by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The September 1928 arrests in western Canada of Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother Sarah Louise were expected to be followed by rapid extradition of the pair to Riverside County, California to face charges of the multiple murders of three boys—Walter Collins and Lewis and Norman Winslow—committed with torture and sexual abuse at the Northcott Ranch in Wineville, now part of Jurupa Valley. The reality, however, turned out to be far different.
District Attorney Albert Ford, observed the Riverside Press of the 22nd, telegraphed warrants for the two to California’s governor and the Secretary of State, who, in turn, was to communicate with a counterpart in Ottawa and it was hoped that to have Ford’s investigators, Bert Kelley and Jim Quinn, head to Vancouver, British Columbia to bring the prisoners back to Riverside once extradition papers were completed. Moreover, Sanford Clark, nephew and grandson of the Northcotts, had nothing materially new to offer once he was taken from Los Angeles to Riverside to meet with authorities at the chicken ranch.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office was still deliberating over whether to file an indictment concerning the murder of a Latino teen, whose decapitated body was found on Hudson Road, now Hacienda Boulevard, at or near the eastern edge of the Homestead, then owned by Walter P. Temple. It was previously indicated that this might wait until after Riverside County prosecuted the Northcotts.
The police chief of Calgary, Alberta, Canada issued a statement that he would release Louise unless an an arrest warrant was received within another day, as she was in custody for three days to date. Meanwhile, Northcott’s Canadian barrister, Frank Lyons, the only person permitted to see the accused murderer other than law enforcement officials, with reporters expressly forbidden to seek interviews, told the press there that Gordon returned to his home country because of concerns that he’d be arrested for immigration violations in bringing his nephew to California.
As for Sanford’s sister, Jessie, who told of what her brother knew of the terrible things happening at Wineville, Northcott told his counsel that his problem with her was that she was “jazz mad and movie crazy” and took too many friends to the ranch and which “cluttered up the farm.” Notably, while Lyons previously told reporters that he thought his client was insane, he now insisted,
I believe the boy is innocent and I will continue to do so until I have some proof to the contrary . . . he asked me to apply to the California bar for permission to represent him in the California courts in the event he is extradited . . . I am quite willing to do this.
In its coverage of the 22nd, the Los Angeles Times informed readers that “indictments . . . were voted in record time” in Riverside for indictments against mother and son, while it was remarked that the pair “emphatically were denying any connection” to the crimes and the paper noted that Gordon’s hiring of Lyons increased the “possibility of a long legal battle to prevent” the Northcotts being returned to California for trial. Canadian officials stated that Gordon could delay extradition for about two months and that Lyons could challenge every legal step.
Despite this position, Gordon’s remarks that “the entire case is a frame-up and I can prove my innocence in a short time” stood out. It is also notable that there was said to be an indictment against him for the “infamous crime against the nature” of Sanford. Another significant element was Clark’s testimony before the grand jury in which he said that Louise “supervised the part of all three in the crime” of killing Walter Collins “in order to make each of them equally guilty of it.” She, however, wanted to release the boy, but Gordon demanded his death because he saw the younger Northcott kill someone at a mine near modern Santa Clarita north of Los Angeles.
Also of note was that Sanford told the jury that Louise said to her son and grandson,
If you ever are caught for the crimes, lay the blame on me. My life is nearly through and you have a lot to see.
Cyrus Northcott, as did Sanford, hewed essentially to the information he provided previously, though he added that when his son told him he killed the unidentified Latino youth it was in self-defense, though the elder Northcott told the jury he did not believe this.
Separately, it was reported that, Winnifred Clark, Sanford’s mother and the sister and daughter of the suspects, would not say anything concerning the allegations but “announced she will stand by her mother.” Louise and Gordon went to her house after crossing into Canada and Winnifred joined them for three days prior to their apprehension.
Other news concerned a report that 16-year-old José Ayalia [likely Ayala] vanished from the Wineville area two-and-a-half years prior and may have been the unidentified Latino victim, though Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies were seeking corroboration. The family of a boy who was reported to have been sexually assaulted by Northcott in 1925, with the perpetrator let go with a reprimand, was said to be in contact with police, possibly for trial testimony, while a Los Angeles neighbor of Cyrus Northcott said he was requested to ask boys in the neighborhood if they wanted to go to the Riverside ranch to see how chickens were raised, while enjoying an 80-mile per hour ride on the way out.
A resident of the Highland Park area of the Angel City related how Gordon took him to the ranch, where two young boys were observed, these possibly being the Winslow brothers. It was also recorded that Walter Collins sometimes sold newspapers in that neighborhood, which was not far from his Lincoln Heights residence. A separate article concerned the impersonator of Walter as it was reported that Arthur J. Hutchins, Jr. was to return to his Iowa home as soon as his father came to Los Angeles to retrieve him. Another piece noted that Walter’s mother, Christine, despite her confinement in the county hospital psychopathic ward, was to return to her job with the Southern California Telephone Company.
With its usual large banner headline format, the Los Angeles Express, blaring “GIRL MURDER FARM VICTIM,” added a new twist by reporting that a woman who lived adjacent to the Northcotts when they lived in Highland Park (not far from the aforementioned scenes and the Collins residence) told police that a little girl was living with them and presumed to be a daughter, though the Northcotts did not have a child that young. When the unidentified neighbor threatened to go the police after witnessing beatings and other ill-treatment of the girl, the latter was not seen again and the Northcotts moved.
Concerning Walter Collins’ death, Los Angeles Police Department investigators posited that he was killed because he witnessed a killing in a cabin in Mint Canyon near today’s Santa Clarita during one of many robberies Gordon was said to have committed and which he relied upon for money, including the purchase of several cars, one custom-built model that cost him $3,600 (by comparison, a Ford Model T cost about a tenth of that amount). It was also reported that Gordon was an extravagant liar about connections to Beverly Hills, that his father was a director of the Bank of Italy (soon to be renamed Bank of America), and that he flashed rolls of money to impress people, though Cyrus was a carpenter and Louise did laundry at the county hospital.
In its number of the 23rd, the Angel City Spanish-language newspaper, La Crónica, ran a headline of “G. Northcott was Chief of a Cult” as it reviewed the matter of the Riverside County Grand Jury proceedings, including the murder of Walter Collins, the allegations of robberies committed by Gordon, purported missing persons as possible victims and a telegram that was concocted by Northcott to make it sound he had friendships with European royalty.
The paper, however, reported something not found in other media accounts, which was that,
But what truly stunned the jury gathered yesterday in Riverside was Clark’s statement that his uncle Gordon—besides being effeminate—was the priest of “The Death Cult,” to which both he and his mother belonged. Gordon and his mother erected a wooden altar in the ranch’s largest chicken coop. At its foot, they placed a wooden bed where they would lay their victims; they let them fall asleep and, once the victims were in a deep sleep, they killed them with blows from an axe.
Moreover, it was remarked that, to keep Clark from going to be police because of hat he knew, Gordon and Louise forced him to participate in the killing, with Gordon striking the first blow, Clark the second and Louise the last. La Crónica added that, as part of the purported rituals, the heads were “burned in front of the altar” and remains buried in lime-filled pits, with the Winslow brothers killed by having their throats slit.
Death cult or not, the Times, also of the 23rd, reported on another part of the investigation, this concerning material found consumed in a bonfire more than 50 miles from Riverside and which was said to include portions of paper with children’s handwriting, stained mattress pieces, and bits of clothing. Remarkably, Clark told authorities that his uncle said he’d disposed of the remains of Collins and the Winslows “fifty miles into the desert” and that Sanford checked the odometer of the car and found that it had been driven about 100 miles that day.
Out at Mint Canyon near modern Santa Clarita, sheriff’s department investigators stated that a well near a cabin rented by Gordon was filled in with quicklime, while a rancher nearby stated that he saw a bonfire there the evening after Northcott was there and another neighbor said she saw him with only a pick, shovel and a spare tire. Other news included denials from Calgary that there was any deadline for receiving an arrest warrant for Louise Northcott, though it was remarked that there was some impatience regarding the receipt of extradition papers, and that two local lawyers were retained to represent Gordon and Cyrus.
What was most extraordinary from the paper, however, was a report from Vancouver headed with “NORTHCOTT DENIES CRIME IN COLORFUL LIFE STORY,” in which it was stated that Gordon talked to a reporter while incarcerated at the Oakalla Prison Farm in nearby Burnaby. Calling the “charges against me melodramatic in the extreme,” the accused was said to have “told his story in a convincing matter and embellished it with quick gestures while a disarming smile often flitted across his face.”
Northcott was reported to have told the journalist,
For a time after my arrest, I was deeply worried for myself, for murder is not a nice charge to face, but now I can look on it calmly and if the accusation was not so serious I might even look upon it as a joke. My real worry now is for ‘little mother.’ I am afraid that the worry and strain may break her down. Imagine a woman of 64, of slight build, wielding an ax with fragile hands. It is impossible for anyone who knows mother to picture her in such a role. How I wish she (held in Calgary) would be brought here quickly so that we could aid each other. Do I look like a murderer? I do not think I flatter myself when I say that I look just like any other young fellow of normal mind and disposition.
In relating his version of his life story, Gordon noted that, after he and his parents settled in Los Angeles in 1924, he, a talented pianist, performed in a movie theater, as well as worked in grocery stores and sold cars until the chicken ranch was acquired the following year and there were 900 hens and many other birds there. He added that his sister had domestic problems and asked Louise to take care of her two children, so Gordon picked up Sanford and took him to Wineville, calling allegations of kidnapping groundless.
The prisoner said that his nephew “was a stupid boy and one extremely hard to handle,” while decrying any claims of abuse, while he insisted that Jessie, on her visit, “is of the type that likes sensationalism and publicity.” He also claimed he had such trouble with neighbors that some of them were taken to jail. With respect to bones found on the ranch, he claimed these were from birds that died of disease. Returning to his nephew and niece, Gordon asserted,
During her stay with us she was in constant consultation with Sanford and the two seemed to be plotting something. The situation became so strained that she was ordered from the farm and went to Los Angeles, where she joined father . . . and there was considerable trouble. Father had to leave the place on my demand because he had struck mother . . . Things went from bad to worse. Then Jessie reported to the immigration people regarding Sanford’s entry into the country.
As for he and Louise fleeing to Canada, he insisted that his concern was about any immigration violations with Sanford not accusations of murder that led to his hiring a barrister and also cited an Alhambra attorney’s advice to “lie low there until the case was disposed of.” Gordon also claimed that his sister Winnifred joined him and Louise “to fight any absurd charges made against us by Jessie, her own daughter” and inquired, “do you think there is there was any part of the charges true that she would aid me against her own children?”
Beyond this, he asserted that his sister “took charge of things” and insisted that Louise go back to Saskatoon “to get her out of it all and we would return and fight the case” and that it was she who purchased the car that transported them in Canada. Gordon averred that the stories of Sanford and Jessie “are born from the brain of a boy who has read to many lurid detective and mystery stories and from the mind of a girl who likes sensationalism and notoriety.”
As for Cyrus, the younger Northcott professed to be puzzled by the statements his father made and offered religious differences as part of why this arose or “it may be that he thinks to aid me by making my actions appear to be those of one insane.” The reason for contesting extradition was not fear of facing charges but, instead, the issue of having “to face scores of reporters, press and movie photographers and the grilling of detectives.”
Another detail, related by his barrister Lyons, was that Gordon said he “played minor roles in the films at Hollywood . . . his acting returning him $5 a day,” this purportedly “next in rank above an extra in the acting profession.” After explaining that extradition proceedings could take up to two months, including appeals on a habeus corpus (unlawful detainer) basis, Lyons told the press that he would seek an opportunity to query prosecution witnesses in Vancouver because “he wants to check the story of Sandford [sic] Clark.”
Speaking of checking, we’ll halt here and return next with part seven taking us toward the end of September and further media coverage of what has been long known as the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, so be sure to check back with us then.