by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With prior reports already warning of delays of up to two months for the extradition of Gordon Northcott and his mother Louise, suspected of the 1928 murders of three boys and a teen in what has been known as Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, news was received in the 26 September edition of the Los Angeles Times that there was an expected five days of extensions “to permit corrections of technical errors and omissions in the extradition documents.” It was one thing for defense attorneys to spot problems in filings and use these errors for the benefit of their clients, but quite another when the mistakes were caught by state officials.
The situation arose during a review prior to sending the paperwork to Washington, D.C. as it was determined that it was “inadequate and that the Riverside authorities ran the risk of losing their case if the Northcotts fight against return to California.” Among the issues were that there were missing statement certifications and testimony copies. Bert Kelley and Jim Quinn, who delivered the documents, did not wait in Sacramento but pressed on for Canada wanting to interview the Northcotts about their intentions with respect to fighting extradition.
It was also reported that Gordon was on the verge of a nervous breakdown because federal officials in Washington instructed their colleagues in Ottawa to serve formal charges on him in his cell at a prison farm near Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as the fact that Louise was not to be transferred from a Calgary jail to where her son was held, that it was understood that Riverside District Attorney’s office investigators were on their way to take him back to California and that his nephew Sanford Clark, whose revelations about what were alleged to have transpired at Wineville (now Jurupa Valley), told of how the brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow were buried alive at the chicken ranch.
Clark specifically told investigators that he could see the twitching of hands as the burials were consummated and he told his uncle that “I could not bear to see them buried in such a condition.” It was added that each of those killed were interred while still alive, but, when queried about this, Sanford told the media, “I did not tell Quinn that the boys were buried alive or anything like that.” Instead, he related the manner of death but insisted that the youngsters were dead prior to burial.
Given the lack of evidence of remains, investigators continued efforts, including the search of a pair of abandoned wells in remote locations close to Wineville, while a sewer sump dumping into the Santa Ana River was also examined for possible evidence of the bodies. A location at Whitewater Canyon in San Gorgonio Pass between Banning and Palm Springs was said to have dishware and tableware like those used at the ranch. At the ranch, more bits of evidence were collected, including a chicken selling permit on the back of which were the names of the Winslows, as well as to references to other persons in Pomona, the siblings’ hometown.
As to a missing man whose wife corresponded intimately with Gordon with concerns that he and three of their sons were not accounted for, it was reported that the quartet were in Virginia. Children’s clothing and women’s shoes found on a remote highway heading to Yuma, Arizona, were thought to be possibly tied to Wineville, but it turned out that they were not germane.
The Los Angeles Record published a sensational report that Sanford’s sister, Jessie, who recently visited her brother, uncle and grandparents, told authorities that there were at least eleven boys killed at the ranch and she added that Gordon threatened to kill her because of what she knew. Los Angeles Police Department detectives, meanwhile, expressed confidence that there was evidence of a killing of a miner near Mint Canyon in the area of today’s Santa Clarita, while they added that Northcott’s prurient interest in widely publicized murders and, from at least May 1925, how to dispose of bodies through the use of lime were also observed. The paper also reported that Arnold Meacham, a 17-year-old Salt Lake City boy, was considered a possible victim.
In the face of the further statements of Jessie Clark, Gordon, as cited in the Los Angeles Express, also of the 26th, insisted that “he never knew any of the boys whom he is specifically charged with having fiendishly slain, and added that none of the missing youths ever visited his farm,” while he added “he never heard of Walter Collins.” As to the Winslows, he only came cross their names in newspaper accounts, while, in a statement released by his Canadian barrister, Frank Lyons, Northcott addressed rumors of some cult-like environment at the ranch by asserting his devoutness and other issues:
I know of no mysterious altar at my ranch, unless you can call a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and one of the sacred heart of Jesus with a small crucifix . . .
It is asked if at any time I knew Collins or the Winslow boys or if they visited my ranch. Certainly not. I only knew of them through newspaper accounts of the disappearance.
[After asserting that any Boy Scout related items pertaining to the Winslows had to do with them and his past membership in the organization] If instead of hunting for evidence that does not exist except in Sanford’s crazed imagination, a mental examination should be given the boy, [and] I think our most sensational murder case would end.”
The Express noted that a British Columbia police official opined that extradition of the Northcotts should have been a relatively simple matter, with only proof of a crime committed in the United States needed, but even witness testimony would not dictate approval of the remand of the pair. Because Louise was held in Alberta, a judge there would decide on her extradition. Lyons, however, asserted that Canadian law would allow him “to even carry the case to England,” meaning that he could appeal to the British Columbia Supreme Court, the provincial appellate court, Canada’s high court and then the British privy council. The barrister added that he would fight to prevent extradition but “probably would not appeal outside the province.”
The Times of the 27th added Cyrus to the list of nervous Northcotts as it reported that a closer watch was instituted at the Riverside County jail because there were apparent signs of depression and agitation, though Sheriff Clem Sweeters told the press that there was no indication of the likelihood of an escape attempt or suicide. Given harsh words bandied back and forth between father and son, Cyrus’ remarks from the article are notable:
I will not put out any money to aid him in his coming fight for life. I think there is something wrong with the boy mentally . . . But all his tales of murdering people was the result of hallucinations and a desire to be a many of mystery to his friends and neighbors.
Riverside County District Attorney Albert Ford was said to be ready to resubmit extradition papers according to proper form to the governor’s office for transmittal to Washington. Kelley and Quinn let it be known that there was definitive proof that Walter Collins was at the Wineville property after his mother, who was seeking legal action against the Los Angeles Police Department over their treatment of her with regard to an impostor, Arthur J. Hutchins, Jr., provided samples of his hair. Yet, criminologist J. Clark Sellers denied having verified this, saying that Quinn made the remarks based on “non-official conversations and reports” and adding that he had not yet looked at the hair, while he did affirm the presence of human blood and bones at the ranch. Several days, Sellers noted, were required for a definitive report.
Another item of significance was that the manager of the Riverside County Hospital examined Sanford Clark and told the press “that the lad’s condition confirmed statements that he had been the victim of Northcott’s degeneracy,” meaning that there were obviously physical signs of sexual assault. It was added that officials wanted to have something to fall back on, in terms of another charge, in case “the murder charges are not found sufficient.”
Meanwhile, a missing 16-year-old from Long Beach, who vanished in May 1927, apparently wrote a letter to his father than month saying that he was working on a farm near Riverside and then purportedly followed with a telegram the past summer from Chicago, though nothing further could be traced. It was wondered, however, if the young man was one of the eleven persons Jessie Clark told investigators were killed at Wineville.
The Express told its readers that “the headless murder was believed to have been solved” and that, if this was the case regarding the body found on Hudson Road (now Hacienda Boulevard) south of Valley Boulevard and adjacent to or on the Homestead property then owned by Walter P. Temple, “the net around Gordon Stewart Northcott, alleged operator of a Wineville ‘murder farm,’ has been drawn tighter.” Deputy Sheriffs Joseph Ybarra and José S. Sepúlveda, in going through the Northcott home near the county hospital had some camera film developed and found a photo of hospital nurses, among whom was a Filipino teenager. The account continued,
The picture was shown to Sanford Clark, whose revelations resulted in Northcott’s arrest. Clark, who had seen the head of a boy he says Northcott brought to the murder farm, declared the boy in the picture was the victim. A woman across the street from the Northcott residence told the officers she had seen a Filipino boy around the [house] on several occasions.
Sepúlveda and Ybarra, it was noted, were to check hospital personnel files and obtain the name of the young man, who “was employed in the kitchen.” As noted in this post, Louise Northcott worked in the facility’s laundry. It was also revealed that a noose was found in the dwelling’s basement, suggesting that Gordon strangled at least one person there, though that was purely speculation. Another tidbit was that Gordon was part of a boys’ club and it was wondered if some of his purported victims were members, as a roster was found and included names from Pomona and Upland. The deputies, believing Northcott was trying to learn Spanish, “may have had the Mexican [Filipino] youth tutoring him, then killed him later.”
Also of interest were claims by Los Angeles Police Department investigators that alleged friends of Gordon were trying to find former neighbors of his as they were doing so, as well, including “stories . . . almost as weird as the tale of murder related by . . . Sanford Clark.” One of these concerned the “ape man” moniker applied to Northcott and revealed in letter from a physician uncle, Thomas Stewart Northcott, in which it was “learned that the young man’s body from his neck to his toes is covered with a mass of thick matted hair” and that “Northcott is supersensitive about this growth” inquiring of his uncle how to remove it. It was understood that Gordon always wore long sleeves and high collars buttoned to the top, though the LAPD investigators were given “to brand the youth as an atavist—one who reverts to type.”
Another report was that, while the family resided in Eagle Rock next to Occidental College, fighting among the trio was so pronounced that neighbors sought to have them arrested. One conflict was said to have involved Gordon kicking his mother in the stomach, after which he grabbed a knife, said to be a common occurrence, and “kicked his aged father down the stairs and into the street,” following this by throwing dishes out a window. Gordon purportedly came out with a gun and pressed it against Cyrus’ chest, threatening to kill him, but the elder Northcott “grasped his son by the throat and succeeded in taking the gun from him.” Seemingly unperturbed, the teen walked in the house and played the piano until the police arrived, but his parents refused to press charges. On another occasion, a neighbor heard Cyrus and Louisa cry out, “Please, Stewart—put away the butcher knife—don’t kill us.”
A possible identification of a murder was reported as a Norwalk woman stated that her oil worker husband was found dead in July 1927 at Soledad Canyon, not far from the Mint Canyon-area Northcott cabin, where Sanford declared that Gordon killed a man. It was remarked that Norwalk man had $700 on him when he vanished, but the money was never found, but officials noted that the cabin was not rented by the Northcotts until April 1928. Moreover, no official documentation could be found regarding the missing murdered man.
Separately, a former Northcott neighbor near the county hospital recalled an incident, and was photographed along with the location, where she said that, on 13 August, she saw Gordon put three boys and a middle-aged man in a car and drive away. Mrs. A. Alvadriz gave detailed descriptions of the four persons, though she didn’t find it suspicious at the time, even as she recalled that Gordon unsuccessfully tried to get her 14-year-old son to take a trip to the chicken ranch. This incident was presumed by investigators to potentially involve some of the 11 murder victims as remarked by Jessie Clark.
Lastly, the Times reported that,
In an effort to establish definite responsibility for the imprisonment of Mrs. Christine Collins in the psychopathic ward of the General Hospital when she refused to acknowledge a boy brought to her by the police representing himself as her missing son, Walter, the Los Angeles county grand jury yesterday subpoenaed members of the Los Angeles Police Commission to appear at 10 a.m. tomorrow and explain the situation.
Christine’s efforts to seek justice over the incident, with her blaming Captain Joseph J. Jones of the LAPD’s crime prevention bureau, led the jury to act and we’ll see subsequently that the issue only increased in intensity and media visibility. Speaking of which, we’ll halt here and return soon with part nine, so check back in for that.