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 9, 1937 reads, "Mrs. Mary Plettner, who was removed from the Helen Wills Love murder trial today for asserted intoxication, is shown in a dramatic meeting with Mrs. Love when their paths crossed in jail today. Left to right, Mrs. Plettner, matron Vada Sullivan and Mrs. Love. A little over an hour after the jury had retired to deliberate, Fireman Harry Joannes reported to Judge Frank M. Smith that a woman juror appeared to be under the influence of liquor. Dr. Benjamin Blank, county jail physician, tested Mrs. Plettner and said she was under the influence of liquor. Mrs. Maude Banta replaced her on the jury."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm. Photographic prints
Wills, Helen Los Angeles County (Calif.).--Sheriff's Department--Employees Women--California--Los Angeles Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles Jurors--California--Los Angeles Intoxication Jails--California--Los Angeles Murderers--California--Los Angeles Women murderers--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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