January 15, 2006 10:52 pm
Scenes of the Crimes
Posted by Will under los angeles
[2] Comments
What a gorgeous day today. Blustery and not very warm, but with the rains of yesterday having blown through, L.A. was left with one of the most crystal clear days I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Susan and I spent this wonderful day chasing ghosts. Let me rephrase that: Susan indulged my fascination with the dark side of the city and came along as we rode the 1947 Project’s Crime Bus for a five-hour tour that began in Hollywood at the IHOP on Sunset Boulevard where Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) member Sara Jane Olson attempted to bomb two LAPD cars in 1975 and ended in the Crenshaw District on Norton Avenue north of 39th street where the severed corpse of Elizabeth Short — aka the Black Dahlia — was found on this exact day 59 years ago today.
In between we were shown various crime scenes of varying notoriety, including one literally a block over from our house. We also visited the site of the infamous televised 1974 shoot-out between SLA members and the LAPD, as well as several others.
One thing I learned along the way: the Hillside Strangler serial killers Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono resided on Tamarind Drive north of Franklin Avenue in 1977 during the commission of several of the murders — less than a mile from where I was living at the time. Isn’t it sad when your youth is populated with boogeymen? Prior to them I was often left looking over my shoulder and avoiding any shadows where the infamous “Skid Row Slasher” might have been hiding. Whoever that murderer was was responsible for the gruesome deaths of several homeless people in 1975.
The tour itself was informative, but it was not without its rough edges. There was much disparity between the deliver styles of the three guides, and they could have improved in their pinpointing of points of interest (a lot of times they just said someplace was “over there.” Not much help for those of us in the back wondering if it was on the left side of the packed bus or the right. Some sort of printed program would have been nice as well.
All in all though, it was a very unique way to see parts of the city (flashpoints to the riots of 1965 and 1992, anyone?) we otherwise wouldn’t visit and it was kind of fun in some of the various heighborhoods to see the curious expressions on the faces of the residents wondering why the hell a loaded tour bus was cruising through their neck of the woods.
January 16th, 2006 at 4:32 pm
wow. In May, 1994, on the 20 year anniversary of the SLA shootout when the LAPD blew up that house on Compton Boulevard waayyyyy down in South LA just north of Watts, I stood on the stoop of the house across the street interviewing the owner, an old black woman with about 300 grandkids who watched the whole thing from per living room window. She also testified at one of Patty Hearsts’ trials and said the highlight was being questioned under oath by F. Lee Bailey. my guess is she is dead now. she was old then but showed me some great photos that she still had from the day it happened and in the days afterward. Great time capsule of realy wide ties and flared doubleknits sported by the LAPD detectives on the case. Looked like a freaking thrift store convention. also, a great where-were-you-when…. question. In May of 1974, on that weekend, I was in Wrightwood with my little league team (the Twins) on a campout. I still remember the big hit song then was `Billy Don’t Be a Hero’ by Bo Donaldson and the Haywoods.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:46 am
Hey Will, thanks for joining us on the first weekend of what we hope will be many future 1947project Crime Bus tours. We appreciate your indulgence as we work out the bugs in this new medium, and promise should you attend a future tour that we will provide programs and precise directions where to look instead of those silly “over there”s!