Photograph by Larry Harnisch Los Angeles Times
Above, 425 Isabella St., Highland Park, May 19, 2007.

May 24, 1957
Los Angeles

His mother’s boyfriend can’t hurt him anymore. Little Donald Butler
Jr., 3, said: "I love you, Mommy," and died of a perforated intestine
after months of beatings that left him bruised from head to foot.

Mommy, was 20-year-old Nancy Butler, 452 1/2 Isabel St.
in Highland Park, the child bride of sailor Donald Butler, who was with
the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. While her husband was gone, Nancy
had fallen in love with bus driver Paul H. Benson, 26, a twice-married
ex-Marine.

Benson’s beatings were nonstop, according to court
testimony. There were times when Nancy begged him to beat her instead
of her son. Benson accommodated her and beat her as well, but always
went back to beating young Donald. Why didn’t she leave him? She was in love with him and hoped to marry him, she told police. After all,
they were going to have a baby.

As for the child’s injuries,
which included two cracked ribs, Benson said that the boy had taken a
bad fall on his tricycle and that older boys in the neighborhood were
picking on him.

Although medical examiner Dr. Frederick
Newbarr testified that young Donald must have been in constant pain, he
never complained, Benson and Nancy Butler told police.

"Donald
and I were buddies," Benson told police. "I wasn’t his real father but
he used to wait for me to come home and tell me: ‘Daddy, I love you.’ "
And Benson portrayed himself as a devout Christian. Asked why he
didn’t get medical treatment for the boy, Benson said: "I don’t believe
in doctors because I belong to the church of God."

During the
trial, Neil Benson described pulling a gun on his brother Paul to keep him from
beating an adopted daughter. Among
other things, Paul Benson tied the girl’s hands around her neck with a
towel and forced her to jump off a 6-foot-high shelf in a closet, according to witnesses.

On
Oct. 15, 1957, Paul Benson was convicted of second-degree murder in the
death of Donald Butler Jr. He was sentenced to five years to life in
prison.

"Some of the jurors wept during the testimony," The Times said.

Rest
in peace, Donald Warren Butler, born Nov. 11, 1953, beaten to death May
23, 1957. There is no further record of Donald Butler Sr., Nancy
Kuykendall Butler or Paul H. Benson.

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