Final Thoughts on Barbara Graham

Mabel Monohan

Mabel Monohan

Until I began researching the Mabel Monohan case again for this series of posts, I was       convinced that Barbara Graham was guilty of beating the widow; but I’ve changed my mind.

This is how I think it went down.

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Jack Santo, Emmett Perkins, Barbara Graham [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Perkins, a married guy, was clearly smitten with Graham. When Barbara left her husband Henry and her son Tommy she went to Emmett Perkins for a place to stay. Perkins wasn’t much to look at, and nobody ever claimed that he had a sparkling wit or a winning personality. He must have done a mental dance of joy when he found the attractive younger woman on his doorstep. In the courtroom photos he’s always seated next to her, and his expression and body language speaks volumes. If Graham had egged him on that night at Monohan’s, he would have beaten the poor woman mercilessly, and that’s exactly what I believe happened.

Baxter Shorter’s statement put the gun that beat Mabel Monohan in Perkin’s hands, which makes a lot more sense to me than John True’s assertion that it was Barbara who did the beating. The beating likely began as a way to get Mabel to give up the location of the safe that the gang believed to be in the house.

Barbara was there that night only to gain entry into the house, which would have fit the context of the time and the likely dynamic among the gang members.  No matter how twisted, she was playing a woman’s role. However with the adrenaline rush that must have accompanied her success at getting the men into the house, I can easily visualize her screaming encouragement at Perkins — but standing back and letting him deliver the blows.

Perkins may have been responsible for the beating, but I think that Barbara placed the pillowcase over Mabel’s head because she wanted to shut the woman up, and because she couldn’t stand to look at the blood. Head wounds bleed copiously. I was puzzled about which member of the gang pulled the pieces of cloth tight enough to asphyxiate Mabel, until I realized that it was probably Barbara.

Perkins and Santo were killers, they’d already murdered people in Northern California, so I don’t think they’d have hesitated to kill Monohan outright — pulling a pillowcase over her head doesn’t strike me as something either of them would have done. That leaves Shorter, True, or Graham. Shorter phoned for an ambulance for Mabel after they left the house, so I don’t make him for the killer. True was there to learn about safe cracking from Shorter, he would have stuck with him. I think that Emmett inflicted the beating, with Barbara at his side. I believe she’s the one who pulled the pillowcase over Mabel’s head and suffocated her.

That makes Graham not guilty of the beating but responsible for Monohan’s death, the cause of which was determined to have been asphyxiation.

Barbara Graham's hands. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Barbara Graham’s hands. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Should Barbara Graham have been executed?

There’s so much about her case that would be handled differently now. It’s not clear that the false alibi idea initiated with Barbara. It appears that it was presented to her by Donna Prow and that she grabbed at it believing it to be a lifeline.  If the idea wasn’t hers, then I would call the false alibi scheme entrapment. It weighed heavily against her with the jury who saw it as proof of her guilt, not of her desperation as she had said.

It is my opinion that it was the combination of the false alibi and Graham’s jailhouse romance with Donna Prow that put her in the gas chamber.

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Busted!   [Photo courtesy LAPL]

The circumstantial evidence was, in my view, compelling enough to convict Perkins, Santo  and Graham of Mabel Monohan’s slaying; however, if there had never been a false alibi or if Barbara’s relationship with Donna hadn’t come to light, I think they would all have been sentenced to life.

I’m indulging in speculation, and without solid proof that’s all it can be. I know that there are people who will disagree with my conclusions; and there are those who believe Barbara Graham to have been completely innocent in the Monohan case. I respectfully disagree.

NEXT TIME: The story of the last Dead Woman Walking in California — Elizabeth Ann ‘Ma’ Duncan.

Dead Woman Walking: Barbara Graham, Part 5

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Barbara Graham surrounded by the press after receiving a death sentence. [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

The press surrounded Barbara Graham following the reading of the guilty verdict — she maintained her innocence saying that:

“I am innocent of this crime, I swear to God I am innocent. I hope my baby drops dead if I did it.

She hugged her 20 month year old son Tommy as he clutched a stuffed toy. Graham sobbed: “Tommy, Tommy, oh, my baby”.tommy toy

Graham was originally supposed to go to Death Row at San Quentin to await her execution, but budget cuts made it impossible to provide enough female officers to guard her. She ended up being transferred to the women’s prison in Corona.

Baxter Shorter’s mother, Cora, offered financial aid to Barbara’s three children if she would tell what had happened to Baxter. Barbara’s reply: “The man in the moon should know more about him than I do.”

Baxter Shorter has never been found. He was declared legally dead in 1960.

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Baxter Shorter [Photo courtesy LAPL]

On June 2, 1955 Barbara Graham was removed from Corona and transferred to San Quentin for execution — her time was set for 10:00 a.m. Santo and Perkins were scheduled for a couple of hours later. It was going to be ladies first.

The car with Barbara handcuffed in the backseat arrived at San Quentin in the wee hours of the morning. She was taken to the cell from which she’d take her last walk.

Her last few hours were a choreographed dance of despair.

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Barbara’s last ride. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Graham was in a holding cell praying with Father McAlister when he said to her, “It’s time”. As McAlister and Graham were heading out of the holding tank the phone rang for Warden Teets, it was Governor Knight. The execution had been delayed.

Barbara collapsed and almost had to be carried back to the cot in the holding cell.

About 20 minutes later the phone rang again, it was the Governor for Warden Teets. He told him to go ahead with the execution.

Barbara was brought to her feet and escorted to the entrance of the gas chamber. The phone rang a third time and she was drawn back from the brink. She said: “I can’t take this. Why didn’t they let me go at ten. I was ready to go at ten.”

This time the condemned woman was taken to a small office adjacent to the gas chamber.

Twenty minutes more passed. Barbara was sobbing: “Why do they torture me like this?’ The reason for the back and forth was that her attorney was desperately attempting to save her life, and the last minute legal wrangling made for a hellish couple of hours.

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San Quentin’s gas chamber. [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

The phone rang for a fourth and final time. Barbara couldn’t bear to look at the witnesses surrounding the gas chamber and she begged for a blindfold. One of the matrons had a sleep mask.

Barbara Graham was the only person ever to ask for a blindfold for the gas chamber.

Barbara’s last words were: “Good people are always so sure they’re right.”

Joe Feretti, one of the the men in charge of her execution, strapped Barbara into the gas chamber and gave her some advice. He told her to take a deep breath and it would go easier and quicker for her. Barbara responded: “How the hell would you know?”

About ten minutes later Barbara Graham was pronounced dead.

A couple of hours later Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins went to their deaths in the same gas chamber with very little fuss and no drama. It was reported that the two men chatted amiably as they were strapped in to their respective chairs, and when they were ready to go Perkins allegedly said to the assembled cops: “Now don’t you boys do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Barbara’s  trial had been standing room only, but her funeral was sparsely attended. Henry Graham drove up to Northern California for the funeral, but he left their son Tommy at home.

Barbara Graham is buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery

NEXT: Some final thoughts the case.

Dead Woman Walking: Barbara Graham, Part 4

State Demands Death [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

State Demands Death [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

The charges against John True were dismissed so that he could testify against Graham, Perkins and Santo. In order to keep True safe he was moved to a secret hideaway and guarded 24/7.

If convicted on the murder conspiracy charge the remaining three defendants could be given the death penalty. A jury would first have to determine the degree of murder. Then, if they agreed it was first degree and declined to make a recommendation, the death penalty would be mandatory.

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Barbara Graham in an ambulance. [Photo courtesy of LAPL]

The indictment for murder apparently hit Barbara Graham pretty hard. She collapsed in her jail cell and banged her head on the floor. She seemed to have fallen with enough force to rob her of her ability to speak. The doctors had their doubts though because her hospital record stated that she either “could not or would not talk”.

The doctors’ suspicions may have been well founded. Later, while she on her way to court, Barbara tumbled down some stairs.  She’d been overheard saying: “When I really get into my act I’m going to make Sarah Bernhard look like a chump.”

Barbara’s injuries weren’t serious and she was soon well enough to become involved in a minor altercation with another prisoner.  The woman, Mary Kendall Curtis (serving a year for contributing to the delinquency of her own daughter) taunted Barbara about the likelihood of the gas chamber in her future. Barbara belted her. Curtis said that Graham had “a wallop like Joe Louis”.  Graham didn’t deny smacking her cellmate, she said she’d been offended by Curtis’ irreverent and profane remarks. Curtis was transferred to another cell.

The trial began with John True’s testimony. His story was somewhat different than the statement Baxter Shorter had given the cops prior to his kidnapping and disappearance. Shorter had said that it was Emmett Perkins who had beaten Mabel Monohan with a gun butt — True testified that it was Barbara. True’s testimony would result in the Herald dubbing her “Bloody Babs”.

“Mrs. Graham was striking Mrs. Monahan in the face with a gun.  She was standing up and Mrs. Graham had her by the shoulder or hair with her left hand and was striking her with the gun in her right hand.”

Later, people looking for a reason to believe that Graham was innocent of murder seized on his testimony, apparently she was believed by some to be left-handed — even though on a handwriting sample card she stated she was right-handed.

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Handwriting sample for Barbara Graham. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Barbara had  made one friend while she was in jail — twenty year old Donna Prow. Prow, mother of two, was doing a year in the County Jail for manslaughter. She’d been involved in a head-on collision in which a woman was killed and three other people seriously injured. Prow willingly became involved in a plan to snare Barbara into making a fatal decision.prow pic headline

The plan was simple; Barbara would be given the opportunity to buy herself an alibi for the night of Monohan’s murder. Donna, with whom Barbara was having a sexual relationship, told her she knew a guy, a ‘fixer’ who, for $25,000, would testify that he and Graham were together on the night of the crime.  Barbara supplied a code phrase, which was a paraphrase from The Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam: “I came like the water.  I go like the wind.”  When one of her visitors spoke the code phrase, she’d know he was the fixer.

Barbara met the fixer, and together they worked out an alibi for her. She wouldn’t see the man again until he walked into the courtroom, not as a witness in her defense, but rather to testify against her. The fixer turned out to be Sam Sirianni, a cop; and he’d recorded their jailhouse conversation.

Much of the recorded conversation was inaudible, which was a plus for the defense. Unfortunately for Graham there was one portion of the tape that was crystal clear — it was the part where Sirianni asked her if she had been with Perkins, Santo, True, and Shorter on the night of the crime and she answered: “I was with them”.

Barbara glares at Sam Sirianni.

Barbara glares at Sam Sirianni. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Just as damning was her response to Sirianni when he pressed her about Baxter Shorter, and if he’d come forward to testify at the trial. Barbara said there was nothing to worry about, Shorter wouldn’t turn up. Sirianni asked again about Shorter’s whereabouts and Graham said “use your imagination”.

Barbara had more bad news coming. Her husband, Henry Graham, was a witness for the prosecution. He testified that he and Barbara had argued violently and that he was staying with his mother on March 9th, that he couldn’t have been at home arguing with Barbara as she had finally claimed.

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Henry Graham mugshot. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Things went from bad to worse for Barbara when some of the notes that she had written to Donna Prow were read in open court. The notes were filled with terms of endearment and were sexually suggestive — the notes undoubtedly shocked many of the jurors.

It was during the reading of the notes and the exposure of the attempt to buy a false alibi that Barbara lost her composure and cried out: “Have you ever been desperate?  Do you know what it is?”

Barbara’s husband Henry switched his story and said he’d been with her the night of the murder — but it was too little, too late.

Harriet Henson [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Harriet Henson [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Barbara was the only defendant to take the stand. Perkins and Santo had planned to testify and Santo’s common-law wife, Harriet Henson, was going to provide them with a false alibi. Harriet was no genius and her statements to the cops  implicated her, along with Santo and Perkins, in the 1951 slaying of Ed Hanson a Nevada City miner during an attempted gold robbery.

Santo and Perkins were also implicated in the vicious murder of Guard Young and three small children in Chester, CA in 1952. They’d later be tried and sentenced to death for those crimes too. There was no way that Perkins and Santo were going to avoid the gas chamber.

The three defendants are found guilty of the charges against them in the Monohan case. The jury made no recommendation for life sentences.  They were  doomed.

The jury: three women and nine men.  [Photo courtesy LAPL]

The jury: three women and nine men. [Photo courtesy LAPL]

Following the verdict Barbara Graham snapped: “As long as they found me guilty of something I didn’t do, I’d rather take the gas chamber than life imprisonment.”

NEXT TIME: The executions and some final thoughts.