Voices--the Albert Dyer case
Note: The murders of three little Inglewood girls was one of Los Angeles' most notorious case of the 1930s. Madeline Everett, 7, her sister Melba, 9, and their playmate, Jeanette Stephens, 8, were lured to the Baldwin Hills by Albert Dyer, a WPA crossing guard, who raped and strangled the girls one at a time on June 26, 1937. Dyer was hanged at San Quentin on Sept. 16, 1938. The girls are buried in unmarked graves at Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Recently, Theresa Pinamonti Zeigler recalled:My sister Josephine and I had walked to Centinela Park, which was over a mile from our home. We were used to that long walk because we walked every day to St. John's school, which was approximately a mile from where we lived on Prairie Avenue.
Later in the day, we heard the news of the kidnapping of the three little girls and then later, finding their bodies in Baldwin Hills which was a few miles from Centinela Park. [Note: The girls were found June 28, 1937].
I do recall all the excitement in the neighborhood and all the grownups gathering out in the alleys behind their homes, and some standing around on the sidewalks talking about the missing children. This bachelor was suspected of the kidnapping because he used to give his niece and a couple of us little girls, who played with her, rides in the back of his pickup truck.
I do remember the rides since that was as much fun as riding in the rumble seat of a Ford. The bachelor was eventually cleared. I know that it was a scary time and I remember hearing the adults saying that some men wanted to lynch the man while he was in jail.

















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