by Paul R. Spitzzeri
One of several such items in the Homestead’s artifact collection, the “Wanted for Murder” poster issued by the Bureau of Identification from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, as Circular No. 350 and Case No. 204, on 24 July 1926 was for Albert D. Gaines, who, as was so often the case, had a raft of aliases, including Vernon Conway, Ed. Beaver Tracy, Allison Dewey, and Abe Dewey, nicknamed Cowboy.
The 27-year old was described as per usual with these notices, in terms of hair and eye color, height and weight, complexion, build, shoe size, marks and scars, and occupation—these latter given as railroad brakeman, laborer and cattleman. Prepared by the Bureau’s Herman J. Zabel and under the authority of Sheriff Sam Jernigan, the poster informed that,
Gaines is wanted here with one Phillip A. Goodwin, who is in custody in New York City and is being extradited, for the murder of one Joseph J. Paterson, in the Santa Ana Canyon [near modern Yorba Linda and Anaheim] on or about March 13, 1926. As this is one of the most brutal murders ever committed here, the co-operation of every citizen and officer is herewith solicited to apprehend this man.
If arrested, wire me at once at my expense. Will extradite from any part of the United States.
When a largely charred body was discovered by a Latino water company worker in a doubled-over position under a tree in the remote spot not far from Santa Ana Canyon Road, about a mile west of the Riverside County line, not far from where the 91 Freeway and 241 Toll Road intersect today, it was clear that an attempt to immolate the remains to prevent identification failed and the perpetrators fled before checking to see if their atrocity succeeded.
Before we get too far into the murder and its aftermath, let’s establish some of the setting with respect to Gaines, who would be called a “hard case” and who showed his criminal tendencies from a young age. He was born in Ogden, Utah on 6 April 1898 to James Gaines and Hester Ann House and he had an older sister. James Gaines worked as a market gardener and cattle buyer, though the family environment does not appear to be known as far as sources are concerned.
On 27 March 1910, 10-year old Ethel Downs was walking with friends in the foothills east of Ogden and got to the top of a ridge when she suddenly fell to the ground with a cry of pain. Her companions took her home and it was found that she had a .22-caliber rifle bullet that entered her left shoulder and stopped in her left arm. After the police were summoned, they investigated and, as reported by a Salt Lake City newspaper, found that “the stray ball was from the rifle of Albert Gaines, a small boy who . . . was hunting birds [with a friend].” It does not appear any punitive action was taken, so it is possible the shooting was an accident, but one wonders.
The Ogden Examiner of 12 March 1915 informed readers that “after a week of careful watching of the firm alarm box” at a street corner “the fireman doing the detective work, J.R. Bradley, was rewarded by witnessing a false alarm turned in and succeeded in catching the offender, who gave his name as Albert Gaines.” It was noted that Gaines was frightened when Bradley nabbed him just as he pulled the alarm and turned to run, but “he gave no explanation of his act.” The piece added that these false alarms were given weekly around midnight and, a couple of days later, the capital city’s Herald noted that the young man was handed a $25 fine, six months of probation and ordered to remain at home after 9 p.m.
In short order, however, Gaines turned to more serious criminal activity as his hometown paper of 15 June observed that the 17-year-old was arrested on suspicion of stealing some 160 chickens during eight incidents. When he was placed in the juvenile cell in the basement of the Ogden city jail, he devised a ruse of asking for something to drink. A woman assistant brought a cup of water, but, when she opened the cell door, Gaines rushed out and headed for the street. A detective happened to be on the front steps and pursued the jailbreaker and was soon joined by a colleague. The two officers located their quarry hiding in the basement of a house under construction and he was returned to the pokey.
A couple of days later, the Juvenile Court judge in Ogden ordered that the delinquent be sent to the state industrial school, these were common in lieu of juvenile detention centers. It is uncertain how long Gaines was at the institution, but, on 5 April 1917, he wedded Blanche Love at Salt Lake City and, the following year, the two had their only child, James Harvey, who died at age 22 when he was runover by a railroad engine.
It may be that Gaines tried to walk the straight and narrow and, when he registered for the draft on 12 September 1918 as World War One was nearing its end, he and his wife were residing at Green River, Wyoming, where Gaines worked as a switchman for the Union Pacific Railroad along the transcontinental railroad completed a half-century prior. Yet, trouble soon came again for the perennial young criminal.
At the end of the year, the Examiner reported that Gaines, arrested by Ogden police, was wanted in Denver, Colorado on a charge of grand larceny with the paper noting that “it is alleged that Gaines under the alias of Eugene Conway, secured $1500 worth of furs at one Denver store and sold them to another store.” It appears that, prior to that case going to court, the accused skedaddled with his little family and headed west to California, where he was soon arrested on a forgery charge involving a crime in Fresno County.
This landed Gaines in San Quentin State Prison on a 1-14 year sentence (these long ranges were very common for an array of crimes at the time) and, upon admittance to the Bay Area correctional facility on 19 August 1919, the photo used in the wanted poster was taken. The 21-year-old gave his vocation as brakeman for railroads, though whether he was gainfully employed or not is a question, because he was sent up for using a false name to endorse a Southern Pacific Railroad paycheck.
Gaines’ confinement at San Quentin was recorded in the 1920 federal census, taken there on 20 January, and showing that he worked in the carpenter shop. Yet, 11 days prior at the town of Martinez, northeast of Berkeley and along the Carquinez Strait, a census taker enumerated him, with his job shown as a plumber’s helper, living with Blanche and young Harvey—it may be that Mrs. Gaines did not want an official knowing about her straitened family circumstances.
In any case, Gaines soon secured parole from San Quentin and took his wife and son back to Ogden, but on 18 April 1921, he was again nabbed by local police, this time on a charge of absconding with an adding machine from a local coal company. It was added that he tried to sell the device, while a second charge of theft was pursued, as well. After two men posted sureties for a $2,000 bond on both charges, Gaines skipped bail and left the state, though the fugitive was quickly found in Kansas City, Kansas, brought back and remanded for a trial, which included an added felony rap for failing to appear in court. He was convicted of grand larceny, with a judge slapping a sentence of 1-10 years to the Utah State Prison. While he was imprisoned, Blanche secured a divorce, sent their son to live with her ex’s parents and later remarried.
While Gaines was in the slammer in Utah, he befriended a fellow prisoner, Philip A. Goodwin, born in October 1897 at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Living there as well as at nearby Nanaimo and Victoria, Goodwin served in the Canadian military during the First World War and it was reported that he was disabled from his service on the European front, including being gassed. A news report from Utah from the time of his arrest in the Patterson murder stated that “when he came here he was broken in health and without financial means.” Moreover, it was remarked that,
Shortly after his arrival in Salt Lake Goodwin obtained employment with the Ralph Cloninger [theater] company, taking extra parts. Later, when a character man was needed to play the role of fortune teller at a charity ball at the Hotel Utah, Goodwin was selected, dressed to fit the role of [a] Hindu, and told fortune with such amazing alacrity that he proved a most popular part of the entertainment.
With respect to the Cloninger troupe, a photo published in the 24 April 1920 of the Salt Lake Telegram shows Goodwin standing with his fellow thespians in front of the city’s Hippodrome Theatre as they performed in a Canadian Mounted Police-themed work called “Pierre of the Plains.” But, his fortune teller schtick proved to be remunerative and it turned into something of a business, though this involved the observation that “pearl necklaces, wedding rings, [and] diamond pieces of jewelry were given” so that he could “charm” them. It was then learned that he replaced legitimate gems and stones with fakes.
The result of this obfuscation was that Goodwin was indicted, tried and convicted of this scam and sent to the Utah State Prison in late October 1921 and where he was said to have become a devotee of Christian Science teachings as well as something of a mentor to younger inmates. It was then commented that,
He was discharged from the prison in August, 1922, and through Salt Lake friends obtained employment with a stock company in Los Angeles and traveled with various companies there for two years.
Later, Los Angeles papers reported his having been ordained to the ministry as a priest in the [American, not Roman] Catholic church.
He then became known as the Rev. Father Goodwin . . . and frequently said mass. He lived with a bishop in the same church, and from whom, it is reported, he later received a dispensation to go forth as a vaudeville entertainer to obtain funds to erect a new church edifice in Los Angeles.
He wrote “The Double Cross,” and played the part of the priest, [and] prison chaplain, himself.
Goodwin then invited Gaines to join him in the Angel City and the Telegram of 23 April 1923 informed its readers that, styling himself a psychologist, the former was arrested in the coastal community of Long Beach on an accusation of taking $200 from a disabled girl, while “Abe Gaines, his partner, is under arrest in Franklin county, Kentucky, [both parents hailed from Tennessee], charged with attempting to defraud a bank by means of a fake telegram.”
The account continued that Gaines was said to have violated the terms of his parole, while Goodwin, professing to be an Episcopalian and joining a church organization as well as becoming a member of the Allied Veterans Association, looked to make a pile and start a farm in Canada. The piece ended with the remarks that,
Gaines has a long criminal record. His history at the Utah prison shows that he has also been arrested under suspicion many times but often managed to escape conviction. Forgery, grand larceny and burglary are the most frequent charges against him. He is said to have operated from Kansas City to the Pacific coast.
As for his status as a parole violator, the Deseret News of 12 December 1924 reported that Gaines, residing with his parents at Ogden, “will be returned to [the state prison] as the result of a recent theft.” He was recently nabbed by officers on the suspicion that he stole 11 animal hides from a company in town and so it was assumed he would be remanded to the lockup, to which he was sent for the adding machine theft conviction.
It is not known if the Long Beach arrest of Goodwin led to any further legal proceedings, but he did return to stage work and, a little more than a month after Patterson’s murder, the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News of 20 April 1926 briefly noted that, under the pseudonym of G. Allison Phillips, he was the subject of a complaint regarding copyright violations because he staged “Getting Gertie’s Garter,” a 1921 play, in Bakersfield, Fresno and Tulare.
The 4 June number of the Los Angeles Times reported that Goodwin was arrested by federal officers and arraigned in New York City by a federal magistrate, with the notation that the complaint was against “Rev. Philip A. Goodwin of the American Catholic Church.” Bail was set at $2,000 with the addition that, if he did not return to Los Angeles to face the copyright charge, a deputy federal marshal would take him back.
Further, it was revealed that Goodwin engaged into a contract with Mrs. Mildred Corbain, a resident of Hollywood, to produce “Getting Gertie’s Garter,” not only doing so without permission from the copyright holder, but Corbain told investigators that “she had been victimized and never received a cent from the play, but that threats,” apparently from Goodwin, “made her afraid to complain.”
The Los Angeles Record of 20 July recorded that,
On information furnished from Orange county officials, Philip A. Goodwin, an American Catholic church priest, was under arrest in New York city today as a suspect in the mysterious disappearance and possible murder of Joseph James Patterson, who resided here until last March . . .
When arrested in New York the priest had a number of cancelled checks in his possession [these taken from Patterson and drawn on his bank account]. He was taken into custody at the Vaudeville Artists club. It is understood the suspect was formerly a matinee idol [!] and was confirmed as a priest only two years ago.
Rev. Goodwin denied any knowledge of the charge.
This takes us to the issuance of the wanted poster seeking the arrest of his compatriot, Albert Gaines, so we’ll return soon with part two to carry the thread of the story forward from that point. Be sure to join us then!