Contaminated Soya Sauce Dumped in Drain

July 28, 1947
Los Angeles

Police still don’t know who did it–adulterated the city’s soya sauce supply with quantities of arsenic nearly sufficient to cause death. Dozens of Japanese residents became ill earlier this month after ingesting rice seasoned with the poison, but all have since recovered.

Health inspectors today supervised the dumping of about 1500 gallons of suspect soya sauce, tipping drums down drains at a Little Tokyo wholesale business at 114 Weller Street. Another 48,500 gallons will soon face the same fate.

The sickly sweet odor of the sauce lingered on the air, bearing with it perhaps a hint of death, as the men from the health department acted to protect all citizens, even those of Axis descent.

Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

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Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

3 thoughts on “Contaminated Soya Sauce Dumped in Drain”

  3. IT’S IN HIS FUTURE!—a new fascinating Horoscope Chart for your dog, and all his pals! Tells you the birth-traits, character, temperament and “planet-signâ€Â for your dog and your friends’ pets! Complete and detailed! Be first to own this amazing new source of “star signsâ€Â and “star secretsâ€Â for dogs! Use the attached coupon—send only three labels from Dr. Ross’ for your DOG HOROSCOPE!

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    July 29 is Elizabeth Short’s birthday—she would have been 81. Although horoscopes were a regular feature in the Examiner in the 1940s, The Times didn’t begun running them until Jan. 8, 1951, when Carroll Richter’s Astrological Forecast appeared next to the weather report. The Times, however, was certainly in the vanguard in offering star charts for pets.

    Although The Times didn’t have a horoscope, it ran a daily Bible verse on the editorial page, right below the masthead. Here’s the one for Elizabeth Short’s birthday:

    But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy—St. James, III, 17

    The daily Bible verse disappeared from The Times’ editorial page Oct. 23, 1970.

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