Photograph was edited for publication purposes.; "Used in the Exhibit: The First with the Latest! Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City." Retired church organist Samuel Whittaker and his wife, Ethel, had gone out on the evening of March 16, 1936. Shortly after their arrival home early the next morning, neighbors heard several gun shots. One of the neighbors, Henry Failer, came out of his apartment and saw a man leaving the Whittaker place. The young man ran up the stairs to the roof of the building while Failer entered the Whittaker apartment to see what was going on. He found Samuel holding a revolver in his right hand. Ethel was dead on the floor. When the police arrived Whittaker told them that he and Ethel had been ambushed in their apartment that morning. A masked man stepped out of a closet and trained a gun on them. He demanded money, but then shot Ethel anyway. Whittaker produced his own weapon and fired five shots, wounding but not killing the intruder. The cops found James Fagan Culver the next door rooming house suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. They busted him for robbery and murder. For the first couple of days following the crime, Whittaker was hailed as a hero. But Culver told a far different story. He said that earlier that year he had hitchhiked from Kentucky; that he had met Whittaker in front of a cafe early one morning and asked him for money so he could eat. They struck up a conversation and then saw each other frequently. One day Whittaker told Culver that he wanted to "thrill a lady friend" and stage a fake hold-up. Whittaker gave Culver a gun and instructions to wait in a closet until he and his lady friend were in the room, fake the hold-up, and then flee. Whittaker had left out the salient features of his plan when he described it to Culver. What Whittaker actually intended to do was to murder his wife, kill Culver, collect on an insurance policy, and walk away a hero. If he'd been a better shot he may have gotten away with it. Unfortunately for Whittaker, Aggie Underwood was present at a photo shoot which had the two men facing each other. Underwood was stunned when she noticed Whittaker deliberately wink at Culver. She drew LAPD detective, Thad Brown, aside and told him what she had witnessed. The detective uncovered the murder-for-hire plot and Whittaker was convicted for killing his wife. Whittaker was quoted as saying that he hoped God would strike him dead if he was guilty of Ethel's slaying. As he was being booked into San Quentin, he dropped dead. First photograph caption dated June 5, 1936 reads, "In a court room drama that recreated a night of horror and tragedy, Samuel L. Whittaker is shown on the stand at his trial looking at James Fagan Culver, hillbilly transient, wearing a bandana mask over his face and cap pulled low when he re-enacted his assertedly fake holdup that resulted in the slaying of Whittaker's wife. Standing between Culver and Whittaker is Prosecutor Ugene Blalock. Culver claims Whittaker hired him to stage the fake holdup to 'thrill' Mrs. Whittaker. He claims that when he came out and demanded money, according to the plan, Whittaker 'double-crossed' him and fired at him and then shot Mrs. Whittaker."; Second photograph caption dated May 23, 1940 reads, "The strange story of how Sam Whittaker, church organist, killed his wife in a fake holdup and how Agness Underwood, Evening Herald and Express star woman reporter, solved the murder mystery will be dramatized thrillingly tonight on The Herald-Express radio program, 'When Presses Roar,' KFI at 8 p.m. This photo shows Whittaker, right, on witness stand, as James Fagan Culver, masked 'ragged stranger' he hired, re-enacted the fake holdup at Whittaker's trial."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles Criminals--California--Los Angeles Murderers--California--Los Angeles Uxoricide--California--Los Angeles Widowers--California--Los Angeles Courtrooms--California--Los Angeles Lawyers--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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