Nov. 22, 1963

Found on EBay – Ann Toth Letters

A lot of letters written to Ann Toth, who was the roommate of Elizabeth Short – the Black Dahlia, were listed on EBay. The vendor carefully noted that the letters were from the 1950s to the 1970s, rather than from 1946, when Toth lived with Short at the home of Florentine Gardens executive Mark Hansen. The vendor also noted that none of the letters were written by Toth. Instead, there are letters from  a son, a bill for auto insurance, employment contracts, a receipt for the purchase of a television set and miscellaneous letters of transmittal, etc. Even so, the final bid on the lot was $560.

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 18, 1959

As Senators Write to Indignant Taxpayers     While we're all gathered here together, in this smoke-filled room, I'd like to say a few words in behalf of politicians.     They are our friends.  Behind that stodgy facade that they put up, they've all got hearts as big as Daddy Warbucks'.     And what they do, they do in our best interests.     I am prepared, I might add, to give you an example.     You remember, a couple of months ago, when Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois drafted a resolution calling for a government expenditure of $200,000 to permit himself and his 99 colleagues to fly to Waikiki to welcome Hawaii into our union of states?     The resolution was drawn up shortly after Alaska, which is cold, slipped quietly into the union.  And it was met, I'm told, with some resounding cheers in the upper house before it was drowned out by a chorus of taxpayer screams.     Well, now, at last, I can tell you the story behind the proposal.  I have it from an indignant taxpayer who was among those who wrote their protests  to Washington.     He wrote to Sen. Dirksen, Clair Engle and Thomas Kuchel.     Dirksen replied, in part:     "Nothing delighted me so much as to observe in every section of the country that a proposal to have the entire Senate attend the Hawaiian inaugural ceremonies at public expense struck so deeply into the hearts of people and offended their basic feeling with respect to governmental extravagance and the need for economy.     "I should point out that when the question was asked of me by the press, I said that I presumed every senator 'wanted' to go to Hawaii, but as you well know, 'wanting' to go and 'getting' to go is quite another matter . . .     "I reaffirm, however, my delight that there is an aroused feeling in the country with respect to spending.      "As for the record, I take some real pride in the record which the Republican minority made in the Senate in resisting huge authorizations for the expenditure of money and heavy appropriations.     "This aggressive effort on the part of the minority plus the determination of the president to hold the budget line plus the clear evidence of public interest all joined to give us a good record in this field."     I would have suspected that the junket was a Democratic plot if I hadn't seen Sen. Engle's answer, too:     "Thank you for your letter regarding the proposal of Sen. Dirksen . . .     "I agree that this suggestion is ridiculous; and if it had come to a vote, you may be sure that I would have voted against it.  It is not improper to send a small delegation . . . on this great occasion;  but to send the entire delegation is, of course, preposterous."     California's Republican senator, Tom Kuchel, had still another explanation:     "I fully agree with you that it would be an abuse of the public trust and a flagrant waste of public funds for either branch of the Congress to arrange a so-called junket for its entire membership . . .     "It is unfortunate that a jocular remark about a possible trip to Hawaii was misunderstood and subsequently treated seriously by a certain segment of the press . . .     "You may rest assured that I would never be a party to such an extravagance." Statesmanlike Stuff     So now we know.  Either:     1 -- Sen. Dirksen -- who's been battling those spendthrift Democrats for years --  was just testing us taxpayers to see if we were alert;     2 -- If those spendthrift Republicans had gotten it to the floor, the Democrats would have voted it down; or:         3 -- It was just a big joke.    I get the feeling that if the indignant taxpayer taxpayer had written 97 more letters to our elected representatives, all would have expressed violent opposition to such a prodigal scheme, no matter what they might have said before.     It's like I told you at the start.  Politicians are our friends.  Especially if we're watching them.

Three Sought in Robbery, Killing

Dance tonight at the Roma, 616 S. Hill St.

Nov. 18, 1919: The housekeeper of a downtown rooming house is sought in the robbery and murder of the proprietor, W. Frank Sheets, and police are also looking for her husband and an associate in the killing. Police say that the housekeeper, Margaret Evans, was secretly married to Philip Gargano and that witnesses identified photos of Gargano and Alfonso Bassano as the two men seen running from the Santa Anita rooming house after the killing. A pistol found near the rooming house was registered to Gargano, police say.

Matt Weinstock, Nov. 16, 1959

“I Think I’ll Read the Funnies.”    Conditioned Reflexes     After a business failure several years ago a young man decided to pursue the career he'd always wanted -- teaching.  He was aware that it meant a drastic change and involved great sacrifice but he and his wife decided it was worth it.     He went back to school, and, meanwhile, got a part-time job.  His wife also worked.  To keep the house running smoothly, the three young children were assigned regular duties and responsibilities.  After dinner, for instance, they quietly took their own dishes into the kitchen to be washed.     Recently after a long, hard struggle the husband got his credential and his teaching assignment and he and his wife decided to celebrate by dining in a good restaurant, something they'd denied themselves for several years.     [Illegible] an enjoyable occasion with a hilarious epilogue.  [Illegible] when the youngsters finished eating, they picked up their dishes and headed to the kitchen to wash them.  They were nabbed in the nick of time. ::      MORE AND MORE American Indians are being assimilated into the social stream and perhaps it's in order, as Chief Wah-Nee-Ota suggests, to let people in a little secret.     First thing most people ask when they meet an Indian is, "What tribe do you come from?"  It's an innocent and natural question but it tells the Indian the person knows nothing about his people.  The question correctly should be, "What nation do you come from?"  Every Indian tribe is a nation.  At present the largest Indian nation is the Navajo.     Chief Wah-Nee-Ota, by the way, is descended from the Creek nation, a branch of the Seminole.  The Creeks were never defeated, no peace treaty was ever signed and technically they are still at war with the United States, which, the chief concedes, with a smile, is also a powerful nation. ::     FOR FREE? Green stamps, orange     stamps, blue stamps,     gold- I'll be licking till I'm old.     --PAT SHROYER ::     THE WRONG NUMBER situation is out of hand again.      A man phoned the Mark Twain Hotel in Hollywood and shouted: "Tell so-and-so he's fired!"  Night clerk Henry Krieger tried to say something but the caller squelched him with, "I don't want to talk to him!" and hung up.  Half an hour later the same person called and said in a conciliatory voice, "Tell so-and-so to be on the set tomorrow."  [Illegible] figures the caller [illegible] he was talking to [illegible]  studio, one digit [illegible]  hotel's number.     Mrs. John McMurray, who lives in Laurel Canyon has received so many wrong numbers lately she [illegible] to participate.  The other day her phone rang [illegible] a man said, "Hello, Albert." She said, "No, this isn't Albert," which he should have detected from her voice.  But he persisted, "Are you sure this isn't Albert?"  When she said no again he said, "He must have moved again."  She She said this was possible if baffling. ::     NORTH YOUNG says he was dining in a Malibu restaurant with the noted Egyptologist, Pith Helmet, and, over an abalone frappe.  Pith was recounting one of his fantastic adventures.  "That was the year," he said, "that I took my wife and kids and 30 camels into the Egyptian Sudan.  Everything went well until-"  Just then an auto dealer at a nearby table jumped to his feet and interrupted, "I think it's high time people stopped exaggerating the roominess of those foreign cars." ::     AROUND TOWN -- Alberto Diaz of the Belvedere Citizen and Nicolas Avila of La Opinion were confronted with a momentary dilemma in reporting the cranberry crisis to their readers.  Cranberries aren't aren't used much down Mexico way, at least not in tacos.  Anyway, they had to look it up in the dictionary and now they know- cranberries arearandanos . . .You know what some people do these foggy nights?  They litterbug.  Through swirls of mist Walt Stone saw a motorist emptying his ashtray on Melrose Ave. . . . A young man in Palos Verdes drives around in an old hearse labeled "The Body Snatcher"  . . . And a Fiat in Santa Monica had painted on it, "Reductio ad absurdum."

Family Killed in Kansas Farm Town

"The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call 'out there.' Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West. The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes. The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them." --Truman Capote, “In Cold Blood.” Nov. 16, 1959: Intentionally avoiding a direct endorsement until the Republican National Convention, Republican leaders show their support for Vice President Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential race.

Monte Montana! Ty Hardin! Jerry Mathers!

Ferd’nand invents the Man Cave.

Back when stock cars were really stock. Elmer Musgrave wins a 100-lap race at Ascot Stadium in a 1958 Pontiac. Rodger Ward is second in a 1958 Ford.

Servicemen Wreck L.A. Union Hall Over Armistice Day Shootings

Nov. 15, 1919:  In response to the Centralia, Wash., shootings, “Twenty-five silent, stalwart men in full uniform of the United States Army and Navy raided the headquarters of the local I.W.W. in the Germain Building while a ‘defense’ meeting of the reds was in progress and utterly wrecked the place shortly after 8 o'clock last night," The Times said. “They drove the terrified I.W.W. before them as leaves before a cyclone. Some of the reds jumped out of the window to escape the flailing blows of the avengers, armed with table legs and stout pieces of banister broken from the stairway railing as they rushed up. Others flew from room to room, endeavoring to get away, which most of the fifty percent finally did, much the worse for wear. “When the smoke of battle finally cleared away and the police held the premises, four of the I.W.W. were in the Receiving Hospital and five were under arrest, charged with inciting a riot. They will be charged with criminal syndicalism later, according to the police. No members of the raiding party were injured and none was arrested, as there is absolutely no clew to their identity or where they came from. A handful of citizens arrested them in the attack, but no one knows who they were. “

Finds ‘Husband’ Is Woman

Dr. Alice Bush of Oakland sues for divorce, charging that her husband, R.K. Morgan, failed to disclose something rather important.

Nov. 15, 1909: The lynchings in Cairo, Ill., are endorsed from the pulpit and in the press.  Saying that lawlessness was common in the area where a woman was killed, the Rev. George M. Babcock of Church of the Redeemer, Episcopalian, says: “This defiance of law and order made the lynchings necessary to secure justice.” F.A. Thielecke, editor of the Cairo Bulletin, says: “Cairo’s disgrace is not the mob, but the conditions that made the mob necessary.”

Few Killers Are Executed, Reports Show

Nov. 13, 1909: More than 100 murders were committed in the 30 years since the capital punishment law was passed, but only five killers from Los Angeles County have been executed, The Times says. A convicted killer has a 1-in-20 chance of being executed, statistics show. A severed thumb is the key evidence in the trial of Burt Thornburg on charges of trying to burglarize the store of Yee Sam, 515 N. Main St. … And a judge drops charges against a motorcyclist accused of going more than 30 mph. (He said his motorcycle wouldn’t do 20 mph).

Paul V. Coates – Confidential File, Nov. 12, 1959

The Mirror follows the Lillian Lenorak story. Below, Paul Weeks profiles suspect Tord Ove Zeppen-Field. This Mother Wonders Why Her Son Died     Many eyes -- including those of some U.S. senators in town for public hearings this week -- see the juvenile delinquent.     But somehow, the focus, the image, is never the same.     To the policeman, the juvenile delinquent isn't just a bad boy, or a bad girl.  They are potentially dangerous criminals.  A boy's age -- the fact that he's not yet 18 -- doesn't make him any less dangerous.  Experience has taught the policeman that an immature punk, paired with a loaded gun, is as deadly an enemy as he can face.     Through the eyes of a probation officer, a juvenile delinquent is a kid who's made a mistake, or two, or more.  He's an anti-social, but not beyond redemption.  The probation officer's job is to straighten the kid out and keep him straight.  He's got to see him in a kindly light.      Other people see the juvenile delinquent in other shades of vision.     The judge, the neighbors, the "nice" kid who has to take the long way home from school to avoid being beaten up by a gang, the j.d.'s parents ("He's really a good boy."), the preacher, the rabbi, the father -- each has his own definition.      Today, I'm going to give you another definition -- as applied by a housewife whose concern is a tragic one.     Her name is Mrs. Lembersky.  She live son L.A.'s east side.     On Oct. 17 of this year, her 15-year-old son, Larry, left the house at 6 p.m. to attend a church bazaar seven blocks away.     Mrs. Lembersky, and some other people I've talked with since that day, described Larry as a very popular, real fine kid.      He'd been a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, an honor student at Hollenbeck Junior High, and was, at the same time he walked out the front door that evening, a member of the "B" football squad at Roosevelt High School.     At the bazaar, when he and a friend were playing a dart game, a 14-year-old kid approached them and said that somebody wanted to see them outside.     The "somebody" turned out to be nearly a dozen members of the Little Eastside gang.  One of the gang's members, it turned out, had taken Larry's joking comment about a "squeaky bicycle" (made more than a month before) as a personal insult.     Larry and his friend walked innocently outside.  They were encircled, jumped, slugged, kicked.  As they fought their way through the circle and started to run, Gilbert Roque, 17, plunged a 7-inch knife into Larry's heart and killed him.     "Gilbert Roque killed my son," Mrs. Lembersky told me yesterday.  "He's a murderer.  A cold-blooded murderer."     "But you watch," she said, "He'll be treated like just another juvenile delinquent.  He'll be back on the streets in a year or two."      Gilbert Roque's story reportedly is that he'd been threatened with a shotgun in the face the week before by a rival gang.  He was just a bystander the night he killed Larry Lembersky .  He carried the knife for "self-defense," and when he saw Larry and his friend running toward him, he thought they were after him and he used the knife for "protection."     The dead boy's mother told me: "After my son fell down, his friend rushed back and bent over him.  Then the same boy knifed him in the back."     "Is that self-defense?" she asked.     In panic and pain, Mrs. Lembersky called Gilbert Roque's mother after the killing. Why, Why, Why?     "Why," she demanded, "did your son kill my son?"     Mrs. Lembersky told me: "The boys mother said she didn't know why.  She said that her son was  a good boy."     "He's not a good boy, Mr. Coates," Mrs. Lembersky cried.  "Good boys don't murder people."     Juvenile delinquents.  Juvenile killers.  I hope the senators come up with some answers, but optimistic I'm not.