Photograph was edited for publication purposes. It was barely dawn on December 12, 1939 when Aggie Underwood and photographer Paul Pangburn rolled up to the scene of a tragic auto accident on the road from Mt. Wilson. Five people had perished when the light sedan in which they were riding careened down the mountainside. The dead were: Elva Ruth Crawford and her three children ranging in age from eight to fifteen, and a boarder in the Crawford home, Ralph Barnett. The only survivor was the driver of the car, Laurel Crawford. Laurel rested on a cot surrounded by Sheriff's deputies who refused to allow Underwood to interview him. Understandably, the deputies felt that the man had been through an ordeal which could only be exacerbated by questions from the press. Still, Underwood managed to make a deal with a deputy who talked with Laurel as Underwood listened in from an adjoining room. She had used this ploy before. There were a few things about Laurel and his story that felt wrong to Underwood. Laurel claimed that he had lost control of the car and even though he exhorted his passengers to jump he was the only one who had managed to escape. He said he had climbed down the 1000 foot embankment a couple of times. He held his daughter, Helen, in his arms as she died. But Underwood doubted his veracity. Helen's body had been crushed and bloody, yet Laurel's clothing was clean. When Lieutenants Garner Brown and Paul Mahoney of the Sheriff's Bureau of Investigation arrived, Brown asked Underwood for her take on the situation. She answered bluntly: "I think it smells. He's guilty as hell." A few of the deputies appeared shocked, but Brown listened to her reasoning. She told him that Laurel's leather jacket, khaki pants and shirt were far too clean if he had been up and down the mountain as he had said. His grief rang false to Underwood too. He made the tragedy revolve around him, repeating: "Why did this have to happen to me?" rather than questioning why it had happened to his family. Lieutenant Brown agreed with Underwood's assessment and pursued an investigation. It was discovered that Laurel had purchased insurance policies on his wife and children, a few with double indemnity clauses. He stood to receive a large pay out which he then intended to use to purchase a car dealership. Laurel Crawford was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, but he wasn't indicted for Barnett's death. Thirty-one years later, in May 1971 at age 73, Laurel died of injuries he sustained during a beating meted out by other prisoners at Folsom. Photograph caption dated December 12, 1939 reads, "The body of Ralph Barnett, roomer in the Crawford home, is shown being extricated from the tangled brush of the eerie canyon by an investigator. Police said that Crawford held $40,000 insurance on the members of his family, all written during the past year. He is being held on suspicion of mass murder."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm. Photographic prints
Dead persons--California--Los Angeles County Murder victims--California--Los Angeles County Men--California--Los Angeles County Traffic accidents--California--Los Angeles County Detectives--California--Los Angeles County Mountains--California, Southern Angeles Crest Highway (Calif.) San Gabriel Mountains (Calif.) Night photographs Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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