Monthly Archives: June 2005

Two Pasadena men died tonight when the truck in which they were driving skidded sixty feet, crashed through a guard rail, and plunged 300 feet down the Devil’s Gate Dam bridge near the Rose Bowl.

Driver Ernest Jimenez, 28, of 1993 Linda Rosa Ave. and George Talbot, 32, of 1143 Mentone St. were both dead by the time Ambulance Surgeon Charles A. Wagner and Driver Jack Bradley climbed down to attend them. Firemen cut the victims from the truck cab with torches, and the bodies were lifted to the road in wire baskets.

With the death of motorcyclist David Paul Benjamin, 23, of 1513 N. Western Ave., injured April 6 in a collision with a car at Barham Blvd. and Blair Dr., L.A. County’s traffic fatality count stands at 394 for the year.

Distraught over her pending separation from fiance Billy Allen, 19-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, Pearl L. Reid, 16, drank poison today at her home at 2653 Loosmore Street. She died. When Billy saw what she had done he too quaffed the deadly draught, and lies in serious condition in Long Beach’s Naval Hospital. His doctors are optimistic for his survival, at least from the immediate threat.

M. Cohen… Samuel Miller.. Sol Rosenblatt… Willie Spector… Samuel Tureck… Max Turetsky… Solomon Turk… Sol Turbin… Sol Turkein… Sam Weiss… Sam Wise.

Consider Sol Turkin, 39, produce merchant and groom-to-be, slain two nights ago in his apartment at 638 S. Cloverdale, after dancing all night with his fiancé, schoolteacher Sylvia Schermer of 837 N. Martel. Like Cinderella, the lady needed to be home before midnight—it was bad luck for them to see each other on their wedding day before the appointed time. Turkin dropped her off around 12:20am (oh… that’s bad) and was home in minutes. Around 12:45, a neighbor heard the sounds of a struggle, then four shots—one of which came through the wall.

Police found Turkin dead of a bullet to the groin, his face bloodied, signs of a struggle in the apartment and the dead man’s watch face smashed. On his person, $630, including five c-notes. Must have been an acquaintance, or Turkin would have called out. Maybe lurking in the dark, surprise attack. Anyway, no wedding for Miss Schermer.

Or for Turkin, some of whose aliases scroll above. The bride knew nothing of his police record dating back to 1924, including convictions for grand larceny and fraud, the three years in Leavenworth for impersonating an officer, the bad check that landed him in a New Jersey prison. Det. Capt. Bert Jones of Wilshire Division says it was “the man’s past catching up with him.”

Or his present. Cops picked up Russell Waterman, 36, Montebello grocer who was holding three guns as security on a $300 loan to Turkin, and two of the three guns. Waterman said he sold the third.

And on Martel, a lady weeps.