Rampages revisited

 

Photograph by Larry Harnisch / Los Angeles Times
Here's 307 Tamarac Drive, where Harvey F. Rawlings killed his family and committed suicide.

 

And this is 555 Avenue 64, where Harold Oilar killed his family in 1954.

 

And here's the home as it appears today

 

Photograph by Larry Harnisch / Los Angeles Times

How terribly tragic and utterly needless. Whatever problems these men had, surely there was nothing so great or so permanent that could explain or justify their actions.   

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Comments

[Derek Anthony]

Creepy house, I lived at 555 Ave 64 from 1964 to 1972. They never told my mother what happened until after she bought the house for around 21,000 which was cheap even in 1964. People in the neighborhood eventually started telling us what happened even though we could never pinpoint the exact date or circumstances. We just heard it was an axe murder. My grandmother who into the supernatural and psychic always saw a man walking through the house at night. In 2002 when the house was for sale I stopped by and talked to the owner who bought it from my mother in 1980. He said his daughter always saw a man walking through the house as well. Weird huh? Another weird thing, I developed a phobia of dark windows as I felt a man was watching me at night if a window had any part not covered by a shade. Come to find out Harold was arrested for being a peeping tom. I hated that house, I still do. Even though it looks less sinister now.

[Derek]

Update on the house, as of October 2008, the house is still vacant and not sold. Wonder if the history has anything to do with it being vacant for most of this year?

[Derek]

That and the lousy economy is probably to blame. It is really a small house inside for looking so imposing on the outside. I remember it being bigger but I was a lot smaller back in the 60's when I lived there. There is no way in hell I'd pay 700,000 for that place even without the murder.

[Mike]

Interesting stories.

I grew up in this neighborhood (at 1340 La Loma) from 1966 to 1976 and I've wondered if this general area was where Charles Manson and Co. cased houses before deciding to go to the La Bianca's neighborhood in Los Feliz. At any rate, it was on the south end of Pasadena (one of the houses looked at was "on a hill").

Maybe Larry can find out somehow.

[Rachel B.]

how does a person find out if a house they've lived in is a former crime scene? I lived in a terribly creepy house in the late 80's with my family and I've always wondered about this?