Nov. 29-30, 1957
Los Angeles
We’re in one of those hilly neighborhoods east of Glendale
Boulevard, a couple blocks north of Echo Park. They’re putting in
Dodger Stadium just over the hill. Everybody else is having
Thanksgiving dinner and she gets dumped.
Let’s get out and take a look. Watch where you walk and don’t touch anything.
This is her. On her back, with her shoes under her arm. Here’s the tire
prints. Somebody pulled up, lifted her out of the car and dragged her
next to a hedge near 1812 Ewing St.* She was flashy, all dressed up in
red. Red pedal pushers and a red bolero top. Maybe nobody ever told her
not to to wear white shoes after Labor Day.
Looks like she’s asleep, doesn’t she? Fresh needle mark in her left
arm; old ones too. And a tattoo on her right wrist: "ARANA."**
This is the second one this month. There was that woman dumped in an
alley at 3531 3/4 9th Ave. on Nov. 16. Mickey Arr, 36-year-old
secretary. She was dressed up too. Dress, sweater and coat.
Let’s get a closer look. How about that? Her pupils are dilated; wide-open and not pinpoints.
Here’s her purse, right next to her. Everything’s here.
Black leather wallet full of baby pictures. Christine and Frederick.
Here’s her hype kit; eyedropper, spoon and syringe.
All right, lady, let’s see who you are. Carol Ann Berutko, 22. One
address says 3836 Lugo, Lynwood, another says 8138 Cypress Ave.*** Works
as a waitress. She’s got a prior from 1955; 90 days for narcotics.
going to find her in a few hours. They’ll come and get her. Someone
will go down to the address on Lugo and tell her mother. They’ll find
out Carol just got divorced from Fred L. Berutko, another addict, who’s
in jail. The mom has been raising the kids while Carol was living downtown
someplace.
We might as well get going. Nothing else to see here. Poor kid, 22
years old. You wonder what’s going to become of her two children, that
boy and girl, with their mom dead and their dad in jail. You can only
hope for the best.
* The Times said she was "on a dirt slope about 120 feet north of the corner where Ewing dead-ends into Vestal Street."
**Spanish for "spider."
*** The Times and the Mirror reported that her mother lived at 8836 Lugo
Place, which doesn’t exist. This is possibly a typographical error for 3836 Lugo. 8138 Cypress St.
is in Covina; 8138 Cypress Ave. is in South Gate.
ladailymirror.com 