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Title
Murder witnesses
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1922
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.; Each photograph has a decorative border drawn in ink.
In 1922, Clara Phillips, a former chorus girl, learned the identity of her husband's mistress, Alberta Meadows. Fueled by jealousy and rage, Phillips went on to purchase a claw hammer, then, in the company of her friend Peggy Caffee, sought out Meadows and assaulted her. The animal-like attack against Meadows, who was left disemboweled and with a severally mauled face, earned Phillips the name "Tiger Woman." Phillips was found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison for the crime of passion. She escaped from the Los Angeles County prison in 1922 and was found in Honduras in 1923. She was an inmate at San Quentin from 1923 until 1932, when she was transferred to the original California Institution for Women in Tehachapi. She was released on parole in 1935.
Side-by-side portraits of Peggy Caffee (right) and an unidentified woman. Both are key witness in the case against Clara Phillips, who brutally attacked and killed Alberta Meadows. Caffee was with Phillips at the time of the murder and the other woman sold Phillips the claw hammer.
Type
Image
Format
2 photographic prints :b&w ;19 x 13 cm. or smaller, on board 29 x 30 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00082656
Herald Examiner Collection
HE box 1106
CARL0000081812
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/25177
Subject
Witnesses--California--Los Angeles
Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles
Herald-Examiner Collection photographs

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