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Image / Seven-year-old Alsa Thompson confesses to murders, Los Angeles, 1925

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Title
Seven-year-old Alsa Thompson confesses to murders, Los Angeles, 1925
Date Created and/or Issued
February 5, 1925
1925-02-05
Publication Information
Los Angeles Times
Contributing Institution
UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives
Rights Information
US
UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4988
Description
Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds.
Alsa, a girl with light eyes and freckles, and short dark hair with bangs, sits on top of a desk beside a nurse who holds her hand. The nurse's face is slightly blurred.
*No stamped date provided, date from article used.
The girl describes putting ground-up glass in her baby sisters' food, putting ant paste in the food of neighbor Nettie Stelle of 376 South Avenue Fifty-two and acid in the food at the home of the Platts. Alsa describes that her sisters Mildred and Murial would cry the days leading up to their death, and after they had died she felt remorse. Alsa decided to poison Mrs. Steele after she continuously yelled at the girl. She continues to describe taking ant paste and the acid from batteries in the radio and mixing it with coffee and putting it on lamb chops, watching everyone but herself become ill in the Platt household. After much prompting from doctors and court officials the only explanation she gave was, "I guess I liked to see them suffer."
Similar photograph appears with the article, "Alsa Calm in Confession," Los Angeles Times, 05 Feb 1925: A5.
Text from negative sleeve: THOMPSON, ASA, CCASE 1925 Alsa
Type
image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_3772
ark:/21198/zz002cpffm
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Poisons
Children--California--Los Angeles
Nurses--American--California--Los Angeles
Homicides--California--Los Angeles
Thompson, Alsa, 1917-1994
Source
Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection

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