Category Archives: #courts

A case of nerves

Posted on September 22, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Sept. 22, 1957 Los Angeles Neighbors knew that something was terribly wrong in the home at 3460 Ardilla Ave., Baldwin Hills. They never saw Cathy, the 4-year-old daughter of John B. and Patricia Ann Howerton. Their boys, Allan Wayne, … Continue reading →

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Iron lung

Posted on September 21, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Sept. 21, 1957 Los Angeles If the Murrill family’s story were fiction, it would be comic, but alas, it is fairly tragic, quite absurd and entirely true. In 1949, Jeffrey Lee Murrill  was born to Robert Murrill, a 27-year-old … Continue reading →

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Hollywood confidential

Posted on September 20, 2007 by lmharnisch

Sept. 20, 1957Los Angeles This doesn’t look good.

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Hollywood confidential

Posted on September 19, 2007 by lmharnisch

Sept. 19, 1957Los Angeles Uh-oh….

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Paul V. Coates–Confidential File

Posted on September 18, 2007 by lmharnisch

Sept. 18, 1957 There are times when justice gets in its own way. By trying to hustle along a little too fast, it trips over its own ethical skirts. And a living example of what can happen when it does … Continue reading →

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Strangler strikes

Posted on September 18, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Sept. 18-26, 1957 Los Angeles Let’s go talk about the Ginger Mitchell case. We’re in Wilshire Division so how about Canter’s Deli, up on Fairfax? While we’re driving, I’ll tell you the rest of the story. Officially, this killing … Continue reading →

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Mystery guest revealed

Posted on September 11, 2007 by lmharnisch

Anthony Brancato, killed Aug. 6, 1951, 1648 N. Ogden Drive, Hollywood, along with Anthony Trombino in the “Two Tonys Murder.” Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratianno eventually confessed to the killings.

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Police and the courts

Posted on September 8, 2007 by lmharnisch

I missed this op/ed piece when it came out July 19, 1957. It was certainly a different era for the police.

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Confidential–Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Posted on September 5, 2007 by lmharnisch

Scenes from the Confidential trial: Sept. 4, 1957, Dorothy Dandridge testifies Photograph by Dan McCormack, Los Angeles Times

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Oops!

Posted on September 4, 2007 by lmharnisch

Sept. 4, 1957 Los Angeles On a field trip to Grauman’s Chinese Theater so that the court could visit the notorious Row 35, where Maureen O’Hara’s alleged tryst occurred, jurors discovered that it was really Row 40. Aisle C. Upon … Continue reading →

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Fried Rice

Posted on August 31, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Aug. 29-30, 1957 Los Angeles The poor thing died as hardboiled as she had lived: Renting a junky room in an old house that had been cut up into apartments. The landlord said she’d been sick for the last … Continue reading →

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True confessions

Posted on August 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

Photograph by the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles reporter and columnist Forabel Muir with a copy of her book, "Headline Happy." Aug. 30, 1957 Los Angeles What’s with all these marriage quizzes? How about some blood and gore? Believe it … Continue reading →

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Paul V. Coates–Confidential File

Posted on August 29, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 27, 1957 SUBJECTS’ NAMES: Trudy, 6, Terry, 9, and Kim, 11, Ingram. SUBJECTS’ DESCRIPTIONS: All have blue eyes, light brown hair. Trudy and Terry, stocky build. Kim, slender. Anyone with information as to their whereabouts is asked to contact … Continue reading →

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Kiss and Tell

Posted on August 24, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Aug. 24, 1957 Los Angeles And where does our favorite scandal magazine get such high-quality dirt?  (Oh, I know, people only read it at the beauty parlor and the barbershop). It turns out that in Hollywood, money will unseal … Continue reading →

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A light in the window

Posted on August 23, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 23, 1957Los Angeles Sandra O’Hara, 11, was sent to live with her mother when her parents divorced and apparently preferred to live with her father, Martin. So they devised a plan. The next time Sandra’s mother, Veda, 30, had … Continue reading →

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Dodgers, go home!

Posted on August 21, 2007 by lmharnisch
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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Posted on August 21, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 19-22, 1957Los Angeles Whatever Polly Gould knew about Confidential magazine died with her. The Times said that Gould, 46, a former “investigator” for Confidential and Whisper, had once been a columnist for Jimmy Tarantino’s Hollywood Night Life magazine, a … Continue reading →

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Posted on August 18, 2007 by lmharnisch

Here’s the Confidential magazine article about Maureen O’Hara that prompted her lawsuit and the testimony about the alleged tryst at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. From the March 1957 issue. (Note: O’Hara successfully proved that she was out of the country when … Continue reading →

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Grauman confidential–Part II

Posted on August 18, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 18, 1957Los Angeles Maureen O’Hara says through her lawyer that it was impossible for her to have engaged in the alleged tryst at Grauman’s Chinese Theater because at the time it supposedly occurred she was out of the country … Continue reading →

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Grauman confidential

Posted on August 17, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Aug. 17, 1957 Los Angeles BY JACK SMITH Actress Maureen O’Hara’s alleged love scene with a Latin in three rear seats of Grauman’s Chinese Theater was re-enacted before a spellbound audience here yesterday at the Confidential libel trial. A … Continue reading →

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