Author: Kim Cooper

After waiting six years to begin her trial on charges of killing husband Major George A. Tucker, battilion commander at Ft. MacArthur, Mrs. Marie Tucker, now 45, is going home for good.

Accused of stabbing the Major in their home at 1423 13th Street, San Pedro on July 1, 1941, Mrs. Tucker’s trial was to commence on December 8, 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor intervened, and the many military witnesses to the case were scattered across the globe. Lawyers Jerry Giesler and Frank P. Doherty recently moved to dismiss the indictment, as witnesses remain at their distant posts. Assistant D.A. John Barnes didn’t fight them, so Superior Judge Thomas L. Ambrose set Mrs. Tucker, who has been out on bail, permanently free.

When arrested, Mrs. Tucker said that her husband’s wound, from which he died after 10 days, was an accident. It seems he’d been making a ham sandwich after a wild party, and somehow the butcher knife pierced his spleen, stomach and heart. The knife ended up in the back of a utility drawer. Although the stabbing happened on civilian property, no one called the police, and Major Tucker was flown by bomber up to San Francisco for two rounds of emergency surgery, while fellow officers hustled around collecting evidence from the scene.

These kinds of things happen when you cook drunk, so be careful out there!

Charles Edward Thompson, 37, and wife Gladys separated recently, with Charles allowed a weekly visit with 6-month-old baby Barbara. Yesterday Charles, who has been living at 1105 W. 29th Street, drove to the female Thompsons’ residence at 737 Brice Road, El Monte, and the family went to L.A. so Barbara could visit her doctor. Words were exchanged on the ride home, and Charles made to split with the kid. He failed in this, and the trio returned to El Monte, where Gladys walked the groceries into the house at Charles’ directive. She’d not even reached the door when she heard two shots.

Charles expired at Temple City Emergency and Barbara followed her father in death at General Hospital soon after.

The Army transport ship Honda Knot, her hull draped with flowers, moved slowly out of Pearl Harbor today on its somber voyage to San Francisco. Inside her hold, the corpses of 2292 American war dead bound for repatriation. Among them were victims of the Japanese attack on Hawaii. This is the first shipment of what will ultimately be tens of thousands of American bodies returned from the Pacific Theater. More here.

On this day, the abstract expressionist, and mentor to editrix Kim, Michael Charles Longdo was born.

For the fourth time since August, and in the second time this week, a runaway car ended up inside the home of Mrs. Howard White, 8442 Kirkwood Drive. The latest unwanted vehicular guest belonged to 23-year-old Earle Ray Dugan of 5426 Virginia Ave. It rolled from a hill above the White home, plowed into the living room, hit the chair the lady had just vacated and ended up against the mantle, where it shattered the fireplace and several priceless antiques, among them a bowl whose twin is in the (other) White House… where, one hopes, the fence is stronger.

Further reading: Porcelain Repair and Restoration

John Donald La Chance and his young family have been evicted from their Quonset hut home in Rodger Young Village. The 32-year-old former marine private claims his rent has gone unpaid because his $60 monthly disability check for September hasn’t arrived.

But Ed Leibeck of the City Housing Authority counters that La Chance has failed to pay his rent repeatedly, and would have been bounced in May had the VA not stepped in to help. He has also received aid from Public Assistance. Now, since La Chance refuses to take a test to see if he is able to work, and the rent is three weeks late, La Chance, wife Ruth, and little Barbara Ann and baby Donald Lee have been removed from hut #1038.

La Chance enlisted in June 1942 and was discharged 14 months later, after suffering an injury at Camp Pendleton.

Further reading on the ex-servicemen’s community of Rodger Young Village is in The Provisional City: Los Angeles Stories of Architecture and Urbanism; see also these message board posts