buildings. The only way to enter King’s Row was via Tyler Avenue.
King’s Row was 15 feet wide. The sports field ran along the northern edge. A shrub-covered chain-link fence ran behind the southern curb line and a 3-foot-wide ivy thicket. The body was positioned 75 yards east of the Tyler-King’s Row intersection.
The victim’s left foot was two inches from the curb. Her weight had pressed down the ivy all around her.
Lawton and Hallinen stared at the body. Rigor mortis was setting in—the victim’s clenched hand had gone rigid.
Hallinen noted a fake-pearl ring on the third finger. Lawton said it might help them ID her.
Her face had gone slightly purple. She looked like a classic late-night body dump.
Vic Cavallero told the coaches and baseball kids to go home. Dave Wire and Virg Ervin mingled with the civilians. Sergeant Harry Andre showed up—an off-duty Sheriff’s Homicide man hot to lend a hand.
The press showed up. Some Temple deputies cruised by to check out the scene. Half the 26-man El Monte PD cruised by—dead white women were some kind of draw.
The coroner’s deputy showed up. The photo deputy told him he could examine the victim.
Hallinen and Lawton pushed forward to watch. The coroner’s deputy lifted the coat off the victim’s lower body.
She was not wearing a slip, a girdle or panties. Her dress was pushed up above her hips. No panties and no shoes. That one stocking down around her left ankle. Bruises and small lacerations on the insides of her thighs. An asphalt drag mark on her left hip.
The coroner’s deputy turned the body over. The photo deputy snapped some shots of the victim’s posterior. The victim’s back was dew-wet and showed signs of postmortem lividity.
The coroner’s deputy said she was probably dead eight to twelve hours. She was dumped before sunrise—the dew on her back was a plain indicator.
The photo deputy took some more pictures. The coroner’s deputy and his assistant picked up the body. It was limp—still shy of full rigor mortis. They carried the victim to their van and placed her on a gurney.
Hallinen and Lawton searched the ivy thicket and the adjoining curbside.
They found a broken car antenna on the road. They found a broken string of pearls in the flattened ivy near the dump position. They picked up the pearls circled in chalk and strung them on the necklace. They saw that they had a complete set.
The clasp was intact. The string was broken in the middle. They evidence-bagged both pieces of the necklace.
They did not find the victim’s panties, shoes or purse. They did not spot tire marks in the gravel near the curb. There were no drag marks on any surface along King’s Row. The ivy surrounding the dump position did not look trampled.
It was 1:20 p.m. The temperature was up in the mid-9os.
The coroner’s deputy cut off samples of the victim’s head and pubic hair. He trimmed the victim’s fingernails and placed the cuttings in a small envelope.
He had the body stripped and positioned face-up on his gurney.
There was a small amount of dried blood on the victim’s right palm. There was a small laceration near the center of the victim’s forehead.
The victim’s right nipple was missing. The surrounding areola was creased with white scar tissue. It appeared to be an old surgical amputation.
Hallinen removed the victim’s ring. The coroner’s deputy measured the body at
The coroner’s deputy took a scalpel and made a deep 6-inch-long incision in the victim’s abdomen. He parted the flaps with his fingers, jabbed a meat thermometer into the liver and got a reading of 90 degrees. He called the time of death as 3:00 to 5:00 a.m.
Hallinen examined the ligatures. The stocking and cotton cord were separately lashed around the victim’s neck. The cord resembled a clothesline or Venetian blind sash-pull.
The cord knot was tied at the back of the victim’s neck. The killer tied it so tight that one of the ends broke off—fraying and the odd lengths of the knot ends proved that fact conclusively.
The stocking around the victim’s neck was identical to the stocking bunched around her left ankle.
The coroner’s deputy locked up his van and drove the body to the L.A. County Morgue. Jack Lawton put out a police band broadcast:
All San Gabriel Valley units be alert for suspicious males with fresh cuts and scratches.
Ward Hallinen rounded up some radio reporters. He told them to put it on the local air:
Dead white woman found. Forty/red hair/hazel eyes/5?6?/135. Direct potential informants to the El Monte PD and Temple City Sheriffs Office—
Chief Davis and Captain Bruton drove to El Monte PD Headquarters. Three ranking Sheriff’s Homicide men joined them: Inspector R. J. Parsonson, Captain Al Etzel, Lieutenant Charles McGowan.
They settled in for a skull session. Bruton called the Baldwin Park PD, Pasadena PD, San Dimas Sheriff’s Office, Covina and West Covina PDs. He ran their victim’s stats by them and got identical responses: She doesn’t match any of our short-term missing females.
Uniformed deputies and El Monte cops grid-searched the Arroyo High grounds. Hallinen, Lawton and Andre canvassed the immediate neighborhood.
