On April 2, 1943, Carl Hopper, a 22-year-old bandit and kidnapping suspect, made a daring escape from HOJJ (Hall of Justice Jail). His agility earned him the nickname of the “Human Fly. “
Police hunted the fly for several days before he surfaced in a shoe store at 4411 W. Slauson. He entered the store and, simulating a gun, he held up the manager, Hans A. Camnizter. He got away with $23.51. A private patrolman, Edward Scheld, heard the ruckus and saw Hopper fleeing the store. Scheld fired a couple of rounds, but they went wild. Hopper ran to the rear parking lot where he forced Sam Tenn and his wife out of their car and drove away. The Tenn’s car was found abandoned in the 400 block on E. Fairview Avenue, Inglewood.
On April 18th, officers answered a prowler call at the home of Mrs. James Lehy, 38 Marion Avenue, Pasadena. Patrolman Gerald Wilson noticed Hopper limping along Harkness Street, a block away. Patrolman Wilson thought the limping man was drunk because he smelled of booze. Wilson cautiously approached the man and took him into custody for public intoxication. While driving toward the Pasadena Police Station, Hopper attacked Wilson in the neck, took the broadcasting microphone from the car, and leaped out.
Wilson gave chase. He caught up with Hopper in front of 234 N. El Molino. Hopper struggled, but Wilson subdued him and got him to the station.
At first Hopper refused to reveal his identity, but when they confronted him with fingerprint records and his photo in a police bulletin, he confessed. Then he wouldn’t shut up. He boasted about how he eluded police for over two weeks.;
“I started for San Francisco, hitchhiking, but learned there was a police blockade on the highway, so headed back here. Things went all right until last Thursday, when some fellows were chasing me, and I broke my leg getting off a little roof.”
The human fly continued to brag that he was under the noses of police every day in Pasadena. He’d taken a room in a house across from Pasadena Junior College, bought some collegiate clothes, and hung around malt shops where he mingled with students, showing off his leg in a plaster cast. His injured leg was his excuse for not being in the Army.
Police wanted to know how the human fly spent his time following his flight from the Hall of Justice. He told them on the day he escaped he went to the beach, bought a pair of swimming trunks, and lay all day with his face in the sand to avoid recognition.
Police booked Carl in Pasadena Jail for drunkenness, resisting arrest, vagrancy, suspicion of burglary and violating the Selective Service Act. They later transferred him to Central Jail and booked him on suspicion of robbery.
Officers took Carl to his room at 73 N. Harkness Street in Pasadena, but they didn’t find anything of interest except a small bottle filled with water. Hopper said he carried the vial on hold-ups and pretended it was nitroglycerin! He also told cops he used a cap pistol in his robberies.
Because the fly was such a slippery character, police believed his leg cast might hold hacksaw blades, a gun, or other jail breaking equipment. They planned to x-ray the cast to be sure. When they did, all they found was Carl’s leg.
Of course, everyone wanted to hear the details of the fly’s original escape. He recounted the story chapter and verse. He said he found his way to the 14th floor roof top, and lowered himself down a ventilator shaft to the eighth floor. He then exited through a window and ran down the stairs.
He said, “I was scared all the time. I’m darned lucky to be alive. The worst part was getting over the hump (the rounded top of the ventilator) and down the side of the fire wall. I put one foot inside the ventilator, next to the wall, and started sliding. Every four feet there was a two-inch reinforcing flange, and I grabbed that to slow up. I just about tore my fingers off.”
He told police that at one time he wanted to turn around and go back, but he couldn’t climb up. When he reached the eighth floor, he jumped six feet sideways into space and caught a narrow window ledge; still six floors above the concrete bottom of a light well.
Hopper attempted to plead insanity, but that went nowhere. He entered a guilty plea to two counts of armed robbery and one count of attempted robbery. Superior Judge Arthur Crum sentenced the human fly to a term of 15 years to life. He admitted to the judge that he was already on a 50-year parole from San Quentin where he served 26 months for first-degree robbery. They released him in December 1942 and began his life of crime anew.
Bailiffs, H. H. Parker and N. C. LeFever led the still limping fly away. The injury didn’t stop him from boasting about being an escape artist. Judge Crum reminded him others had escaped from the jail before him, but Hopper replied, “Not in the daytime, Your Honor.”
He said he could outrun Jesse Owens, handicap or no handicap. He even offered to prove it if the deputies would turn their backs. They declined.
NEXT TIME: Whatever became of the human fly?
NOTE: This is an encore post from August 2013.