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Manson girls getting arrested

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John Wayne Gacy

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The 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop Murders

The two babies photographed above are brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow. When Lewis was 12 years old, and Nelson just 10, they disappeared from their home in Pomona, Los Angeles. Soon after, poultry ranch owner Gordon Northcott (pictured top left) was suspected of their murder.

It was believed that Northcott had hacked the older brother to death, as an axe was found at the ranch containing traces of human hair and blood. He went on to confess to the killings himself. At one point, he told authorities: “I felt sorry for Nelson after I killed Lewie, the little one was so distressed and wept so.” Nelson was then murdered by Northcott’s teenage nephew, Sanford Clark (pictured top right), although Clark always maintained that he was forced to do so by his physically abusive uncle. Clark had been tasked with luring young boys to the farm, where they would be held captive in a chicken coop before being raped and brutally murdered by Northcott.

Different fragments of human skeletons were discovered buried at Northcott’s farm, and analysis showed they belonged to multiple male children. To this day, it is estimated that Northcott may be responsible for over 20 deaths, although he was found guilty on just three counts of murder. He was convicted for the killings of the Winslow brothers and a teenage boy named Alvin Gothea. Gothea was a farmhand referred to for some time as ‘The Headless Mexican’, as his body had remained unidentified until Northcott confessed to murdering him. He had been shot through the heart with a .22 calibre rifle and decapitated. 

Northcott was hanged in 1930. Despite his unbothered facade throughout the trial, he conceded to fear after being led to the gallows. Moments before he plunged to his death, he was heard desperately pleading to witnesses: “A prayer! Please, say a prayer for me!” The execution itself proved to be far from straightforward, as the rope used was too slack to cause immediate death, and instead he struggled for thirteen minutes and died from strangulation instead of neck breakage. 

Changeling, a movie released in 2008 starring Angelina Jolie, is based on the crimes committed by Gordon Northcott. The film focuses specifically on the disappearance of a 9 year old boy named Walter Collins and his mother’s desperate plight to find him. Sadly, his remains were never found, although Gordon’s mother - Sarah Northcott - claimed responsibility for Walter’s death. She was convicted for his murder, but it is possible she was covering for her son. Sarah was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment and released on parole in May 1940.

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Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill at the Cannes Film Festival for the film  Possession, 1981

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1928 Chorus girls relax between shooting scenes for the film “Broadway”. From Flappers and Bootleggers, FB.

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EARLY 90S SO MANY BOOKS 

TeeJerker

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All is Vanity by Charles Allan Gilbert (American illustrator), 1892

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Bruce Davidson - Brooklyn Gang (Girl Smoking on Blanket in Park), 1959

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Ian Brady; back turned - pictured with Myra Hindley and Maureen Smith

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But fresh lilaced moorland fields Cannot hide the stolid stench of death Oh whatever he has done, I have done. Over the moor, take me to the moor Dig a shallow grave And I’ll lay me down

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Katrin Koenning (German, b. 1979, Ruhrgebiet, Germany, based Melbourne, Australia) - From her Glow series, 2012-2015. Glow is a body of work focused on things that have assumed a short-lived or unexpected state of glow (things which, by nature, don’t glow). Photography

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The crib from which Charles Lindbergh Jr. the son of famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh and author, Anne Morrow, was kidnapped from. The 20-month-old child was taken on the evening of March 1st, 1932. Two months later, a truck driver discovered Charles Jr.’s decomposing remains alongside a road. The search for Lindbergh’s baby, as well as the murder trial that followed, was declared “The Crime of the Century”.

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