by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As September 1928 came to a close, the media frenzy over the revelations of what was long been called the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders continued, though coverage was shifting from investigations seeking hard evidence regarding the alleged killings of a Latino (or Filipino) teenager and three young boys, though other homicides were also being reviewed, at the ranch in modern Jurupa Valley, by Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother Sarah Louise, with the horrors made public by her grandson and his nephew, Sanford Clark, who told authorities he was sexually and physically abused and forced to participate in the crimes.
The increase attention from newspapers concerned the extradition of Gordon and Louise from their home country of Canada as problems arose with what Riverside County officials prepared, so the Los Angeles Times of the 28th reported that “legal machinery . . . will be speeded up . . . in an effort to expedite extradition proceedings” following the rejection of what District Attorney Albert Ford and his staff sent to Sacramento. The California Attorney General not only returned the documents but requested sixteen forms to correct the errors in the proceeding, which necessarily delayed matters.
Even still, Bert Kelley and Jim Quinn, investigators from Ford’s office, arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, to wait for the papers to be properly submitted, reviewed and approved and then sent to Washington for analysis by Department of State authorities in consultation with the Governor-General at Ottawa before further work could be undertaken. Among the requested papers were copes of the bench warrant, grand jury testimony and indictments, with appropriate signatures by jurists. Ford was miffed by the return of the papers he sent to Sacramento, as this required the redrawing of these as well as production of the new documents and he told the press that a Canadian extradition barrister would be hired to assist with the process.
Meanwhile, further investigation continued, including a report from the coastal city of Long Beach that Gordon and a small boy thought to be Walter Collins were at a boarding house there, while another account noted that the evening before he left for Canada, Northcott was at a southwest Alhambra house and the Black family who resided there and owned a nearby garage, were told by Gordon that his father recently died at a Beverly Hills house and left young Northcott rich. As for blood stains found on a spare tire cover of car in Ontario which Gordon formerly owned, Sanford Clark told authorities it was his, while a garage owner near the Wineville ranch found Northcott loading a large wood box on his truck.
Of significance was the remark that hairs from young Collins’ bathrobe were to be compared to those found on a bone in a grave at the ranch, even as these were damaged by lime, but it was added that the hair could be split and canals analyzed for matches. Also thought to be important was that pages from a bible located at Whitewater Canyon near Palm Springs matched a damaged one found at the Northcott home in Los Angeles.
Columnist and part-owner of the paper, Harry Carr, in his popular The Lancer section, addressed Gordon’s remarks from jail that there was better use for taxpayer funds in Riverside County than his trial, specifically for necessary public works, leading Carr to comment,
Young Mr. Northcott, arrested for wholesale murder, shows a touching solicitude for the bridges of Riverside county. He thinks they should use the money it will cost to try him for murder on new bridges. But here is another way of looking at it: If he should happen to be hanged there will be one less person to wear the bridges out; so the present ones will last longer.
The same day’s Los Angeles Express cited sources from Vancouver that a barrister there, hired by local officials for the extradition, was said to have stated, from evidence presented to him that the Wineville murders constituted “one of the most ghastly crimes in police experience.” It was learned, meanwhile, that there would be no witness testimony in Canada, but, for the extradition hearings, “evidence will be in the form of depositions.”
A strange circumstance took place at the jail when Gordon was told he was to be released and replied “it’s about time,” as he hurried to dress. After he was let out of a police car, however, and walked just a short distance, he was nabbed by the officers on a warrant that required service outside jail and taken back to the lockup, leading Northcott to spit out, “of all the crazy things I ever heard of. I guess everybody’s crazy.”
Another bizarre report was that Louise Northcott hired a doctor to write a fake death certificate for her husband, Cyrus, so she could collect on a $2,000 life insurance policy. Two Los Angeles Police Department detectives, searching the ranch with Riverside County Sheriff Clem Sweeters, were said, based on new information by Sanford, to have found in the large chicken house (a far cry from a coop) a pair of graves, said to be readied or a family of five, previously mentioned in news reports, who were invited to the ranch, grew uneasy and fled before they were to be murdered.
The Los Angeles Record, also of the 28th, recounted much of the developments recorded by its rivals, but added a remarkable new piece of evidence concerning the killing of Walter Collins and the taking of the body to the chicken house for burial. While lime was placed in the grave and the remains were next to it, Sanford Clark related, blood pooled on the floor and, while Gordon ordered his nephew to clean it up, so ran under a divider between two sections and couldn’t be reached. Authorities were told the location and “Rex Welch, [Riverside] city chemist, announced it reacted to the test for human blood.” J. Clark Sellers, the criminologist for Riverside County, declared “he had positive proof that murders were committed on the Nothcott chicken ranch” and would reveal the evidence at trial.
The Times of the 29th informed readers that extradition papers from Washington were anticipated to be received at Vancouver soon and a hearing to be held quickly with a judge assigned to the matter—airplanes, only recently put into such service, would, of course, get the documents delivered much more quickly. Another revelation of note was that Gordon and Louise, despite being born in Canada, were American citizens because Cyrus migrated to the U.S. in 1883 and was naturalized. While their Canadian counterparts offered to let Kelley and Quinn speak with Gordon, they replied that they would wait until after the return journey to California was undertaken. It is interesting to note that local officers told the Riverside investigators that Northcott issued conflicting remarks about the case and a press statement offered that he “has not told us the truth about his actions in any sense of the word,” the paper observed that “public sentiment in Vancouver is sympathetic toward Northcott.”
As for Louise, because she was in Alberta, a separate extradition proceeding was required, which was a surprise apparently to Kelley and Quinn who hoped that having a joint hearing would move matters along more expeditiously. Sanford’s sister, Jessie, was reported to have expressed her willingness to testify at trials, but would not speak to the media. Previously reported and reaffirmed here was that any indictment filed against Gordon for the killing of the teenager found at the edge of or near to the Workman Homestead, then owned by Walter P. Temple, would be held until it was learned whether Northcott would be returned to Riverside for his trial. It was added that just prior to Gordon leaving for Canada he hired a taxi to take him from Wineville to Los Angeles, “but his passenger ordered the car stopped at Puente,” though why there was not evidently known.
The Express scored what it likely thought was a substantial scoop when it cited Sheriff Sweeters and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department homicide squad head William Bright as well as two Los Angeles Police Department investigators for the report that Gordon was to stand trial at Riverside on 22 October. This was based on alleged assurances from Canadian authorities that Gordon and Louise would be extradited within two weeks, while it was added that D.A. Ford was expected to invite his Los Angeles County counterpart, Asa Keyes, in a joint prosecution. While three of the killings, including those of Pomona brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow, took place in Riverside County, all four of the victims were from Los Angeles, so a united front was hoped for with Sweeters in command.
The paper also reported that “an intimate friend” of Jessie Clark told authorities that, on 8 September, just as the Northcotts arrived in Canada, Gordon told him that “everything in the way of evidence has been buried—they’ll never get anything on dear little mother or me.” Investigations were halted as Sweeters told the press that “we have built a complete case against Northcott and his mothers” and added,
We have proved that Northcott is a fiend—one of the most depraved of degenerates. We have shown that he was aided by his mother . . . We have an eye witness to the murders—Sanford Clark, whose story stands absolutely unshaken . . . Nothing more is needed—the proof of murder is there.
The sheriff did note, though, that further searching was to be undertaken “because every bit of additional evidence found will make the hanging just that much more certain.” The LAPD was also to continue at work and guaranteed that they would be “reporting their findings to Sweeters for use in the Riverside trials.”
Despite the assertions of unity among the different police agencies, the Record, also of the 29th, ran a piece under the heading of “OFFICERS SQUABBLE IN NORTHCOTT CASE” and reported that Bright told reporters “Los Angeles police are chasing mirages and the Riverside authorities couldn’t convict anyone on the evidence they have,” while the Sheriff’s Department, he insisted, “will have a sound case before another day has passed” because “he expected to identify the body of Northcott’s asserted ‘headless victim’ and to be able to prove that the slaying took place in Los Angeles” even as the head was taken to the ranch for destruction. Bright added “a bit of a skull found in a grave . . . was the connecting clue,” while he reiterated that Riverside County would not be successful in his prosecution “and we are prepared to take it over.”
The last day of the month proved to have the least reporting to date, though the Times had some lengthy coverage from staff representative James M. Kendrick, including that Gordon’s Canadian barrister was looking into the possibility of representing his client at Riverside in lieu of fighting extradition, though it was not known if Frank Lyons had any American licenses to practice. It was added that an arraignment, following a warrant, was to soon be held for Louise in Calgary, while R.L. Maitland, the Riverside-hired Canadian barrister, was reported to have told his clients to cease talking to the press as the extradition proceedings carried on. Jim Quinn, however, did let it be known that a flashlight said to have been used when Walter Collins was killed was located in Canada.
Given Bill Bright’s remarks, as recorded in the Record, it was noted in a separate column in the Times that a conference was to be held between Los Angeles and Riverside officials, specifically regarding the situation with an indictment in the death of the decapitated youth. Another report was that a portion of a skull found at Wineville was said to be that of small boy, believed to be from one of the Winslow brothers, though their parents “clung to their belief their children are alive” and that the couple sent out 5,000 flyers offering a $500 reward for information on their sons.
As to those extradition paper, there was yet another hiccup as D.A. Ford told the press that a Riverside County Superior Court judge did not issue some certified documents, so another jurist was sought for that purpose, after which the papers were to be rushed to Sacramento. Ford asserted that “I am confident there will be no further delay in extraditing Northcott and his mother” and he added that concerns of separate extradition hearings because the pair were in different provinces “means nothing” as it was decided to “make more certain our case by placing the affair in the hands of the Dominion [central government] authorities.”
With regard to an indictment regarding the murder of the headless youth, Ford pointed out that Cyrus told the Riverside County Grand Jury that the unidentified teen was shot and decapitated by Gordon in the ranch house, after which the body was conveyed “in his automobile to Puente where he threw it upon [actually, off to the side of] the road.” Los Angeles officials countered, though, that the murder took place in the Northcott house in the Angel City. An effort to determine that an abandoned well near the ranch hid some bodies proved to be a dead end, while a sewer sump in the Santa Ana River, not far away, was still being pumped.
The Spanish-language La Crónica, in its update of the 30th, repeated reports from its contemporaries. What it did offer that was new was a photograph showing Gordon and Louise Northcott, but, more notably, including,
A facsimile of the letter written by Mrs. Jessie Clark Davis [daughter of Louise and brother of Gordon] to Mrs. Svenning, asking for help to hide her son, Sanford Clark. It was this letter that initiated the investigation into the murders of several children committed near Los Angeles.
We’ll return with part ten taking us into October and further coverage of the Wineville Chicken Coop murders, so look for that soon. The featured image here is a press photograph from 22 September 1928 showing investigators scouring the Northcott Ranch at Wineville for evidence and comes from the Museum’s artifact collection.