November 22, 1958: Estranged wife kills jealous husband

November 22, 1958: Times coverIn a confrontation over a divided Berlin, a Soviet official says the government plans to give control to the East Germans by Christmas, and some Soviet troops are reportedly going home. President Eisenhower vows to maintain the occupation of West Berlin. The central issue was whether the U.S., Britain and France would accept East German participation in the organization that controlled the city’s military and commercial air traffic.

November 22, 1958: Mary Raines, in a coat smoking a cigarette, charged with killing her estranged husband. Roy Wesley Raines was born in Alabama in 1906 and died on a Burbank
street in 1958, killed by his estranged wife, Mary Katherine, with a
.22 rifle after he ignored a warning shot.They had been in court earlier that day, when Mary sought a restraining
order against him. In return, he asked for a week’s extension so he
could get an attorney to help settle the custody of their 4-year-old
boy.That night, Roy went to 250 W. Spazier Ave., where Mary and a
12-year-old son from a previous marriage were living with Thomas
Kennedy, described in news accounts as a boarder and a boyfriend.Leaving their 4-year-old asleep in the backseat of his car, Roy rang
the bell and confronted Kennedy. As the men fought in the frontyard,
Roy beat Kennedy in the head with a pipe wrench.

Mary’s 12-year-old son got the single-shot .22-caliber rifle from the den. She took
it from him and fired a warning shot into the air. The boy reloaded the
rifle and handed it to his mother. When Roy knocked Kennedy to the
ground and came after Mary, she fired again. She told a coroner’s jury
that she aimed over his head, but she killed him.

She was taken to jail. The older boy was held in protective custody at
Juvenile Hall while the 4-year-old was placed with relatives. Kennedy was found badly beaten, dazed and wandering several blocks away and taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital.

On Nov. 26, 1958, the coroner’s jury returned with a verdict: justifiable homicide.

 

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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