Master Thief Hits L.A., February 1959

The Times spelled the name Attebery; The Mirror used Atterbery, Max Hurlbut writes: Your Evening Mirror News article on burglar GORDON E. ATTERBERY being pursued in 1959 brings back memories.  I was a young policeman assigned to Hollywood Division in 1960.  ATTERBERY was tearing us, West Hollywood Sheriffs, & Beverly Hills P.D. apart.  He would hit house- after-house, leaving his loot piled near the street where he would pick it up, before sunup, in his stolen Chevy with cold plates. Officer IAN J. CAMPBELL (murdered in the "Onion Field" in March 1963) & I worked 6X15.  [6 designates Hollywood Division & "X" is an "extra" car deployed in reporting district 615 (Los Feliz/Griffith Park District)].  We believe we once spotted ATTERBERY, but he outran us.  A Las Vegas park- ing checker, who had a hobby of checking his daily "hot sheet" against all Chevrolets he cited, finally nabbed him. ATTERBERY, as a condition of sentencing,  told all in a special report for police officers on "How to Catch a 459."  (Old penal code section for burglary).  He wore suits and walked a dog so as to say he was out strolling.  He studied the neighborhood & could answer questions for the car in the area.  If un- covered, he would dash through the worse brush & snags, as he knew policemen (then) paid for their uniforms and did not want to tear them up.  He would hide in trees, as we seldom looked up at night.  (Favorites were dirty palm trees with skirts of dead spiny fronds to crawl up & under).  Better not reveal more, but an excellent primer on burglary, even today.  ATTERBERY was only 24, but an intelligent, complex, man and master burglar.  {P.S.---He knew big city police officers would not (usually) shoot a fleeing burglar; but was afraid of running into an irate & armed home-owner who did not read his case-law....}. GORDON, you are now 73.  If you are out there, let us know how the rest of your career panned out.... MAX K. HURLBUT, 10603 LAPD (Retired) Bellingham, WA