May 4, 1939: Church members rally around the Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, after their arraignment.
June 27, 1939: The Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, pray as her confession is read in court. They were accused of a sex crime that The Times considered unprintable. The defense charged that Jeffers was framed because of his controversial views against Catholics and Jews.
June 24, 1939: The Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, sit at the defense table during their sensational morals trial, in which prosecutors showed a film of them taken during a raid on their apartment. The Times said that if the film were shown anywhere except a courtroom, the exhibitors would be arrested.
June 24, 1939: The morals trial of the Rev. Joseph Jeffers and his wife, Zella, gets underway after they were arrested in April 1939. Their immoral act was so horrifying that prosecutors said they were looking for
a "shock-proof" jury consisting exclusively of married people. During
the trial, The Times reported that spectators fled the courtroom in
horror at what was described.
And this is their crime, which was considered so obscene that The Times couldn't describe it.
Aug. 20, 1899: The cornerstone is laid for First M.E. Church
This postcard showing First M.E. Church has been listed on EBay. The church was designed by Austin and Skilling and built on the northeast corner of 6th and Hill streets in 1899. Bidding starts at $4.
June 21, 1963: Pope Paul VI becomes the successor to Pope John XXIII and Jerry G. Tees is arrested on charges of impersonating an astronaut. I can't find any further information on what became of Tees -- sounds like an interesting story.
"You pray that you get back alive and in one piece," says Spec. 5 Michael G. Johnson of Miami.
The Times didn't run any photos with Harry Trimborn's nondupe from Saigon about religious faith among the military in Vietnam. All we have are the words:
"When a man is wounded he is really receptive to religion. But I don't know that their faith is really that much stronger. I think it just gets a little bit more of a workout in times of crisis," says Protestant Chaplain Maj. Richard M. Hochstedler.
I asked a couple of retired LATers what became of Trimborn, but nobody seems to know.
Walter O'Malley turned a lackluster game into an economics lesson.
The Dodger owner watched his team lose to the expansion Padres, 3-2, and he didn't have much company. The 11,588 was the smallest crowd at Dodger Stadium that season and O'Malley saw it as a sign of baseball's deeper problems.
"It is possible we have diluted the market to the saturation point," O'Malley told The Times' John Wiebusch.
"The fan only has a limited amount of money to spend and we're not going to fool him by giving him a product that is below the standards it was before. It is flooding the market too. Putting Oakland with San Francisco and putting San Diego and the Angels with us. It's a headache right now for all of us."
The Dodgers' attendance was down 79,040 from the previous season. Things were worse in San Diego and Anaheim, where a lousy team and low attendance made Angel officials wonder if pro sports could survive in Orange County.
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.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.
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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.
Keith Thursby. Keith has been an editor at The Times in news, sports and design since 1986. The Rams moved to St. Louis on his first day as assistant sports editor of the paper's Orange County edition. He grew up in Norwalk and lives in Irvine.