Sept. 17, 1957
Los Angeles
We’re parked outside 3477 S. La Brea Ave.,
a two-story apartment house with about 18 units in the Wilshire
Division. It’s one in a row of apartment buildings along the west side
of the street.
It’s early on a Monday morning. Our victim is Rhea "Ginger" Mitchell and she’s 63.
Ginger was a star in silent films, but hadn’t been in movies for years.
She started out as a stage actress and got into films about 1914. Bunch
of westerns, a couple of society pictures. She even headed her own
company for a while, Paralta, 40 years ago. She wrote screenplays and
stories in the 1920s. Yeah, I know. I never heard of her, either.
Here’s the kicker: On the stage, she once had the lead in a hardboiled detective
drama: "Going Crooked."
Eventually, Ginger got into managing apartment buildings and for the
last month, she had been filling in for the man across the hall in Unit
102, Mike Blume, who has been too busy for the job because his wife is
sick.
Ready? OK, keep your hands in your pockets and don’t move anything.
Notice the door is locked. In fact all the doors and windows are locked
tight. Ginger was an extremely cautious woman: On Saturday afternoon, a
tenant who was moving out turned in his key and she only opened the
door enough to put out her hand. He went back about noon Sunday because
he forgot to take his razor and again, she only opened the door enough
to hand him the key. Same thing when he gave it back. "I had the
feeling she was sort of hiding something," he says.
Let’s go into the dressing room. That’s her. She’s lying on her back,
strangled with the sash from her blue silk dressing gown. It’s knotted
under her chin. She’s wearing a half slip, panties, bra and high heels
with no stockings. Notice that she didn’t get the buttons straight on
her dressing gown; the police will figure that she put it on in a
hurry. There’s a big bruise around her left eye and maybe another one
on her throat. The autopsy surgeon will say there’s no evidence of
rape.
Nope, nobody heard anything. At some point, Ginger left a note on her
door saying that while she was out of town for the weekend, people should contact
Dorothy Burwell, the manager of the next apartment building.
We better get going. The houseboy has been wondering why Ginger isn’t
back yet and he and the Blumes are about to come in and check in her.
To be continued….
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