now.
He probably knew that Wild West Saturday Nights comprised a myth of their own. He might have written that red-haired nurse off as a mythic casualty.
5
He investigation continued.
Hallinen and Lawton worked it full-time. Jim Bruton stayed on board. Godfrey and Vickers moved on to fresh assignments.
The L.A. papers ran the sketch of the suspect and dropped the story cold. The redhead never clicked as a victim. The Lana Turner/Cheryl Crane/Johnny Stompanato case hogged all the headlines.
Hallinen and Lawton habituated the Desert Inn. They talked to regular patrons and people passing through. They got no solid leads. They hit the other bars around Five Points repeatedly. They tapped out everywhere.
The El Monte PD kept the pressure on. Patrol units rode with the sketch and a snapshot of the victim. Local awareness ran high.
The PD logged a tip on Thursday, July 3rd. A man said he saw four guys dumping beer cans in the Rio Hondo Wash a few weeks ago. They drove up in an Olds 88, license HHP 815. One of the guys said he had a date with a nurse named Jean coming up that evening.
The tip was checked out. The car was identified as a ’53 Oldsmobile coupe. It was registered to Bruce S. Baker, 12060 Hallwood, El Monte. Baker and his friends were interviewed and crossed off as suspects.
Hallinen and Lawton reinterviewed the victim’s co-workers and located her friends. Everybody stuck to the chaste Jean Ellroy line. Nobody conjured up a ponytailed blonde or a dark man. Jean’s ex-boyfriend Hank Hart was picked up and cut loose fast. He was short and fat and had one thumb. He was alibied up for the night of June 21st.
Hallinen and Lawton checked out recent choke jobs and tried to identify a pattern. One Sheriffs case and two city cases caught their attention.
Helene Kelly, DOD 10/30/53, Rosemead. Beaten and manually strangled inside her house. The victim was old. She wasn’t raped. It looked like a botched burglary.
Ruth Goldsmith, DOD 4/5/57, the Wilshire District in L.A. The victim was 50 years old. She was found on her bathroom floor, partially clad. She was raped. Her wrists were bound behind her back with a nylon stocking. A washcloth was stuffed into her mouth and cinched by another nylon. The victim died of suffocation. Her apartment was not ransacked. LAPD detectives ruled out burglary.
Marjorie Hipperson, DOD 6/10/57, the Los Feliz District in L.A. The victim was 24 years old. She was found on her bed, with her nightgown up over her hips. She was raped. A nylon stocking was tied to her right wrist. A second nylon was cinched around her neck. Her lips were bruised. A white washcloth gag was found under her head.
All three cases were stalled dead. The MOs diverged from the Ellroy job more than they connected.
The Sheriff’s Records Bureau kicked loose mug shots and rap sheets: forty-odd sex offenders resembling the dark man.
Most of the men were white. A dozen were classified “Male Mexicans.” Their sex offenses ran the gamut. Most of the men were on county parole.
Some had left L.A. Some were back in jail. Hallinen and Lawton ran all the mugs by Lavonne Chambers and Margie Trawick. They struck out uniformly.
They leaned on the most dark-man-like guys just to be sure. They found them at home and had their parole officers roust them. They struck out all the way.
Other agencies sent in mug shots. Hallinen and Lawton ran them by Lavonne and Margie.
Lavonne and Margie kept saying no. They were decisive witnesses. They knew what they knew.
Lavonne had three kids out of one failed marriage. She was making good tax-free coin at Stan’s Drive-in. Her boyfriend was a deputy at the Temple City Station. The carhops at Stan’s fed the Temple boys for free—so they’d chase down check dashers and pry money out of them. Station trustees washed and waxed Lavonne’s car. Lavonne knew her way around cops.
Margie had a 14-year-old daughter. Her bookie husband died of a heart attack back in ’48. Margie blew the money he left her and moved in with her parents. She looked sort of like a brunette Jean Ellroy. She knew the El Monte bar scene intimately. She was in poor health and strung out on doctor-prescribed dope.
Lavonne and Margie dug the whole witness scene. Hallinen and Lawton liked them. They dawdled over coffee when they brought mug shots by.
They got a tip that the victim’s hairdresser resembled the dark man. They took Lavonne by his salon and treated her to a rinse-and-style. Lavonne said he wasn’t the guy. He was a flamboyant swish moreover.
More tips came in.
7/11/58:
A man named Padilla called the El Monte PD. He said he got released from the Hall of Justice Jail on June 30th. He saw a man resembling the suspect walk out of a bar on South Main Street.
7/13/58:
A man named Don Kessler called the Temple City Sheriff’s Office. He stated that he worked at the El Monte Bowl and saw a man resembling the suspect in his establishment. Mr. Kessler’s mother followed the man to the Bonnie Rae bar. The man ditched her. The man was dirty and appeared to be a Mexican.
7/14/58:
