My Dark Places - James Ellroy [80]
Stoner called the State Parole Bureau and the State DMV. He learned that Wimberly and Langford were paroled a month before the burglaries started. Langford lived in West L.A.— near the spot where the stolen cars were abandoned.
Stoner called in a Metro team and put them under surveillance. Wimberly and Langford cruised in Langford’s jeep three days running. They cruised by two houses in West L.A. and a house in Beverly Hills. Old white people lived in the houses.
Stoner called in the LAPD. A burglary cop named Varner put surveillance teams on the two West L.A. houses. Stoner called in the BHPD. They put a team on the house in their jurisdiction and moved the old people out.
Varner covered two houses. He moved the people out of House #1. The people in House #2 refused to leave. Varner boarded up the living room and planted two cops with shotguns there. The people agreed to hide out under 24-hour guard.
Wimberly and Langford started cruising House #2 exclusively.
Stoner knew they’d hit soon. He set up a helicopter and two street surveillance teams and distributed walkie-talkies. Langford’s house was covered. House #2 was covered. The chopper was set to tail the suspects from a safe distance. Stoner set up a command post at Lennox Station. He was directly linked to House #2 and all mobile units.
The suspects left Langford’s house at 1:00 a.m., 7/3/81.
They drove to the alley behind House #2. The chopper pinned down every move they made.
They parked their jeep. They walked to House #2 and jumped the back fence. They cut the outside phone wires. They started prying at the back bedroom windows.
The windows were boarded shut. The old folks did it as an added precaution. They forgot to tell the cops.
Wimberly and Langford kept prying. The walkie-talkie lines inside House #2 went dead. Stoner contacted his mobile units. They were parked a block from House #2.
Wimberly and Langford kept prying. They kept making big fucking noise. They were bold and stupid. The Big Picture eluded them.
A firecracker went off somewhere down the block. The mobile units thought it was a shot. They hit their lights and sirens and swooped down on Wimberly and Langford.
Wimberly and Langford ran. The mobile units closed the alley off and apprehended them.
Stoner interviewed them at Lennox Station. They wouldn’t cop out to the burglaries or murders. Stoner told them Henry Boldt died. They didn’t react. Stoner told them he made them for five murders total. They played the whole interrogation sullen.
Billy Farrington got back from vacation. He helped Stoner interview the suspects. Langford called Billy a nigger. Stoner got between them and kept things from escalating.
Wimberly and Langford refused to cop out. Stoner searched their houses. Cargo trucks hauled off stolen merchandise. Stoner executed a search warrant on Wimberly’s parents’ house. He recovered lawn mowers, beauty supplies and a gold-plated mirror. He found Dora Boldt’s crockpot. There were no fingerprints on it. The number on the bottom was not a serial number. The crockpot had no evidentiary value.
The stolen merchandise was stored at Parker Center. Victims identified it. Wimberly and Langford were indicted on 18 counts of first-degree burglary. No verifiable items stolen from the Boldt house or the houses of the other murdered women were recovered. Stoner couldn’t file murder charges on Wimberly and Langford. He wanted to kill the fucking photo man who squashed that piece of cheese.
Wimberly and Langford were tried and convicted. Langford got 17 years. Wimberly got 20 to 25. Langford got paroled early. The Feds popped him with two kilos of cocaine. Langford got life with no-parole stipulated.
Stoner went for multiple homicides and settled for burglary one. The Wimberly-Langford job left him pent up and afraid for his parents. Wimberly and Langford grew up middle-class. They were not abused at home. Stoner learned that men killed women for lawn mowers and crockpots.
A man kidnapped