by Paul R. Spitzzeri
As preparations continued to extradite accused killers Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother Louise from Canada to southern California to face trial in the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders of 1928, other preparations were underway by the second week of October. This included, noted the Los Angeles Record of 8 October the secret transporting of Jessie by Riverside County investigators by car over the border into Washington as she was being taken via train to Riverside in preparation for the court case, though it was added that Gordon’s Vancouver barrister, Frank Lyons, intended to subpoena her as a witness for the defense.
Meanwhile, reports of another possible victim in San Diego were augmented by Jessie’s statement that Gordon told his parents, including father Cyrus, also in custody at Riverside, that he made trips to the southern city. A cap, with a tag from a San Diego hat store, was found in the Northcott residence in Los Angeles and the theory was this was linked to the May ax-murder of 13-year-old Nicholas Esparza, whose body was found “outside [San Diego] on the road to Riverside.”
It was added that the slaying was “in the same manner as Sanford Clark says Walter Collins and the Winslow boys were killed,” and, if it was determined that Gordon committed it, this would involved a third county with an indictment and possible trial for “the so-called ‘ape-man,” this moniker given to Northcott because of his over-abundant body hair.
In its coverage of the same day, the Los Angeles Express noted that spiriting Jessie away in secret was conducted because “the prosecution feared that if Miss Clark was subpenaed [sic] in extradition proceedings much of the case against Northcott could have been discovered through cross-examination.” Notably, a Riverside couple was not only willing to take Jessie in during the trial, but “had taken a fancy to the Clark girl and decided to adopt her.”
The paper observed that the Esparza kidnapping and killing occurred a week before Northcott took the brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow from their hometown of Pomona to the Wineville ranch and tortured and killed them—the Times of the following day, however, corrected this by reporting that Esparza vanished in late May 1927 and his skeleton was found four months later in Kearney Mesa, north of San Diego. In his testimony, Sanford Clark, described as his uncle’s “slave,” related that Gordon came back from a trip and the cap mentioned above was in the car, though he couldn’t recall when, and added that he wore it, though it was too small.
Another detail, deemed of significance, concerned letters found in the “slaughter house” at the Northcott ranch and signed “Mrs. Phillip Scott,” apparently a New Jersey resident who mentioned Gordon “terrible troubles” and assigning blame to “your red-headed wife.” It was theorized that this latter woman was “aged and wealthy,” but, when asked about this, Cyrus denied knowing about a daughter-in-law, though Riverside County Sheriff Clem Sweeters remarked that the elder Northcott was “holding plenty back.” The sheriff commented that he planned to “confront the aged Northcott with Miss Clark,” as Jessie contended that her grandfather possessed “much knowledge of the murders.”
Staff representative James M. Kendrick of the Los Angeles Times, also in the edition of the 8th, provided specifics of an interview Jessie Clark gave to reporters that day, including that her grandmother and uncle took a large load of wood from the Los Angeles house to Wineville and that, when they returned, Louise said, “thank God! that’s the last of it Stewart, dear.” When Jessie asked her grandfather about the unusual excursion, he evidently stated,
They are going to burn the remainder of the evidence. They wanted me to help them but I certainly am not going to get mixed up in this mess.
Another major news item was release of Gordon’s letter to the Winslow parents and provided to the press from Lyons, this constituting one of the first significant public defenses he offered. The missive began with his remark that this means of transmission was to ensure that they saw his remarks, presumably because a letter was to be intercepted and withheld, while it was acknowledged that “you may think it very strange to receive this statement from me.”
He continued that he expected the Winslows “have an intense hatred for me,” but asked for the sake of the love they had for their boys, “to believe me when I say that I am innocent of the death of your boys or of any other persons.” Calling his nephew’s claims “impossible, wild and dramatic” and noting that there was no longer a search for Lewis and Nelson, Northcott implored the parents to “please do all in your power to awaken interest in the search for your boys,” but as a preface to his reiteration of innocence and added that, because no remains were found, “then they must be alive somewhere.”
Demonstrating his wiliness, Gordon then asserted that “the best way to prove my innocence is for them to be found, while his supreme self-interest, lack of awareness, means of manipulation and tone-deaf attitude surfaced with this extraordinary passage:
I think I am suffering as you must be. I sit here, day after day, trying to make myself believe that my nearest and dearest relatives are swearing to these terrible falsehoods and plotting my very death. I will not be able to fully believe that they have said these things unless I hear with my own ears their tongues say it. For the sake of your boys and for justice, do all in your power to cause a search for your boys to be made nation-wide. By doing this, I am sure we will find them, or at least learn what happened to them. I pray God that in His mercy for human suffering He will lead us to them. This will bring back your happiness and remove the awful stain of murder from my name.
Returning to Jessie’s media interview, she first thought that what her brother relayed to her of the horrors at Los Angeles and Wineville were “a fanciful tale of Stewart’s,” but when Sanford said he was part of the one of killings, she was convinced of her sibling’s veracity because “he doesn’t fib by nature, and if he did he would not have spun such a yarn to me.” She added that, as her brother related what transpired, Gordon was in a nearby room with the doors open between them and “on a chair besides the head of his bed was a revolver and a flashlight” while “standing against the wall was his ever-present rifle.”
Amid this intimidating array, Jessie told of how,
If took me several minutes to slip the few feet from my bed to Sanford. I put my hand over his mouth so he couldn’t scream at the unexpected awakening and whispered in his ear that I must talk to him. I got in bed and we pulled the covers over our heads. And there, in [a] barely audible whisper, Sanford related a story to me that I could hardly believe.
A stenographer by profession, Jessie took shorthand notes the next day and intended to go to the police, “but fear of Northcott, who was growing suspicious of her, caused her to return to Canada and relate her story” there instead. She added that Louise “lived solely for her son” and, because Cyrus would not give any money to Gordon beyond giving him the ranch,” Louise worked only to provide him funds as well as half the food she bought.
One day, the five family members went to the ranch and the Clarks were called into the kitchen where Jessie was asked, “what are you up to now?” When she said she didn’t know what they were asking, “Stewart hit me with all his force and knocked me down” giving her a black eye. Asked “what have you found out while you were staying here?” the young woman replied that she learned that her brother was not attending school as he should and Gordon “was greatly relieved and apologized for his attack.”
Concerning the Latino (or, by some accounts, Filipino) teen, Jessie stated that Gordon, standing in the kitchen of the Los Angeles house, shot him with his rife “as the Mexican sat on the edge of a bed in the front room” and told Sanford “he knew too much, so I had to do it.” She remarked that Gordon showed off his shooting ability with a group of empty cans stacked as a pyramid and ominously told her, “that’s the way I do business, so you see, it doesn’t pay for anyone to monkey with me.”
When she ran into her uncle and grandmother in Vancouver on 8 September, Jessie had completed a deposition at the office of the American consul “telling of what I had observed and what Sanford and Stewart told me” and the trio went to a restaurant to talk about Sanford’s 31 August arrest for violation of American immigration laws. It was there, she continued, that Gordon told her,
Either you or your mother [Winnifred Northcott Clark] certainly has made a mess of things, Jessie. But if anyone does talk they can’t get anything on us because the evidence is all burned up.
In its coverage of the 9th, the Record remarked on a planned reunion in Riverside of the Clark siblings, news of which “greatly effected [sic] young Sanford Clark” and the idea behind which was “to relieve the tension under which both have had to live during the time following their amazing revelations.” Sanford, in particular, was “unable to sleep nights during his stay in the detention hospital in Arlington,” west of Riverside and southeast of Wineville (modern Jurupa Valley). A deputy sheriff, Ben de Crevecoeur, told the press that,
Scenes that he witnessed at the ranch disturb him during the night, but we believe that the arrival of his sister, and the attention he is getting will alleviate this condition to a great extent.
The Express of that day reported that Sheriff Sweeters was anticipating that the Northcotts would be extradited to Riverside within a week, based on reports sent to him by Kelley and Quinn, who conveyed Jessie Clark to a Washington train station. There, she was met by the couple, friends of Kelley and residents of Lake Elsinore, not Riverside, who were taking her in and also professed interest in adopting Sanford as well. The investigators then headed to Calgary to await proceedings regarding Louise.
The secretiveness regarding Jessie’s delivery into the United States struck columnist A.Y. Tully, who, in his “Shootin’ Straight” column, wondered,
If the American authorities have a case against Northcott, why are they afraid to permit the Canadian court to function with its customary dignity? Why the hurry?
Is it the weaknesses of the American police system that demand rush and precipitation when all others are perfectly serene? The Canadians never seem to fall over their own feet in handling a murder case. Is it because American officers are afraid of themselves that, rather than await the due and proper processes of the law, they must needs “spirit” even willing witnesses across the border?
Shucks!
The Times, also of the 9th, addressed more of the cover operation regarding Jessie, while noting that Kelley and Quinn stated that they had another relative, in lieu of her, “who will appear at the extradition hearing for identification purposes, a technical necessity in extradition cases,” though they did not specify who this was. It was also reported that Louise’s hearing was scheduled for several days out, on a Saturday. Once that proceeding was completed, the Riverside investigators were to return to Vancouver for what was assumed to be a speedy proceeding for Gordon.
With regard to the imminent Clark reunion, the paper recounted that Sanford heard the news of his sister’s impending arrival “with great glee” after he “displayed apprehension as to his sister’s safety.” Knowing that Jessie would soon be with him, it was noted, the teen “ran through the corridors” of the Arlington facility, “clapping his hands and telling everyone of her coming.”
His vivid responses “were allowed free rein by the Riverside authorities in the hope that it would relieve the great tension under which he has been living since the murder farm charges became known.” The young man was only able to take brief daytime naps, “from which he would awaken with a sudden start,” another clear sign of the deep psychological trauma from which he suffered because of the horrors which he witnessed and in which he participated under duress from his uncle.
We’ll take a hiatus on the post for a few days, but will return soon with a fifth part, taking us further into October 1928 and more of the process with respect to the extradition of Gordon Stewart and Louise Northcott as local officials were more than eager to put the two on trial for their purported actions in the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. Be sure to join us then!