In Rossian Roulette, the Rules Are Different

August 22, 1947
Burbank

Benjamin A. Ross, 19, had a peculiar idea of an evening’s entertainment at home with wife Zelda. He occupied himself fitting five cartridges into his six-shot revolver, spinning the barrel, and pointing it at various objects in the living room at 420 N. Moss Street, while the lady wife begged him to stop. Having bucked the odds and avoided shattering any lamps or ottomans, Ross pressed his luck with one final shot, into his own forehead. He died at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Published by

Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

One thought on “In Rossian Roulette, the Rules Are Different”

  1. Girls Urged to Take Women
    Doctors as Guide in Careers

    Girls aspiring to careers should follow women physicians’ example—many have both satisfactory home and professional lives, Dr. E. Mae McCarroll of Newark, N.J., told National Medical Association delegates and women’s auxiliary members last night.

    The evening session at Second Baptist Church, Griffith Avenue at East 24th Street, concluded the 52nd annual convention’s third-day sessions devoted to a public health program, particularly as it applies to medical and hospital facilities for Negroes.

    + + +

    About 150 African American doctors from New York rode a special train for the National Medical Association’s first convention in Southern California, a gathering of about 600 doctors and their wives at Jefferson High School and Second Baptist Church led by Dr. Henry A. McPherson of Los Angeles.

    It’s unclear how many black doctors there were in Los Angeles in 1947, but in 1955 there were about 200, according to a Times story about another gathering of the National Medical Association. A 1956 story says the association had about 125 members in Los Angeles.

    A 1967 Times story by Lois Dickert Armstrong notes that Los Angeles County has 400 black doctors and says: “20 years ago, there were almost no Negro doctors on any hospital staff in Los Angeles except for scattered ‘courtesy’ privileges.â€Â The story further notes that no black doctors graduated in 1966 from UCLA, which currently had only one black medical student.

    The 1947 convention honored five local women doctors: Dr. Ruth Temple, Dr. Doris S. Moore, Dr. Shelby Robinson and Dr. Pauline Roberts of Los Angeles and Dr. Edna Griffin of Pasadena.

    Founded in 1895 because the American Medical Association barred blacks, the National Medical Association began admitting white doctors, 12 of them, in 1955 as a step toward integration.

    But progress was slow. The 1967 Times story quotes Dr. Julius Hill, a Los Angeles orthopedist: “Damn it! I want to be accepted like everybody else—on my own merits! I want to be that doctor. Not that Negro doctor.â€Â

    The American Medical Association was officially desegregated in 1968.

    https://www.lmharnisch.com

Leave a Reply