An Excerpt from Marlene
On Saturday March 30 at 10:00 AM. we filed into the public library meeting room. Clara and Melvin were present. We had a full crew for what we wanted to do, starting with Marlene’s report of what she learned about the night her mom was killed and dumped. She knew the suspects were named Ron and Chuck. They were her mom’s age, about forty-years-old. Ron was big, and Chuck was short.
Importantly, she figured out where the gaps in the chain of evidence were in the police work of the El Monte police. She had gotten little information from the Azusa PD even though the Chief, Al Kendrick, was cooperative and ran an efficient department. In 1956 the city had no homicides and only nine robberies. Why didn’t their newly hired detective, George Lambert, spend time on Gertrude’s case?
By deferring detective work to the LA County Sheriffs, the El Monte police learned little from the patrons or the bartender at the Silver Dollar, even though “Trudy” Vaughn was a “regular.” She liked to nurse a highball and flirt with a certain kind of men. In their report the customers called her a “PT” (prick tease). Marlene had the names of the witnesses from the bar and knew when Harry would be working next, but she could not pass the age test.
I went over the newspaper reports of the murder, which produced very few facts. For now, we should postpone looking at the Azusa dump site as we expected the best clues to come from the bar, and Clara seemed to have gotten along well with the Azusa PD. She might pry out more facts from them.
Anyhow, three and a half years after the fact there was no way we could do a proper investigation of the crime scene. For completeness, we planned to look at it when we examined the probable escape route the criminals took after dumping her body in Azusa. Where were they in between? Where did they go after dumping the body? Did they leave the state? Can we find anything more on the suspects?
Clara cleared her throat. “I have two things to say. First, Marlene, it is nice to meet you. This must be hard on you. I’m sorry for what you have been through. Secondly, do you kids really want to do this? You’re digging into the ugly side of life, looking at a case of murder and rape.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Barnaby. The worst is not knowing who killed my mom. I can kind of figure out why it happened. I am considered advanced for my age.”
“Yeah, you’d pass for eighteen, maybe older,” Cyrus said, smiling.
I said, “We need your help, Clara. Not as our chauffeur but sweet-talking the Azusa PD to find leads. If you’re not comfortable with that, we will understand.”
Marlene said, “When I asked the desk sergeant in El Monte about Ron and Chuck, he suggested that they had returned to LA. He did not explain why he believed that. I suppose it was an anonymous tip.”
Melvin said, “I will get to the bar next week. What intrigues me is the two guys she mentioned in her diary were both regulars and yet they were gone for months at a time. That suggests a limited number of occupations.”
