Louis Rude Payne lies on couch, with father Lucius Payne at his side. June 5, 1934.

Item Overview

Title

Louis Rude Payne lies on couch, with father Lucius Payne at his side. June 5, 1934.

Date Created

June 5, 1934

Date

1934-06-05

Publisher

Los Angeles Daily News

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Notes

Description

Louis Payne lies on a couch in the West Los Angeles police station, with his father Lucius Payne at his side.Louis Rude Payne, 21 years of age, used a camping axe to kill his mother, 45-year-old Carrie L. Payne, and 15-year-old brother Robert in their Westwood mansion home. Payne turned himself in for the killings of four to five days after their deaths, at a Huntington Beach police station. When he turned himself in, detectives found on his person both a letter and a telegram addressed to his father Lucius Payne, a St. Louis businessman, confessing to the crime, apologizing for his actions, and explaning that he did not know what impulse it was that drove him to the murders. Although he was questioned repeatedly, no motive for the murders was ever discovered, save for what Payne termed a force stronger than himself that compelled him to commit the crimes.Payne was convicted of the two murders, but found to be insane at the time of the crimes. He was confined to psychiatric treatment at the Mendocino State Hospital at Talmadge, in Mendocino County, CA. His father stood by him throughout his trial and conviction.

Caption

Text from original nitrate sleeve: Payne, Louis R.; Payne, Lucius; crowd at Payne inquest
Handwritten annotation from nitrate negative: Louis Rude Payne (on couch), Lucius Payne (father).

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

news photographs
cellulose nitrate film

Names

Payne, Lucius
Payne, Louis Rude

Resource type

still image

Subjects

People
Parricide--California--Los Angeles
Crime
Fratricides--California--Los Angeles