November 23, 1907: Baby Murdered With Ax, Half-Eaten by Pigs in Garbage Heap

Posted on November 23, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 23, 1907: Baby's half-eaten body found in garbage heap.

Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 23, 1907
South Pasadena

Warning: This is a grotesque, tragic story with graphic details.

Pasadena Detective Wallace H. Copping is investigating the murder of a young baby boy, whose half-eaten body was found in a pigpen on the Berry ranch in South Pasadena.

Authorities say the boy, weighing about 14 pounds and less than 10 days old (yes, quite a large baby by today’s standards), was discovered by Mrs. J.H. Anderson, whose husband leases the ranch. Apparently Mr. Anderson picked up the baby’s body as he made the rounds of about 20 homes gathering garbage to feed his pigs.

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November 22, 1958: Estranged wife kills jealous husband

Posted on November 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 22, 1958: Times cover
Note: This is an encore post from 2008.
In a confrontation over a divided Berlin, a Soviet official says the government plans to give control to the East Germans by Christmas, and some Soviet troops are reportedly going home. President Eisenhower vows to maintain the occupation of West Berlin. The central issue was whether the U.S., Britain and France would accept East German participation in the organization that controlled the city’s military and commercial air traffic. Continue reading →

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November 22, 1958: Hall of Famer dies after crash

Posted on November 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 22, 1958: SportsNote: This is an encore post from 2008.

By Gary Rubin
Times staff writer

November 22, 1958: Mel Ott raises right foot when battingFifty years ago today, sports fans in general and baseball fans in particular woke up to read the startling news that Hall of Famer Mel Ott was dead after surgery for a kidney injury suffered in an automobile accident in New Orleans. He was just 49.

Baby boomers may not be all that familiar with Ott, but in a 21-year playing career, all spent with the New York Giants, Ott was one of great power hitters of all time, finishing with 511 home runs, a National League record that stood until broken by Willie Mays in 1965.

Though not particularly big, at 5-9, 170, Ott generated great power with a unique batting stance. As the pitch came in, the left-handed Ott would raise his right foot at least a foot.

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Posted in Front Pages, Sports | 3 Comments

November 22, 1963: Remembering JFK, That Day in Dallas and Baby Boomer Nostalgia

Posted on November 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

Nov. 22, 1963, JFK Assassinated

Nov. 22, 1963: The Times publishes an extra.

Note: In case you are wondering, this is a repost from 2013.

I recently attended graduation exercises for a local college and the commencement speaker spent quite a while talking about how the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a watershed moment in her life.

As she was speaking, I studied the faces in the audience — the family and friends of people in their early 20s who were graduating from college —  and wondered: “What on Earth do these kids make of this? Does it resonate at all?” Actually, no. Not in the least. And why should it?

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November 22, 1930: Voices — Christine Collins

Posted on November 22, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 22, 1930: The Rev. R.P. "Fighting Bob" Shuler urges parole for Walter Collins.
The Rev. R.P. “Fighting Bob” Shuler urges the parole of Walter J. Collins.

Posted in #courts, Changeling, Film, Hollywood, LAPD | Comments Off on November 22, 1930: Voices — Christine Collins

November 22, 1907: Son Beats Father With Baseball Bat to Protect Mother; Bleeding and Shot in the Head, She Vows Eternal Love

Posted on November 22, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 22, 1907
Los Angeles

Weeping and heavily bandaged from where her drunk, enraged husband had shot her in the head, Ellen Larkin, 38, rose from her hospital bed, staggered to a nearby room and threw herself into the arms of her injured spouse. She covered him with kisses, vowing that she still loved him, and promised that he could come home as soon as he recovered from shooting himself and being nearly beaten to death with a baseball bat by their oldest son.

According to The Times, Jefferson B. Larkin, 45, a sometime teamster, horse player and “remittance man,” had returned to Los Angeles after spending four months in San Francisco while John, 16, the oldest of the Larkins’ four children, supported the family. As Larkin got thoroughly drunk, someone told him that his wife had been unfaithful, so he went to a pawnshop and bought a cheap revolver.

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November 21, 2009 — Artist’s Notebook: Gustavo Dudamel

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch


Gustavo Dudamel, by Marion Eisenmann, Nov. 12, 2009.

Note: This is an encore post from 2009.

Marion Eisenmann and I have been looking at Los Angeles landmarks as a modern version of Nuestro Pueblo, but we realized that the debut of Gustavo Dudamel as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is also part of local history.  Marion was fortunate in being able to attend a rehearsal and she sends her impressions of Dudamel. She says: His personality, playfulness and passion speak in this study.

Posted in 2009, art and artists, classical music, Marion Eisenmann, Nuestro Pueblo | Comments Off on November 21, 2009 — Artist’s Notebook: Gustavo Dudamel

November 21, 1959: Matt Weinstock, Nov. 21, 1959

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 21, 1959: Peanuts

Car Troubles

Matt WeinstockTwo years ago, Bob Joseph bought a two-cylinder French Panhard, which has positively no area in front for a license plate.  He has been driving it with only the rear plate.

On consecutive days recently he received two citations.  A new law went into effect in October requiring cars to have both plates, and it is being enforced.  He explained ineffectively to the officers that the dealer sold him the car with only one plate.

He went to the Traffic Fines Bureau at 810 Wall St., where a courteous marshal showed him the nice new law and advised him to go to the Motor Vehicle Department at 35th and Hope Sts. and get new plates. Continue reading →

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Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 21, 1959

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 21, 1959: Mirror Cover

Mash Notes and Comment

Paul Coates, in coat and tie “Mr. Paul Coates, dear friend:

“About 2 1/2 months ago you called me at 12 a.m. and asked me if I could tell you who was President in 1875.

“I didn’t know and I didn’t win the stove.  I’m not too sorry because I don’t like stoves.

“You told me, however, that I would get some prize but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was.  So far I haven’t got anything from you.

“My neighbors claim that I never heard from you, so please answer this to straighten things out.” (signed) Mrs. Theresa Herron, Glen Ellen, Calif.

–It wasn’t me who called you at 12 a.m.  I know who was President in 1875.

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November 21, 1947: Judge Tells Joel Thorne to Quit ‘Fooling Around’ With Racecars, Nightclubs

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

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

Joel Thorne apparently ignored the warning and on Oct. 17, 1955, the millionaire playboy race-car driver plunged his Beachcraft Bonanza into an apartment building at 11948 Magnolia in North Hollywood, where a baptismal party was underway for Sheryll Camiel Preston, who was 7 weeks old. Thorne and eight other people were killed in the crash and fire from the flaming wreckage. Investigators said he had 90 arrests for traffic violations and got driver’s licenses in Arizona and Michigan after his California and Nevada driver’s licenses were revoked. What was left of him was further cremated and his ashes were buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

Quote of the day: “Don’t keep fooling around with race cars, nightclubs and continue wasting your life.”

Judge Roy V. Rhodes, lecturing Joel Thorne, who sneaked out of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital after being badly injured in a motorcycle crash to avoid paying his alimony to his ex-wife.

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November 21, 1919: Wife Divorces ‘Girlish’ Army Officer

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 21, 1919: Comic panel by Briggs, When a Feller Needs a Friend

November 21, 1919: Lucille Howell seeks a divorce from her husband, an Army captain who likes to wear a girdle. Continue reading →

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November 21, 1907: Mother, 17, Throws Baby From Train to Hide ‘Shame’ From Family

Posted on November 21, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 21, 1907
Los Angeles

The woman who threw her baby from an inbound train was arrested at her mother’s home at 12th Street and San Pedro after the girl’s nurse contacted authorities, saying that she read about the incident in the newspaper and suspected the woman because she took the baby on a trip while leaving all the infant’s clothes at home.

Louise [or Louisa] Williams, who is in custody in San Bernardino, says the baby’s father “is a worthless mulatto, sometimes employed as a porter on the Salt Lake Overland trains,” according to The Times.

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Posted in 1907, 1908, African Americans, Crime and Courts, Homicide, LAPD, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on November 21, 1907: Mother, 17, Throws Baby From Train to Hide ‘Shame’ From Family

November 20, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

About Football

Matt WeinstockThis is Big Game Week and I might as well get into the act, too.  I suppose it’s true — once a sports writer, you never get over it entirely.

SC and UCLA are being criticized for the way they play football.  Also the Rams, who can’t win for losing.  Everyone’s disgusted with them.

The Trojans have a great defense, the hecklers say, but their offense falters.  Oh sure they’re No. 2 in the nation, but that’s because of the wonderful McKeevers.  The heck its is.  It’s because they’re strong in all 11 positions.

UCLA, newly come alive, sends the self-appointed experts into despair.  The team looks good one game, bad the next.  Not only that, it plays the single wing, which the critics call horse and buggy football.  I happen to find the single wing a refreshing change from the ubiquitous T system, with all its variations. Continue reading →

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November 20, 1959: Paul V. Coates – Confidential File

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 20, 1959, Mirror Cover: U.S. Chutist Makes Record 15-Mile Jump

Drama in Housewife’s Life Is Fraught With

Paul Coates, in coat and tieI’ve come to the labored conclusion that housewives lead more interesting lives than career girls.

This, I’ve done without benefit of polls or surveys.  In fact, I’ve even ignored those subtle inferences in the Kinsey report.

It’s strictly my own, personal conclusion.  I reached it myself.

I’m probably dead wrong, but, the way I see it, it’s better to come up with a wrong conclusion than to just sit around and come up with no conclusion at all.

You know the old saying, idle minds gather no moss. Continue reading →

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November 20, 1958: Valley man killed with hammer

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 20m, 1958: Los Angeles Times cover: Crashing Jet Derails L.A.-San Diego TrainThe crash of a Marine plane near El Toro derails the Santa Fe’s San Diegan, but no serious injuries are reported.

Ernest E. Hargis, who had been a city ambulance driver for 20 years, is found beaten to death with a hammer and shoved under an abandoned car at 13037 Osborne St., Pacoima. Hargis was building a home at the site, The Times said.

Further investigation found that Hargis had been hiring former jail trustees and itinerant laborers to help him on his house. James Edgar Holmes, a former psychiatric patient, was accused of the killing. Holmes admitted killing Hargis but said it was in defense during an argument over a star drill he was using to bore holes in concrete.

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November 20, 1947: Contralto Carol Brice to Perform in L.A.

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

L.A. Sentinel, 1947

 

“On Ma Journey,” performed by Carol Brice, accompanied by her brother Jonathan.

Nov. 20, 1947: Carol Brice will perform at Philharmonic Auditorium. Here are a few of her recordings.

Continue reading →

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November 20, 1947: Bobby-Soxer Kills Girl, 5

Posted on November 20, 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.

Joyce, 13, came home that afternoon and told her father and stepmother what she had done. Her father, an auto body mechanic, ordered his wife and son not to say anything until he figured out what to do. The next morning, Joyce went to school as if nothing was wrong while her stepmother washed out her bloody clothes.

The next day, Joyce calmly faced four detectives, but collapsed in tears when her stepmother fell, sobbing, at her feet. Then she told her story.

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November 20, 1941: California Prepares to Execute Juanita ‘The Duchess’ Spinelli

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch

Nov. 20, 1941, Juanita Spinelli
November 20, 1941: California prepares to execute Juanita “The Duchess” Spinelli at San Quentin. Spinelli, her boyfriend Mike Simeone, Gordon Hawkins and Albert Ives were convicted of drugging and drowning Robert Sherrard to keep him from informing on them about another killing.

Spinelli was the first woman to be legally executed in California. She was followed by Louise Peete (1946), Barbara Graham (1955) and Elizabeth “Ma” Duncan (1962). A Mexican woman usually identified as Juanita was lynched in Downieville, Calif., in 1851 for killing a man named Jack Cannon, who is variously described as Scottish or Australian.

Jimmie Fidler says: Lucille Ball left by plane yesterday to join hubby Desi Arnaz in New York, then to Cuba for Christmas.

Also on the jump: The proper headwear for working on an old car – especially if your name is Goober.

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November 20, 1907: Police Capture Streetcar Bandits

Posted on November 20, 2025 by lmharnisch


Note: This is an encore post from 2006.

November 20, 1907
Los Angeles

Police battling the current crime wave say they have arrested two men who staged daring holdups on the Ascot Park and Eastlake streetcars, robbing the motormen and conductors as the cars reached the ends of their routes. These holdups had so infuriated local officials that Chief Kern armed bicycle officers with shotguns and ordered mounted policemen to resume patrolling the city.

In each case, robbers waited at the end of a streetcar route, when the trolley was empty except for the motorman and conductor, overpowered the men and robbed them. The bandits only took money or guns. Continue reading →

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November 19, 1960: Gene Autry a Contender in American League Expansion Team

Posted on November 19, 2025 by lmharnisch

November 19, 1960: Sports cover

Nov. 19, 1960: Hank Greenberg, former baseball star who was part owner of the Chicago White Sox, was out as the potential bidder for the American League baseball team hoping to start play in Los Angeles in 1961. So who was in?

The Times reported that several people were talking about taking over, including Gene Autry, the former cowboy star described by the paper as a “television tycoon.”

Autry got into the ownership sweepstakes only after talking to Greenberg about carrying the new baseball team’s games on Autry’s radio station, KMPC. Dodger owner Walter O’Malley had moved his team’s games from KMPC to KFI. Now Autry was in the mix as a potential owner.

Continue reading →

Posted in Dodgers, Downtown, Sports | Comments Off on November 19, 1960: Gene Autry a Contender in American League Expansion Team