Frank Ryan witnesses Helen Angiulli confronting her father William Spinelli, Los Angeles, 1938

Title: Frank Ryan witnesses Helen Angiulli confronting her father William Spinelli, Los Angeles, 1938
Date Created: December 22, 1938
Date: 1938-12-22
Publisher: Los Angeles Times
Language: No linguistic content
Collection: Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

Description: A crying Helen holds her father's wrist, who is slumped over a table partially concealing his face with his other arm. Detective Ryan stands over William, resting one hand on his shoulder.
After confessing to the murder of his wife William Spinelli has been placed on suicide watch. Spinelli's adult children describe him as being unemployed for the past ten years and beating them when they were children.
Helen's maiden name is Spinelli. Her married name is spelled Angiulli or Angiuli, and her first name is sometimes written as Ellena, but according to her social security record her name is Helen Angiulli.
Photograph appears with the article, "Ax Slayer Wants to Die," Los Angeles Times, 23 Dec 1938: 3.
Caption: Text from newspaper caption: "Why did you do it?" screamed Ellena Spinelli Anguili as she attacked her father, Virgilio Spinelli Sr., left, confessed ax slayer of his wife, in the homicide office yesterday. Detective Lieutenant Frank Ryan, shown in the picture restrained the young woman after she had grabbed her father by arm and started beating him.
Handwritten on negative: L2R Wm Spinelli Ellena Anguili Frank Ryan 12/22/38
Text from negative sleeve: 15237 - Wm Spinelli Sr Ellena Angiuli Frank Ryan Bert Wallis. Joe Taylor. Joseph Spinelli Spinelli Ax Murder TIMES PHOTO BY ANDREW H. ARNOTT 12/22/38 [stamped:] Dec 24 1938

Genre: cellulose nitrate film
news photographs
Names: Spinelli, Virgilio (William Spinelli), 1880-1940
Angiulli, Helen, 1913-2000
Ryan, Frank E., b. 1896 or 97
Location: Los Angeles (Calif.)
Resource type: still image
Subjects: Crying
Family members--American--California--Los Angeles
Detectives--California--Los Angeles
Homicides--California--Los Angeles

Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections
Local Identifier: uclamss_1429_11964
ARK: ark:/21198/zz002h8tqb
Manifest url

Rights statement: copyrighted
Rights Holder: UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections, A1713 Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. E-mail: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310)825-4988
Rights Country: US
Funding Note: Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .