vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
This dark tableau shows a man identified as Gustavo Ruiz, dead in a chair on Barlow Street in the Romona Gardens section of Los Angeles, being looked over by LAPD detective A.C. Fuentes. It’s another image from the collection of Los Angeles Examiner photos held in the University of Southern California’s digital library. There’s no information on how Ruiz died, though when someone goes this peacefully a drug overdose is probably a good bet. That was today in 1952.
We stuck with the rectal theme for our subhead, because when you’re on a roll why stop? This image is from the University of Southern California archive of Los Angeles Examiner photos and negatives, and shows a suspect in a drug store robbery named John A. Hermsen. The shot was made at the Venice jail by Examiner lensman James Bresina and captures what we interpret as either a very hostile or a very fatigued look. It’s another image, of course, claimed by various photo aggregators, but nowhere on the USC website does it mention any other organization having rights over it. According to the university it’s free to download and use for “private study, scholarship, or research”—in other words, for non-commercial purposes, which is what we’re using it for in this post. The photo is from today in 1958.
These three photos were made near Florence, Italy, in the province of Tuscany, and show investigators at the scene of a double murder that was attributed to a serial killer nicknamed by the press il Mostro di Firenze—the Monster of Florence. The victims here, a twenty-six year old laborer named Stefano Baldi and a twenty-four year old telephone operator named Susanna Cambi, had been shot and stabbed. Cambi was sexually mutilated, her pubic area cut out. It’s possible Cambi was being stalked beforehand. A few days earlier she had told her mother that somebody was tormenting her and had tailed her car. Eventually, after sixteen killings beginning in 1968, mostly of young couples who had isolated themselves in lover’s lanes and similar places seeking privacy, two men were convicted: Mario Vanni and Giancarlo Lotti, who were sentenced to life imprisonment and twenty-six years, respectively. However, some observers think other perpetrators remained at large. Despite their very old look, these photos were made today in 1981.
In a photo made in Los Angeles today in 1953 (for our international readers seeing the notation at upper right, dates are written in the U.S. with the month first, then the day, so this photo is from October not April, as some websites say), an investigator or medical examiner makes notes over a sheet covered body while police detectives stand by. The photo came from the Los Angeles Police Museum, but was first widely seen in the morbid crime chronicle and photobook LAPD ’53, by James Ellroy and Glynn Martin. There’s no info on whether this was a killing, suicide, overdose, accident, or death by natural causes.
This photo is from the University of Southern California’s collection of Los Angeles Examiner negatives, and shows an unnamed murder victim—or his well worn shoes, anyway. One website we visited said the man was surprised in bed by attackers who killed him before he could get up, which makes sense. He’s clothed, but maybe he laid down to relax. Well, it worked—he’s as chilled as can be. Another interpretation is that he was mortally wounded elsewhere in the apartment, and died trying to reach his porn collection stored under the bed, which he planned to throw out the window. That makes sense too. Nobody would want people to know they were a devotee of Great Depression Butts or whatever. The photo is credited to a lensman who inscribed the print with his name: Oliver. He shot it today in 1934.
Some of the photos in the University of Southern California historical archive come with minimal information. This is one of those. All that’s known is that the subject here is named June Simons, and she was arrested by Los Angeles police for drug possession. Despite the scant data maybe we can infer a few things. She doesn’t look worried, and she’s neatly dressed, with nice accessories. Addicts run through things like jewelry pretty quickly, therefore we’re guessing she wasn’t caught with a hard drug—most likely she’s a weed smoker. We see her as too old to be a first time user. She smokes regularly. Her expression suggests to us that she may have enough social status to inoculate her somewhat against serious repercussions. Alternatively, she may have been busted enough that she’s knows the drill and isn’t concerned, but we think she’s too well put together to be a regular occupant of a jail cell. She’s being treated with kid gloves by the cops, clearly, or there’d be no smile. She’s about to be released—if she’d just been hauled in we don’t think she’d have her handbag. Can we infer more? Probably. It’s a fun game. Try it and see what you imagine. Your conclusions may be completely different. The photo is from today in 1958.
In this shot you see a found body and a Los Angeles police officer crouching in the background observing the tableau. The body was discovered today in 1930, and was set down in official paperwork under the placeholder name John Doe—a usage that goes back six centuries. The man’s real name was never learned, and his cause of death is not in the historical record. The photographer is credited as Florentin. He, like the dead man, is obscure today.
This Los Angeles Police Department photo was made from a window in the swanky Biltmore Hotel and shows the sheet-covered body of suicide jumper Ruth K. Wilson about to be loaded into a meat wagon. There are cries for help, and those who intend to get the job done. Wilson was the latter, leaping from the ninth floor, landing messily on either South Grand Avenue or West 5th Street, ending her life in its forty-sixth year, today in 1953. As a side note for urban planning buffs, the lush park with its beautiful plaza and fountain in the photo at bottom is today just a few trees and a lot of granite over an underground parking lot.
This should add a dose of hard reality to your day. Here you see a strange photo of two cops, identified as A.L. Vincent and C.O. Lewis, pondering blood stains in a Los Angeles alley where a body was found, today in 1954. Free advice: try not to end life as a splatter pattern.
The above photo made on Santa Monica Beach shows a policeman and another uniformed person covering a body with a blanket. The info with this says that the man on the right is a Santa Monica lifeguard. They wore coplike uniforms back then? Seems strange, but who are we to argue with historical information? Maybe he mostly patrolled the beach, and called someone who was wearing less clothing to deal with a water emergency. Or maybe he wore Speedos under his uni. The nearly naked Baywatchers that came later were a vast improvement. As for the waterlogged corpse, no word on whether they expired due to murder, suicide, or mishap, nor were they ever named, as far as we know. By the way, we’ve never seen a single episode of Baywatch. Can you believe that? The photo was made today in 1951.
A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two H-bombs experiences trouble during a refueling operation, and in the midst of an emergency descent breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five of the six arming devices on one of the bombs somehow activate before it lands via parachute in a wooded region where it is later recovered. The other bomb does not deploy its chute and crashes into muddy ground at 700 mph, disintegrating while driving its radioactive core fifty feet into the earth.
The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first international drug control treaty. The agreement was signed by Germany, the U.S., China, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam.
U.S. president Harry S. Truman establishes the Central Intelligence Group or CIG, an interim authority that lasts until the Central Intelligence Agency is established in September of 1947.
The New York City “Mad Bomber,” a man named George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs. Metesky was angry about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier. Of the thirty-three known bombs he planted, twenty-two exploded, injuring fifteen people. He was apprehended based on an early use of offender profiling and because of clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. At trial he was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.
American lawyer Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury in connection with an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), at which he was questioned about being a Soviet spy. Hiss served forty-four months in prison, but maintained his innocence and fought his perjury conviction until his death in 1996 at age 92.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all of the country’s Vietnam War draft evaders, many of whom had emigrated to Canada. He had made the pardon pledge during his election campaign, and he fulfilled his promise the day after he took office.
