Skip to main content

Image / Murder inquest in Inglewood

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Murder inquest in Inglewood
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection
Date Created and/or Issued
1937
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.
On June 27, 1937, Jeanette Stephens, 8, and her friends, Melba Everett, 9, and Madeline Everett, 7, were lured from Centinela Park in Inglewood. An extensive search ensued, with the police enlisting the aid of 500 Boy Scouts. Two days after their disappearance, a Boy Scout found the three bodies in a ravine in Baldwin Hills; the shoes of each girl were removed and placed in a pile near their bodies. From the moment news of the case broke, Albert Dyer, Inglewood resident and traffic guard at Centinela Elementary School where the girls were students, followed the story closely. He began keeping a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and offered the police theories about the case. As soon as the bodies were found, Dyer arrived on the scene in Baldwin Hills and began demonstrating strange behavior. Authories began to suspect Dyer and took him into custody. He was questioned at a jail in Los Angeles, as threats upon his life were being made in Inglewood. Dyer explained how he abducted the girls from the park and enticed them with the prospect of rabbit hunting in Baldwin Hills. Dyer confessed, "I had no other reason than sex" and he went on to describe how he strangled each girl. Despite that he later recanted his confession, Dyer was tried and convicted on August 26, 1937. On September 16, 1938, he was hanged at San Quentin.
Photograph caption dated July 2, 1937 reads, "C. M. Stephens, grandfather of Jeanette Marjorie Stephens, one of the three slain Inglewood babes, is shown as he testified today at the Inglewood inquest into the deaths of the tots. He said her true name was Jeanette Marjorie Cary, that her true father if Frank B. Cary and her stepfather, Floyd B. Stephens. Only testimony taken at the inquest was that of identifying the girls."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;26 x 21 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00105952
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 7200
CARL0005279200
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/31315
Subject
Stephens, Jeanette--Family
Stephens, Jeanette--Death and burial
Criminal investigation--California--Inglewood
Men--California--Inglewood
Grandfathers--California--Inglewood
Courtrooms--California--Inglewood
Spectators--California--Inglewood
Inglewood (Calif.)
Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: