Tough prosecutor
May 16, 1957
Los Angeles
While L. Ewing Scott uses every possible ploy to delay his extradition from Michigan, the district attorney's office has appointed top prosecutor J. Miller Leavy to handle the case. Leavy has just finished the Edward S. Wein trial and has previously won convictions against "red light bandit" Caryl Chessman and Barbara "I Want to Live!" Graham.
Leavy is a tough, hard-working prosecutor who prepares his cases meticulously. The Scott case, however, will be one of his biggest challenges: There's no body. And so he must prove that alleged victim Evelyn Scott's well-established patterns of behavior suddenly ceased.
In Detroit's Wayne County Jail, Scott has been refusing to eat, complaining of health problems and refusing to answer reporters' questions. In a jailhouse interview, the Mirror only got two responses:
"How are you?"
"Terrible."
"If you go back to Los Angeles will you ask for a change of trial location?"
"Whoever my lawyer is out there will have to determine that."
Although Scott seemed fine during conversations with attorney Gabriel Cohn, he complained that he was desperately ill, prompting an examination at a nearby hospital, where he was found to be in perfect health. Sheriff's officials announced that Detective Chief J. Gordon Bowers and Detective Sgt. Ward Hallinen will be flying to Detroit to bring Scott back to Los Angeles as he plans to stop fighting extradition.
To be continued....
