December 22, 1938: Jealous husband kills wife with ax

Posted on December 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

March 7, 1939: Emma Spinelli takes the stand to testify against her father in the ax murder of her mother.
Note: This is an encore post from 2008.

Testimony in the murder trial was so graphic that spectators became ill
and fled the courtroom, The Times said. Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1938, Front Pages, Homicide, LAPD | 2 Comments

Movieland Silent Mystery Photo (Updated + + + +)

Posted on December 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Main Title: Letter on artwork of empty stage.

This week’s mysterious silent movie was the 1925 film The Last Edition, with Ralph Lewis, Billy Bakewell, Joseph Campbell, Lou Payne, Lee Willard, Frances Teague, Lila Leslie, Ray Hallor, Rex Lease, Tom O’Brien, John Bailey, Cuyler Supplee, Ada Mae Vaughn, C. Hollister Walker, Will Frank and David Kirby. Continue reading →

Posted in 1925, Film, Hollywood, Mystery Photo | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

December 22, 1907: For I Was Homeless and You Ran Me In — L.A. Prepares for ‘Hobo Season’

Posted on December 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006. Homelessness is a more than century-old problem in Los Angeles — there are no easy or quick fixes. And yes, homeless people were put on the chain gang in 1907.   

December 22, 1907
Los Angeles

As Police Capt. Flammer approached Yuma, Ariz., to take custody of George White, he noticed the smoke of hundreds of campfires made by hobos burning old railroad ties.

The hobos, Flammer learned, were avoiding Yuma because the marshal meted out hard justice to vagrants, as he warned in posters all over town. But Flammer also learned all those homeless men were heading for Los Angeles.

Continue reading →

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December 21, 1947: ‘Tubby the Tuba’ and Music for Children

Posted on December 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

Bonus factoid: The Jewish “defense army” Haganah was reported to have made a major attack—the largest since the U.N. partition decision—against Arabs in Lydda and Bet Nabala, where troops of the Trans-Jordan Arab Legion are camped.

Listen to Victor Jory read “Tubby the Tuba”

Listen to “Uncle Don’s Playland”

Listen to “The Great Gildersleeve”

Links to mp3 files of 78 rpm children’s records

While you’re it, listen to “Grumpy Shark”

 

Quote of the day: “For a redhead who worked her way through law school as a floorwalker in a department store and by washing dishes, that’s not bad!”
The Times, on Municipal Judge Mildred L. Lillie, whose 1971 nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by Richard Nixon predated Justice Sandra Day O’Connor by 10 years. When a 12-member bar panel rated Lillie, who had 24 years on the bench, “unqualified” because the men feared a woman would be “too emotional” for the Supreme Court, Nixon withdrew her name in favor of William Rehnquist.

Posted in 1947, Music | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on December 21, 1947: ‘Tubby the Tuba’ and Music for Children

December 21, 1930: Voices — Christine Collins

Posted on December 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 21, 1930: Christine Collins writes to the warden regarding the denial of parole for Walter Collins

Posted in #courts, Changeling, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | Comments Off on December 21, 1930: Voices — Christine Collins

December 21, 1907: Desperate Girl, Alone and Friendless in L.A., Steals $10

Posted on December 21, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 21, 1907
Los Angeles

Lillian Poelk was new to Los Angeles, with no friends and little more than a job as a waitress that didn’t quite cover the rent of her room at 831 S. Hope.

“While other girls were getting pretty things and preparing for a pleasant Christmas, she was shut up in a cheerless room,” The Times said.

Continue reading →

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December 20, 1947: Pulp Author Rob Eden Dies | Author of ‘Short Skirts: A Story of Modern Youth’

Posted on December 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 194

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

And at the age of 55, after dozens of novels and countless short stories, he died. Not that you’ve heard of him or any of his books—unless you collect potboiler novels of the 1930s.

The list of his works is impressive in bulk if nothing else, with titles that tell the entire plot in two or three words: “Dancing Feet,” “In Love With a T-Man,” “Love or Money,” “Modern Marriage” and my favorite: “Short Skirts: A Story of Modern Youth.”

Continue reading →

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George Hodel: Ask Me Anything, December 2025

Posted on December 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

This is the Ask Me Anything on George Hodel and Steve Hodel for December 2025. In this session, I announced the Black Dahlia Book Club, coming in January 2026. The Black Dahlia Book Club will expand the focus of what has been the Ask Me Anything on George Hodel and Steve Hodel to all the magazine articles and books that have been written about the case.

More details to come….

I also discussed:
–What is Steve Hodel’s “proof” that George Hodel knew Elizabeth Short?

–How has Steve Hodel misrepresented Los Angeles history?

–How many places did Steve Hodel live up to the age of 16 or 18?

–Did a detective tell Jack Webb that the doctor who killed Elizabeth Short lived on Franklin Avenue?

–Were Steve Hodel and his brothers ever a ward of the state?

–How true are Steve Hodel’s stories about decadent parties at the Sowden House?

–Did police question George Hodel when he returned from the Philippines?

–Did Betty Bersinger call the police from the Bayley house to report Elizabeth Short’s body?

–Steve Hodel’s so-called photos of Elizabeth Short.

–Where can someone see the Black Dahlia photos that Steve Hodel bought on EBay?

–What became of the investigation using Buster the Cadaver Dog at the Sowden House?

  –Is it true that the files in the Black Dahlia case are “lost?”

  –What is Steve Hodel’s motive in making so many claims about his father?

–Did Steve Hodel get rich from his books?

–Steve Hodel’s claim that he was part of a “new breed” at the LAPD and the recruiter’s alleged comment that with the name Hodel he would never work as a cop.


The George Hodel transcripts:

The George Hodel files 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 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36

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December 20, 1907: Miracle Doctor Fer-Don Cures Man of 90-Foot Tape Worm!

Posted on December 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 20,1907
Los Angeles

Mr. C.D. Roberts of 1900 E. Main was feeling a bit unwell. He had bad headaches, an irregular appetite, saw dark spots before his eyes and felt as if something in his stomach was alive.

Not sure what to do, Roberts consulted the European Medical Experts at 745 S. Main St., where he was treated with the secret cure of “The Great Fer-Don.” “He was prevailed upon to try it, with the result that his system was quickly relieved of this monster scores of feet in length,” surely the Loch Ness creature of internal parasites.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1908, 1909, LAPD, Medicine, Pasadena, Streetcars | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on December 20, 1907: Miracle Doctor Fer-Don Cures Man of 90-Foot Tape Worm!

December 19, 1941: Japanese Spy Ring Smashed, FBI Says

Posted on December 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Dec. 19, 1941, Comics

Dec. 19, 1941, Spy Ring
December 19, 1941: The suicide of Dr. Rikita Honda, who slashed his wrists while in custody at Terminal Island, revealed that he was the director of a vast spy ring, the FBI says.  Honda was head of the Imperial Comradeship Society, which allegedly had 4,800 members in Western states, including California and Arizona.

An FBI report on Honda is here.

A report on the association is here. Continue reading →

Posted in Art & Artists, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, Suicide, Tom Treanor, World War II | Tagged , , | Comments Off on December 19, 1941: Japanese Spy Ring Smashed, FBI Says

December 19, 1947: Going Down – City Hall Bans Clever Nicknames for Its Floors

Posted on December 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

City Hall’s elevator operators have been having a little too much fun on the job. Instead of calling out the numbers of the floors, they have been using nicknames and building superintendent Ralph Hoffman wants them to stop.

The operators say that the passengers were the ones who were using the nicknames:

Continue reading →

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December 19, 1907: No, None of It Was His Fault

Posted on December 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 19, 1907
Los Angeles

What you have to understand first about George White is that he isn’t to blame. Oh he’ll take his prison sentence for robbing the Hot Rivet Saloon, 1006 N. Main St., but it’s not his fault; he fell in with the wrong man. He just hopes that when he’s released he won’t be turned over to the Army as a deserter.
 Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, Crime and Courts, LAPD, Photography | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on December 19, 1907: No, None of It Was His Fault

December 18, 1947: Jacobowicz Brothers, Orphaned in Holocaust, Arrive in L.A. (Also Turkey Stuffing With Fritos)

Posted on December 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

The Jacobowicz brothers—Karl, 16, Joseph, 13, and Rudolph, 10—stood on the metal ramp leading from the gleaming airliner that carried them on the final leg of their journey from Vienna.

The Nazis took their Jewish father away in 1940 but left their mother because she was Catholic. Then on Christmas Eve 1942, the Gestapo made their mother get rid of her children because they were half-Jewish. She died less than a year after turning them over to Catholic nuns.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Food and Drink, Frightening Food From the 1940s, Immigration, Religion, World War II | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on December 18, 1947: Jacobowicz Brothers, Orphaned in Holocaust, Arrive in L.A. (Also Turkey Stuffing With Fritos)

December 18, 1941: Academy Awards Banquet Canceled; Oscars Postponed Due to War

Posted on December 18, 2025 by lmharnisch

Dec. 18, 1941, Comics

December 18, 1941: Louis A. Tyler reports to the Navy recruiting office after receiving a telegram informing him of the death of his son, Fireman 3rd Class George L. Tyler,  at Pearl Harbor. “My purpose is to take my son’s place and carry on in the capacity for which I am best fitted,” he says. (The Times didn’t follow up on this story to report whether Tyler was accepted).

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cancels its annual banquet, due to the war. The awards will be given out later in some informal gathering, Edwin Schallert writes.

Jimmie Fidler says: Gracie Allen is already wearing George Burns’ Christmas gift: a full-length stone marten coat, tres expensive. Marlene Dietrich owns the only other local one.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1941, Art & Artists, Columnists, Comics, Film, Hollywood, Jimmie Fidler, World War II | Tagged , , | Comments Off on December 18, 1941: Academy Awards Banquet Canceled; Oscars Postponed Due to War

December 18, 1907: County Coroner Dead Drunk at Bordello

Posted on December 18, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

December 18, 1907
Los Angeles

Los Angeles County Coroner Roy S. Lanterman was arrested on charges of being drunk and disorderly at the Navajo, a bordello run by Ida Hastings, 309 Ord St. Hastings called police, who arrested Lanterman.

A Mills Seminary graduate nicknamed “Suicide Ida” because of her attempts to kill herself “every time she has a serious setback in her numerous ‘love’ affairs,” Hastings had contacted police earlier in the evening, asking for protection from Lanterman, saying that he had attacked her. Hastings notified police when Lanterman, who was married, returned to the bordello, went to her bedroom and after a fierce fight, removed several photographs of himself as well as a letter.

Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, 1908, 1909, City Hall, Crime and Courts, Film, Hollywood, Homicide, LAPD, Photography | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on December 18, 1907: County Coroner Dead Drunk at Bordello

December 17, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on December 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

Forgotten Men

Matt WeinstockAs you probably read, film director, Joseph Von Sternberg has sued Fox for $1 million, charging the 1959 version of “The Blue Angel” with May Britt and Curt Jurgens was made without his consent and was inferior to his 1929 version with Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings, thereby, he contended, decreasing the original’s value.

That, of course, is a question a court will have to decide.

Meanwhile, Louise Schneider is distressed about something else involving “The Blue Angel.”

In all the hubbub over the original and the remake, no one has given credit to Heinrich Mann, whose novel, “Professor Unrat” (Professor Garbage), published in 1905, made them possible. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock | Comments Off on December 17, 1959: Matt Weinstock

December 17, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on December 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

December 17, 1959: Mirror cover

We Have Living Dead Living in Red China

Paul Coates, in coat and tieHistorically, war is a cold fact of life.

And one of its most terrifying aspects is that some men conscripted by their nations to fight are swallowed up and lost in its grisly shuffle.

They’re not among the known dead.  They’re not among the known living.

They’re just gone.

After the war in Korea, The U.S. counted its casualties.  Among them were 5,866 missing. Slowly, since then, it has whittled the number down.

There were 715 who were later located in prison camps and returned.  An additional 1,550 bodies, less than half of them identifiable, were sent back to us by the Chinese.  Others, evidence definitely indicated, had died either in action or prison camps.  Still others were eventually written off by the U.S. government as “presumed dead.” Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Columnists, Front Pages, Homicide, Paul Coates, Richard Nixon | Comments Off on December 17, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Deccember 17, 1947: Frightening Food From the 1940s — ‘Unusual’ Fruitcake

Posted on December 17, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

L.A. Times, 1947
Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project..

Bonus factoid: The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a $2,500 fine against Hollywood book dealer Marcell Rodd for selling the obscene book “Call House Madam.” The book, by Serge G. Wolsey, is now available at the Los Angeles Public Library.

Quote of the day: “I don’t give a so-and-so what you think.”
Tallulah Bankhead, continuing her feud with Lynn Fontanne, when Fontanne and Noel Coward visited Bankhead backstage to give their compliments after a performance of “Private Lives.” Bankhead asked: “What did you think of me, Noel?”

Continue reading →

Posted in 1947, Books and Authors, Comics, Crime and Courts, Food and Drink, Frightening Food From the 1940s | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Deccember 17, 1947: Frightening Food From the 1940s — ‘Unusual’ Fruitcake

December 16, 1947: Back Broken and Skull Fractured, Girl, 2 Dies of Abuse; Mother Gets 10 Years in Prison

Posted on December 16, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Times, 1947

image

Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.

Somewhere, there’s 57-year-old man; maybe his name is Steven, or maybe his foster parents changed it. He doesn’t know much about himself except that his birthday is March 7, 1948. He doesn’t know that he was born in the jail ward of what’s now County-USC Medical Center. He doesn’t know that before his mother, Shirleen, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing his older sister, Denise, Juvenile Court Judge A.A. Scott told her, “You shall never see this baby again!”

Denise Kunin was nearly 2 years old when she died in 1947 of a broken back and fractured skull. During the trial, it took Dr. Frederick Newbarr, the autopsy surgeon, 15 minutes to describe her injuries. The testimony and color pictures left the jurors devastated.

Continue reading →

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Holiday Gift Suggestion – ‘California Against the Sea’

Posted on December 16, 2025 by lmharnisch

Book jacket: An aerial view of the ocean and waves breaking on the shore near beachfront homes.

California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline, by my former Los Angeles Times colleague Rosanna Xia, has won a number of awards since it was published in 2023, and would make an excellent gift for anyone seeking to understand our ever-changing coastline. Continue reading →

Posted in Books and Authors, Environment | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Holiday Gift Suggestion – ‘California Against the Sea’