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.
Related to Los Angeles Times article, March 27, 1938, Rancho Santa Anita, A Los Angeles County Beauty Spot. For many years closed to the public, the thirty-acre Rancho Santa Anita Park, with its lake, fifty-one varieties of shrubs and trees, some of them the largest in Southern California, and its historic buildings of the late E.J. (Lucky) Baldwin occupancy, now is open …
Related Los Angeles Times article, March 2, 1932, “Ross Field Wrecking Rushed, Site Soon Will Be Clear of Buildings.” In less than ninety days, Ross Field, headquarters in California of training for army balloon school pilots during the World War, and in the halycon days of “Lucky” Baldwin, the center of activity for the Los Angeles Racing Association, will again be a pleasant rolling plain, dotted with trees, much as it was in the earliest days of the Santa Anita Rancho. ...