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Image / Mrs. Catherine Taylor, Albert L. Cheney estate investigation

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Title
Mrs. Catherine Taylor, Albert L. Cheney estate investigation
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection
Date Created and/or Issued
1935
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph was edited for publication purposes.; Photograph also used in articles dated March 23, 1935, April 11, 1935 and May 25, 1935.
Hazel Belford Glab's "new" wealthy fiance´, Albert Llewellyn Cheney, died mysteriously on March 13, 1935 in a Las Vegas hotel on the eve of their intended marriage. In a will penned in purple ink on hotel stationary, Cheney attested all his property, personal belongings and insurance policies, go to his future wife. After Cheney's daughter, Mrs. Catherine Taylor, contested what she termed her father's "purported will", it was surmised that Mrs. Glab forged the will over a genuine signature of Cheney's, bequeathing her his entire $400,000 estate, and then persuaded accomplices Fred and Clara Steeger to sign it as witnesses. Ultimately, Glab's luck ran out and she, along with the Steeger's, was arrested on forgery charges. During the trial, authorities reopened the investigation into the shooting death of her third husband, John I. Glab, a wealthy retired Chicago Druggist whose mysterious death seven years earlier had remained unsolved. On December 27, 1935, Mrs. Glab was found guilty and was convicted of forgery and preparing false evidence; she was sentenced to Tehachapi Women's Prison for a term of 2 to 14 years for that crime. Shortly thereafter, in April 1936, Glab was convicted of second-degree murder for killing John Glab, the sentence being seven-years-to-life. Surprisingly, though, she was out of prison in 1943 after serving only 7 years.
Photograph article dated July 8, 1935 reads, "Two women were to come to court here today in a battle over the estate of Albert Llewellyn Cheney. At left is Hazel Belford Glab, "widow of tragedy," who was left the bulk of the estate in a will filed for probate. She says she was on her way to Las Vegas to wed Cheney when he died. At right (shown here) is Cheney's daughter, Mrs. Catherine Taylor, who had made heated charges against Mrs. Glab and asks the court to approve an earlier will in her favor."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00094247
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 2285
CARL0005016112
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/28907
Subject
Cheney, Albert L.--Estate
Cheney, Albert L.--Family
Decedents' estates--Cases
Swindlers and swindling--California--Los Angeles
Wills--California--Los Angeles
Trials (Forgery)--California--Los Angeles
Daughters--California--Los Angeles
Forgery--California--Los Angeles
Trials--California--Los Angeles
Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs

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