Category: Kim Cooper

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

Those battling Spreckelses are at it again! Last night, sugar heir John D. Spreckels III, 37, brained wife Lou Dell with a fireplace poker during a liquor-fueled argument at their home at 201 Santa Cruz Road. Call it a housewarming gift: they’ve been in the new place for all of two weeks.

Lou Dell ran from the house in a confused state and found herself at the nearby home of Laurie Connor, 215 San Luis Rey Road. Connor is a former relative by marriage of Mrs. Spreckels. John D. followed her, and began pounding on the back door threating to “kill” someone inside. This resulted in a call to police, and a charge of disturbing the peace, later expanded to assault with a deadly weapon and drunkeness.

Interviewed by officers, Lou Dell claimed she recalled raising her arms to prevent being struck by the poker her husband swung, but did not remember being hit. She does not know how she got to the Connor home. Mrs. Connor explained that she discovered Lou Dell on her back stoop after opening the door on her way to Pasadena.

Lou Dell indicated that she was willing to prosecute John D. on an assault charge, and was taken to St. Luke Hospital in Pasadena for stitches and treatment of a possible concussion. John was bailed out by Groves Bonding Co. with a call to appear in Arcadia Police Court at 9:30am. The bent poker remains at the Arcadia Police Station as evidence.

Further reading: Claus Spreckels: The Sugar King in Hawaii

Superior Judge Charles S. Burnell was all ears today when Edward G. Lamel, next door neighbor of pedigreed Irish Setters Pat and Gunner and their late master Carleton R. Bainbridge, took the witness stand on behalf of Bainbridge’s brother Sherman to testify about the dogs’ taste in motion pictures. Lamel, an engineer for the county, stated that Bainbridge often remarked on his pets’ preferences. The dogs were big animation fans, and enjoyed Mickey Mouse cartoons and Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Wycoff Westover, counsel for the doggys’ executor, Charles Connelley, stipulated with Sherman Bainbridge’s attorney that while the dogs do talk, they do not speak English. At issue is $30,000 which has been left to the dogs, disinheriting Bainbridge’s human relatives.

Suggested viewing: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney Special Platinum Edition)

Panicked citizens of Louisiana’s low-lying shore, woken by a 1:15am weather advisory warning that a 140mph hurricane might reach the mouth of the Mississippi by early afternoon, frantically sought to flee into the New Orleans tonight even as the river’s waters, driven by rising wind and tide, sloshed over the city’s vaunted levy system. A huge shelter with 800 beds awaited the escapees inside the Municipal Auditorium.

New Orleaneans hold great pride and confidence in their river levy system, but it has never before been tested by a strong hurricane. The levies were built in response to the devastating storm of 1915.

Severe damage has already been felt throughout southern Florida, with an estimated $25,000,000 loss to the citrus industry and 188 buildings destroyed in Ft. Lauderdale. Also threatened by the storm are Biloxi, Gulfport and other important tidal towns.

Recommended reading: Herbert “Gangs of New York” Asbury’s The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld

Two days before he died in February, attorney Carelton R. Bainbridge, 63, rewrote his will to include a very unusual bequest. His entire estate of $30,000 was left in the trust of his friend Charles Connelley for the care of Bainbridge’s beloved 6-year-old Irish setter dogs, Pat and Gunner.

In court today to challenge Bainbridge’s wishes are several two-legged hounds from the dead man’s past, including his brother Sherman, who publishes a pension movement magazine, and Sherman’s daughter Marjorie. Also on the scene is Mrs. Christine Halstead Bainbridge, the woman Bainbridge wed (and deserted) in 1926. She has a 1925 Bainbridge will in which she plays a featured role.

Sherman Bainbridge’s attorney Harold A. Fendler intends to show that Carelton Banbridge was not of sound mind when he made the 1947 will. As evidence, he claims that the dead man regularly took Pat and Gunner to the movies, where he would ask their opinions on the show. He believed the dogs could talk, and also read them bedtime stories.

Contractor Sam Murman, 58, was sentenced to one to ten in San Quentin today on a charge of collecting deposits of more than $38,000 from 44 ex-servicemen and their families for advance rent on an apartment project at 1414 W. 25th Street that could only accomodate twelve families. Murman blamed the discrepancy on the his illiteracy, claiming he kept all his contracts in his head and became confused. None of the victims ultimately gained occupancy in Murman’s building. Murman has filed for bankruptcy, but it seems unlikely that any of his victims will receive more than $100 of their $900 average loss.