Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight’s feature is SOMEWHERE IN THE NIGHT, 1946, starring Lloyd Nolan and Richard Conte.
TCM says:
Amnesia, guns, and money. Sounds interesting to me! Enjoy the movie!
The fight between Isa Lang and Edith Eufala Norwood over an avocado sandwich ended in death. Isa had grabbed a gun from her former landlady’s closet and shot her in the back of the head. Eufala died instantly.
Isa was indicted for the slaying and ordered to stand trial on March 7, 1935 in Judge Doran’s court. She entered a a double plea of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity; which seemed reasonable given her stated motive for the murder.
The 46-year-old former school teacher took the stand in her defense and told the jury of nine men and three woman how “Everything went black.” after she and Eufala exchanged angry words. Isa said that the quarrel escalated quickly because: “Mrs. Norwood grabbed the sandwich out of my hands and she called me names. As she ran into the kitchen with the plate I made with my own bread I ran to a closet and got the pistol.”
Aside from the harsh words, Isa’s rage was triggered because she claimed that she had used her own bread to make lunch. She didn’t reveal the source of the avocados. Isa testified that she didn’t recall pulling the trigger, but admitted that she must have done it.
Jurors learned that the two women had been friends for the several years during which Isa had been living in Eufala’s home. But their friendship ended when Isa was told to move out.
Following their deliberations the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and set Isa’s punishment at life in prison. The defendant addressed the jury telling them that she was “willing to accept any punishment the law requires.”
The verdict and sentence ended the first phase of Isa’s trial–next the jury would have to decide if she was insane when she committed the murder.
Three alienists (psychiatrists) testified that while Isa was undoubtedly eccentric whe was not legally insane when she shot Eufala. Isa’s defense team offered their own witnesses in an effort to prove that she was not mentally responsible for the shooting. It took the jury five minutes to arrive at a decision–Isa was sane–she would serve life in the State Prison for Women at Tehachapi.
There were few high profile female killers, especially during the 1930s, who weren’t interviewed by Aggie Underwood. Aggie started working as a reporter for the Evening Herald & Express in January 1935 and, as you can see from the photo she scored an interview with Isa.
Aggie Underwood, notebook in hand, interviews Isa Lang. [Photo courtesy of USC]
There were no further newspaper of reports on Isa until November 1976 when the Los Angeles Times did a piece on her. Isa had been a prisoner longer than any other woman in California–but that wasn’t her only claim to fame.
She was paroled in 1960 at age 71, and she told the interviewer, Charles Hillinger: “The first five years of freedom I really enjoyed. I had my own little apartment and a beautiful cat named Ginger. But the last four years were sheer hell. I became sick. I had to give up my apartment and go into a nursing home. I shared a room with five other elderly women. They were all senile. They had no idea where they were or what was going on. It was terrible. I was so lonely for all my friends in prison. I wanted to get back to prison in the worst way…”
Astonishingly, Isa was able to convince the Department of Correction that by giving up her parole and returning to prison she would be treated more humanely than she had been in the nursing home on the outside. Actually, now that I think about some of the stories I’ve read about nursing homes, maybe her request wasn’t so shocking after all.
Isa spoke with some pride of her years in prison: “I have worked at every job there is for inmates here over the years. The laundry, the kitchen, as a gardener in the yard, in the sewing room making American flags that fly over state buildings. For many years i was secretary for the superintendent. She also told Hillinger: “..I did your kind of work, too. I wrote feature stories and editorials for the Clarion, our prison paper, for 6 1/2 years.”
Isa revealed that she never married during her free years: “I’m glad for it. This is a tragic place for married women. Separated from their husbands. Their children in foster homes.”
As she got older and her health began to fail she was confined to a wheelchair, but inmates brought her gifts of rosebuds from the prison gardens–and staff members brought her flowers from their home gardens as well.
Isa wouldn’t say very much about the 1935 murder. “It was something that could happen to anyone. It was terribly foolish for me to get caught up in the situation that I did. I got stirred up. It certainly wasn’t worth it. I’ve accepted the consequences. Only God and I know what truly happened…”
Isa Lang in her 80s.
That wasn’t the end of Isa’s story. In August 1982 the Los Angeles Times covered her again. At age 93 (she was the oldest person serving time in the state’s prison system) she was likely going to be paroled–and she wasn’t happy about it. She objected to the presence of reporters at her parole hearing, saying: “I don’t want any publicity. The last time somebody put something in the Los Angeles Times about me years ago, people started picketing for my release and even the governor got into it. I want those do-gooders to mind their own business.”
It wasn’t just reporters she objected to. She became prickly when her victim was described as having been her benefactor. “That woman was not my benefactor. I merely rented a room from her. I killed her because she called me a bastard and a harlot and I want the record straight on that.”
Robert Roos, a member of the parole board, tried to sum up the conundrum: “The questions really isn’t whether Isa Lang is suitable for parole. She is by our criterion no longer a danger to society. The real question is whether parole is suitable for her. I, for one, don’t want to impose a death sentence on this lady by forcing her out of a place she clearly considers home.”
Would Isa be evicted from prison? Yes, indeed. Her attorney, James Gunn, declared himself “flabbergasted” by the parole board’s decision. Even Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Charles Havens agreed: “I’m surprised at what they did. It just doesn’t seem the compassionate thing to do.” But the board decided to follow the letter of the law and using that measure Isa was released.
Columnist Patt Morrison wrote about Isa in May 1983. At age 94, the former lifer was living comfortably with a “very compatible” elderly woman–a fellow vegetarian and Seventh-day Adventist.
Isa Lang passed away in 1983 at age 95.
NOTE: Again, many thanks to my friend and fellow historian Mike Fratantoni for directing me to this deranged tale.
At about 5 p.m. on Friday, January 19, 1935, Vera Woodman was in her Boyle Heights apartment when she heard a sound. She wasn’t sure what had caused the noise, but it sounded like a gunshot and it had come from next door–226 North Bailey Street–the home of Edith Eufala Norwood, widow and treasurer of White Memorial Church.
Vera walked over to Eufala’s house and tried the door but then she hear a key turn in the lock. There was no further sound so Vera thought that perhaps her neighbor was not in the mood for company and she returned to her apartment.
The next day William Norwood, who worked as the registrar as the White Memorial Hospital down the street from his mother’s house, dropped by to see her. When he entered the house he noticed it was extremely quiet. He called out but there was no answer. He went into the kitchen and that where he found his mother. She was dead, but there was nothing to suggest foul play until she was examined at the morgue.
Eufala had been wearing a bulky sweater at the time of her death and it had concealed a fatal bullet wound to her brain. The police had the how, now they needed to discover who and why.
Good police work means shaking the trees until something happens. A tried and true method is to knock on doors and question friends, family, and neighbors of the deceased. In this case the neighbors had seen more than they had realized.
Dora Byler, a nurse at White Memorial Hospital, found a handbag belonging to Isa Lang, a former boarder in Eufala’s home. It was on the sidewalk about a half-block from the murder scene. Other neighbors said they had seen Isa, shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, she was carrying a bundle and hurrying away from the Norwood home.
White Memorial Hospital
When detectives caught up with Isa she admitted that she had stopped by Edith’s home on Friday, but she said it wasn’t as late in the afternoon as witnesses had stated. She’d arrived at 3 p.m. and found the door open but her former landlady was not at home. Isa said that she packed the remainder of her belongings and left without ever having seen or spoken to Eufala. 
A Coroner’s inquest was held at 1:30 p.m. on January 23 and all of the neighborhood witnesses, subpoenaed by Captain B.W. Thomason, testified. The prime suspect in the slaying, former school teacher Isa Lang, took the stand too. She emphatically denied being at Edith’s home at the time of the murder, she said she had been there at least two hours prior to when the gunshot had been heard. No one came forward to corroborate her story and Isa’s denials fell on deaf ears. The jury found that she had shot Edith with homicidal intent.
A week following the inquest Isa confessed to Deputy District Attorney Arterberry that she was guilty. She told him that after the murder she returned to her new boarding house at 120 South Boyle Avenue. The next day she went to Manhattan Beach and threw the revolver into the ocean. The gun had belonged to the dead woman and was kept in a living room closet.
The confession was important, but everyone wanted an explanation. What was the motive? Evidently the two women had had several petty quarrels, and during one of them Eufala ordered Isa to leave the house permanently. Isa found a new place on South Boyle Avenue and on January 18, the day of the murder, she had returned to retrieve the rest of her personal belongings. Moving is hungry work and Isa said that by the time she got to her old digs she needed sustenance. She pulled open the icebox door and found an delicious looking avocado sandwich. She was just about to take a bite when Eufala came in and took umbrage with Isa’s appropriation of her lunch. Eufala made a grab for the disputed treat and Isa became “insanely angry”.
Denied lunch and in a rage, Isa rushed to the closet where she knew the revolver was kept. She grabbed the weapon and when Eufala saw what was happening she turned to flee; and that’s when Isa took aim and fired. The bullet struck Eufala in the back of the head. She died instantly and collapsed on the kitchen floor
Only a madwoman would commit murder over a sandwich, at least that is what Isa’s defense contended. What would a judge and jury make of an insanity plea?
NEXT TIME: A Cell of One’s Own concludes.
Many thanks to my friend and fellow historian Mike Fratantoni. He finds the most deranged cases.
Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight’s feature is DRAGNET 1966, starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan.
I’ve show this feature before but I thought that since I’m attending the JACK WEBB AWARDS event tonight it would be appropriate to show it again. I’m looking forward to the evening. It will, once again, be hosted by James Ellroy.
Dragnet 1966 is a made-for-TV movie that initiated the return of the Dragnet series to television. It was intended to be the TV pilot of Dragnet 1967 but was not aired as originally planned. It was eventually broadcast in 1969.
The Internet Movie Database says:
Sgt. Joe Friday is called back from vacation to work with his partner, Off. Bill Gannon, on a missing persons case. Two amateur female models and a young war widow have vanished, having been last seen with one J. Johnson. In the course of tracking down Johnson and the young ladies, the detectives wind up with two different descriptions of the suspect, one of which closely resembles a dead body found in a vacant lot. But the dead man, later identified as Charles LeBorg of France, proves not to be J. Johnson, when a third young model disappears.
The story is based on the Harvey Glatman case which I covered in a series of posts.
Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.
Tonight’s feature, NANCY DREW–REPORTER, may not be film noir, but I’ve got female reporters on the brain today. I was interviewed this afternoon by KCRW (89.9 FM) in Los Angeles about the photo exhibit I’m curating at Central Library. The exhibit: THE FIRST WITH THE LATEST!: AGGIE UNDERWOOD, THE HERALD, AND THE SORDID CRIMES OF A CITY runs until January 10, 2016.
Here is a LINK to the radio interview.
TCM says this about NANCY DREW:
When the newspaper runs a promotional contest awarding fifty dollars for the best story written by a high school journalist, Bostwick, the city editor, decides to wash his hands of the kids by assigning them to cover trivial topics. Undaunted, student reporter Nancy Drew, the daughter of District Attorney Carson Drew, overhears the staff discussing the Lambert murder hearing and decides to cover the trial herself. At the courthouse, Nancy sits next to a man with a cauliflower ear and listens intently as Eula Denning, the murder victim’s ward, is accused of poisoning Kate Lambert for the inheritance money.
Enjoy the movie and the radio interview!
John Joseph Stanley has worked in law enforcement and corrections as a peace officer for over thirty years. He he is the author of over sixty articles on law enforcement history and tactics and has won awards for his fiction and historical nonfiction.
In addition to continuing to write fiction, John currently writes a column for the website CorrectionsOne.com, contributes to the website PoliceOne.com and writes a tactical history column for the California Association of Tactical Officers (CATO) quarterly publication CATO News. He is also the principle contributor to multiple law enforcement related Facebook pages including: The Los Angeles County Sheriffs’ Museum, The Los Angeles County Peace Officers’ Memorial, and Tactical Science.
The depth and breadth of his accomplishments continue to astound me–in particular his fascinating novel CAGED SPIRITS. It seems like it was ages ago that he revealed that he to me that he was working on a novel. When I asked him what it was about he offered me only a few tantalizing bits to ponder: Nazis, the supernatural, and law enforcement. As I discovered after reading it, It is also about love, loss, and redemption.
Recently, John was gracious enough to grant me an interview.
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Joan Renner: John, I want to congratulate you on your first novel, CAGED SPIRITS! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a unique book which defies categorization. It combines the best elements of mystery, thriller, and horror fiction. What inspired you to write the book?
John Joseph Stanley: Thank you, Joan. First, I want to thank you for interviewing me and sharing my book with your followers. Caged Spirits reflects my interests and professional experience. As a reader, I’m a big fan of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, J.K. Rowling, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis, among others. But I also love the works of Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn and Brad Thor. Also, for the better part of thirty years I’ve worked in law enforcement. A lot those years were spent either working in jails or teaching those who worked in jails. Caged Spirits is the outflow of all those tributaries merging into a larger river flowing downstream from my Christian world view.
JR: Although set in the present day, the narrative of CAGED SPIRITS is driven by events from the past, in particular WWII. Is the book historically accurate?
JJS: Yes, I have a Master’s Degree in American legal history and have published articles in many articles historical books and journals. One of the lesser known parts of the Lend Lease agreement between the U.S. and Great Britain in 1941 called for the U.S. to train RAF pilots. Lone Eagle field is the doppelgänger for the very real Polaris Flight Academy at War Eagle field located in Lancaster, California. There were also prisoner of war camps for Axis soldiers all over the U.S. and Canada. Many were attached to existing military bases and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s aero squadron before the war did consist mostly of former military pilots.
JR: I read a lot of crime fiction and I know that most authors have to consult experts when it comes to the finer points of handling lethal and non-lethal weapons. How were you able to bring such remarkable authenticity to the scenes in which weapons were used?
JJS: In my case, I was my own expert. I’m currently a lieutenant on the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and command a platoon for one of our four Department riot control teams. I’ve taught less lethal weapons and jail riot and disturbance tactics for almost twenty years. I was also briefly a Senior Master Instructor for TASER International. So I know how all of TASER’s electronic control devices (ECDs) function. Having taken multiple Taser hits over the years, I also know well how the effects of a Taser feel.
John’s knowledge of lethal and non-lethal weapons comes from his real life experiences. Here he is taking a Taser hit!
JR: Were the tactics employed to contain violent situations in the jail accurate? I found those scenes heart-stopping!
JJS: Yes. I’m very familiar with responding to all types of jail disturbances. In addition to my current collateral duties as a platoon commander for our riot control team, I spent almost ten years of my career teaching the LASD’s Custody Incident Command School. This week long class was designed to teach newly promoted sergeants and lieutenants how to command tactical units in any type of jail disturbance. We even did a shorter version of the class for command officers. I’ve also written a column on jail tactics for several years for the website CorrectionsOne.com and recently I started writing a quarterly tactical history column for the CATO News, the magazine of the California Association of Tactical Officers of which I’m a member.
JR: Your protagonist, Gary Conner, personifies the traits associated with the term “compassionate warrior”. Would you mind explaining to readers what that term means?
JJS: It is the job of law enforcement personnel to be firm but fair. This is especially true when working in a correctional setting. It is not our job to punish. Being incarcerated is punishment enough. Still, inmates expect us to maintain control. Most prefer this. Gary Conner reflects this view. Unfortunately, he finds himself in the middle of extraordinary circumstances when he arrives at Lomax. So his compassion is tempered with his need for decisive forceful action.
JR: Is there anything that you would like to share with readers about the story or its setting.
JJS: At its heart, Caged Spirits is a story about redemption and forgiveness. I set it in a part of the country that is equal parts enchantment and isolation. Those elements are in the story as well. I challenged myself to write a novel that I could throw down with satisfaction next to books of some of the authors I read. I’m very pleased with how Caged Spirits turned out.
JR: Are you planning to write another novel?
JJS: Actually, my next novel is already written. It’s titled Racing Apollo. I’m in the process of rewriting it now. My main character is another Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy, but this one experienced a significant episode in his youth that turned his adult life into a mess. In the story, he is given a very unique opportunity to correct this. Like Caged Spirits, Racing Apollo also involves malevolent dark forces at work to tear down my protagonist, but his biggest enemy is the one looking back at him in the mirror. This was a very fun novel to write. It is a road novel that involves time travel. It is actually two parallel stories that intersect over forty-five years apart. In one story my protagonist, at age ten, is reluctantly moving with his family from Buffalo, New York to Anaheim, California. In the other, his adult self is retracing the journey his family took across the country decades before. The original trip took place in July 1969. Specifically, between the 16th and 20th of July. The novel derives its title because my main character’s father tries to make a game of their move by saying they are racing Apollo 11 as it journeys toward the moon while they head west for California. Like most road novels, this one takes a while to tell and is quite a bit longer than Caged Spirits.
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Many thanks to John for the interview, and I’m already looking forward to his next novel.
CAGED SPIRITS is available Amazon (see right sidebar) and also through Barnes and Noble.
Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.
Tonight’s feature is, THE KILLER IS LOOSE, starring Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, and Alan Hale. Bonus — great shots of L.A.
Enjoy the movie!
TCM says:
Upon encountering Leon Poole in his current position as bank loan manager, Otto Flanders recognizes him as the corporal from his war unit whom he used to call “Foggy” because of Poole’s bumbling mannerisms. Poole, who is not pleased to see his old sergeant, is distracted by a robbery taking place at the back of the bank. When the thief pulls a gun and runs out the front door, Poole tries to stop him and is knocked out. While Flanders is questioned by detective Sam Wagner and his partner, Chris Gillespie at the police station, he now praises Poole’s courage. Later, Sam, Chris and Sgt. “Denny” Denning monitor a wiretap, on which they hear the robber calling his accomplice. They trace the call to Poole’s apartment and attempt to enter. Poole has barricaded the door, however, and shoots at them, prompting Sam to break down the door and enter shooting. When Mrs. Poole steps out, Sam, and who had been told she was not in the apartment, accidentally kills her, and Poole cradles his beloved wife in his arms.
Things go psycho from there as Poole, aka Froggy, plots his revenge.