Month: June 2005

Officers Kill Man As Prowler

June 15, 1947
China City

Pity Wanzy Patterson of 1312 W. 37th Street. The night watchman, 29, somehow came to the conclusion that his job demanded he shimmy over the transom of the bar at 777 Quang Yn Court and relieve the establishment of some of that pesky joy juice. This had been going on for some time, so officers C.A. Stromwell and M. Herman secreted themselves within the establishment, guns aready for when the liquor bandit made a repeat appearance.

Soon enough ol’ Wanzy dropped in, and laid his paws upon several handy bottles. The cops revealed themselves and Wanzy moved as if to retrieve a gun. Bang! 11 shots pierced the hapless Wanzy, and more’n likely the bottles he so loved.

Husband Jailed After Mate Claims Shotgun Threats

June 15, 1947
Baldwin Park

Memo to Lester Jacob Griffin of 582 Foster Street: next time you beat and menace wife Catherine with a shotgun, make sure son Ronald isn’t lurking nearby with a Japanese saber. The 14-year-old laid into his pop’s left forearm, inflicting a delicate little cut, but ending the assault on Catherine, who later signed a complaint alleging wife beating.

Lester J. is in El Monte Jail pending receipt of $1500 bail.

582 Foster Street To-day

Li’l Ronnie wielding a Japanese saber? Did his daddy pick up an NCO Shin-Gunto? Or an ever-venerated Nihonto, forged in feudal days by the solitary swordsmith? Whichever, it cut daddy real good. Thousands of swords n’ sabers were “liberated” from Japan during the occupation, but probably few saw action on American soil.

Fewer still went into action in Baldwin Park, which is best known as being, in 1948, the birthplace of In-N-Out, noble innovator of the burger-specific two-way speakerbox.

‘Borrowed’ Plane Smashes in Parkway

June 15, 1947
Pasadena

James E. Fronimos is a man of distinction- but who really wants to be known as the first man Pasadena cops ever booked for investigation of grand theft airplane and drunk flying?

Fronimos, 24, a student pilot with a scant two hours solo air time, decided to take a joyride in a Cub Cruiser he found parked at Montebello airfield around 1:30am. He picked the Cub because it was the only plane on the field with a self-starter. His intent was to circle the field a few times and bring her on home- but the inexperienced pilot’s circle developed an uncontrollable circumference, and soon he was running low on gas.

While in the air, Fronimos had moved from East L.A. to Pasadena, so when he brought her down, it was on the Arroyo Parkway, near California Street. Fortunately, he killed the ignition on the way down, thus only crumpling a wing and scratching up his face when he crashed into a light pole with a “hospital zone” sign on it, and not exploding.

Officers took Fronimos to the drunk tank and towed the plane to the wrecked auto yard at Ward & Son’s Garage.

Fronimos’ Landing

You can see how Fronimos would mistake the Parkway for a landing strip, sure. That he would end up crashing it into the light standard is pretty unacceptable. But then, liqour’ll play funny with your trajectory.

He landed here, in front of the Bryan Cleaners (Eliot Construction, 1938) – had he not hit that pole, we might have lost a nice streamline building.


Playhouse Made Office in Building Shortage

June 13, 1947
West Covina

In a township that has only just expanded its zoning to include businesses, it’s hard to find a place to set up shop.

Since Ann Frank, news ed of the West Covina Tribune is a mere slip of a gal (5’ 6”), she’s settling into a child’s playhouse, the temporary home of the three-month-old journal–recently evicted from borrowed space now needed for West Covina’s only market–until a more traditional office can be found.

At present, there’s not a single commercial space for rent within the city limits-and the West Covina Trib can hardly do business in Irwindale!

Co-ed Whipping Laid to Student

June 13, 1947
Downey

Kinky! High School co-ed Joyce Rodden, 17, of 230 S. Paramount Blvd., Downey, told classmate Richard P. Contreras, also 17, of 942 Benares St., that she didn’t want to go out on a date with him. Smart girl, considering his response to the refusal was to lurk at Second St. and Downey Ave. and whip her with an 11 ½ foot long bull whip as she walked to school. The first flick scarred Miss Rodden with an eight-inch welt on her left thigh, number two marked her abdomen, and it was only Miss Rodden’s quick reflexes that avoided the whip that was heading for her face.

Contreras, who admitted he whipped the girl because she wouldn’t date him, was booked in County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, and when the Times man came round, the injured girl gamely posed for a photo with the offending device and her new friend, Det. Sgt. Sid Jolivette.

The Horribile Flagellum of Downey

Contreras was doubtless, in his attempt to balance Joyce’s humility with her hubris, more deSade than Dominican. Nevertheless, she’s in good company: St. William, St. Rudolph and the aforementioned St. Dominic all had their boys take the lash to ‘em. St. Theresa had it that the birch and the scourge took one to a state of ecstatic mysticism. Did Joyce inch toward St. Anthony-style rapture or, from a more modern standpoint, move closer to integrating her shadow, as Jung might posit?

Or was she just near-mortally embarrassed at having been whipped by a freak-boy on the corner of Second and Downey?

(You’ll have to picture the scene as looking more like this –

as this was once the site of the Ancient Order of United Workmen [who later became Mutual Life Insurance Co.] lodge from 1889 until its demolition 1966.)

Contreras probably had too much passion play infused into his psyche as a lad. Hard to say which home housed his room-the street numbers on this short, quiet street have mysteriously shot to five digits. Was it in one of these that he mixed himself into a potent cocktail of unbearable devotion and manic lust, with a floater of sadistic madness?

Girls Seized As Police Find Marihuana

June 11, 1947
Los Angeles

“That’s not a pot pipe-it’s a trick back scratcher!”

This was the novel defense provided by Carole June Norell, 20, girl photographer, who with her 18 year-old-model pal Carolyn Vine Fraser was arrested by Det. Sgts.Ed Walker and D.P. Rikalo at their digs at 1810 N. Serrano Ave. after the object and a tobacco tin half-filled with marihuana were discovered in their room. Norell said that while she had purchased the offending weed for $20, she hadn’t put it in the so-called pipe and smoked it.

The two itchy dames are presently in City Jail on suspicion of violating the State Narcotics Act.