Image: Manhattan c. 1626. Credit: New England Historic Genealogical Society via the New York Times. SPOTLIGHT Alison Leigh Cowan takes a look at the history of the Van Dusen family in Sunday’s New York Times. Andrew Van Dusen learned that … Continue reading
orman Frederick Gagnon looks like an excellent suspect in the unsolved killing of two El Segundo police officers last year. In an incident quite similar to the El Segundo case, Charles H. May and a female companion (The Times, fortunately, … Continue reading
July 22, 1957Los Angeles Note: This is a post from 2007. 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 … Continue reading
An example of what is sometimes known as a “Biscailuz badge” has been listed on EBay. These are presentation badges that weren’t intended for deputies, but were only given to celebrities and other notables by Los Angeles County Sheriff Eugene … Continue reading
Photo: Pier Angeli and friend with a reminder on Daylight Saving Time, 1958 I decided to import my old lmharnisch blog, devoted mainly to dissecting “The Black Dahlia Files” by Donald “Fake Document” Wolfe. Now there are posts going back … Continue reading
I have procrastinated about looking at Bill James’ “Popular Crime” because, as curious as it may seem, I don’t care much for “true” crime books. Even when they are well done (which is almost never) the subject matter is depressing … Continue reading
July 15, 1941: Defense attorney Samuel Rummel (shot to death Dec. 11, 1950) breaks a door and seizes a dictograph wired to a microphone in his office in the William Fox Building, 608 S. Hill. Rummel was defending Deputy Charles … Continue reading
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Here’s a better look at the courthouse at Temple and Broadway, where Wednesday’s photo of Broadway was probably taken. In what I call “seismic Darwinism,” the courthouse was demolished after being damaged in the Long Beach quake. The Hall of … Continue reading
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library. Credit: LAPL FEATUREDA celebration will be held at the downtown library on Monday at 9:30 a.m. as the L.A. library system restores Monday service at all branches. Sunday closures are continuing, however. Saturday will be … Continue reading
Is Michael Jackson’s art collection with $900 million? Well, maybe not. Dylan Howard of Star magazine writes: Michael Jackson secretly left behind an almost billion-dollar secret art fortune that is now at the center of an international tug of war, … Continue reading
Ted Gregory and Isolde Raftery of the Chicago Tribune, reporting from Seattle, have a jailhouse interview with Jack Daniel McCullough, suspected in the 1957 killing of Maria Ridulph. “You gotta have evidence. They have nothing,” McCullough tells Trib.
NEWSThe U.S. Justice Department says that oral history interviews are not protected by confidentiality agreements, according to Scott Jaschik on the Inside Higher Ed blog. Jaschik writes: The U.S. position in the case deals with a number of issues raised … Continue reading
John O’Connor of the Associated Press files a story from Springfield, Ill., about affidavits submitted against Jack Daniel McCullough in the kidnapping and killing of Maria Ridulph. McCullough, a former police officer, was fired over accusations that he molested a … Continue reading
I had the strangest experience Saturday when I was going through Ernest Hemingway’s FBI file. I was sure the buro had posted Louis Armstrong’s dossier — it’s brief and not terribly interesting except for the fact that it exists. Or … Continue reading
New York Times The NYT takes a look at Manhattan Dist. Atty. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who is expanding the use of DNA to solve old cases. The NYT says: On Wednesday, Mr. Vance will travel to Albany in support … Continue reading
In March 1943, Disney studios released “The Spirit of ’43,” a cartoon in which Donald Duck is forced to choose between saving his money for “taxes to bury the Axis” (aided by a thrifty proto-Scrooge McDuck) and spending his paycheck … Continue reading
I picked up “The Big Picture,” Melba Levick and Stanley Young’s 1988 book about Los Angeles murals, not realizing what a terribly sad book it would be. As Young notes: “Most artists are aware that, exposed as it is to … Continue reading
May 9, 1943: Al Capp satirizes zoot suits in a series about “Zoot-Suit Yokum.” In Part 1, we saw that in 1942, The Times originally portrayed zoot suits as a youthful fad, but that attitudes hardened toward them once the … Continue reading
I was extremely fortunate to attend Wednesday night’s showing of “Zoot Suit” and hear remarks by the panel that preceded the show. Betto Arcos moderated a session with director Luis Valdez, Rose Portillo (Della), Edward James Olmos (El Pachuco) and … Continue reading
The New York Times has a great feature about Samuel J. Battle on the centennial of him becoming the first African American appointed to the New York Police Department. Excerpts from an interview given in 1960 for Columbia’s oral history … Continue reading
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