Many G.I.’s Fiancees May Be Left Behind

May 17, 1947
Berlin

The American Consule today stated that many American soldiers seeking permission to bring their German and Austrian fiancees home to the United States had applied too late and would be disappointed.

Under the Soldier-Fiancee Act which Congress passed last June, a former soldier was permitted to bring a woman he intended to wed into the U.S. up until July 1, 1947, where the woman could remain legally for up to three months as a nonimmigrant visitor. If the couple did not marry within that time, her status would lapse.

Almost 700 fiancees have entered the States, while 6000 other cases have been approved, are in process, or have already been denied, with more denials anticipated.

Father Freed In Gun Slaying

May 16, 1947
Los Angeles

A Coroner’s Jury today returned a verdict of justifiable homicide in the case against Olin Bray, 53, of 11407 State Street, Lynwood. Last May 12, Bray was working in his garden while his daughter Zula and her husband, Virgil Lawson, 38, visited with Bray’s wife Veda. Hearing raised voices in the house, Bray ran in to find Lawson striking the women. Bray retrieved a revolver from under his pillow and fired two shots. These fatally struck Lawson, whose widow corroborated her father’s testimony before the jury today.

11407 State Street To-day

You’d like to consider State-led wholesale home obliteration to be a thing of the past, charmingly 50s or maybe delightfully 60s. Urban renewal, freeways, you know, during that kooky time back then with all the Modernity.

In the early 80s, a San Pedro congressman thought it would be “swell” to build a 17-mile freeway. Kinda retro, sure, but still kind of a bad idea-akin to a late episode of Happy Days, where Fonzie adopts an orphan. In the presence of Ted McGinley.

Perhaps it was breathtakingly necessary to link Norwalk and El Segundo, although spending two billion dollars (some say four; we’ll never know) of our money to do so may be more debatable. In any event, Bray’s house-where the honor of Woman is defended with deadly force-once stood at the location of this overpass, where it could conceivably have remained until the early 90s, when the Glenn Anderson Freeway was completed.

Family With 11 Children Loses Battle For Home

May 15, 1947
Pasadena

Mrs. Jessie Brink, 41, today lost her civil suit before Pasadena Superior Court Judge Paul Norse, charging unlawful eviction of herself and her 11 children from their residence at 2007 Hulbert St., South Pasadena, last June 27. The court ruled that owner Emily Stockton was within her rights to remove the Brinks, because their tenancy was more that of guests than of renters.

The children include 23-year-old Mrs. Vivian Cornellson, John, 18, Betty, 16, Richard, 12, Ruth, 10, Billy, 8, John, 6, Roy, 4, Connie, 3, Phyllis, 2, and Linda, 3 months. Betty used to have a twin brother, Bobby, but he drowned in 1946 while the family was in Colorado harvesting peaches.

The husband of the family, machinist James, says he is searching for a home within his means. For now, the Brinks’ relief check can be sent to General Delivery, Burbank, as the family remains officially homeless (not counting that 60-acre ranch they own back in Oklahoma).

Escaped Felon Caught Here

May 14, 1947
Los Angeles

Last Sunday, William Harold Evans was one of three San Quentin prisoners who walked away from a Modoc County road crew. FBI agents found him just two hours after his arrival in Los Angeles, at the home of Miss Alexie Goldworthy, 185 W. 39th Street. The convict, a self-styled osteopath serving time for forgery, had been corresponding with the lady from his prison cell.

185 West 39th Street To-day

Curious zoning in these parts. Homes and light industrial nestle cheek to jowl, and not just block to block, but parcel by parcel. Typical neighbors:

So down the street it came as no surprise that here in a pseudo-residential semi-industrial area, the Goldworthy residence had been displaced by this alchemical factory:

We’re sorry to see there’s no original monument to where bureau nunkies nabbed William Howard Evans. However, the pick-up at his lady friend’s pad is immortalized in the old chestnut “Quick Joey Small”. (It is a little known fact that Kasenetz and Katz are the fathers of 1947project.)

Day-Old Baby Found Slain

May 13, 1947
Hollywood

Housepainter Robert Snow of 4141 W. 170th St., Lawndale just wanted to do some exterior prep on the vacant house at 465 N. Laurel, readying it for the new owner–then he found the corpse of a baby girl in the shrubs by the driveway. There goes the work day. The Coroner determined that the full-term infant had been born elsewhere, and died from strangulation.

Mother of Three Choked to Death; Body Flung in Signal Hill Oil Field

May 12, 1947
Long Beach

While driving to his post early this morning, oil company patrolman Bert Winfield made a ghastly discovery, just a block from busy Long Beach Blvd. There in the dirt of the oil field was the body of a woman, still warm and apparently but recently hurled from an automobile. The victim’s clothing included one open-toed white shoe, a three-quarter length black coat and a cotton garrote around her neck.

Seeking to identify her, reporters on the Long Beach newpaper police beat canvased local dry cleaners about a laundry mark on her coat and got a name: Mrs. Laura Eliza Trelstad, 37. Soon they had a husband, too: Ingman Trelstad, 34, 2211 Locust Ave.–just a dozen blocks from his wife’s dump site in the 3400 block of Locust.

Ingman Trelstad described his last encounter with his wife for Long Beach Det. Capt. Lorin Q. Martin. The couple had been playing cards with some friends in the late afternoon, and Mrs. Trelstad grew bored. If he was going to play cards, she said, then she was going to a dance. Mr. Trelstad went home to cook dinner for the couple’s three children, Audrey, 8, Janet, 7, and Thomas, 3. When Mrs. Trelstad failed to return home, he said he couldn’t go out and look for her, as there was no one else to watch the children.

Meanwhile, Coroner’s Surgeon Frederick Newbarr made a preliminary examination of the body and announced that Mrs. Trelstad had been sexually assaulted before death. Police called for the public to be on the look out for the missing white shoe, which might be at a primary crime scene. They also requested that anyone who might have seen Mrs. Trelstad at a dance last night come forward to give a statement.