by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As the investigation continued after the stunning mid-September 1928 discovery of evidence showing that human remains were buried at the Northcott family ranch in Wineville, in modern Jurupa Valley west of Riverside, following revelations by Sanford Clark of what his cousin, Gordon Northcott, orchestrated in the sexual abuse, torture and killing of four youths since early February, the Los Angeles Times of the 16th alluded, as its headline noted, the fact that “BOY BUTCHERY TANGLE GROWS.”
For one, two boys located in Texas were asserted to be the missing brothers, Lewis and Nelson Winslow, by their father, though Clark was explicit that they, along with Walter Collins and an unidentified Latino youth, were killed and buried at the three-acre ranch. It was also noted that letters in May sent from Corona and Pomona to the Winslow’s parents purported to attest to their safety, one saying the boys were going to México, but the police theorized that one of the missing youth were forced by Northcott to write the notes.
Moreover, despite Collins’ mother definitively stating that a boy found in Illinois was not her son, though he was essentially forced upon her, Los Angeles Police Department detectives “were convinced that the youth . . . is the real Walter Collins” even as Clark easily picked out of his photo, as he did for the Winslows, among 30 placed before him by authorities. The LAPD personnel based their views on tests that purported to show that the boy found in the Midwest knew “little details familiar only to [Walter] during the days prior to his disappearance.” For example, when Walter’s watch was shown, the boy said it was his—though one wonders why authorities would conclusively conclude this as evidence the youngster was Walter.
Meanwhile, strands of hair, dried blood samples and what were thought to be human bones were submitted to a chemist for analysis. Another item of note was the report that Sanford Clark’s sister, Jessie, who visited the Northcott ranch a couple of months prior, made a statement to authorities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that constituted “the same story of the asserted murders as related by her brother” when she was in California.
Additionally, though, Jennie Clark told officers that “[Gordon] Northcott also related the slaying of the Collins boys [sic] to her but declared it was brought about because the boy had seen him slay a man on the highway near Saugus [modern Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles] two days after the St. Francis Dam disaster [which occurred on 12-13 March and Walter vanished on the 10th].” The Times remarked that there was no known report found to date of a homicide in that area during that period.
The paper further commented on the evidence of what was thought to be the disinterment of the missing youth from shallow graves inside the ranch’s chicken house, a long building much larger and fancier than a chicken coop, and the scattering of remains throughout the ranch with lime used to further degrade what was left. In addition to bones and what was on the ax, it was reported that two sweaters, a pair of pants and three coats were found, but had not been linked to the alleged victims.
Further drama was invoked when it came to the search for Gordon and his mother, Louise (father Cyrus was in Los Angeles being questioned by detectives), as it was stated that Jessie Clark claimed she saw the two in a Vancouver restaurant. To this point, almost nothing was said about the Latino youth, reflective perhaps of racial conditions at the time, though it is not possible to know for sure. But, the Times did comment that two Latino deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which had jurisdiction over Puente, as the area around the Homestead was then called, found grain sacks at the Northcott ranch which they said matched one found covering part of the young man’s body.
More details were offered about the murder of the Winslow boys, with Clark telling authorities that Northcott lured them into the chicken house to watch chicks hatch in an incubator room and, as they watched the machine that worked 500 eggs at a time, “the death-dealing ax was swung. Clark added that Northcott forced him to use a smaller hatchet on Nelson before Northcott used the ax as a “mercy stroke.”
Cyrus Northcott, held at the central Los Angeles police station, “appeared dazed as he was questioned by newspaper men.” He related how, in 1924, when the family migrated to the area from Canada, the 17-year old Gordon asked for a chicken ranch, to which his father thought was an unserious request. Later, however, the young man told Cyrus he found a place and, after a visit, it was purchased and a four-room bungalow constructed. As to his missing wife, the elder Northcott related that the last he saw her was more than a week prior when she, having quit her laundry job at the Los Angeles County general hospital near their Lincoln Heights home, told him she was going to see Gordon at the ranch.
Cyrus was described as “a frail little man . . . and a quiet manner of speaking,” though showing no problem with answering questions posed by the press, even as, when not talking, he “stared helplessly at his surroundings.” The Times commented that “the father’s manner is that of one who cannot realize the enormity of the crime[s] of which his son and wife are suspected” and he was said to be concerned, as he was detained, that he was amid repairing a car. Northcott was quoted as remarking, in contradiction to what was previously reported as far Gordon’s “abnormalities”:
We were expecting trouble with the immigration authorities because my son brought Sanford Clark here from Canada, but I had no idea that any of the rest of these things were going on. Gordon had always been a good boy and I can’t believe he could be guilty of such things as they accuse him of doing. He had never shown any abnormal tendencies, at least as far as I know, and I don’t believe it is true.
In its edition of the 17th, however, the Riverside Press informed readers that, “breaking under a third-degree grilling in Los Angeles,” Cyrus “confessed to the police that his son” and nephew “had both admitted to him that the murders had been committed.” He added that he left the ranch to return to Los Angeles because Gordon threatened his life, while telling authorities that the younger Northcott admitted the killings of the four youth.
The paper continued that a flour sack purportedly stained with blood and two pelvic bones were located, as Riverside County Sheriff Clem Sweeters had men scouring the ranch for more evidence, including the removal of the cement garage floor. The county’s district attorney, Albert Ford, told the paper that it was assumed that Sanford Clark’s account was true, though “we are looking for something to substantiate his story” while the chemical analysis and further searching were underway. Department investigator Bert Kelley was working with Sweeters and his crew, but no charges against Gordon Northcott were yet warranted. Because of hundreds of curious onlookers, Sweeters implemented a cordon around the ranch.
The Times, publishing a photo of a wide-eyed Cyrus Northcott, mentioned his recanting of prior statements, though his latest remarks were said to be a closely-held secret by police investigators despite the Riverside paper’s reporting. A detective captain told the paper “we have obtained information that convinces us the story of the butchery as related by Sanford Clark may be true,” but nothing was to be released until presented to a Riverside County grand jury.
What was stated, though, was that “the elder Northcott revealed that his son is of peculiar habits,” which does not jibe with the above quote, and that Louise “is the only member of the family who had complete control over the youth.” He also initially told authorities that Sanford Clark was his nephew, when he was actually his grandson, the son of daughter Winnifred, as if this might be an indication of some cognitive issues.
The Times remarked, as well, on “the cessation of investigation at the ranch which thus far had failed to reveal more than a few vague clews bearing out Clark’s story.” It added that, as police officials did not believe Christine Collins about the identity of the boy she took home with her some weeks prior, she was “taken to the psychopathic ward of the General Hospital for observation.”
With respect to the Winslow brothers, a Texas constable insisted he arrested them and then let them go when the boys said they were on their way to visit a relative, while their father believed they were still alive and denied identifying a cap found at the Northcott ranch. Other news included the confiscation of a pistol and rifle shells said to be from Gordon and an effort was to be made to try to match these to a bullet found in the body of the Latino youth. Two Riverside County medical officials also disagreed about the bones found at the ranch, with one not convinced they were human, while the other was. These, with the ax, stained dirt samples and parts of a stained mattress were handed over to a criminologist for further examination by the Riverside city chemist.
The Los Angeles Express, referring to the “ranch of death,” asserted that
A circling buzzard today gave authorities their first concrete proof that little boys have been murdered on the ranch of Gordon Stuart Northcott, sought as the alleged slayer. Following the buzzard, deputy sheriffs were led to a shallow grave a mile and a half from the ranch . . . and digging down a few feet, uncovered the right and left pelvic bones of a boy between 8 and 10 years of age. In the grave were also bits of matter [matted?] hair and a piece of vertebrae.
It was added that authorities were convinced the bones were human and that two buckets of them were to be taken to try and assemble a skeleton. The paper also reported that a middle-aged woman, previously a resident of the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, was in love with Gordon and called this “another sensational development” because it turned out that Northcott was arrested in July 1925 for “a degenerate attack on the woman’s 12-year-old son.”
The result, though, was that he was “severely reprimanded” by Juvenile Hall officials and released. Letters found at the ranch included reference to a “red headed girl” but police investigators thought this was a boy “with whom Northcott was infatuated.” Clark also told authorities that Gordon said he was going to marry the woman and murder her for her money. Moreover, a report from Vancouver was that a private investigator found Gordon and was told he married a 64-year-old woman there.
Other items of interest in the Express were that a whistle, said to be like those used by Boy Scouts, of which the Winslows were members, was found on the ranch. Louise Northcott, it was noted, was fond of making tapioca pudding, traces of which were found in the stomach of the Latino youth during an autopsy. Clark told investigators that, after decapitation of the head, Northcott brought it back to the ranch to burn it. As for the investigation in the garage, it was revealed that Cyrus, who was reported to have said that both Gordon and Louise threatened his life several weeks prior, told investigators to search there because Gordon dug a place there for a liquor still (it was Prohibition, so this was illegal) and bodies might be found in that location, at which the cement floor was subsequently laid.
LAPD Detective Jerry Hickey who interviewed Cyrus told the press,
[William Edward] Hickman [killed of 12-year-old Marion Parker] was a saint compared to the fiend for whom we are now searching. In all the years I’ve been an officer I have never heard a story more terrible—it is the worst murder case in the nation’s history.
The paper continued that “young Clark’s story is without parallel in the annals of crime” being “a story of frightful degeneracies” committed, and this was new reporting, by “a religious fanatic, who while he read Scripture and the lives of the saints imposed the most frightful tortures” with it added that “these horrors were carried on with the full knowledge of the youth’s mother, if the Clark boy’s story is true.” With respect to Christine Collins’ detention at the county hospital psychopathic ward, the Express briefly observed that “this action has created a city-wide storm of protest.”
Another telling bit of intelligence was that Cyrus Northcott told the police that Sanford Clark informed him of the killing of the Latino youth the day prior to the body’s discovery on Hudson Road, now Hacienda Boulevard, at or near the east end of the Homestead. Moreover, it was asserted that this murder happened at the Lincoln Heights house occupied by the Northcott parents and that it was done with a .22 caliber rifle, shells of which were found at the ranch and the Los Angeles residence.
When it came to Clark’s relaying of the slaying of the Winslow brothers, it was said that officers laughed, leading the teen to declare, “Please Mr. Hamren don’t laugh at me, too.—I’m telling you the whole truth—I honestly am. You’ll find everything I say is so.” This was followed by the quick photo identification among 30 other images and Clark’s unshakable adherence to his explanation. It was added that LAPD Chief James E. Davis was notified on 8 September by the American consul in Vancouver, British Columbia, of “the whole story,” but “due to the usual police red tape surrounding Davis’ office, nothing was done about the revelations” for almost a week.
Lastly, it was remarked that Los Angeles County Chief Deputy District Attorney Forrest Murray filed a complaint against Gordon for the sexual abuse of Clark and an unidentified Glendale youth, who told authorities he was lured to a hotel in that city and assaulted. Moreover, Northcott was planning to take his victim to the ranch, but the father happened to see the trio and “stopped his departure.” The account ended with the observation that the plan was to turn over the matter to Riverside County authorities. Separately, the Express published information that Gordon was definitely said to be in Vancouver, while his mother, accompanied by his sister, was reported to be on the way there from Saskatoon.
In its coverage of the 17th, the Los Angeles Record repeated much of the same information as its contemporaries, though it stated that the buzzard-located gravesite was a half-mile from the ranch; that the mystery woman was a Mrs. Scott, who may have provided funds for Gordon to drive six fine automobiles, including the one used for his escape north; and that a 14-year-old Alhambra teen, whose father owned a garage that apparently serviced the vehicles, provided information on the cars. Moreover, it cited Sheriff Sweeters as stating that two complaints against Gordon and Louise Northcott for murder were to be filed by D.A. Ford.
Cyrus offered another story related to him by his son involving the alleged killing, in February or March, of a miner in a desert camp and claimed to have found a boy in a mine shaft, after which he took him to the ranch and killed him, but the elder Northcott dismissed the story as part of his son’s “flights of fancy” and “dismissed the tale as pure fabrication.” Elsewhere, the paper went into detail about the Alhambra interview, which involved the mother of the teen and which included reference to Gordon talking about his “Mexican foreman” at the ranch, this seemingly the unidentified Latino youth, but it was also remarked that Northcott abused the Alhambra boy at a hotel and tried to get him to go to the ranch—this appears to be what was stated elsewhere as a Glendale incident.
This last point was in an article focusing on four mothers: the one from Alhambra, that of the Winslows, Louise Northcott and her fanatical devotion to her son, and Christine Collins, this latter deemed “the most amazing and pitiful figure of the entire case.” It was added that Sanford Clark was taken to a facility in Norwalk where the Midwest boy that she determined was not Walter was being housed and Clark flatly told authorities “no, that’s not the Walter Collins I know, you’ll find Walter Collins’ bones scattered out in the fields at the ranch.” Juvenile department officials, moreover, claimed that Christine was “working for sympathy to release her husband from Folsom” state prison, though he was due for release in December. Why this accusation was made, however, was left unexplained.
Speaking of explanations, there are plenty more of those, so we’ll halt there and return soon with part three.