Title supplied by cataloger.; Photograph was edited for publication purposes. 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 August 26, 1937 reads, "Immediately after the verdict was read, District Attorney Buron Fitts is shown leaning over toward Dyer, 'How do you feel?' he asked the doomed man. Dyer completely ignored Fitts and his eyes narrowed into slits. Then Dyer was ready and anxious to get back to his cell, away from the room where he had just heard it decreed that he must swing by the neck till dead for his bestial crime of snuffing out the lives of three children. On the way to his cell the other prisoners ignored him."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;36 x 39 cm. Photographic prints
Dyer, Albert Dyer, Albert--Trials, litigation, etc Everett, Madeline--Death and burial Everett, Melba--Death and burial Stephens, Jeanette--Death and burial Fitts, Buron,--1895-1973 Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles Courtrooms--California--Los Angeles Verdicts--California--Los Angeles Public prosecutors--California--Los Angeles County Lawyers--California--Los Angeles Murderers--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Criminals--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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