WEBVTT

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Paul puder got Calm August sixth,
nineteen thirty five. Bride of less than

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a year and an expectant mother,
Missus Mary James, twenty seven, of

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La Crescento, was found mysteriously dead
in the garden of her home last night,

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with her head submerged in a fishpond. Tragically, the body was disclosed

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by the beam of a flashlight as
the woman's husband and a friend who had

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accompanied him home to dinner searched the
place for her. Authorities of the Foothill

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city who investigated said they believe Missus
James fainted while gazing into the fishpond and

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then fell face forward, breaking the
screen covering it. The husband, Robert

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James, operator of a Los Angeles
beauty parlor, arrived home after dark,

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accompanied by a friend, James Pemberton, of Los Angeles. A note in

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the room of the home, apparently
left by friends who had called during the

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day and failed to find Missus James
in the house, read quote why don't

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you stay at home? Unquote.
The house was open, so James and

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Pemberton guessed that Missus James was somewhere
about the place. They began a search

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and Pemberton's flashlight revealed the body married
last May. Missus James was an expectant

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mother during a fainting spell. It
was believed she may have slipped and struck

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her head as she fell into the
concrete water basin. James told officers that

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the last time he saw his wife
was early Monday morning when he left for

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work in Los Angeles. That night, he and his friends came to Lacracenta

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ready for a barbecue supper. There
they discovered the tragedy. Meanwhile, Deputy

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sheriffs Killian and Gray continued questioning Robert
James and intimate acquaintances of the couple in

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an effort to bring to light circumstances
which led to the death of the young

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matron. Among others with whom they
talked was miss Eser Templeton, twenty four,

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beauty parlor operator, who told officer
she was engaged to James at one

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time. Miss Templeton told investigators she
met James about a year ago their mutual

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friends, and that during the course
of their friendship, he asked her to

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marry him. She learned later,
however, that James had been married on

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two previous occasions, and her engagement
with him was broken off. A short

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time later, she assertedly told the
deputy sheriff she learned James married another beauty

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parlor operator. An unfinished letter was
among the sheriff's investigator's material, addressed to

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the bride's sister at read in part
quote, I'm feeling sick. My leg

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is all swollen. Something bit me
while watering my flowers. This a m

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also cut my toe. Yesterday unquote, true crime historian presents an Eye for

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an Eye, a special edition of
Yesterday's news, exploring the criminal justice system

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that it's most extreme, inflicting the
death penalty. Episode one ninety two gets

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a bit epic, but it's the
story that keeps on giving. With two

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botched murders and moral charges to boot, and things go from crazy to crazier

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when they bring a pair of rattlers
named Lethal Enlightning into the courtroom. Yeah,

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you know that's not gonna well.
I'm true crime historian Richard O.

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Jones, and I give you Snakes
on the witness stand the trial of Rattlesnake

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James the Redheaded Bluebeard. On April
twenty second, while investigators were still inquiring

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into the fish pond, drowning of
Mary James. The county grand jury indicted

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the woman's husband, charging him with
three statutory offenses against his knees. James

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and the girl, miss Lois Wright, twenty one, were taken into custody

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at his home on Southwest Street,
after the officers had spent more than two

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weeks making dictograph records of their conversations. Although District Attorney Fits and his investigators

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admitted they had questioned James, who
operates a downtown barbershop, concerning his wife's

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drowning, it was announced that nothing
relating to the woman's death will be placed

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before the grand jury at this time. At the same time, however,

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it was disclosed that deputy sheriffs who
had made the original investigation, had renewed

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their inquiry. According to the grand
jury indictment, only three witnesses testified against

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James at the hearing. One was
missus Ethel Smith of Southgate, sister of

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miss Wright, who was asked concerning
the blood relationship of James and miss Wright.

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Miss Wright also was called before the
jury to repeat admissions she had made

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to officers concerning her relations with the
man. The last witness was investigator Jack

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Southard, who told of raiding the
James residents and arresting them. After the

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indictment was returned, Miss Wright remained
in custody of Miss Marjorie Fairchild, District

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Attorney's investigator as a material witness pending
disposition of the James case. Returned to

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his cell in the County jail,
James stoutly denied any knowledge of his wife's

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death, except that in his belief
it was accidental. He declined to discuss

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the charges placed against him because of
his associations with his niece. Eugene Williams,

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Deputy District Attorney assigned to the case, declared that all evidence connected with

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James's arrest as being prepared for presentation
in court, and that he expects to

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prosecute the man on the three counts
unless he should change his mind and enter

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please to each of the offensive.
May three, nineteen thirty six, Lacrecenta's

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ste Fishpond death produced an amazing statement
of human torture when Charles H. Hope,

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thirty seven, unemployed cafe man,
related to District Attorney's investigators a bizarre

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story that Robert S. James,
thirty eight, the oft married barber,

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told him that he had killed his
wife, Missus Mary Bush James, twenty

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eight. Last August fourth, Hope
told a group of investigators while stenographers took

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notes, that he saw James thrust
his wife's left leg into a box of

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rattlesnakes picked especially for their viciousness.
Later, he helped James carry the woman's

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body from the house quote either dead
or unconscious unquote. They placed the body

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beside the lily padded fish pond in
the backyard, screened by dense shrubbery,

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and he left the scene. An
autopsy report showed Missus James died by drowning.

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The woman's left leg bore strange wounds
and was badly swollen, a fact

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which has puzzled officers ever since last
August. Snake bites accounted for the wounds

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yesterday, in the opinion of District
Attorney Fits. Hope's statement to the officers

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was that he procured the reptiles and
received payment from James, taking them to

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the cottage in a glass covered wooden
box on the fateful bright Sunday morning.

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In the kitchen, Hope said he
found Missus James tied with ropes to the

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top of the table, her mouth
and eyes covered with adhesive tape. Then

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followed the scene in which Hope said
he saw James thrust his wife's leg into

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the box with the serpents. Confronted
by Hope's statement, James stoutly denied he

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had anything to do with his wife's
mysterious death and termed Hope's story screwy.

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Questioned for hours by Fits and deputy
sheriffs Killian and Gray, James finally blurted

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out, according to Fits, if
you convict me of this murder, I

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won't squawk, inquired the district attorney. That is because you know that you

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murdered Mary. Is that right?
James responded, I just as well say

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that I did, as that I
didn't. Earlier in the day, Fits

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and a group of deputies and investigators
had attempted to have Hope and James reenact

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the scenes at the locres sent a
house. The reenactment failed because the house

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was locked and its tenants were away. James, however, stood smiling and

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bantering with officers while Hope pointed to
the spot where he said he last saw

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the body of missus James, beside
the fishpond in the backyard. Hope pointed

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through a window of the kitchen,
where he said he saw Missus James tied

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with cotton rope to the top of
the table, her mouth and eyes covered

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with adhesive tape. The woman gave
only a little groan before James thrust her

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left leg into the box occupied by
two vicious rattlesnakes, Hope said, adding

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that he didn't see the snake's strike. It was on a bright Sunday morning

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that he delivered the snakes. Quote. When I got there, he had

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this girl on a table tied.
District Attorney Fitz asked this girl, who

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do you mean? Answer mister James's
wife, question Mary, answer yes,

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sir. He had adhesive tape over
her eyes and over her mouth. He

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says, you can't get out of
this thing. Bring those things in here.

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I brought in the box and set
it down. He stuck her foot

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into it. I carried it out
and took the snakes back to Snaky Joe's

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in Pasadena. Hope told the officers
he had purchased the snakes for James on

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two occasions. He said he received
twenty dollars for the first consignment. Later,

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Hope asserted James gave him one hundred
dollars to find some real fighters.

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It was then Hope told the office
that he went to Joseph C. Houghtenbrink,

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known as Snaky Joe, and bought
two fat rattlesnakes, as vicious an

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active rattlers are known to their handlers. He said he paid seventy cents a

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pound for them. Houghton Brink last
night identified Hope at the District Attorney's office

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as the man who bought the snakes
and later returned them to him. Hope

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said his wife, missus Florence Hope, waited in a car outside the James

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home for him while he was inside
with the box of snakes. She accompanied

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him when he took the snakes back
to the abandoned Pasadena snake farm, Hope

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said, insisting that he get rid
of them. Then they went to a

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bridge party. Late that night,
Hope said he returned alone to the James

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home as he was using James's car. Quote, I drove the car into

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the garage. Just as I got
in, he came out unquote. Then,

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according to the amazing statement attributed to
Hope, James told him that his

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wife was not dead. About an
hour later, while he still sat in

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the car in the garage. Hope
said, James came back and gave him

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a pint of whiskey and returned to
the house. Quote. A little later

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on, he came out and said, well, that's it. I said,

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my god, man, you really
killed her unquote, Hope declared.

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James answered him in the affirmative and
asked him to go into the house and

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help carry her out. Quote.
I walked in and saw this girl lying

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on the floor just outside the bathroom
door, with her pajamas on and slippers

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unquote, Hope said. The pajamas
were dry, but the woman's hair was

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damp. Quote. I carried her
feet, he carried her head. I

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laid her alongside the fish pond unquote. Hope said he refused to demand from

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James that he helped put her in
there, adding that he left James and

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returned to the car. James carried
out a bucket of wet clothing and some

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blankets and placed them in the back
of the car, Hope said, explaining

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that later he took the clothing and
burned it in an incinerator. He had

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the blankets cleaned, He said,
kept two and returned one to James afterward.

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Hope said the matter bothered him so
that he told a friend sales sands,

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a wine salesman about it. Sans, questioned by officers, said Hope

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had confided in him, and the
story Sans said he heard from Hope was

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said by the officers to have been
substantially the same story that Hope told them

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about a month ago. Hope told
officers he informed a young attorney of the

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whole story, and the attorney conveyed
the information to the authorities. Hope was

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also quoted by the officers as declaring
that James had told him of informing his

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wife that a snake bite was a
simple way of getting rid of a baby.

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James was questioned by officers at the
time of his wife's death, but

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was not held since then. District
Attorney Fits disclosed James has been constantly followed

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with his pretty niece Lois Right twenty
one, James recently was arrested in a

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spectacular raid on the South Side cottage, and James subsequently was indicted on three

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statutory counts by the Grand Jury.
He is awaiting trial on those counts.

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May twenty fifth advised of Hope's amazing
story yesterday. Miss Wright hysterically cried,

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quote, my god, I know
nothing of this. It's too horrible to

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think about it. I guess I
am a lucky girl. Unquote. She's

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being held in custody as a material
witness. Hope and his wife were detained

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by the District Attorney's men as material
witnesses, while James was questioned far into

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the night. This last summer of
two rattlesnakes under circumstances that arowed his suspicion

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was recalled by Joseph C. Haltenbrink, also known as Snaky Joe, in

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a statement tending to corroborate the story
told by Charles H. Hope involving Robert

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James and the fish pond death of
James's wife. Last August, Haltenbrink,

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who now owns the Anaconda Snake Farm
at twenty seven sixty one Valley Boulevard,

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al Monte, operated a snake farm
at forty two Cypress Street, East Pasadena

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until January first. Last summer.
He said, a man came to a

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Cypress Street place and asked for two
of the most vicious snakes he had.

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The snake farmer quoted his customer as
saying, I've got a big bet that

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a rattlesnake will strike and eat a
rabbit, and I want the meanest thing.

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You've got to make sure I win. Halton Brink added. He brought

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a rabbit and a rooster with him
and wanted me to try my snat on

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them to find how quick they could
kill them, but I wouldn't do it,

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so he left the rooster and told
me to cook it. A few

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days later, Mike Alman, who
operated the reptile gardens on the Ocean Park

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Pier, came to my place and
in the course of our conversation, asked

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me if a man who wanted some
hot rattlesnakes had been to see me.

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I told him he had, and
we talked it over, and the whole

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thing seemed suspicious. That's why I
remember the incident clearly. A week later,

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the man returned with the snakes and
said he had won his bet but

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hadn't collected his money yet. He
said he didn't need the snakes anymore and

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wanted to sell them back to me, so I took them back. He

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had a woman with him at the
time, and she appeared deathly afraid of

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the snakes and quite irritated. Because
she had to ride in a car with

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them, although he had them in
a box with a glass cover. The

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two snakes the man took back were
six year old desert diamondback rattlers, and

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the largest and ugliest reptiles had in
the place at the time, he said,

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May fourth, nineteen thirty six,
like a nightmare coursing through the heated

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brain. After the reading of a
horror novel Lacrecenta's Rattlesnake and Fish Pond Murder

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of Missus Mary James swarmed with new
and appealing confessions. The thirty eight year

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old barber, his green eyes rimmed
with the red of sleeplessness, droned on

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in his high nasal twang for three
hours in the office of the district Attorney.

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His pasty face was perhaps a little
pastier, but it was steady,

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not twitching, and his voice was
even like that of a man telling something

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which had no bearing on himself.
How a down an outer bribed with a

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few drinks, money doles, and
the promise of a share and a ten

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thousand dollars insurance policy, assertedly aided
him in a weird poisoned and drowning of

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blonde wife Mary James was told by
Robert S. James. James sat in

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a chair and District Attorney Fits his
office long after midnight and talked as Dorothy

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Adam's court reporter recorded, with the
prosecutor termed quote, the most amazing story

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I've ever heard. The grotesqueness of
it brought an involuntary smile to the lips

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of his hearers, until they summoned
up a vision of the young woman strapped

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to a table in one foot,
forced into a box of whirring rattlesnakes.

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Then they remembered the coroner's verdict that
a sting of some kind on the leg

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was a possible contributory cause of death, bringing this fantastic story from nightmare like

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unreality to plausible fact. Fascinated by
a pill of writhing, poisonous reptiles,

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the beauty shot Proprietor's fantastic tale of
plotting and sudden death, but which blamed

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00:19:10.039 --> 00:19:15.079
his asserted co plotter, Charles Hope
for the actual crime, took him back

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to June thirtieth, nineteen thirty five. Fits, When did you first discuss

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with Hope the question of killing your
wife Mary James? When she was at

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long beach and he was at our
home. Somehow or other, he knew

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she had this insurance. After she
came back, he knew she was very

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sick. He talked to me and
said, she's going to die anyway.

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Why don't you kill her? I
told him I couldn't do it. He

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said, let me do it.
I said, how would you do it?

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Well, he said, I'd take
her up here and i'd shoot her

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in a hold up. I said, yes, there have been a lot

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of people hung for that. So
he had some kind of white powder in

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a box. I don't know what
it was, but he said, I've

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00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:07.200
got something right here. I've been
working with a bunch of racketeers. You

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can just break the skin on your
hand and rob a little bit in it,

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and it will kill you in five
minutes. This is where he sprung

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the story on me about the rattlesnakes. I never saw rattlesnake bite anybody.

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He said, these California rattlesnakes will
kill in fifteen minutes. I'll get a

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good couple of snakes and do the
job myself. It was agreed upon that

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I would give him half the money
unquote. At this point, James revealed

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that Hope had posed as a medical
student, and that he was going to

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perform an operation on missus James.
The barber's wife in a week in condition,

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believed she could not stand the ordeal
of childbirth. The snake plot,

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however, continued to hold the pair's
attention. Fits. Up to that time,

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you two had agreed to have the
snake bite her. Is that right?

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James? Yes, he had gone
out and got some, and in

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fact he brought three up here.
Fits. Are those the ones he got

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in Long Beach? James, I
don't know. He never would tell.

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It was dog days and they were
blind, they wouldn't bite anyone. He

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took those away, and he brought
two more back, and they would bite,

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but they didn't have anything in them. He put a rabbit in the

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box and the next morning the rattlesnake
was dead and the rabbit was walking around.

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Fits. That was the second batch. You bought three altogether, James.

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Yes. One day he found some
hot ones. He said, I

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found a fellow in Pasadena who has
some that will really do the work.

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Deputy Sheriff Gray, when did you
bring in the spiders? James? That

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was somewhere in that time, Fits? What kind of spiders, James.

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He said he had gone to Phoenix
to get these black widow spiders. He

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had a glass jar full and the
top had holes punched in it. So

243
00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:03.440
he said, all you have to
do is throw them in bed with her

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and they'll buy her. I laughed
and threw the damn spiders out. Deputy

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Sheriff Killian. When you had this
conversation, what was it you said to

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00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:15.799
each other about having already committed the
crime, about doing what you had done

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with the snakes? James, I
didn't want him to get the other snakes.

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I said, we'll fool around and
get into trouble. He said,

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we already are. We've been hauling
rattlesnakes around in the car, which is

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a deadly weapon and a felony.
I didn't know anything about that. I

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said, no one knows it but
you and I. He said, I

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know it, and you aren't going
to walk out on me. Now you

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have a barbershop and you're going to
make a living, and I want to

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have some money. I gave him
the money and he goes over and gets

255
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the hot snakes fits. What day
was that, James? Saturday night before

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00:22:52.720 --> 00:22:57.200
she died Monday, Fits. How
much did you give him, James,

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six dollars. He brought out the
snakes back from Pasadena in my car.

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He put them in my coop and
followed me to my house. I had

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a pine of whiskey. He drank, and my wife drank with us.

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She dearly loved booze, no matter
how sick she was, she loved to

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drink Fits. And before he left
that night, while you were drinking,

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he talked over with Mary again the
performing of the operation that night. James.

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Yes, He promised that he would
come back the next day and perform

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the operation. So the next morning, I said, what are we going

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to do with her? And he
said, I'll tell you what I'm going

266
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to do. She smokes lots of
cigarettes, and lots of people die by

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smoking in bed. I'll burn the
house up. I kept taking a few

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drinks, and I got in the
car and left about six o'clock Fits with

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the understanding that he was going to
take care of her by burning the house.

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James, that's what he said he
was going to do. I went

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to work about one o'clock or a
little after. He came down to the

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shop and said, everything's all right. Kill him. He said he got

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rid of her, did he not? James. On the way back to

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the shop, I said, did
you burn the house up? And he

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said no. I said, what
did you do? He said, I

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threw her in the bathtub and she
drowned. I said, you fool,

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that's the worst thing you could have
done. He said, why, that's

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00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.799
the worst thing you could have done. I had a wife drown in a

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00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:26.640
bathtub in Colorado Springs a little while
ago. He didn't know that. If

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he had, he wouldn't have done
it. Fits. Is that what he

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told you? James? Yes,
I said what did you do with her?

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Leave her in the bathtub? And
he said no, I threw her

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in the fish pond. I said, that won't stick. They'll throw me

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in the jug good when they find
her. I'll be a good sport.

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I'll take the wrap. I won't
talk. So, of course I arranged

286
00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:51.400
for this couple to go home with
me. James and Viola Pemberton fits.

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00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:57.359
They are perfectly innocent. James,
absolutely, The district attorney said, James,

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while you are making this statement,
let's clean it all up. Did

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00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:07.200
you kill that girl back east in
Colorado? Answer? No, that was

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absolutely on the level. The girl
in Colorado was his third wife, Naah

291
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Wallace, James found drowned in a
tourist cottage. She had been in an

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automobile accident a short time before.
Fitz then asked about the second death,

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saying, and your nephew in San
Francisco, James, I was here and

294
00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:32.599
he was up there. Fitz.
Did you have anything to do with it?

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James? How could I? Fitz? I'm asking you, James,

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you know how he got killed?
Fitz automobile accident. James, Could I

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have had anything to do with that? The district attorney asked him, Will

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you face Hope and tell him he
killed your wife? James replied that he

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would. The best place to listen
to True Crime Historian is at the safe

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00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:21.160
House www dot Patreon dot com slash
true Crime Historian, where you can listen

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00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:38.839
without commercial interruption. At two point
fifty am, as James was in the

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midst of this dramatic accusation, Hope
himself was brought in. He looked jaunty

303
00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:48.799
and self composed. He looked at
the district attorney and said, hello,

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Fitz. Here he came face to
face with the red haired barber. Fitz

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00:26:55.519 --> 00:26:59.839
ordered, James, you tell Hope
what you told me. James sneered,

306
00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.559
he knows it. You don't have
to tell him. Hope attacked the entire

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00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:07.200
accusation that he had personally caused Missus
James's death by saying, quote, I

308
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:14.039
was never alone with her at any
time unquote. Immediately, Fits began a

309
00:27:14.119 --> 00:27:18.279
rapid fire interrogation of both men.
The rattlesnake plot was the center of the

310
00:27:18.359 --> 00:27:23.359
questioning, denying that the reptiles were
purchased by him to slay James's wife,

311
00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:27.319
Hope declared, quote, the first
two batches were bought by some friend of

312
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:32.079
his who was going to kill his
wife. I bought the snakes and delivered

313
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.000
them to him. With the third
batch. He told me he was going

314
00:27:34.039 --> 00:27:38.400
to kill his own wife, and
he took those snakes home. Fits,

315
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:42.200
you knew when you were buying them
the third batch that it was for the

316
00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:47.160
purpose of killing James's wife, Hope, Yes, sir, No, sir.

317
00:27:47.480 --> 00:27:51.839
He told me that after he got
the snakes in the car. Fits

318
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.799
to James. Was he at the
house Saturday night, James, You bet

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00:27:56.839 --> 00:28:00.480
he was, Hope, I certainly
wasn't. I was with my wife.

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Fits. Mister James further says,
mister Hope, that you represented to missus

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00:28:04.519 --> 00:28:08.359
James that you were a medical student
and were to perform an abortion on her.

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Hope, I never talked to missus
James. Fits. Mister James further

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00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:18.160
says that Sunday when he left the
house about two pm, that he left

324
00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:22.079
you with his wife, that when
he returned about four pm Sunday, that

325
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.720
you told her you had had her
bitten by this snake and she was in

326
00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:30.960
bed, and that she had bled
quite freely. Is that true, James

327
00:28:30.720 --> 00:28:37.160
James, That is exactly the truth. Fits to Hope. You told him

328
00:28:37.200 --> 00:28:38.799
you were going to finish the job
in the morning, and that she was

329
00:28:38.839 --> 00:28:42.680
an inveterate cigarette smoker and had been
drinking, and that you were going to

330
00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:47.680
burn her body by burning the house
down. Is that true, Hope,

331
00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:52.160
No, Sir, I left the
James residence at two thirty pm Saturday and

332
00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:56.799
didn't return until Monday morning. I
took my wife up and returned the snakes

333
00:28:56.839 --> 00:29:02.480
to Joe's. James's conclusion that he
had Hope at lunch that noon and heard

334
00:29:02.519 --> 00:29:06.519
his story of how the ex sailor
had drowned the hapless woman in the bathtub,

335
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:11.240
was emphatically denied by Hope. The
latter admitted, however, that he

336
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:25.799
had received one hundred dollars from the
insurance money. After a time, the

337
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:30.119
two men were taken out and allowed
to sleep for a few hours. Then

338
00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:33.480
in the morning they were returned to
the District Attorney's office. Hope was as

339
00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:38.200
jaunty as ever, James was even
paler. The two men didn't look at

340
00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:42.920
each other. Fitz motioned James to
a chair near Hope, and James said,

341
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:45.559
I don't want to be any nearer
to him than I have to.

342
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:51.359
Hope grinned had answered, so long
as he doesn't sit too near me,

343
00:29:51.480 --> 00:29:56.480
I don't care. It was Hope's
turn to be questioned. Fitz asked him

344
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:00.240
to tell how he and James are
supposed to have gone to Ocean Park by

345
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:04.480
Rattlesnakes. Hope sprang from his seat. He postured a moment and said,

346
00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:08.759
Fitz, I'll show you exactly how
James acted down at the rattlesnake place.

347
00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:14.039
With that, he walked to the
District Attorney's desk and sat on a corner

348
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:18.920
of it with one leg folded beneath
him. Quote he sat just like this

349
00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:22.640
with a pair of dark glasses on
and a straw hat pulled down low.

350
00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:26.640
He sat there for an hour looking
at those snakes. Every once in a

351
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:29.920
while he'd say, how's that one? Is he a good one? He

352
00:30:30.039 --> 00:30:33.880
asked a lot of questions about how
savage they were. After this testimony,

353
00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:40.039
Fitz ordered the entire party down to
the reptile pit at one forty five Ocean

354
00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:51.559
Park Pier. Mike Allman, the
proprietor, was there. He took a

355
00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:56.079
long look at James and said positively, quote, that's the man who is

356
00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:00.720
down here. He came to me
with this fella pointing to Hope. This

357
00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:03.960
fellaw said he'd been in a poker
game with James and had lost five hundred

358
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:07.400
dollars, and now they had a
bet that none of my snakes was a

359
00:31:07.480 --> 00:31:15.240
killer. Finally I picked the hottest
snake in the pit. As James gazed

360
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:21.119
again at the pit of reptiles,
he was positively identified by Mike Allman as

361
00:31:21.200 --> 00:31:25.319
the man who accompanied Charles H.
Hope to the snake concession a few days

362
00:31:25.359 --> 00:31:30.079
before Missus James's death, when Hope
purchased for three dollars a three and a

363
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:34.440
half foot rattler. The hottest in
the pit, facing Hope and James,

364
00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:40.240
the proprietor of the snake show,
looked them squarely in the eye. He

365
00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:44.000
pointed to Hope and said, this
is the fellow that did most of the

366
00:31:44.079 --> 00:31:48.079
talking. He is the one that
bought the snake. The other fella,

367
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:52.640
pointing to James, didn't have much
to say, but I remember him.

368
00:31:52.960 --> 00:31:56.079
The two of them left together with
the snake I sold him. James,

369
00:31:56.440 --> 00:32:01.240
his face a deathly pallor, fumbled
nervously with an inch stub of cigar.

370
00:32:02.160 --> 00:32:07.640
His lips trembled, and he leaned
back for support on the rail surrounding the

371
00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:12.400
din of snakes. He said,
quote, this doesn't mean a thing to

372
00:32:12.440 --> 00:32:15.440
me. I'm not trying to save
my skin. But I couldn't have been

373
00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:20.319
there that day. I was working
in the barbershop. Almond continued. The

374
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:23.279
two came in together this fellow.
Hope said he and his partner had been

375
00:32:23.319 --> 00:32:28.920
playing poker, and that Hope had
lost five hundred dollars to James. Hope

376
00:32:28.960 --> 00:32:31.079
said that he could win some of
it back from James if I could guarantee

377
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:35.680
him that every one of my rattlers
were hot. I told him, you

378
00:32:35.720 --> 00:32:38.480
bet they're all hot. They asked
a lot of questions, and finally this

379
00:32:38.559 --> 00:32:42.400
fellow, Hope, asked me if
they could bring a rabbit over to the

380
00:32:42.440 --> 00:32:45.400
pit and let a rattler strike it. I told him that they couldn't because

381
00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:50.440
I didn't want to get any trouble
with the Humane Society. They said that

382
00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:52.519
they had a rabbit in their car. I told him they could buy a

383
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:55.839
snake and do whatever they liked with
it. So Hope had me pick out

384
00:32:55.839 --> 00:32:59.839
the hottest one in the pit.
He was a mean son of a gun,

385
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:02.039
would strike at you every time you
passed him. And he paid me

386
00:33:02.119 --> 00:33:06.880
three dollars. That's the last time
I ever saw that snake, or these

387
00:33:06.920 --> 00:33:12.920
two fellas until today. James stood
at the pit looking down at the reptiles,

388
00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:16.519
one hundred of them, all different
kinds. The color was completely drained

389
00:33:16.519 --> 00:33:22.759
from his face. He was dead
white. Every few seconds he moistened his

390
00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:27.119
lips with his tongue. When the
others had finished, he made a disclosure

391
00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:31.519
that through another even more heartless aspect
on the entire affair. He said,

392
00:33:31.680 --> 00:33:36.680
quote, I never came down here
with Hope, but I did come down

393
00:33:36.680 --> 00:33:40.200
here with my wife. We stopped
and looked at the snakes a long time

394
00:33:40.680 --> 00:33:49.680
unquote with the amusement peer crowded with
Sunday throngs, James admitted the District Attorney's

395
00:33:49.720 --> 00:33:53.319
officers that he had taken his wife
to see the snakes two weeks before the

396
00:33:53.440 --> 00:34:04.559
night her body was found face down
in a fish pond. Robert S.

397
00:34:04.759 --> 00:34:08.599
James, two weeks before the death
of his wife, sat with her on

398
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:15.239
an ocean park pier and there questioned
Mike Allman, the proprietor of the Midway

399
00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:22.599
Concession, about the relative deadliness of
snakes for two hours. Missus James,

400
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:28.519
almost hypnotized by the sinuous movements of
the serpents and the electric buzz of rattlers,

401
00:34:29.239 --> 00:34:34.079
was at her husband's side while he
gleaned first hand knowledge about water moccasins,

402
00:34:34.400 --> 00:34:40.199
geela monsters, rattlesnakes, and other
poisonous reptiles. With this disclosure,

403
00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:45.519
Captain Clyde Plummer, chief investigator for
the District Attorney's office, took hold of

404
00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:57.639
him and led him back to the
car. Roland Kirby, long Beach reptile

405
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:02.639
expert, disclosed that Charles Hope bought
three rattlesnakes and a black widow spider last

406
00:35:02.679 --> 00:35:07.400
summer. Quote. I remember him
because he gave me a bad five dollars

407
00:35:07.400 --> 00:35:12.800
and fifty cent check for the snakes. Later he came back and made good

408
00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:15.760
and bought the spider for three dollars. He said he wanted it for a

409
00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:22.840
nature study. Unquote, Kirby said
he wasn't ready positively to identify Hope,

410
00:35:22.199 --> 00:35:25.719
but when they were brought face to
face, both broke into a laugh.

411
00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:30.039
That's him, all right, said
Kirby. How are you, asked Hope.

412
00:35:30.760 --> 00:35:35.440
The snake man, who at that
time had a concession in the amusement

413
00:35:35.519 --> 00:35:39.079
zone and is now a consultant at
the City Reptile Exhibit said quote. He

414
00:35:39.159 --> 00:35:43.639
came down to me with a lot
of questions about the snakes, and I

415
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:46.280
told him how to handle them so
as not to be struck himself. I

416
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:50.440
was pretty mad when that check bounced
on me, but I thought I wouldn't

417
00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:53.199
prosecute for a while, and sure
enough, a little later this fellow came

418
00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:57.639
back and made it good. That
was when he bought the black Widow.

419
00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:01.360
He said it was part of a
nature's study he was making. Meanwhile,

420
00:36:01.639 --> 00:36:07.800
investigators located another important witness, missus
ROBERTA. Strickland, cashier at a restaurant

421
00:36:07.840 --> 00:36:14.480
on West Seventh Street, near James's
old barbershop. She described a meeting between

422
00:36:14.559 --> 00:36:19.599
James and Missus James and some insurance
men. Quote. They came in early

423
00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:22.559
in the summer, sometime I think. First there were James and a couple

424
00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:28.800
of insurance men. They stood around
waiting for some time. Finally Missus James

425
00:36:28.840 --> 00:36:32.280
came in. James raised the Dickens
with her. I couldn't hear because they

426
00:36:32.280 --> 00:36:37.719
were standing at the counter. I
heard them discussing insurance. Following this,

427
00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:44.639
insurance lead Fits announced his office had
discovered three different policies which, in case

428
00:36:44.679 --> 00:36:47.960
of double indemnity payment for accident in
the death of his wife, would have

429
00:36:49.039 --> 00:36:52.679
netted James twenty one thousand, four
hundred dollars. In all, this more

430
00:36:52.719 --> 00:36:58.199
than doubles the ten thousand dollars estimate
which James gave as the motive for the

431
00:36:58.280 --> 00:37:02.679
murder and his accusations. Again Hope. One policy, for five thousand dollars

432
00:37:02.760 --> 00:37:07.440
was with the Mutual Life Insurance Company
of New York, Another with the Occidental

433
00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:12.639
Life was for five thousand dollars,
and the third was for seven hundred.

434
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:17.119
Fitz is seeking to learn the company
which held this policy. Doubled these policies

435
00:37:17.119 --> 00:37:22.880
would have told twenty one thousand,
four hundred dollars. James said he had

436
00:37:22.920 --> 00:37:27.119
promised Hope one half, but apparently
he had not told him of the double

437
00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:32.320
indemnity clause and may have planned to
keep this a secret. Fitz said quote.

438
00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:37.280
We will either get a murder complaint
out against him Monday or go to

439
00:37:37.360 --> 00:37:43.400
the grand jury Tuesday with the evidence
involving both James and Hope. I personally

440
00:37:43.440 --> 00:37:46.840
believe James is the one who drowned
the woman. We will also suggest to

441
00:37:46.960 --> 00:37:52.960
San Francisco authorities that they investigate the
death of his nephew and that Colorado authorities

442
00:37:52.960 --> 00:38:02.239
look into the death of his third
One May six thirty six, from a

443
00:38:02.280 --> 00:38:07.960
grass covered grave in Forest Lawn Memorial
Park, the body of Mary Bush James

444
00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:15.760
was exhumed to give mute testimony to
her terrifying experience in a cage of enraged

445
00:38:15.880 --> 00:38:21.960
rattlesnakes a few hours before she was
mercilessly drowned in the bathtub in her law

446
00:38:22.039 --> 00:38:28.719
Crescenta home, and from that mute
testimony, interpreted by doctor Gustav Bame,

447
00:38:29.280 --> 00:38:36.639
toxicologist District Attorney, fits expects to
obtain murder indictments against Robert S. James,

448
00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:40.840
husband of the slaying woman, and
Charles S. Chuck Hope, whose

449
00:38:40.880 --> 00:38:49.079
confession disclosed the weird slaying. Doctor
Bame, collaborating with doctor A. F.

450
00:38:49.159 --> 00:38:53.440
Wagner County autopsy surgeon, examined the
body of missus James at the County

451
00:38:53.519 --> 00:38:59.639
Morgue a short time after it was
exhumed. He said, quote, I

452
00:38:59.679 --> 00:39:04.599
am positive that this woman was the
victim of the bite of a poisonous snake

453
00:39:05.199 --> 00:39:12.400
unquote, and doctor Wagner agreed.
Doctor Bame appointed to several tiny lacerations on

454
00:39:12.480 --> 00:39:16.119
the larger toe of the left foot, which he said were the indentations of

455
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:22.280
snake fangs. The left leg was
badly swollen and quite black, indicating a

456
00:39:22.320 --> 00:39:30.159
heavy blood coagulation. Doctor Bame said, quote This condition is a typical result

457
00:39:30.719 --> 00:39:37.000
following a bite from a venomous reptile. Explaining his examination of the exhumed body

458
00:39:37.039 --> 00:39:40.559
and his subsequent deductions, doctor Bain
said, quote, we found a large

459
00:39:40.639 --> 00:39:45.280
laceration wound on the lower surface of
the great toe on the left side.

460
00:39:45.320 --> 00:39:52.079
We also found markets swelling in discoloration
from the left knee down and market swelling

461
00:39:52.119 --> 00:39:55.360
from the knee up. This condition
is typical in the bite of a poisonous

462
00:39:55.400 --> 00:40:00.079
snake. Understand that this same condition
was found at the time of the autopsy.

463
00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:05.719
With the present developments, however,
we are positive in our opinions that

464
00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:09.440
this condition resulted from a snake bite. Any other infection, except from a

465
00:40:09.440 --> 00:40:15.679
poisonous insect or reptile, would have
shown different results. Snake poisoning has three

466
00:40:15.760 --> 00:40:22.920
distinctive effects, one a poisoning of
the nerves, two coagulant causing discoloration of

467
00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:28.119
the affected area, and three destruction
of the red corpuscles. From the appearance

468
00:40:28.159 --> 00:40:30.719
of this body, I am positive
that this woman was the victim of a

469
00:40:30.760 --> 00:40:37.400
bite of a poisonous snake, probably
a rattlesnake. Unquote. While doctor Bains's

470
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:44.079
deductions tended to weave a stronger web
of guilt about James and his asserted accomplished

471
00:40:44.119 --> 00:40:49.800
Hope, the toxicologists further explained why
Missus James did not die immediately from the

472
00:40:49.840 --> 00:40:53.920
snake venom. In his story to
authorities, Hope asserted that the snake bite

473
00:40:53.960 --> 00:40:59.079
did not prove fatal and it was
necessary to drown the woman in a bathtub

474
00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:05.079
before placing her body in the fish
pond to make death appear accidental. Quote

475
00:41:05.320 --> 00:41:08.880
being bitten or stung in such an
area as the great toe where no large

476
00:41:08.880 --> 00:41:15.159
blood vessels are near, the infection
naturally was slow and spreading through the bloodstream.

477
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:19.440
In my opinion, the bite would
have caused death if sufficient time had

478
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:30.360
been allowed. Unquote. Here's a
helpful hint. You can easily avoid the

479
00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:36.719
advertising by listening to true Crime Historian
at the safe House register at www dot

480
00:41:36.719 --> 00:41:51.000
patreon dot com slash true crime Historian. Indications are that Robert James, Master

481
00:41:51.199 --> 00:41:55.480
Barber, indicted for the murder of
his wife and who has admitted four previous

482
00:41:55.519 --> 00:42:02.440
marital mates, may have been a
male order of a receipt for a private

483
00:42:02.519 --> 00:42:08.039
mailbox at the Metropolitan Post Office Station
expiring June thirtieth, in the name of

484
00:42:08.159 --> 00:42:15.400
Joseph R. Davis. When examined
by Captain Jack Southard and Investigator Scott Lyttleton

485
00:42:15.480 --> 00:42:21.800
of the prosecutor's staff, was declared
to definitely link James with a wholesale matrimonial

486
00:42:21.880 --> 00:42:29.719
correspondence. Several letters from professional marriage
bureaus addressed to Joseph R. Davis were

487
00:42:29.719 --> 00:42:34.920
found in James's home at thirty eight
eighty six South Lessal Avenue two weeks ago,

488
00:42:35.480 --> 00:42:42.079
when he was arrested on morals charges. Also among the romantic literature gathered

489
00:42:42.079 --> 00:42:47.559
in James's home was a booklet entitled
how to Write Love Letters. The investigators

490
00:42:47.559 --> 00:42:54.840
declared it showed evidences of being well
thumbed. Another prize exhibit officers found in

491
00:42:54.880 --> 00:43:00.880
an envelope bearing the Davis nom de
plume, was a list of nearly two

492
00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:07.639
hundred special feminine matrimonial prospects. Heavily
underscored in the list was the name of

493
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:12.639
a New York widow fifty three years
of age, who had advertised that she

494
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:17.400
had an income of ten thousand dollars
annually. Marked with crosses in the list,

495
00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:22.239
assertedly by James, according to the
investigators, were the names of several

496
00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:28.639
other prospects, ranging in age from
eighteen to sixty five, all of whom

497
00:43:28.719 --> 00:43:35.239
guaranteed to have annual incomes ranging from
two thousand to ten thousand dollars. The

498
00:43:35.280 --> 00:43:38.760
heading of this list, which according
to its publisher is for a selected clientele,

499
00:43:39.480 --> 00:43:45.199
bears the statement quote every name and
addressed is guaranteed unquote, and invites

500
00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:52.199
customers to send one dollar for ten
special introductions to the women listed. According

501
00:43:52.239 --> 00:43:57.920
to the checkmarks on the list,
the subscriber had little interest in how old

502
00:43:57.960 --> 00:44:02.360
the prospects were, whether they were
blondes or brunettes, but only whether they

503
00:44:02.400 --> 00:44:09.280
had a certain degree of financial stability. May twenty sixth, nineteen thirty six,

504
00:44:12.519 --> 00:44:17.400
Grimly defiant Robert S. James,
dapper barber accused of the murder of

505
00:44:17.440 --> 00:44:22.199
his fifth wife, went to trial
on a morals charge involving his niece,

506
00:44:22.599 --> 00:44:28.559
Lois Wright, a twenty one year
old manicurist, in his downtown barbershop.

507
00:44:29.480 --> 00:44:34.599
After the morals trial, prosecutors announced
James will be called to answer for the

508
00:44:34.679 --> 00:44:39.599
murder of Mary Bush James, his
fifth wife. A jury of four men

509
00:44:39.639 --> 00:44:45.000
and eight women was completed just before
adjournment to hear evidence in the morals case.

510
00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:51.400
Before a witness was called, James's
attorney, Samuel J. Silverman,

511
00:44:51.880 --> 00:44:57.280
demanded of the court that all witnesses
and spectators attending the trial be searched for

512
00:44:57.400 --> 00:45:04.480
weapons. My client's life has been
threatened, Silverman explained. Judge Vickers instructed

513
00:45:04.519 --> 00:45:09.039
deputies and bailiffs to take extra precaution
in the courtroom, while Silverman and the

514
00:45:09.119 --> 00:45:16.320
prosecutors Eugene Williams and John Barnes were
still wrangling over prospective jurors. Miss Wright

515
00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:22.400
walked into the courtroom. Have any
of you jurors ever seen this woman before?

516
00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:30.440
Silverman asked? All the veneermen answered
no. May twenty seventh, nineteen

517
00:45:30.599 --> 00:45:39.039
thirty six. Intimate details, including
stenographic notes purportedly taken from a bedside dictograph

518
00:45:39.119 --> 00:45:45.280
account of an asserted amorous affair between
Robert James, red haired, thirty nine

519
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:51.840
year old barber and his brunette niece
Lowest Right, twenty one years old,

520
00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:58.400
were placed before an intent jury in
Superior Court. James was finishing the first

521
00:45:58.480 --> 00:46:04.000
day of his trial on three statutory
counts involving the girl who worked as a

522
00:46:04.039 --> 00:46:10.679
manicurist in his downtown barbershop. Still
as death, the capacity filled courtroom heard

523
00:46:10.760 --> 00:46:16.559
Captain Jack Southard, leader of a
District attorney's raiding party that surprised James and

524
00:46:16.639 --> 00:46:22.599
miss Wright at their cottage at thirty
eight eighty six Lesalth Street last April nineteenth

525
00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:30.320
Recite transcript testimony taken over a period
of many days by official stenographers. Jurors

526
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:36.880
heard how the county agents installed a
microphone in two rooms of the barber's small

527
00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:44.119
house, and then led wires to
an amplifier and headsets in an adjacent cottage.

528
00:46:44.440 --> 00:46:49.880
For Southard. It was a trying
afternoon to the investigator fell the task

529
00:46:50.039 --> 00:46:57.039
of reading the surprisingly intimate revelations recorded
by Dorothy Adams, District Attorney's reporter and

530
00:46:57.119 --> 00:47:02.320
said to be the supposed confidential conversation
between James and miss Wright. The entire

531
00:47:02.440 --> 00:47:08.079
day's proceedings were marked by a barrage
of objections from Defense attorney Samuel Silverman.

532
00:47:08.599 --> 00:47:15.519
He flatly repudiated confessions to the morals
offense said by officers to have been made

533
00:47:15.559 --> 00:47:20.280
by James shortly after the raid,
stating that the latter had not been properly

534
00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:25.760
informed as to his legal rights.
Almost simultaneously, however, miss Wright,

535
00:47:27.239 --> 00:47:31.960
weeping and low voiced, was reiterating
her own avowal of intimacy with her uncle

536
00:47:32.280 --> 00:47:37.880
over a three year period. Her
testimony came out while she was on the

537
00:47:37.960 --> 00:47:43.079
stand in person in the morning,
and through the revelations of stenographic transcripts of

538
00:47:43.159 --> 00:47:49.760
interviews held at District Attorney Fitz's office
after the raid. During the reading of

539
00:47:49.800 --> 00:47:53.480
the frank unabridged record of her conversations
with her uncle in the tiny bungalow.

540
00:47:53.519 --> 00:48:00.159
However, she left the courtroom.
A plea by Silverman that the jury be

541
00:48:00.199 --> 00:48:07.840
spared further recitation of the intimate details
was denied by Superior Judge Vickers. The

542
00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:13.480
jury, for middle aged women and
eight men of varied ages, appeared composed.

543
00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:20.000
I paid half the rent. Miss
Wright's testimony asserted she had been asked

544
00:48:20.039 --> 00:48:24.559
concerning the domestic affairs of the Southside
cottage at which she and James had lived

545
00:48:24.559 --> 00:48:30.800
since last February. Quote. Uncle
Bob paid the other half, and all

546
00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:36.079
the expenses at the shop. I
received whatever I took in as my wages

547
00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:40.800
unquote. Then Silverman questioned Southard,
who was on the stand for more than

548
00:48:40.840 --> 00:48:46.440
an hour, question, did you
ever have any conversation with miss Wright concerning

549
00:48:46.440 --> 00:48:52.440
her turning state's evidence and appearing as
a prosecution witness? Answer? No,

550
00:48:52.719 --> 00:48:58.840
miss Wright willingly volunteered to become our
witness. Earlier, Silverman hinted that James

551
00:48:58.920 --> 00:49:02.800
was handled roughly by investigators after that
Sunday morning raid. That, however,

552
00:49:02.960 --> 00:49:09.119
was denied by Southard after Judge Vickers
had questioned him. In the transcript testimony,

553
00:49:09.480 --> 00:49:15.760
James referred to a trip taken westward
with miss Wright from Alabama in nineteen

554
00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:21.280
thirty four. Quote. I drove
an old, worn out automobile to California.

555
00:49:21.760 --> 00:49:25.239
We stopped at tourist camp. My
usual custom was to wake Lois by

556
00:49:25.239 --> 00:49:30.599
tickling her ear. The morning the
officers broke into my house, I was

557
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:35.360
sitting on the edge of the bed, asking her to arise. James did

558
00:49:35.360 --> 00:49:38.760
not reiterate this explanation of the events
of April nineteenth. However, when the

559
00:49:38.800 --> 00:49:45.239
district attorney placed him under oath in
his office, the transcribed stateman explained that

560
00:49:45.320 --> 00:49:51.880
the barber later refused to comment further
concerning his relations with his knees. All

561
00:49:51.960 --> 00:49:57.199
morning, witnesses filed to the stand
where, under constant objections from Silverman,

562
00:49:57.679 --> 00:50:01.719
they told the lurid tale of asserted
miss conduct between James and miss Wright.

563
00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:08.760
The story begun by Fred Cole,
deputy county surveyor, who described the location

564
00:50:08.960 --> 00:50:14.599
and interior of the house on south
West south Street where James and miss Wright

565
00:50:14.639 --> 00:50:19.719
were arrested, reached back to the
attractive manicurist birth in Birmingham, Alabama,

566
00:50:20.199 --> 00:50:24.920
twenty one years ago. Silverman objected
futally, as Deputy District Attorney Williams.

567
00:50:24.960 --> 00:50:30.000
Elicited testimony from Missus Smith, twenty
seven year old sister of miss Wright and

568
00:50:30.119 --> 00:50:35.800
niece of the defendant, that the
girl was actually the daughter of James's sister.

569
00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:42.119
Incompetent and purely hearsay, he charged
as Missus Smith told how she recalled

570
00:50:42.159 --> 00:50:47.119
clearly the night that miss Wright was
born. Later, after Silverman's objections had

571
00:50:47.119 --> 00:50:52.599
been overruled, it became apparent that
the defense would seek to demonstrate that miss

572
00:50:52.599 --> 00:50:58.920
Wright's testimony was obtained after she and
the district attorney's representatives had virtually struck a

573
00:50:58.960 --> 00:51:04.480
bargain. Referring to an interview between
the girl and county attorneys shortly after the

574
00:51:04.559 --> 00:51:09.800
raid on James's cottage, Silverman shouted
the whole substance of this conversation was directed

575
00:51:09.800 --> 00:51:16.000
toward obtaining her testimony against her uncle
in return for immunity. Judge Vickers refused

576
00:51:16.039 --> 00:51:22.239
to permit Silverman to proceed. Called
to the stand, miss Wright, frequently

577
00:51:22.320 --> 00:51:25.320
in tears and dabbing her eyes with
a lace handkerchief, told how she had

578
00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:30.719
first seen her uncle when she was
ten. Then in nineteen thirty three,

579
00:51:30.880 --> 00:51:36.679
when she was eighteen, James proposed
a trip to California. Then The Dark

580
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:42.199
Eyed Girl described her first motor trip
across America with her uncle. They stopped

581
00:51:42.199 --> 00:51:45.679
at auto camps, she testified,
and finally rented a department in Los Angeles

582
00:51:45.679 --> 00:51:51.519
for a month. In May nineteen
thirty three, they returned to Alabama,

583
00:51:52.199 --> 00:51:55.800
but in January nineteen thirty four,
miss Wright recalled. She and her uncle

584
00:51:55.840 --> 00:52:01.480
again motored to Los Angeles. This
time they remained living together in another apartment.

585
00:52:02.199 --> 00:52:07.480
Frequently, she said her uncle was
guilty of statutory offenses in which she

586
00:52:07.679 --> 00:52:14.159
was involved. When the barber married
in May nineteen thirty five, she went

587
00:52:14.239 --> 00:52:19.480
to another apartment. James moved with
his bride to La Crecenta, where the

588
00:52:19.559 --> 00:52:24.280
latter was found drowned in the fish
pond last August, six months after her

589
00:52:24.360 --> 00:52:29.840
death, however, her uncle rented
the four room bungalow on South le South

590
00:52:29.920 --> 00:52:37.559
Street. Williams charged James with statutory
offenses, specifically on April fifth, ninth

591
00:52:37.719 --> 00:52:43.559
and nineteen. On the latter date, informed by a dictograph installed in two

592
00:52:43.599 --> 00:52:47.559
places in the cottage and connected to
headphones and amplifiers in the house next door,

593
00:52:47.800 --> 00:52:54.199
District Attorney's officers raided the barber's home. Beset by rulings of Judge Vicars

594
00:52:54.199 --> 00:52:59.960
that much of his cross examination bestricken
from the court records. Silverman then demanded

595
00:53:00.119 --> 00:53:04.199
ended of miss Wright whether she'd heard
her mother state quote, you were not

596
00:53:04.320 --> 00:53:29.920
her daughter unquote. The manicurist declared
no. May eighth, nineteen thirty six,

597
00:53:31.159 --> 00:53:37.360
voluntarily refusing an opportunity to take the
stand in his own defense, and

598
00:53:37.400 --> 00:53:44.280
through his attorney offering no defense.
Witnesses Robert S. James yesterday sat stolid

599
00:53:44.320 --> 00:53:51.000
and emotionless as a jury decreed him
guilty of three separate morals offenses involving his

600
00:53:51.119 --> 00:53:55.760
twenty one year old niece. Each
count found against the red haired James by

601
00:53:55.800 --> 00:54:00.400
a jury of four women and eight
men, carries a penalty of from one

602
00:54:00.480 --> 00:54:07.559
to fifty years in prison. Yet
James, facing the still more serious charge

603
00:54:07.599 --> 00:54:14.239
of murdering his wife last August by
rattlesnake, venom and drowning, merely moistened

604
00:54:14.280 --> 00:54:20.360
his lips as the jury's foreman handed
the three decisions to a bailiff. Then

605
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:28.679
he resumed his cold half smile.
The barber's crime, according to prosecution testimony,

606
00:54:29.239 --> 00:54:34.400
involved his comely brunette niece, Lois
Wright, whom he brought to California

607
00:54:34.639 --> 00:54:38.800
from her home in Birmingham, Alabama, two years ago, against an array

608
00:54:38.880 --> 00:54:46.199
of incriminating charges substantiated by transcripts of
records from a dictograph placed beside a bed

609
00:54:46.280 --> 00:54:52.840
in the cottage. Defense attorney Samuel
Silverman remained mute. Immediately, however,

610
00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:59.119
he signified that he will appeal on
the grounds that Superior Judge Vickers had not

611
00:54:59.280 --> 00:55:05.239
properly inst instructed the jury as to
the significance of James's failure to appear in

612
00:55:05.320 --> 00:55:10.519
his own defense. Like an actor
awaiting a cue, the debonair Barber stood

613
00:55:10.519 --> 00:55:16.239
outside the courtroom just before the final
scene of his trial took place. At

614
00:55:16.280 --> 00:55:22.360
a nod from Bailiff Putney, he
stepped to a seat beside Silverman and heard

615
00:55:22.400 --> 00:55:27.400
the verdict. This has been a
distressing case for you to hear, Judge

616
00:55:27.480 --> 00:55:31.519
Vickers told the jury when they had
completed their twenty five minute conference and returned

617
00:55:31.519 --> 00:55:37.400
a verdict of guilty. He complimented
the members of the jury on their faithfulness

618
00:55:37.480 --> 00:55:43.559
during last Tuesday session, when transcript
reports of intimate conversations between James and his

619
00:55:43.679 --> 00:55:52.800
niece became so extraordinarily salacious that several
spectators withdrew from the court room June twenty

620
00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:59.239
third, nineteen thirty six, an
illegal chess game which may last for more

621
00:55:59.280 --> 00:56:04.800
than a month. Prosecution and defense
attorneys yesterday started selection of a jury to

622
00:56:04.840 --> 00:56:09.440
hear the trial of Robert James,
Los Angeles barber, charged with the rattlesnake

623
00:56:09.519 --> 00:56:15.039
poisoning and drowning of his fifth wife. When court adjourned, seven men and

624
00:56:15.119 --> 00:56:20.800
four women were in the box as
prospective jurors, with one seat vacant.

625
00:56:21.599 --> 00:56:25.039
Meanwhile, from throughout the United States, a group of witnesses, contacted by

626
00:56:25.119 --> 00:56:30.079
district attorneys investigators was prepared to converge
on the court room in the Hall of

627
00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:37.840
Justice to testify against James. Defense
attorneys Samuel J. Silverman, William J.

628
00:56:37.000 --> 00:56:40.880
Clark, R. E. Parsons, and A. Benjamin announced that

629
00:56:40.920 --> 00:56:45.960
they expect to prove James was insane
at the time of his wife's death and

630
00:56:46.079 --> 00:56:55.519
still is mentally incompetent. June twenty
fourth, nineteen thirty six. Charles h

631
00:56:55.599 --> 00:57:02.280
Hope, ex sailor, appalled court
room thrill seekers yesterday when, with incredible

632
00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:09.360
nonchalance, he told of buying six
rattlesnakes for the purposes of murder. His

633
00:57:09.480 --> 00:57:15.360
mumbled testimony tore at the defense of
Robert James, red haired barber on trial

634
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:22.639
and Superior Court Judge Frickey's court quote, James came to me early in June

635
00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:25.000
last year and said he had a
friend who wanted to kill his wife,

636
00:57:25.480 --> 00:57:29.159
and that it would be worth one
hundred dollars to me to get a couple

637
00:57:29.159 --> 00:57:31.800
of rattlesnakes. I said, all
right, it was none of my business

638
00:57:31.840 --> 00:57:37.920
what he wanted the snakes for.
Unquote. Hope had to be prompted by

639
00:57:37.920 --> 00:57:43.239
the court to speak more distinctly,
and the witness grimaced with annoyance when asked

640
00:57:43.239 --> 00:57:50.079
to repeat indistinguishable fragments of testimony,
but his indifference must have hidden an internal

641
00:57:50.199 --> 00:57:53.480
storm. Only a few minutes before
being called to the stand, he suddenly

642
00:57:53.480 --> 00:57:59.639
became ill and had to be removed
from the court room to recover. James

643
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:04.159
himself turned the color of clay.
At the same time that Deputy Sheriff Toohy

644
00:58:04.440 --> 00:58:07.760
testified to what he found when he
reached the Fish Pond death House in La

645
00:58:07.800 --> 00:58:15.280
Crecenta, a spectator, Miss Olive
Simon, pitched forward in a faint moaning

646
00:58:15.320 --> 00:58:22.079
under questioning by Deputy District Attorneys Williams
and Barnes and over the strenuous objections of

647
00:58:22.119 --> 00:58:27.480
the defense battery of attorneys. Hope
said he first brought two rattlesnakes in Long

648
00:58:27.519 --> 00:58:32.079
Beach. Quote the snakeman threw a
third one in for good measure. One

649
00:58:32.079 --> 00:58:37.920
of them died unquote. Later,
he said, James asked him to go

650
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:42.360
along to Ocean Park and look at
a snake pit. Quote. I heard

651
00:58:42.440 --> 00:58:45.679
James say to the snake man he'd
bet twenty dollars there wasn't a poisonous snake

652
00:58:45.719 --> 00:58:50.320
in the pit. The snake man
pointed to one and told him it was

653
00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:53.280
a fighter. The next day I
came down and traded one of the other

654
00:58:53.360 --> 00:58:59.599
snakes in for that one. Unquote. Hope said James paid them one hundred

655
00:58:59.599 --> 00:59:05.480
dollars and then described two boxes he
said were made at James's order as containers

656
00:59:05.519 --> 00:59:10.199
for the snakes. Quote. Later, James said the Ocean Park snake was

657
00:59:10.239 --> 00:59:14.360
no good, and he wanted me
to get a real fighter, and I

658
00:59:14.400 --> 00:59:19.480
went to Snaky Joe's in Pasadena and
got two more. I went with my

659
00:59:19.599 --> 00:59:22.280
wife, took her home, and
then picked up James. We went to

660
00:59:22.360 --> 00:59:28.800
a drug store, got a prescription
filled, and bought some adhesive tape unquote.

661
00:59:29.519 --> 00:59:34.239
Earlier witnesses told how the body of
Missus James was found by flashlight,

662
00:59:34.639 --> 00:59:39.000
half sunken in the fish pond.
James Pemberton, the first to come upon

663
00:59:39.039 --> 00:59:43.400
the body, said, quote,
I had the flashlight pointing to the other

664
00:59:43.440 --> 00:59:46.280
side of the pond. I nearly
stumbled on the body before I saw it.

665
00:59:46.719 --> 00:59:50.840
I looked down and it was right
at my feet. Then I turned

666
00:59:50.840 --> 00:59:53.559
my light upon it and saw Missus
James lying with her face in the water.

667
00:59:54.079 --> 01:00:00.719
Her yellow hair was floating. Striking
at the prosecution contention that James had

668
01:00:00.800 --> 01:00:06.960
murdered his wife by rattlesnake poison in
drowning some eighteen hours before. Defense counsel

669
01:00:07.079 --> 01:00:13.679
Clark carefully questioned Pemberton regarding the barber's
demeanor immediately previous to the discovery of the

670
01:00:13.760 --> 01:00:19.679
body. Question, did you notice
anything different in the manner of James?

671
01:00:20.360 --> 01:00:24.920
Answer? No. Clark then asked
the detailed description of James's action when he

672
01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:30.639
first saw his dead wife. Quote. I told him Mary was dead.

673
01:00:30.119 --> 01:00:35.840
I said to brace up. He
appeared terribly shocked. Then he knelt down

674
01:00:35.880 --> 01:00:40.039
beside the body and he talked to
it unquote. Question, what did he

675
01:00:40.119 --> 01:00:45.639
say, did he tell her he
loved her? Answer? I couldn't say.

676
01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:50.599
I was too excited myself. Question
and afterwards did you have to assist

677
01:00:50.679 --> 01:00:55.039
him to the house? Answer?
He seemed very weak? Deputy two.

678
01:00:55.119 --> 01:01:00.320
He also described discovery of two notes, one a letter written by Missus James

679
01:01:00.320 --> 01:01:05.039
to her sister in Las Vegas,
in which she set her leg was badly

680
01:01:05.119 --> 01:01:09.239
swollen from a bite received in the
garden. The other a scrap of brown

681
01:01:09.280 --> 01:01:15.679
wrapping paper signed Ethel which had been
left in place of a calling card expressed

682
01:01:15.719 --> 01:01:21.320
regret at missing Missus James. Missus
Viola Pemberton, an old friend of the

683
01:01:21.360 --> 01:01:25.960
dead woman, was called a statuesque
ample blonde. She told how the body

684
01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:31.360
of Missus James was found in the
fish pond. Under questioning by Williams,

685
01:01:31.400 --> 01:01:36.280
she said that with her husband and
James, she drove to the death home

686
01:01:36.360 --> 01:01:39.000
for dinner. Quote. The lights
were all out and I said, Mary

687
01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:43.119
must be sick. We looked all
over the house for her, and then

688
01:01:43.199 --> 01:01:47.159
someone I don't remember who but not
I suggested looking over the grounds in case

689
01:01:47.239 --> 01:01:52.800
she had fainted. Mister James took
a flashlight and gave my husband one.

690
01:01:52.280 --> 01:01:55.639
A little later I heard my husband
say, oh my god. I said

691
01:01:55.920 --> 01:02:00.159
what is it? And there was
no answer. Then he called mister James

692
01:02:00.159 --> 01:02:06.199
and I heard him say, buck
up, she's gone. Unquote Missus Pemberton

693
01:02:06.280 --> 01:02:10.199
said Missus James was lying face down
in the pond with her blonde hair floating

694
01:02:10.239 --> 01:02:15.280
on the water. Her legs and
hips were outside on the rim. Quote.

695
01:02:15.679 --> 01:02:21.000
Mister James cried a great deal afterward
and said What'll I do without Mary?

696
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:28.039
Then he became very sick. June
twenty fifth, nineteen thirty six,

697
01:02:30.239 --> 01:02:36.119
unnerved by his own incredible story as
to how Mary Bush James, gagged and

698
01:02:36.199 --> 01:02:40.440
bound to a table, was tortured
by rattlesnakes before she was finally murdered by

699
01:02:40.519 --> 01:02:46.639
drowning. Charles Hope collapsed on the
witness stand yesterday and had to be helped

700
01:02:46.639 --> 01:02:52.000
into an ante chamber. Sneering laughter
came from Robert S. James, red

701
01:02:52.039 --> 01:02:57.639
haired barber, charged with the murder
of his fifth wife, as he beheld

702
01:02:57.679 --> 01:03:02.000
his self confessed accomplice in the crime, wilt under questioning, with Hope half

703
01:03:02.039 --> 01:03:07.400
fainting in the witness chair and coughing
in his handkerchief while telling his horror story.

704
01:03:07.559 --> 01:03:13.480
The trial proceeded lamely. After successive
attacks of illness. Hope was returned

705
01:03:13.480 --> 01:03:17.199
to the stand for cross examination,
but could not proceed. After court was

706
01:03:17.280 --> 01:03:22.119
journed, he was taken to the
jail hospital for observation. An account of

707
01:03:22.199 --> 01:03:28.360
Missus James strapped to the breakfast nook
table where Hope set her foot was held

708
01:03:28.400 --> 01:03:34.760
in a rattlesnake box, brought on
his fainting spell while he recovered. County

709
01:03:34.800 --> 01:03:40.159
autopsy Surgeon Wagner and doctor Gustav Bam, toxicologist went to the witness stand and

710
01:03:40.199 --> 01:03:46.400
gave erudite accounts of poisoning by rattlesnake, black widow spider and other deadly creatures.

711
01:03:47.320 --> 01:03:52.480
Questioned by Deputy District Attorney Williams,
from all your observations at the time,

712
01:03:52.559 --> 01:03:57.559
the body of Missus James was exhumed
for further examination, would you say

713
01:03:57.599 --> 01:04:00.639
that she had been bitten by a
rattlesnake? There was a chorus of protests

714
01:04:00.639 --> 01:04:06.679
from defense attorneys. Judge Fricky ordered
the question answered quote. It is my

715
01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:12.519
opinion that the woman probably had been
bitten by some venomous creature, perhaps a

716
01:04:12.559 --> 01:04:17.079
snake. The poison of a rattlesnake
and many other venomous creatures affect the lymphatic

717
01:04:17.159 --> 01:04:23.840
system kill The red corpuscles affect the
nervous system and cause characteristic black and blue

718
01:04:23.920 --> 01:04:29.280
spots in the region of a puncture. The poison of a black widow spider

719
01:04:29.440 --> 01:04:35.719
causes intestinal and gastric disturbances. Unquote. He was asked about experiments performed upon

720
01:04:35.760 --> 01:04:44.039
two guinea pigs with poison extracted from
two rattlesnakes supplied by snaky Joe Houghtenbrink quote.

721
01:04:44.159 --> 01:04:46.559
The venom of one snake was injected
into a pig, which gave a

722
01:04:46.639 --> 01:04:51.480
sharp squeal and twitched. After several
minutes of the little pig fell over and

723
01:04:51.559 --> 01:04:58.159
several times afterwards tried to rise but
couldn't. His respiration and heart action slowed

724
01:04:58.199 --> 01:05:02.400
down, and in twenty minutes dead. The second pig was given a smaller

725
01:05:02.440 --> 01:05:09.159
injection and lived for one hour and
five minutes. Autopsy surgeon Wagner went on

726
01:05:09.199 --> 01:05:12.920
the stand and testified he had found
a puncture on the left great toe of

727
01:05:12.960 --> 01:05:16.599
the body of Missus James. He
said there was swelling and some inflammation up

728
01:05:16.599 --> 01:05:21.119
to the knee. Quote. The
puncture could have been caused by a rattlesnake

729
01:05:21.360 --> 01:05:27.360
unquote. Attorney Clark fired a rapid
series of questions at doctor Wagner, and

730
01:05:27.400 --> 01:05:30.400
toward the end of his cross examination, scored a point for the defense.

731
01:05:30.599 --> 01:05:34.239
Quote, did you see any marks
on the skin about the mouth that would

732
01:05:34.239 --> 01:05:41.119
indicate she had been gagged with adhesive
tape? Answer? I did not question.

733
01:05:41.480 --> 01:05:45.159
When adhesive tape is peeled off,
it leaves a distinct mark usually does

734
01:05:45.199 --> 01:05:50.960
it not? Answer yes? That
attacks prosecution contention. Based on Hope's story

735
01:05:51.280 --> 01:05:56.400
that missus James was tied to the
breakfast nook with adhesive tape over her mouth

736
01:05:56.440 --> 01:06:00.599
and eyes, Hope looked shaky when
he took the stand. His voice was

737
01:06:00.639 --> 01:06:05.639
weak. Judge Fricky, in council
for both sides, implored him time and

738
01:06:05.679 --> 01:06:11.840
again to speak louder. He would
strike out boldly and then trail off into

739
01:06:11.880 --> 01:06:15.159
a whisper. He plunged into his
description of the killing. A few minutes

740
01:06:15.199 --> 01:06:19.559
after taking the stand, Williams recalled
to him that when Cort had journed the

741
01:06:19.639 --> 01:06:25.400
previous afternoon, his testimony was that
he and James were driving together with the

742
01:06:25.400 --> 01:06:29.880
two snakes in the car after purchasing
adhesive tape and feeling a prescription at the

743
01:06:29.960 --> 01:06:34.000
drug store. Question, then what
happened? Answer? We stopped at the

744
01:06:34.039 --> 01:06:38.880
corner of Beverly Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. James said to me, you know

745
01:06:38.960 --> 01:06:42.840
there isn't any third party wants these
snakes. I'm going to collect five thousand

746
01:06:42.880 --> 01:06:47.280
dollars insurance on my wife. Hope
took a deep breath and wiped his forehead.

747
01:06:47.599 --> 01:06:53.800
A contemptuous smirk lifted the lips of
James. Question. What next?

748
01:06:54.559 --> 01:06:57.920
Answer? I went to a movie
with my wife. The next morning,

749
01:06:57.960 --> 01:07:00.239
my wife and I drove up near
James's house. I left her in the

750
01:07:00.280 --> 01:07:03.800
car and walked to the house.
James came out to meet me. He

751
01:07:03.840 --> 01:07:08.119
had been drinking quite a bit.
I told him I had come after the

752
01:07:08.199 --> 01:07:12.159
snakes. He said that I couldn't
have them. Then we had a couple

753
01:07:12.239 --> 01:07:15.920
or three drinks and went out to
the garage and I saw the snakes with

754
01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:19.119
two or three dead chickens around them. James said to me, Hope,

755
01:07:19.280 --> 01:07:23.440
you're in this just as deep as
I am. You've bought snakes all over

756
01:07:23.480 --> 01:07:26.760
the country. People have seen you
with me. We sat there for a

757
01:07:26.800 --> 01:07:29.639
few minutes and he said, come
on into the house with me and bring

758
01:07:29.679 --> 01:07:33.760
that box Missus James was lying on
the breakfast room table. Her arms were

759
01:07:33.800 --> 01:07:39.599
tied down and there was adhesive tape
over her mouth and eyes. James lifted

760
01:07:39.599 --> 01:07:42.960
one of her legs so I could
get by. I laid the box on

761
01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:45.400
the seat of the breakfast nook and
he picked it up, but the glass

762
01:07:45.400 --> 01:07:49.880
top slid back and he stuck Missus
James's foot into it, closed the box

763
01:07:49.920 --> 01:07:55.760
and went back to the garage.
Question were there snakes in that box?

764
01:07:56.239 --> 01:08:00.000
Answer? Yes, there was a
live one. Question which did James put

765
01:08:00.039 --> 01:08:04.400
in the box? Answer the left
leg. All she had on was a

766
01:08:04.519 --> 01:08:08.760
nightgown. And about half an hour
he came out to the garage and he

767
01:08:08.800 --> 01:08:11.639
had a glass of whiskey, and
he said, what are you nervous about?

768
01:08:11.760 --> 01:08:15.079
Try this? Unquote, Hope said. He left the house in James's

769
01:08:15.079 --> 01:08:20.159
car a little later, returning at
one thirty am. Quote James came out

770
01:08:20.159 --> 01:08:24.520
to the car and sat down with
me. He put a bottle between us

771
01:08:24.520 --> 01:08:29.520
on the seat. He said,
she's not even sick. Why don't you

772
01:08:29.560 --> 01:08:32.039
take her to a hospital. I
said, they'd string us higher than a

773
01:08:32.159 --> 01:08:36.279
kite, he said. Then he
said, I'm going in and drown her.

774
01:08:36.920 --> 01:08:42.239
About seven o'clock. He came out
and said, that's that. Unquote.

775
01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:45.640
Hope said he went with James into
the house and saw missus James lying

776
01:08:45.680 --> 01:08:49.640
on the floor. He said she
appeared to be dead, was dressed in

777
01:08:49.720 --> 01:08:55.479
dry pajamas, but that her hair
was wet. Quote. James took the

778
01:08:55.560 --> 01:08:58.800
upper part of the body and I
took the lower. We carried her out

779
01:08:58.800 --> 01:09:01.319
to the fish pond. He said
I would have to help put her in.

780
01:09:01.800 --> 01:09:05.680
I said I wouldn't do it and
walked away. Later, he said

781
01:09:05.680 --> 01:09:09.119
to me, don't get excited.
As soon as I get money, I'll

782
01:09:09.159 --> 01:09:12.520
take care of you. I'm too
smart for those officers. I had to

783
01:09:12.560 --> 01:09:16.039
write a note. Unquote. Hope
said he burned some towels, ropes,

784
01:09:16.079 --> 01:09:20.880
adhesive tape and other matter, and
an incinerator, and disposed of three blankets.

785
01:09:21.720 --> 01:09:26.800
Williams asked Hope, who was becoming
paler, if he had any conversation

786
01:09:26.960 --> 01:09:30.279
with James as they stood at the
side of the table in the breakfast nook.

787
01:09:30.479 --> 01:09:33.479
Quote. I asked her how he
got his wife up there and tied

788
01:09:33.479 --> 01:09:38.199
her down. He told me he
wanted her on the table because a doctor

789
01:09:38.319 --> 01:09:44.039
was coming. Unquote. Defense counsel
rose to object. While the court's attention

790
01:09:44.199 --> 01:09:48.520
was transferred to another portion of the
court room, Hope sagged forward. He

791
01:09:48.600 --> 01:09:53.359
lay with his head in his arms
on the witness stand. He was rushed

792
01:09:53.399 --> 01:09:58.880
outside. James laughed and sneered.
It was half an hour before Hope could

793
01:09:58.880 --> 01:10:03.119
resume the stand. He was overcome
with nausea. Later, he resumed the

794
01:10:03.119 --> 01:10:09.159
stand for a brief period, but
when time came for cross examination again was

795
01:10:09.279 --> 01:10:15.560
unable to continue. County autopsy surgeon
Wagner took the stand and testified that he

796
01:10:15.640 --> 01:10:18.880
examined the body of missus James and
found a puncture and laceration on the left

797
01:10:18.880 --> 01:10:23.920
greate toe and an inflammation of the
leg, which he said might have been

798
01:10:23.920 --> 01:10:28.800
caused by a rattlesnake. He said
the water was in her lawns and that

799
01:10:28.920 --> 01:10:32.880
death was due to drowning, with
an inflammation of the leg as a contributing

800
01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:43.439
cause. June twenty ninth, nineteen
thirty six, two fighting mad rattlesnakes behind

801
01:10:43.560 --> 01:10:49.079
glass were placed before the jury at
the murder trial of Robert James. Twice

802
01:10:49.279 --> 01:10:56.239
they struck out, knocking their heads
against the transparent partition, already streaked with

803
01:10:56.439 --> 01:11:03.199
venom. Some jurors shrank back.
Others leaned forward curiously. A high,

804
01:11:03.439 --> 01:11:10.000
vibrant whirring, mounting and pitch almost
to a line, filled the courtroom of

805
01:11:10.039 --> 01:11:17.439
Superior Judge Frickie. District attorneys Williams
and Barnes contend that these two rattlesnakes sank

806
01:11:17.520 --> 01:11:24.560
its fangs into the foot of Mary
Bush James last August while she lay strapped

807
01:11:24.560 --> 01:11:28.920
to a breakfast nook table in her
locre sent a home. James held one

808
01:11:28.960 --> 01:11:32.039
of the snakes to her foot and
allowed it to strike her. The prosecution

809
01:11:32.319 --> 01:11:40.880
declared the two four and one half
foot Western diamondback rattlers were marked Exhibit number

810
01:11:40.920 --> 01:11:46.319
twenty over the objections of defense attorneys
while they still rested on the council table

811
01:11:46.359 --> 01:11:53.159
within a few feet of the shock
jurors Snaky Joe Houghtenbrink explained that what appeared

812
01:11:53.159 --> 01:11:57.760
to be a third snake was merely
a cast off skin of lethal one of

813
01:11:57.800 --> 01:12:02.439
the snakes. Before the snakes were
removed, Lois Wright, twenty one year

814
01:12:02.479 --> 01:12:08.319
old niece of James, was called
to the stand. She passed directly in

815
01:12:08.359 --> 01:12:14.039
front of the glass box and shuddered. She admitted having conversations with her uncle

816
01:12:14.119 --> 01:12:19.760
regarding insurance. Question by Barnes was
that at the time you were occupying the

817
01:12:19.840 --> 01:12:25.960
same house with your uncle. Answer
no, I don't believe it was during

818
01:12:26.000 --> 01:12:30.520
the time we were living in the
same house. Barnes then asked if she

819
01:12:30.600 --> 01:12:35.640
knew Charles Hope, accuser of James. Answer yes, I first met him

820
01:12:35.640 --> 01:12:40.720
at my uncle's house one Sunday.
Later. I saw him more than once

821
01:12:40.760 --> 01:12:44.800
when I was working at my uncle's
barber shop. Sometimes he would come in

822
01:12:44.880 --> 01:12:47.359
to get barber work, and sometimes
he would just talk to my uncle.

823
01:12:48.199 --> 01:12:54.960
During her testimony, shutters of disgust
by jurors led Judge Frickey to order Exhibit

824
01:12:55.000 --> 01:13:00.640
twenty carried out of sight behind the
desk of court Clerk Arthur Moore. Court

825
01:13:00.680 --> 01:13:04.399
officers first brought the long boxk into
the courtroom on their shoulders. It was

826
01:13:04.479 --> 01:13:09.720
shaped like an old fashioned pine box
coffin, but was made of glass.

827
01:13:10.720 --> 01:13:15.359
The courtroom was shocked out of its
indolence. A high, vibrant, dry

828
01:13:15.520 --> 01:13:18.680
buzz, like the hiss of water
shooting from a nozzle, rose in the

829
01:13:18.720 --> 01:13:26.079
sudden silence. James turned and stared, then he turned away. The buzzing

830
01:13:26.119 --> 01:13:30.159
snakes were carried behind his chair.
Then they passed in front of Hope.

831
01:13:31.640 --> 01:13:35.800
Hope took a deep breath. He
expelled it. When the snakes were laid

832
01:13:35.840 --> 01:13:42.039
down behind the desk of Court Clerk
Moore, the rise and fall of their

833
01:13:42.039 --> 01:13:46.960
angry rattle continued. The snakes lay
behind a curtain, it was lifted by

834
01:13:47.039 --> 01:13:53.840
more. Those standing close by could
see their little flat heads swinging above the

835
01:13:53.920 --> 01:14:00.159
coils. Forked black tongues darted in
and out. A Deputy sheriff thrust his

836
01:14:00.239 --> 01:14:03.760
leg before the glass. The snake
on the left darted its head forward.

837
01:14:04.079 --> 01:14:11.039
Then there was a little thump inaudible
at a distance. The snake had struck

838
01:14:11.079 --> 01:14:15.680
the glass. No venom was ejected. Poisoned sacks of both snakes had been

839
01:14:15.720 --> 01:14:20.720
virtually emptied earlier in the day,
as they punched their heads against the transparent

840
01:14:20.800 --> 01:14:27.960
walls, lunging at passers by in
the Bureau of Investigation, the glass was

841
01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:31.840
streaked with the yellow liquid. The
snakes held their rattles above the coils like

842
01:14:31.920 --> 01:14:39.239
little plumes. The vibration was so
fast the rattles were blurred. Attorney Clark

843
01:14:39.279 --> 01:14:43.800
sprang to his feet when Snaky Joe
was asked to identify the two rattlers as

844
01:14:43.840 --> 01:14:47.159
the ones he sold, hope,
I object, your honor will observe the

845
01:14:47.239 --> 01:14:51.760
usual interest and consternation of the audience
and the jurors. Their minds have been

846
01:14:51.760 --> 01:14:57.640
distracted from the testimony. I saw
several spectators half rise from their seats as

847
01:14:57.720 --> 01:15:01.439
the snakes passed by. Their consternationation
was such that the effect is still visible

848
01:15:01.479 --> 01:15:06.199
on their faces. Judge Fricky surveyed
the courtroom and said he failed to see

849
01:15:06.239 --> 01:15:12.439
any such consternation, and that he
would take no cognizance of spectators half rising

850
01:15:12.479 --> 01:15:18.520
from their chairs. The jurors took
the rival of the snakes rather apathetically for

851
01:15:18.640 --> 01:15:24.159
an hour before the angry snakes were
taken into the courtroom. Rollin' Kirby and

852
01:15:24.199 --> 01:15:30.000
Houtenbrink regaled the jury with the fighting
habits of diamondbacks and sidewinder rattlesnakes. Quote.

853
01:15:30.039 --> 01:15:34.239
Sometimes they draw back their heads first
and then strike out for three quarters

854
01:15:34.239 --> 01:15:40.239
of their lengths, said Kirby,
the long beach expert. Sometimes they just

855
01:15:40.279 --> 01:15:44.359
slap up and down with open mouth, their heads moving only four or five

856
01:15:44.399 --> 01:15:48.520
inches. Under questioning my attorney Clark, he disclosed that the point of a

857
01:15:48.560 --> 01:15:54.680
fang is fifty one times sharper than
that of a hypodermic needle. Quote.

858
01:15:54.880 --> 01:15:59.079
If the snake strikes a solid blow, the fang goes into its full depth.

859
01:15:59.359 --> 01:16:02.079
I've seen it sinking so deep that
the short feeding teeth have left an

860
01:16:02.079 --> 01:16:09.560
impression unquote. Clark asked him how
many rattlesnake victims he had seen. Kirby

861
01:16:09.640 --> 01:16:14.560
answered, quote ten or twelve.
Three of them died. One a five

862
01:16:14.640 --> 01:16:17.439
year old girl was struck on the
arm. A young woman in Texas was

863
01:16:17.479 --> 01:16:23.920
struck on the leg unquote. Kirby
said most rattlesnakes are peaceful and seek to

864
01:16:23.960 --> 01:16:28.560
avoid comment, but added, quote, there are exceptions. You take Texas

865
01:16:28.640 --> 01:16:33.000
rattlers. They won't back up hardly
at all unquote. He described the difference

866
01:16:33.039 --> 01:16:39.079
between the diamondbacks he said he sold
hope and the smaller sidewinders, and told

867
01:16:39.119 --> 01:16:44.239
of experimenting on dogs with crystallized snake
venom, and described a fatal dose of

868
01:16:44.319 --> 01:16:50.119
poison quote. About one milligram of
poison to each pound in the body of

869
01:16:50.159 --> 01:16:56.039
the person bitten is generally fatal.
The amount injected in the size of the

870
01:16:56.079 --> 01:17:00.880
person struck, Besides whether the victim
will die, Clark questioned Kirby about his

871
01:17:01.000 --> 01:17:06.520
experience, his reading on snake subjects, and his formal training. The herpetologist

872
01:17:06.560 --> 01:17:13.119
said he had obtained most of his
learning through experiment. Question did you ever

873
01:17:13.199 --> 01:17:17.880
read the articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Answer? I don't go for that

874
01:17:18.000 --> 01:17:24.239
stuff at all. Question what sort
of a wound does a snake's fangs leave?

875
01:17:25.279 --> 01:17:30.960
Answer a small puncture. Question Is
there ever a sliced wound? Answer

876
01:17:30.359 --> 01:17:34.159
yes, if the point of the
fang drags across the skin of the victim,

877
01:17:34.479 --> 01:17:42.520
but the fang has no cutting edge
itself. That testimony was considered important.

878
01:17:42.920 --> 01:17:47.159
The autopsy showed that Missus James's great
toe was both punctured and sliced,

879
01:17:47.439 --> 01:17:51.840
as if struck by a glancing blow. There was only one puncture and a

880
01:17:51.960 --> 01:17:58.520
slice. Kirby said, I've seen
cases where only one fang struck the victim.

881
01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:03.000
Houghton Brings followed Kirby to the stand
quote. I sold Charles Hope two

882
01:18:03.079 --> 01:18:08.039
diamondback rattlers on August third. I
marked it in my book. I sold

883
01:18:08.079 --> 01:18:13.159
them for three dollars. Question by
Deputy District Attorney Williams. What did Hope

884
01:18:13.199 --> 01:18:16.680
say to you? Answer? He
said he bought some snakes other places and

885
01:18:16.720 --> 01:18:20.359
they weren't hot. He said he
wanted some hot ones. He told me

886
01:18:20.399 --> 01:18:26.359
he wanted to kill a dog and
win a bet. Holt and Brink then

887
01:18:26.439 --> 01:18:30.760
told the jury that Hope returned with
the snakes and received a dollar fifty refund

888
01:18:30.760 --> 01:18:34.479
on August fourth. Quote. I
know very well it was August fourth because

889
01:18:34.479 --> 01:18:41.399
my mother in law was there.
Question by Clark, did Hope appear intoxicated?

890
01:18:42.479 --> 01:18:45.680
Answer? I drink myself, and
I don't consider a man intoxicated after

891
01:18:45.720 --> 01:18:48.840
he's had two or three drinks.
Come to think of it, I think

892
01:18:48.880 --> 01:18:54.359
we had something to drink together ourselves. I think we drank a beer together.

893
01:18:54.840 --> 01:18:58.640
Clark asked the witness if he had
been paid by the prosecution for advice

894
01:18:58.680 --> 01:19:02.920
and testimony. Answer no, question. Do you expect to be paid?

895
01:19:03.439 --> 01:19:08.720
Answer? I'm pretty well broke myself. I expect a dollar seventy five a

896
01:19:08.840 --> 01:19:12.159
day as a witness. Is that
not correct? Late in the day,

897
01:19:12.319 --> 01:19:15.880
when insurance men were called to the
witness stand, Lewis Barry of the Mutual

898
01:19:15.960 --> 01:19:21.560
Life Insurance Company of New York told
of insuring Missus James for five thousand dollars.

899
01:19:23.119 --> 01:19:27.960
He said the barber was curious regarding
double indemnity payments in case of accidental

900
01:19:28.039 --> 01:19:32.079
death. He also testified that James
insisted on what is known as a half

901
01:19:32.159 --> 01:19:38.359
price policy, meaning a policy on
which small premiums are paid the first three

902
01:19:38.479 --> 01:19:48.640
years and larger ones thereafter. June
thirtieth, nineteen thirty six, like a

903
01:19:48.640 --> 01:19:55.640
wheel within a wheel. The death
of Winona Wallace James, third wife of

904
01:19:55.720 --> 01:20:00.279
Robert James, was described by the
prosecution yesterday in and its attempts to prove

905
01:20:00.399 --> 01:20:06.880
the barber murdered his fifth wife,
Mary Bush James. The defense strenuously objected,

906
01:20:06.960 --> 01:20:12.600
and Superior Judge Frickey ordered the jurors
out of the courtroom, while deputy

907
01:20:12.600 --> 01:20:18.000
district attorneys Williams and Barnes offered to
prove their evidence as admissible. They proposed

908
01:20:18.039 --> 01:20:24.239
to show that James murdered both his
wives for the same mode of insurance and

909
01:20:24.279 --> 01:20:29.880
by the same method bathtub drowning.
Barnes said, quote for the death of

910
01:20:29.960 --> 01:20:35.079
Winona four years ago in a Manitou, Colorado cabin, James received fourteen thousand

911
01:20:35.159 --> 01:20:42.000
dollars insurance for the death of Mary
in their honeymoon cottage at Lacrescinta last August.

912
01:20:42.319 --> 01:20:46.439
He sought twenty one four hundred dollars
insurance and received three thousand, five

913
01:20:46.520 --> 01:20:53.199
hundred dollars. Wainona was found submerged
in a tub of water curiously enough,

914
01:20:53.279 --> 01:20:58.039
with a grocery boy for witness,
and Mary was found drowned in the fishpond

915
01:20:58.079 --> 01:21:03.079
of their home, also in the
presence of a witness. The prosecution further

916
01:21:03.119 --> 01:21:09.119
contends that James drowned Mary in the
bathtub of their home and then carried her,

917
01:21:09.199 --> 01:21:13.680
already dead, to the fish pond
and later in the water in semblance

918
01:21:13.720 --> 01:21:19.399
of an accident. Arrival of five
witnesses from Colorado to testify concerning the death

919
01:21:19.399 --> 01:21:26.279
of Weyna precipitated the argument. J. A. Rogers, superintendent of Pike's

920
01:21:26.279 --> 01:21:30.880
Peak Highway, was called to the
stand in question concerning an automobile accident which

921
01:21:30.920 --> 01:21:36.880
took place September twenty one, nineteen
thirty two. In this accident, Winona

922
01:21:38.039 --> 01:21:42.399
was almost killed. Barnes began a
line of questioning which was to lead to

923
01:21:42.439 --> 01:21:46.840
the supposition that James deliberately drove the
car off the cliff on a mountain highway

924
01:21:47.239 --> 01:21:54.079
in an attempt to kill his wife. Hardly had he begun questioning when defense

925
01:21:54.159 --> 01:21:59.640
attorneys sprang to their feet, sputtering
objections. The jurors were ordered out.

926
01:22:00.720 --> 01:22:04.079
James, dressed in a new checked
gray suit, which he had demanded from

927
01:22:04.119 --> 01:22:12.079
his attorneys, showed lively interest in
the legal technicalities which followed. He fastened

928
01:22:12.079 --> 01:22:15.880
his attention on Barnes and seemed jarred
out of apathy with which he has listened

929
01:22:15.880 --> 01:22:21.039
to testimony. His face was expressionless, however, when Barnes declared he would

930
01:22:21.039 --> 01:22:27.319
attempt to show that James struck Winona
over the head before driving the car over

931
01:22:27.359 --> 01:22:32.760
the cliff, Barnes took the stand
himself to read portions of the evidence taken

932
01:22:32.800 --> 01:22:38.800
at the trial of the Occidental Life
of Los Angeles seeking to cancel its policy

933
01:22:38.840 --> 01:22:45.239
on Missus James following her death.
He read James's testimony regarding a fake marriage

934
01:22:45.279 --> 01:22:50.039
with Mary Bush James. At the
previous trial, James was asked, when

935
01:22:50.079 --> 01:22:55.840
did you begin living with Mary James
as husband and wife? Answer? We

936
01:22:55.920 --> 01:23:00.159
have been living together as husband and
wife since May ninth, nineteen thirty.

937
01:23:00.119 --> 01:23:05.880
Question what caused you to have this
ceremony? Performed answer, Well, we

938
01:23:05.960 --> 01:23:10.319
had been going together and we wanted
to live together. I knew we could

939
01:23:10.319 --> 01:23:15.640
not be married because I was already
married. Question was there any preceding pending

940
01:23:15.760 --> 01:23:20.079
regarding this earlier marriage? Answer?
Yes, I had an annulment pending.

941
01:23:20.800 --> 01:23:26.319
He was asked why he decided on
the fake marriage and answered, I decided

942
01:23:26.359 --> 01:23:29.920
I would have to figure out some
way to make her satisfied to live with

943
01:23:30.000 --> 01:23:32.680
me. I knew she wouldn't unless
she thought she was married. The way

944
01:23:32.720 --> 01:23:35.720
I figured it out was that I
would get this man to marry us,

945
01:23:36.000 --> 01:23:40.079
and I would not tell her.
Then I would tell her when I got

946
01:23:40.119 --> 01:23:45.000
the annulment, and we would really
get married. Question you did get married,

947
01:23:45.039 --> 01:23:49.680
didn't you? Answer? Yes on
July nineteenth and Santa Anna answer who

948
01:23:49.720 --> 01:23:55.199
performed this ceremony? Answer? It
was a man named Regal. I don't

949
01:23:55.279 --> 01:24:03.159
know his first name. July one, nineteen thirty. Cut by the whiplash

950
01:24:03.199 --> 01:24:10.039
of new and terrible accusations, Robert
James, the barber, broke through his

951
01:24:10.199 --> 01:24:15.239
shell of sneering calm for the first
time. Anger pumped a bright color into

952
01:24:15.239 --> 01:24:20.600
his pale cheeks. He flared up
like a mad red haired boy. His

953
01:24:20.760 --> 01:24:27.560
lethargy and stoicism evaporated, and he
ejaculated. It isn't fair, It isn't

954
01:24:27.680 --> 01:24:33.439
right. Then, with lively gestures
and his expression protesting, he whispered excitedly

955
01:24:33.479 --> 01:24:40.720
in the ears of defense attorneys.
The transformation stole years from James's face and

956
01:24:40.840 --> 01:24:45.640
came as deputy district attorneys Williams and
Barnes began their attempt to prove he murdered

957
01:24:45.680 --> 01:24:53.399
his third wife, Guina no Wallace
James in Colorado four years ago by automobile

958
01:24:53.520 --> 01:25:00.880
accident and bathtub drowning. In fearsome
procession, the ghosts the famous mass murders

959
01:25:01.000 --> 01:25:06.960
and their victims were paraded before the
court as prosecution and defense came to grips

960
01:25:06.960 --> 01:25:13.760
on the propriety of proving one crime
by evidence of another. In a brilliant,

961
01:25:14.119 --> 01:25:20.119
lucid hour long dissertation enlivened with gruesome
accounts of murder and series, Barnes

962
01:25:20.159 --> 01:25:26.960
contended that such evidence is admissible.
He cited from outstanding cases in the past

963
01:25:27.560 --> 01:25:32.000
with bulldog tenacity and with equally harrowing
citations from the past, but pointing to

964
01:25:32.039 --> 01:25:39.359
an opposite ruling, Clark stubbornly fought
Barnes all the way. The struggle came

965
01:25:39.399 --> 01:25:44.119
to an end at mid morning,
after dragging through virtually all the previous afternoon's

966
01:25:44.279 --> 01:25:48.880
sessions, Judge Frickie gave his opinion
briefly and simply. He said he would

967
01:25:48.880 --> 01:25:54.640
give no formal opinion at that time, but would rule the evidence admissible.

968
01:25:55.600 --> 01:26:00.399
Clark sprang to his feet and almost
triumphantly announced he considered reversal in a higher

969
01:26:00.479 --> 01:26:04.760
court a likelihood. He said he
was so confident that he probably would not

970
01:26:04.840 --> 01:26:11.520
put James on trial for his sanity
if convicted. Instead, he said he

971
01:26:11.520 --> 01:26:16.000
may appeal directly from the present trial, contending the Colorado evidence not admissible.

972
01:26:16.880 --> 01:26:23.880
Ja Rogers, superintendent of the Pike's
Peak Highway, was the first Colorado witness

973
01:26:23.960 --> 01:26:28.000
to go to the stand. With
a few words, he pulled back the

974
01:26:28.079 --> 01:26:32.239
curtain. The jurors looked across four
years to the tableau that was played one

975
01:26:32.279 --> 01:26:39.479
September evening on the rugged side of
Pike's Peak. Rogers said, quote,

976
01:26:39.880 --> 01:26:44.399
I was down at Glen Cove.
Mister James came down there and reported an

977
01:26:44.479 --> 01:26:48.640
accident. He said his wife was
driving. We went up the highway about

978
01:26:48.640 --> 01:26:54.119
two miles in a truck. James
pointed to a switchback and said that that's

979
01:26:54.119 --> 01:26:59.399
where the car went over. We
went down to the car missus James was

980
01:26:59.479 --> 01:27:02.119
lying out side the car on the
right side. Her head was on the

981
01:27:02.119 --> 01:27:06.319
ground and her feet were on the
running board. I knelt down to find

982
01:27:06.319 --> 01:27:11.399
out if she was dead. My
face was about five feet from hers.

983
01:27:12.680 --> 01:27:18.560
Question did you notice anything down there? Answer? I smelled liquor. Question

984
01:27:19.159 --> 01:27:25.079
was it strong or weak? Answer? It was strong. I put both

985
01:27:25.159 --> 01:27:28.680
my hands back of her head to
lift her and felt a soft spot behind

986
01:27:28.680 --> 01:27:34.439
her ear. Question where was mister
James at this time? Answer? He

987
01:27:34.520 --> 01:27:41.199
was sitting on a rock twenty feet
away. Question did his breath smell of

988
01:27:41.319 --> 01:27:45.880
liquor? Answer? No, He
told the jury he went back up the

989
01:27:45.960 --> 01:27:51.000
hillside after Missus James was put in
an ambulance and examined the tracks where the

990
01:27:51.039 --> 01:27:57.600
car went over the bank quote.
For eighty feet alongside the tire tracks from

991
01:27:57.640 --> 01:28:00.680
the edge of the road, I
traced footprints. They were on the driver's

992
01:28:00.680 --> 01:28:05.800
side of the car eighty feet from
the edge. These footprints curved around and

993
01:28:05.880 --> 01:28:11.840
came down the passenger side of the
car unquote. Barnes asked him about the

994
01:28:11.880 --> 01:28:15.199
condition of Missus James's clothes, and
he said they were smeared with blood.

995
01:28:15.720 --> 01:28:18.800
He said there was blood on the
back of the cushion on the seat and

996
01:28:18.840 --> 01:28:24.560
on the floorboards. He said he
found a bottle containing a red fluid that

997
01:28:24.680 --> 01:28:30.239
smelled like whiskey. Those were the
facts, he told by a chain of

998
01:28:30.279 --> 01:28:34.760
deductive reasoning. The prosecution fills in
the picture and contends this is what happened

999
01:28:34.760 --> 01:28:41.079
on the Pike's Peak Highway that evening. James, seeking to murder his wife

1000
01:28:41.119 --> 01:28:45.880
for fourteen thousand dollars insurance money,
took her up Pike's Peak and gave her

1001
01:28:45.960 --> 01:28:49.399
liquor until she was unconscious. He
drove her to the switchback and stopped the

1002
01:28:49.439 --> 01:28:55.039
car eighty feet from the point where
it pitched over the edge. He took

1003
01:28:55.079 --> 01:28:58.800
the hammer and got out of the
car. He walked around to the passenger

1004
01:28:58.880 --> 01:29:02.640
side of the car, leaving the
footprints Rogers observed he struck his wife over

1005
01:29:02.680 --> 01:29:06.520
the head with the hammer, making
the soft spot. Rogers said he felt

1006
01:29:06.560 --> 01:29:11.600
behind her ear. He returned to
the driver's side of the car and put

1007
01:29:11.600 --> 01:29:15.680
the machine in low gear, then
hopped out as it moved forward, leaving

1008
01:29:15.720 --> 01:29:20.560
more footprints as he walked alongside the
slowly moving car, guiding it over the

1009
01:29:20.720 --> 01:29:26.479
edge. All this time, blood
flowed from his wife's head, staining the

1010
01:29:26.479 --> 01:29:30.960
cushion on the passenger's side. The
prosecution contends that had mine own had been

1011
01:29:31.039 --> 01:29:34.279
driving, she would not have been
on the right side, but on the

1012
01:29:34.359 --> 01:29:41.720
left side behind the wheel. Rogers
was asked the condition of James's clothes by

1013
01:29:41.760 --> 01:29:45.600
Barnes, who emphasized the point quote
they were neat. I asked him how

1014
01:29:45.680 --> 01:29:49.319
far he had gone down with the
car, and he told me fifty feet.

1015
01:29:49.800 --> 01:29:54.079
I said to him, you must
have made a perfect landing. He

1016
01:29:54.119 --> 01:29:59.039
said to me he didn't know.
Unquote. Rogers was not asked whether he

1017
01:29:59.079 --> 01:30:04.119
had informed Miss James of his findings
regarding the hammer. The prosecution contends she

1018
01:30:04.199 --> 01:30:10.079
never knew she had been hit because
she was unconsciously intoxicated at the time.

1019
01:30:10.800 --> 01:30:15.239
Miss Grace Yarnew, Winona's cousin,
followed him to the stand. She told

1020
01:30:15.279 --> 01:30:19.600
of seeing Winona in the hospital after
the accident, and later of coming to

1021
01:30:19.680 --> 01:30:26.920
the mountain cabin at Manitu where she
was drowned. Questioned by Barnes, did

1022
01:30:26.960 --> 01:30:30.840
Wynona ever appear dizzy or faint?
Answer, No, she did not.

1023
01:30:32.000 --> 01:30:38.079
James told authorities that his wife fell
into the bathtub and drowned because she was

1024
01:30:38.159 --> 01:30:50.079
subject to fainting spells. After the
accident, Robert James, fleeing down the

1025
01:30:50.119 --> 01:30:57.279
shadowy slopes of Pike's Peak and trembling
fear of mountain lions was described at the

1026
01:30:57.319 --> 01:31:03.560
barber's murder trial, and meanwhile unconscious
at the sight of the wrecked automobile and

1027
01:31:03.720 --> 01:31:10.359
easy prey, he had left his
wife Guanona to the peril he himself feared.

1028
01:31:15.920 --> 01:31:21.000
Alba Custer, Colorado's springs hotel man
went to the witness stand during the

1029
01:31:21.119 --> 01:31:27.800
day at James's trial and gave this
testimony quote. He spoke later of his

1030
01:31:27.920 --> 01:31:30.600
not knowing what to do, whether
to wait for help to come, that

1031
01:31:30.720 --> 01:31:34.000
a car might pass by, or
to leave her there, and that he

1032
01:31:34.119 --> 01:31:39.079
was rather afraid to do either one
due to the fact that he'd lost his

1033
01:31:39.159 --> 01:31:53.520
gun and was afraid of mountain lions. James's lips curled in a mocking smile

1034
01:31:53.960 --> 01:31:59.520
as that picturesque account was given.
A new love tale about the amorous barber

1035
01:31:59.560 --> 01:32:05.199
preceded this fragment of testimony and his
sensation shot day. A fragile, timid

1036
01:32:05.239 --> 01:32:11.760
girl, Grace Yarnell, first cousin
of Winona, told how James kissed her

1037
01:32:11.760 --> 01:32:15.439
while Wenona was in the hospital with
a fractured skull after the accident, which

1038
01:32:15.479 --> 01:32:23.159
the prosecution contends was no accident but
a murder plot. The serial story of

1039
01:32:23.199 --> 01:32:29.439
Winona's death and James's actions while she
was recovering from her automobile injuries was revealed.

1040
01:32:29.479 --> 01:32:33.079
When miss Yarnell took the stand.
She was neatly dressed in a white

1041
01:32:33.159 --> 01:32:39.079
dress and white hat, flushing slightly
as she felt the courtroom's eyes upon her.

1042
01:32:39.640 --> 01:32:44.479
Barnes troubled her embarrassment with his first
question, On any occasions when you

1043
01:32:44.520 --> 01:32:47.239
were alone with mister James during the
time his wife was in the hospital,

1044
01:32:47.600 --> 01:32:53.479
did he make advances to you?
She looked as sheepish as a schoolgirl caught

1045
01:32:53.560 --> 01:32:58.600
reading a forbidden book. Her lips
moved, and defense attorney Clark demanded the

1046
01:32:58.680 --> 01:33:03.479
question be answered more. She said, desperately, not with the exception of

1047
01:33:03.520 --> 01:33:10.680
a few kisses. James head raised, half smiling, appraised her with his

1048
01:33:10.800 --> 01:33:15.880
eyes. He watched her, coolly, rested and fresh, wearing his new

1049
01:33:15.960 --> 01:33:23.319
gray suit. Barnes asked when answer. I believe it was one afternoon when

1050
01:33:23.359 --> 01:33:27.520
we were going somewhere in my car, three or four days after missus James

1051
01:33:27.600 --> 01:33:31.279
was hurt when her car ran off
the highway, question, what did you

1052
01:33:31.399 --> 01:33:36.279
do? Answer? I moved out
of the way. The next time,

1053
01:33:36.399 --> 01:33:41.159
she said, was a couple of
days later, also in the automobile.

1054
01:33:42.000 --> 01:33:45.960
Question. Was there any other occasion? Answer? Yes, once in a

1055
01:33:46.039 --> 01:33:51.520
hotel room. Question and what did
you do upon this occasion? Answer?

1056
01:33:53.119 --> 01:33:58.239
I told him to cut it out? James looked on appraisingly. She said

1057
01:33:58.279 --> 01:34:01.960
it was in his room at the
Elks ho Tell Parsons, cross examiner for

1058
01:34:02.000 --> 01:34:08.239
the defense, question, when James
and your cousin Wynona first came to visit

1059
01:34:08.319 --> 01:34:12.680
you, you kissed them upon their
arrival? Did you not answer? I

1060
01:34:12.800 --> 01:34:17.399
kissed Winona, not James. He
dropped this line of questioning momentarily and asked

1061
01:34:17.399 --> 01:34:21.520
her if James did not stay devotedly
all night beside the bed of his wife

1062
01:34:21.920 --> 01:34:27.520
when she was in the hospital.
Answer, I couldn't say, but he

1063
01:34:27.600 --> 01:34:30.520
was still in the room with her
a number of times when we left.

1064
01:34:30.199 --> 01:34:35.439
Parsons then asked about a letter which
was introduced into evidence, addressed to the

1065
01:34:35.520 --> 01:34:41.319
Kansas City Life Insurance Company, signed
Robert S. James. It was dated

1066
01:34:41.359 --> 01:34:45.479
October fifteenth, nineteen thirty two,
the day after Winona's body was found in

1067
01:34:45.560 --> 01:34:50.720
the tub. It asked for the
proper forms for applying for payment as beneficiary.

1068
01:34:53.000 --> 01:34:57.760
Question you wrote that at mister James's
request, because he doesn't use very

1069
01:34:57.760 --> 01:35:01.920
good English and is a man of
little leedgit occasion. Answer yes, I

1070
01:35:01.920 --> 01:35:05.720
wrote a few other letters for him
too. Question. When all of you

1071
01:35:05.800 --> 01:35:10.319
went down to the train to see
James off for Los Angeles, he kissed

1072
01:35:10.359 --> 01:35:14.279
you goodbye? Did he not answer? Yes? He did. He then

1073
01:35:14.399 --> 01:35:17.319
asked her if she looked up James
when she came to Los Angeles. She

1074
01:35:17.399 --> 01:35:21.279
said she hadn't, but that he
came to see her she denied, asking

1075
01:35:21.359 --> 01:35:27.279
him to see if he couldn't locate
her a job as a stenographer. Quote.

1076
01:35:27.560 --> 01:35:30.079
I believe I mentioned one time that
if I found work in Los Angeles,

1077
01:35:30.079 --> 01:35:35.199
I would stay here. Unquote Rogers. The grocery boy followed her on

1078
01:35:35.239 --> 01:35:40.239
the stand. He got mixed up
and sat in the court reporter's chair.

1079
01:35:40.359 --> 01:35:44.119
First, he said he was no
relative of J. A. Rodgers,

1080
01:35:44.239 --> 01:35:47.840
the superintendent of the Pike's Peak Highway, who the day before had testified about

1081
01:35:47.880 --> 01:35:53.560
the automobile accident. The grocery boy
told what he knew of the drowning.

1082
01:35:53.680 --> 01:35:58.000
Quote. James came to Leonard's grocery
store and ordered some groceries and said he'd

1083
01:35:58.079 --> 01:36:00.520
ride up to his cabin with me
in the truck. He went into the

1084
01:36:00.520 --> 01:36:04.119
house first, and I went into
the kitchen with the groceries. He went

1085
01:36:04.159 --> 01:36:10.760
into the bedroom unquote. At Barnes's
request, Rogers drew a floor plan of

1086
01:36:10.760 --> 01:36:15.239
the house. It showed the bedroom
separated from the kitchen by the bathroom.

1087
01:36:15.720 --> 01:36:18.720
But James, instead of going directly
from the bedroom into the bathroom, according

1088
01:36:18.720 --> 01:36:24.199
to Roger's testimony, walked around through
the living room and dining room to the

1089
01:36:24.279 --> 01:36:29.600
kitchen first quote. Then he opened
the bathroom door. I heard him call

1090
01:36:29.640 --> 01:36:32.640
out. I went to the door. Question and what did you see?

1091
01:36:32.960 --> 01:36:39.359
Answer? I saw missus James.
Question where was she? Answer? She

1092
01:36:39.479 --> 01:36:43.119
was in the bathtub. Her head
was at the faucet end, her legs

1093
01:36:43.159 --> 01:36:47.520
over the rounded edge at the opposite
end. Question was she clothed or naked?

1094
01:36:48.359 --> 01:36:53.000
Answer? She was naked. She
was lying on her back, Her

1095
01:36:53.039 --> 01:36:57.119
hips and her shoulders were on the
bottom of the tub. It was almost

1096
01:36:57.159 --> 01:37:01.439
half full of water. Question where
was the water in relation to her face?

1097
01:37:02.159 --> 01:37:06.520
Answer? It barely covered it.
Question what did you and James do?

1098
01:37:06.760 --> 01:37:11.920
Then? Answer? We carried her
to the bedroom and laid her on

1099
01:37:12.000 --> 01:37:15.880
the bed. Doctor George B.
Gilmore, who was coroner at the time

1100
01:37:15.920 --> 01:37:23.000
of Winona's death, told an interesting
story about insurance and altered death certificates.

1101
01:37:23.520 --> 01:37:27.119
He said that after first observing the
body, he put down the cause of

1102
01:37:27.199 --> 01:37:31.640
death to accidental drowning. Some time
later, he said, James wrote letters

1103
01:37:31.680 --> 01:37:39.279
from Los Angeles to Missus James's physician
and to the undertaking establishment requesting that steps

1104
01:37:39.319 --> 01:37:44.960
be taken to alter the cause of
death. Doctor Gilmore said quote he wanted

1105
01:37:45.000 --> 01:37:48.640
it to read death as the result
of accidental drowning, with head injuries as

1106
01:37:48.680 --> 01:37:55.520
a contributory cause. He explained that
the insurance policy on his wife's life had

1107
01:37:55.560 --> 01:38:00.680
a clause preventing collection of double indemnity
in case of accidental death, but he

1108
01:38:00.760 --> 01:38:04.159
said that if it could be shown
that the drowning was caused by the injuries

1109
01:38:04.199 --> 01:38:10.279
she received in the automobile accident,
that he could collect the double indemnity.

1110
01:38:11.520 --> 01:38:18.079
Doctor Gilmore said he made the requested
change and the death certificate July third,

1111
01:38:18.720 --> 01:38:26.079
nineteen thirty six. It was on
August fifth, last year that the body

1112
01:38:26.079 --> 01:38:30.039
of Mary Bush James was found in
the fish pond of her locrecent to home.

1113
01:38:31.479 --> 01:38:38.279
Missus Madge, read spirited young governess
went to the witness stand yesterday and

1114
01:38:38.319 --> 01:38:44.279
testified that on the following August eleventh, Robert James, the barber, approached

1115
01:38:44.279 --> 01:38:48.560
her with a proposal of marriage.
Quote. He said he didn't believe in

1116
01:38:48.680 --> 01:38:53.600
mourning over the dead, and as
soon as he buried his wife and collected

1117
01:38:53.600 --> 01:38:58.920
the insurance, he wanted me to
marry him and go north unquote. No

1118
01:38:59.039 --> 01:39:02.760
sooner had she given the testimony,
then she accused James of offering her two

1119
01:39:02.800 --> 01:39:09.760
thousand dollars to give false testimony in
case there was an investigation into his wife's

1120
01:39:09.800 --> 01:39:15.239
death. She said he wanted her
to testify she had seen Missus James alive

1121
01:39:15.720 --> 01:39:20.880
the morning prior to the evening she
was found dead. Those spectacular fragments of

1122
01:39:20.960 --> 01:39:27.760
testimony exploded in the face of the
defense as they vainly sought to have it

1123
01:39:27.880 --> 01:39:33.840
ruled inadmissible. Missus reed, Cool, in a white dress with flount sleeves

1124
01:39:33.880 --> 01:39:38.840
and a perk turn up hat,
was summoned to testify on a day of

1125
01:39:38.880 --> 01:39:46.479
interminable wranglings over technicalities between the deputy
district attorneys and defense attorneys. Williams questioned

1126
01:39:46.520 --> 01:39:54.159
her and asked when she first met
James quote the afternoon of July tenth last

1127
01:39:54.239 --> 01:39:58.520
year at a cafe. My girlfriend
met him first and brought him over when

1128
01:39:58.520 --> 01:40:01.079
he said he wanted to meet me. We had a few drinks with him

1129
01:40:01.119 --> 01:40:06.399
and stayed until about five p m. He was quite intoxicated and asked my

1130
01:40:06.479 --> 01:40:11.880
girlfriend and I to drive him home. He told us he was from Kansas

1131
01:40:11.960 --> 01:40:16.119
City and he lived with his sister
on Verdugo Road in La Canada. We

1132
01:40:16.239 --> 01:40:20.279
drove him out there. He went
right into the bedroom, saying he was

1133
01:40:20.319 --> 01:40:25.600
going to sleep. He told me
to take the car and go get dinner

1134
01:40:25.920 --> 01:40:30.439
and that maybe he would be feeling
better when I got back. Question and

1135
01:40:30.520 --> 01:40:34.039
did you return there that night?
Answer? Yes, I did. Then

1136
01:40:34.079 --> 01:40:39.000
I saw someone come in the door. She called, oh, honey before

1137
01:40:39.039 --> 01:40:43.800
she came in. It was a
woman, I think his wife. Unquote.

1138
01:40:44.640 --> 01:40:49.039
Defense attorney Clark Rose strenuously objecting to
Missus Reed, testifying as to who

1139
01:40:49.159 --> 01:40:56.359
she thought the woman to be.
Not understanding courtroom procedure, Missus Reed became

1140
01:40:56.439 --> 01:41:00.840
annoyed and in the hubbub of voices
including the judges, exclaimed, well,

1141
01:41:00.840 --> 01:41:06.560
I tell you it was his wife. Superior Court Judge Frickie Clark and Williams

1142
01:41:06.680 --> 01:41:14.279
simultaneously ordered strike it from the testimony. Missus Reed told the court that mister

1143
01:41:14.399 --> 01:41:17.479
James then drove her to the bus
line at Montrose and left her. She

1144
01:41:17.560 --> 01:41:23.079
said she didn't see him again until
August eleventh, but that he telephoned numerous

1145
01:41:23.159 --> 01:41:28.680
times asking for engagements. Quote.
He apologized for taking me out there,

1146
01:41:28.760 --> 01:41:31.479
saying he didn't expect his wife home
because she was supposed to be at a

1147
01:41:31.520 --> 01:41:36.319
convention in Long Beach on August eleventh. He asked if I read the papers.

1148
01:41:36.880 --> 01:41:40.720
I told him yes, and he
said not to believe everything I read

1149
01:41:40.760 --> 01:41:44.680
about his wife's death. He said
they were trying to frame him. He

1150
01:41:44.760 --> 01:41:46.880
asked to come up to my apartment. I asked him not to, but

1151
01:41:46.960 --> 01:41:51.840
he came anyway. Unquote. It
was at this time missus Reid said that

1152
01:41:51.960 --> 01:41:57.399
James offered to marry her as soon
as the insurance was collected and his wife

1153
01:41:57.479 --> 01:42:02.600
buried. Question did you talk of
anything else? Answer yes, He said

1154
01:42:02.640 --> 01:42:06.239
if he was indicted, he wanted
to spring me as a surprise witness.

1155
01:42:06.680 --> 01:42:11.439
He said he would pay me two
thousand dollars if I would testify that on

1156
01:42:11.479 --> 01:42:14.760
the morning of her death. I
happened to go by their home and saw

1157
01:42:14.800 --> 01:42:17.239
her on the porch and stopped.
He told me to say that she was

1158
01:42:17.319 --> 01:42:21.479
lying on the swing and complaining of
not feeling well. Above all, he

1159
01:42:21.560 --> 01:42:27.279
said, don't mention that she had
a sore on her leg. Question what

1160
01:42:27.399 --> 01:42:31.239
else did you do? Answer?
We went to hermosa. Her voice fell

1161
01:42:31.479 --> 01:42:36.680
and she blushed. Question, and
what did you do at hermosa? Answer?

1162
01:42:36.920 --> 01:42:41.760
We registered at a hotel, as
mister, missus Joseph Wright of San

1163
01:42:41.840 --> 01:42:47.119
Francisco. Question, Then what did
you do? She laughed a bit nervously.

1164
01:42:47.680 --> 01:42:50.640
Answer. We went up to the
room and talked, mostly about his

1165
01:42:50.720 --> 01:42:56.640
troubles and about my being a witness
for him. Question did you spend the

1166
01:42:56.680 --> 01:43:01.680
rest of the night at the hotel? Answer? Yes. James tilted back

1167
01:43:01.720 --> 01:43:08.319
in his chair and laughed. He
clapped Silverman on the back. Throughout the

1168
01:43:08.439 --> 01:43:13.680
day he was in unusually good spirits. As insurance men took the stand,

1169
01:43:14.439 --> 01:43:21.319
he repeatedly whispered to his attorneys and
advised them as to questions to ask nexts.

1170
01:43:23.039 --> 01:43:27.119
Let me ask you a question.
Do podcast commercials get on your last

1171
01:43:27.199 --> 01:43:30.880
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to get around it? How to listen

1172
01:43:30.920 --> 01:43:36.720
to this high quality podcast without commercial
interruption. What you do is get online

1173
01:43:36.800 --> 01:43:45.399
and go to www dot patreon dot
com slash True Crime Historian. That'll take

1174
01:43:45.439 --> 01:43:49.880
you to a place we call the
safe House. If you'll drop a few

1175
01:43:49.920 --> 01:43:54.640
bucks in the kitty. Every month, you can listen to the latest release

1176
01:43:54.720 --> 01:44:00.760
from the safe House vault commercial free. Plus you get access to hundreds,

1177
01:44:00.039 --> 01:44:06.159
I mean literally hundreds of hours of
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1178
01:44:06.520 --> 01:44:10.720
Just kick in a few bucks to
help keep the lights on. That's all

1179
01:44:11.399 --> 01:44:19.560
commercial free. Www dot patreon dot
com slash True Crime Historian. Go ahead,

1180
01:44:19.840 --> 01:44:30.000
I Dare you. July sixth,
nineteen thirty six. A whirlwind of

1181
01:44:30.079 --> 01:44:35.479
angry passion tore through the Rattlesnake murder
trial yesterday. A few minutes before Robert

1182
01:44:35.600 --> 01:44:41.600
James, the Barber went to the
witness stand and testified it was the memory

1183
01:44:41.640 --> 01:44:45.800
of a beating he said he received
that led two weeks later to his purported

1184
01:44:45.880 --> 01:44:53.760
confession of murder. Caught up in
their own high feelings, superior judged Fricky,

1185
01:44:53.840 --> 01:44:59.239
and attorneys on both sides vehemently sought
to shout one another down as the

1186
01:44:59.279 --> 01:45:04.560
defense made its desperate stand against admission
of the murder statement as evidence. James's

1187
01:45:04.560 --> 01:45:10.079
attorneys had determined to put him and
other defense witnesses on the stand in what

1188
01:45:10.239 --> 01:45:14.479
is known as a war year proceeding. This is admissible in an attempt to

1189
01:45:14.520 --> 01:45:20.000
exclude evidence even though the prosecution has
not concluded its case. The first gust

1190
01:45:20.079 --> 01:45:26.279
of ill feeling swept into the courtroom
after Jack. The first gust of ill

1191
01:45:26.399 --> 01:45:30.720
feeling swept into the courtroom after Captain
Jack Southard of the District Attorney's Bureau of

1192
01:45:30.720 --> 01:45:36.399
Investigation went to the stand for questioning. He was asked why he had slapped

1193
01:45:36.479 --> 01:45:42.079
James during the early part of the
investigation of the death of Mary Bush James

1194
01:45:42.079 --> 01:45:45.920
by drowning quote, James said to
me, I'm getting tired of being questioned.

1195
01:45:46.119 --> 01:45:50.039
She was nothing but a little I
got mad at that and lost my

1196
01:45:50.199 --> 01:45:56.960
temper and slapped him unquote. Defense
counsel Samuel Silverman, William J. Clark,

1197
01:45:57.000 --> 01:46:02.039
and Russell Parsons objected vigorously. James
himself said only one word. He

1198
01:46:02.159 --> 01:46:05.439
spoke it out of the side of
his mouth, as Southard quoted him,

1199
01:46:05.680 --> 01:46:12.720
but the word was not distinguishable.
Silverman, employing the Vardar proceeding, then

1200
01:46:12.800 --> 01:46:16.159
took the stand himself as a defense
witness, to give his version of the

1201
01:46:16.279 --> 01:46:21.199
abuse to which his client says he
was subjected. Under questioning by Williams,

1202
01:46:21.399 --> 01:46:29.439
he angrily sought to make explanation.
Williams leaned forward, shouting objections. Silverman

1203
01:46:29.560 --> 01:46:33.239
shouted back, and the judge joined
the shouting. The judge ordered Silverman to

1204
01:46:33.279 --> 01:46:38.079
be silent. The attorney said he
had a right to be heard. The

1205
01:46:38.199 --> 01:46:41.800
judge demanded, mister Silverman, are
you going to run this court room?

1206
01:46:41.920 --> 01:46:44.760
Or am I? I can make
it clear to you in a very few

1207
01:46:44.800 --> 01:46:49.600
minutes if you don't already know through
it all. His face unruffled, James

1208
01:46:49.680 --> 01:46:56.079
sat like a stone. Silverman went
on to testify. James's ears were blue

1209
01:46:56.119 --> 01:47:00.479
and swollen when he saw him in
May after the arrest during a mon quarrels

1210
01:47:00.560 --> 01:47:05.520
raid involving James's niece Lois Right.
James was then called to the stand.

1211
01:47:06.119 --> 01:47:11.800
He was erect and proud looking as
he walked across the courtroom, his face

1212
01:47:11.920 --> 01:47:16.159
deeply furrowed with fatigue. He stepped
to the witness chair and crossed his legs

1213
01:47:16.199 --> 01:47:23.079
carefully. Clark began the questioning.
He asked James where he had been beaten

1214
01:47:23.560 --> 01:47:29.319
in his nasal twanging voice. The
barber answered slowly and quietly. They took

1215
01:47:29.359 --> 01:47:32.840
me out to Lessalth Street in the
house where the dictographs were. That was

1216
01:47:32.880 --> 01:47:38.399
the day after I was arrested with
Lois. They pulled the shades down and

1217
01:47:38.479 --> 01:47:43.439
began questioning me. I answered everything
they asked me. They kept it up

1218
01:47:43.520 --> 01:47:48.079
constantly until Tuesday morning. Southard kept
wanting me to say I'd spent the night

1219
01:47:48.119 --> 01:47:53.960
with a woman in Hermosa Beach a
few days after my wife's death. I

1220
01:47:54.000 --> 01:47:58.720
didn't know anything about that. Finally
he got mad and said I was lying.

1221
01:47:59.279 --> 01:48:01.279
It was then he began beating me. He jumped on me in my

1222
01:48:01.439 --> 01:48:05.520
chair and beat me until I got
a grip on him. Charlie Griffin,

1223
01:48:05.560 --> 01:48:11.039
another investigator, knocked me loose.
I said there's no use hitting me anymore

1224
01:48:11.119 --> 01:48:15.000
because I'd say whatever they wanted about
spending a night with a woman, but

1225
01:48:15.079 --> 01:48:18.880
it didn't make any difference to them. Southard would hit me if I answered

1226
01:48:18.960 --> 01:48:25.319
yes to his questions or answered no. I collapsed about that time and didn't

1227
01:48:25.319 --> 01:48:30.600
know anything until the next day.
James then went on to say it was

1228
01:48:30.640 --> 01:48:35.399
the memory of this beating which led
to the asserted confession two weeks later.

1229
01:48:36.119 --> 01:48:40.319
He said he was in jail at
the time, early in the morning of

1230
01:48:40.359 --> 01:48:45.600
May second, when word was brought
to him that Charles Hope confessed accomplice,

1231
01:48:45.840 --> 01:48:51.039
had given a complete statement describing the
rattlesnake and drowning murder. James said he

1232
01:48:51.079 --> 01:48:56.199
told the officers at the time,
I have nothing to add to that confession.

1233
01:48:56.760 --> 01:49:00.000
Several hours later, he was taken
down to the District Attorney's office,

1234
01:49:00.119 --> 01:49:03.520
as he said, and there made
a lengthy statement which the prosecution seeks to

1235
01:49:03.520 --> 01:49:11.000
have admitted as a confession. Under
cross examination by Williams, the barber steadfastly

1236
01:49:11.039 --> 01:49:15.399
stayed by his story. Williams asked, isn't it true that when I first

1237
01:49:15.439 --> 01:49:18.000
met you, I told you I
could make you no promises of leniency because

1238
01:49:18.000 --> 01:49:23.920
I would be your prosecutor. Answer, that isn't what you said. The

1239
01:49:23.960 --> 01:49:28.800
attempt to exclude the murder statement will
be continued when James goes back to the

1240
01:49:28.880 --> 01:49:38.800
stand. July seventh, nineteen thirty
six. Robert James, his red hair

1241
01:49:39.000 --> 01:49:46.079
actually standing on end from rage.
Robert James beating his young niece Ruth Pounds

1242
01:49:46.079 --> 01:49:54.960
in a burst of irritation. Robert
James trampling and cursing a prize rooster because

1243
01:49:55.000 --> 01:50:00.319
its spurs scratched him. An amazed
jury was granted those glooms of the barber's

1244
01:50:00.359 --> 01:50:05.960
youth. The descriptions were given by
relatives. They traced the life of the

1245
01:50:06.000 --> 01:50:12.760
pasty faced defendant from a Weasley boy
who never had shoes, to skinny youth

1246
01:50:12.800 --> 01:50:16.680
who was involved in cutting scrapes,
to a many times married graduate of a

1247
01:50:16.760 --> 01:50:25.079
barber college now on trial for murder. Meanwhile, in a bewildering change of

1248
01:50:25.199 --> 01:50:30.800
front, his attorneys late in the
afternoon announced abandonment of their insanity defense.

1249
01:50:30.800 --> 01:50:35.000
That means the barber is to be
tried strictly on his guilt or innocence.

1250
01:50:35.720 --> 01:50:42.760
Depositions were taken from Missus Annadel Pounds, sister of James, Grady Lycinda,

1251
01:50:42.880 --> 01:50:45.680
his brother, and J. H. Murphy, a brother in law,

1252
01:50:45.920 --> 01:50:50.479
each of whom described James as being
underdeveloped and the possessor of a violent temper.

1253
01:50:51.359 --> 01:50:57.800
Missus ann Adel Pounds testified that James
cried from headaches ever since he was

1254
01:50:57.840 --> 01:51:01.960
a baby, that his memory was
bad, and that his total schooling amounted

1255
01:51:02.000 --> 01:51:08.239
to about three months or something like
that. She testified quote I have thought

1256
01:51:08.239 --> 01:51:13.880
he was crazy for a long time. Unquote. Both Missus Pounds, sister

1257
01:51:13.960 --> 01:51:19.159
of James, and Grady Lycinba,
his brother, described their father and Jameses

1258
01:51:19.279 --> 01:51:25.720
as a man with a violent temper
who whipped his children unmercifully and who left

1259
01:51:25.760 --> 01:51:29.640
home for good about the time James
was seven or eight years of age.

1260
01:51:30.399 --> 01:51:35.079
Lycinba said his brother, whose true
name is Major Raymond Lycinba, was more

1261
01:51:35.159 --> 01:51:40.960
or less sick all the time during
his youth and had trouble all the time.

1262
01:51:41.880 --> 01:51:45.239
Quote. I didn't quite make up
my mind whether he was crazy.

1263
01:51:45.840 --> 01:51:49.840
I only thought he just didn't act
like a man ought to unquote. After

1264
01:51:49.920 --> 01:51:55.840
the depositions were read, missus Eva
Murphy, sister of James, was summoned

1265
01:51:55.840 --> 01:52:00.039
to the witness stand. Quote.
He was funny about light He wanted them

1266
01:52:00.079 --> 01:52:04.560
left burning. In nineteen thirty three, when he visited us, he beat

1267
01:52:04.640 --> 01:52:10.520
up his niece Ruth Pounds, because
she turned the lights out. Later we

1268
01:52:10.560 --> 01:52:14.840
found him crying and saying he had
better kill himself because he was no good

1269
01:52:14.960 --> 01:52:19.720
to anybody. Unquote. She said
that since nineteen twenty four she has been

1270
01:52:19.760 --> 01:52:27.359
of the opinion he is of unsound
mind. Question, then, why thinking

1271
01:52:27.399 --> 01:52:30.840
he was of unsound mind. Did
you approve of his going out to California

1272
01:52:30.880 --> 01:52:36.159
with his eighteen year old niece Lois
right answer, with his love and respect

1273
01:52:36.199 --> 01:52:41.439
for the family, I felt she'd
be safe. The last witness of the

1274
01:52:41.520 --> 01:52:45.279
day was Charles W. Decker,
a city health official. He unfolded a

1275
01:52:45.359 --> 01:52:49.960
round package wrapped in tissue paper.
After seating himself in the witness chair,

1276
01:52:50.960 --> 01:52:56.880
a human skull was exposed to the
jurors, who by this time are too

1277
01:52:57.000 --> 01:53:00.760
hardened to show much interest. Setting
the skull on the judge's bench at his

1278
01:53:00.880 --> 01:53:05.600
left hand, doctor Decker proceeded to
give a medical description of the injuries on

1279
01:53:05.640 --> 01:53:11.680
the skull of Wynona Wallace James,
the third wife of the barber who was

1280
01:53:11.760 --> 01:53:16.960
drowned four years ago in Manitou,
Colorado. The jurors were reminded that this

1281
01:53:17.119 --> 01:53:23.399
missus James was first injured in an
automobile accident and then drowned in a bathtub.

1282
01:53:24.359 --> 01:53:30.239
Doctor Decker's testimony related to the accident, which prosecution contends was no accident

1283
01:53:30.600 --> 01:53:34.199
but a plot to kill her.
Using the skull to illustrate his points,

1284
01:53:34.359 --> 01:53:40.000
he testified that the nature of the
fractures which were received by Winona led him

1285
01:53:40.039 --> 01:53:44.560
to the belief that they were inflicted
by a light hard instrument. A hammer

1286
01:53:44.920 --> 01:53:50.640
is what the prosecution contends James hit
her with. Doctor Decker reached his conclusions

1287
01:53:50.680 --> 01:53:59.119
through examination of X rays taken in
Colorado at the time of the accident July

1288
01:53:59.319 --> 01:54:05.239
ninth, nineteen thirty six. The
wheel made the full turn. At Robert

1289
01:54:05.319 --> 01:54:11.920
James's murder trial yesterday, his own
sister, who once thought her baby brother

1290
01:54:12.000 --> 01:54:15.960
the most beautiful thing in all the
world, turned her back on him.

1291
01:54:15.640 --> 01:54:21.279
She said, I want to see
justice done. She was asked, you

1292
01:54:21.399 --> 01:54:26.319
mean you want to see your brother
convicted of murder, don't you? She

1293
01:54:26.520 --> 01:54:30.560
said, It is immaterial to me
what they do with them. The sister,

1294
01:54:30.920 --> 01:54:35.800
Lottie Wright Smith, was not in
Superior Judge Frickey's court, where James

1295
01:54:35.840 --> 01:54:41.319
is charged with the murder of his
fifth wife, but in Alabama, and

1296
01:54:41.399 --> 01:54:45.960
spoke through a deposition taken several weeks
ago. It is a somber document for

1297
01:54:46.079 --> 01:54:51.079
Lotty Wright Smith is the sister who
worshiped and tended her little red haired brother

1298
01:54:51.439 --> 01:54:56.399
when he was a child. She
is also the mother of Lois Wright,

1299
01:54:56.720 --> 01:55:01.479
the young niece of James, whom
he corrupted The deposition was introduced in a

1300
01:55:01.520 --> 01:55:09.079
final struggle over the admissibility of James's
purported confession that he murdered his fifth wife

1301
01:55:09.079 --> 01:55:15.680
by rattlesnake poison and drowning. James's
sister Lottie began her deposition with an account

1302
01:55:15.680 --> 01:55:20.279
of their childhood days. She referred
to him always as Major the Barber's true

1303
01:55:20.359 --> 01:55:27.760
name is Major Lesinba. She said, quote, I practically raised him.

1304
01:55:28.079 --> 01:55:30.720
I loved him more than anything on
earth. He was such a sweet and

1305
01:55:30.840 --> 01:55:35.359
friendly and beautiful child. He had
red hair and was the most beautiful thing

1306
01:55:35.439 --> 01:55:41.920
I had ever seen. Unquote.
Then she told of a childhood theft of

1307
01:55:41.960 --> 01:55:47.159
a watermelon. Quote, I sure
remember that watermelon. We stole it passing

1308
01:55:47.239 --> 01:55:53.359
by missus McLoughlin's house, and we
ate it a quarter below Brighton. But

1309
01:55:53.439 --> 01:55:56.960
pau he got us, and he
whipped us down there at the pump house.

1310
01:55:57.319 --> 01:56:00.720
He whipped us furst for steeling the
melon, and then and again for

1311
01:56:00.800 --> 01:56:06.680
telling a story. She was asked
about her brother and her daughter, quote,

1312
01:56:06.960 --> 01:56:13.399
there has been trouble between us ever
since. Question, and you want

1313
01:56:13.439 --> 01:56:16.520
to see him convicted of this murder? Answer? If he is guilty,

1314
01:56:17.239 --> 01:56:21.680
Missus Smith, then told how James
asked her to not collect her insurance policy

1315
01:56:21.720 --> 01:56:27.800
on their mother until after he had
collected his. He said, mine's a

1316
01:56:27.840 --> 01:56:31.800
new policy and they might knock it
if you collect yours first. Missus Vandy

1317
01:56:31.880 --> 01:56:35.920
McKinney, an aunt of James,
testified he came to her and said,

1318
01:56:36.000 --> 01:56:40.000
quote, I'm going to give you
an age for mama, and you tell

1319
01:56:40.079 --> 01:56:44.920
that age to the insurance agent.
Quote, well, I done hat her

1320
01:56:44.960 --> 01:56:48.479
age already out of the family bible, Missus McKinney said, And I noticed

1321
01:56:48.520 --> 01:56:53.159
that the age he gave me was
different. He said that age made a

1322
01:56:53.159 --> 01:56:57.279
difference on how much he collected.
Well, there wasn't any agent come anyway.

1323
01:56:59.000 --> 01:57:02.680
She was asked if he considered him
insane. Quote, no, sir,

1324
01:57:02.720 --> 01:57:06.039
he had good sense. Why he
knew all about chickens. Why he

1325
01:57:06.079 --> 01:57:10.760
even used to take me out and
show me his chickens, real fighting chickens.

1326
01:57:11.039 --> 01:57:14.439
And he had a good shop out
in California. And besides that,

1327
01:57:14.600 --> 01:57:19.199
he was a society man, popular
like unquote. The defense then asked her

1328
01:57:19.239 --> 01:57:24.159
how old her mother was when she
died, and she told them she believed

1329
01:57:24.159 --> 01:57:29.880
her parent was seventy five years of
age. Question, you believe aren't you

1330
01:57:29.960 --> 01:57:33.399
sure? Answer? Well counted up, she was born in fifty five.

1331
01:57:33.520 --> 01:57:39.640
You're mixing me all up, missus. McKinny was admonished as follows. If

1332
01:57:39.640 --> 01:57:43.960
you'll just confine yourself to answers,
you will save somebody a lot of money

1333
01:57:44.000 --> 01:57:48.479
in yourself a good deal of time. Da Randall, an Alabama carpenter,

1334
01:57:48.960 --> 01:57:56.600
testified extensively regarding James's sporting interests.
He told of numerous good fighting roosters the

1335
01:57:56.640 --> 01:58:00.840
barber owned, and of a deal
James engaged in to buy a fighting dog.

1336
01:58:00.600 --> 01:58:04.680
Asked about as sanity, Randall said, quote, Major was right up

1337
01:58:04.680 --> 01:58:11.039
to scratch when it came to dogs
and roosters unquote. Other witnesses also told

1338
01:58:11.079 --> 01:58:15.840
of James's shrewdness and fighting roosters,
they never referred to them as cox.

1339
01:58:15.399 --> 01:58:19.600
One elderly man said quote, I
never went with Major to the rooster fights

1340
01:58:19.600 --> 01:58:23.800
because I ain't got enough money to
go to jail on if you get caught

1341
01:58:24.199 --> 01:58:31.319
unquote. I just got one thing
to say. Www dot patreon dot com,

1342
01:58:31.359 --> 01:58:42.079
slash true crime historian that's it July
fourteenth, nineteen thirty six, to

1343
01:58:42.119 --> 01:58:47.560
an endless hymn of Pate sung by
Lashing angry rattlesnakes. Robert James, the

1344
01:58:47.640 --> 01:58:53.760
Barber and Charles Hope, ex Sailor, played a frightful little drama of their

1345
01:58:53.800 --> 01:58:59.720
own in the courtroom, but at
its climax their play acting was marred by

1346
01:58:59.760 --> 01:59:06.720
an upsurge of genuine rage and repulsion
that almost led the blows. The outburst

1347
01:59:06.800 --> 01:59:13.399
occurred as defense attorneys re enacted to
the last possible detail just how Mary Bush

1348
01:59:13.560 --> 01:59:16.439
James, fifth wife of the barber, is supposed to have been bound to

1349
01:59:16.520 --> 01:59:21.359
a table in her foot held in
a box containing a rattlesnake in the confusion.

1350
01:59:21.439 --> 01:59:26.000
They told James to play the role
of the dead wife, his murdered

1351
01:59:26.039 --> 01:59:30.960
wife, the prosecution says, and
Hope was cast in the role of James.

1352
01:59:30.680 --> 01:59:34.000
The courtroom for the purpose of the
play became the breakfast nook of the

1353
01:59:34.079 --> 01:59:40.880
James home in La Crecenta, and
the time was last August fourth. Hope

1354
01:59:40.960 --> 01:59:45.479
was called to the stand for cross
examination by the defense, carrying a big

1355
01:59:45.520 --> 01:59:50.359
wooden box with a glass top.
Defense attorney Parsons stood alongside him. Parsons

1356
01:59:50.399 --> 01:59:55.079
explained the box was a replica of
the one Hope said he used to imprison

1357
01:59:55.079 --> 02:00:00.800
the rattlesnakes. The reenactment of the
asserted rattlesnake poisoning was first attempted in the

1358
02:00:00.840 --> 02:00:04.399
morning. Question, Now show us
just how missus James's foot was put in

1359
02:00:04.439 --> 02:00:10.039
the box? Hope glared at him, using what as what he said in

1360
02:00:10.079 --> 02:00:15.119
a hostile tone. Judge Fricki ruled
the demonstration impractical. Hope then objected to

1361
02:00:15.159 --> 02:00:20.119
the dimensions of the box. He
said his box was broader. Parsons carried

1362
02:00:20.119 --> 02:00:25.560
the box away and said he would
have a larger one made. Deputy District

1363
02:00:25.600 --> 02:00:30.960
attorneys Barnes and Williams objected, however, and Judge Fricky upheld their objection,

1364
02:00:30.560 --> 02:00:35.079
but late in the afternoon, defense
attorneys succeeded in having Hope go through the

1365
02:00:35.119 --> 02:00:40.640
scene in the courtroom. Heaps of
law books, papers, pencils, and

1366
02:00:40.720 --> 02:00:45.000
a water pitcher were removed from the
attorney's table. A swivel chair was lowered

1367
02:00:45.039 --> 02:00:49.800
under Hope's direction until it was approximate
high to the breakfast nook seat, and

1368
02:00:49.840 --> 02:00:55.840
the lockers sent a home where Missus
James was found drowned last August. Fifth

1369
02:00:56.399 --> 02:01:00.960
Defense attorney Russell Parsons asked Hope,
now, as that about the way it

1370
02:01:00.000 --> 02:01:05.600
should be. No, Hope said, the table's too big. Parsons then

1371
02:01:05.720 --> 02:01:11.199
measured off the exact dimensions of the
breakfast nook table and chalked them off on

1372
02:01:11.279 --> 02:01:15.279
the attorney's table. Hope made some
more objections, and Judge Fricky said,

1373
02:01:15.319 --> 02:01:18.840
mister Hope, you take charge of
this and make it exactly as you think

1374
02:01:18.880 --> 02:01:24.760
it should be. Hope look pleased. He ordered the attorneys about in a

1375
02:01:24.840 --> 02:01:28.479
loud voice. He made them set
the table at just the angle in the

1376
02:01:28.479 --> 02:01:31.159
courtroom that suited him. Then he
made them put the swivel chair in a

1377
02:01:31.199 --> 02:01:35.680
corner of the table. That's the
seat on which I placed the rattlesnakes,

1378
02:01:35.680 --> 02:01:42.279
he said. Parsons obediently placed the
replica of the rattlesnake box on the mock

1379
02:01:42.399 --> 02:01:46.600
breakfast nook seat. No get someone
to lie there like missus, James,

1380
02:01:46.600 --> 02:01:53.880
said, Hope. The gaunt bluebird
barber, making a desperate gamble to escape

1381
02:01:53.880 --> 02:01:58.319
the gallows, left his chair at
the lawyer's table, where he has watched

1382
02:01:58.319 --> 02:02:02.800
for twenty one days slow building of
the state's case against him. To participate

1383
02:02:02.840 --> 02:02:10.319
in the bizarre stage work with two
buzzing diamondback rattlers, lethal and lightning,

1384
02:02:10.600 --> 02:02:15.399
the guaranteed killers, which the state
says James used to torture his pretty young

1385
02:02:15.439 --> 02:02:19.680
wife, and a plaster of Paris
foot for props. The red haired barber

1386
02:02:19.720 --> 02:02:24.600
went through the grizzly performance in an
effort to prove he could not have killed

1387
02:02:24.600 --> 02:02:30.119
his wife by that means. James's
face was ash colored as he stepped to

1388
02:02:30.199 --> 02:02:35.439
a cleared lawyer's table. Before most
courtroom attaches knew what was happening, he

1389
02:02:35.560 --> 02:02:41.720
climbed on the breakfast book table and
lay down. Hope flared up angrily.

1390
02:02:42.119 --> 02:02:46.039
Deputy District Attorney Barnes hastily stepped in
front of him. He lay on his

1391
02:02:46.199 --> 02:02:53.359
back as Mary James is supposed to
have been lying. Hope was led alongside

1392
02:02:53.439 --> 02:02:57.920
In the little play. He was
supposed to seize James's foot and jam it

1393
02:02:57.960 --> 02:03:03.319
into the replica of the original snake. James's pent up nervousness exploded when his

1394
02:03:03.439 --> 02:03:08.720
former helper grabbed his leg, not
with the intention of shoving it into the

1395
02:03:08.800 --> 02:03:12.640
snake box, but to illustrate the
manner in which he said James took his

1396
02:03:12.720 --> 02:03:17.119
wife's leg. The accused killer suddenly
sat upright and yelled, don't let him

1397
02:03:17.159 --> 02:03:19.800
touch me, I don't like him, I don't want to touch him.

1398
02:03:20.199 --> 02:03:25.960
But the perspiration started out on Hope's
face, and cords of anger showed in

1399
02:03:26.039 --> 02:03:30.039
his neck and forehead. In a
moment, court guards and attorneys stepped between

1400
02:03:30.079 --> 02:03:35.520
the men, glaring and trembling,
while the rattlesnakes hummed their signal to death.

1401
02:03:36.039 --> 02:03:41.880
They were pulled apart. James was
helped off the table, and Superior

1402
02:03:42.000 --> 02:03:47.680
Judge Fricky had someone else play the
role of missus James. James stood at

1403
02:03:47.760 --> 02:03:54.880
one side, arms akimbo, greenish
eyes fixed unblinkingly on the scene. His

1404
02:03:55.039 --> 02:03:59.399
lawyers brought out a plaster leg and
live snakes, which lay hissing in a

1405
02:03:59.439 --> 02:04:04.119
long call, often like brown box. The defense expected to prove diamondback rattlers

1406
02:04:04.119 --> 02:04:09.479
do not retain their vitality long enough
to be venomous after a period of four

1407
02:04:09.520 --> 02:04:14.960
to six months in captivity. They
challenged the validity of the live snakes a

1408
02:04:15.079 --> 02:04:20.079
state exhibition in the case, and
all the time above the court room sounds

1409
02:04:20.159 --> 02:04:26.520
as chilling as a siren in the
night rose the vicious, angry death signals

1410
02:04:26.560 --> 02:04:31.840
of the rattlesnakes themselves in their long
glass snake box behind the desk of court

1411
02:04:31.840 --> 02:04:40.239
Clerk Arthur Moore. They whirred intermittently
throughout the court proceedings. The snakes Lethal

1412
02:04:40.319 --> 02:04:45.760
and Lightning, identified as the same
ones Hope bought last August, were taken

1413
02:04:45.800 --> 02:04:50.199
into court by order of defense attorneys. James was just arranging his foot to

1414
02:04:50.239 --> 02:04:55.279
put it in the mock rattlesnake box
when he was lifted off the table and

1415
02:04:55.359 --> 02:05:00.640
taken away. Hope then abruptly changed
rolls and became miss James. He was

1416
02:05:00.720 --> 02:05:05.000
laid out on the table while Parsons
stood at his side in the roll of

1417
02:05:05.039 --> 02:05:10.840
the barber. Now raise my leg
and stick my foot in, said Hope.

1418
02:05:11.439 --> 02:05:14.399
I don't know exactly how James got
hold of her leg, because I

1419
02:05:14.520 --> 02:05:17.119
was watching the rattlesnake. It looked
like it was about to jump right out

1420
02:05:17.119 --> 02:05:21.439
of the box. The jurors rose
from their seats to get a better view.

1421
02:05:23.319 --> 02:05:29.159
Parsons obeyed Hope's instructions, and the
re enactment was over. Besides the

1422
02:05:29.199 --> 02:05:33.079
two live rattlesnakes, two pickled snakes
were taken into the courtroom. They have

1423
02:05:33.159 --> 02:05:39.119
not been introduced into the case as
yet. There was also a skeleton rattlesnake

1424
02:05:39.159 --> 02:05:44.319
head in a fruit jar to show
the fangs, and one rattlesnake expert wore

1425
02:05:44.359 --> 02:05:48.680
a fang as a tie pin.
The entire day testimony was devoted to defense

1426
02:05:48.800 --> 02:05:55.600
testimony, the prosecution having concluded its
case Monday. Most of the witnesses were

1427
02:05:55.640 --> 02:06:00.640
introduced to discredit Hope's story about the
rattlesnake. The defense can tends that it

1428
02:06:00.640 --> 02:06:03.560
would be impossible for a snake in
such a box as Hope described, to

1429
02:06:03.640 --> 02:06:09.720
strike Missus James on the bottom of
her great toe. There was also considerable

1430
02:06:09.760 --> 02:06:15.000
testimony indicating that Missus James was an
expectant but unwilling mother at the time of

1431
02:06:15.039 --> 02:06:18.880
her death. Last year. The
barber's sister, Missus Eva Murphy, of

1432
02:06:18.920 --> 02:06:25.359
Birmingham, testified about a Sunday breakfast
conversation in the James home last July.

1433
02:06:26.520 --> 02:06:30.399
My brother's wife Mary just sat there
and couldn't eat. Missus Murphy said,

1434
02:06:30.920 --> 02:06:32.920
my brother Bob said, you know
it's wrong, honey, and she answered,

1435
02:06:33.119 --> 02:06:35.760
yes, I do, and I'm
going to the doctor and get something

1436
02:06:35.800 --> 02:06:40.600
done about it. Then Bob said, no, you won't. I'm going

1437
02:06:40.640 --> 02:06:45.600
to have little Bobby Junior around the
house. Hope was there and Mary turned

1438
02:06:45.600 --> 02:06:48.079
to him and said you'll take care
of me, won't you? Chuck You

1439
02:06:48.199 --> 02:06:54.479
bet I will, he answered.
Missus Murphy said Hope was introduced to her

1440
02:06:54.520 --> 02:06:59.000
as doctor Smith, a former Navy
medical student. The first time she saw

1441
02:06:59.119 --> 02:07:01.279
him was early in July, she
said, when he walked into the James

1442
02:07:01.279 --> 02:07:06.479
apartment while she and her brother were
treating some ailing chickens. She said she

1443
02:07:06.520 --> 02:07:11.479
never saw any rattlesnakes or rattlesnake boxes
at the home while she was there.

1444
02:07:12.039 --> 02:07:15.079
She said she left July fourteenth,
about three weeks before Mary was found dead

1445
02:07:15.359 --> 02:07:21.800
in the fishpond of the home.
Considerable ill feeling arose among rival snake experts.

1446
02:07:23.319 --> 02:07:26.840
While doctor Frank Weinberg, the defense
expert, was on the stand,

1447
02:07:27.439 --> 02:07:32.520
Snaky Joe Houghtenbrink, the prosecution expert, indulged in derisive snickers and sounds.

1448
02:07:33.479 --> 02:07:39.119
Just as doctor Weinberg was describing the
pains he felt when struck by a rattlesnake's

1449
02:07:39.119 --> 02:07:43.800
fangs, Haltenbrink said, whew.
On another occasion, he said oop.

1450
02:07:43.920 --> 02:07:48.439
As doctor Weinberg testified rattlers do not
live more than six months in captivity.

1451
02:07:49.760 --> 02:07:54.439
The defense was trying to prove that
the snakes Hope said he bought last July.

1452
02:07:54.520 --> 02:07:58.640
I must be dead by now.
Snaky Joe contends they are very much

1453
02:07:58.640 --> 02:08:03.920
alive. He went to the stand
himself for cross examination by Clark and said

1454
02:08:03.960 --> 02:08:07.359
the two snakes in the courtroom were
the same ones he sold Hope. Clark

1455
02:08:07.439 --> 02:08:13.560
answered what he fed them, and
he answered kangaroo rats and little cottontail rabbits.

1456
02:08:13.359 --> 02:08:18.880
Clark asked, do you feed the
milk? Snaky Joe was so overcome

1457
02:08:18.920 --> 02:08:22.840
with mirth it took several minutes to
recover. He sputtered milk milk a couple

1458
02:08:22.840 --> 02:08:28.079
of times and then exploded and it
choked. Never Clark asked him where he

1459
02:08:28.119 --> 02:08:33.600
bought his rattlesnakes. There's competitors in
the room who would like to know,

1460
02:08:33.800 --> 02:08:39.680
he objected. Judge Fricky ruled he'd
have to tell anyway, and Haughtenbrink disclosed

1461
02:08:39.720 --> 02:08:43.640
the world of rattlesnake experts that his
source was a mister walker in Indio.

1462
02:08:45.520 --> 02:08:50.680
Weinberg said later there aren't any western
diamondback rattlers around Indio, but only sidewinders.

1463
02:08:52.119 --> 02:09:01.279
Haughton Brinks Sneer July fifteenth, nineteen
thirty six. Earlier in the day,

1464
02:09:01.479 --> 02:09:05.239
James was sent to the stand in
an impressive silence. Even the two

1465
02:09:05.479 --> 02:09:11.880
rattlesnakes were quiet. Courtroom sounds dropped
to a rustle, like the excited shifting

1466
02:09:11.920 --> 02:09:16.800
of a fight crowd when the preliminaries
are over and the main eventors climb into

1467
02:09:16.800 --> 02:09:22.640
the ring. In a few minutes, James made his defense clear he was

1468
02:09:22.720 --> 02:09:28.159
gambling his life on a flat denial
of all guilt. He told a long

1469
02:09:28.279 --> 02:09:35.199
story which thrust full responsibility on Charles
Hope, the ex sailor, provided,

1470
02:09:35.279 --> 02:09:41.439
of course, that Missus James was
actually murdered. James denied any personal knowledge

1471
02:09:41.479 --> 02:09:46.680
that it was murder. There was
only Hope's confession, he indicated to make

1472
02:09:46.720 --> 02:09:50.680
anyone believe her death was not accidental
drowning when she fainted and fell into the

1473
02:09:50.720 --> 02:09:56.359
fish pond of their home last August. His own purported confession he attributed to

1474
02:09:56.439 --> 02:10:03.560
brutality of investigators. Defence attorneys sent
him to the stand after diallying with minor

1475
02:10:03.640 --> 02:10:09.520
witnesses during the first hour of the
morning. James walked to the stand slowly.

1476
02:10:09.239 --> 02:10:15.800
Attorney Parsons escorted him like a comforter. He placed himself in the chair,

1477
02:10:15.960 --> 02:10:20.960
carefully crossing one knee over the other. He lounged back until his elbow

1478
02:10:20.079 --> 02:10:26.439
rested on a corner of the judge's
bench. The barber seemed perfectly calm.

1479
02:10:26.760 --> 02:10:31.279
Occasionally he wet his lips, but
so did almost every one of the jurors.

1480
02:10:31.079 --> 02:10:35.319
He swallowed now and then, but
so did deputy district attorneys Williams and

1481
02:10:35.439 --> 02:10:41.039
Barnes. There was nothing about his
actions that could be viewed as otherwise than

1482
02:10:41.079 --> 02:10:46.680
normal. His voice was fairly charged
with quiet sincerity. First mention of the

1483
02:10:46.760 --> 02:10:54.600
rattlesnakes came within sixty seconds after James
was on the stand. Question did you

1484
02:10:54.680 --> 02:10:58.039
ever have conversations with Hope when you
told him you had a friend who wanted

1485
02:10:58.039 --> 02:11:01.359
to get rid of his walk and
would pay you to get some rattlesnakes?

1486
02:11:01.880 --> 02:11:07.000
James deliberated a moment. He drew
his brows together, like a man puzzled

1487
02:11:07.039 --> 02:11:13.920
by a ridiculous question. Finally,
he said, I never did, shaking

1488
02:11:13.960 --> 02:11:18.680
his head slightly. Defense attorney Parsons
asked, did you ever tell mister Hope

1489
02:11:18.680 --> 02:11:24.640
you wanted him to purchase rattlesnakes?
James took his time again, I did

1490
02:11:24.680 --> 02:11:30.319
not, he said, Did you
ever tell him you were a killer and

1491
02:11:30.399 --> 02:11:35.800
wanted to kill your wife. James
seemed a little indignant. He drew himself

1492
02:11:35.880 --> 02:11:41.199
up straighter in the chair. I
never thought of such a thing. Question.

1493
02:11:41.880 --> 02:11:45.239
Did you ever tell Hope you had
insurance on Mary, and if he

1494
02:11:45.279 --> 02:11:48.600
would help kill her, you would
give him a portion? James took the

1495
02:11:48.680 --> 02:11:54.239
question in a quiet, hurt way. He made it seem an outrage to

1496
02:11:54.359 --> 02:12:00.319
ask such things. I did not, he said. Parsons, sedate and

1497
02:12:00.399 --> 02:12:05.359
conservative, put the questions frankly,
but with an air of hesitancy, as

1498
02:12:05.359 --> 02:12:11.079
if he wanted to avoid hurting James's
feelings. He next asked James to tell

1499
02:12:11.119 --> 02:12:15.960
of the circumstances under which Hope stayed
at his home during July last year,

1500
02:12:16.439 --> 02:12:20.000
the month before Missus James was found
drowned in the fish pond. I had

1501
02:12:20.039 --> 02:12:24.720
known him seven or eight years,
said James, settling back in the witness

1502
02:12:24.800 --> 02:12:28.079
chair. He came up the evening
of July third. I think I was

1503
02:12:28.119 --> 02:12:33.359
treating some chickens in the garage.
He came in when he saw me with

1504
02:12:33.399 --> 02:12:37.479
the chicken in my hands, and
said, hello, it's old doctor James.

1505
02:12:37.520 --> 02:12:41.359
I see my sister Eva was there, and Hope called me aside and

1506
02:12:41.399 --> 02:12:46.479
said he wanted to talk to me
alone a minute. He was pretty intoxicated.

1507
02:12:46.840 --> 02:12:48.560
He said he had a fight with
his girl and she threw him out,

1508
02:12:48.600 --> 02:12:52.640
and he wanted to stay with me
and wanted to borrow a dollar.

1509
02:12:52.279 --> 02:12:56.680
I asked him why he didn't get
a job. He was doing some pretty

1510
02:12:56.720 --> 02:13:01.239
experimental chemistry and pretty soon would be
able to have a job. I told

1511
02:13:01.319 --> 02:13:03.520
him to come back when he was
sober, and walked down the driveway with

1512
02:13:03.600 --> 02:13:09.119
him. Unquote. James hesitated.
Diffidently. He looked about the courtroom as

1513
02:13:09.159 --> 02:13:13.039
if to determine from the faces of
his listeners whether he was boring them with

1514
02:13:13.119 --> 02:13:20.800
too long a story, said Parsons, Go ahead, mister James. Quote.

1515
02:13:20.960 --> 02:13:24.399
Well, Hope had a little tin
box with some yellow stuff in it,

1516
02:13:24.640 --> 02:13:26.760
and he said it was rattlesnake venom
and he would like to try it

1517
02:13:26.800 --> 02:13:31.119
on one of my chickens. But
I wasn't intoxicated, and I said no.

1518
02:13:33.000 --> 02:13:37.199
I got him to his car and
he drove off. Unquote. Parson's

1519
02:13:37.279 --> 02:13:43.920
questions brought out that Hope reappeared at
his home on July sixth. Quote.

1520
02:13:43.279 --> 02:13:48.680
He came down to breakfast the next
morning. My niece Lois was there and

1521
02:13:48.760 --> 02:13:52.399
my wife and my sister. It
was Sunday morning. I introduced him as

1522
02:13:52.439 --> 02:13:56.239
doctor Smith. He asked me to
introduce him that way because he said he

1523
02:13:56.279 --> 02:14:01.079
was having trouble with his former wife, not the life he was living with,

1524
02:14:01.439 --> 02:14:05.279
and he didn't want her to know
his whereabouts. Unquote Hope's story of

1525
02:14:05.319 --> 02:14:09.119
the crime, that he and James
were together in the breakfast nook, that

1526
02:14:09.239 --> 02:14:13.560
missus James was tied to a table
and subjected to a rattlesnake bite, and

1527
02:14:13.680 --> 02:14:18.359
later she was drowned in the bathtub, has been and will be completely denied.

1528
02:14:20.680 --> 02:14:24.399
If she was murdered by Hope,
it was entirely without his knowledge.

1529
02:14:24.600 --> 02:14:35.479
James contended, the last possible thrill
was squeezed out of the Robert James murder

1530
02:14:35.600 --> 02:14:43.159
trial. Lethal one of the rattlesnakes
escaped in the courtroom during the noon recess,

1531
02:14:43.520 --> 02:14:46.239
after James had spent most of the
morning on the witness stand in his

1532
02:14:46.319 --> 02:14:52.039
own defense. Like a streak of
brown quicksilver, the reptile slid under a

1533
02:14:52.079 --> 02:15:00.479
bookcase, his vicious rattling through the
courtroom into hysteria. A Pierce our tran

1534
02:15:01.039 --> 02:15:07.279
Laguna Beach snake expert jammed A waste
basket over the snake's coils. Lethal scooted

1535
02:15:07.399 --> 02:15:13.239
away again in a new direction.
In a moment, our trand with the

1536
02:15:13.279 --> 02:15:18.199
aid of snaky Joe Houghton Brink,
jerked a wire noose over Lethal's head.

1537
02:15:18.000 --> 02:15:22.760
Then he grabbed the snake at the
neck with his hand and held it aloft

1538
02:15:22.840 --> 02:15:28.239
before onlookers. He forced the snake's
jaws open. The fangs sprang into view.

1539
02:15:28.760 --> 02:15:33.880
Courtroom spectators had another good shudder.
Then our tran put the snake back

1540
02:15:33.880 --> 02:15:39.279
in its box. The snake had
been removed from the box where it had

1541
02:15:39.319 --> 02:15:43.840
been an exhibit at James's trial.
Suddenly it squirmed out of our trans hands

1542
02:15:43.880 --> 02:15:52.880
onto the floor. July twenty fourth, nineteen thirty six, four ballots,

1543
02:15:54.239 --> 02:15:58.800
with no jurors voting not guilty,
a verdict to first degree murder was returned

1544
02:15:58.840 --> 02:16:05.560
to against Robert S. James,
phlegmatic, red haired barber. Exactly nine

1545
02:16:05.600 --> 02:16:11.399
hours and fifteen minutes after the jury
had retired, the jury of ten men

1546
02:16:11.439 --> 02:16:16.239
and two women brought in the verdict
at eight twelve pm. At eight oh

1547
02:16:16.279 --> 02:16:22.119
one, Judge Fricky was in his
chambers the jury room buzzer sent Bailiff George

1548
02:16:22.159 --> 02:16:26.199
Purdue up the stairs to the jury
room at a run. He returned in

1549
02:16:26.239 --> 02:16:31.479
a few seconds and said they're ready. Judge Frickie ordered James brought down from

1550
02:16:31.479 --> 02:16:37.680
the jail. Two of the barber's
attorneys, Samuel Silverman and Russell Parsons,

1551
02:16:37.719 --> 02:16:43.360
were notified, so was Deputy District
Attorney Eugene Williams. In a few minutes,

1552
02:16:43.479 --> 02:16:46.719
James walked in the courtroom with a
bailiff at either side. He looked

1553
02:16:46.760 --> 02:16:52.840
neither to the right nor left.
He walked rather rapidly. He's just a

1554
02:16:52.879 --> 02:16:56.399
bit nervous, just a bit,
said one of the bailiffs. I think

1555
02:16:56.440 --> 02:17:01.959
maybe his hand trembled a little.
Once James set down, his attorneys hadn't

1556
02:17:01.040 --> 02:17:07.040
arrived yet. A few hours earlier, Charles H. Hope, the ex

1557
02:17:07.159 --> 02:17:11.959
sailor in James's confessed accomplice, had
sat in the same chair. He was

1558
02:17:13.000 --> 02:17:16.719
waiting to learn his fate. Also, although he confessed to the rattlesnake and

1559
02:17:16.760 --> 02:17:22.360
bathtub murder of Mary Bush James weeks
ago, the degree of his guilt has

1560
02:17:22.399 --> 02:17:26.719
not been set. At his side
was public defender Ellery Cuff, who rose

1561
02:17:26.760 --> 02:17:31.680
and asked for leniency second degree murder, but Judge Frickie ruled it was first

1562
02:17:31.760 --> 02:17:37.399
degree murder. Hope, who had
expected leniency for turning state's evidence, swallowed

1563
02:17:37.399 --> 02:17:43.520
and asked for a cigarette. He
will probably be sentenced to life imprisonment.

1564
02:17:43.559 --> 02:17:48.680
So James sat there in the same
chair, chewing on one side of his

1565
02:17:48.799 --> 02:17:52.920
cheek for a few seconds. Then
he crossed his legs and folded his hands

1566
02:17:52.959 --> 02:17:56.959
over his knees. He sat like
that until Parsons and Silvermen arrived. He

1567
02:17:58.040 --> 02:18:01.760
looked questioningly at them. Parsons said
it might be bad, Bob, so

1568
02:18:01.920 --> 02:18:05.600
you better grit your teeth. I
guess I can take it, said James,

1569
02:18:07.000 --> 02:18:11.200
I've taken everything else in his black
robe. Judge Fricky mounted the bench.

1570
02:18:13.079 --> 02:18:16.159
There was a shuffling of feet in
the ante room, and the jurors

1571
02:18:16.200 --> 02:18:20.719
filed in. They sat down.
Judge Fricky asked if they had reached their

1572
02:18:20.840 --> 02:18:26.000
verdict. Frank Allen, the dark
complexioned foreman, rose with a slip of

1573
02:18:26.040 --> 02:18:31.120
paper in his hands and said,
we have your honor. Bailiff Perdeue took

1574
02:18:31.120 --> 02:18:35.440
the slip of paper from his hands
and walked over to the judge. Judge

1575
02:18:35.440 --> 02:18:41.959
Fricki handed the slip to court clerk
Arthur Moore, rising behind his desk,

1576
02:18:41.200 --> 02:18:46.719
Moore read the fatal sentence to himself
to make sure. Then he read aloud,

1577
02:18:46.399 --> 02:18:52.079
we find the defendant, Major Raymond
Lcinba, also known as Robert James,

1578
02:18:52.520 --> 02:18:58.520
guilty of murder in the first degree. There was a hush. Everyone

1579
02:18:58.639 --> 02:19:03.200
listened to see if Moore would go
on. If there was another sentence recommending

1580
02:19:03.239 --> 02:19:07.360
life imprisonment, James's neck would be
saved, but Moore didn't say word.

1581
02:19:07.920 --> 02:19:16.520
There was no recommendation that makes hanging
mandatory. James sat as he always sat,

1582
02:19:16.680 --> 02:19:20.360
looking forward, batting his eyes rapidly, a habit of his. Finally,

1583
02:19:20.399 --> 02:19:24.159
he turned to his attorney Silverman,
I can take it, he said.

1584
02:19:24.680 --> 02:19:28.799
I didn't expect it, but I
can take it. Ten yards away

1585
02:19:28.879 --> 02:19:35.079
at the side of a policewoman,
James's niece lowest right, arrested with him

1586
02:19:35.079 --> 02:19:39.200
in a moral's raid, was crying. The verdict was a surprise to her.

1587
02:19:39.959 --> 02:19:43.680
A few hours earlier, she had
been laughing merrily about the way she

1588
02:19:43.760 --> 02:19:52.159
baked her first biscuits. May one, nineteen forty two, Robert S.

1589
02:19:52.319 --> 02:19:58.200
James, forty eight year old rattlesnake
killer, mounted the thirteen steps to the

1590
02:19:58.239 --> 02:20:05.399
Hangman's News goose and death on the
San Quentin gallows today. He was calm

1591
02:20:05.559 --> 02:20:11.399
to the end while guards pulled the
straps tight around his ankles. He stood

1592
02:20:11.440 --> 02:20:16.879
on the gallows platform, his shoulders
drawn back by another strap which bound his

1593
02:20:16.079 --> 02:20:20.840
arms to his sides. He was
dressed in a black suit and a white

1594
02:20:22.000 --> 02:20:26.639
collarless shirt. His red hair was
neatly combed, and his face was very

1595
02:20:26.680 --> 02:20:31.920
white. There was a strange look
of triumph in his sharp eyes as he

1596
02:20:31.959 --> 02:20:37.799
glanced down at the ninety eight reporters, officials, and guards who stood in

1597
02:20:37.840 --> 02:20:45.479
the high ceiling raftered deathhouse. His
appearance, almost boyish, gave the impression

1598
02:20:45.559 --> 02:20:50.239
he had been interrupted by his executioners
while dressing for a dance. Then came

1599
02:20:50.319 --> 02:20:58.479
the black hood and the noose,
Then the spring of the trap. James

1600
02:20:58.600 --> 02:21:03.719
entered the chamber at ten am with
Warden Clinton T. Duffy, Reverend Macerriker,

1601
02:21:03.920 --> 02:21:09.399
the prison chaplain, his guards,
and his executioner. His body plunged

1602
02:21:09.440 --> 02:21:15.440
through the trap at ten oh one
and a half. San Quentin Warden Clinton

1603
02:21:15.520 --> 02:21:20.840
Duffy described the hanging to reporters,
quote, the man hit bottom and I

1604
02:21:20.920 --> 02:21:26.600
observed he was fighting by pulling on
the straps wheezing, whistling, trying to

1605
02:21:26.639 --> 02:21:33.280
get air. That blood was oozing
through the black cap. I observed also

1606
02:21:33.520 --> 02:21:37.040
that he urinated, defecated, and
the droppings fell on the floor. The

1607
02:21:37.079 --> 02:21:43.879
stench was terrible. I also saw
witnesses pass out and have to be carried

1608
02:21:43.920 --> 02:21:48.520
from the witness room. Some of
them threw up. It took ten minutes

1609
02:21:48.559 --> 02:21:52.079
for the condemned man to die.
When he was finally dead enough to cut

1610
02:21:52.120 --> 02:21:58.239
him down, big hunks of flesh
were torn off James's purple face, his

1611
02:21:58.360 --> 02:22:05.440
eyes were popped, and his tongue
swollen and hanging from his mouth. Unquote.

1612
02:22:05.879 --> 02:22:09.680
The former Los Angeles barber was the
last person to be legally executed by

1613
02:22:09.760 --> 02:22:15.799
hanging in the state. He was
hanged because his crime was committed before the

1614
02:22:15.840 --> 02:22:22.079
adoption of the Cinai gas method of
execution in nineteen thirty seven. Starting with

1615
02:22:22.280 --> 02:22:28.719
Jose Gabrielle, a San Diego murderer. On March third, eighteen ninety three,

1616
02:22:28.799 --> 02:22:33.479
two hundred and fourteen men climbed the
steps of the robins egg blue gallows

1617
02:22:33.559 --> 02:22:37.680
before James, but none of the
two hundred and fourteen paid with their lives

1618
02:22:37.719 --> 02:22:45.719
for so fantastic a crime as the
one James committed. His conviction was upheld

1619
02:22:45.799 --> 02:22:50.319
twice by the State Supreme Court and
once by the United States Supreme Court.

1620
02:22:50.159 --> 02:22:56.799
This week, Governor Olson refused to
grant a stay of execution requested by the

1621
02:22:56.840 --> 02:23:03.600
State Advisory Pardon Board. Day the
State Supreme Court denied his application for writ

1622
02:23:03.639 --> 02:23:09.200
of habeas corpus. Meanwhile, Charles
Hope, who had turned state's evidence,

1623
02:23:09.600 --> 02:23:15.440
was sentenced to life imprisonment. He
is at San quentin and today. When

1624
02:23:15.520 --> 02:23:18.840
questioned by reporters after the execution,
he said, quote, I hold no

1625
02:23:18.920 --> 02:23:24.719
animosity towards James. He was just
another human being to me unquote. It

1626
02:23:24.760 --> 02:23:30.520
has not been determined whether the wife
James killed was his fifth, sixth,

1627
02:23:30.639 --> 02:23:35.760
or seventh wife. Her name was
Mary Bush. James. James was born

1628
02:23:35.879 --> 02:23:41.600
Major R. Lecinba in Birmingham,
Alabama. He served in the Army during

1629
02:23:41.639 --> 02:23:46.319
the First World War as a private
using the name Davis. In the two

1630
02:23:46.399 --> 02:23:52.399
years he spent on San Quentin's condemned
row, James became very religious. He

1631
02:23:52.440 --> 02:23:56.280
conducted a Bible class, and the
other convicts called him Holy Joe. His

1632
02:23:56.399 --> 02:24:01.399
religion seemed to give him the courage
to face day without cracking. He told

1633
02:24:01.399 --> 02:24:07.079
a prison chaplain yesterday morning. I've
lived a bad life. I've asked my

1634
02:24:07.159 --> 02:24:09.920
maker to forgive me, and I
think he has. I feel as though

1635
02:24:11.159 --> 02:24:41.719
I were going home. That was
Snake's on the witness stand the Trial of

1636
02:24:41.840 --> 02:24:48.680
Rattlesnake James the Redheaded blue Beard.
For headline clippings, photographs, and source

1637
02:24:48.760 --> 02:24:54.280
information, I invite you to visit
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1638
02:24:54.319 --> 02:25:00.760
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1639
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1640
02:25:05.280 --> 02:25:09.680
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1641
02:25:09.760 --> 02:25:15.840
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1642
02:25:16.319 --> 02:25:20.600
or a subscription to Audible, helps
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1643
02:25:20.760 --> 02:25:26.000
historical archives to present you with interesting
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1644
02:25:26.079 --> 02:25:33.280
free. Theme music by Dave Sam's
and Rachel Shott, engineered by David Hisch

1645
02:25:33.399 --> 02:25:39.239
at Third Street Music. Media management
by Sean R. Jones, Production assistants

1646
02:25:39.280 --> 02:25:45.239
by Emily cymer Braun and I'm True
Crime Historian Richard O. Jones. Signing

1647
02:25:45.319 --> 02:25:46.280
off for now