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Someone apparently doesn't like Dorothy Adamson's fox terrier, which is missing after her apartment at 1034 Hilldale was bombed. An unidentified caller had complained about the dog's barking, The Times says. Alas, the paper never followed up on this story.
And wedding bells ring for Jack Webb and former Miss USA Jackie Loughery, who met when Webb was casting "Pete Kelly's Blues." The couple are going to live on the Republic Studios lot, The Times says. They divorced in 1964.
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Photograph by Larry Harnisch / Los Angeles Times
Speaking of watering troughs, at least one has survived in the Los Angeles area. This one in South Pasadena, on Meridian just south of Mission, was built across from the train station so people could water their horses when they made trips to the depot. |
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 bove, yes, such things really happened. Anybody who thinks the past was a "kinder, simpler time" needs to revisit their history lessons ... At left, an interesting figure is back in the news: The late Robert S. "Rattlesnake" James, the last man to be executed by hanging in California.
On Aug. 4, 1935, James tried to kill his wife, Mary, by putting her foot into a box of rattlesnakes after tying her to a table in their La Crescenta home. Although the snakes bit her, she didn't die, so James drowned her in a backyard fish pond. (Does the fish pond part sound familiar?) The man in the news is Johannssen C. Houtenbrink, alias "Snake Joe," who sold James the rattlesnakes that were to be the murder weapon. Houtenbrink was bitten by one of the 200 snakes he kept at his home, 2414 N. San Gabriel Blvd., South San Gabriel. (Note: Google maps doesn't like this address). Snake Joe recovered, only to be bitten again in 1959.
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Above left, looks like the sailors of the Great White Fleet left with a 19-year-old souvenir of Los Angeles. Her name is Olga Isle and she's being sent back home after her cruise.
Above, L.K. Lessley of Sierra Madre is accused of poisoning four horses belonging to Kay Takeoka in an attempt to get a contract for hauling hay. Lessley denies the charges, but admits buying strychnine. The horses nearly destroyed the barn in their death agonies from strychnine and the barn is surrounded by dead mice that ate the poisoned feed, The Times says.
At a meeting of the state Audubon Society, members call for the eradication of the English sparrow and starling, which are driving out songbirds.
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Larry Harnisch. The leading Black Dahlia expert and a collaborator in the 1947project, Harnisch has been a copy editor at The Times since 1988. He has appeared on many TV shows discussing the Dahlia case, notably "James Ellroy's Feast of Death."
Join him for a spin through old Los Angeles in the Mirror's radio car. Keep your eyes open for Mickey Cohen and Tempest Storm. It's quite a ride.
The reporter's badge belonged to Sid Hughes (1908-1958), legendary reporter who worked at nearly every newspaper in Los Angeles.