Author: Kim Cooper

Some months back, retired aircraft worker Pietro Bresciani, 60, made a large loan to Jack Elmer States, laundry operator of 955 Luder Ave., El Monte. The money was not forthcoming. So Bresciani purchased a big-game rifle and asked States over to his house at 132 E. Ann Street. As States approached, Bresciani shot through the screen door, and his debtor fell dead on the steps.

Premediatated enough for you? Bresciani even had some $50 bills on hand to give out to passersby as he waited for police… unless he took them from States’ wallet. Did the dead man finally pay that debt? In any case, after reenacting the shooting for the cops, Bresciani was taken to jail.

The first reports of strange behavior by Howard Burbank, 57-year-old San Fernando Valley real estate man, came when he was pulled off a Chicago-bound bus after trying to choke a fellow passenger, William Ross of Cleveland. Following a police investigation, Burbank was freed.

Later today he stashed his clothing in a parked car, and ran naked down the street. Perhaps that’s considered normal behavior in the San Fernando Valley, but not in Elkhart in October! So a passing driver knocked him down, and cops took him to the jail at Goshen, where it took four strong men to get a pair of pants onto him.

Further reading:

The State Fish and Game Commission wants to talk with Glendale bow and arrow hunters Howard G. Mathison (910 Pelaconi Ave.) and James R. Stevenson (342 W. Elk Ave.) about the bear they killed near Lester Henry’s San Fernando Valley apiary earlier this month.

Assistant City Attorney Donald M. Redwine questioned the bear hunters and the honey-keeper, and implied Henry had a right to protect his investment. The case is being held under advisement.

Actor Lionel Stander and wife Jehanne blew the whistle on landlords Howard and Bertha Kline in the court of Superior Judge Robert H. Scott, refuting the Kline’s claims of default in the purchase of the home at 605 S. Plymouth Blvd. and seeking to remain in residence.

The Standers assert that while they signed a $65,000 purchase agreement for the property, this was part of a hustle allowing the Klines to avoid registering the residence with the Office of Price Administration. They claim the two couples had a private, oral agreement that the Standers would pay $600 per month in rent, although the cap should have been set at $200. The hearing will continue tomorrow.

Further viewing: Hart To Hart: The Complete First Season DVD

After being examined by three alienists, Louis William Rains was ruled insane and committed to Mendocino State Hospital by Superior Judge Charles W. Fricke. Rains, a house painter, aged 40, suffered hallucinations which caused him to believe his elderly aunt, Lucy Nolan, sought to poison him. On August 5, he beat the woman so badly that she died at Maywood Hospital.

Rains, a veteran who saw no wartime service and was seeing a psychiatrist at the time of the crime, lived with his aunt at 6217 Pala Ave., Bell.

After being forced off the road around 3 am, 64-year-old rancher Heinie Rodemacher spent twelve hours pinned beneath his pick-up truck in a dry wash off Highway 99 until his cries were heard. Gasoline and battery acid dripped onto him during his ordeal.

The fatalistic fellow told attending CHP officer Joe Green and Dep. Sheriffs W.C. Collin and L.C. Smith “you’ll never get me out of here,” but two hours of hacksaw and acetylene torch work did the trick.

Rodemacher is at Newhall Community Hospital for treatment of his chemical burns and leg injuries.

Emboldened by the attentions of fellow bus riders and the media, Chuck Harader (see yesterday’s post) displayed a photograph which he said depicted the mysterious Susan, object of his affections.

But the photo was soon identified as being that of Lynn Allen, radio actress (and ex-Marine) of 802 S. Norton Ave. She expressed bewilderment at how Harader got her photo, but wished the romantic fool luck in his quest.

When taken off the bus to be introduced to Miss Allen by journalists, Harader broke down and cried “That’s not Susan!” Well, she never claimed she was.

Harader, who is giving up his quest after six days riding the Vermont Avenue bus, says Susan knows where he lives should she wish to see him.

For the past five days, ten hours at a stretch, Chuck Harader, 28, pianist/composer of 2208 Cahuenga Street, has been riding a Vermont Avenue bus, trying to match female riders to his ideal, a gal called Susan Simpson who, he says, he “dated” last summer on numerous evening bus trips into Griffith Park. She never told him where she lived or let him escort her off the conveyance, but he adores her all the same.

She’s even sent him letters, asking him to meet her at their usual place (that would be the Monroe St. bus stop just south of City College), and later asking why he had failed to make the date, and suggesting a mysterious “Steve” would be incensed by her actions. He must have missed her when he got off the bus to grab a bite. He won’t make that mistake again. And so Chuck rides, with his weekly pass, sandwiches and coffee thermos by his side, ready to protect his lady… if he can just find her again.

Sitting in Edward R. Brand’s Superior Courtroom, movie actor/ boilermaker Gerald D. O’Neill, 50, heard his sentence of 10 to 20 years read.

There was no wife there to comfort him–not Mrs. Stella Frank O’Neill (720 S. Bonnie Brae, wedding date 2/7/42), nor any of his subsequent bigamous brides: Mrs. Margaret Beeler Williams (156 Coolidge Ave.), Mrs. Julia Twitchell (826 W. 49th St), Mrs. Anna Gwendolyn Ashley (221. Columbia Street).

Even his special lady friend and financier of his legal expenses, Mrs. Myrtle Riley (4532 Willowbrook Ave., “the sweetest girl in all the world”), sat out the special day.

Attorney Richard Erwin intends to appeal. As for O’Neill, let’s hope he stays out of the dance halls, which it seems he can’t visit without proposing marriage.

Mayo Elementary School nutrition supervisor Helen Peal of 1316 N. Edgemont Street and butcher J. Berman, whose shop is at 1006 Monroe Street, Hymes, are facing misdemeanor charges after school cook Ruth Mills blew the whistle on them.

Seems Berman delivered 25 pounds of foul-smelling hamburger to the school cafeteria, and when Mills told Peal that she thought it was spoiled, Peal advised she spice it up good and serve it to the children.

The city health department seized the meat before anyone ate it.