Drown A Cold, Feed a Fever

January 8, 1947
Lincoln Heights

Streetcar motorman Jesse Viscarra, 33, is not one to suffer a cold lightly. Returning home to 2403 N. Broadway on his lunch break after sneezing and wheezing all morning, he told his wife that his Army buddies had always sworn by “the old reliable” when a bug struck, and he reckoned he’d do the same.

So after snorting a snootful, Viscarra returned to his route and promptly crashed into a car driven by Mrs. Olga Milosevick, of 733 Bernard Street, at the corner of College and North Broadway. Arriving officers got a whiff of Viscarra’s breath and whisked him off to the Lincoln Heights drunk tank, while Viscarra moaned that he’d never had an accident before, and that the lady had turned in front of him.

Well, so what if she did? He’s still admittedly guilty of California Penal Code 367F, operating a streetcar while inebriated.

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.

One thought on “Drown A Cold, Feed a Fever”

  1. The apartment was so small that her husband, James Robert Dennis, asked her to go home to live with her parents. He said he’d call but she didn’t hear from him for four days. She gave him $300 to build a prefabricated house on one of his lots in Benedict Canyon but he put it into his business. He agreed to a divorce.

    But not in Judge Charles S. Burnell’s court. There would be no divorce for Virginia Engels, “Miss Los Angeles, 1940,â€Â “Miss Streamlineâ€Â and “The Orchid Queen.â€Â

    “This is a typical motion picture divorce,â€Â he lectured her from the bench. “It’s in keeping with the Hollywood idea of giving the marriage no fair trial. Inability to get a house is affecting a large part of the population but it is not grounds for a divorce.

    “She said they agreed upon getting a divorce. This is collusion. Decree denied,â€Â Burnell said.

    Engels eventually managed to get a divorce and was married to Charles H. Brown by the time she was arrested for drunk driving in 1950, about the time she appeared in the movie “Caged.â€Â

    Four years later, she was accused of stabbing Brown, a parking lot attendant, to death during a fight in their apartment at 6027 Barton Ave. The autopsy found that Brown was stabbed in the heart and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15% Engels said that Brown beat her constantly and had broken her shoulder in two places by stomping on her.

    Retried after her first prosecution ended in a hung jury, Engels was acquitted Jan. 10, 1955. She died of meningitis, forgotten and alone, around Dec. 5, 1956, in her apartment at 5200 Marathon St. The landlady checked on Engels after not seeing her for several days and found her lying on the floor next to the bed. She had been dead for some time. Engels was 39.

    Three-bullet items:

    Abbott and Costello top the Treasury Department’s list of highest-paid people, earning a total of $469,170 ($4,440,312.13 USD 1005)… IBM President Thomas J. Watson is the highest sole earner, with $425,548 and Deanna Durbin is third at $310,728… Chemicals used in Dr. George Edwards’ experiments on inventing a heart monitor may have killed him…A 66-car pileup at Sepulveda and Vermont is blamed on heavy fog… Teta Oglesby tells police she was just kidding when she wired her jailed boyfriend that she would be bringing him a cake with a file hidden in it…. Anthony Whittley shakes the hand of Officer Joseph C. Tucker who shot Whittley’s son, Arthur when he ran away from a car he had stolen. The younger Whittley lingered about a day before dying. “I hope you go the same way and suffer the same way,â€Â his father says… Car dealer Robert E. Vaughn and two of his salesmen are sentenced to 1 to 10 years in San Quentin for price-gouging.

    Quote of the day: “He acts the way Saroyan writes, though with a harsher critical note.â€Â
    Philip K. Scheuer, on the West Coast debut of Danny Thomas at Slapsy Maxie’s.

    https://www.lmharnisch.com

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