Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph was edited for publication purposes. On December 31, 1936, Helen Wills Love stormed into the Del Mar Club in Santa Monica and shot her self-proclaimed husband, Harry A. Love, whom she felt was choosing his mother over her. Wills maintained that she was Love's "secret" wife because he had refused to share the news of his marriage with his mother, Cora K. Love, due to what Wills described as his "mother complex." Prior to her conviction in 1937, when she was sent to the California Institution for Women, also known as Tehachapi Prison, Wills fell into a coma, which was believed to have been induced by Will's overall anxiety and/or fear of prison or death by hanging. She applied for parole a couple of times, once in 1937 and again in 1938, but was denied. In 1938, she was told she would be eligible to apply again in two years; it is unknown when she was actually paroled. Wills, if counting her "marriage" to Love, had four spouses throughout her life. She died at 95 years of age on November 1, 2000. Photograph caption dated March 5, 1937 reads, "Listening closely to the story of the tragic end of the son she loved, Mrs. Cora K. Love is shown at left in the courtroom where Helen Wills Love testified in an effort to clear herself of murdering Harry A. Love, whom she claims was her secret husband. At right is Mrs. Cora Love's sister, Mrs. Laura N. Flemming."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Wills, Helen--Trials, litigation, etc California.--Superior Court (Los Angeles County) Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles Murder victims' families--California--Los Angeles Mothers of murder victims--California--Los Angeles Sisters--California--Los Angeles Women--California--Los Angeles Courtrooms--California--Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.) Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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