Genre: cellulose nitrate film / Location: Los Angeles (Calif.) / Subject: People and Homicides--California--Los Angeles - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: Screenshot from a film used by the prosecution at the murder trial of DeWitt Clinton Cook. The film showed Cook (right) re-enacting his murder of dancer Anya Sosoyeva, who he hit on the head with a 2x4. Cook willingly confessed to the murder, as well as the assaults of two other women, Delia Bogard and Myrtle Wagner. This was the first time sound motion pictures were used during a trial in California history. The trial was also considered very unusual because Cook never denied the murder, personally offer a not guilty plea, or put up any defense. Cook was sentenced to death and executed in the San Quentin gas chamber on January 31, 1941, at age 21
Date:: October 11, 1939
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Swiss chauffeur Fred Stettler, accused of the arson murders of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Barbour, showing Capt. Bert Wallis of the police homicide (right) squad $34 in silver hidden in a potato sack at Stettler's home. Stettler confessed to stealing the money from the Barbours after murdering them with a heavy object and setting a timing device which would set the bodies on fireNote: text on the nitrate sleeves and handwritten on the negative likely transcribed "Bert Wallis" incorrectly as "Bert Wallace"
Date:: February 21, 1936
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Mrs. Nita Randall, acting as a witness in a murder trial. Mrs. Randall identifed a broken-off blade found in the body of 17-year-old Alice (Jerry) Burns as having been kept in the kitchen of her boarding house. One of her boarders, 25-year-old John Frank Reavis, is accused of the murder.
Date:: May 1, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Cowboy motion picture extra Jerome "Blackjack" Ward (right), on trial for the murder of fellow cowboy extra John Ainsworth Tyacke (Johnny Tyke) in Gower Gulch. Gower Gulch is the name given to the area near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street where film extras hang out waiting for work; many of the nearby studios produce westerns so often actual working cowboys come here to break into the film business. Ward entered a plea of not guilty based on self defense and temporary insanity. He was ultimately set free after many witnesses attested to Tyacke's violent nature.
Date:: between July 15 and July 18, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Betty Flay Hardaker sits at the Los Angeles County Jail after being taken into custody. Mrs. Hardaker was convicted of murdering her 5 year old daughter, Geraldine Hardaker, in a Montebello park washroom. The jury convicted her of committing the crime while of unsound mind.
Date:: February 20, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Betty Flay Hardaker sits in an office chair and signs papers at the Los Angeles County Jail. Mrs. Hardaker was convicted of murdering her 5 year old daugher, Geraldine Hardaker, in a Montebello park washroom. The jury convicted her of committing the crime while of unsound mind.
Date:: February 23, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Montebello Chief of Police Maxwell comforts Samuel Karnes, Sr. at the funeral of his granddaugther Geraldine Hardaker. Betty Flay Hardaker was convicted of murdering her 5 year old daughter, Geraldine Hardaker, in a Montebello park washroom. The jury convicted her of committing the crime while of unsound mind.
Date:: Febuary 24, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Charles Hardaker sits at a table and combs his hair after the arrest of his wife, Betty Flay Hardaker. Mrs. Hardaker was convicted of murdering her 5 year old daughter, Geraldine Hardaker, in a Montebello park washroom. The jury convicted her of committing the crime while of unsound mind.
Date:: February 24, 1940
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: Dt. Lt. Sanderson talking with Policewoman Peirce. Photo related to Peirce’s accidental shooting of Officer Yancey in October 1935. Peirce was put on trial for manslaughter in December 1935 and eventually acquitted.
Date:: [December, 1935?]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

Description:: John Binan sits next to Bert Wallis, head of LAPD Homicide Squad. John Binan was the manager of the Virginia Ballroom and the body of Louise Appier was found slain in his apartment. After questioning, John Binan was later released.
Date:: March 20, 1935
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: Los Angeles Daily News Negatives

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