Category Archives: #courts

Countdown to Watts

Posted on August 15, 2007 by lmharnisch

Another story not appearing in the Los Angeles Times….. The California Eagle, Aug. 15, 1957  

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Posted on August 10, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 10-15, 1957 Los Angeles In testimony that was at times as colorful as its red and yellow covers, the Confidential magazine trial continued with an appearance by its former editor in proceedings that were all the more interesting because … Continue reading →

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Confidential: Tells the Facts and Names the Names

Posted on August 8, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Aug. 8, 1957 Los Angeles Prosecutors opened the case against Confidential and Whisper by charging that the magazines used prostitutes to lure movies stars into compromising situations and published the incidents in scandalous articles. The magazines, Publishers Distributing Corp. … Continue reading →

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Discord in Alhambra

Posted on August 5, 2007 by lmharnisch

  Aug. 5, 1957 Alhambra Robert D. Smallfield and his former wife, Wilma, have a novel arrangement. Divorced after 17 years of marriage, Robert rents a room from Wilma at their former home, 1222 S. Marengo, Alhambra, so that he … Continue reading →

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Mickey Cohen–author

Posted on August 4, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 4, 1957 Oceanside Box 7, Folders 216-229 of the Ben Hecht archives at the Newberry Library in Chicago appear to contain whatever was produced during the time Hecht worked with gangster Mickey Cohen on the story of the mobster’s … Continue reading →

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Never returned

Posted on August 4, 2007 by lmharnisch

I found this in the archives. Poor thing, only 19. She never got to see her daughter grow up. Judith Ann Dull June 23, 1938-Aug. 1, 1957    

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‘I Hate Cops!’

Posted on August 2, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 2, 1957Los Angeles It was St. Patrick’s Day, 1957, and a few customers got rowdy in a bar at Pico Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Police Officer Leo Wise separated a couple of men who were fighting and ordered them … Continue reading →

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Countdown to Watts

Posted on August 2, 2007 by lmharnisch

Aug. 1-7, 1957Los Angeles A search through The Times for early August reveals several stories about Chief William H. Parker being honored for 30 years service with the Los Angeles Police Department. In a luncheon at the Biltmore Bowl hosted … Continue reading →

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No deal

Posted on July 30, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1957Los Angeles The state prosecutor and the defense had reached an agreement on most points in the conspiracy trial involving Confidential and Whisper magazines. According to the proposed accord, Confidential and Whisper would: 1.Abandon their present format, would … Continue reading →

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CSI–2007

Posted on July 24, 2007 by lmharnisch

I had the good fortune to attend the first day of the International Assn. for Identification convention in San Diego yesterday and although most of the sessions are focused on new technologies, I was there to talk about the past, … Continue reading →

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Death in El Segundo

Posted on July 22, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 22, 1957Los Angeles We’re heading west on Rosecrans Avenue. It’s early Monday morning, a few moments after 1:30 a.m., and the streets are dark. There’s nobody out but a few drunks and some people heading home from the swing … Continue reading →

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Insane

Posted on July 20, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 20, 1957Riverside A maid at a Riverside hotel found the battered, nude body of 5-year-old Hiedrun “Heidi” Nicholson bent over double and stuffed into a closet. It looked “as if someone had been pounding her with a hammer,” The … Continue reading →

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He’s here!

Posted on July 19, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 19, 1957Los Angeles Minda Lee Birnbaum, 15, and her mother, Blanche Lewie, 46, had spent most of the day with the divorce lawyer, Murray Chotiner. In the late afternoon, as Blanche made some phone calls from the law offices’ … Continue reading →

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Liberace’s mother beaten

Posted on July 19, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 19, 1957Los Angeles Hours after Liberace gave a deposition in his $25-million libel suit against Confidential magazine, two masked intruders attacked his mother in the garage of Liberace’s home, 15405 Valley Vista Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Frances Liberace Casadonte, (68, … Continue reading →

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You, the jury, Part II

Posted on July 19, 2007 by lmharnisch

July 19, 1957 Los Angeles The jury convicted Wallace LeRoy Schiers of second-degree murder on July 18, 1957. But Schiers continued to insist that he did not kill his wife. He said: “I have nothing on my conscience. Somewhere along … Continue reading →

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You, the jury, Part I

Posted on July 16, 2007 by lmharnisch

  July 16, 1957 Los Angeles Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the witnesses and seen the evidence. Now you must decide whether to find Wallace LeRoy Schiers, 34, guilty of second-degree murder in the killing his … Continue reading →

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Time warp to 1910

Posted on July 13, 2007 by lmharnisch

Dec. 10, 1910Los Angeles I came across this article in looking for something else and found it too fascinating not to share. That’s why I love research. Email me

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Sea bag murder

Posted on July 13, 2007 by lmharnisch

  July 12-13, 1957 Los Angeles Two men from the Harbor Department were picking trash out of the main channel at Terminal Island when they saw the big canvas bag–twice the size of a Navy sea bag–drifting against the pier … Continue reading →

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Bar brawl

Posted on July 11, 2007 by lmharnisch

  July 10-11, 1957Los Angeles There isn’t much in doubt about what happened that night in NorthHollywood; the only mystery comes much later. That night, Frank “Puggy”Sica, 40, and Salvatore Di Giovanni, 39, were having a few drinks withRonnie Kopp … Continue reading →

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Ronnie Quillan update

Posted on July 7, 2007 by lmharnisch

Here’s the August 1955 article from Whisper magazine referred to in my earlier post on Ronnie Quillan (thank you, EBay). Quillan actually provided the information for this story, so we have to assume it was at least somewhat accurate. In … Continue reading →

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