Category: Kim Cooper

Still catching up on his jet lag following a Congressional fact-finding tour of post war Europe, Representative Richard M. Nixon is beaming after receiving a Good Government Award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce at a dinner in his honor last week.

At a luncheon meeting in Whittier earlier that day, Nixon quipped, “If we lose the battle for democracy in Europe, we can consider it lost at home.”

Further reading:

It’s ant season, which means it’s that time of year when little kids find and gobble up big gooey handfuls of honey-like ant poison and end up in hospitals getting their little tummies pumped.

Two terrified families raced their babies into Georgia Street Receiving Hospital within an hour of each other, each complaining of ant paste ingestion. 19-month-old Janet Aiken of 1511 W. 99th Street and 10-month-old Cheryl Mayo of 3028 W. 36th are both doing fine after treatment.

Parents: lock up that ant paste!

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.