Missing woman

 

March 13-16, 1958
Los Angeles

She was 24, lived with her mother out in Sun Valley and had two children from a marriage that ended in divorce three years earlier.

Her name was Shirley. According to her mother, Alice Jolliffe, she had been dating a man for about year but they broke up in December. He met someone else and married her.

On Sunday, March 2, 1958, Shirley Ann Bridgeford visited the Patti Sullivan Club, a dating service at 163 S. Vermont Ave., and registered. Her mother said a man called about a date, but Shirley decided not to go out with him.

Then another man called. It was March 7, a Friday night. He said his name was George Williams and that he lived in Pasadena. They made a date for the next evening.

He came by the home at 11087 Tuxford St. about 7:45 p.m. and met Shirley's mother and several of her relatives.

"She said she'd be back later," her mother said. But Shirley never returned. "The next morning I went to the police," her mother said.

Investigators quickly discovered that 245 Prescott Ave., the Pasadena address that Williams gave to the dating service, was phony. They also learned that Shirley's date looked nothing like the man who registered with the Patti Sullivan Club as George Williams.

Detectives said a Hollywood secretary reported that she went on a date with Williams two days before Shirley's disappearance and that he had been "a perfect gentleman." "But we're not even sure there is a George Williams," said Police Sgt. Pat Kealy of the missing persons detail. "The address he gave in Pasadena proved false and it's likely the name is too."

Investigators released a man identified as Shirley's pen pal after her mother said he wasn't Williams.  In the meantime, the mother looked through police mug books in hopes of identifying Williams or at least picking out men who resembled him so a police artist could made a sketch of Shirley's mysterious date.

To be continued ...

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