Aug. 1, 1957
Los Angeles
Maybe it’s heat, maybe it’s the smog (what would be a Stage 3 alert today), but The Times is full of odd crime news.
A rabid 2-year-old fox terrier mix went on a rampage starting at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, biting five people before a police officer shot it to death.
Stanley Papin, 49, a painter living at 9620 Anza Ave., Inglewood, followed the dog after being bitten on his right hand until Officer
George Audet killed the animal.
Papin and four others were treated for dog bites at Central Receiving Hospital, including Ray Ratliff, 18, who left before being told that the dog was rabid so he didn’t know he would need to undergo the Pasteur treatment.
Ratliff began hitchhiking to Sacramento, but returned to San Pedro after being picked up by a driver, a Good Samaritan who told him he should return to Los Angeles for treatment.
Speaking of Good Samaritans, three people were in custody after 11-year-old Wayne Halford, a Times paperboy living at 3425 Military Ave., noticed them burglarizing a house and drew a picture of their
car–including the license number: HCW 864. Police arrested Keith Nelson, 19; Johnny Godinez, 22; and Barbara A. Pope, 18, and recovered $2,000 in stolen jewelry.
Market owner Paul Gertz was not so fortunate during a holdup of his store at 436 S. Atlantic. Gertz told police that four customers were so distracted by a gorgeous woman shopping at the store that they didn’t notice the robbery and couldn’t provide descriptions to police.
Bonus fact: The first rabies case in California was reported in Los Angeles in 1898.
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