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
Alexander Sparks, the first husband of Doris Dazey, who was allegedly murdered by her second husband, George Dazey. At the trial, Sparks testified that he had remained friendly with his ex-wife and the two had occupied the same hotel room in 1934. This aided the prosecution's claim that George Dazey had committed murder because he was unsure of the paternity of a boy born to Mrs. Dazey in 1935.
Swiss chauffeur Fred Stettler, accused of the arson murders of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Barbour, showing Det. Lt. Miles Ledbetter (left) and Capt. Bert Wallis of the police homicide squad (center) $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"
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"
Detective Lieutenants B.G. Anderson and Tommy Bryan from the homicide division investigating the murder of soldier Lawrence G. Marple. The man being held for the murder is discharged Navy officer Jack Rhyanne, who admitted to beating and choking Marple in his hotel room. Rhyanne is also being questioned about the earlier murder of Robert M. Byrne
Detective Lieutenants B.G. Anderson and Tommy Bryan from the homicide division investigating the murder of soldier Lawrence G. Marple. The man being held for the murder is discharged Navy officer Jack Rhyanne, who admitted to beating and choking Marple in his hotel room. Rhyanne is also being questioned about the earlier murder of Robert M. Byrne
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.
Photograph of Gladys Carter, Frances Walker and Frank E. Walker (also possibly Frank L. Walker) in happier times before Carter allegedly murdered Frances Walker. Walker had been a houseguest with Gladys Carter and her husband, Deputy Sheriff Archie Carter, for two years. When Walker and Carter got into a heated argument over whether Walker was cheating with Carter's husband Carter shot Walker and then shot herself in the breast. Frank L. Walker was Frances Walker's father.
Cowboy motion picture extra Jerome "Blackjack" Ward kisses his wife Mickey Ward during his trial for the murder of fellow 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 Tyke's violent nature.