Brutal Rocklin murders of 1877 a forgotten saga

By: J'aime Rubio

Over the years, several news articles and books have been written about the painful history of the Chinese expulsion from Placer County in 1877. Yet often times the precursor to that event, a brutal triple-murder, gets only a brief mention; and much of its real story is often cut short or left out entirely.

It was a tale with its share of victims and villains – and it also came with a few heroes as well. The triple-murder took place September 15, 1877 at the Old Ryan Ranch on the outskirts of Rocklin. The Sacramento Daily Union newspaper reported that a 40-year-old man named H.N. Sargent, who was well known and respected in the community, was living on the property once owned by a Mr. P.D. Ryan. Sargent was a member of the firm Himes & Company, which had purchased the ranch near Secret Ravine. He’d been living and working there for about two years before the September 15 tragedy.

In the week leading up to the shocking event Sargent sold a small mining claim in the area to a Chinese man named Ah Sam for $120. Ah Sam was a former cook who had worked for several families in Auburn. He and three or four of his friends reportedly decide to trick Sargent into taking them out to another mining claim they pretended to have an interest in buying. After leading Sargent down the road a short distance Ah Sam and his cohorts shot him in the back four times and then, for added measure, put another bullet in his the head.  It was suspected that the motive was pure greed. Thinking they had finished Sargent off, the group proceeded to head back to their victim’s house. Arriving, they attacked his housekeeper, Mrs. Oder. Both Mrs. Oder and her husband, Xaver Louis Oder, worked on Sargent’s ranch and vineyard. The couple would be the second and third victim in a triple homicide that was about to shake Rocklin to its core.

Xaver Oder was a 55-year-old native of Bavaria. Before coming to Rocklin he had been living with his family for many years in Drytown in nearby Amador County. Mrs. Oder was a native of New Jersey. She was only 28-years-old at the time of her murder.

Once inside Sargent’s house Ah Sam and his fellow assailants shot Mrs. Oder several times before driving an axe into her skull. The men also chased after Mr. Oder, killing him outside on the property. Sargent’s abode was ransacked. Newspapers later detailed how the killers had torn into his drawers and broke open his trunks with the same bloody axe used to kill Mrs. Oder. They found the money Ah Sam had originally paid Mr. Sargent for the claim and then looted his home for all valuables.

A young boy later stumbled on the carnage when he dropped by to ask for permission to pick some grapes on the grounds of the ranch. He was soon staring at the mangled body of Mrs. Oder. News spread quickly through Rocklin. Authorities instantly launched a large scale hunt, both searching for the perpetrators as well as answers to what had happened to Sargent.

 Unbelievably, when Sargent was discovered in the woods it turned out he wasn’t actually dead. The search party brought him back to Rocklin to undergo surgery. Sargent would ultimately die from his wounds, but not before he recovered enough life to tell the authorities who had attacked him.

With an idea of who committed the heinous crimes, volunteers from Rocklin and Roseville flooded in to help search for Ah Sam and his partners. At one point, about 15 Chinese residents were held in custody at the Rocklin Exchange Hall, though only four were eventually arrested and sent by train to the Auburn jail to face charges.

The historic record shows this tragedy sparked a fire in the hearts of Rocklin residents, prompting them to demand the Chinese be driven out of town. Chinese residents learned the very morning after the arrests that they had to leave the area before sundown – or be driven out by force. The location known as Chinese Camp was abandoned and then demolished. The hunt for Ah Sam continued.

Newspaper clippings from the time recount that a railroad detective named John Craig Boggs enlisted the help of his own Chinese cook in finding the murderers. The cook led Boggs to Folsom where one of the suspects, Ah Fook, was hiding out in an opium den. Boggs’ cook went undercover, befriending Ah Fook and waiting until he was deeply under the influence of “the Dragon.” Boggs’ cook eventually gave a signal that allowed the detective to come in for an arrest.   

Ah Sam continued to elude authorities. Boggs kept hot on the trail, following him to Gold Strike Mine near Greenville and then into the mountains. It wasn’t until five months after the murders that a man named Ira Wentworth came across a badly emaciated and nearly frozen Ah Sam in the high north Mother Lode. According to the book “The Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra County,” Wentworth was on his way to work when he stumbled on Ah Sam at a campsite. He offered the stranger some food and told him how to get to the Chinese Camp for help, having no idea that he was speaking to a wanted criminal. The next morning at Rich Bar, Wentworth told his friends about the incident and only then learned the starving man was likely the fugitive from Rocklin. Immediately, two young men, Thomas Stentz, 29, and Alexander Buvinghausen, 24, headed up the mountain to assist in Ah Sam’s capture.

What ensued was a dramatic standoff on a cliff side that saw the armed fugitive promising Stentz and Buvinghausen that he would never be taken alive. With the two young men closing in, despite warning shots, Ah Sam pointed the gun at his own abdomen and fired on himself. He succumbed to his wounds two days later. 

Prior to his death, Ah Sam refused to speak about his involvement in the murders. His body was brought back through the snow to Spanish Ranch and then onto Quincy, where it was loaded onto a stage for Reno before returning to Rocklin by train. Ah Sam’s remains were offered to Chinese residents near Placer, who wanted nothing to do with him, disgusted by his acts. 

The harsh and sudden choice to drive out Rocklin’s Chinese population and the irrational act of displacing a hardworking community for the heinous crimes of a few men served over time to obscure the complete story of the three original victims: Today, H.N. Sargent, Xavier Oder and Mrs. Oder, who have been largely forgotten. Although their end was violent and ghastly, the lives of these three residents are a part of Rocklin’s history waiting to be remembered again.

(Originally published on September 10, 2015 in the Placer Herald)

Photo: Archival Photos

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune/Placer Herald several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I have also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

Roseville killer’s vanishing in 1921 a troubling mystery

By: J'aime Rubio

The “Good Samaritan” parable is as familiar as ever, and it still comes to mind when people discuss the choice of getting involved in someone else’s ongoing domestic strife. On a September afternoon in 1921, a Roseville woman faced that very dilemma when she heard blood curdling screams coming from her neighbor’s home.

The woman, whom newspaper accounts referred to as Mrs. Kruse, knew there was a reoccurring issue at the nearby Catalano home. Kruse decided to call the Roseville city clerk and demand to know what she needed to do to stop a man from continually abusing his wife. Kruse made it clear the screams suggested Joseph Catalano may end up killing his spouse. The city clerk was reportedly not too worried, simply relaying a few technicalities to the caller. Frustrated with the runaround, Kruse phoned police directly a number of times.

  A law enforcement officer eventually paid the Catalano home a visit – setting off a chain of events that lead to discovering a bloody, gruesome mess. Investigators would come to realize that Louise Catalano had been viciously murdered by her husband during the interim that Kruse was trying to bring help to the property. 

Joseph Catalano was an Italian immigrant from New York. Journalism of the era indicates he had a long history of abusing his wife. The couple had four daughters: Mary, Josephine, Carrie and Rosa. In February of 1921, the family relocated to Roseville after Joseph was offered a new job at the Pacific Fruit Express Company. The Catalanos had not even been in Placer County for 8 months when the slaying took place.

Investigators soon learned that, before law enforcement arrived, Kruse had been watching out her own window and noticed 7-year-old Mary Catalano run outside with “a look of unspeakable horror on her face.”  Kruse also mentioned hearing the girls’ cries to her father, asking him not to hurt her mother.

After the killing, Joseph Catalano thoroughly cleaned the home and then refused to come to the door when the officer knocked. At first the lawman assumed no one was home and left. Again Kruse found herself calling to convince police to return to the scene. When an officer made a second visit, Catalano and his four children were long gone.

At that point, investigators began searching the property and found a suspicious trunk. Opening it unveiled a ghastly sight: Louise Catalano’s badly mutilated body was stuffed inside. According to the Sacramento Daily Union newspaper, Joseph Catalano had severely broken his wife’s body, slashing, hacking and choking her in “one of the most gruesome murders in criminal annals.”

Louise Catalano

Even Placer County Deputy Coroner West claimed that the crime was “most revolting in its cruelty.”  Placer County coroner deputies found an axe in the kitchen, which they believed was one of the weapons used in Louise’s murder. They also found love letters between the deceased woman and a man named Mateo Manreal, who had been a boarder in the Catalano household.

Manreal worked with Joseph Catalano at the Pacific Fruit Express Company. The revelation of a love triangle gone wrong elevated the murder into the pages of newspapers across California. Four of the letters were published in the Sacramento Daily Union, outlining an affair that had reached a point where Manreal was trying to take Louise away from her violent marriage. The letters also hinted at Louise’s own jealous, insecure and volatile personality, including the married woman threatening to kill Manreal if he should be unfaithful to her.

It appeared that the many years of emotional and physical abuse Louise received at the hands of her husband created her own dysfunctional mindset. Newspapers soon had another development to report when Roseville attorney A.H. Broyer came forward to say that on the morning of the murder Louise Catalano visited him to request help in filing for divorce. 

Meanwhile, the search for Joseph Catalano continued. After fleeing Roseville with his four daughters, Joseph abandoned the children at a storefront in downtown Sacramento. An eyewitness later told police of seeing the wanted man turn to walk away from the girls, only to rush back to kiss and hug them before trying to leave again.

The scene reportedly went on for several minutes before Catalano finally disappeared. A concerned family on the street took the girls in for the evening without knowing they were connected to the slaying in Roseville. When news broke, authorities arrived to interview the children. Mary, the oldest daughter, refused to speak and was likely traumatized.

The heinous nature of Joseph Catalano’s crime quickly made him one of the most wanted men in the state. Trains, hotels and ports were actively searched in hopes of finding him. Media accounts of the day indicate that many assumed Catalano had jumped on a ship to Italy or possibly headed back to friends and family in the Italian boroughs of New York. Records indicate he was never seen again.

After speaking to members of the Catalano family in 2017, it is believed that Joseph evaded capture with help from friends and family in the area, who kept him hidden until he could move elsewhere. Allegedly he hid out on a farm in Weed, California and remained in the United States, living as a wanted man for the rest of his life.

Although Mrs. Kruse’s attempts to save Louise Catalano on that violent day in 1921 were unsuccessful, her efforts did shed light on the crime for police, as well as force newspapers, local authorities and California officials to see how serious – and sometimes fatal – domestic disturbances can be.

(Originally published on December 19, 2015 in the Roseville Press-Tribune.)

Updated information: October 21, 2017.

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

A more in-depth take on this case can also be found in the book, “Stories of the Forgotten: Infamous, Famous & Unremembered,” by J’aime Rubio.

Photo: Sac Daily Union, September 11, 1921

1916 ‘La Mano Nera’ murder mystery shook Roseville

Not known for the kind of frequent scandals and murders that made San Francisco, Chicago and New York infamous, Roseville’s small railroad town appeared for much of the century to be far away from “the riffraff” that inhabited the larger cities. Or was it?  In the fall of 1916, Roseville became infiltrated by fear, terror and shock when the news broke of a double-murder involving a young mother and her child.

According archival reports from the Roseville Register, the story began Sept. 26 of that year, when Italian immigrant Musco Paolini claimed he'd left his home north of Roseville Union High School and headed down to the local butcher shop. Paolini made a meat order to be delivered to his doorstep, but when the butcher’s delivery boy showed up no one was home. Paolini himself later arrived home to find the dwelling empty. He originally assumed his wife, Clotide, and his two-year-old son Marino, had gone on a walk. After hours passed Paolini began to worry.

Getting in touch with his brother, Paolini also notified Roseville Constable Lou Hoke to aid in the search for his family. Newspapers recount that they canvassed the surrounding areas well into the night. Around 10 p.m., Hoke announced he was finished searching for the evening, though the Paolini brothers continued on. 

Around 2 a.m., the lifeless bodies of Clotide and Marino were found at a creek bottom in the ravine. Placer County Sheriff George McAuley was called to the scene to investigate. McAuley quickly noted that both of the victims had been shot in the head. It appeared there were no signs of a struggle, and that the two had been brought to the creek and dumped. Their faces also had powder burns, which McAuley knew meant their killer shot them at close range.

When the story made newspaper headlines, it immediately instilled panic in the surrounding neighborhoods. It is clear from existing records that the people of Roseville wanted to know who could have done this heinous act, and more importantly, why?

When the sheriff began questioning Paolini, he insisted he had no idea who would want to hurt his family. Neighbors reported that they saw no one visit the home, nor did they glimpse anyone leave it. It was as if Clotide and Marino had simply vanished prior to their killings. However, the backyard offered a slight clue in the form of a pile of dirt, indicating Clotide may have been interrupted while sweeping around the time she disappeared.  

McAuley, his deputies and Placer County District Attorney John Landis continued to be confronted by questions that were increasingly hard to answer. At one point the sheriff mentioned to reporters that he believed the murder could be connected to La Mano Nera or “The Black Hand.” There were many Italian immigrants in Roseville at the time, and it wasn’t too far from San Francisco, a place widely known for mafia-related connections. 

McAuley never elaborated on why he suspected the Black Hand, though his mention of the group was enough to make rumors swirl in Roseville: Could someone have been extorting Paolini? Did the Italian have unknown ties to the mafia? Did the immigrant know more about his wife and son’s deaths than he led on to?

After further research into this ninety-nine year old cold case, I have found that there was a prime suspect in the murders and his name was Anthony Avina (aka Antonio Avania). According to archived accounts in the Sac Daily Union, Avina’s statements to authorities were conflicting. He was also caught in a lie when questioned about his whereabouts at the time of the murder. After interrogating him, Sheriff McCauley and District Attorney Landis were convinced that he had committed the murders but didn't have enough evidence to convict. It appears that no more was done and that Avina was not charged or convicted for the murders. 

Roseville city records show that Clotide and Marino were buried together at the Roseville Cemetery, which was very close to their home. Now the only reminder of their existence — and the cold, calculated act that ended them — is the small block of stone with their names and dates etched into it. It sits quietly in the cemetery, unable to tell us what really happened on that day in 1916.  

(Originally published on December 4, 2014 in the Roseville Press Tribune, updated information added on April 26, 2017)  COPYRIGHT ---

Photo: J’aime Rubio

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

A Murder Unremembered

A Murder Unremembered

By: J’aime Rubio

Situated under a large oak tree in the Rocklin cemetery sits the Chateau family plot. The little obelisk which marks the spot where many of the Chateaus are buried does not have any marker or engraving other than their last name, leaving no trace of the terrible scandal that rocked many of the communities in Placer County the Spring of 1910.

John M. Chateau, an employee of the Southern Pacific Railroad, met a tragic ending on May 19, 1910 after he was unable to recover from a gunshot wound inflicted nine days earlier. As it turned out, Chateau’s wife, Mary Ann, had reportedly been carrying on an improper relationship with one of her husband’s co-workers — a brakeman known as Michael Leahy — who became infatuated to the point of begging Mary Anne to run away with him and elope. Although there is no way to know how far Mary Ann allowed the affair to go, it seemed to go far enough to morph into a dangerous fatal attraction. After Mary Ann refused Leahy’s proposal, the jilted man threatened to kill her, giving her one more day to change her mind.

MaryAnn went to her husband to admit the affair and Leahy’s threats, prompting John Chateau to turn to the police. Records indicate a warrant was sworn out for Leahy’s arrest on charges of disturbing the peace. It was believed that Leahy left Roseville and that would be the end of it.

This was not to be.

In the early hours of May 10, Leahy sneaked onto the Chateau property and hid in the woodshed outside. When John Chateau strolled out in the morning to retrieve firewood, Leahy took aim and shot him. While John Chateau lay there bleeding, Leahy went over and picked up an axe, intending to finish the job. Yet several neighbors had heard the shot and quickly got involved — tackling Leahy to the ground and holding him until authorities arrived.

Leahy remained jailed in Roseville for several days until the news came that John Chateau passed away from his injuries. The San Francisco Call newspaper mentioned that anger towards Leahy in the Roseville community was so intense that a lynching was feared. Sheriff McAuley moved Leahy to Placer County’s seat in Auburn and announced that he would “use every possible means to protect his prisoner.”

When the charge of murder was added to Leahy’s case, the suspect was quoted as saying, “I blame the woman for this trouble. I asked her to elope with me and when she refused I found it necessary to kill her husband. I would have killed any other man just the same.”

Such words didn’t help his case.  Leahy tried to claim self-defense, saying that John Chateau shot first at him when he saw Leahy stooping down in the back of the woodshed. Witnesses to the event claimed the only shot that was fired was the fatal one that ended Chateau’s life.

The expeditious murder trial was held in Auburn, lasting only about six hours. It took less than 30 minutes of deliberations before the jury came back with a verdict. On November 23, 1910, Michael Leahy was convicted for the murder of Chateau. In court, before he was sentenced to die at Folsom prison, Leahy declared, “If I am hung, I’ll come back after I am dead and get even with some of these people who have been prosecuting me.”

In the book, “Folsom’s 93,” author and historian April Moore sheds light on Leahy’s story and his last days leading up to his execution. Moore’s book delves deep into Leahy’s saga.  Moore writes in “Folsom’s 93” that during the time Leahy was awaiting trial, he refused to sleep or eat, paced in his cell and cried himself into exhaustion, leading others to believe that he was insane. However, by the time the moment came for his execution on Feb. 8, 1911, Leahy’s attitude had changed significantly. It appeared he had accepted his fate.

“He spent his last evening telling stories to the evening watchmen about his time as a brakeman for the railroad,” explained Moore. “The papers even mentioned that he woke in good spirits and even joked with the Warden for a while.”

The San Francisco Call said that when it came time to take his long walk to the gallows Leahy met it with a “cool indifference that had marked his actions since his arrest.” He did not wish to speak to the reporters, nor did he have anything last words to say or requests to make to the staff at Folsom Prison.

At exactly 10:30 p.m., the trap was sprung and nine minutes later Leahy was dead. According to records, it was the quickest execution on the gallows at Folsom during Warden John Reilly’s term. After Leahy’s body was released to his family, it was brought to the cemetery in Rocklin and interred in the Leahy family plot.

In an ironic twist of fate, just as Leahy had vowed to haunt those who prosecuted him when he was alive, it turned out that Leahy’s final resting place is within eyes view of his victim John Chateau’s grave.  In the end, Leahy didn’t get the last laugh, in life or the afterlife. Instead he’s been doomed to spend eternity buried next to the man he murdered — an eternal reminder of why he lost his own life.

Previously published in the Roseville Press-Tribune in 2014, written by: J'aime Rubio


(Copyright 2014- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

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Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

Roy Gardner -The Last of the Western Train Robbers

Roy Gardner -The Last of the Western Train Robbers

Not since the infamous ‘gentleman bandit’ Black Bart, had the west coast seen anyone quite like Roy Gardner. Although most people may not recognize his name today, in the early 1920’s, Roy Gardner was a household name, and one of the most sought after fugitives of his time. Known for robbing mail trucks and mail trains all over the southwest and his crafty escapes from the law on every turn, Roy Gardner’s nefarious adventures made headlines across the country and entertained millions along the way.

In 1910, after serving time in San Quentin for a jewelry store robbery, he was released early on account of saving the life of one of the corrections officers during a riot. After his release, he became a welder, working in a shipyard in South San Francisco. Not long after he moved his family down to Southern California to look for work, Gardner lost all his money gambling in Tijuana, Mexico. It was then that he had the idea to make a quick buck. After an ill-conceived robbery of a San Diego mail truck for $78,000, Gardner was soon after arrested. Convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years, he was put on a northbound train headed for Washington to serve his sentence at McNeil Island Corrections Center.


Swearing that he would never serve a day of that sentence, Gardner managed to steal one of the
Marshall’s guns right from under his nose. After forcing them to remove his chains, Gardner handcuffed the Marshalls together and robbed them. He then jumped the train and ran off into the night headed for Canada. After being on the lam for almost a year Gardner made his way back to California. “Roy Gardner’s story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood movie,” states Roseville Historical Society’s Vice-President, Ken Fisher. “It’s just a disappointment that his story has faded with time.” As someone who has been truly dedicated to documenting this unique story in Roseville’s history, Ken was kind enough to offer the details of Roy’s infamous stay here in 1921.


Although Roy’s criminal history did not start and end here in Roseville, it did set the stage for his biggest heist, on May 21, 1921. For days, Roy scoped out the train that headed up to New Castle, even riding the top of the rail cars to get an idea of the twists and turns on the track. He noticed that in the sharper turns that the hard rubber connections between cars would pull apart on a curve, which would allow him to slip in and make his way to the mail cart. After casing the train, he hopped off and made his way back to Roseville.

Porter House Hotel, Roseville, California

That next night, at 10:15 p.m. Roy snuck onto the Pacific Limited (No.20) train headed for New Castle. By the time the train had reached Rocklin, Roy had managed to sneak into the mail cart, startling Ralph Decker, the mail clerk. Although Roy pointed a 45 caliber pistol at Decker, he never harmed him. After stealing mail from about 50 different bags, he threw his bag off the train first, and then he pulled the emergency brake cord and jumped off the train as well. Unfortunately, he searched the tracks for most of the night, never finding the bag with the loot he had just stolen.

Eventually the authorities retrieved the stolen mail along with all the monies in it. By the next morning, Roy had made it back to Roseville, stopping at the Peerless Café to eat breakfast. It there that Roy believed that a waitress may have recognized him from a wanted poster. After eating, He went back to his room at the Porterhouse Hotel, which was located on the corner of Atlantic and Lincoln streets. It wasn’t until two days later, at a poker game inside the cigar store adjacent to the Porterhouse Hotel, that the authorities surrounded him and took him to Sacramento to face the Judge. After being sentenced to an additional 25 years for escaping and committing another robbery, Gardner was sent on his way, once again to McNeil Island.

His story doesn’t end there folks, as he made many more infamous escapes from the law before he was finally caught. After being incarcerated at various prisons, including Leavenworth, Atlanta and Alcatraz, he was later released at the age of 54. Having been institutionalized for so many years, the transition back to a normal life seemed to be too hard for him.


On January 10, 1940, the “last of the western train robbers”, as he was dubbed, took his own life in his San Francisco hotel room by way of cyanide gas. A man who lived his life on the edge and suffered the consequences of a lifetime of his own choices, made the last choice he had left, escaping the world one last time.

With a story that reads like a dime novel that could have easily come out of the days of the old west, his is one that is unforgettable. As Ken Fisher put it, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid certainly have nothing on Mr. Gardner. A man who thought it would be a marvelous idea to come to the little railroad town of Roseville in 1921, and rob a train.”

-- Previously published in the Roseville Press-Tribune in 2014, written by: J'aime Rubio

(Copyright 2014- www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Thank you to Ken Fisher for all your help on this article!

Publisher/Editor's Notes: This is one of a series of articles that I wrote for the Roseville Press-Tribune several years back when I used to write the historical articles for them.  According to my old editor, since I wrote the content I can repost the articles. I also obtained permission by Gold Country Media a few years back to republish my stories, too. 

Jackson's Hanging Tree History

Having lived in and around Amador County for many years, I have come to find some really interesting history regarding the county and surrounding areas. Many of the stories that I have found, I have shared on this blog or on my Facebook page, but many I have not. After so many years, I have decided to try to go back to my research and start posting more of the stories, whether big or small, so that I can share with you, my readers, more of this amazing gold country history.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved walking around Jackson. I remember the first time I noticed the plaque for the Hanging Tree right there on Main Street near the National Hotel. I was so intrigued to hear about this "Hangman's Tree" and wondered what stories that piece of land had to tell.  As time goes on, and as we get older, many of us have moments like this where we wonder about a person or place, but then we go on with our lives never to think about it again. Well, I am not one of those people. When I think about something, it bugs me until I find out everything there is to know about that particular subject. It might take me some time, but eventually, I get the story one way or the other.

As an adult, having moved back to Amador County, I was determined to finally get answers about the history of that forgotten tree, lost to history, although  I cannot take credit for digging all this up on my own. In fact, had it not been for the the late Amador County Historian Larry Cenotto, various archived newspaper clippings of the time period, and reports documented by Jesse D. Mason, we would never know what we do about this particular historic site. Facts show that in all the years that tree was used as a hanging tree, it only witnessed 10 deaths.

"This tree which has become noted wherever the name of California is known, formerly stood near Louis Tellier's saloon, and was a live-oak, with several branching trunks. It was never very beautiful, but was a source of so much of its history, that its likeness was engraved on the county seal, so that its appearance is not likely to be forgotten.

Its use at first as a hanging-tree, was quite accidental; but in the course of time the tree was a terrible hint for the quick solution of a criminal case, and when the tree was injured by the great fire of August, 1862, so as to necessitate the cutting of it down, the feeling regarding its fate was not altogether sorrowful."  (History of Amador County, Jesse D. Mason,1881)

According to documented newspapers, the Hanging Tree was located just across from the Astor House, and right in front of Dunham's Butcher Shop and the St. Louis House, all businesses that no longer exist.  The plaque that is located on the sidewalk off of Main Street is in as close proximity possible to the location that could be marked, since the actual location was actually in the street.

Death # 1.

The first case was "Coyote Joe," an Indian, charged with robbing and murdering blacksmith, Mr. Thompson at the Gate (Jackson Gate). He was tried by a jury of miners, with Dr. Pitt acting as the jury foreman, and shortly thereafter found guilty. It was mentioned that items found on the Indian belonged to Thompson when he was arrested. The trial took place in a restaurant close to the tree itself.

The 1st hanging took place on March 19, 1851.

Death # 2

The second death was said to be a Chileno, who stabbed a woman (who was his cousin). He was also tried by a jury and found guilty. Larry Cenotto's published findings state that the man who was hanged was really an unidentified Mexican who had stabbed his brother-in-law to death.

The 2nd hanging event took place on June 23, 1851.

Death # 3 & 4

In 1851, two Frenchmen were butchered in Squaw Gulch near Jackson Gate. As the history of Amador County states "One was stabbed with a long bowie-knife thirteen times, dying immediately. The other, though cut five or six times, lived for several days." 

According to Larry's research records, "Monsieur Pontanier and an unknown French "companion" on  May 20, 1852, were attacked while they slept in their tent in Squaw Gulch near the Gate." The men had been stabbed to death. The deaths of these two men was what led up to the formation of the Jackson Vigilance Committee. The committee offered a $300 reward to anyone who helped apprehend or deliver the murderer(s).

Initially, another man Gregorio Soberano was arrested while at a bistro in downtown Jackson, but he was later exonerated. Later on, another man was brought on charges. His name was Cheverino. He had been examined and sent to the "log jail," to be held until he could stand trial, but that night a mob of people (let me make this clear it was NOT the Vigilance Committee) broke into the jail and dragged Cheverino out to the oak tree on Main Street.

The first of the two hangings took place around 8:30 p.m. on the evening of June 10th, 1852.

According to records, the rope was put around his neck and he was pulled up while his hands were free. So, he began clenching onto the rope around his neck, struggling to survive. This allegedly went on for about ten minutes before they dropped the rope, and tied his hands behind his back and then raised the rope again. It was said that Cheverino had admitted guilt in the murder of Pontanier.

His accomplice, Cruz Flores had been found out by chance when another Mexican, Mariano, who had been arrested for horse theft in Sacramento, implicated Cruz Flores, as the other man who murdered a Frenchman near Jackson Gate, or "The Gate."

Flores, the Hanging Tree's 4th execution was hanged the next day on June 11th, 1852.

Death # 5

According to Larry Cenotto's research, he claimed that the 5th victim of the hanging tree was none other than an "hombre with Murietta's band"-- you know, Joaquin Murietta.  On February 15, 1853 at approximately 5: 30 p.m.,  Antonio Valencia was hanged for the murder of Joseph Lake, 27, native of Philadelphia, who had settled in Jackson operating a butcher shop, as well as murdering a Chinaman and a string of robberies.

Murietta's gang had struck a Chinese Camp at Oppossum Bar on the Consumnes on February 8th, 1853, and started what Cenotto quoted as "history's greatest wave of murder, robbery and terror that rolled over Calaveras County." It was mentioned that allegedly it was this crime spree that put the nail in the coffin for Governor Bigler to decide to hire Harry Love to hunt Murrietta down. (We all know how that went! For the record, I still don't believe that head that was on display was Murrietta's but that is an entirely different story!)

The Sacramento Union account states that a couple of  Chinamen ran into Big Bar camp gasping that the Mexican riders who came to their camp were "no good."  William McMullen of Consumnes, returned with them to their camp to see what they were talking about, and he found four horses hitched in front of one of the tents.  McMullen suspected Murietta's gang was there and left immediately to get help from some of the miners nearby. In about thirty minutes, McMullen had rounded up about 11 people to come back to the camp with him to confront the Mexicans.  As they were nearing the camp, they were approached by several Chinese men who were running towards them, wounded by gunshots to the hand and neck.  The camp had been ransacked and all valuables had been stolen.

The posse of men traveled up river where they ran into two Americans who had just ran into the Mexicans. When the Americans drew their pistols, the Mexicans had allegedly told them they had no issue with them, they were only attempting to frighten the Chinese. So they passed by the Americans with no incident.  The next day, about six of the original men on the hunt for the bandits made it to Dry Creek where they found another Chinese Camp that had been robbed. This time the bandits made their escape towards Butte City.  Following intelligence given to McMullen along the way, they traveled to Butte City, Secrete and back to Jackson  when they heard the bandits had been at "The Gate" (Jackson Gate). It seemed that at each turn the bandits were one step ahead, giving them the slip and escaping up to Rancheria, and later on towards Fiddletown.

By the 5th day on the hunt for these men, McMullen's party dwindled from 11 to 3 men left helping him, and finally on the 6th day the men all but gave up and went back home. That didn't stop the bandits though, they continued pillaging and plundering Chinese camps along Jackson Creek and Sutter Creek and in the end a Chinese man was robbed & killed as well as Joseph Lake, a local butcher. Joseph Lake, had been shot three times and stabbed in the neck by Valencia. Some fanciful stories claim it was Murietta who killed him, all because Lake had gave away Murietta's whereabouts, but there is no conclusive evidence that this was the reason he was killed. That is merely conjecture.

Soon news had spread that the Mexicans had killed a dozen or more at Campo Seco. They were also blamed for 20 miners the month before, as well as two women and a male escort who had been killed after their Stockton stage had been stopped and robbed. Two days later, an armed posse of men surrounded Camp Ophir which was near Buena Vista, where they apprehended Antonio Valencia, one of the men of the Mexican group of bandits. When he was brought back to Jackson he was recognized by the Chinese miners who had been robbed by him on the 8th at Big Bar. He was placed in the "log jail," but within a few minutes a mob surrounded the jail, "rescued" him only to take him to the tree to be hanged. They strung him up once, and dropped him down, hoping he would confess to his crimes, but he refused.  So, he was hanged from the neck until dead.

The 5th death took place on February 15, 1853.

(For the record, there is no way to know if he was part of Joaquin Murietta's gang or not, but like all folklore about this infamous bandito, many stories still make their rounds.) 

Death # 6

According to Larry Cenotto's booklet "The Concise, Uncensored Historical Jackson Sightseer in Text, Map and Sketch" the sixth death was an "Unidentified Chilean for robbing and murder of Chinaman, 7/27/1853."   In his "Logan's Alley" series dated February 5, 1975, Larry also mentions two men being held, one Chilean who was a horse thief who was hanged and another man who had attacked a Chinese camp (no mention of murder) and that the Chinese had attacked him back, causing a head injury to the criminal who wasn't hanged.

The San Joaquin Republican dated, July 18, 1853 mentions the hanging and states that it was a Mexican who was brought to Jackson from Marysville, for stealing horses just two days earlier. The newspaper states the following:

"The deputy went on to Marysville and found his animal and the person who had bought it, immediately pointed out this Mexican as the man, who had sold it to him. He had an examination before the Mayor's Court, and being unable to give a satisfactory account, he was placed under the care of the deputy sheriff to be taken to Jackson, for trial. 

Upon arrival at Jackson, the stage was met by a crowd of persons who seized both the deputy sheriff and his prisoner -- the officer, they locked in a room, taking from him his pistol, and the Mexican they led to a place called the Gate, about a mile from town. The Mexican refused to confess his guilt farther than another Mexican who is now at large in Marysville stole the animal, and gave him a mule to ride.

At this stage of the proceedings some Mexicans, Chileans and Negroes, who were present, took hold of the rope about his neck -- one end of which was over a tree -- for the purpose of releasing him, but immediately fifty pistols were leveled at them, and they were forced to retire. The Mexican still declaring that he was innocent, but feeling confident that he was about to die, begged for time to send for a priest, this was refused him, and more than twenty men taking hold of the rope, was launched into eternity.

Messrs. Peter Jewell and Thomas Johnson, two of those who had been active in procuring the hanging of the Mexican, in about an hour after the tragedy, retured to their work on a house, when they were unexpectedly attacked by three Chileans. They attacked Jewell first, inflicting a dreadful wound on his breast, and when Johnson ran to help Jewell, they stabbed him in the pit of his stomach and turned the knife around in his wound. Johnson cannot recover. A party of horsemen pursued the Chileans, but had not overtaken them when our information left."

I never did find any ending to that story after Johnson and Jewell were attacked, so I have no way to know if they ever apprehended those men.

In another account dated August 4, 1853, in the Daily Alta California, a letter to the editor of the newspaper was published with some detailed information about the event, where the gentlemen gives a more insightful account about this particular hanging and why he personally defended the incident.

His letter mentions there were two horse thieves originally arrested at Marysville. Their names were  Sanchez and Lopez. The story this man gave was that Lopez paid off one of the officers in the amount of $500 to secure his release, while Sanchez didn't have any money so he was sent to Jackson to pay for the crime alone.  The townspeople learned from Sanchez that Lopez had bribed his way out of the noose, and so, "As soon as the people of this place became aware of the gross injustice done them by the officers in Marysville in releasing one of the thieves, the greatest indignation was felt, and they then resolved to make sure of the other, and as guilt of the theft had been established beyond the least shadow of doubt, to hang him immediately -- which they did, and I believe justly, too." 

The writer claimed that Sanchez was hanged, but without being able to confess his sins to a Catholic priest as was his request (this correlates with the first account).  The person who wrote to the newspaper also goes on to state that Jackson Gate or "The Gate" as it was called,  had been having a lot of stock stolen regularly, and that since there were many Hispanic people moving into the area there had been a lot of theft operations going on and that the locals had to "execute the most extreme punishment upon the thief when caught" to set an example.

"You seem to think that it is not necessary at the present time for the populace of this county to try and execute criminals as the legal authorities are not only able but willing to do their duty faithfully and promptly. If such were the case -- if the officers of the law in Calaveras county were "able and willing to do their duty faithfully and promptly," there would be no necessity of the populace taking the law in their own hands, and executing justice upon evil doers, and they would not do it. Of late, criminals in this county have been managed very badly -- the people have become indignant at the course pursued by the lawful authorities, and the frequent escape of prisoners indicted and convicted of the highest crimes, from our jail, has greatly impaired the confidence of the people in the willingness or ability of our officers to fulfill the duty consigned to their charge.... We are not in favor of mob law, and we shall rejoice when the time comes that it will entirely be done away with in California, and the lawful authorities have the whole control of criminals; but until ample protection of life and property can be afforded the people by officers to whom we look for protection, we hope to see the populace continue to assume the authority of detecting, trying and punishing criminals according to the extent of their offenses." ---

The death of the Chilean or Mexican (whichever he was) who possibly went by the name of Sanchez, was hanged on  July 27, 1853.

Death # 7

The seventh death by way of the Hanging Tree was for the theft of a very valuable horse that was stolen from Jackson merchants, Evans & Askey who owned the Louisiana Hotel (where the National Hotel stands today).  The horse thief was Christopher Bennett, and he was apprehended near Bridgeport in Nevada County and brought back to Jackson.

Interestingly, according to "History of Amador County" by Jesse D. Mason, Bennett claimed to have purchased the horse from a traveler he met on the road. He even had a bill of sale which he produced to the authorities which read "Sac City, March 16, 1854, "Mr. C. Bennett, Bought of C. Cuper, for one gray horse, Three Hundred & Forty Dollars. Title guaranteed. W. Holman, Auctioneer.  C. Cuper." --

But once Bennett came back to Jackson, hundreds of people allegedly recognized him and the horse which was identified as belonging to Evans & Askey.  Bennett's trial was only a few minutes long and took place on the steps of the Louisiana House (National Hotel) at sunrise. Remember, this is according to Mason's account, but I don't know how many hundreds of people could possibly have been wandering around downtown Jackson at sunrise, being that the newspapers claimed that he was hanged before anyone was notified, and long before a crowd had a chance to gather. In the words of Larry Cenotto, "they hanged Bennett (alias Schwartz and Black) and he was tap dancin' on a breeze before 7 a.m."

Deaths # 8, 9  & 10.

The last three deaths by way of the Hanging Tree occurred in August of 1855, after the horrific massacre at lower Rancheria. If you do not know the story, please click on this link below to read Part 1, and don't forget read all four parts (I know, it's a long one, but totally worth it to get the whole story).

THE RANCHERA MASSACRE 

To make a long story short, three men were ultimately hanged on that tree within a week. These deaths were because all three men were accused of being part of the group of banditos who went on a killing spree in lower Rancheria on August 5, 1855.  First an unidentified Mexican was hanged on August 8th, then Manuel Garcia was hanged on August 9th, and finally the last man ever to be hanged on the Hanging Tree, Rafael Escobar was hanged on August 15, 1855.  (To read about Rafael's death, click on Part 3 here.)

Finally, the Hanging Tree met its own demise on August 23, 1862 when the "Great Fire" raged through Jackson, taking almost everything along with it. Only a few buildings survived that fire, and after the smoke cleared and the ashes settled, that Hangman's Tree was a charred fragment of what it once was. It was soon after cut down.

Many years later, on July 24, 1937, the Ursula Parlor No. 1 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West, had a plaque put in on Main Street marking the general area where that Hanging Tree once stood.


Conclusion

In ending, as you may have noticed, I cited much of Larry Cenotto's research within this blog.  I felt there was no better way to honor him than by sharing his research. Larry Cenotto was a huge inspiration for me personally in my quest to be a historical journalist and writer in my own life. In fact, had it not been for Larry Cenotto's personal advice to me to publish my work, I would never have published my first book "Behind the Walls." Since then, I have published four historical non-fiction books, all having some tie to Amador County history.

Although Larry passed away on October 7, 2012, the legacy he left the world, his work and his passion for history, lives on indefinitely as long as we keep reading and researching. Since the 1970's he spent time founding what is now the Amador County Archives, taking on the position as Archivist for nearly 30 years and contributing his knowledge of county history in newspaper columns for many years as well as publishing his works in paper form through books and travel booklets. Nearly every story you research nowadays regarding Amador County history, it is likely you will find something mentioning Larry in it. Meaning he either wrote about it, or he archived it! He truly was a treasure that not only saved this county's history from possible oblivion, but also preserved it for future generations to enjoy. And after all, preserving our history for posterity meant a lot to Larry. I know because he told me so, when he encouraged me to publish my blogs in book form.

In 2017, a plaque was erected on the side of the National Hotel, just steps away from where that Hanging Tree once stood, that pays tribute to Larry, forever sealing his story within the pages of the same Amador County history that he knew and loved so much. What a fitting tribute to Amador County's greatest historian.

(Copyright 2019 - J'aime Rubio, www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

The Life and Death of Anna Corbin

From the new book, "More Stories of the Forgotten," by J'aime Rubio

 Chapter 10. The Life & Death of Anna Corbin  

Anna Corbin

I originally wrote about Anna Corbin’s story on my blog “Dreaming Casually” way back between 2009-2011. My blog gained a lot of attention from that one post, and later on I added a chapter to my first book, “Behind The Walls” specifically delving into Anna’s life and death. The book came out in 2012, and since then I have uncovered even more information about Anna, her life, and of course her tragic death. I have wished to elaborate more about her story in a more in-depth way over the years, and I have tried to on my blog, but I felt it was best suited to add this new chapter in this book.

Thanks to permissions granted to me by Anna’s great-granddaughter Lily, I can share with you Anna’s life like no one else could but her own family.  Along with sharing Anna’s life story, I ask everyone reading this chapter to always respect Anna’s memory and not get all caught up in the hype that has been circulating around her name when it comes to the paranormal television shows that have been featuring Preston Castle. The television programs that have covered her story in the past did not research or even know Anna’s real story; her life or death. They didn’t even tell the story of her death correctly either, and so, today I want to share the accurate and more detailed narrative of what is recorded about her life so she can be remembered and never be one of the forgotten ever again.

When I first wrote about Anna and published her story in my first book, I had only so much information on her backstory at that time such as:  genealogical records, birth and death records, marriage certificates, census records and what not. Over the years I have found so much more life hidden between each gap in time. I remember once reading the quote: “Your life is made up of two dates and a dash. Make the most of the dash.” In reality, that is true.Over all the years that I have been researching and writing about history and people of the past, I first start out finding the two dates, but it’s the information within the “dash” that is most exciting to uncover.  Anna did not disappoint in my quest to find out the details of her life.

Years ago, I was contacted by her great-granddaughter Lily, who had read my blog about her great-grandmother. She was so kind and genuine since our first contact. I can honestly say that we have been friends ever since. That is why it is so important to me to tell Anna’s story accurately, but most importantly with respect. Anna is a real person to me, not a ghost story.  I think of her as I do my own grandmother and treat her life with the same care and concern as I would my own family history.

For starters, as I originally stated in my blog and book, Anna was born on January 16, 1898,  on a little farm known simply as Bon Air, located in Americus, Kansas. Her parents were Etta Edna Little (1865-1945) and Wilber Austin Lawton (1857-1936).  Anna’s father was a farmer who had also been a banker, postmaster, politician, Justice of the Peace, Under-Sheriff and member of the school board during his lifetime.

There is not a lot of information about why Anna left her parent’s home at a fairly young age to be brought up with an aunt and uncle, but records I have discovered showed that shortly after Anna was born, her mother was hospitalized. I do not believe Etta ever returned home to her family, for whatever reason that was. And out of respect for the family, I will leave Etta’s story alone. Some family stories are just meant to be kept tight to the vest. After all, not all business is our business! Since Anna’s father was unable to care for his youngest two daughters, Loverna and Anna, they were shipped off to live with relatives in nearby Emporia.

Originally, given the genealogical records and notes I had uncovered, I believed Anna grew up with her sister, Loverna, in the same household. I have since found out, through Anna’s great-granddaughter who has provided me with Anna’s own personal family records (written in Anna’s own handwriting), there’s a bit of a different story.  Anna was adopted by her aunt Hattie and uncle Christie McColm, while Loverna was raised with another set of relatives still nearby in Emporia. They still grew up together, just in separate households.

The 1910 Census shows Anna at the age of 12, living with her relatives, Christie & Hattie McColm, as well as their son, Theodore, and Christie’s two spinster sisters, Allie and Ollie. They had legally adopted her by that point because her name was now McColm, not Lawton. According to another family paper provided to me by Lily, Anna’s aunt Hattie had passed away when she was very young, and her other two aunts, Allie and Ollie, were left to care for her until she reached the age to marry. Anna was very close to her cousin Theodore. She recalled how he would take her to baseball games and parties when they were both in school.

By the time Anna graduated from Emporia High School , she quickly enrolled at a Teacher’s College, where she even had a chance to teach for awhile. It was around that time she met and married  Robert Travis Corbin on April 7, 1918.  The young couple wanted to make their own start in life, and soon after their first child was born, Harold Jay Corbin on February 24, 1919, they sought out new adventure out of state where Robert had found a homestead. Family records indicate they had moved to New Mexico at some point, while birth records note that their youngest child, Avis, was born on April 3, 1924 in La Junta, Colorado.

By the 1930’s, the Corbin’s had moved to Whittier, California and owned their own home at 713 S. Bright Ave, which was near Whittier Blvd. Unfortunately, today a parking lot sits on top of the sight of the Corbin’s old neighborhood.  According to family papers,  Anna opened a “Dairy Queen place.” I imagine if it wasn’t a franchise owned Dairy Queen, it was more or less a Mom & Pop drive-in ice cream spot, and it was said to have done well.  The Census records for 1930 show Robert working as a truck driver and Anna being at home, so I believe the ice cream shop happened after 1930.  Besides her entrepreneurial spirit, Anna was also an artist who enjoyed painting as well as keeping journals of her thoughts and memories.

It was sometime after 1935 that the family relocated to Ione, California when Robert took on the job as Group Supervisor at the Preston School of Industry.  Anna was hired soon after as a housekeeper there as well.  By 1941, their son Harold enlisted in the Air Force, while Robert remained at home. Although Robert was listed on the draft registry, he was not called out to war during WWII.

Prior to shipping out, Harold married his sweetheart, Donna Marie Toole on Christmas Eve at the Army Post Chapel at Avon Park, Florida. Sadly, he would never return home alive, as his plane was shot down over France on September 27, 1943.  His body would not be recovered or returned for over 7 years, when finally he was buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California on March 14, 1950.

That same year, 1943, Robert  and Anna celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary which made it into the newspapers:

“The Robert Corbin’s Entertain Guests on Wedding Anniversary”— Wednesday evening, April 7, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Corbin held open house from seven to ten of their friends, the occasion being their 25th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Corbin dressed in the wedding gown she wore for the happy occasion 25 years ago, Mr. Corbin greeted the guests and had them sign the guest book, which was their marriage certificate. Mrs. Esther Throssel and Mrs. Ruth Warren presided at the table serving cake and coffee. The dining table was covered with lace cloth,  a wedding cake place in the center and tall lighted candles on each side. The cake bore the inscription “Silver Wedding, April 7, 1943, Bob and Anna.” This was cut by the bride and groom of 25 years ago in the traditional style.

During the evening Mrs. Edith Steinmen playing violin and Mrs. Lucy Van Vorst accompanying, softly played music appropriate for the occasion. The honored couple took their marriage vows, 25 years ago in Emporia, Kansas. Anna at that time was a school teacher. Mr. Corbin was in the armed service in World War I, where he served until honorably discharged. They have two children, Lieutenant Harold Corbin of Avon Park, Florida and Mrs. Avis Barone of Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Lovely baskets of talisman roses, cala lilies and coral bell decorated the home.”—-

Please stop and take note here that Anna did not live at Preston at any point in time, she always lived in her home in Ione. This contradicts what many television programs or paranormal investigators have tried to claim over the years, but their information is simply incorrect. Anna lived in town, not at the school.

Although Anna had just celebrated a happy occasion in April of 1943, with her son passing away that following September, it must have been a devastating blow to Anna and the entire family.  Time went on as it always does, heartaches and all, but there was never any full closure for Anna because Harold’s remains had never been brought back for burial at this point. By May 29,1947, Robert passed away at the Veterans Hospital in Napa, California after suffering from a heart attack.  By this time, since Anna’s daughter was married and had moved away, she was all alone.

After these two tragedies, this resilient woman with a heart of gold chose not to wallow in her sorrows but instead put a great deal of focus in her job now as the head housekeeper at Preston, spending time volunteering for her congregation at the Methodist Church in Ione and being good to the boys at Preston. The majority of the boys thought of her as being a motherly influence on them while they were serving their time at the school, which makes the rest of the story all the harder to tell.

Before I get to Anna’s death, I am going to stop right here and share with you what was also happening in the world around the time of Robert’s death. Just about 375 miles to the south, in South Central Los Angeles on July 18, 1947, the body of 17 year old Vesta Sapenter was found in her upstairs bedroom.  Vesta was a sweet, smart and kind young lady who was an honor student at Jefferson High School.  On July 18, after her friend Benjamin Allen had walked her home from school, she went upstairs and began hanging curtains in her room.

Soon after, a ne’er-do-well young man named Eugene Monroe (aka Jefferson) from the neighborhood came over, asking Vesta’s younger brother Carlisle who was playing outside if he could use their restroom. The newspapers claimed it seemed that he had delivered some sort of furniture to the house. One thing that was not mentioned in the newspaper is that Vesta’s father didn’t like this young man and he had adamantly expressed to his son that he didn’t want him anywhere near the house, and especially not to allow him inside their house. Sadly, Carlisle didn’t obey his father’s request.

Youth Quizzed In L.A. Slaying—

“Monroe, delivering furniture to the Sapenter home, talked to the girl’s younger brother and asked to use the bathroom, according to Coppage. While the brother remained outside, Monroe went upstairs, he said, and came back down. He asked the boy where his sister was and was told, that she was upstairs.

The suspect, according to police, said he had not seen her. The brother and Monroe then re-entered the house and found her bedroom door locked. This was broken down and the body discovered. Coppage declared. The slain girl had been keeping house for her father and brother and was hanging curtains when the murderer entered the room, the police officer declared.

Vesta Sapenter

Monroe, who was using his step-father’s last name at the time, was questioned but later released, Coppage said, since there no witnesses to the crime nor could evidence be corroborated. The knot that was tied in a rope around the young girl’s neck was also the same type of knot that was in the rope around Mrs. Corbin’s neck, investigators said. The knot had been pulled up tight behind the left ear in both cases, it was reported. Coppage declared today, “I am certain this boy did the job, but we were just never able to prove it. He was the only one in the house at the time and had ample time to commit the act.”---  (Newspaper Archive clippings)  

I had the pleasure of speaking to Vesta’s sister over the telephone two years ago.  According to Vesta’s sister, Agnes, her father was positive that Monroe had murdered her sister. She even mentioned that a police officer or detective would come by to check on the family from time to time. The family was very upset that Monroe had not been charged with the crime.

Much to the dismay of the Sapenter family, there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Monroe with Vesta’s murder since there were no witnesses except an under age child who let him into the home but didn’t actually witness the murder. So, the District Attorney’s office dropped the ball and did not press charges on Monroe, virtually allowing the case go unsolved .

It is very telling that Vesta’s father had a  bad feeling about Monroe from the get-go and he warned his kids not to ever let him inside the house. Perhaps he had seen a look or a glance from Monroe towards his beautiful young daughter and it was enough for him to get the vibe that this boy was up to no good. I am sure the saddest part, besides the death of Vesta, was the fact that her father had to go on remembering he sensed something bad but was unable to prevent it from happening.

I am also certain that the heavy weight of guilt rested upon Carlisle’s shoulders for the remainder of his life for not taking heed of his father’s direction which ultimately cost his sister her life. By 1950, Monroe had been sent up to the Preston School of Industry burglary charges, and soon he would cross paths with Anna Corbin which would prove to be deadly.

Follow along with me as I attempt to retrace the past. By sharing with you this tragic tale, along with additional research I have done over the years, I can to give you a broader spectrum of information in regards to what happened to Anna, and why I believe it had all happened before, and sadly, it would all happen again in Tulsa, Oklahoma only one year later.

According to the Stockton Record dated February 24, 1950, Anna’s body had been found in the afternoon on February 23rd, downstairs in the basement storeroom which was padlocked and adjacent to her office. Over the years, there has been much confusion over where Anna’s office was, and where Anna’s body was discovered. I have tried to clear up any sort of misinformation that has been spread by tour guides at Preston Castle for years.

First things first,  Anna was not found in the small “cubby hole” area near the kitchen. Whomever came up with that idea surely didn’t do their research, nor did they know the facts. According to the newspapers of the time Anna was found in a larger room which was being used as a storeroom/supply area at the school.

Anna’s office was the first door to the left as you were entering the basement from the outside of the castle along the east side of the building. The room that was “adjacent” to her office was the room where the plunge bath is located. At the time in 1950, that pool had been long boarded over and so the room was used for storage purposes.

The discovery of Anna’s body was made by Lillian Lee McDowall, a housekeeper, and her ward, Robert Hall who was assigned to housekeeping duties under Ms. McDowall’s charge. It was Hall that discovered blood stains on the door jamb and the floor which led out of Anna’s office and into the locked storeroom.

“There was a lot of blood on the door leading to the storage room. It was locked with a padlock,” explained Hall. After breaking the door down, Anna was found in a corner with a pile of carpeting on top of her.  Authorities determined that she was attacked in her office and dragged into the store room. In the beginning it was believed that besides being choked and beaten to death, that she might have been raped as well since her undergarments had been pulled down around her ankles and there was shoe polish marks on them which obviously came from a struggle with someone behind her wearing newly shined shoes. During the trial, Dr. Charles Blumenfeld  testified that the autopsy revealed that she had not been sexually assaulted. It appears that Anna had fought off her assailant in that respect.

The cause of death, besides being choked from behind with a hemp cord, was a skull fracture from hitting her head on the concrete floor of the basement. A blood soaked rag was used in an attempt to wipe up the bloody mess, but was left at the scene for investigators to discover.  State investigators, Owen Kessel, William White and Ernest Chamberlain were assigned to search all the clothing of the inmates for blood stains.

Eventually, after searching all 657 wards at the school, they did pinpoint their investigation from three possible suspects, down to just one, Eugene Monroe. And blood stains had been found on his shoes and his belt. He tried to make an excuse that he had previously cut himself the day before, and even had one of his friends, Clarence Tilman, later testify that Monroe had lacerated his hand in shoe shop the day before Anna’s killing. Still, this did not explain the fact that he would still have blood on his shoes or belt, especially when other inmates had claimed he had been continuously shining his shoes after the murder. Also, he had no explanation as to why he had thrown some of his clothes into the incinerator, which anyone with common sense would know that it was to cover up the blood stains that he couldn't wash away.

A.E. Riedel,  the lie detector expert from Berkeley’s Police Department was called in to perform tests on 400 wards at the school.  Sheriff Lucot sat in with each and every session, as one by one, each ward came into an office, was hooked to the lie detector machine and grilled tirelessly searching for answers. Upon Monroe’s questioning, Riedel sad that Monroe’s statements of his activities for the morning of the murder did not coincide with the statements given by other wards who had seen him before or after the slaying. He was one of three youths who were believed to be withholding the truth in some way or another, based on their failed lie detector tests.

Around the same time there were excerpts published from Anna’s own diary and a few letters to her daughter and sister that had been leaked to the press claiming that a few of the boys had made Anna uncomfortable.  One ward even went so far as to make sexual advances on Anna.

“I’m rather concerned about the threatening letter from my boy, Robert Hall,” Anna’s diary read.  It is interesting to note that Robert Hall was one of the two people who found Anna’s body on the day that she died, but he had an alibi. He was with Lillian Lee McDowall on housekeeping duties in another part of the school.

Another penned writing by Anna, this time in a letter she wrote to her daughter Avis stated:

“We took a sharp-blade knife from each of the two of our house squad boys. Just now one of the same boys asked me what I would do if a boy threatened me with a knife. I just said, ‘I don’t scare easy, Upton.’ “He said, ‘Against a knife you wouldn’t have a chance.’ “However, I didn’t act scared. I guess, for he started talking about other things then…..”

Avis declared “mother told me two boys had tried to make love to her, and that Upton wanted to marry her. Mother told him she was old enough to be his mother.”—-

Not much more was brought up about the other possible suspects, and eventually they were cleared, especially since investigators had felt they found their man. Remember, Monroe had been the chief suspect in Vesta Sapenter’s murder, and the M.O. of both cases were too eerily similar to ignore. We must also remember that Monroe had been assigned to sweeping detail just outside of the castle, and near the back entrance to the basement where Anna was arranging a bouquet of flowers.  It would not have been difficult for him to walk 200 feet and sneak into the basement undetected. Monroe remained adamant that he didn’t know about the murder until the afternoon when everyone started talking about it. Riedel again claimed based on his reactions and answers to his questions, there was “every evidence and enough corroborating statements of witnesses to strongly indicate this boy is a murderer.” ---

After more intensive grilling by investigators which  proved that Monroe had lied continually, and after having shown his ill-temper when he was being questioned in the Superintendents office, the authorities felt they had their prime suspect in custody. Preston Historian John Lafferty was kind enough to share with me an oral history he transcribed for the Amador County Archives years ago in respect to this case. The following quote was given by Goula Wait, who had been he Executive Secretary at Preston.

“In that office my desk was between the office they used to interview the boy they thought was the guilty one and on the other side was the Superintendent’s office. They kept having these meetings—the sheriff and everybody met over there and I was—I’ll never forget the—um—the psychiatrist that had been assigned to the job would go over there and interview the kid and I could hear the voices through the wall and then I’d hear the boy’s voice rise and rise and rise and rise and rise and rise and rise and it would get up there very high like he was at the edge—you know—and then the psychiatrist came out and he indicated he [Monroe] was right on the edge—something awful happened there. He came around and told them they were right on the edge of getting a confession and Sheriff Lucot was there in the building and he misunderstood or something or something happened and he got up and took the boy—took him out and put him up in the [county] jail.’”—

I spoke with an old-timer years ago, he didn’t want me to disclose his full name, so let’s just call him “Harry.”  So it was upon my interview with Harry that I learned some more information about Monroe that I hadn’t heard before. You see, he knew a lot of private details about the case, because he had worked there and he knew people involved in the investigation. According to Harry, Eugene Monroe was known at the school for his violent temper and when in isolation he was known to tear up his cell, including his mattress. He even ripped a pipe off the wall in one instance. He was also known for self mutilation, scratching his own face to the point that it left visible scars.

Youth Faces Charge in Ione Slaying

“Jackson, March 2. -Amador County District Attorney Gard Chisolm said today he would probably file murder charges tomorrow or Saturday against Eugene Monroe, 19, suspected of the brutal slaying of housekeeper Mrs. Anna Corbin at the Preston School of Industry. Chisolm said the Negro youth has been “lying deliberately.” His story contains “three or four” deliberate lies, Chisolm added.

Chisolm said stains on Monroe’s clothing tested to be blood. However, he said it was not considered conclusive evidence since Monroe and Mrs. Corbin had the same blood type. Monroe was being held in the county jail here. Chisolm said one of the main points of suspicion was the youth’s proximity to Mrs. Corbin at the time of the murder.” --- The Press Democrat, March 3, 1950.

Monroe was officially charged with murder on March, 3. 1950.  The story made headline news, not just locally, but regionally and nationally, drawing the attention of an up-and-coming civil rights trial lawyer, Nathaniel S. Colley (who was affiliated with the NAACP) who was chosen to represent Monroe.  From the beginning, Colley wanted to make the case out to be flimsy, and continually tried to request dismissal of the case, or to have every witness statement stricken from the record. He allegedly went so far as to visit William Mercer, a key witness at the preliminary trial, and threatened physical harm on the boy if he didn’t recant his testimony.

You see, Mercer made claims that he saw Monroe strike Mrs. Corbin in her office but he ran off and did not witness the murder. He claimed that Monroe attacked her because she had witnessed them (Monroe and Mercer) engaging in a homosexual act and she said she was going to report them. Although Mercer recanted his statement at the preliminary hearing, he later claimed at the trial that Monroe's attorney had threatened to have him killed if he didn't change his story. Mercer claimed that he had recanted the story at the time out of fear that Monroe's friends would "take care of him" after he got out, as told to him by Colley at the Amador County Jail.

In the end, it was his conscience that got the best of Mercer, so he risked everything to tell what he claimed to be the truth at the trial and admitting that his original statement was in fact true. Whether or not the jury believed he was credible was anyone's guess, but Mercer was adamant that the only reason he lied was out of fear. We do know that Colley did visit Mercer and obtained a new statement. We also know for a fact that Mercer was terrified to return to Preston out of physical fear, as Sheriff Lucot and the D.A. were both quoted saying that, which would coincide with the threats Colley allegedly made against Mercer.

Preston Murder Witness ‘Recants’

“Sacramento, April 7.- The attorney for Eugene Monroe, 19, Preston State School of Industry inmate charged with murdering the school housekeeper, claimed today the prosecution’s chief witness had changed his story.  Nathaniel S. Colley, attorney for Monroe, said that William Jack Mercer, 17, Long Beach, had repudiated an earlier statement that he saw Monroe strike Mrs. Anna Corbin on February 23. She was found dead a few hours later. Colley said he took a new statement from Mercer at the Amador County Jail yesterday. The youth said he made the original statement on a promise from a school official he would be released if he told anything he knew about the killing. Colley said he would ask for dismissal of the charge against Monroe on the basis of Mercer’s changed statement. “--  Oakland Tribune 4/7/1950

Preston Murder Case Jury Disagrees

“Jackson, April 29.-The jury trying Eugene Monroe, 19, Preston School of Industry inmate, for the murder of a school housekeeper reported itself hopelessly deadlocked late last night and was discharged by Superior Judge Ralph McGee. The jurors received the case at 3:10 pm yesterday but spent little more than two hours in actual deliberations before reporting they were deadlocked at 8 to 4 for conviction at 10:49 pm. Much of the time was spent in recess as they awaited the arrived of requested trial testimony from Placerville, where it had been sent for transcription. Monroe, who pleaded innocent, went to trial Monday on charges he beat and strangled to death the school’s head housekeeper, Mrs. Anna Corbin, in a storeroom last February 23. District Attorney Gard Chisholm said today he would try the case again.”---- Oakland Tribune, 4/29/1950

Third Trial Likely For Slaying Suspect

“Jackson, June 19 –Prosecution attorneys say they “definitely” plan to try 19 year old Eugene Monroe for a third time on charges that he murdered a housekeeper at the Preston School of Industry last Feb. 23. Monroe’s second trial ended in a deadlock when the jury reported it was unable to reach a decision and was dismissed by Superior Judge Ralph McGee. At the time the jurors stood 11 to 1 for conviction. The first trial last April also ended in a hung jury.”----Press Democrat, 6/20/1950

Acquits Monroe

“Sacramento, Oct 19. --Eugene Monroe’s third trial on charges of slaying a state reformatory school housekeeper ended in his acquittal today. The 19 year old Los Angeles youth was cleared of the death of Mrs. Anna Corbin, 53, by a jury of four women and eight men after two hours deliberation. His two previous trials, both in Amador County, ended in deadlocked juries. Mrs. Corbin was found beaten to death last February 23 at the Preston School of Industry at Ione. Monroe was an inmate there.”----San Bernardino County, 10/20/1950

The first trial was in April, where a jury comprised of five women and seven men could not reach a verdict in the case. This upset the community, and the D.A. scheduled the second trial to take place in June. That also ended in a hung jury with the jurors voting 11 for conviction and 1 innocent. At that point Monroe's attorney, Nathaniel S. Colley requested that the third trial be moved out of Amador County and into Sacramento, which was allowed. The third trial ended in an acquittal for Monroe, and injustice done to the memory Anna Corbin's life.

Again, despite witnesses statements, blood stains on his shoes and belt, unexplained clothing in the incinerator and discrepancies in Monroe’s answers on the lie detector test, still it wasn’t enough.  It appeared that this case was no longer about Anna Corbin, justice or attempting to find her murderer, but instead this would turn into a three ring circus, with Monroe's attorney using this opportunity to insinuate Monroe’s singling out as a suspect as being racially biased in order to help his client avoid a conviction for murder.

It didn’t matter that Anna was murdered in a similar manner as Vesta Sapenter in 1947.  Although Vesta had been raped, it appeared that Anna fought the attempted  assault which is probably why she was beaten so badly during the struggle. This was rage. The person who murdered Anna had brutally bludgeoned her besides choking her from behind with a cord knotted behind her ear, just like Vesta had been found with a cord knotted behind her ear.

Unfortunately, those key details were not disclosed to either of the three different jury panels at all three trials.  I believe that had they been given that most imperative information during the first trial, it would have literally sealed his conviction from the very beginning.

Anna was interred in the Palm Court Mausoleum at East Lawn Cemetery in Sacramento, California, where her husband was also interred several years prior. Although her life story was finished, it seems that Monroe’s was just getting started. So down the rabbit hole I went on an endless search to hunt Monroe down through the pages of history to prove my suspicions that although he got away with it, he was still a murderer.

After being acquitted for murder, Monroe was paroled to Oklahoma to live with his aunt in Tulsa.  From the time of his release in late October of 1950 up until July of 1951, Monroe had been arrested four times on sexual perversion charges. It was while awaiting his day in court on one of those sexual perversion charges that he was caught slipping notes to fellow cell mates bragging about getting away with murder. Which murder was he bragging about? Could it have been the fact he managed to get through three trials in California only to be acquitted for one woman's murder?Was he bragging about the newest unsolved murder in Tulsa? Or could he have bragged about both? All it took was questioning him about the note and running his fingerprints through the FBI database to find out his prints matched those found on the venetian blinds that came from the home of a recent unsolved murder of a young pregnant woman.

Dorothy Waldrop

Dorothy Waldrop's body was discovered on a grassy knoll near the apartment complex in which she and her husband lived. She had been brutally raped and strangled with a dirty handkerchief found knotted around her throat.  Dorothy Waldrop was a 22 year-old, former Dance Teacher at the Murray Dance Studio in St. Joseph, Oklahoma. She was also the pregnant wife of Robert Waldrop, a taxi cab driver in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On the evening of Dorothy's murder, her husband said goodbye to her around 8:15 p.m. when he left for work. Upon arriving home at 1 a.m., Robert discovered the front door wide open and his wife missing. One of their neighbors was later questioned and she remembered hearing a scream around midnight, but it was quick and she didn't know what to think about it so she didn't bother to wake her husband and went back to bed.

Young boys discovered her body on June 24th, 1951, on a grassy knoll just outside the apartment building where Dorothy lived with her husband. She had been strangled with a dirty handkerchief and raped post mortem. The partial lower section of the venetian blinds from the Waldrop's apartment was later found in a clump of weeds outside the apartments, near where Dorothy's body was found. According to the authorities, they found Eugene Monroe's fingerprints on the blinds.

Two boys came forward and stated that the night Dorothy was murdered, they saw a man driving a car with California plates around the apartment building and the same vicinity where they later found her body.  Although the police questioned many suspects, including a four-time convicted rapist who had been in the area, all evidence was pointing to Monroe.

When Police Chief Fred Graves finally brought charges on him, they grilled Monroe for 11 hours. Eugene eventually admitted that he did kill Dorothy, and later on he added that he had help from a friend Odell McDaniel; some newspapers say his friend’s name was Eugene McDaniel. When he went in for arraignment, Monroe's public defender entered a not guilty plea, despite the fact the police had a written and signed statement from Monroe confessing to the murder. Monroe was faced with yet another murder trial, this time the odds didn't look good.

When it came time for his preliminary hearing, the prosecution had 13 witnesses, which included two African-American witnesses, (Edgar Rouseau, a newspaper editor; and Jim Cooley, the Police Department Janitor), who testified that Monroe bragged to them about killing Dorothy.

The defense had no witnesses to call. There was an interesting twist thrown into the mix, when Defense Attorney Amos T. Hall questioned the Police Chief on the stand about Harold Beddoe, M.D., who had seen Monroe during his interrogation. Attorney Hall insinuated that he believed Monroe had been hypnotized into confessing. The Police Chief stated he knew nothing of the sort, and that he wasn't in the room during the time the doctor was seeing Monroe.

Later, the doctor testified on the condition of Dorothy's body from the murder. According to people in the  courtroom, when the Dr. Beddoe mentioned how Dorothy was murdered, Monroe "bent his head, covered his face with his left hand, wept, shoulders shaking heavily," and refused to look at Robert Waldrop's face when he testified.

Shortly after this court date, Robert Waldrop passed away. I have yet to find his initial cause of death, but I believe it is possible that he took his own life out of the sheer grief of losing his wife and unborn child.  Only a few years before, Dorothy and Robert lost their firstborn son, Robert Jr., during childbirth, and undoubtedly, the loss of both his second child and his wife was too much for him to bear. I have spoken with a relative of Dorothy’s in the recent months, and it turns out that over the years the details of how Dorothy died had become somewhat of a mystery to the younger generation of the family. Thankfully, I was able to share the facts of this case with her distant relatives as well as what happened to Monroe.

The murder trial against Eugene Monroe began on January 21, 1952.  By April of that same year, he had been convicted of the murder of Dorothy Waldrop and sentenced to life in prison, after County Attorney Lewis Bicking joined defense counsel requested to spare Monroe from the electric chair. District Judge Eben L. Taylor imposed the life sentence for Monroe, sparing the death penalty. He was also given a 35-year sentence for armed robbery of a Oklahoma City Theater in a separate trial and conviction. He spent a total of 29 years in prison and was later released in 1981. He remained on inactive parole and after disappearing off the “radar”, the Oklahoma Corrections office looked him up and found out that he passed away in October of 2007 in Los Angeles.

Eugene Monroe was born on January 31, 1931 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It appears that he may have been removed from his home at an early age, as the 1940 Census in Taft, Muskogee County, Oklahoma lists Monroe as an inmate at the Institution for Deaf, Blind and Orphans. At this point he was only nine years old, and records indicate the highest level of education he had up to that point was 2nd grade.

According to newspaper accounts, as an young man Monroe had lived with his step-father whose last name was Jefferson, and Monroe went by the alias “Eugene Jefferson" at different times. I cannot confirm this for certain, but I believe that more than likely Monroe's biological father was not in the picture. Why he was sent to an orphanage at a young age is still a mystery since he clearly had relatives who were living at the time. In his later prison records, it states his mother’s name was Georgia Jefferson. Also, newspapers mentioned that Monroe lived with his aunt in Tulsa, too.

What I can tell you for certain is that Eugene Monroe lived in both Tulsa, Oklahoma and Los Angeles during his lifetime. By the mid to late 1940’s he had ended up in Los Angeles, in Vesta Sapenter’s very same neighborhood, the place where it all began in 1947 with the first murder. Or at least the first  murder we know about anyway.

When does storytelling cross the line?

Vesta Sapenter, Dorothy Waldrop and Anna Corbin were beautiful, vibrant women and sadly their stories are not happy ones to tell. Unlike Vesta and Dorothy’s murders which have remained in obscurity for over 60 years, Anna Corbin’s story has received a high amount of attention and sensationalism mostly due to the number of paranormal television programs that have exploited her death in exchange for high ratings.

Some might try to say that by publishing a blog or my two books on the subject of Preston, that I myself am, in a way, exploiting the dead. Of course, to an extent anytime anyone writes about a deceased individual, there is always a certain degree of attention the story will receive. However, with the work I do, I strive to honor the memory of those deceased ones with love and respect, so their stories will not be forgotten, and I do not make it a practice to delve into the paranormal realm, so I personally do not feel my work exploits anyone. But the real question is: When do others' allow their storytelling to cross the line?

With my writing, I choose to stick to the facts and tell the history as it was. I prefer to steer clear of the paranormal lore that often follows these stories. By getting to the facts of the stories I research, I am able to present the accurate details of each case and in turn the reader is informed properly of the facts.

With ghost stories, 99% of the time the information is inaccurate and overly sensationalized, not to mention a complete disrespect of the dead. It is one thing to share the historical facts of a person that is public record, but it is entirely something else to perpetuate false stories or even insinuate their ghost haunts a particular place when we have absolutely no concrete evidence of such things.

Let’s take Anna Corbin’s story, for example. I have spent many years researching both her life and her death. I have published my findings in my various blogs and both of my books. Again, it is one thing to tell the facts, but it is something else to perpetuate her ghost is lingering at the castle and allow film crews to come in one by one and continuously misrepresent Anna's story. Not only has it been a disrespect to Anna herself, but to her family as well.

Various television programs have been given permission to film at Preston over the years. And with each episode of each program came their own "version" of the paranormal activity that takes place at Preston. This is not only a disrespect to Anna’s memory but a disservice to the history of the castle. I get it, there are a lot of people interested in “ghost stories,” but when does your interest in this subject cross the line into complete and utter disregard not only for the facts, but for respect of the dead?

The Lowe Files, Unexplained Files, Ghost Asylum, and the worst one of all, Ghost Adventures all were given permission by the board members at Preston Castle to film there, and all of these programs not only spread misinformation about the school’s history but also about Anna Corbin’s death. Zac Bagans’ ridiculous “fake” possession at the Castle where he literally claimed Anna’s spirit took over his body, was not only the most disrespectful act that I had ever seen on one of those types of paranormal shows, but also embarrassing to see a grown man pretending to be possessed just to boost his career.

And last but not least, the different movies that have been filmed on the property have also done more harm than good in the way of spreading misinformation about the school’s history or Anna’s story in particular.  Take the film “Haunting at Preston Castle,” for example.  For one, the film was not based on true events. No boy was beaten to death in the yard,  there are no evil spirits of boys there seeking to terrorize or kill you.

What about the new movie “Apparition” by Mark.S. Allen? That is another movie taking pieces of history and changing it to fit their wants and needs for a story line.  I spoke to the producer before it was released because I had heard rumors about the storyline and I was hoping the rumors were not true. Sadly, this was not the case.

In fact, Waymon Boone, the co-producer of the film, emailed me back confirming that their horror film was based on Anna Corbin’s story, but they had changed her name to “Anna Collins” and that she is a ghost seeking revenge. In this film they made the Caucasian Superintendent, or “Warden” as he put it, the murderer instead of an African-American ward who actually was the prime suspect in the real story. This blatant disregard for the facts of the case and for making Anna into this fictitious ghost made me sick to my stomach at the very thought of it.

The Unexplained Files episode made Anna Corbin’s killer yet again a Caucasian male, this time sporting a trench-coat and fedora instead of going with the facts of the case and at least using a ward dressed in the customary Preston attire to do their re-enactment scene. Again, without researching the story accurately all of these television programs not only spread misinformation about the facts of the case but they also turned Anna’s story into a joke, and that is not okay.

Anna went from being a living, breathing human being with feelings, family, love, and a lifetime of good (and bad) memories into a brutally murdered woman whose ghost haunts an old abandoned school, when that just isn’t the case. I have spoken to Anna’s great-granddaughter and it is very apparent that Anna’s family does not like to dwell on the bad things in life, especially Anna’s death. Instead, they choose to focus on the good times and move forward.  They believe Anna is resting in peace with her husband, Robert, her son Harold and now her daughter, Avis. They are all together now, resting in our Creator’s loving care.

So, with this information I have given you, I now ask whoever reads this chapter on Anna’s life, to please remember that she was a real person and that out of respect for her loved ones let us remember Anna for the kind and loving person she was, for the compassionate life she lived, not just dwell on how she died.  And by doing so, we honor her memory moving forward.

Despite the fact that Eugene Monroe was not convicted of Vesta or Anna’s murders, but only Dorothy’s murder, does not change the fact that all the evidence pointed to him being the murderer in all three cases.  In fact, in the recent months I was contacted by J. Paul,  a former police officer from Kansas who has been researching a series of murders/rapes that took place in Tulsa, Oklahoma during the 1940’s and 1950’s. As J. Paul started digging through the case files, he noticed Eugene Monroe’s name kept popping up as a suspect in many cases. With continued research he has come to believe that Monroe was the one who committed these crimes and he reached out to me after reading my blog where I mentioned my theory that Eugene Monroe might have been a serial killer. It appears that J. Paul feels the same way about Monroe.

To be honest, I was thrilled that another person out there in this great big world has been looking into Monroe’s life and saw what I saw, felt what Monroe was truly capable of, and went with their gut to keep digging for the truth. I hope that J. Paul continues in his efforts to find out the rest of Monroe’s story and sheds further light on the subject. Who knows how many other possible victims Monroe might have hurt, or even killed over the years, and now, because someone has decided to jump down that very same rabbit hole that led me to Vesta, Anna and Dorothy’s stories, they might just shine a light on the stories of more forgotten women whose lives have been masked by the dark abyss of time."----

Chapter 10, "More Stories of the Forgotten" -  J'aime Rubio (Copyright 2019)

 ISBN-13:  978-1979454049