Kidnap victim William F. Gettle after his rescue, possibly at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice, 1934

Item Overview

Title

Kidnap victim William F. Gettle after his rescue, possibly at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice, 1934

Date Created

[May 14, 1934]

Date

1934-05-14

Publisher

Los Angeles Times

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection
OpenUCLA Collections

Notes

Description

William F. Gettle, Beverly Hills millionaire, was kidnapped from the grounds of his Arcadia ranch home during a housewarming party on the eve of May 9th. The kidnapping attracted a great deal of attention in the community, with Mrs. Gettle even addressing the kidnappers through the pages of the Los Angeles Times. The kidnappers demanded a $60,000 ransom for the return of Gettle, which Mrs. Gettle agreed to pay. However, before the ransom was paid, two detectives of the LAPD, Chester Burris and H.P. Gearhardt, broke the case after installing a dictaphone in the home of a bank robbery suspect. Information from the dictaphone led them to a La Crescenta home where Gettle was held. He was returned, unharmed, to his family on the eve of May 14th.
Gettle (wearing glasses) is pictured at the center of a group of men in suits. Photo was likely taken the day that he was rescued, when he was taken the the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles. Gettle was taken to the Hall of Justice in the company of one of his kidnappers, Roy Williams, and in order to see if he could identify two other suspects (Jimmy Kirk and June Ward).

Caption

Text from negative sleeve: Text from negative sleeve: Gettle, William F. kidnap case.

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

news photographs
cellulose nitrate film

Names

Gettle, William F., 1887-1941

Location

Downtown (Los Angeles, Calif.)

Longitude

34.055788

Latitude

-118.243006

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Kidnappings--California