An unidentified woman demonstrates how someone disabled the light fixture in the entryway to the Bauerdorf apartment, courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library. I wondered whether this was Aggie Underwood because it is a Herald-Express picture and Herald reporters and photographers usually worked in teams. If a photographer wanted to show the height of the fixture, this would be a good way to do it. It’s impossible to be positive, however.   

Several days after Georgette Bauerdorf was killed, investigators focused on the light fixture outside the front door to the Bauerdorf apartment at 8493 Fountain Ave. The fixture had been disabled when someone unscrewed the bulb by several turns so that it no longer made electrical contact, but appeared to be fine. The Times described this fixture as an “automatic night light,” raising the question of whether it might have been on a timer or triggered by an “electric eye.”

Georgette Bauerdorf, an Unsolved Murder:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 |  Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31

Detectives speculated that the killer might have unscrewed the bulb so that Georgette wouldn’t be able to see him when she opened the front door.

News accounts say that the fixture was about eight feet from the floor and could have been reached by a tall man or by someone standing on one of the chairs that were nearby.

Sheriff’s crime analyst John Schilling examines the light bulb from the fixture outside the Bauerdorf apartment.

The Herald-Express (Oct. 16, 1944) reported that a fingerprint was found on the bulb and was being compared with prints at the FBI, in state records and Army records.

Nothing further was ever reported about the fixture aside from the intense speculation that the killer disabled it.

To be continued.