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Title
Major Alfred Dinsley, Robert James Murder Case
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection
Date Created and/or Issued
1936
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.
In 1935 Mary Busch, 27, answered an ad placed by beauty parlor/barber shop owner Robert James, who was looking for a manicurist for his shop. Soon after she was hired, she and James were married and she became pregnant three months later. On the evening of August 3, 1935, Busch became ill while working at the shop and was sent home. On Monday, August 5th, with Busch still "ill" and unable to work, James ran the shop on his own; after closing at 7:30 pm he invited two friends, Viola Lueck and her boyfriend Jim Pemberton, over for dinner. When they arrived at their home and didn't find Busch inside, they went out back and found her lying face down in the fishpond. Police and a physician arrived at the home, where they pronounced Busch dead at the scene, victim of an accidental drowning. It was surmised she had become dizzy due to her pregnancy, had fallen, and struck her head on one of the rocks used to rim the pool, though no evidence of a head injury was found. When Robert James filed a claim to collect on his wife's insurance policies totaling $21,400, he launched a chain of events that would lead to his downfall. After further investigation, it was determined that he and another man, Charles Hope, had concocted an elaborate scheme to murder Mary Busch. James convinced Busch to have an illegal abortion procedure, but instead, had her consume several glasses of whisky as "anesthesia", and strapped her down to a table with her eyes and mouth taped shut, he then stuck her foot into a box containing two Colorado diamond-back snakes who immediately sunk their fangs into her big toe. Hours passed and Busch still had not died, so James decided to drown her in the bathtub, and with Hope's help, arranged her body in the fishpond to make it appear as if she had tripped and fell in head-first. When confronted with evidence, Hope and James turned on each other. Hope agreed to turn states evidence and pled guilty to first-degree murder, receiving a life sentence. James went to trial for the murder of his wife, where the jury returned a guilty verdict and sentenced him to death by hanging. On May 9, 1942, Robert James became the last man to be hanged in California (capital punishment became more "humane" with the adoption of the gas chamber soon after).
Pictured is Major Alfred Dinsley, a witness questioned in the Robert James murder case. James was accused of killing his bride of mere months, Mary Busch James and placing her lifeless body in the fishpond of their La Can~ada home. Dinsley, a retired English Army Officer and neighbor to the James', testified to have seen a young woman walking alone in the garden near the pool. Photograph dated May 4, 1936.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;25 x 19 cm. on sheet 26 x 21 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00094194
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 5823
CARL0005013227
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/28830
Subject
James, Robert S.--Trials, litigation, etc
Witnesses--California--Los Angeles
Murder--Investigation--California--Los Angeles
Murder--California--La Can~ada Flintridge
Uxoricide--California--La Can~ada Flintridge
Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs

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