Through the Lens – Finch Trial

Posted on February 7, 2010 by lmharnisch
March 5, 1960, Finch Trial 
Photograph by John Malmin / Los Angeles Times

March 5, 1960: Court Clerk Mel La Valley shows items from the so-called murder kit in the Finch trial. I wonder if John Malmin put a light in the briefcase to get what news photographers of the 1940s and ’50s sometimes called “criminal light.”

Barbara Jean Finch

I haven’t been able to find any photos of murder victim Barbara Jean Finch. The Times evidently didn’t publish any images of her. I enlarged this detail from Malmin’s photo. She certainly lived in terror before she was killed.

Feb. 7, 1960, Finch Trial

Feb. 7, 1960: Gene Blake summarizes Dr. R. Bernard Finch’s testimony and sets the stage for next week’s proceedings.

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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2 Responses to Through the Lens – Finch Trial

  1. JT's avatar JT says:
    February 7, 2010 at 9:01 am

    Hey, it’s the briefcase from Pulp Fiction!

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  2. fibber mcgee's avatar fibber mcgee says:
    February 7, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Love your “criminal light” photo. It’s hard to tell just how it was lit due to the extensive air brushing of the photo. I suspect he used two lights, one on the camera and one in the briefcase. I remember when I was a reporter for a major metro paper in El Lay in the late 1950s a photog sometimes would put the flash gun on the floor, pointing up, and photograph a seated suspect, making him look like a very shady character. I thought it was a very poor way to do things. Virtually declaring the suspect was guilty. Kinder, gentler days, as somebody or other said….

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