Above is another photo borrowed from the archives of the Los Angeles Police Museum, and which appeared in James Ellroy’s 2004 photo book Destination: Morgue! It was made in Los Angeles on Crenshaw Boulevard and Santa Monica Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) today in 1953, and shows a man who died while attempting a liquor store robbery. The robber was former marine who was armed, but based on the fact that he was wearing a white Panama hat, may have decided on the heist spontaneously. Unfortunately, the store had been robbed the night before and the proprietor was on alert. He fired a gun through the door, was on target with a head shot (as the blood indicates), and the thief was dropped in his tracks, with his slick Panama at his side.
The crowd here interests us. We know it happens whevener someone dies in public, but we’ve never understand this impulse at all. Once in San Salvador PSGP happened upon a guy who’d just been shot in the head. It was an almost identical scene, except there was no hat and no sheet. While he glanced in passing—just long enough to note the blood mixed with swirls of white ooze running down the warm asphalt—he felt no urge to stand around and gawk. Another time, in Guatemala, he happened upon a man freshly beaten to death and he continued on his sweet way then too. On the other hand, maybe sharing this image on a website constitutes a form of staring. That might be worth discussion, though he says that in this context the photo is used for historical education and cultural critique. Maybe so.
