My Dark Places - James Ellroy [32]
They said they were drinking at a Mexican place in La Puente. They met a man who offered to drive them wherever they wished to go. He was white, 25 to 30, 5′9″, 150 pounds, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. They got into his ’39 Chevy Tudor.
He drove them to the San Dimas Wash. A ’46 Ford truck pulled up behind them. The driver was white, 30 years old, 5′10″, 180 pounds, with blond hair and blue eyes.
They all stood around the Wash. The Chevy man grabbed the woman’s necklace. He said if she wasn’t careful she’d get it like that nurse in El Monte. The truck man did this “I hate Mexicans” number. One of the Mexican guys jumped him. The other Mexican guy and the woman escaped. The first Mexican guy beat up the truck man and joined them.
The informants left their names with the desk officer. He typed up a report and placed it in Captain Bruton’s box.
The Ellroy case was stalled out. Hallinen caught a wife-stabs-husband job on August 29th.
Lillian Kella slashed Edward Kella—fatally good. She said he slapped her in the head once too often. The case was routine late-summer stuff.
Temple Patrol logged in a weird occurrence on September 2nd. It started outside the Kit Kat bar in El Monte.
Two deputies spotted a woman named Willie Jane Willis. She was leaning against a phone booth in a dazed condition. The Kit Kat’s janitor said he saw Willie Jane get out of a yellow cement truck. The driver chased her around the truck, gave up the chase and drove off. Willie Jane showed the deputies a bump on her head.
The deputies drove Willie Jane to the Falk Medical Center. A doctor placed her on an examination table. Willie Jane started to rant. She said, “Carlos, don’t kill her. I saw him kill her and dump her body by the school.”
One of the deputies asked her if she meant Arroyo High. Willie Jane attacked him and tried to run out a rear door. The deputies caught her and placed her in their patrol car. The emergency room doctor thought she was high on narcotics.
The deputies drove Willie Jane to the Temple City Station. She mumbled hysterically en route. The deputies heard her say, “I saw him kill her. He choked her and dumped her body by the school. I saw her face, it was purple, how horrible.”
Willie Jane tried to jump out of the car. The deputies prevented her. Willie Jane said, “Don’t take me back to that school, please don’t make me go back there.”
They arrived at the station. The deputies escorted Willie Jane inside. A detective interviewed her and forwarded a memo to Homicide.
Hallinen and Lawton wrote it off as bullshit.
The tips and nut reports died out. The Ellroy case moved into limbo.
Lawton caught a business-dispute killing on October 9th. Hallinen caught wife-shoots-husband jobs on the 12th and the 14th. A sex creep named Harvey Glatman was arrested on October 27th.
The CHP bagged him down in Orange County. He was struggling with a woman on a roadside near the Santa Ana Freeway. They fell out of Glatman’s car and wrestled for the gun he pulled on her. A Highway Patrol guy saw the incident and made the arrest.
The woman’s name was Lorraine Vigil. She was a pinup model from L.A. Glatman lured her out on a photo-session pretext. He said he had a studio in Anaheim.
Glatman was booked at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. They charged him with attempt rape and ADW. Deputies found clothesline cord, a camera, several rolls of film and a box of .32-caliber shells in his car. They checked old teletypes and missing persons reports and got three potential clicks.
8/1/57:
A pinup model named Judy Ann Dull disappeared. She was last seen with a photographer named Johnny Glynn. The two left Miss Dull’s West Hollywood apartment and were never seen again. Harvey Glatman matched Johnny Glynn’s description.
3/8/58:
A woman named Shirley Ann Bridgeford disappeared. She left her house in the San Fernando Valley with a man named George Williams. The two were never seen again. Miss Bridge-ford belonged to a lonely-hearts club. Williams contacted her through the club directory. Harvey Glatman matched George