Author: Kim Cooper

The morning rush hour today was disrupted with a flurry of gunfire, as a jilted Filipino cook sought vengeance on his former paramour, then ran through the streets shooting, endangering police and citizens.

The fight erupted in a food stand in a parking lot at 526 S. Hill Street, when Benedicto Ilamin (aka Bill Sipa), 25, asked his ex-girlfriend Opal Johnston, 33, for a cup of coffee. As she turned to get it, he aimed his .38 and shot her in the hip. Charles Dubou, a 31-year-old waiter who was a customer, attempted to disarm Ilamin and was himself shot in the mouth.

Ilamin ran from the hot dog stand through the parking lot, where he encountered Edward Hubbell, 51, a special officer, who gave chase. The two exchanged shots, and Hubbell was wounded in the leg. As Ilamin crouched to reload, Hubbell grabbed and disarmed him. At this point, a passing traffic officer, Dean Doolan, appeared on the scene and effected Ilamin’s surrender.

From her hospital bed, Johnston explained that she had lived with the much younger man at 721 California Street until about a month ago, when she left him after he tried to knife her. She went to Las Vegas, then returned to Los Angeles, where Ilamin had begun annoying her again. He had been into the stand begging her to come back to him on Tuesday night, then again early this morning. His tears turned to rage and he told her “You won’t be working her tomorrow!” before shooting her.

All three of his victims are hospitalized. Meanwhile, Ilamin has an explanation for his rampage: “I wanted to talk to her in a nice way, but she wouldn’t let me.”

Suggested reading: Street Food (Ryland, Peters and Small International Cookbooks , Vol 1, No 4)

An extended family of seven migratory farm workers was transported from Van Nuys Receiving Hospital to General Hospital today in serious condition after they became violently ill near Agoura after eating a roast chicken. Among the stricken are Lupe Herrera, 45, his 39-year-old wife Frances, their children Sarah, 10, Ernest, 8, Aurelia, 5, the children’s grandfather Jose Murietta, 60, and Lupe’s 43-year-old brother Elesia. The family was en route from Mesa, Arizona to San Jose when they encountered the unsanitary bird.

Suggested reading: How to Prevent Food Poisoning : A Practical Guide to Safe Cooking, Eating, and Food Handling

Ladera Park was filled with picnickers, friends and families enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. One group was comprised of co-workers from Douglas Aircraft. Among them, George Porter, 33, of 531 Richmond Street, El Segundo. Porter decided to leave the party, but not entirely-he returned to Ladera Park later in the afternoon in his two-seater plane and buzzed the ampitheatre down at tree-top level. Three times he circled the bowl, terrorizing those on the ground. Recreation Director George T. Blair squinted at the craft to get the numbers so he could report the reckless pilot. But there was no need: on the fourth go-round, one wing hit a branch and down into the ravine came George Porter and his flying death machine.

Instantly killed were Porter, Mrs. Eula Walters, 29, of 1731 West 51st Place and two-year-old Myrna Lynn Coffey, of 1135 ½ E. 68th Street. The baby was in her mother’s arms when wreckage from the plane hit them both. Also injured was Mrs. Walters’ 4-month-old, Kenneth Dale, whose baby buggy was spattered with engine oil. Mrs. Walters and Mrs. Coffey had just been on the croquet grounds, where their husbands heard the impact and raced to discover the horror.

Porter’s passenger, wife Brownie Belle Porter, survived the crash and is in fairly good condition at Harbor General, with a fractured collar bone, mild concussion, dislocated hip and possible internal injuries.

Captain Sewell Griggers of the Sheriff’s aero squad is attempting to determine from what airport Porter took off, while Vermont subdivision deputy Sheriffs James E. Christian and W.J. Grater examined the wreckage.

Suggested reading: The Illustrated History of McDonnell Douglas Aircraft : From Cloudster to Boeing

ACLU representative A.L. Wirin, an attorney, is asking Superior Judge Henry M. Willis to rule that those recent “crime crusher” street blockades are unconstitutional and must be stopped. The search and seizure of property belonging to people who just happen to be driving through a blockaded intersection is, Wirin states, “intolerable and unreasonable.”

Police claim a decrease of 18.2 percent in reported crimes in the blockades sections of the city, and seek to continue the practice. In an affidavit filed at the Court, Assistant Chief of Police Joseph Reed insisted that only cars containing “suspicious characters” were being searched, and that for law-abiding citizens, the stop was no more inconvenient than a traffic light. A side issue is the fact that public funds are being used to finance the blockades.

Judge Willis took the case under submission.

Suggested reading: In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU

Mrs. Edith Velasquez, 28, can’t handle her son, but her husband can.

Earl L. Daily is 12, and big and strong as a grown man-unfortunately, he still has the brain and impulse control of a child. When husband Florian, a laborer, is at work, Edith cares for her six other children-Marcellina, 11, Florian, 9, Geraldine, 6, Marie, 5, Winona, 4 and Dickie, 3. And she chains Earl, her child by a previous relationship, to a bed in their 3-room house at 19006 Wilmington Ave.

For the past four years, Edith has been trying to get Earl admitted to the Pacific Colony Home, but the institution hasn’t had room for the boy. Lately he’s taken to running away. So he spends his days padlocked to the bed in the room he shares with five of his siblings, with occasional visits to the yard. He’s only unlocked when his stepfather is home and can control him, and catch him if he runs.

It must have been one of those chained stays in the yard that led to the visit from the juvenile division officers, who came to inquire and learned that Earl and his 6-foot length of chain had been intimate for the past five months. They’re working on arranging a formal committal to an institution, which will leave the Velasquez family free to concentrate on their other children.

Edith expressed hope that Earl might fare better in his new home. “It will be so much better for him there. He’s never been to school, and maybe at the right place they can teach him something. Last year he’d try to get on the school bus with my other children. But the driver knew him and would always send him back home. He’s always talking about school.”

See also: A history of the National Association for Retarded Children (ARC)