Bizarre Tales: Forgotten stories from Southern California’s past.
RUSS COLUMBO DIES FROM ACCIDENTAL GUN WOUND Radio and Screen Singer Succumbs as Condition Balks Operation; Witness Tells of Tragedy Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1934 Russ Columbo, 26 years of age, radio and motion picture singer, died at the Good Samaritan Hospital last night from a bullet wound in his brain which he received […]
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Handing ‘Em Cash: ALL NIGHT AND DAY THE RUN AND BANK. Crowd of Men, Women and Boys in Line a Block Long Moving on the Paying Teller’s Window to Get Money Out – Some Depositing. Los Angeles Times, May 3, 1910 — Between 11 and 12 o’clock yesterday morning, a run was started on the […]
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Bizarre Tales: Gunfight at the Gayway in 1948 … a Los Angeles noir story! OFFICER SHOT DOWN IN BAR GUN BATTLE Alleged Bandit Also Wounded and Captured; Patrons Dive for Safety as Bullets Fly LOS ANGELES TIMES (December 7, 1948) — A plainclothes police officer was shot down seriously wounded and a suspect holdup man […]
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Bizarre Tales: Tragic Explosion on Pico Blvd. 1947 Deadly Blast a Proving Ground for Live TV By Cecilia Rasmussen August 17, 1997 (The following article is actually a recap of a historical event that happened in 1947, revisited by the Los Angeles Times in 1997.)Since the film industry moved west shortly after the turn of the […]
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The Underworld Murder of Blondy Hannon TWO JAILED IN MURDER OF UNDERWORLD CHARACTER Women Quizzed as Body Found in Bullet-Riddled Room After Night of Wild Revel (LOS ANGELES TIMES, April 6, 1926)…Two men were arrested on charge of suspicion of murder and two women were questioned by the police last night as they investigated the […]
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“Whistling” Davis and his corpse child… UNBURIED FOR YEARS California Man Keeps the Remains of His Child at Home LOS ANGELES, CA, June 2, 1895 — For five years past “Whistling” Davis, of Long Beach, has kept the corpse of his dead child in a little coffin in his house at a locality known as […]
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Night Resorts Given Warning Three Held After Raid on Club 17 Curfew Law Violation LOS ANGELES TIMES (October 25, 1939) — Warning that authorities are tightening up on the enforcement of liquor control laws was sounded yesterday in the wake of an early-morning raid on the fashionable Club 17 at 1710 Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood, […]
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‘Wonder Woman’ Routs 2 Intruders’ by Mark Gerrard LOS ANGELES TIMES June 3, 1981 — The two strange men looked plenty suspicious to Wanda Capek, 70-year-old teacher at a parochial school in Hollywood, when she returned home Tuesday and found them in her backyard. “There was a big guy carrying a big TV and a […]
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How Gloria Goodwin busted male ‘vamps’ on the streets of Los Angeles in 1922. For this article, I merged excerpts from The Star Press (December 15, 1922) and The Morning Call (February 18, 1923) to make one article. I am not the author of the article, but I felt that it was important, from an […]
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WEALTHY CAT’S ESTATE DISPOSED OF BY COURT (Los Angeles Times, June 9, 1931) Mitzi, often referred to as the wealthiest cat in the world, is dead, and because of the riches inherited from her mistress, Dr. Maude F. Ide, the probate court was unusually meticulous in administering the estate, which now becomes the property of Mrs. […]
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