White Jazz Part 42

"And?"

"And Bradley Milteer told them that you and Miciak had words. I said I met Miciak through Howard, and he was easy to dislike."

"Good, that was smart."

"Does this mean we're suspects?"

"It means they know my reputation."

"What reputation?"

"You know what I mean."

"That?"

"That."

"... Oh s.h.i.t, David."

"Yeah, 'oh s.h.i.t.'"

"Now you sound tired."

"I am tired. Tell me--"

"I knew that was coming."

"And?"

"And my clutch is still on the fritz, and Mickey asked me to marry him. He said he'd 'cut me loose' in five years and make me a star and he's been behaving as oblique as David Douglas Klein at his most guarded. He's got some kind of strange acting bug, and he keeps talking about his ~ue'and his 'curtain calL "And?"

"How do you know there's more?"

"I can tell."

"Smart man."

"_And?_"

"And Chick Vecchio's been coming on to me. It's almost like.. ."

"His whole att.i.tude changed overnight."

"Smart man."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"But you won't tell me what it's _about?_"

"Just hold on for a few more days."

"Because it's all sorting itself out?"

"Because there's still a chance I can force things our way."

"Suppose you can't?"

"Then at least I'll know."

"You sound resigned again."

"It's dues time. I can feel it."

L.A. _Herald-Express_, 11/21/58:

HANc.o.c.k PARK SLAYINGS SHOCK CITY

The murders of wealthy chemical engineer Phillip Herrick, 52, and his daughters Laura, 24, and Christine, 21, continue to shock the Southland and confound the Los Angeles Police Department with their brazen brutality.

In the mid afternoon hours of November 19th, police surmise that a man invaded the comfortable Tudor style home where widower Phillip Herrick lived with his two daughters. Forensic experts have reconstructed that he gained access through a flimsily locked back door, fatally poisoned the family's two dogs, then shot Phillip Herrick and employed gardening tools found on the premises to hideously mutilate both Mr. Herrick and the animals. Evidence indicates that Laura and Christine returned home at this point and surprised the killer, who similarly butchered them, showered himself free of their blood and donned clothes belonging to Mr. Herrick. He then either walked or drove away, accomplishing the b.e.s.t.i.a.l murders in something like near silence. Postal employee Roger Denton, attempting to deliver a special delivery package, saw blood on the inside den windows and immediately called police from a neighboring house.

"I was shocked," Denton told Herald reporters. "Because the Herricks are nice people who had already had their fill of tragedy."

FAMILY NO STRANGER TO TRAGEDY

As police began a house-to-house canva.s.sing for possible witnesses and lab technicians sealed the premises off to search for clues, neighbors congregating outside in a state of horrified confusion told reporter Todd Walbrect of tragic recent turns in the family's affairs.

For many years the Herricks seemed to enjoy a happy life in affluent Hanc.o.c.k Park. Phillip Herrick, a chemist by trade and the owner of a chemical manufacturing business that supplied industrial solvents to Southland machine shops and dry-cleaning establishments, was active in the Lions Club and Rotary; Joan (Renfrew) Herrick did charitable work and headed drives to feed indigent skid row habitues festive Thanksgiving dinners. Laura and Christine matriculated at nearby Marlborough Girls' School and UCLA, and son Richard, now 26, attended public schools and played in their marching bands. But dark clouds were hovering: in August of 1955, "Richie" Herrick, 23, was arrested in Bakersfield: he sold marijuana and heroin-cocaine "goofb.a.l.l.s" to an undercover police officer. Convicted of the offense, he was sentenced to four years in Chino Prison, a harsh sentence for a first offender, meted out by a judge anxious to establish a reputation for sternness.

Neighbors state that Richie's imprisonment broke Joan Herrick's heart. She began drinking and neglecting her charity work, and spent many hours alone listening to jazz records that Richie recommended to her in long letters from prison. In 1956 she attempted suicide; in September of 1957 Richie Herrick escaped from minimum-security Chino and remained at large, police believe, without ever contacting his mother. Joan Herrick went into what several acquaintances described as a "fugue state," and on February 14th of this year committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.

Postman Roger Denton: "What a G.o.dawful shame that so much awfulness was visited on one nice family. I remember when Mr. Herrick put those heavy leaded windows in. He hated noise, and now the police say those windows helped stifle the noise of that killer fiend doing his work. I'll miss the Herricks and pray for them."

EXPRESSIONS OF SHOCK AS POLICE INVESTIGATION SPREADS OUT

Shock waves have spread through Hanc.o.c.k Park and indeed the entire Southland, and a memorial service for Christine and Laura Herrick drew hundreds at Occidental College, where they were both enrolled in graduate programs. Locksmiths citywide have reported a tremendous business upswing; guard dog sales have doubled locally. Private security patrols for Hanc.o.c.k Park are being considered, and meanwhile police are jealously guarding investigatory information.

The Herrick investigation is being headed by Lieutenant David D. Klein, the commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's Administrative Vice Division, recently in the news when a Federal witness he was guarding committed suicide in his presence. Lieutenant Klein has detached a half dozen men from the Department's Internal Affairs Detail to work under him, along with his aide, Officer Sidney Riegle.

Chief of Detectives Edmund Exley defended his choice of Lieutenant Klein, 42, a 20 year officer with no Homicide Division experience. "Dave Klein is an attorney and a very savvy detective," he said. "He has worked on a burglary case that may be tangentially connected, and he is very good at keeping evidence under wraps. I want this case cleared, and so I have selected the best possible men to achieve that end."

Lieutenant Klein addressed reporters at the LAPD Detective Bureau. "This investigation is proceeding rapidly," he said, "and progress has been made. Many known a.s.sociates of the Herrick family have been questioned and eliminated as suspects, and extensive canva.s.sing of the area surrounding the murder scene yielded no eyewitnesses to the killer entering or leaving the Herrick home. We have eliminated robbery and revenge against the family as motives, and most importantly eliminated the Herrick's Chino escapee son Richard as a suspect. He had been our initial major suspect, and we had issued an all-points-bulletin to aid in his capture, but we have now lifted that bulletin, although Richard Herrick is an escaped felon and we would very much like to talk to him. We are now centering our search on a s.e.xual psychopath rumored to be seen near Hanc.o.c.k Park shortly before the killings. Although the three victims were not specifically s.e.xually a.s.saulted, the crime has the earmarks of being perpetrated by a s.e.xual deviate. I, personally, am convinced that this man, whose name I cannot reveal, is the killer. We are making every effort to apprehend him."

And, meanwhile, fear besieges the Southland. Police patrols in Hanc.o.c.k Park have been doubled and the current boom in home security measures continues.

A funeral service for Phillip, Laura and Christine Herrick will be held today at St. Basil's Episcopal Church in Brentwood.

L.A. _Times_, 11/21/58:

SOUTHSIDE CRIME WAVE AROUSES SUSPICION

Citing crime statistics and current rumors, U.S. Attorney Welles Noonan stated today that Southside Los Angeles is "boiling over with violent intrigue" that may well be "connected on some as yet undetermined level."

Noonan, heading up a much-publicized Federal rackets probe centered in South Central Los Angeles, spoke to reporters at his office.

"During the past four days eight violent deaths have occurred within a three-mile South Los Angeles radius," he said. "This is double the average of any one-month period of any given year going back to 1920. Add on the curious heart attack of a supposedly healthy young policeman at a nightclub later burned down, and count as perhaps curious the mutilated body of an unidentified man found two miles further south on the Compton--Lynwood border. Collectively, you have fodder for much interesting speculation."

Noonan elaborated. "Three nights ago an unexplained shootout at an illegal after hours club in Watts occurred," he said. "Two Negro men and three Negro women were killed, although rumors persist that one of the victims was white. The following morning a young LAPD officer named George Stemmons, Jr., was found dead, allegedly of a heart attack, in a back room at the Bido Lito's jazz club. A scant day and a half later Bido Lito's burned to the ground. Federal agents overheard an eyewitness tell LAPD detectives that he heard a Molotov-c.o.c.ktail--like explosion moments before Bido Lito's caught fire, but the LAPD Arson Squad has now attributed the blaze, which took three lives, to a carelessly tossed cigarette."

Reporters interrupted the impromptu press conference with questions. Repeatedly stressed: the Federal rackets probe is specifically targeted to discredit the Los Angeles Police Department's Southside enforcement measures; isn't the U.S. Attorney taking an adversarial position predicated on incomplete information?

Noonan responded. "Granted," he said, "that unidentified body found in the L.A. County Sheriff's jurisdiction may be a non sequitur, but I ask you to consider the following.

"One, remember what I told you about that eyewitness to the Bido Lito's fire. Two, consider that the father of the young policeman who expired of alleged heart failure at Bido Lito's earlier, himself a high-ranking Los Angeles police officer, stated that he thought his son was murdered. That man has been suspended from duty for his open criticism of Chief Ed Exley's handling of the situation, and is rumored to be resting at home under doctorordered sedation."

Reporters pressed: isn't the Federal-LAPD quagmire coming down to a battle waged by two highly respected, nationally known crimefighters: himself and LAPD Chief of Detectives Edmund Exley?

Noonan said, "No. I will not let personalities or political ambitions dictate the thrust of my investigation. What I do know is: after hours clubs are allowed to flourish in Watts under unofficial LAPD sanction. Five Negro citizens died as a result, and despite a.s.signing a dozen officers to the case, Ed Exley has not been able to come up with a single arrest. He has shoved the suspicious death of a Los Angeles policeman under the carpet and has deliberately misrepresented the facts in a triple-homicide arson case."

In related developments, Noonan refused to comment on the persistent rumor that LAPD Narcotics Division officers are soon to be called in for questioning, or whether Abraham Voldrich, a rumored Federal witness recently deceased, was murdered or committed suicide.

"No comments on those questions," he said. "But on the topic of witnesses, let me state that when it comes time to present evidence to the Federal Grand Jury, I will offer a major surprise witness with extraordinary cachet and another witness prepared to give astonishing testimony."

Edmund Exley responded to the U.S. Attorney's accusations: "Welles Noonan is an unscrupulous hack politician with spurious liberal credentials. He has no grasp of the situation in Southside Los Angeles and his smear campaign against the LAPD is based on lies, fatuous rumors and innuendo. The Federal rackets probe is a politically motivated front aimed at establishing Noonan as a viable candidate for State office. It will fall because he has grievously underestimated the moral rect.i.tude of the Los Angeles Police Department."

Dues time/time running out--RUN Herrick 187PC--six lA men and SidRiegle co-opted. Forty-eight hours in: No eyewitnesses, no vehicle pegged. No prints, no Richie-to-Mom letters found. Confirmed. ihe dogs sucked stelfactiznide chloride.

Background check: Laura and Christine Herrick--nice girls. Good students, square boyfriends--almost Hanc.o.c.k Park wives.

Joan Renfrew Herrick--secret boozer Suicide attempts, suicide. A neighbor doctor told me: Joanie burned herself, and begged morphine. Demerol prescribed; selfinflicted burns kept it coming. Zombie matron--all-day jazz on cloud nine.

"She _drank_ Drano, Lieutenant. Her ultimate suicide was inevitable, and a merciful relief for the people who cared about her"