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 19, 1937 reads, "With the smirk that he had when he first confessed to the Inglewood child murders, Albert Dyer is pictured in court listening to witnesses testify in his defense. As the trial nears its close, Dyer is being watched and guarded carefully. Observers say he is 'cracking' and is near the verge of hysteria."
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;36 x 29 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 Trials (Murder)--California--Los Angeles Courtrooms--California--Los Angeles Murderers--California--Los Angeles Men--California--Los Angeles Criminals--California--Los Angeles Portrait photographs Los Angeles Evening Herald and Express photographs Herald-Examiner Collection photographs
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