This time of year, everyone is likely to wear a fancy mask. No one bats an eyelid when you carry around a giant ax or machete or wear gloves with knives in the fingers. People throw open doors, hand out candy to beasts and madmen, and otherwise scream.
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Literary monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Werewolf have been replaced by modern fictional killers like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and the thug from “Scream,” but without a mask. Doesn’t Halloween seem like the ideal thing to do, since you can wear it and carry weapons? Do you have time to commit murder?
A search through the archives of Los Angeles newspapers reveals several notable Halloween incidents, two of which involve a very old monster: jealousy striking on October 31st.
This was the April 26, 1969 Los Angeles Times headline: Three car salesmen arrested for murdering 32-year-old Kenneth A. Lindstrand at a Halloween party in Van Nuys several years earlier. It was reported that it was done.
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Although there were nearly 100 witnesses at the scene of the shooting, Lindstrand was one of the few not in costume, making him more memorable. He arrived just after 1 a.m., danced with a few female guests, and then walked out with another undressed man who arrived shortly afterwards.
Lindstrand was then cornered by the man and opened fire. At first, customers thought it was a Halloween prank, but then a woman wearing a hula skirt began dancing on Lindstrand’s body, saying, “This is going to wake me up!” Until she saw blood and screamed, “This is no joke, he’s hurt!”
Police have not said why they arrested the three men on suspicion of murder, but it may be related to the discovery that Lindstrand, the directory publisher, kept more than $100,000 in a safe deposit box. There is sex. Ultimately, Jack Gentry Stearns, 35, was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. He apparently objected to Lindstrand dancing with his wife of 22 years, Maria.
On Halloween night in 1974, around 9 p.m., Mrs. Lowe, 71, answered the door of her Chinatown home to “trick-or-treaters.” One of them wore a Wolfman mask, and the other was Frankenstein. Then they all pointed their guns at her and forced her to enter. Inside the house. When Pok Suey Lo, a nearly blind 81-year-old, came out of his bedroom, one of them shot him in the chest.
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The killers fled empty-handed, leaving behind masks with fingerprints and a large bag of candy and chocolates. This seemed to indicate that they had been trick-or-treating earlier that night. Mrs Roe, who is 5ft 1in tall, did not speak English, but through her daughter Lucille she told police that the intruders were shorter than her, but because of their masks she could not describe their faces.
Police theorized that they were teenagers or younger, but it was not until February of the following year that two 15-year-old boys were arrested, along with Stephen Wai Chun-ho, 20. could not be traced.
The trio kidnapped, robbed and assaulted a 20-year-old man named Chan Win Wong, then drove him to San Bernardino, saying they would bury his body in Cajon Pass. Wong managed to untie his hands and ran through the forest for several hours dodging flying bullets until he reached a highway and raised the alarm. Once taken into custody, one of the teenagers confessed that he and his friend were behind Lowe’s murder.
Perhaps the most sensational Halloween incident in the LA archives occurred in 1957, another “trick-or-treat” murder in which hair salon owner Peter Fabiano, 35, was murdered in his Sun Valley home. When I answered the door, I was greeted by someone wearing khakis and blue jeans. Jacket, red gloves and mask.
As Peter grabs a bowl of candy, his wife Betty hears him say, “Isn’t it a little late?” before the gunshots ring out.
The motive did not appear to be robbery, and police were struggling to find the “gangster-like” shooter who killed Fabiano, suspecting it was related to his prison sentence for bookbinding 10 years ago. A few months later, in March 1958, the culprits were arrested, but they were a very unlikely duo.
Goldine Peiser, a 43-year-old medical office worker, and Joan Lovell, a 40-year-old photographer, both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, but they were the ones who bought a .38 revolver, pulled the trigger and fired the shot from inside a paper bag. It was Paiser.
Goldine had hidden the gun in a locker at a department store, but an anonymous tip led detectives to the weapon, and when he was arrested, he told police he was “relieved it was out of my mind.”
Ms Goldine told the jury that Ms Lovell befriended her and then “controlled” her. Lovell said she convinced him to hate Fabiano, calling him “a vile, evil man, a man who wants to destroy everyone around him.” Over the course of several months, they visited his salon together and Peiser got to know his appearance, but she only saw him as a pathetic figure in a nefarious scheme.
Lovell, a former salon employee, had let Betty and Peter stay at his house when they were having marital problems. The Los Angeles Times described Lovell’s relationship with Betty as “abnormal” (lesbian/gay norm), and Peter insisted that Betty end the affair before reconciling, which infuriated Lovell.
Piser was a closeted homosexual who had just divorced her husband, and it was easy for the jealous LaBelle to bend her will. Mr. Lovell hoped that when Peter was gone, he could be with Betty forever, and he told Mr. Peiser shortly after the murder, “Mr. “Forget you ever knew me.”
The two women were examined by a psychiatrist, as the court believed their homosexuality might render them incompetent to stand trial, but Goldin ended up pleading guilty by reason of insanity. selected. It didn’t help, as both were sentenced to five years to life in prison.
Happy Halloween!
