesterday in eight feet of water in an open sump hole in the oil field just half a mile east of the housing project where he lived with his parents and five-year-old brother.It appears that Bert wandered out of his yard while his mother Ola May was at a dentist's appointment, and his

Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18182341991358687224noreply@blogger.com1