{"id":14405,"date":"2025-11-21T11:05:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T19:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=14405"},"modified":"2025-11-21T11:05:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T19:05:52","slug":"irresistible-impulse-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/derangedlacrimes.com\/?p=14405","title":{"rendered":"Irresistible Impulse, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In the grip of an irresistible impulse, Delora saw a girl laid out like a doll, arms crossed, a green necktie cinched tight. The girl in the vision, six-year-old Donna Isbell, slept in the next room. Her eight-year-old brother Roy Jr., was asleep nearby. Their parents, Roy Sr., a petty officer at Los Alamitos Naval Station, and Garnett, who worked nights at Douglas Aircraft, weren\u2019t home.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Unable to find a green necktie, Delora took one of Mr. Isbell\u2019s black socks. That would have to do. She tore the sheet from Donna\u2019s bed, stuffed a corner into the girl\u2019s mouth, then wound the sock around her neck and pulled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donna didn\u2019t cry out. She lifted her arms once, then went still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delora waited, then pulled again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Roy, asleep just feet away, didn\u2019t stir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delora obeyed the impulse that had tormented her for a long time. Maybe now it would end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She sat on the living room sofa and lit a cigarette. The smoke steadied her for a moment, then the fear crept in\u2014cold and absolute. She couldn\u2019t explain what she had done\u2014not even to herself.<\/p>\n\n\n
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She walked barefoot to the house next door and knocked. No answer. A few doors down, she found Dr. Sidney G. Willner. \u201cSomething\u2019s wrong… at the house. Come with me,\u201d she said. Then, almost to herself: \u201cI must have done it. There was no one else there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They walked in silence. Dr. Willner wondered what she meant. Even if she had told him, nothing could have prepared him for what he found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Willner called the Sheriff\u2019s Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputies took Delora to the nearest substation for questioning. Because Delora was a teenage girl, the department brought in Detective Sergeant Lena Barner to assist Captain J.M. Burns with the questioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As investigators questioned the high school sophomore, they noticed her emotional distance. Sergeant Barner said when she asked Delora why she did it, \u201cShe just sat there and stared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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The only times she showed emotion were when she saw Donna\u2019s body at the scene and when Roy and Garnett Isbell entered the substation. Roy and Garnett were devastated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Delora babysat Donna and Roy, Jr. several times before the murder, and she and the children got along well. The family had no reason to fear her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Donna\u2019s parents tried to process their grief, Delora answered investigators\u2019 questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said quietly, \u201cI often felt like strangling my brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She harbored violent impulses toward her siblings for a long time. Her feelings, coupled with her constant fights with her mother, were the reasons she was allowed to move from Colorado to Southern California two years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Women and girls rarely commit murder\u2014especially in 1951. The story made headlines across the country. It was horrifying. And strange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Was it a movie? A psychotic break? Something older and darker inside her? Could someone commit such a brutal act… and not be evil?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEXT TIME: <\/strong>Wrapping up Delora’s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photographs courtesy USC Digital Library. Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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