Note: This is a post I wrote in 2006 for the 1947project.

Wanted: Thief Who
Took 3 Snakes

SAN GABRIEL, Jan. 28—Chief Frank L. Carpenter sent out a police broadcast tonight for capture of the boldest and most daring thief in San Gabriel’s history.

The suspect is wanted for stealing three rattlesnakes.

The reptiles were taken from the automobile of Joseph Gerle, snake authority of North Hollywood. Gerle was lecturing at the Town House, 900 W. Santa Anita Ave.

The snakes were in a glass covered box, three feet square, which was missing along with the rattlers when Gerle returned to his car.

Sally Rand Named
in Divorce Action

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28(INS)—Sally Rand, bubble and feather dancer, was named in a divorce suit filed today by Mrs. Cecile Belling, against her husband, Lloyd, owner of a nightclub.

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Short and sweet on the Examiner’s Page 1. The Times ignored this lawsuit against Sally Rand, but covered her other legal problems in 1947. Times readers also learned that the thief ignored two other boxes of snakes. Nobody seems to have asked Gerle why he was cruising L.A. with a carload of poisonous reptiles.

Quote of the day: “The Evening Herald and Express Grows Just Like Los Angeles.”
Masthead, Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express.