James F. Culver, young Kentuckian transient and suspect in the murder of Ethel E. Whittaker. Circa April 20, 1936.

Item Overview

Title

James F. Culver, young Kentuckian transient and suspect in the murder of Ethel E. Whittaker. Circa April 20, 1936.

Date Created

[circa April 20, 1936]

Date

1936-04-20

Publisher

Los Angeles Daily News

Language

No linguistic content

Collection

Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Notes

Description

Photograph of James Fagan Culver, 23-year-old transient from Kentucky and suspect in the murder of Mrs. Ethel Whittaker. Mrs. Whittaker was shot in a Wilshire district hotel room in what police believed to be a fake hold-up scenario. Samuel T. Whittaker, husband of the murdered woman, was also held as a suspect.According to Culver, Samuel Whittaker cultivated a friendship with Culver and gave him money for food and shelter over several weeks' time. Then, Whittaker asked Culver to purchase a gun and gave him the money to do so. He was then instructed to go to a specific place at an appointed time and stage a robbery. According to Culver, when he entered the Whittaker's South Alvarado St. apartment, both Samuel and Ethel Whittaker were present. Culver claims to have shot his gun by accident only after being shot himself, presumably by Whittaker. Ethel Whittaker was shot four times, including once from the back. When police retrieved the gun used by Culver, only three chambers were empty.The jury eventually ruled that Whittaker had arranged the elaborate plot to kill his wife in order to collect the insurance on her life. Samuel Whittaker was convicted of the murder of his wife, as well as deadly assault on James Culver, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whittaker died of a heart attack five days after arriving at the San Quentin penitentiary.Culver himself pled guilty to second-degree murder for his part in the plot against Ethel Whittaker, and received a sentence of five years to life imprisonment.

Caption

Text from original nitrate sleeve: Libaire, Dorothy[Note: this photo may have been misfiled under 12970. Negative bears inscription 12950].

Physical Description

Extent

1 photograph

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

news photographs
cellulose nitrate film

Names

Culver, James Fagan, b. 1912 or 1913

Location

Los Angeles (Calif.)

Resource type

still image

Subjects

People
Crimes--California--Los Angeles
Portrait photographs