The Hill Top Motel at 1607 South Coast Highway in Oceanside, California has been described as an “okay place if you’re running out of options.” It has become sort of a fixture in the South Oceanside neighborhood. Far from a vacation destination resort, the Hill Top Motel is a low budget option for travelers and locals.
The Hill Top Motel, (Google view 2025)
Regardless of its less than stellar reputation, the Hill Top has a history dating back to 1948 and includes two tragic events, a suicide and an unsolved murder.
The first deadly incident was the suicide of Flora Dodson in 1954. She and her husband were the original owners of the motel property.
Forrest Leroy and Flora (Kettering) Dodson were both natives of Illinois, married in 1907. The couple had two daughters, Marie and Edith. In 1948 the Dodsons purchased property on the southwest corner of Morse and Hill Streets (Coast Highway) from Clifford Brodie. In June of that year a permit was issued to build a small motel called Dodson’s Motel at 1607 South Hill Street for a cost of $19,000. A neon sign was erected in December 1948 and the motel was completed and ready for guests.
Flora and Forrest led quiet lives on the busy Highway 101. They lived on the property while managing the auto court and visited often with their children and grandchildren.
Sadly, Forrest Dodson died suddenly on May 29, 1954. After 47 years of marriage, Flora was distraught and despondent with grief. She told her daughter Edith Lipman that she did not care to live any longer and that she had contemplated jumping off the end of the Oceanside pier.
On December 12th, just seven months after the death of her beloved husband, Flora ended her life. She was discovered by her son-in-law Othel Bert, who was visiting from the Midwest. He found her lifeless body lying on the floor in front of the kitchen gas range. Detectives from the Oceanside Police Department responded to the call and as they examined the scene, they noted that Flora had cut her left wrist with a safety razor blade, which was found on the floor near her right hand. A rifle and .22 cartridges were also found but unused. Instead, Flora had turned off the pilot lights in her wall heaters and stove, turned on the gas and positioned herself on a kitchen stool until she was overcome by fumes. The coroner ruled her death a suicide.
The Hill Top Motel, 1607 South Hill Street (Coast Highway) in early 1960s.
After her mother’s death, daughter Edith Lipman acquired the motel property which had since been renamed the Hill Top Motel. It was sold to Leonard and Bessie Robinson in 1957. The Robinsons lived on the property in the “owner apartment” and managed the 8-unit motel, which advertised “all the comforts at home” including carpet, kitchens and free TV.
By the mid 1960s the Hilltop Motel was expanded with a two-story unit on the north end of the property. The Robinsons sold the property to Mr. and Mrs. William and Virginia Giffin who sold it to Dwight M. Pankey in 1970.
The Hill Top Motel in the 1970s.
It was purchased by Larry and Twyla Shaffer in 1974 and by 1976 the Hilltop Motel was offering daily rates of $10 and a weekly rate of $63. In 1976, the property was purchased by Joe C. Iski and John Isky. They sold the property to Yee Chen Yeh of San Diego in 1979.
Aerial view of the Hill Top Motel, corner of Morse and Hill Streets (Coast Highway) upper right in the 1970s.
The clientele in the 1970s and 1980s were much different than the guests who stayed in the Dodson Motel in the 1940s and 1950s. Things were changing in Oceanside with a rising crime rate, even in South Oceanside, which is a vibrant and trendy neighborhood today. In 1988 the crime rate had increased 24 percent and it was reported that Oceanside had the biggest increase in violent crime in the entire state for the first six months of the year.
Violent crime which included Oceanside’s first reported homicide of the year – at the Hilltop Motel. On January 22, 1988 Rocco Anthony William Pittro, Jr. (aka Pietro) was found murdered in Room No. 8. Pittro had been discovered by the motel’s manager. Left in a pool of blood, he had been stabbed seven times.
The manager told police that Pittro and a man by the name of Carl had been seen together, and that Pittro had told him he would have a male friend visiting. Carl was described as a black male 25 to 30 years of age, 160 pounds 5’10“. The manager of the motel had gone to the room to check on him the following day, presumably after Pittro missed check out, entered the room with a pass key and discovered the dead guest. The Oceanside Police Department was notified and Officer P. Coppack arrived at 12:43 PM.
Pittro was born August 7, 1927 in Illinois. He was divorced and living in Mission Viejo. Differing reports list his occupation as an interior decorator to construction.
The coroner’s report stated that he was found in “a prone position on the bed and his body was cold to the touch.” There were three stab wounds to the back of his body and multiple stab wounds to his chest and abdomen, as well as a laceration to his left hand. The bedding under his body was blood soaked, and there was dried blood spattered on the wall opposite the foot of the bed and on the head of the bed. More specifically, Pittro was stabbed in the heart as well as in the lungs and suffered from multiple blunt injuries. The coroner also noted that no drugs were detected.
The murder weapon was not found but Homicide Detective Sheila Hancock reported “I think we’ve got some good physical evidence.” The victim’s 1985 Nissan pickup truck had been stolen and later recovered abandoned in central Los Angeles.
In March of that year, a 16-year-old Oceanside youth was arrested. He was booked into juvenile hall, but his name was withheld because of his age. Three days later, he was released. Detective Hancock said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the teenager at the time. Police said the teen lived with his parents on nearby Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and they continued to look for information linking the teenager to the killing.
In September of 1988 Oceanside detectives released a crude sketch looking for someone by the name of Chris or Carl. But with no suspects in custody, the case eventually went cold and then forgotten.
However, with properly stored evidence, this case could likely be solved today with DNA or even fingerprinting.
The murder of Rocco Pittro is one of several unsolved cases in the files of the Oceanside Police Department, including Zelda Lamore found murdered in a downtown hotel in 1953, the murder of cab driver Ray Davis in 1962, the murder of Charlleen Saunders in 1986, the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez in 1989, the missing persons case of Mary Rico-Webber in 1992, the murder of retired school teacher Margaret Yossa in 1994, and the murder of Rachel Pauline Rivera found in the alley of the 600 block of South Coast Highway in 2001.
As each year passes these cases only grow colder, including Rocco Pittro’s murder in Room 8 at the Hill Top Motel. Is the DNA evidence just waiting to be tested? Is there anyone who remembers, or has information to help solve this case and others?
South Oceanside, a popular (and some would say “trendy”) neighborhood, was once a separate township of its own. Situated between the town sites of Oceanside and Carlsbad, it was established by John Chauncey Hayes, who was also heavily intertwined with the establishment of the City of Oceanside.
John Chauncey Hayes, founder of South Oceanside
Born in Los Angeles in 1852, he was the son of Judge Benjamin I. Hayes and Emily Chauncey. His father was the first judge of the district court to serve Los Angeles, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. The Hayes family moved to San Diego and the younger Hayes studied law in his father’s office until 1875, when he married Felipe Marron, daughter of Silvestre Marron. The newlywed couple moved to San Luis Rey, where Hayes “engaged in locating government and state lands” along with farming and delivering mail.
In the early 1880s Hayes bought 1200 acres of coastal land between Oceanside and Carlsbad. Even when he became the exclusive real estate agent for Andrew Jackson Myers, Oceanside’s founder, he also served as Justice of the Peace and postmaster. If that wasn’t enough for an enterprising, ambitious businessman, Hayes began to develop his new township of South Oceanside which included a depot, hotel, cemetery, a two-story brick schoolhouse and its own newspaper, The South Oceanside Diamond, of which he was the editor.
Map of South Oceanside, California State Railroad Museum
South Oceanside also had a brickyard just south of Kelly Street between Ditmar and Moreno Streets. The muddy clay from the nearby lagoon was used to fashion and fire bricks used to build buildings and no less than 10 homes. Hayes had a brick building erected to house his newspaper printing and real estate office.
Ad for South Oceanside in the South Oceanside Diamond Newspaper
In addition to these amenities, South Oceanside also offered a hotel for visitors. Located on the corner of Kelly and Tremont Streets (the exact location is unknown), Hannah Trotter operated The Diamond House. The name of Trotter’s establishment went along with the theme of South Oceanside, with its newspaper, the Diamond, and Hayes’ hyperbolic advertisement of “buying and wearing diamonds.”
Hannah Bell Trotter was born in 1836 in Pennsylvania. She married Thomas Trotter, a coal miner, in about 1866 and the couple had five children. After her husband’s death, Hannah and her children came to the new township of Oceanside as early as 1886. In 1887 Trotter acquired and filed her own addition to the town of Oceanside, a five acre tract in the northern part of town. It would be the first addition/subdivision in Oceanside established by a woman.
Hannah Trotter Addition, 1887
In March of 1888 it was first announced that the “foundations are being laid for Mrs. Trotter’s boarding house. It will be a brick building, costing $3000.” (The foundation was brick, but the house was actually made of wood.) The house would be finished by May 1st and it was noted that Mrs. Trotter would “keep a first class place.”
Ad for the The Diamond Hotel in the South Oceanside Diamond Newspaper, 1889
The South Oceanside Diamond reported on May 18, 1888 that “The Diamond House, built and to be conducted as a hotel by Mrs. Hannah Trotter, is almost completed, and will be of great benefit to this community. The grounds surrounding the hotel will be highly ornamental, choice trees, flowers, grass, etc., having already been selected by the proprietress, who is adept in the art of floriculture.” The following month, the Diamond reported that “Hannah Trotter has opened her boarding, house and is ready to accommodate boarders.” Weekly advertisements were included in each edition stating that the Diamond House was “first class in every respect” and the “best table set on the coast.”
Hannah Trotter died in 1911 at the age of 76. Prior to her death the property upon which her boarding house was sold to Augusta Dickson Garden in about 1896 and the two-story home was featured in a grainy photo in the Oceanside Blade newspaper.
In 1913 Belle McWilliams bought what was then called the “South Oceanside Hotel” from Mrs. Garden. It was noted that Hannah Trotter had operated the hotel “in early days.” Belle McWilliams was said to have plans to make “considerable improvements to the property” which included an “amusement pavilion” and “facilities provided for catering to automobile parties.” It is likely that the building had been moved to front South Hill Street, or what was known as the Coast Route or Highway 101, as the hotel was referenced as “being on the auto route.”
Emma “Belle” Mitchell McWilliams was a native of Arkansas, born in 1863. She married Hugh Harris McWilliams in 1900 in Texas. Hugh McWilliams had a daughter, Murrie, from a previous marriage. The trio arrived in Oceanside from Texas in 1913.
On July 5th of that year, an opening celebration and dance was held at the former boarding house and hotel, renamed the “Ye Wayside Inn.” Admission to the dance was 75 cents but spectators were welcomed “free of charge.” It was announced that “parents can be sure that their daughters will be carefully chaperoned and no rowdyism permitted.” Perhaps there was concern by locals because Belle McWilliams had petitioned the county supervisors for a liquor license.
Belle operated her Wayside Inn with little incident but in 1915 a bizarre and tragic event unfolded there.
George Melvin Slobohm, superintendent of the state highway, overseeing road work on the Highway 101, had been staying at the Wayside Inn. Belle McWilliams would later state that the Slobohm “had been acting oddly for several days.”
On Sunday, August 8th, Slobohm, approached McWilliam’s 24-year-old daughter Murrie and asked to speak with her privately. While in the house, he proceeded to confess his love for her, but told Murrie that because he was already married he had decided to kill her and then himself, as a future together was not possible.
In spite of this terrifying news, Murrie McWilliams kept her wits about her, and convinced Slobohm that they should leave the house and walk down to the beach. As they walked out of the Inn, Slobohm was armed with a shotgun.
Murrie spotted her father and instinctively ran to him for help. The crazed man shot at her as she ran, but missed. Miraculously, just at that time Belle arrived at the property in a buggy, and witnessed the fearful scene. Father and daughter climbed into the buggy as Belle drove hard and fast to the home of Warren E. Spaulding, a dairy farmer, just to the east near Cassidy and Stewart Streets, to call for help on the telephone.
Warren E. Spaulding at his dairy ranch in South Oceanside
George Slobohm remained on the property and did not give chase. When local Constable DeBord, along with M. J. Maxey, George and Robert Borden responded to the emergency, they found Slobohm dead on the porch with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
But before he turned the gun on himself, Slobohm had set fire to the McWilliams’ house in several places, pouring gasoline on the floor in four of the rooms and setting it ablaze. The officers managed to put out the fire and “save the house without much damage except in the laundry room which was pretty badly scorched.”
San Diego County Coroner Marsh came up that evening and a jury was summoned consisting of George A. Lane, Ben Higgins, John Osuna, D. A. Ellis, A. B. Curtis, and Josephine Jascen. They listened to the testimony of Murrie, Belle and Hugh McWilliams, viewed the scene and a verdict of suicide “was rendered accordingly.”
The Oceanside Blade stated that “Slobohm, who was about fifty years old, was a quiet man who bore a good reputation and was well liked by those who have had occasion to do business with him since he has been connected with the highway work here. He leaves a son, Henry, who has been living here, and two daughters and a widow in Los Angeles.” The next day George Slobohm’s wife and son came down from Los Angeles Monday and made arrangements for the removal of the body.
By the 1920s, Hugh and Belle McWilliams sold their Wayside Inn and moved closer to downtown Oceanside. Hugh McWilliams died in 1928 and Belle one year later.
1932 aerial of South Oceanside and Hill Street/Coast Highway (UCSB Library)
What became of the Wayside Inn, formerly the Diamond House and South Oceanside Hotel, is unknown. South Oceanside was annexed years prior and became part of the City of Oceanside. But it would stay a largely rural area for several years. Even as late as 1930 there were less than 10 homes or buildings fronting the coast highway. It wasn’t until the post war years when tracts of homes replaced the dairy cows, fields of crops and eventually the acres of flowers planted by the Frazee family.
The story of Sally McNeil and the murder of her husband Ray McNeil (sometimes spelled McNeill) has generated a lot of buzz. “Killer Sally” was in the top 10 of Netflix shows, both globally and in the US.
While watching and then re-watching the three part series, something didn’t sit well with me. There’s always more to the story and I always want to know more. I want to share a different perspective about the murder of Ray.
Ray and Sally McNeil (Netflix)
Sally repeatedly claimed in the series that her body building husband was an abuser and that she was a battered wife – and was left with no choice but to shoot her husband in self defense.
However, Sally’s testimony to the Parole Board in 2019 and 2020 refutes her own statements in the Netflix series. It offers a completely different version of events that led up to the shooting of her unarmed husband.
I’ve also obtained court documents from the trial, which included written statements and police reports that documented Sally’s long list of violence against teenagers, her husbands, neighbors, women and police officers.
Ira Kelly (USMC, Ret.) Sally’s Staff Sgt. in 1986-87
Both Ray and Sally were in the Marine Corps stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. When Sally started bodybuilding she said her Staff Sergeant Ira Kelly, told her “You know, the bodybuilding contest isn’t just a bikini contest.” She ended up placing 4th in the Armed Forces Bodybuilding Championship in 1987.
Ray and Sally lived in a home on South Freeman Street, in Oceanside, California, after they were married. They would eventually move to an apartment at 1802 South Tremont Street in South Oceanside. The couple both belonged to Gold’s Gym, which was located on South Hill Street (Coast Highway) and both pursued bodybuilding. Sally also wrestled various “clients” across the country, many of which were filmed.
1802 South Tremont Street, Oceanside, California. Google view 2009
Sally presented herself as an abused and battered wife. And I believe she was. But Sally also abused and battered. The list of violence perpetrated by Sally includes:
Hitting her first husband, John Anthony Lowden, in the head with a lead pipe, requiring 8 stitches.
Assaulting numerous officers in two different police departments.
The assault of two teenage female babysitters and two unrelated adults.
Dropping weights on Ray’s car, while he was in it.
Arrested for willful cruelty to a child in 1990.
Despite her history of violence, she has garnered the sympathy of many and headlines echo Sally’s claims of self defense. The Guardian is one example with a headline that reads: “This is still happening today: the story of an abused wife accused of murder.” The byline opens by saying “A sensitive new docuseries considers the case of Sally McNeil, a woman who killed her violent husband in self-defense.”
In the Netflix series Sally recounts the terrifying moments leading up to the shooting of Ray while her two children were home.
Ray Fitzgerald McNeill, Dunn High School, Dunn, North Carolina, 1983
“First, he hit me. ‘Cause I told him, I said, “Well, you look like sh–.” “You’re not gonna place at all.” “You’re not striated in the contest.”
“So then he hit me. And then he started choking me. I got scared, and I thought, “He’s gonna kill me, and I’m not gonna make it through this night.” I scrambled away. I ran to the bedroom and retrieved the weapon. I grabbed two, um… two rоսnds, and, um, walked out to the living room, and loaded the weapon as I was walking out to the living room. I didn’t know what he was capable of doing. He had five different steroids in him. He was superhuman. He was super strong and he was super fast in a small apartment.
“So I tell him to get out, and he says, “No,” so I shot him.. He’s on the ground, so I go out and I grab the blanket, and I came in and brought it and covered him, to prevent shock.”
Transcript of 911 Call
Sally called 911 and said: “I just shot my husband because he just bеɑt me up.” She would repeat this at least two more times to the operator.
Operator: You shot your husband?
Sally: Yes. I’m at 1802 South Tremont Street.
Operator: Who’s crying?
Sally: My daughter.
Operator: Okay, is he dead?
Sally: He’s shot.
Operator: Okay. What’s your name?
Sally: My name is Sally McNeil. Don’t touch the door, Shantina!
Operator: How old is he?
Sally: He might bеɑt me up!
Sally: Ma’am! I just got bеɑt up.
Sally’s daughter describes how she heard her mother choking before Ray was shot. Sally told police the scratches on her neck were from Ray choking her.
Parole Hearing
But at her parole hearing she revealed the real origin of those marks:
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: I was looking back over my notes and I wanted to ask you, this is kind of jumping back a bit, but back at the life crime, you did have some marks on your neck? And I wanted to ask you where those marks came from? Did you hear my question?
INMATE MCNEIL: No. Ma’am. Can you repeat it.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: At the time of the life crime the record it’s showed something about you having marks on your neck. So, where did those marks come from?
INMATE MCNEIL: I was wrestling the day before. I had a client and it probably came from there. There were scratches on the back of my neck too. They noticed them, I let them believe what they wanted to believe.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: So, you said the marks were on your neck from wrestling the day before?
INMATE MCNEIL: Yes, ma’am.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: And you said you let them believe what they want to believe. Who is them? And they?
INMATE MCNEIL: The police noticed, they noted that I had marks on my neck.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: Okay. Did you say anything to the police about where you got those marks?
INMATE MCNEIL: I said he was choking me and that’s probably how it happened. And I probably scratched myself when I tried to stop him from choking me. That’s what I told them.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: So, you told the police, the victim was choking you and that you had scratched your neck?
INMATE MCNEIL: Yes, ma’am.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: Was that true?
INMATE MCNEIL: No.
In another portion of the hearing Sally McNeil concedes that she shot her husband in anger, not self defense.
INMATE MCNEIL: I admit what the DA said, I don’t have any arguments with him. I accept responsibility.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: Today, do you say that the victim abused you at all?
INMATE MCNEIL: No. The victim did not — the victim did not abuse me that day.
PRESIDING COMMISSIONER THORNTON: And was there any element of self-defense that day?
INMATE MCNEIL: No, ma’am.
This testimony to the Parole Board belies the story Sally now tells on the popular Netflix series.
Prior Marriage
Sally Marie Dempsey was born September 30, 1960 in Allentown Pennsylvania. After a brief time in college, she joined the Marine Corps in 1981. She was stationed at Quantico, Virginia, working as a food specialist. She met a fellow Marine, John Anthony Lowden, and they married on September 3, 1982. Their first child, Shantina, was born 8 months later. Another child, John, followed in 1985.
The couple moved to California, presumably a duty transfer to Camp Pendleton. The marriage lasted less than four years. During the marriage Sally gave birth to a third child in 1986, but the baby was not fathered by John Lowden. The home was so tumultuous that the children were in the custody of Juvenile Court when the infant was just 4 months old. The baby was given up for adoption and never mentioned in the Netflix series, although the adoptive mother was featured as a supporter of Sally’s.
Sally filed for divorce in January of 1987 and married Ray Fitzgerald McNeil that same year.
John Lowden stayed in the area and fought for custody of the children. It was a contentious situation between John and Sally, as well as Ray and Sally.
Child Neglect
In statement given to police, neighbors who lived in the same apartment building recalled their experience. “We started hearing physical fighting between Ray and Sally during late December 18, 1989. The second or third time that we knew of something such as the fighting going on, my wife was so afraid that we had to leave the house. Our other neighbor, former apartment assistant manager, had already called the police.
“My main concern during this period was the welfare of the kids. They were never dressed properly for the weather and always appeared dirty, primarily because of dirty clothing. Shortly thereafter, my wife started driving Shantina to the bus stop. She was never dressed for the weather, and could easily catch colds or worse.
“During the afternoons, Shantina would usually be alone and unsupervised. Her brother would be supervised by a babysitter. Shantina complained and cried a lot about her mother not being home. Sally and Ray worked out daily bodybuilding and kept late hours.
“On one instance, we had a power outage and Shantina asked if she could come into my house, because it was dark, and she was all by herself. She said she and her brother were left alone quite often.
“The police came to their apartment on more than one occasion primarily for the purpose of spouse abuse. Sally gives the impression of hostility and I believe that’s because of the environment that she has created for her family.
“During late June, Ray had not been at home for a while, maybe a week or two. Ray came home early one afternoon for the purpose of moving out. I did not witness the upcoming events but a police report was filed. Sally attacked Ray as he tried to move out. She ran out of the apartment and jumped on a guy’s truck that Ray was in. The guy was helping him move. Sally ran back up to the second floor apartment and threw an entire weight set over the balcony. She displayed no regard to safety of any individuals below her. Thank God no one was hurt. It was early afternoon and the only car that was hit by the flying weights was her husband’s.
“Sally was handed an eviction notice that day. The police and the social services department came by a couple of times after that last incident. The kids were placed in a home while Sally moved out on her own.“
A Call for Help
The Oceanside Police Department filed a Juvenile Contact Report on dated July 30, 1990 which is similar to the neighbor’s statement. In the report the office notes that a “child calling on 911, left home by Mother.” OPD arrived at the apartment of Sally McNeil at 3871 San Ramon in Oceanside.
Officer D. Cox wrote his “observations and actions” in the following narrative:
“Officer Young and I went to the door where we contacted Shantina Lowden, 7, and John Lowdon, 5. Their mother, Sally McNeil had just returned home. I noticed the apartment was dirty, unkempt with clothing and trash thrown all over in every room. There was no fresh food in the kitchen. I noticed that cookies and ice cream were out on the table and appeared to be the only food available.
“I explained to McNeil that we were there to investigate why her kids were left alone. She immediately became a defensive, grabbing both kids and attempting to take them down the hallway. I tried to explain to her that we were mandated by law to investigate any allegations of child abuse, or neglect. She begins screaming that we needed a search warrant. I asked her several times to calm down, that I wanted to talk with the kids alone. She screamed that I was not going to talk to them, then told the kids not to talk with me.
“I asked Shantina if she had been left alone tonight. She nodded her head yes, while looking at her mother. McNeil screamed at Shantina, “What are you saying again?”
“I explained to McNeil that we needed to talk to the kids. She refused by grabbing the kids and walking toward the bathroom. I told McNeil that if she didn’t allow me to talk with the kids, I would arrest her. She still continued toward the bathroom with the kids.
“I told McNeil that she was under arrest as she was delaying me in the performance of my duties. I attempted to handcuff her right arm. She began to violently resist or attempts to handcuff her. McNeil is a bodybuilder and is very strong. She violently turned towards me as officer Young attempted a carotid restraint hold on her neck. He could not apply the hold, and she violently bent over, attempting to throw Young over her shoulder. I could not overcome McNeil’s strength with wrist holds/twists. I applied chemical mace to McNeil‘s face which caused her to lose her balance. All three of us went to the floor. I was able to cuff one wrist as the mace took affect.
“McNeil was able to turn over with both Young and I on top of her. I applied mace again to McNeil’s face. She quit fighting and I was able to handcuff both wrists. McNeil was taken to OPD for booking. She was cited released to PMO.”
OPD included the Victim Statement: Shantina Lowdon told me that her mother frequently leaves her and her brother home alone. Tonight her mother left them both alone for about an hour. She said she phoned 911 because she was afraid to be alone. She also said she and her brother were placed in a foster home about a year ago when they lived on Camp Pendleton.
Sally McNeil’s statement: McNeil denied leaving her kids alone tonight. She said she was just out in the parking lot changing the tire on her truck. She denies leaving the kids alone frequently.
The report concluded: Shantina and John were taken into protective, custody and placed into Hillcrest Home.
Injuries: Officer Young sustained injury to his left wrist during the altercation. (Not treated.)
Apartments on San Ramon Drive where Sally and children were living in July 1990
OPD Responds Again
Just weeks later, at a new address, Oceanside Police were called by Sally’s ex-husband John A. Lowden to 1802 South Tremont Street. On August 12, 1990 the responding officer wrote his observations in a report:
“Upon arrival I met the victim, John Lowden and took his statements. The rear window and two side windows of his Honda Accord were smashed in. It appeared as if a heavy object was used to smash them as the window frame above the right rear window was dented in.
“I also met the suspect, Sally McNeil, and took her statements. Lowden and McNeil are divorced, but have two children who reside with McNeil at 1802 S. Tremont Street, apartment No. 5.
“After obtaining statements, Lowden signed a citizen arrest form against McNeil. I advised McNeil she was under arrest, but did not take her into custody. I issued her a citation number for 316914PC594 and PC242. Officer Schultz responded and took photos of the damage to Lowden’s car.“
Victim statement: Lowden essentially stated the following: At about 13:45 hrs. he arrived at McNeil‘s to visit his children. He and McNeil started arguing about the children’s welfare. Lowden went down to his car to leave. McNeil followed him. As he got in his car, McNeil hit him in the face with her closed fist. She then grabbed his necklace and ripped it from his neck. Lowden hit her back in defense and pushed her back. McNeil went to her truck and retrieved a long metal bar. She started smashing in Lowden‘s car windows. Lowden told her that he would call the police. McNeil retrieved a small handgun from her truck. Lowden saw the gun and ran away to call the police. Lowden stated that McNeil has a history of being violent and he desires prosecution for battery and vandalism.
Both parties were issued mutual restraining orders but Sally was required to be drug tested with results being sent to Family Court Services.
Roommate Witnesses Sally’s Jealous Rage
Court documents in Sally’s murder trial included the testimony of Lloyd Jenkins, who met Ray McNeil in 1986 while in the Marine Corps and met Sally one year later. The narrative from the Statement of Facts is as follows:
“Mr. Jenkins had lived with the couple at various times during their relationship. Mr. Jenkins has personally witnessed over 25 episodes of violence committed by the defendant against the victim. The witness has seen the defendant punch the victim numerous times, destroy property, and throw tantrums like a spoiled child. He describes the defendant as hostile jealous, and her moods cyclical.
“In 1988 while the couple lived on base at Camp Pendleton, the defendant, in a jealous rage, threw a video camera, VCR and CD player out a second story window at the victim as he attempted to leave their apartment.
“In 1990, Mr. Jenkins and the victim were leaving the couple’s apartment to go to a bar. As the victim told the defendant, the defendant started yelling and screaming at the victim. The defendant grabbed the victim around the legs and yelled at him to stay. The defendant yelled at Mr. Jenkins to make the victim stay.
“The defendant then went into the kitchen and swept all the dishes from the counter onto the floor. The victim went to see what it happened, and the defendant slapped him in the face. The victim slapped her back. Both the victim and Mr. Jenkins ran out of the apartment and got into the witness’s car. The defendant ran to Mr. Jenkins’ car and dove through the open driver side window into the car. The defendant was screaming, ‘Please don’t leave, make him stop.’ The victim exited the car and ran up the stairs. The defendant followed. The victim ran back to the car, where he was able to leave with the witness.
“The next morning, the defendant accused the victim of ‘screwing’ some girls. The defendant became violent and aggressive. The victim [Ray] and Mr. Jenkins went downstairs where the victim got into his car and attempted to leave. The defendant threw a 70 pound barbell from the second floor onto the victim’s car, nearly striking the victim. The victim was in the driver seat. The defendant then threw two 20 pound dumbbells onto the victim’s car. The Oceanside Police Department responded. Mr. Jenkins heard the defendant tell the police that the victim had hit her.
“Between 1990 and 1993, Mr. Jenkins saw the defendant hit the victim under the eye with a picture frame, lacerating the skin. Mr. Jenkins states the victim punched the defendant in the nose causing injury.
“Mr. Jenkins states during one incident in 1992, the defendant, angry because the victim was leaving to go to the gym, threw a TV set out of a window. The witness asked the defendant why she was doing that. The defendant replied the victim, had ‘screwed’ some girl. Mr. Jenkins asked how she knew, to which the defendant stated she just knows.
“In late December 1994 or early 1995, the defendant stopped at Mr. Jenkin’s house in Orange County to call home. After the call, the defendant [Sally] slammed down the phone. The defendant yelled at Mr. Jenkins, ‘I’m gonna make sure he doesn’t see her tonight.’ As she left, she knocked down Mr. Jenkin’s chairs.
“In late December 1994, Mr. Jenkins went to the victim’s home to take him to the gym. When [he] arrived at the couple’s apartment, defendant was in a rage. The defendant yelled at the victim and threw a glass at him. Defendant yelled at the victim not to go. The defendant jumped on the victim’s back and scratched his chest.
Wrestling Men
Sally could clearly hold her own with men, demonstrated by taking on police officers (more than once) and her two husbands. As featured in the Netflix series, Sally also wrestled men for money. One of her clients wrote a letter to the judge in support of Sally after her trial. He described Sally as easygoing and sweet and the experience of wrestling women as a sensual experience. While her clients supported her, Sally said the experience of wrestling them “disgusted” her.
September 26, 1996
To Honorable Laura Hamms, Superior Court, San Diego County
Your Honor,
I am a friend and wrestler wrestling client of Sally McNeil and I understand she is appealing her case, I would like to share some thoughts with you about Sally and her work. These dual relationships of friend and client did not begin until last year, while Sally was awaiting trial. I cannot speak about her from personal experience before the death of her husband. But I have known her since that time, and I think her my observations may be important to her case.
I met Sally last year when she came here to wrestle. She was in dire need of money. I remember thinking about, as I drove to the airport to pick her up, all I heard about her domestic life. In all honesty I was not sure what to expect. Because prior commitments prevented me from picking her up upon time, I had told her she would have to wait three hours at the airport. So I figured she would be in a nasty mood. I was not enthusiastic about meeting her.
I was surprised. The smallest woman, with the radiant face, sitting patiently on her luggage at the curb, and not the slightest complaint about the long wait. She appeared to me, in fact, to be one of the shyest, most undemanding innocent people I’ve ever met in bodybuilding, or anywhere else for that matter. And that impression was reinforced during the several days she was stayed with me by a disposition that was agreeable, easy-going, good humored, and downright sweet. Frankly, I was amazed!
Granted, I was providing an atmosphere for her that was stress-free more, vacation than work. And it is probable that given all that had happened, she was feeling chastened. And, I would have also expected that she would have been frightened at the prospect of going to prison. But at no time in her stay, or my conversation with her, did she ever express much concern for herself. She did, however, speak at length about her children. She seems to love them very deeply, and she worries about the effects of her absence on them. Most of the volume of very touching poetry that Sally has written is for her children. Whatever else you may find her, she is certainly a doting mother.
Then there is a matter of Sally’s wrestling. I hear a great deal about the activity being used to support the idea that she is a violent person outside her home life as well. One of the bodybuilding magazines did a short story recently on Sally and showed brochure marketing her with names like ‘Killer.’ Anyone who has watched professional wrestling on TV shows know that names like ‘Killer,’ ‘Strangler,’ ‘Destroyer,’ etc. are part of the trade. I understand some of the people who wrestle under those names are some of the most gentle people around. The names do not necessarily have anything to do with their nature.
But, perhaps it is the idea of a woman wrestling men for money that is least understood. As one of those men, I have some insights into what it is all about. And, I think the insights are important and understanding what Sally is, and is not about.
First, let me tell you why most of us wrestle women. Am I qualified to do so? I have had perhaps two dozen women stay with me through the years to wrestle me and other men in the area. I’ve come to count a few of these women among my close friends. I am also in regular contact with many of the video makers, who work professionally with the women. One of these videographers, a very bright articulate, and insightful man has been involved in the activity, since it began, and may have had more to do with its inception than anyone else. I have had extensive conversations with most of these people, including the clients about their own involvement. Their observations concerned my own.
In a word, we wrestle these women because most of them are very attractive. That is, we find their combination of physical beauty, athleticism and strength extremely compelling. There are many who would not agree with us. There are many more who I think would agree if they dared buck prevailing public sentiment. In truth, our tastes are no less, and no more valid than anyone else’s. Be that as it may, we truly appreciate these women, and know that, because most of us are not great looking athletes, the only contact we may ever have with them is through wrestling. It is a way to experience them.
‘So,’ you might well ask. ‘isn’t that a sex substitute?’ Absolutely. And a safe, legal, and healthy one at that. And we could probably think of several others in our society that are perfectly acceptable in most quarters. Do these women, then offer sex with wrestling used as a cover? Except in rare cases, no! There are always exceptions. But the women I have work with, and most of the others that I know of established very clear boundaries with their clients in terms of the physical contact that is to take place. And that physical contact is wrestling. Is there fantasy involved? Yes. Can it be sensual? Yes. Is there full body contact? Sure. And the prevailing atmosphere at many of these matches is of pure fun, laughter and mutual appreciation.
Yes, I said ‘mutual.’ These women have put on a staggering amount of time and discipline into their sport, in large part because they like the attention and admiration it can bring them. Wrestling achieves that in a very personal and satisfying way. It does so because, again, for most men the goal is not to win or lose necessarily but to experience and appreciate a person and a physique that are truly extraordinary. When the match is over, the woman often leaves with her need to be recognized, and appreciated met as well. And, this all happens in a way that is entirely within the law.
I know that this is very hard to accept for most of the American public. I would say an answer to that in a society where there are precious few acceptable ways to touch one another physically or emotionally (and given the establish view of the psychological community that touching is an important human need), this form of wrestling and is an innocent, playful and very healthy way to meet the legitimate needs of both men and women who enjoy it. There are enormous pressures acting on most of us. I wish more people would find their own way to releasing them. And, I hope these those ways are as healthy, satisfying and downright fun as the one we have found.
So, am I making Sally into a virtuous practitioner of some noble art? Heck no. She wrestled, I think, because it was fun, satisfying, and earned her badly needed money. And that is the point. Those who say she wrestled because she is vicious and violent tell me they know little of the sport, it’s practices it’s intent or its outcomes. Truth is, anyone who is violent is going to be very frustrated with the sport; it’s much too much fun. And, they will be weeded out very quickly; we all talk to each other. If Sally were taking out whatever violent tendencies she might have on her clients, she would’ve been gone from the scene long ago. Instead, she’s been around for years and has been one of the most respected, and sought after of any of the women.
Your Honor, it all comes down to this. I cannot tell you everything about Sally McNeil; I don’t know it all. If she is violent, maybe that violence died with the man who was beating her. Maybe not. She has certainly told me of her determination to get whatever therapy it takes to help her make better decisions about men. But, I cannot speak to any of this. What I can speak to you from my own experience with her, and that others, who I know, is very simple. She IS capable of controlling herself. She did it every time she wrestled us. If she had not, there would be a lot of a walking wounded out here and she would have been shunned by us years ago.
I look forward to a society that takes appropriate action with those who break its law. There are those that, at this point in our understanding of them anyway, are beyond our power to heal or alter them. They need to be away from those who would hurt. There are others who need and will respond to our benevolence, rather than our punishments. Punishment may leave us satisfied, but will make them worse instead of better. I believe Sally McNeil is one of those people. And I vote for better over worse any day.
Thank you for your attention your honor.
Sincerely,
[Name omitted for privacy]
The Murder of John Lowden, Jr.
Sadly, Sally’s son John Lowden, Jr. was murdered February 28, 2024 in Augusta, GA. He was 38 years old. Lowden was a special forces weapons sergeant in the Army and did six tours in Afghanistan. Robert Ward was arrested in Lowden’s death. He was charged with murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Incredibly Sally has started a GoFundMe to raise money for her son’s burial, although a burial and service with full military honors is supplied by the Army at no charge. While she remarried after she was released from prison, it is odd that she is going by Ray’s last name, the one who she said abused her and that she killed with two shotgun blasts.
She wrote: “Hi my name is Sally McNeil and I am trying to raise money to bury my American War Hero Son John Lowden Jr. with dignity and Honor he deserves just like in the Song The Green Beret. This was unexpected, he was shot down unarmed in the streets of Augusta, GA. He deserves a Viking funeral. I want to send him off with the full Honors he deserves. Semper Fidelis”
In 1942 a 14-year-old girl made national entertainment news when she was discovered by actress Judy Garland during a performance at the Wilshire Ebell Club in Los Angeles.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Dariel Jean was performing in a production called “Cavalcade of Youth” when she caught the eye of Garland, who urged studio executives to sign her. In 8th grade, attending Bret Harte Junior High School in Los Angeles, Dariel’s seven year contract was approved on her 14th birthday by Judge Emmet H. Wilson.
From the Los Angeles Times Wed., November 11,1942
Dariel Jean Johnson was born November 10, 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was the youngest child of Lee and Mabel Johnson. Lee Johnson worked as an accountant and by the late 1930s moved his family to Los Angeles.
Vivian Blaine’s column “Star Dust” noted Dariel Jean Johnson in newspapers around the country. February 19, 1943
She was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, earning $75 a week, and it was reported that she was taking acting and ballet lessons to prepare for “important roles in forth coming pictures.” The “discovery” of Dariel Jean was featured in newspapers across the country in Virginia Vale’s column “Star Dust” regaling her contract with MGM. Then in December of that year it was reported that she would appear in “Girl Crazy” staring Garland and Mickey Rooney. However, she did not appear in the film, or at least is not credited with any role.
Dariel Jean, age 16, poses while performing “Fellow on a Furlough”, 1944. Universal Pictures
In 1944 Dariel Jean did perform in “Fellow on a Furlough” directed by Vernon Keays and produced by Will Cowan of Universal Pictures. The musical short featured Bob Chester and His Orchestra and starred Hal Derwin and Rose Anne Stevens; other performers included the Les Paul Trio and the Nillson Sisters. It was released on March 1st in theaters and included as a bonus reel along with feature films.
Movie ad, with bonus feature, “Fellow on a Furlough”
It is unknown if Dariel was included in any other studio productions but she did attend a “legislative attaches’ dinner” in Sacramento in 1945 along with other performers including Vivian Blaine, Dorothy Lamour and Leo Carillo. The group of fourteen actors, singers and dancers then entertained patients in several hospitals, including military hospitals in the San Francisco area.
Nothing else is known of her contract with studios MGM or Universal, but it is likely they did not resign her. At the age of 18, with her short career as a starlet seemingly behind her, Dariel Jean married Alvin Thomas Budd on September 23, 1947. Budd was a California native, born in 1925, a veteran of World War II, and employed with the telephone company. One year after they were married Dariel gave birth to a baby girl.
In 1950 the family of three had settled down to a domesticated life in Orange County and although Hollywood was less than 60 miles away, they were worlds apart. On the surface, all must have seemed well for Dariel Jean, who had lived a semi-charmed life, transitioning from a brief time in the limelight into the routine of family life. But there was something amiss; something troubling.
Dariel Jean Budd with daughter. This photo may have been taken on the back lot of one of the movie studios. USC DIGITAL LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES EXAMINER NEGATIVES COLLECTION, 1950-1961
Alvin Budd left for a job in Hawaii as a radio operator, but Dariel and her young daughter stayed behind, living in Newport Beach with a roommate identified only as Mrs. Robert Shand. Mother and child were to eventually meet Alvin in Hawaii, but on Monday, August 13, 1951 Dariel Jean drove south on Highway 101 through the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and pulled off near Aliso Canyon, on a beach area five miles north of Oceanside. She was presumably there to meet a “friend.”
Whether she met that friend or not is unknown, but on August 16, 1951 a group of Camp Pendleton Marines would discover a grisly scene. Dariel Jean’s life had come to a sudden end.
The Oceanside Blade Tribune published the tragic story on August 17, 1951 with the headline “Discover Body Young Lady Aliso Canyon” with the sad details that Marines on maneuvers had “discovered the body of a 23-year-old woman in a car parked in Aliso Canyon, seven miles north of Oceanside on the Camp Pendleton reservation. The woman identified as Dariel Jean Budd, of Newport Beach, had apparently been dead for several days. She was found slumped across the front seat of the car, a .32 caliber pistol clutched in her right hand. Upon examination it was found that a bullet had entered the right side of her head just above the ear and emerged a little higher above the left ear, lodging in the car top. The slug will be extracted from the automobile for examination. The young woman was clad in slacks and a blouse. She gripped the steering wheel of the car with her left hand.”
The FBI was called to investigate, likely because the death occurred on federal property. Investigators found the car doors locked and made entry by forcing a window open. An automatic pistol of “foreign make” was found lying on the seat. A small wicker purse was on the floor containing a makeup kit, along with a green wallet which revealed an identification card from the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, and a driver’s license, identifying the lifeless body as Dariel Jean Budd. Authorities contacted her husband Alvin Budd, who made arrangements to quickly return to California.
The body of his wife was taken to Davis Mortuary in Oceanside and an autopsy performed. San Diego County Coroner A. E. Gallagher said “evidence indicated a suicide.” He reported that “the barrel of the gun had been placed close against the right side of the head, as there were powder burns at the entrance of the bullet wound.” He added there were “no other marks on or about the body to indicate that there had been any violence in connection with the death.”
Despite the finding of suicide, her roommate was interviewed and said that Dariel Jean did not know how to load or fire a gun and that she had planned to leave on August 30th to join her husband in Hawaii. One additional detail she provided was that Dariel had left Monday afternoon to meet a Camp Pendleton Marine by the name of Ernie. The two had met at a dance just four days prior on August 10th, but Mrs. Shand described the relationship as “casual.”
What led Dariel Jean to end her life? Was it an overwhelming disappointment of a failed movie contract? Did an unhappy marriage lead to a brief affair? From whom and when did she acquire a gun?
As Dariel Jean viewed the waves of the Pacific Ocean crashing on the shoreline from her car window, was she waiting for a friend or a lover? It is unknown if investigators tried to determine the identity of Ernie. Did Dariel Jean ever meet up with him that day? If he existed, he never stepped forward.
In the scrapbooks of Captain Harold Davis of the Oceanside Police Department was a torn photograph of Dariel Jean. In the photo she is gripping the steering wheel with her left hand and a gun is resting in the crook of her right hand. It seems an odd position of each. But with the coroner’s ruling as suicide, the death of Dariel Jean no longer warranted further investigation.
Photo from the Captain Harold Davis Collection. Note Dariel’s hand gripping the steering wheel.
It was a sad ending for a young woman who appeared to have fame and stardom within reach, but it had slipped through her fingers. She was discovered by one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Garland herself would die a lonely death years later despite the fame she had gained. She is quoted as saying, “If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?”
Dariel Jean died alone in her car, either by her own hand or that of someone else. It wasn’t the “Hollywood ending” anyone expected.
On a quiet summer night off a dirt road in northeast Oceanside, California laid the body of Marine Staff Sergeant Carlo G. Troiani. He had been shot twice, once in the back and once in the neck. As he lay dead or dying, tire marks on his lower legs suggest he had been run over by a vehicle.
Troiani, who served his country in Vietnam, was killed, not by a foreign enemy but by one he would have considered a brother, a fellow Marine. The Marine Corps motto is Semper Fidelis or Semper Fi for short, Latin for “always faithful”. But unfaithfulness would result in Carlo Troiani’s death. His murder was orchestrated by his wife of five years.
On August 10, 1984, Laura Troiani had lured her husband to a remote area under the pretense of car trouble. When her husband dutifully came to her aid in the middle of the night, she waited for her plan to unfold. As Carlo pulled off North River Road to help his wife, Laura tapped her brake lights. This was a prompt that signaled two Marines who were in hiding to step out and to ambush Carlo. One of the Marines, later identified as Mark J. Schulz, shot the defenseless man in the back.
After being shot Carlo cried out to his wife, “Laura, I’ve been hit!” Laura watched impassively from her car as the scene played out. There was no attempt to save her husband, no attempt to help or abort the mission. She watched the Marines grab Carlo as he instinctively tried to find cover and crawl under the vehicle. They pulled him by his legs and shot Carlo again, this time in the neck with the bullet exiting his face as he collapsed. Laura watched it all. Her husband, the father of her children, was dead.
Turn off North River Road where Carlo Troiani was murdered
Laura and the two Marines, Russell Harrison and Mark Schulz then drove to a 7-11 convenience store on Vandegrift Boulevard where three other Marines, Russell Sanders, Kevin Watkins and Jeffrey Mizner, were waiting with Laura’s two small children. This woman who had coldly masterminded the murder of her own husband and watched him die, had left her two young children, ages 5 and 2, in the care of two men who had helped plan the murder of their father. Two little ones any caring mother would have safely tucked in bed hours ago, were instead left with strangers at midnight standing in front of a convenience store. The children, too young to know what was happening, had no idea they would never see their daddy again.
After her murderous plot was accomplished Laura took her children to a friend’s house to spend the night — instead of taking them home where they belonged. It was just before 1 am in the morning. She told Annabelle Thompson that she was coming home from a Tupperware party and had a flat tire. This story is simply inconceivable — what was she doing at a Tupperware party in the middle of the night with her children? But lies came easy to Laura Troiani. It did not matter to her that the story made no sense. It only mattered to her that she was free to do as she pleased. By dropping her children off, she was free of her children, and free of Carlo forever.
Annabelle watched as Laura hopped on the back of a motorcycle driven by a “Marine-type.” They took the same dark and winding route on North River Road where the murder occurred. On the way to Vista they passed by the lifeless body of Carlo Troiani. Another route could have been taken but the two callously drove past the murder scene, perhaps satisfied with their deed.
After Laura returned to her apartment she picked up the phone and called police, feigning concern for her husband who she claimed did not come home as expected. She would call the police department twice more. Then Laura called her husband’s friend, Marty Gunter, saying that she had a premonition that Carlo was in danger. She called him three additional times in less than an hour.
Meanwhile, the Oceanside Police Department had been alerted by a passerby who had discovered the body of Carlo Troiani. John Brohamer, Jr. was the first Oceanside Police Officer to arrive at the murder scene at 3 am. He found Carlo Troiani face down in the dirt in a pool of blood. The engine of his Ford Mustang was still running with the headlights on, piercing through the darkness. Detective Ed Jacobs was notified and upon arrival he initiated the criminal investigation.
Detective Jacobs said in an interview that it was a “good crime scene” because it was done in a remote area and had therefore been left in pristine condition. As they waited for the sun to rise, nothing had been disturbed. Shoe prints left in the dirt, along with tire tracks were noted. These matched Laura’s 1968 Ford Galaxy which had been found by police. It had a flat tire after being hit by a bullet from the same gun that killed Carlo.
It did not take long for Laura to be visited by Detectives Jacobs and Bob George. They went to her Vista apartment at 8 am. When advised of Carlo’s death, Laura did not seem at all surprised, nor did she exhibit any grief or sadness. She was taken to the police station for questioning and she would never leave their custody.
After a lengthy interrogation and numerous false stories, Laura Troiani would eventually confess and name her co-conspirators.
The Detectives also conducted interviews of the neighbors in the apartment complex where the Troiani’s lived, who confirmed Laura’s plan was to have her husband killed. They reported to police that she had solicited a number of men in recent weeks to accomplish the deadly task and that there were at least two failed prior attempts.
Oceanside Police Sergeant Ron Call drove to Camp Margarita aboard the military base. The Marines were in formation, then identified one by one, and eventually taken into police custody.
Police apprehended and arrested five young Marines, all under the age of 21, for the murder of Staff Sergeant Carlo Troiani. They were with H&S Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, Camp Pendleton: Russell E. Sanders, 20, Kevin W. Watkins, 18, Mark J. Schulz, 19, Jeffrey T. Mizner, 20, and Russell A. Harrison, 19.
These Marines called themselves “The Gremlins,” after the movie Gremlins, which had just been released that summer, two months before the murder, about creatures that “transform into small, destructive, evil monsters.”
Laura
Laura Ann Cox was born in Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1961. By all accounts hers was not a happy childhood. She was a neglected child, raised by a mother who was described as self-involved and slovenly, spending hours watching daytime television and reading romance novels rather than tending to her three children. Without the love and proper care of a mother, the children were left to themselves, and as a result, were poorly dressed, disheveled and dirty. Due to a lack of proper personal hygiene, Laura and her siblings were seen as outcasts at both school and church.
The family moved to Washington State where Laura would grow up. Laura’s parents separated when she was seven years old and divorced about three years later. She remembered it as a turning point in her life. Just two years after the divorce, Laura’s mother Catherine remarried in 1973. The marriage offered little stability in Laura’s life. Her mother was inattentive and labeled as a hypochondriac, caring more for herself than her family.
If her mother was a poor example of a parental figure, Laura’s biological father was no better. Lawrence J. Cox was described as angry and had a drinking problem. He was sent to prison for attempted murder after he shot at a neighbor.
Laura had a brief relationship with an unnamed man and became pregnant at the age of 17. Apparently the biological father was quickly out of the picture and Laura found herself alone. She met and married Carlo Troiani who told her he was willing to raise her unborn baby as his own. In Carlo, Laura found the security she never had.
Laura and Carlo Troiani with son Chris (photo courtesy of Chris Cox)
Carlo
Carlo Grant Troiani was 15 years older than Laura, born in 1947 in Seattle, Washington. His marriage to Laura was his third, and he had two children, one from each of his previous marriages.
Carlo was in the Navy, serving in Viet Nam in the late 1960s. He was released from the Navy and joined the Marine Reserves and later enlisted in the Marine Corps. Carlo was a Marine Recruiter in Tacoma, Washington from 1976 to 1979. His supervisor recalled that he was one of the “proudest individuals in the Marine Corps” he had ever met, he loved being a Marine and worked “aggressively” as a recruiter to meet his quota and prove his worth.
Only published photo of Carlo Troiani
Carlo and Laura were married August 3, 1979 in Pierce, Washington. It was a Marine Corps “full dress” wedding with Marines in their dress blues. After the ceremony, Laura and Carlo walked underneath an arch of swords, where a group of six to eight Marines stand on either side to create an arch as if to “shelter the bride” as she and the groom walk out.
Laura gave birth to a son and shortly thereafter, Carlo Troiani was sent to Orange County, California as a Marine Corps Recruiter. In 1982 Laura gave birth to another child, a daughter.
Eventually Carlo Troiani was stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. Assigned to H&S Battalion, 1st Force Service Support Group (1st FSSG), he was a military police or “MP”. The couple got an apartment in Vista on Foothill Drive.
Foothill Apartment Complex where the Troiani’s lived
Infidelity and Murder Plots
Laura Troiani may have found security in her marriage to Carlo but she did not find happiness. She was continually unfaithful. It was even reported that she had slept with her husband’s best man (before or after) their wedding. Carlo knew of her infidelities and was angry. However, he sought to salvage his marriage and the two attended marriage counseling in the spring and summer of 1984.
James Bondell, family and marriage counselor, would later describe Laura Troiani as a manipulator and a “hard person” who “tormented” her husband. The Troiani’s attended 20 sessions from April through July, wherein Bondell also noted that “Laura Troiani teased her husband by withholding sex from him, was the dominant force in their relationship and was otherwise ‘ambivalent’ about marital problems the couple was experiencing.” He also noted that Laura complained that Carlo wanted her to “stay home and be with him.” This statement would suggest that Carlo was aware, at least to some extent, of Laura’s extracurricular activities.
Despite Carlo’s attempts to save his marriage, Laura’s presence at the sessions seemed disingenuous at best.
Carlo was sent to Korea and while gone, Laura threw a party over Memorial Day weekend. There she met Darryl Nelson and was intimate with him that very day. During the two month affair, she asked Nelson if he knew anyone that could “do a hit” on her husband. When he asked Laura about simply getting a divorce instead, she replied in the negative, complaining that she would then have to get a job and take care of her children, which was apparently out of the question.
Jessie Montgomery, a Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps, attended a party thrown by Laura and noticed that Laura Troiani and a man emerged from her bedroom. Montgomery was then informed that Laura only married Carlo for security and that “the marriage was one of convenience.” Laura spoke to Montgomery about getting rid of Carlo and even stated that she knew someone who would “put a contract out on him.”
Over this same weekend Laura talked to Kevin Manwarren and Bill Fenley, unambiguously telling them she wanted her husband dead. Manwarren, who would later claim to be joking, offered to kill Carlo Troiani for $5,000, to which Laura quickly offered: “Well, I can take care of it out of the insurance proceeds.” (Carlo had two policies that totaled $95,000.)
Laura then followed up their conversation with several phone calls to Manwarren, anxious to devise a plan to have her husband killed. He demurred.
Annabelle Thompson recalled that Laura had also told her that she knew a person in Tustin, California who would “take care” of Carlo and that he was “worth more dead.”
It appears that many of the men Laura encountered thought that she was joking and did not take her seriously, but she continued searching and sleeping with potential would-be assassins. None seemed willing to commit murder for her.
In July of 1984, Kim Hartmann moved into the apartment complex in which the Troiani’s lived. The two women met and Laura wasted no time by complaining to Hartmann about Carlo and that she wanted him killed. Hartmann said Laura talked about it constantly. Laura also told Hartmann that Carlo, keenly aware of her unhappiness, offered Laura a divorce, a way out, and said that he would pay her rent and child support. But Laura would not be dissuaded. She wanted Carlo’s insurance money and for that he had to die.
On July 19th Hartmann went with Laura to an E-club (Enlisted club) on Camp Pendleton. There Laura met Jeffrey Mizner for the first time and was introduced to the other Marines who eventually would be the accomplices to Carlo’s murder, including the triggerman Mark Schulz. Hartmann would later testify that Laura kept bringing up the subject of having her husband killed, even though she had just met them. Laura was unapologetically, unabashedly, out to have Carlo murdered and she apparently did care about first impressions.
It is significant to point out that in conversations with Kim Hartmann, someone she felt close enough to tell about wanting her husband murdered, Laura Troiani did not allege or assert to her that she was being abused by Carlo. Hate and money were her given motives. In marriage counseling, even when she attended one-on-one sessions without Carlo, she never complained of abuse of any kind, only that Carlo had a “yelling problem.”
Laura, was not one to be weighed down by marriage vows or motherhood. Her own son related his memories about their relationship: “I do remember a lot of her, actually, even at a young age. I remember she had Carlo crying one night in the bedroom. I remember she would just take off with whoever the boyfriend was at the time.”
When asked if he remembered any abuse between his mother and stepfather, Chris replied: “As far as the abuse, no, none, not that I can remember. Honestly, seemed like they were never together, very rarely.” He added, “The abuse was more about neglect, [leaving] a 5 year-old to fend for himself. She was at the clubs doing it up. In no way was she a mother.”
The Marines began to plot with Laura Troiani, as the ringleader, the killing of Carlo Troiani. Mark Schulz told other Marines in his company that he had been “hired to waste someone” and was recruiting anyone else that might be interested in helping with the deed, adding their cut would be $500 to $600. Schulz along with Russell Harrison, Jeff Mizner, and Russell Sanders began to solicit information on how to kill someone, which including poison, making a bomb and using a firearm.
For several days in a row, Laura would take her two children and drive 35 miles each way to the remote base camp to visit with the Marines at Camp Margarita so that they could discuss their “options.”
August 3, 1984 was the occasion of the Troiani’s fifth wedding anniversary. Carlo, oblivious to the fact that his bride was planning to have him killed, toasted his wife that evening.
The First Attempt
On the night of August 6, 1984, Laura and Kim Hartmann went to the E-Club at Camp Margarita aboard the military base. There Laura again plotted with the Marines to kill Carlo (This group included Kevin Watkins). All were excited and eager to carry out the plot.
Harrison and Schulz had weapons, a knife and a gun, which they put into Laura’s car. They then traveled to the Del Mar Club, located near the beach of Camp Pendleton. At the club the conversation of killing Carlo continued. This was no fantasy talk or mere joking. The group planned to carry out the plot that night. Harrison suggested that the Marines “jump” Carlo at his car, attack and kill him with a knife, rather than attract attention with a gunshot.
Laura and Kim Hartmann were dropped off at a market in order to call Carlo and tell him that Laura’s car had broken down. She told Carlo that she was stranded in Carlsbad with their children. But exactly where were the children on a Monday evening, if not with her or Carlo? Like her own mother, it seemed she had no instinctual love and care for her children.
Hartmann claims that she tried to keep Laura from going through with her plans, saying it wasn’t too late and that she could still call Carlo back to keep him from being murdered by the Marines who were lying in wait. Laura’s reply was, “Nope, I got to get it over with.”
The Marines then hid in an area near Carlo’s vehicle, waiting for him to come out of his apartment. However, because his car was nearly out of gas, Carlo had called his friend Corporal Marty Gunter, to come and take him to look for Laura. Ambushing Carlo alone was not feasible and the group was unable to fulfill their deadly plan.
Carlo and Marty diligently searched for Laura and the children for four hours, to no avail. (This was before the convenience of cell phones.) Unsuccessful in their search, Marty dropped Carlo back at his apartment building.
When Laura discovered the plan to kill her husband did not go through, she was furious. She told the Marines that she “couldn’t stand it” and that it had to be done that night. Russell Harrison then volunteered to go up to the Troiani apartment and slit Carlo’s throat. Laura gave him the key.
However sinister and bloody this particular scenario would have been, it is believed it was abandoned altogether as the group was spotted, likely by an apartment resident.
The Second Attempt
While the group did not want to be seen that night by outsiders, it was an open secret that Laura and the Marines were seeking to murder Carlo as they spoke about it openly to several people.
The following day, Jeffrey Mizner told Robert Guerrero, a fellow Marine, about his “girlfriend Laura”, and that she was trying to get someone to kill her husband. Mizner asked his roommate “how to blow up a car by running a wire from the sparkplug to the carburetor.”
Apparently, this was now the chosen method of murder. Russell Sanders shared a story with yet another Marine how they had “practiced” by attaching a wire to the sparkplug of Kevin Watkin’s motorcycle and hooked the other to a mouse to electrocute it. They watched it die.
Satisfied that a similar technique would also kill Carlo, his vehicle was rigged with the wire from the sparkplug placed into the gas tank of his truck. The attempt failed and did not detonate. In fact, Carlo found the device and removed it. Marines in his unit remembered him laughing about it, thinking it was a harmless prank by one of them.
Jeff Mizner then complained to Marine Joseph Hickman that the sparkplug scheme did not work. Mizner even said that he had lost sleep over the failure and the plan was now just to shoot Carlo Troiani.
Mission Accomplished
After at least two thwarted murder attempts, on August 9, 1984, Laura Troiani would not be denied. Mark Schulz borrowed a .357 pistol from David Schenne on the pretense of doing some target practice. That same day Laura went to the local Kmart (at the time located next to the Oceanside Police Station) to purchase bullets for the weapon and the group laid out their final lethal plan.
That evening between 8 and 9 pm, Laura went to the apartment of Diane and Randy Gray with her two children. Soon after Mizner, Harrison, Sanders, Schulz and Watkins arrived. The group huddled together, whispering their plots and because the Gray’s were concerned about the secretive behavior, asked what was going on. Sanders replied, “Never mind, we don’t want you to get involved further.”
The group left the apartment with Jeffrey Mizner riding on the back of Watkins’ motorcycle and Laura, Schulz, Harrison and Sanders, along with Laura’s two children, drove away in her car. The group pulled up to a 7-11 on Vandegrift Boulevard (which leads to the rear gate of Camp Pendleton).
Sanders and Watkins called Carlo Troiani, presumably as “good Samaritans”, to tell him that his wife’s car was broken down and they directed Carlo to a remote location on North River Road.
Meanwhile, Carlo had called Stephanie Howard, a friend of Laura’s, to ask if she knew where Laura and the children were. He was genuinely concerned for his wife, while she was getting ready to have him killed.
Laura, along with Russell Harrison and Mark Schulz, drove to the location they had chosen for their ambush to wait for Carlo, a dirt turnoff on North River Road, three miles east of Vandegrift Boulevard.
A clerk back at the 7-11 would later report seeing two small children with at least one Marine (Jeffrey Mizner) standing outside near the ice machine. They were there for 45 minutes. Waiting … in the middle of the night …. while Laura completed her plan to have her husband killed.
Laura Troiani would later describe herself as helpless to stop the murder of her husband, an event she had longed for, recruited for, and set in motion. As he was shot by Mark Schulz with bullets purchased by Laura, Carlo’s last words were to her, a cry for help. But rather than help him, she left her husband for dead by the side of that dark road.
After the murder, the trio drove west on North River Road back to the 7-11. The clerk reported seeing a vehicle drive up with a flat tire. One of the men came into the store to buy a can of tire inflator and once the tire was sufficiently inflated the group departed.
7-11 on Vandegrift Boulevard where Laura’s children waited while their father was being murdered.
The Arrest
The murder of Carlo Troiani was the last case Detective Ed Jacobs worked on before he retired from the Oceanside Police Department. After investigating the murder scene, he and his partner Bob George went to the Troiani apartment to speak with Laura the morning that Carlo’s body was discovered.
Detective George went through Laura’s car which had been impounded. He found evidence that Laura had purchased bullets at Kmart and interviewed the store clerk, who specifically remembered Laura because he had given her wad-cutter bullets, commonly used for target shooting, and she had insisted on lead caliber bullets.
Laura Troiani was taken to the police station for “routine questioning.” During the interview Jacobs said that Laura remained calm and was not visibly upset when told about her husband’s murder.
One of the first stories Laura Troiani told investigators was that she and her two children were abducted by three men who forced her to call her husband to lure him out to North River Road. She said she was separated from her children, and after Carlo was murdered, was taken to be reunited with them and warned not to tell anyone or that she would be killed.
Detective Jacobs and George listened as Laura then changed her story and said that she was at Kmart when five men on two motorcycles abducted her. When detectives questioned the veracity of that story and asked how five men were on just two motorcycles, Laura simply said, “I don’t know.”
Detective Ed Jacobs, Oceanside Police Department
Yet another story that Laura offered was that she and the children were driving around all day after Carlo said he wanted a divorce. She then ran out of gas and then discovered she had a flat tire. Two strangers on motorcycles came to her rescue, one drove her and the children to the babysitter’s house (Anna Thompson), and then one took her to her Vista apartment. When asked by detectives if she was worried at all by these strangers giving her a ride in the middle of the night, Laura replied, “No”, because she was “a good judge of character.”
Laura’s next defense strategy was her unfaithfulness. “Why would I want to have my husband shot? Sure, we had marital problems. Sure, I was having affairs on the side,” Laura told investigators. “I was having a ball, being married and fooling around.”
Detective Jacobs said that Laura Troiani never mentioned any abuse by her husband in the lengthy interrogation that spanned over nearly 12 hours. She eventually confessed and gave up the names of the Marines, who were all stationed in the same unit.
During a phone call while Laura was being held in jail, she told Marty Gunter that her husband had “suffered not more than two to three minutes” the night he was murdered. She thought her comments would come across as reassuring and compassionate but they only served to further expose her lack of remorse and coldness.
Meanwhile Laura’s co-conspirators were bragging about Carlo’s murder to their fellow Marines on base. After taken into custody at the Vista Detention Center, Mark Schulz told a fellow cellmate about the murder, including that Carlo Troiani had begged for his life before being fatally shot.
The Trial
Three years after Carlo’s murder, the murder trial of Laura Troiani began in the San Diego Superior Court, North County, located in Vista. She was the first woman in San Diego County to face the death penalty in California in 25 years.
Laura Troiani at her trial Bob Ivins San Diego UT photo
Laura not only succeeded in having her husband murdered, her attorneys now went about destroying his character. Her defense team would portray Carlo Troiani as controlling, angry, having a drinking problem and being physically abusive.
But before the defense had its turn, District Attorney Paul Pfingst would send a myriad of witnesses to the stand, including the Troiani’s marriage counselor, who would testify that it was Laura, not Carlo, who controlled the family.
Far from being fearful of an abusive husband, it was Carlo who “was in fear of [Laura’s] moods.” The counselor added, that Carlo “walked on eggshells most of the time, not wanting to upset her [because] she would become very mean to him.” While Laura gave her affections away to numerous men, Carlo was ignored. “He had a wonderful day if he got a kiss or she put her arm around him,” the counselor testified.
When asked if Laura Troiani was a “fragile” woman desperate for her husband’s approval for her self-worth, the counselor replied, “No. She didn’t need it because she was pretty much in control of the relationship.”
Stephanie Howard, who knew Laura since 1981, testified that Carlo Troiani loved his wife and was trying to improve his marriage. She went on to testify that Laura had Carlo “wrapped around her little finger. She’d be a cold fish one minute, and then when she wanted something (from him), she’d warm up.”
Howard also told the jury that Laura openly admitted to her that she “had more than one boyfriend.” More damningly, Laura told her “she wanted to hire someone to kill” Carlo and that “she wanted to make sure he was not in her life again.” In response, Howard said she tried to talk Laura out of it and suggested a divorce, but Laura would hear none of it.
Leeca Smardon, manager of the Foothills apartment complex, testified that Laura expressed to her that was not happy about Carlo returning from Korea. She reported that Laura told her, “I wish he’d never come back. That would make me happier.” Smardon added, “When Carlo was home, I never heard any screaming, shouting or disputes from their apartment. When he went to Korea, there was a lot of traffic into the apartment, and it was mainly males.”
Kmart employee Richard Deem testified to the fact that it was Laura, accompanied by a male, who purchased the bullets that killed Carlo. He remembered the event because there was a “price mix-up” and particularly noted Laura’s demeanor that day. “She was forceful and rude.” He said, “I was behind the counter, and the male asked for ammo, I believe for a .38 special. I was uncertain about what they wanted because there are different types of ammo.” Laura told the young clerk, “I want 158 grain (the weight of the bullets).”
The Kmart store on Mission Avenue where Laura Troiani purchased ammunition to kill her husband was next to the Oceanside Police Department.
“She was very specific about it,” Deem testified. “She knew what she wanted. I felt it wasn’t good to make her wait. I thought she was in a hurry and didn’t want to waste time.” The bullets that Laura demanded were high-powered ammunition, rather than something typically used for target practice.
Despite the testimony of others to the contrary, Laura’s defense attorney, Geraldine Russell described her as an “impressionable, simple young girl who was used by others looking for thrills.” She contended Laura was being abused by Carlo and had no way of escape. The defense portrayed Carlo Troiani as an “overbearing and obnoxious husband who cowed his wife into submission.”
Catherine Lewtas, Laura’s mother, testified for the defense and stated that while she witnessed Carlo being verbally abusive to Laura, she did not witness any physical abuse.
But even when interrogated for hours by police, Laura did not claim Carlo abused her. Instead Laura said she was perfectly happy being married to Carlo, all the while being unfaithful to him. She gave several scenarios as to how she was a kidnapping victim, but none on how she was the victim of domestic abuse.
Sergeant Ron Call was the supervisor on the Troiani case and he said that at no time during questioning did Laura Troaini bring up spousal abuse. He also said that Laura was neither upset nor emotional over the death of her husband.
A psychiatrist hired by the defense said that Laura was not capable of being manipulative and that rather than being a neglectful mother, Laura was so depressed that she had “trouble getting up and getting dressed and caring for her children.” Another expert witness dismissed the idea that Laura was a so-called “black widow” and put all the blame on the men, arguing that “organized violence is virtually a male monopoly.”
Anna Thompson, Laura’s friend who often watched her children, testified that she witnessed Carlo kick Laura when she did not change one of the children’s diapers. But she also said she had seen Laura hit her husband, and said that Laura would refuse to cook or clean and gave Carlo the “silent treatment” when she didn’t get her way. “Laura had control,” Thompson insisted.
The prosecution called over 45 witnesses, most of whom testified that Laura Troiani did not want to be married and that she “openly plotted” in the “company of others” to have her husband killed.
While presenting their defense, and closing arguments, the defense team claimed that Carlo’s murder was not orchestrated by Laura, but the Marines themselves. Laura was depicted as abused, vulnerable and helpless and that Laura’s codefendants alone were responsible for killing Carlo Troiani.
One of the last things presented to the jury by the prosecutor was the recording made by the Oceanside Police Department. The jury listened intently to the recording, as Laura concocted story after story, variations of different scenarios. And then finally, after hours of interrogation, Laura told detectives that she had in fact plotted, planned and agreed to pay at least two of the Marines to kill Carlo. As the courtroom listened to the recording, Laura Troiani sat emotionless at her own word as she described the murder of her husband, “half crawling, half staggering” before he was shot a second time, in the back of the head.
On August 26, 1987 Laura Troiani was found guilty of first degree murder after the jury deliberated over a two day period. Her trial was one of the longest and most expensive court cases in San Diego County history. She would now face the death penalty.
At her sentencing hearing, Laura’s father testified on her behalf. Lawrence Cox said that Laura was raised in a filthy home by a neglectful mother who had “the mentality of a six year old.” In some respects he could have been describing Laura, who reflected many of the same character flaws, especially when it came to motherhood. Cox said that while he was in the military he always worried that his children were not getting fed or clothed properly and that his wife “couldn’t cope with responsibility.”
After he and his wife separated he helped to move them into a new apartment. He said he had to hose out the refrigerator that it stunk so bad. He added that the apartment was filled with both human and animal waste.
Others took the stand to testify to the fact that Laura’s childhood was horrible, as if that were the cause or justification for Carlo’s murder. Laura cried for herself as she listened to their testimony, but she did not shed tears for Carlo.
In the end Laura Troiani was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life without parole. She was sent to the California Institute for Women in Chino, California.
The Marines
On December 17, 1987 Jeffrey Thomas Mizner pled guilty to first-degree murder. In doing so he avoided the possibility of a death sentence or life in prison without parole.
Twenty year old Jeffrey Mizner knew Laura Troiani just three weeks, and yet he was willing to plot to have her husband killed. Laura told him that Carlo was molesting their two children. There was never any evidence to suggest such a thing and likely Laura made the statement solely to gain sympathy and then outrage, hoping to garner Mizner’s support and cause him to act on her behalf. When asked why he or Laura did not simply report the alleged abuse to authorities, Mizner answered, “She wanted him dead, and we went with it.” Laura also told Jeffrey that her two children were not Carlo’s biologically. Was her second child a result of an affair, or was Laura lying? It is anyone’s guess because she did both prolifically.
Jeffrey Mizner would later tell the parole board in his case that he never slept with Laura Troiani, and that his sole motive in the killing of Carlo was to protect the children from his alleged abuse. Shortly before the murder, Mizner found out that Laura had turned her affections to Russell Harrison, and was sleeping with him instead.
Russell Sanders pled guilty to murder in 1988 and was sentenced to 25 years.
Russell Harrison pled guilty to first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in 1988 and was sentenced to 26 years. He was paroled in 2011.
Kevin Watkins, whose trial was moved to Ventura County, was acquitted.
Mark James Schulz (sometimes spelled Schultz) was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. He was in Folsom Prison before being transferred out of state.
A Second Chance
In December of 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown commuted Laura Troiani’s life sentence, saying that she had been rehabilitated. While this commutation did not release her, it gave her the chance for parole.
During a hearing held on June 21, 2019, Laura was asked what exactly she did that landed her in prison. Her response: “Prior to the actual brutal murder of Carlo Troiani, my spouse, I had put into motion several incidences leading up to Carlo being murdered. I was the mastermind. I was the one who utilized by codefendants as a tool and a means to, um, to, um, to murder Carlo.”
While she was willing to admit to being the mastermind of her husband’s murder, Laura seemed to shirk responsibility as her hearing continued. When asked about details and organizing discussions of Carlo murder, she started to backtrack and minimize her role as “mastermind” saying, “I did not organize [them], sir. They were — they — we were at a club or in a parking lot and discussion would — would come about. We’d go from normal discussion and that — and that would come about. Did I bring that up? I did not always bring it up. No sir.”
When asked about purchasing bullets at Kmart, she referred to the shooting of Carlo as “target practice” saying, “Initially it was to — to use the bullets for target practice, but in essence it was to use Carlo as the target. In other words, to murder him.”
In describing the murder, she placed responsibility on the Marines rather than her role: “They, uh, form — a plan was formulated that we would — we ended up leaving the children and three of the codefendants down at a 7-11, the car — three of us went up on a deserted rural road where a phone call from below had been made letting Carlo know that I was in distress and that I would be found in this area.“
Presiding Commissioner Castro: And did you drive up to that area?
Inmate Troiani: I did not drive. No sir. Nor did I drive leaving. I was not the one driving that night.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Did you go voluntarily?
Inmate Troiani: Yes, sir, I did.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: And did you remain in the car?
Inmate Troiani: Yes, sir, I did.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: How long did you remain there until Carlo got there?
Inmate Troiani: I honestly don’t know how long it was while I sat in the —
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Can you give me an estimate?
Inmate Troiani: Um, no more than twenty minutes.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: What happened when Carlo got there?
Inmate Troiani: Carlo left his car running. He walked over to where I was sitting in the passenger’s side, tapped on the window, and asked me if I was okay and then the bullets started flying.
When asked what happened next, Laura describes the shooter as a stranger in hiding, rather than a person she planned the murder with and drove her to the scene: “I witnessed what looked like a very large man running out of a bush toward Carlo firing a gun. Carlo went down and within 20 seconds we were leaving the — you know, we were leaving where Carlo was.” (She couldn’t bring herself to say the crime or murder scene.)
Laura was asked if she did anything else to accomplish the murder and only stated, “I was physically there.”
The parole commissioner continued to press her: “Okay. How did you convince them? You said you hit upon their training, but usually they’re trained to kill other combatants. This is very different than what they’re trained for. How did you convince them to participate in a murder?”
Inmate Troiani: “I was seen as a damsel in distress,” Laura answered, “And I played upon — I played upon that.”
Presiding Commissioner Castro: That’s why you think they got involved?
Inmate Troiani: I’m not sure why they got involved. I only know that they did.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Just helping you out?
Inmate Troiani: Yes, sir.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: So what’s in it for them? Anything?
Inmate Troiani: I didn’t recall this at the time, but I know it happened that they had hopes of receiving insurance money?
Presiding Commissioner Castro: How would they know about insurance money?
Inmate Troiani: Being in the military, you automatically sign up for a policy.
When asked why the Marines would think they were entitled to Carlo’s life insurance proceeds, Laura denied she offered insurance proceeds, but only agreed to pay them when they asked, saying, “Because I was asked to give them some money from the insurance policy.“
Laura then went on to deflect responsibility of Carlo’s murder by saying that she was in a disassociated state.
The Mayo Clinic describe this disorder: Dissociative disorders are mental disorders that involve experiencing a disconnection and lack of continuity between thoughts, memories, surroundings, actions and identity. People with dissociative disorders escape reality in ways that are involuntary and unhealthy and cause problems with functioning in everyday life. Dissociative disorders usually develop as a reaction to trauma and help keep difficult memories at bay. Symptoms — ranging from amnesia to alternate identities — depend in part on the type of dissociative disorder you have. Times of stress can temporarily worsen symptoms, making them more obvious.
Inmate Troiani: I continue to remove myself by going into my head when the consequences were too great. I had distorted thinking and then there was the childhood abuse, which brought about the distorted thinking and the disassociation.
Presiding Commissioner Castro asked, “What do you mean by disassociation?
Inmate Troiani: I would go into my head and come up with a different fantasy type scenario.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: What was the role in your — in your crime specifically?
Inmate Troiani: In the crime itself?
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Yeah.
Inmate Troiani: While I was sitting there waiting in the car for Carlo, that’s exactly what I did. I put myself in a whole different scenario.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Okay, when you’re having the conversations, planning these different plans, were you in a disa — dissociative state at this point?
Inmate Troiani: At times, yes, sir.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: When you called Carlo asking him to come help you, so that he would leave the apartment, when you made that call, where you in a disassociated state?
Inmate Troiani: No until after I made the phone call, sir.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Report says that you gave keys to Mr. Harrison.
Inmate Troiani: Yes, sir. I did.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Were you in a disassociated state when you gave him the keys?
Inmate Troiani: No, sir. I was not.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: You made admissions to the police, correct?
Inmate Troiani: I do not recall exactly what I said because I said so many different stories.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: There were different versions and they said that you had made some admissions about being involved in the murder. Were you in a dissociative state when you talked to the police after the crime?
Inmate Troiani: Yes, I was.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: When you’re buying the bullets are you in a dissociative state?
Inmate Troiani: I was in denial.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: When you’re being driven up to the location where he was killed, were you in a disassociated state?
Inmate Troiani: No, sir. I was not thinking about what was going on. I was actually not thinking at all.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Okay. So you said the abuse, domestic violence, hopelessness, disassociation, distorted thinking, your childhood trauma. Any other reason why you decided to kill Carlo?
Inmate Troiani: I wanted the abuse to stop.
Presiding Commissioner Castro: Okay. Was the insurance money part of your motivation?
Inmate Troiani: Initially, no.
When questioned by Deputy Commissioner Lam, he asked why she didn’t try to stop the Marines from murdering her husband.
Laura answered, “When Carlo tapped on the window, before I could have even said anything, the bullets began to fly. There was not any time to say anything, think or anything else. So had the opportunity been there, I would’ve said something.”
Of course, Laura had time to say something. On the way to Kmart she could have aborted the plan and not purchased the bullets used to kill Carlo. She was the only one old enough to purchase them. On the way to 7-11 to drop off her children, she could have turned around. While on the five minute drive to the scene of the ambush she could have called it off.
For the twenty minutes it took Carlo to arrive, she could have stopped it. Even if the two Marines who were with her were hell-bent on executing their plan, when they exited her vehicle, she could have driven away, leaving them there. Carlo, looking for Laura’s car, would have driven by instead of being ambushed.
Certainly, she might have even been able to warn Carlo before he opened his car door. Lastly, she could have called the police to report the murder of her husband, if in fact she was a pawn in a murder scheme.
But she did none of those things.
Incredulous to her answers, Deputy Commissioner Lam asked, “May I ask why your version of what happened to the clinician only two months ago was so vastly different from the version today?”
Laura answered, “At the time I spoke with the psychologist, I was still in denial. I was not seeing my — how my actions were the — what led — what was — what was feeding this. How — how I was the one who was the mastermind and I was unable to say that and acknowledge to myself. Therefore I wasn’t able to even speak about it at that time. Since then I have been looking within myself and in my denial management class I am able to see that I — I was in complete denial. I rationalized, I minimized and I blamed.“
Then, just moments later, Laura again denied any knowledge about the murder plot saying, “I may have been the one that initiated it. I do not recall.“
The panel was not swayed by her insincerity and empty words. After listening to Laura fail to take responsibility for her role in Carlo Troiani’s death, the Parole Board denied her release.
However, on July 10, 2020, the prison’s Administrative Review Board approved an advancement of Troiani’s next parole suitability hearing date (at her request). Rather than having to wait three years, her next hearing is scheduled for January 22, 2021.
Rehabilitated?
While Laura sits in prison, Jeffrey Mizner was released in 2013 at the age of 50. Russell Sanders and Russell Harrison have presumably been released as well as there is no record of them in the California Department of Corrections. Mark Schulz, who shot Carlo Troiani, is currently serving life in a private prison in Arizona.
Some may question why Laura Troiani would serve life without parole when she did not even pull the trigger. But it should be remembered that while these Marines helped plan, plot and carry out the murder of Carlo Troiani, it was Laura Ann Troiani who went looking for an assassin. It was she who solicited a number of men to kill her husband even before she met Jeffrey Mizner and his friends.
It was Laura Troiani who brought up the killing of her husband to the group — they were not looking for someone to murder — it was Laura who was looking for a killer.
It was Laura Troiani who gave an apartment key to Russell Harrison so that he could enter the apartment with the intent to kill Carlo.
It was Laura Troiani who purchased the bullets used to kill her husband. She even demanded the type of bullets with which he would be killed.
It was Laura Troiani who tapped the brake lights when Carlo pulled up on the place of his execution. Tragically it was for Laura her husband called out to when he was shot.
It was Laura Troiani who pretended concern for her husband and called police but who could not conjure up grief or remorse when told he was dead.
Laura Troiani, who only cried for herself, now presents herself as an abused wife and has fully embraced that role. While there was no testimony or evidence presented to suggest that she was ever abused by Carlo Troiani, she has continued to assassinate his character even while he has been dead for over 35 years.
And just like the Marines who she was able to persuade and manipulate, she successfully convinced the Governor of California that she was “a damsel in distress” (her words) and to commute her life sentence, declaring her “rehabilitated.”
In January of 2021 Laura Troiani faced the parole board but she again skirted responsibility for Carlo’s murder and continued the alleged abuse stories by her husband, as if to say Carlo deserved to be killed on that dark desolate road.
The panel was not persuaded and manipulated, as were her co-conspirators. She was denied parole based on her lack of insight, minimization of her role in the crime, and denial of certain aspects of the crime. She would not be eligible for parole for another three years, although she petitioned the parole board for advancement of hearing.
Laura Troiani never truly accepted responsibility for the brutal, cold and calculating murder of Carlo Troiani. Presenting herself as the victim of abuse finally won her release.
The gravesite of Carlo G. Troiani, the true victim.
Kristi S. Hawthorne, historiesandmysteries.blog “Unfaithful, The Murder of Staff Sergeant Carlo Troiani”, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express consent and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author Kristi S. Hawthorne and historiesandmysteries.blog “Unfaithful, The Murder of Staff Sergeant Carlo Troiani”, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
On a quiet morning on an isolated beach, a double homicide was committed north of Oceanside that shook all of Southern California. On September 10, 1895, the bodies of Harriet Stiles and John D. Borden were discovered by Harriet’s husband, Leroy Stiles. They had both been shot twice, and each in the face. There appeared to be no motive and the two were unarmed and defenseless.
Leroy and Harriet Stiles had been camping on the coast near the mussel beds north of Las Flores. They were accompanied by Harriet’s 86 year-old father, John B. Borden, who came to visit his daughter from Michigan and was looking forward to “an outing on the beach.” The Stiles were residents of Fallbrook, and had visited the spot before to escape the inland heat, enjoy the cool ocean breeze and do some fishing.
The trio set up camp in a tent on the remote beach and had the area all to themselves to enjoy. Las Flores was about two miles south of their spot; the small town of Oceanside was another 7 to 8 miles further. They likely saw no one else except an occasional train.
Map of the Las Flores area near where the Stiles beach camp was situated.
On the morning of the murders, Leroy and John walked from camp about a mile north to a spot at which to fish, while Harriet stayed behind. Leroy spotted two men in the distance walking south along the railroad track. Perhaps something about the men caused him to be uneasy. Their presence prompted Stiles to instruct his father-in-law to walk back to the tent to inform Harriet that two men may be approaching their campsite. Leroy would later tell law enforcement he simply did not want Harriet to be alarmed by the two male passersby.
John Borden walked back to the camp while Leroy proceeded to fish. Leroy likely assumed that his father-in-law, at age 86, was too tired to make the trek back and that he decided to stay with Harriet.
At about 10:30 am Leroy Stiles returned to his camp. Upon entering the tent he came upon a horrific site. His wife had been shot dead, as well as his father-in-law, the tent floor covered in blood. Stiles swung into action and immediately set for Oceanside on a horse and wagon to notify authorities. On the way south Stiles was stopped by a man he described as a “half-breed” who asked him for a ride. Stiles, who was unarmed, refused the request and afterwards said he believed the man was one of the two individuals he spotted walking towards his camp that morning and believe the man intended to kill him. He would later describe the man as a “negro of rather light complexion, good size and dressed in blue clothes or overalls.”
Stiles met a rancher on the way to Oceanside, who in turn went to reach law enforcement. Returning to camp alone, Stiles waited with the dead bodies of his family members. He later broke down in tears, overcome with emotion, when he told the first arriving lawmen that he and his wife were married forty years.
Leroy and Harriet Stiles (courtesy Nedra Fortune)
The early newspaper accounts of the murders said that Harriet had been sexually assaulted and that there were three deceased, not two. (Harriet in fact had not been raped. Her clothes were not disheveled or removed and her glasses were still on her face.) Nothing of value was missing from the camp, except a package of Durham tobacco, described by Stiles as “half full, the sack being the smallest size, just two ounces.”
One initial theory is that the two were murdered by Isidor Renterias, a known outlaw who had served jail time for horse stealing and murder. On September 6th, just a few days before the murder of Stiles and Borden, Renterias had shot and killed Ramon Araiza in San Luis Rey. Renterias operated a restaurant near the Mission San Luis Rey, wherein he had his wife by the hair and was beating her. Ramon Araiza’s wife was the daughter of the woman being beaten and Araiza came to her defense. Renterias then focused his rage on Araiza, picked up a rifle and shot him dead. He then fled while a posse led by Constable Ben Hubbert, who was still trying to track him down when the double murdered occurred on September 10th. (Renterias would later die in a shootout but not until he shot and killed a deputy by the name of Juan Castro.)
Deputy Sheriff Fred Jennings and a posse, traveled to the Stiles/Borden murder scene to hold an inquest. Railroad section men in the area were questioned and they informed law enforcement on the morning of the murders that two men had approached them. They shared breakfast with the strangers and talked to them at length. They provided a description of the two men, one was “a man six feet high, dark complexion, possibly “mulatto” and the other was “a smaller man, light hair and had a small hand valise.” The witnesses also noted that the pair had separated at some point as the smaller man went in a different direction.
Based on witness descriptions the “smaller man”, who would later be identified as Jay Allison Garges, was arrested at Fallbrook. He told deputies that he and the other suspect, Joseph J. Ebanks, were traveling together but had parted ways at the train trestle. Garges said that about two hours later he encountered Ebanks again, who had a new male traveling companion, a German immigrant. They two talked about “meeting so unexpectedly” once more and Garges noted that Ebanks was in possession of tobacco that he had not had earlier. It was in a small, two-ounce Durham tobacco sack, which was the very thing that had been reported by Leroy Stiles as missing from the tent. Garges noted that Ebanks no longer had a sack that he had carried with him for the length of their trip which began near El Toro.
While the unidentified German departed, Ebanks and Garges trekked south towards Oceanside, and eventually parted at the Fallbrook Junction. Garges made his way to Fallbrook where he was eventually apprehended. He was charged with complicity in the murder, and was held at Oceanside until taken to San Diego. Garges, a traveling “watch tinker” would later be eliminated as a suspect and became a witness for the prosecution.
Joseph Ebanks was born in England in about 1865. His father was from the West Indies and his mother a white woman. Ebanks arrived in New York’s Ellis Island from Liverpool, England on May 15, 1893 traveling on the Aurania, a British ocean liner. He gave differing accounts as to his arrival in California.
Ebanks was caught on September 14th by Deputy Sheriff Ward. Ebanks had traveled to San Luis Rey, then on to Vista. The following day he continued southward and spent a night in Mission Valley before hitching a ride on a wagon leaving for Rancho Bernardo. After he arrived near Poway, he left the main road and traveled through thick brush and steep terrain in an apparent effort to elude authorities. Ward eventually tracked him to a cabin where he was arrested and taken to jail in San Diego. One of the first questions Ebanks asked was for something to eat. It was reported he was cheerful and talkative.
When questioned, much of his story corroborated that of his traveling companion; that the two parted ways at the trestle where they had stopped to get water to drink out of some barrels. Garges walked south along the railroad and Ebanks walked along a wagon road. He admitted that he was the one who had tried to flag down Leroy Stiles for a ride, but that Stiles passed him “at a rapid gait.” He continued walking and met up with the German man and the two eventually met up again with Garges.
Ebanks said he had no firearm with which to shoot anyone and declared his innocence in the matter. He said he spotted a woman near a camp who appeared to be swimming, and he want to take a swim in the ocean as well, but had determined the bluff too steep to negotiate and decided against it.
Upon his arrest, one newspaper made an overtly racially prejudiced statement: “[Ebanks’] appearance is against him, as he is a West Indian Negro, with heavy cheekbones, thick lips, small, shrewd eye and a generally sensual face. He speaks with a queer half-French and half-Negro accent, and uses nautical terms in his speech.”
Joseph J. Ebanks (San Quentin)
The hunt began for Ebanks’ sack, in which it was believed a firearm was kept. It was eventually brought to light that Ebanks had stolen two guns in Fullerton. One was a white handled Colt 45, along with a belt loaded with ammunition. Several railroad men, including Arthur Steele, section foreman, testified they saw Ebanks carrying a sack, when they saw him and Garges the morning of the murders.
The pistol was found in a canyon near the Stiles campsite and delivered to Constable Ben Hubbert of San Luis Rey. It was wrapped in a shirt with the marking of R.F.G, who was the rightful owner of the two firearms allegedly stolen by Ebanks. Four empty shell cartridges were also found. Even more damning, when Ebanks was captured he was wearing another shirt with the same initials. One additional piece of evidence in the sack was a “ladies’ journal” which had been given to Ebanks by a woman at ranch house he had visited in Orange County.
Constable Ben Hubbert (Courtesy Oceanside Historical Society)
The murder trial began on January 4, 1896 in San Diego. Newspapers from San Diego, to San Francisco, Sacramento and Reno published daily or weekly coverage. The trial lasted more than 20 days, at a cost of $2,000, which far exceeded the cost of other similar court cases. During the trial Ebanks was described as being impassive but at times “happy and indifferent.”
There was a lot of interest in the trial and Ebanks in particular. The San Diego Bee reported: “There was a larger attendance of spectators yesterday than on any preceding day of the trial of Ebanks, the West Indian mulatto who is on trial before Judge Pierce and a jury for the murder of Mrs. Stiles and her father, John D. Borden. There has been a perceptible increase each day in the number of women in attendance on the trial, and yesterday most of the chairs inside the railing except those used by the jury and counsel, were occupied by women young and old, who evidently enjoyed the testimony.”
R. F. Gibson of Fullerton testified that the white-handled revolver that Ebanks used in the murder was stolen from his room, along with another gun. Both were found in the sack several witnesses had described Ebanks as carrying. Gibson also testified that the shirts, one of which Ebanks was wearing at the time of his arrest, belonged to him and were marked with the letters “R F. G.”
Simon Goldbaum of San Luis Rey testified that Ebanks came to his store on the afternoon of September 10th, the day of the murders and bought lunch. Goldbaum asked the tall stranger if he had beard of the murders at the mussel beds. According to Goldbaum, Ebanks looked down “at the mention of the crime”. Then, inexplicably “looked up and laughed, and replied that he had not heard of the murders.”
Simon Goldbaum’s Store in San Luis Rey, where Ebanks stopped for lunch after the murders (courtesy Oceanside Historical Society)
William McCrea, testified that he was baling hay at Vista the day of the murders, and that Ebanks came “to his camp between 11 and 12 o’clock at night and asked for work.” He stayed the night with the crew, but left in the morning “without any breakfast in the direction of Escondido.”
Garges, who had no longer been considered a suspect, was detained in San Diego as a witness until late February of 1896. During that time his satchel which contained his watch tools was also taken into evidence. (He was detained 143 days after which he filed a claim against the county for $214.50 at the rate of $1.50 a day. The county instead agreed to pay him just $114.15.)
Garges testified as they were walking south they saw two men fishing in the surf a few hundred feet from the railroad. About a mile farther down they spotted a woman near a tent on the beach. They continued walking about one-fifth of a mile, and came to a trestle where they sat down to rest. Garges said he was anxious to “hurry along”, and left Ebanks sitting on the bridge.
With Garges out of sight, Ebanks want back along the track to a bridge spanning a canyon which opened out on the beach near the tent, and made his way with some difficulty down into the canyon and to the tent. The prosecutor believed that Ebanks’ intention was to assault Harriet Stiles, but her father had returned to the camp by that time. The San Diego Bee reported: “It will never be known just what transpired, for Ebanks in his numerous confessions of the crime never told the story twice the same way. But he could have been at the tent but a moment when he shot Mr. Borden, who fell dead. Ebanks claimed that he was at first inclined to flee without [killing] Mrs. Stiles, but decided that he must take her life if he would himself escape.”
The prosecution had the last word and despite the testimony of 53 witnesses and damning evidence he instead focused the jury on Ebanks looks:
“It has been said that he could have had no motive for killing that poor woman who was alone and defenseless in the little tent—no motive for taking her life as she stood with hands upheld to her God, her last words tremulous in supplication and with a realization that a fiend incarnate stood ready and determined to send into her sick brain the leaden messengers that would sever the tie which bound her to this life. No motive for this hellish deed! Can you not read the motive on his face? Look in his treacherous eyes and on his brow, which bears the curse of his maker as plainly as it was ever born by Cain!”
After the trial concluded, and the jury began its deliberation, The San Diego Union wrote this openly racist account: “While the jury was out deciding his fate, the happy-go-lucky mulatto, who is more animal than man, whiled away the time by playing cards with a Mexican and negro in the jail rooms. When the jury came in and Ebanks was taken before them to hear the verdict of murder in the first degree, he took his seat and twirled his thumbs while everyone in the room fixed their gaze upon him.”
The jury deliberated just three hours. Leroy Stiles, who had sat through the daily testimony, waited in the courtroom into the evening to hear the verdict. Ebanks was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. An immediate appeal was filed.
While awaiting appeal Ebanks actually confessed to the murder of Harriet Stiles and her father. He stated he wanted to clear his conscious and remove any doubt of his guilt. Ebanks’ confession in various versions was published in newspapers across the country from Nebraska to New Jersey.
Ebanks said while walking along the railroad track with Garges, they spotted the tent on the beach. Earlier he had found an orange, ate it and became sick. He went to the tent without Garges to see if he could “get some medicine.” He encountered Mr. Borden and his daughter Harriett and said, “I’m sick; give me something. I feel as if I was dying.”
Ebanks said Mr. Borden noticed that the muzzle of a revolver was showing out of the flour sack he was carrying. Borden walked toward the back of the cot and said he would get something “to relieve” him.
“I do not know that I said anything to the man at all, but it was only just my opinion that the man was then looking for something possibly to shoot me with. He walked away toward the cot and I did not know what he was doing behind the cot. I sat then in the chair and fired at him and I shot the old gentleman. I did not know at that time where I had hit him, but he fell. Then the old lady sung out to me, “My God, he had no gun.” I sat there and I looked at him and I looked at her and I begged her to hitch a team and go away and let me get away. I was sorry for what I had done.
“The woman said to me — I do not just remember the first words that were spoken — but anyway, I said to her, says I, ‘Now I am awful sorry for what I have done, and his own foolishness caused it’; now, says I, ‘what is I going to do about it to get rid of this? The only way out now for me’ — says I — ‘I know your life is sweet and mine is sweet and we all thinks that your life is sweeter to you than mine is to me. I suppose you think so, and says I, ‘I think about the same, I suppose, but the only way out of this for me is to kill you along with him, and for me to make my escape.’
“And I said to the woman, ‘I suppose I ain’t got much time to think this matter over. The best thing for you to do is get to praying for yourself; I may possibly have to shoot you.’
“The woman knelt down by the cot and she stayed there and I dropped tears over that woman; but I thought the only refuge for myself was to shoot that woman. After the woman raised from her knees and turned around, she looked at me and she did not say anything. I held the gun laying across my lap and I shot her; where, I do not know, up until today. She kind of fell back on the cot against something, but I saw she was just in misery. The wound did not kill her–it did not look like it to me–and I shot the woman the second time.
“With that I walked over to the cot where this man was laying to see and to be certain that there was no weapon there that he was looking for to injure me. After examining behind the cot and around the cot and seeing that there was no weapon there, before God I felt worse.
“I walked back to the door and I tried that gun three times in succession to my own breast, but she refused to go. I then turned around, and the old gentleman had some movement in some part of his body, or made me think that he suffered, and I tried it the fourth time on him and she went off, and I think that was the shot that was through his body.”
After his confession he stated his desire to see his family who were living in the West Indies. He then asked that his appeal to be withdrawn and that he was ready to “die any time.”
Notwithstanding his lengthy and detailed confession, Ebanks’ defense team filed three additional appeals, each of which was denied.
His appeals exhausted Ebanks was sentenced once again to die and to be delivered to San Quentin for hanging. Before he was transported from San Diego, it was reported that Ebanks, who had converted to Christianity while in custody, “delivered a sermon to the other prisoners confined in the county jail, and sang and prayed with them. He admonished the men to reform when they were released and lead an upright life. He later made a request for a minister in order that he might be baptized. He was taken north on the Santa Rosa last night by Deputy Sheriff F. M. Jennings and T. H. Scoby.”
Joseph Japhet Ebanks at San Quentin
On May 27, 1898 Joseph Japhet Ebanks was led from his cell to the gallows. The evening before, he had written a statement declaring his innocence, having retracted his detailed confession in which he had given Mrs. Stiles but a minute to pray for her soul. Yet he resigned himself to die “a brave man”. Ebanks was described as calm when he was readied for execution at 10:30 am. He offered no comment of any kind before he was hanged. The trap floor dropped, the force breaking his neck. Ebanks was pronounced dead 10 minutes later although the newspaper described his death as “instantaneous”. His body was buried in the prison cemetery. Ebanks was one of nine state prisoners executed in California that year.
After the murder of his wife, Leroy R. Stiles went to live with his married daughter in Long Beach. He died in 1913 at the age of 83. He was buried in the same cemetery in Fallbrook with his beloved wife Harriet and her father John. As is sadly the case today, there was more attention placed on the salacious murders than paid to the victims themselves. Little detail was provided about the lives of Harriet Stiles and John Borden but they were truly innocent victims enjoying an idyllic day on a quiet beach when their lives were abruptly and brutally taken.
Kristi S. Hawthorne, historiesandmysteries.blog “Defenseless”, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express consent and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author Kristi S. Hawthorne and historiesandmysteries.blog “Defenseless”, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
One quiet night in Oceanside, California a senseless murder was committed with no apparent motive or suspects. Days after the murder, someone claiming to be the killer called local police with an ominous threat that resulted in armed gunmen protecting city busses for several nights in anticipation of another death. But as shocking as it was, the incident slowly faded into obscurity and the murder went unsolved. The case was in fact forgotten about altogether until in 2017 when I stumbled upon a newspaper article while doing research on an unrelated subject. As I continued research on the murder I collected dozens of newspaper articles and discovered that the case had never been solved. I then contacted the Oceanside Police Department who directed me to their Cold Case Detective.
The Murder of Ray Davis
On the evening of April 9, 1962, the Oceanside Police Department received an anonymous telephone call. The unidentified caller stated cryptically: “I am going to pull something here in Oceanside and you will never be able to figure it out.” The call was likely dismissed…until two nights later on April 11th, when a body was discovered and the caller contacted the police again.
Patrolman Terry Stephens discovered the lifeless body of Ray Davis in an alley in the upscale beachside neighborhood of St. Malo at 1:45 am. The night of the murder, Stephens had not yet turned 28 years old, but was already a seasoned police officer. Born in 1934 in Escondido Stephens was raised in Oceanside where he lived nearly all of his life. At the age of 21 he joined the Oceanside Police Department and served on the force for 31 years before he retired.
The victim, Ray Davis was just 29 years old, a native of Michigan, born in 1933 to Glen and Virginia Davis. His parents separated when he was a young boy. In 1950 his mother was working as a dispatcher for a taxi company and at age 17 Ray was working as a waiter in a local restaurant.
Home at 616 E. Mason Street in Owosso, Michigan, where Ray Davis lived with his mother in 1950. They lived in the rear unit.
Ray married Marion Lois Solomon in 1953 in Owosso, Michigan. It was Marion’s second marriage and she had two children with her first husband, Julius Poullion.
Ray and his brother older brother Jack had moved to Oceanside in January of 1962. Oceanside had a population of less than 25,000. Jack got a job working at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and Ray as a cabdriver for the Checker Cab Company. The brothers were renting a house at 525 South Tremont Street. Ray and his wife were living separately, with Marion residing in Pomona, California.
Ray Davis was working an evening shift, his cab parked on Mission Avenue in downtown. At 11:10 pm he reported to his dispatcher Lowell Sikes that he was driving a fare to South Oceanside. He never returned or responded to subsequent radio calls.
Police inspect the cab in which Ray Davis was murdered
Ray’s body had been dumped in the alley behind 1926 South Pacific Street, the home of Oceanside’s former Mayor Joe MacDonald. Across the street was the home of Oceanside’s current Mayor Erwin Sklar. This was not a neighborhood familiar with violent crime, let alone murder. (Note: Few people realize that St. Malo does not begin behind its iconic gated archway, but also includes the 1900 block of South Pacific Street.)
Davis had been shot once in the back, through the driver’s seat, and once in the back of the head. His assailant unceremoniously pulled him out of the cab and drove away. Robbery did not appear to be a motive as Davis had a modest amount of cash in both his wallet and shirt pocket.
The bloodied cab was discovered at 6:30 am, left in the alley of the 400 block of South Pacific Street with its meter showing a $2.20 fare. On scene Detective Don Brown found a third shot had been fired through the windshield of the taxi.
On the front seat of the abandoned cab was a paperback novel, “Dance With the Dead.” Written in 1960 by Richard S. Prather, it featured a private detective who solved crimes, all the while encountering scantily clad women…very campy stuff.
Davis was taken to the Seaside Mortuary at 802 South Pacific Street where an autopsy was performed by L. H. Fairchild of the San Diego County Coroner’s Office. Two .22 caliber bullets were removed and given to Oceanside Police Detective Floyd R. Flowers.
The following day, April 12th, both the Oceanside Blade Tribune and San Diego Union Tribune newspapers reported the murder along with the fact that police had no motive or suspect. The story of Ray’s murder was also published in several Southern California newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. In Ray’s home state of Michigan, at least three newspapers reported the murder of Ray Davis. No mention was made of the mysterious phone call of April 9 as the Oceanside Police Department had not released that information.
Funeral services for Ray Davis were held at the Oceanside Church of God on April 13th. He was buried in a plot located in the “Sunset Slope” at Eternal Hills Memorial Park. Virginia Davis, his bereaved mother, flew from Michigan to Oceanside for the services.
Headstone of Ray Davis in Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Oceanside, California
On April 16th the Oceanside Police Department disclosed to the public that an unknown person had called them on April 9th with a veiled threat that they now linked to the murder of Ray Davis. The second phone call came with a frightening warning.
Police Chief William H. Wingard described the caller as a possible “deranged killer” and released the contents of the call: “Do you remember me calling you last week and telling you that I was going to pull a real baffling crime? I killed the cab driver and I am going to get me a bus driver next.”
Who, but the original caller, would have known about the initial message? Who would taunt the police in such a way?
This threat was not taken lightly, considering the unknown caller seemed to have made good on his last one. Chief Wingard stated: “We have no reason to disbelieve the calls.”
In response to the threat, the Oceanside Police Department took measures to protect all city busses and armed military police were put on each bus going aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. The newspaper reported that Frank Lilly, Oceanside’s City Manager gave Oscar Hatle, Bus Superintendent “blanket authority to take whatever steps necessary.” The unusual aspects of the murder and the unprecedented response of armed guards were big news. The story was widely distributed by the Associated Press and United Press International.
Three days passed without incident. Guards were removed from the busses, but on so-called “lonely routes” the bus company assigned two drivers. Oscar Hatle commented: “The situation still exists. We are taking no unnecessary chances.”
The police had no motive and scant evidence. They were desperate to solve the murder. Several people were questioned and released. One reported suspect was a fellow cabdriver, Charles Schofield, but the accusation had no foundation.
On May of 1962 an arrest was made of four Marines for armed robbery, but neither their prints nor ballistics matched. Another armed robbery suspect was arrested in November but again, the fingerprints were not a match.
The murder was all but forgotten about except for the Davis family. Years passed, then decades. Ray’s brother Jack died in 1990. Ray’s mother died in 1995 and was buried at Eternal Hills Memorial Park. Ray had no biological children. After the death of his brother and mother there was no one left to remember.
Headstones of Ray and Jack Davis with their mother Virginia Davis at Eternal Hills Memorial Park
Work of the Zodiac?
It is only speculative, but it is still worth noting that seven years after Ray Davis’s murder, a killer known as the Zodiac would mimic the same deadly scenario. In 1969 he shot and killed a taxi driver in San Francisco, contacted police taking credit for it and then threatened to target a bus, in this instance one full of children.
The Zodiac killed his victims in a variety of ways and weapons, including a .22 caliber gun (as in the murder of Ray Davis). It is believed that the Zodiac may have been in the military. It is now surmised that one of his first victims may have been Cheri Jo Bates, who was murdered in Riverside, California in 1966. While there are several theories surrounding Zodiac, is it too far-fetched to believe that perhaps he started his killing spree in Oceanside?
Many serial killers are known to taunt or toy with police and certainly this was the case with Ray’s murderer. Serial killers taunt because they crave the attention, they want the notoriety and many times they are convinced of their own superiority over law enforcement.
Theories and conjecture aside, to this day the murder of Ray Davis remains unsolved. It is likely the killer is dead … even if he was just 25 years of age in 1962, he would be 83 years old in 2020. Many of the police officers and detectives who worked so diligently to try to solve the case and protect the residents of Oceanside have passed. However, Roy K. Smith, a retired police captain, remembers the case as he was working the morning watch the night of the murder.
I first brought this case to the attention of Tom Heritage, a semi-retired law enforcement officer working part time in the Oceanside Police Department’s Cold Case files. Soon after his brief review of the file, Heritage permanently retired and moved out of the area. Detective Sylvia Guzman O’Brien then headed the department and she took a more thorough look into the unsolved murder.
In December of 2019 Detective O’Brien sent the latent fingerprint cards collected at the scene for entry into the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). The Oceanside Police Department has kept silent about those results.
There may be DNA evidence. The murderer pulled Davis’ lifeless body out of the front seat of the cab by his belt loop but it is unknown if the evidence is sufficient to create a profile.
Detective O’Brien retired in 2021 and it is unclear if anyone is actively working this murder which is now 62 years old. The Oceanside Police Department solved a 27-year-old case in February of 2022, the stabbing death of Dolores Rabaya in 1994.
Regardless if there is a tie or link to the Zodiac killings, Ray Davis still deserves justice. Even if the killer has since died, perhaps this case could be solved through ancestral DNA forensics.
Kristi S. Hawthorne, historiesandmysteries.blog “The Murder of Ray Davis”, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express consent and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author Kristi S. Hawthorne and historiesandmysteries.blog “The Murder of Ray Davis”, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
“WAS HE INSANE, IS HE INSANE NOW?” That was the actual headline of a print ad for Curran Real Estate in the 1920s. This unconventional advertisement was written by William Edward Curran, a local Oceanside businessman with an uncontrollable temper, who would do the unthinkable: commit murder.
Curran’s curious and odd newspaper ad went on to say: “I was called insane by some of the Oceanside mossbanks when I started to improve the James property. Take a look at it now. A few more green spots like this will make our city. Come one and all, it’s great to be crazy”.
Years
later his attorney would argue in court that Curran was indeed insane.
Curran’s advertisement as it appeared in the Oceanside Blade
William
Edward Curran came to Oceanside from Ohio in 1919. A married man and father of
two sons, he had a junk business. Soon afterwards he ventured into real estate,
which by all appearances was a successful enterprise.
Born
May 26, 1886, in Pocahontas, Virginia, Curran’s parents moved to Cleveland,
Ohio by 1900. William E. Curran’s earliest occupation was that of a decorator
or wall paper hanger. William Edward married Anna Hayer in Cleveland in 1911
and their sons Richard and Frank were both born in Ohio.
Shortly
after the Curran family settled in Oceanside, William purchased three lots near
the corner of Third and Myers Streets (Third is now Pier View Way). He later
acquired a business located at the corner of Third and Pacific Street called
the “Fox Den” which was a lucrative beach concession during the
summer months because of its proximity to the Oceanside Pier.
Curran
joined the local Chamber of Commerce but soon found himself at odds with one of
the directors. In June of 1922 he wrote an editorial calling out Secretary
Thomas Bakewell, saying “I think you are a joke” because Bakewell did not
endorse Curran’s idea of promoting Oceanside as an area rich with oil deposits.
He was later involved in a lawsuit regarding such claims.
Curran’s
unorthodox ideas and self-promotion might have been successful in getting a dig
in at his critics’ expense, it was apparent that his arrogance did not win him
friends or supporters. In July of 1922 Curran unsuccessfully ran for city
constable.
However eccentric Curran appeared to be, he soon proved to be volatile as well. In 1923 he was arrested and placed in jail after being charged with battery against Vere Scheunemann, a 16-year-old local boy. Curran was 37 years old at the time of the assault. He was a large man standing 6 feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, and at one time was an amateur boxer by the name of “Red Kenney”. On the day of the vicious attack, William Curran knocked out three of the young man’s front teeth, but after hiring an attorney was able to get out of jail on bail. His attorney petitioned the court to have the trial moved because Curran said that he couldn’t get a fair trial in Oceanside “owing to a prejudice in the community against him.” One month later Curran was arrested again for disturbing the peace. He again asked for a change of venue because of “prejudice against him.”
Another ad published by Curran in the Oceanside Blade
Despite
his erratic and violent behavior, Curran ran for city council in 1924. Not
surprisingly, he lost the election. He was a regular attendee at council
meetings, at which he voiced his concerns over competition from other beach
concessionaires. He was also a proponent of building a new pier made entirely
of concrete. The city council balked at the suggestion because of the “prohibitive cost.” The newspaper reported that W. E. Curran was
undaunted and “advocated this type of construction regardless of the cost
and addressed the board to that effect, but his suggestion met with no favor.”
Curran’s
unstable behavior continued when in 1925 Curran found himself again in court as
a defendant after he assaulted Frank Graff, in a dispute over a fish business
near the pier.
Even
though his reputation appeared to be ruined, Curran unapologetically ran again for
city council in 1930 stating: “My platform is reduction of taxes and to halt
further improvements for the present. I also am strongly in favor of home
labor. Being a large property owner in Oceanside, and always a staunch booster
for the welfare of the City, my interests are yours.” He was not elected.
Nothing
is known of the outcomes of Curran’s previous run-ins with the law or any
particular consequence he faced except for being ostracized. However, one
encounter with Curran years later would have a deadly outcome.
One
summer evening in 1944, two Marines stationed at Camp Pendleton stopped or
walked through Curran’s property at 107 Third Street (Pier View Way) where
Curran was living in a two-story building, which served both as a storefront as
well as his home.
The two men were on the way to view a side-show of sorts, where a two-headed cow was on display inside a tent, just east of Curran’s home and vacant lot. Curran spotted the Marines and believed that they were going to siphon his gasoline. Fuel was a hot commodity because gasoline and other items were rationed and in short supply during World War II.
Third Street at the corner of Myers. Note the tent which featured the two-headed cow the Marines were on their way to see. To the right, is an empty lot, and then Curran’s home and office.
According
to Curran’s account, he ordered the men off of his property and they became
combative. Curran then went inside his home to retrieve an unloaded gun and
confronted the Marines again. Despite being armed with a gun, the Marines
became more aggressive and came after him, according to Curran. He then ran back
into the home, threw down the gun and grabbed “some object”. That object was a “commando style” knife,
with a brass knuckle handle which Curran took with him to challenge the men. He
ran back to the Marines, “a scuffle ensued” and Corporal Erwin E. Koch was
stabbed three times, including a fatal blow straight to the heart. Koch fell to
the ground, bleeding profusely while his fellow Marine, Corporal August N.
Heveker, tried to render aid.
Before
police arrived, Curran hid the weapon in a pile of boxes and empty bottles
behind his home. He later produced a small knife to the police but it was
apparent that the deadly wound had been made by a much larger knife. The police
on the scene included Police Chief William L. Coyle and Captain Harold B. Davis,
who found the bloodied murder weapon after a 30 minute search, where Curran had
stashed it.
Police Captain Harold B. Davis searched through this pile of junk and bottles to find the murder weapon
Koch
died of his wounds and was taken to the Oceanside Mortuary at 602 South Hill
Street (now Coast Highway). There the police discovered a letter Koch had
written to his wife in Nebraska soaked in blood. Koch was just 29 years old,
and in addition to his grieving wife, left behind two small children. Family
back in his home town of Eustis, Nebraska were stunned and left to wonder of
the circumstances that took the life of their beloved son, husband and brother.
Erwin’s widow, Otalee Elizabeth, would later remarry.
William
Curran was arrested by local police and questioned, when he then claimed that
the Marines had followed him into his home, pushed him down and struck him in
the head. He was taken down to San Diego for an inquest just days later at
which Corporal August Heveker testified to the details leading up to the
murder.
“We had been out on the
Oceanside pier and had come up Third Street preparatory to entering a side show
to see a two-headed cow. Wishing to urinate before entering the show, we went
back along a building about 20 feet. As we did so, a man yelled to us from the
rear doorway, ordering us off. We left the place where we were standing and
went to the sidewalk toward the tent, going back again on the vacant lot just
west of the tent, believing we were off this man’s property. The man came out
again, this time with a gun in his hands. We started off again, and as we
neared the sidewalk, I happened to look back and saw this man coming toward us
with a shining instrument in his hand. I called for Koch to duck, and I ran
forward to the walk. Koch was between the man and me, and did not have time to
even turn around. As he fell, he yelled he had been stabbed.”
Heveker went on to
testify that the two had never followed after Curran, entered his home or
struck him. Police testified at the inquest saying that Curran had no marks or
cuts on him, although he did hold his head as though he were injured. There was
no evidence of a scuffle, as Curran had claimed, only a pool of blood on the
vacant lot where Koch was attacked.
This crime scene photo indicates the location of the stabbing.
The jury at the inquest
found Curran responsible for the death of Koch. The murder trial was held the
following month in July and Curran testified in his own defense. Inexplicably,
Curran left the stand, walked up to August Heveker and shouted: “That man lied
about me. Anyone could look at his face and tell that he was lying. He pushed
Koch towards me and incited him to attack me. He is responsible for Koch being
stabbed. After I struck Koch, he took two steps away from me and sagged to his
knees. After he fell, this man Heveker tried to drag his body off my property.”
Curran was found guilty
of second-degree murder. Defense witnesses included Curran’s brothers Frank and
Clarence, his wife Annie and his sister Mary. Oceanside’s Mayor Ted Holden,
Curran’s attorney James B. Abbey, along with the County Psychiatrist, also
testified that Curran was insane. The witnesses provided a number of incidents
to prove up their allegations that the Curran was “mentally unbalanced.” The
very next day the same jury that found him guilty of murder, determined that
Curran was insane. The newspaper reported that Curran would be sent to a “state
asylum for the criminally insane.”
Erwin Eugene Koch was
laid to rest in the Eustis East Cemetery, in Eustis, Nebraska, a small town of
600, settled by German immigrants. A military headstone marks his grave. When
Koch went in the Marine Corps during wartime, his family might have worried
about the dangers that might befall him. He wasn’t killed in war by a foreign
enemy, but by a fellow countryman.
It is unknown how long William Curran was actually confined and when or if he was deemed “sane”. But by by March of 1950 he was back in Oceanside and still owned the property where the murder occurred. Curran’s son, Frank Earl Curran, was elected as Mayor of San Diego, serving from 1963 and 1971. William Edward Curran died on July 19, 1963. He was interred at Eternal Hills Memorial Park, in Oceanside, along with his wife who later died in 1989.
Histories and Mysteries 