by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As Norman Selby, known to the public as Kid McCoy, former boxing champion and film actor, prepared to be put on trial for killing his lover, Theresa Weinstein Moers (Mors), his attorneys, following prosecution examinations by alienists, or psychiatrists, regarding the accused’s mental state as it tried to derail an insanity defense, hired a brain specialist, Dr. Cecil Reynolds, who examined McCoy in his Los Angeles County Jail cell on 21 August 1924.
The fellow of the English Royal College of Surgeons and a Los Angeles resident since 1911 who was film legend Charles Chaplin’s personal physician as well as sometimes called upon for expert court testimony, the Los Angeles Times reported by paraphrase determined that,
If Kid McCoy lives three years longer he will be completely paralyzed and totally demented . . . [and] is in the incipient stages of paresis brought about through excessive addiction to alcohol and a blood infection of some standing and his violent actions . . . are natural manifestations of the disease.
Reynolds went on to reveal to the paper that he knew the prisoner for three years and saw a dramatic change in personality, including “an arrogance and insolence beyond normal” and he related how he recently talked to McCoy for two hours at Chaplin’s Hollywood studio, but was not recognized. Moreover, while McCoy bragged during incarceration that he was in top physical shape, the doctor stated that one of his attorneys and a jailer performed far better in tests.
The doctor cited a paralysis on the right side of the prisoner’s mouth, inflammation at the back of the left eye, and unsteadiness when on his feet, while adding that blood tests taken by the prosecution’s experts were worthless because of the level of alcohol in McCoy’s system, while he disdained as “of minor importance, anyway.” Adjudging that the right side of the brain was impacted, the doctor stated that, for a right-handed person like the prisoner, “the left side of the brain is the most affected by the disease” with respect to intellectual capacity, judgment and memory.
The paper also cited a repudiation by McCoy’s last wife, Dagmar Dalgren, that she claimed to have been present at the Nottingham (now Richmond) Apartments and heard and saw vital details when Mors was killed, despite District Attorney Asa Keyes receiving that information and releasing a summary of it. An accompanying photo showed Dalgren seated at a table with her lawyer, Francis S. Adams, perhaps in the D.A.’s office.
The Los Angeles Record, also of the 22nd, cited the district attorney’s office detective Ed King as questioning whether jewels, valued at around $100,000 and said to have been smuggled by the Morses into the country from Europe without duties paid, were concealed in Theresa’s casket, which was sent to New York City for the funeral. He speculated whether Albert, her ex-husband, secreted the illicit valuables there to evade their detection, and, when asked by reporters, why he surmised this, King rejoined that the casket wasn’t going directly to the Weinstein family, but to an undertaker, adding “there is no telling who may meet it there.” The detective’s suspicion was aroused by the fact that Albert spent time with the coffin at the local funeral parlor as well as accompanied it to the train station for shipment.
The next day’s Los Angeles Express began its coverage with a quote from McCoy that “all I want is a square deal—a white man’s fight” as his counsel, Edward L. Davin and Ralph D. Knickerbocker, stated that a plea to the indictments handed down by the grand jury would be delayed and that a motion to quash them was likely. There was also more intrigue regarding the alleged smuggled jewels as federal agents were readying to seize them when the slaying occurred, but “two strangers” were thought to have taken the valuables.
Buoyed by Dr. Reynolds’ findings, Davin and Knickerbocker announced, as reported by the Times of the 23rd, that they were hiring two more alienists to examine their client, with the latter telling the paper, “we will go into court prepared to show that two members of McCoy’s immediate family have been confined in sanatoriums for treatment of mental diseases.” The District Attorney and Los Angeles Police Department, meanwhile, were said to be at the end of their investigations, while Detective King denied the prior day’s reports about his alleged musings regarding the missing jewels being stashed in Teresa’s coffin.
In its number of the 25th, the Express noted that, as expected, McCoy was allowed a delay on entering a plea and claimed unspecified irregularities with the grand jury, though some drama was added by the fervent expression by the prisoner that he be allowed to see his ailing mother before her death. A strange encounter took place in an elevator when the defendant met Harry Dunlap, called “the most debased character who ever appeared in these courts” and is the subject of a post on this blog. Dunlap greeted the “Kid” and advised using “that old haymaker” if deputies “get funny,” though McCoy replied, “no, Harry, my haymaking days are over.”
Alexander Stark of the Record penned a piece based on his interview with Jennie Selby Thomas, McCoy’s sister and a key witness due to his purported confession to her that he killed Theresa. Thomas wanted to show the good side of her sibling, telling Stark of financial assistance rendered, helping disabled children and, before bursting into tears, asked “does anyone think that great heart can be forgotten?”
Thomas also related how she cared for her younger brother when he was a child and praised his devotion to their mother, as she added, “they have heard the sordid thing cried on the streets and they should know the other side.” Hearkening to such editorials as those by Stark’s colleague, Don Ryan, she remarked, “he was just a play boy throughout his life” and “to be strong and yet tender was the secret of his power with women.” What was not cited was a protestation of his innocence in the shooting death of Theresa.
The Express of the 26th informed readers that there were rumors that McCoy would change counsel and that his defense fund organized by friends was not raising much money, though Davin showed the press a telegram from retired boxing referee James J. Griffin that he would finance the effort and the prisoner denied he was seeking to replace his lawyers, though Davin publicly stated he would welcome like Paul Schenck, adding that, if funds were available, he might be induced to join the team. Superior Court Judge Charles S. Crail denied the defense’s motion to quash the indictments, based on the omission of the name of the defendant’s sister, and ordered a plea be made in early September.
The paper also observed that McCoy was allowed a brief visit to his mother and, with tears streaming down his face, blurted out, “I didn’t do it, mother,” to which she replied, “I know you didn’t son,” before, it was added for obvious dramatic effect, displaying a smile as she “sank into the most peaceful sleep she has had since McCoy’s arrest.” Back in the county lockup, the accused showed defiance as he asserted,
I won’t leave this cell until my name has been cleared of his murder charge. I was present when Mrs. Mors committed suicide. I laid by her side on the floor and kissed her, then everything became blank. I don’t know what happened after that. But I do know she shot herself. I want to tell the world all about it!
There were further reports about the declining condition of Mary Selby, who suffered from heart disease, as the Express of the 27th, “hovered between life and death and from her delirium called for “God to save my son!” Her physician, saying she likely would not live more than a week, added that she would emerge from a coma-like state to cry, “My boy! My boy! God will save you, God will save y-o-u” before she “would trail off into a pitiful moan.” McCoy, in his cell, cried and told journalists “she was my only real pal” and “it was she who always stood by my side,” while “her words cheered me more than any other.”
Elsewhere in the edition, an Associated Press dispatch from New York City related that Theresa “will be buried today with only a few relatives and friends attending the services,” with interment at Mount Zion Cemetery, a Jewish burial ground in Maspeth, Queens. Notably, it was mentioned that “knowledge of the manner in which Mrs. Mors met her death has been kept from her parents,” who were kept away from newspapers “and have been told that their daughter died a natural death.” The Times of the 28th, however, noted that there were hundred of mourners at the mortuary for the Jewish funeral rites conducted over her casket.
The Record‘s issue of the 27th contained an article by Ted Le Berthon regarding the trial that Albert Mors was facing on the charge of the robbery of papers and jewelry from the company he and Theresa owned for the operation of their antique store. Prosecutors were loath to see the charge dismissed because they wanted Albert to remain in the area to testify at McCoy’s trial. Mors’ counsel, Frank M. Andreani, told the paper that he would make “unique revelations”. It was added that,
Mors’ attorney expects to prove that the accused husband took things belonging to him because “Kid” McCoy, under his correct name of Norman Selby, had been given the management of the shop by Mrs. Mors, and the husband feared he’d never be able to get them any other way.
Moreover, Andreani recounted, as Albert engineered a freezing of funds through litigation and expected the full force of McCoy’s wrath, he left his Hollywood house to stay in a hotel under an assumed name, though he returned clandestinely to the residence to salvage some papers in the cellar, took them to Andreani and returned to the hotel.
It was also revealed that Albert, intending to go to the antique shop the morning his ex-wife was killed and, as McCoy was terrorizing staff and visitors there, including the shooting and wounding of three persons, went to Andreani’s office, but “jammed the key to the cabinet . . . where the papers he intended taking to the antique shop had been locked the night before.” He then used the slightly bent key in the ignition of his car and was unable to start it, preventing a likely death at the hands of the raving McCoy.
While an intent to murder charge, based on a purported threat against Theresa, was dismissed earlier, Andreani commented that he intended to seek a dismissal on the robbery rap, as well. The lawyer followed this by stating that no other allegations against his client would stick because, despite Theresa’s “passionate affection for McCoy,” she did not change the conditions of her August 1921 will or her life insurance policies of $80,000 value, both of which were to the benefit of her ex-husband.
Finally, as August came to a close, media attention on the 30th was focused on the missing gems sought by federal investigators. The Express reported that attention was riveted on a $20,000 diamond, pearl and ruby pendant hung on a pearl chain, and it was observed that “this jewel was in the possession of McCoy, who claims that it was given to him by Mrs. Mors.” Strikingly, “he took the gem to the [C.C.] Julian [oil] company and succeeded in raising a $7000 loan on it” and then the piece was said to have been displayed in a shop on Broadway and then vanished from sight.
The paper added that the discovery of the pendant “will clinch the United States’ case against the smugglers, alleged to have brought in some $100,000 in illicit imports, of which 35% said to be in Theresa’s possession were recovered. Moreover, it was thought that McCoy “stored thousands of dollars worth of valuables in another warehouse in the city” based on a search of a Hollywood facility where “officers found a large quantity of valuable trinkets, which McCoy explained was given him by Mrs. Mors to outfit their proposed home when he married her.”
The Times of the same day reported that when a safety deposit box in McCoy’s name was opened at a bank in today’s Pico-Union neighborhood, a few thousand dollars in jewelry, among other items, were discovered, but nothing tied to the smuggled items. At a Hollywood storage facility, where he used the alias of “Norman Stone,” some two dozen items from the Mors antique business were found, but records there showed that most of the stored material was taken away before McCoy’s arrest. The paper also recorded that Mors’ preliminary hearing on the robbery charge was postponed to 26 September as requested by Keyes because any trial to come might prejudice McCoy’s proceeding.
In its issue of 31 August, the Times observed that an expanded search of banks was underway based on a list found in McCoy’s safe deposit box at the Pico-Union institution and as it was known that Theresa and “Norman Stone” kept one, as well. Also revealed was that a Chicago doctor who treated the defendant for injuries to his arm, neck and side felt that McCoy was insane when he lived in the Windy City two years prior. Dr. Francis W. McNamara issued a statement saying,
I felt at the time that I ought to have McCoy committed to an institution for treatment, but he left for California . . . There is no doubt that McCoy’s total insanity is only a question of time. He is now insane, in fact, and is not legally responsible for his crimes, [which are] the acts of a lunatic with brain disease.
The 2 September number of the Record briefly remarked that, having pled not guilty to the eight charges in two indictments, including the murder of Theresa, three for intent to kill the persons wounded later that day, and four for robbery, McCoy was to face trial on 20 October. It added that, when he was asked to plead in the first of these, he almost shouted “not guilty,” while the same reply for the other seven charges was “in lower tones.”
In the same day’s Times, a press photo was published showing Theresa’s light-colored casket being carried among dozens of mourners, into the New York City funeral parlor for services. The caption bears the title of “Love’s Tragic Finale.” While this was, of course, the case for the slain woman, there was a long way to go concerning any finality for her accused killer.
We’re going to take a bit of break for a few days to cover some other topics on this blog, but we’ll look to return soon to cover the period from late summer through most of the fall leading to McCoy’s trial, so check back for that.