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Title
Funeral for Everett girls
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.; Jeanette Stephens was buried at Inglewood Cemetery.; The commercial structures across the street from the mortuary (far right) have since been demolished.
Photograph caption dated July 2, 1937 reads, "Borne tenderly from the chapel, the two gray caskets containing the bodies of Madeline and Melba Everett are shown being carried by pallbearers after the double funeral held for the tots here today. The caskets are covered with flowers, some of the hundreds of floral tributes given by both friends and strangers who sympathized with the bereaved family. Jeanette Marjorie Stephens was laid to rest yesterday in Inglewood. Meanwhile the search for the manical [sic] slayer of the children goes relentlessly on." This private service took place at Pierce Brothers Mortuary, located at 720 W. Washington Boulevard in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Everett girls were buried at Forest Lawn, Glendale.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;21 x 26 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00105949
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 7200
CARL0005274041
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/31263
Subject
Everett, Merle
Everett, Merle--Family
Everett, Melba--Death and burial
Everett, Madeline--Death and burial
Everett, Melba--Family
Everett, Madeline--Family
Pierce Brothers Mortuary
Pierce Brothers Mortuary--Employees
Murder victims--California--Los Angeles
Funeral rites and ceremonies--California--Los Angeles
Coffins--California--Los Angeles
Murder victims' families--California--Los Angeles
Funeral homes--California--Los Angeles
Flower arrangements
Families--California--Los Angeles
Men--California--Los Angeles
Women--California--Los Angeles
Commercial buildings--California--Los Angeles
Lost architecture--California--Los Angeles
University Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs

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