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’s popular health food store “Cream of the Crop” has been around for nearly 40 years. But the history of the building is a colorful one beginning in the 1940s …. once occupied by a fish grotto, cocktail bar and later a gentlemen’s club called the “Man Trap.”
Built in 1944, the building was owned by Dr. Clifford and Cora Brodie and housed Brodie’s Fish Grotto which opened in the summer of 1945. The Brodies had an auto court-style motel on the southwest corner of Vista Way and Hill Street (Coast Highway) in South Oceanside. They also owned an apartment building at 2012 South Tremont.
The Ellis Motel was built in 1939 as the Brodie O Tel at 2001 South Hill Street (Coast Highway)
Clifford Brodie was married up to five times and Cora may have been wife number two. They were married in about 1930 and had one son, Elwood. The couple divorced and Cora remarried, her new married name was Shuey. Cora received the Tremont Street apartment building where she resided, along with the building located at 2009 South Hill Street a.k.a. Coast Highway, in the divorce settlement.
Dr. Clifford E. Brodie
Cora Shuey opened a new restaurant in her building on Hill Street called “The Port Hole.” It operated from 1947 to 1952. Athur Vitello then opened a restaurant and cocktail bar called Diana’s, in mid-1952, while Cora retained ownership of the building.
Diana’s was a popular hangout for several years along the historic Highway 101, on the outskirts of Oceanside. Clientele came from both Oceanside and Carlsbad and beyond.
In 1955 a shocking incident occurred there when a man shot his wife, killing her instantly, and then turned the gun on himself. James and Joyce Nolan were living in the motel next to Diana’s at 2001 South Hill (Coast Highway). The couple had entered the establishment and had a noticeable disagreement or fight then left. Joyce Nolan returned alone to the cocktail bar and her husband re-entered and asked her to come home. She refused saying she wanted to finish her drink. Soon after James Nolan approached his wife and without a word shot her in the throat with a 38-caliber pistol. He then shot himself in the head.
Detectives enter Diana’s restaurant and bar to investigate the murder-suicide.
Oceanside Police were summoned by shocked bar staff. In his pocket police found a tattered letter written by James Nolan to his parents. It read: “I can’t take it anymore. The only one I ever loved is Joyce and we just can’t seem to get along so I’m ready to call this life to a finish.” They had only been married a few months.
In June 1959, Cora Shuey had the building “completely redecorated” and opened “The Coral Reef, Oceanside’s newest restaurant and supper club.” Cora Shuey died in 1960 and was buried in Eternal Hills.
By 1961 the bar/restaurant was owned by Marvin Burke and for a time it was called “Marv’s Coral Reef.” It remained the Coral Reef through the mid-1960s when it was later renamed by owner Robert F. Blanas as the “Pink Kitten” from 1967 to 1968. The Pink Kitten was no supper club but an establishment known as a “go-go bar” featuring topless dancers.
The name “Pink Kitten” did not last long and the tamer, if not ambiguous name, “Coral Reef” was returned by 1970, but the topless dancers remained. Help wanted ads ran in the local paper offering $3.25 an hour for single or married go-go girls. (The state minimum wage was then just $1.60.) “Earn while you learn” was the headline, but it was unclear what the women would be learning.
But by 1972, the adult venue was renamed “The Man Trap” leaving little to the imagination. Its clientele were often rowdy marines, who would get into fights with each other and or the locals. On one occasion Marine officers were relieved of their commands because of a bar fight at the Man Trap.
In 1974 three Marine officers faced charges after a brawl that left a bouncer injured. Lt. Colonel Robert Hicketheir was charged with felony assault, while Major Patrick Collins and Col. John I. Hopkins were charged with battery and misdemeanor assault. The doorman of the Man Trap, James Weaver, was struck on the head with a drinking glass and suffered cuts and bruises.
Newspaper accounts reported that Hicketheir had taken a doorman’s flashlight and tried to shine it at a dancer. When Weaver attempted to retrieve the flashlight, he was struck in the head. Collins then allegedly struck Weaver continually with this fist “about the head and upper body while suspect number one held him.”
Hopkins was later acquitted by a judge after he determined the Marine officer had simply tried to intervene in the melee. In July 1974, Hicketheir and Collins were declared innocent on all counts by a jury of four women and eight men. Their accounts were vastly different from the original reports, and stated that Weaver was the aggressor.
Their testimony was that Hicketheir had used the flashlight to view a vending machine, when the doorman picked Hicketheir up and shoved him against the wall, which started the physical altercation. Collins testified that he was simply coming to the aid of Hicketheir. The newspaper noted that the prosecution witnesses were “flamboyantly dressed” with “contemporary hairstyles” and were bartenders and topless dancers.
There was considerable controversy of having a topless bar in quiet South Oceanside, and it turned even more controversial when the dancers went from topless to totally nude in 1978. Owners Herbert Lowe and Robert Gautereaux Sr., defied the City and offered total nudity, despite the fact that they were not licensed to do so.
The Man Trap was open 11 AM to 2 AM during the week and Saturday and Sunday from 2 PM to 2 AM. Starting pay for dancers was $5.00 an hour with the promise of “excellent tips and good working conditions.”
An employee of the Man Trop reported that two girls had been hired specifically to dance nude on Thursday nights, because the regular top topless dancers were reluctant to remove their G-strings.
A court case ensued and a hearing was held on October 14, 1978 in Superior Court where Judge Michael Greer ruled that the Man Trap “could continue to feature topless and bottomless female dancers” until December 4th of that year, but “called for changes.”
The bar was ordered to place the stage area 12 feet away from customer seating and to prohibit dancers from socializing with customers or serving them alcoholic beverages. Joshua Kaplan, attorney for the owners declared “we will remain totally nude until December 4 and then after that forever.” Oceanside Deputy City Attorney Warren Diven said that the Man Trap was in violation of a city ordinance that prohibits topless or nude dancing in bars.
Kaplan argued that the Man Trap was a “theater” and therefore exempt from the ordinance. He said owners Lowe and Gautereaux (who also owned the Playgirl Club in downtown Oceanside) had made improvements of more than $60,000 to assure that the established met the “legal definition of a theater.” But City Attorney Divon countered that “the primary purpose of the man trap was to serve alcoholic beverages and not to provide entertainment” and added that the type of entertainment offered by the Man Trap “does not rise to the dignity of a theatrical performance.”
The Playgirl Club on Third Street (now Pier View Way)
Mayor Pro-tem Bill Bell said, “We will pull out all the stops to close both of them, the Man Trap and the Playgirl. Enough is enough.” But both establishments continued operating. In 1979 the Man Trap Theater began to featured ladies’ night, Wednesday night with male dancers. Saturday was couples’ night with male and female dancers.
Skip Arthur, purchased the Man Trap, as well as the Playgirl. But the Man Trap was closed after the Alcohol Beverage Control board pulled its license for having nude dancers.
The 3,300 square foot building at 2009 South Hill Street (South Coast Highway) remained vacant while the owner offered it for rent. In June of 1980 the building was leased to the FVW Post 9747, a largely Black Veterans’ organization of 200 members, who had faced protests when trying to lease a different location on Mission Avenue. (FVW Post 9747 later merged with VFW Post 10577 to become Oceanside Memorial Post 10577.)
In March 1987 the building that had once housed restaurants, served cocktails and offered adult entertainment, became a health and gourmet food store called “Cream of the Crop.” For nearly four decades the health food store has flourished with a faithful clientele of its own, albeit a bit more “wholesome.”
Google Street View of Cream of the Crop at 2009 South Coast Highway in 2021
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”
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.
The Bunker House located at 322 North Cleveland Street was first owned in 1886 by Theodore C. Bunker. This two-story building is one of the first brick buildings in Oceanside and one of three brick buildings built in the 1880’s which are still standing.
The Bunker Family at their store and boarding house on North Cleveland Street, circa 1888
The
Bunker family arrived from Los Angeles and operated a store on the first floor and
a boarding house on the second. Bunker also owned a single-story wooden
structure next door, which served as a meat market. The Bunker House was used
as a meeting hall as well as for dances and church services.
After
Bunker’s death in 1892, Ysidora Bandini Couts, wife of Col. Cave J. Couts, held
the mortgage on the building and retained ownership. The local newspaper reported that Katherine
Mebach purchased the building in 1896.
Frederick
Rieke bought the brick building in 1904. Rieke was a general contractor and
built many homes and buildings in Oceanside, including the house located on the
same block at 312 North Cleveland Street.
In 1923 the building was sold to by H. J. Crawford and it was subsequently deeded to two other members of his family: Thomas J. Crawford, and then to Samuel J. Crawford, a prominent attorney in Los Angeles who maintained ownership until 1945 when it was sold to George Edmond Haddox of Los Angeles.
The building in the 1940s
Renamed the American Hotel in 1943, the building, which continued to serve as a boarding house, developed a rather “seedy reputation”. Longtime residents recalled as children they were forbidden to visit or linger near the building and its use by prostitutes rampantly rumored.
Those rumors were in fact true. Audrey Wetta, a 36 year old married woman from Louisiana, became the manager of the American Hotel in about 1945. She was arrested in December of 1946 for operating “a house of ill fame, and with prostitution.” During her trial Helen E. Shepherd was called to the stand and testified that she arrived in Oceanside in June of 1946 to visit her husband who was apparently stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. She returned to Oceanside “at the suggestion of Mrs. Wetta in December, where she entertained men for pay at the American Hotel, and part of the pay went to Mrs. Wetta.”
Adeline Vincenzo also testified, stating that she too worked at the hotel “entertaining men” until late December of 1946, when the Oceanside Police Department arrested Audrey Wetta.
Police Captain Harold Davis testified that they had been notified from the Marine MP station in regard to the activities at the hotel. Captain Guy Woodward then submitted reports to the court from the San Diego county health department, “which showed they had on file two reports of VD infection, alleged to have originated from the hotel.”
Harold Davis and Guy Woodward of the Oceanside Police Department (1940)
Audrey Wetta did not deny her role as a Madam or even as a prostitute herself. She testified that “she believed correctly managed ‘houses’ were a service to men, as she had noted when she was employed in a hospital that 84 percent of the girls men picked up for immoral purposes transmitted a social disease to the men, while only four percent of the cases came from girls who were recognized prostitutes.”
Wetta told Judge D. A. Parson, “the first time she allowed her hotel to be used for illegal purposes was when a young Marine returned from a year and a half overseas to find the girl to whom he was engaged was going to marry someone else. In remorse he approached Mrs. Wetta and she arranged for a young wife in the hotel, who was in need of $10, to ‘entertain’ the remorseful Marine.”
She went on to say that after military personnel at Camp Pendleton diminished, so did her income. Wetta was $20 short in her monthly rent, and had “decided to entertain two men at $15 each, $10 of which was to go to a marine bringing the men to her, in order to raise the $20.”
After hearing her testimony, Judge Parsons sentenced Audrey Wetta to a year in the county jail.
Owner George Edward Haddox sold the hotel one week later to Ralph and Ella Rogers who promptly renamed their establishment the Traveler’s Hotel (as listed in phone directories) or Hotel Travelers (painted on building).
Rogers opened Rogers Music Co., also known as Rogers Phonograph Service, on the lower level and maintained the boarding house on the second floor.
1968 Ad for Rogers’ Phonograph Service
In 1959, Ella Rogers operated Gale’s Café near the Oceanside Pier at 300 1/2 North Strand, and in addition to his record store, Ralph Ross Rogers ran the Silver Dollar Tavern located at 312 Third Street (now Pier View Way). Rogers was described as “a goodhearted man who loved his parents dearly and was respected by many.”
Ralph Ross Rogers courtesy Ruby Rogers McCormick
True
to its reputation, in 1962, there was a very public arrest at the Traveler’s, which
made local papers and only solidified its reputation. A young woman from Ohio, who had recently arrived
in Oceanside, brought two 15 year old runaways from San Diego to the boarding
house to exploit for prostitution. The girls told Oceanside Police Detective Floyd
Flowers that they were to work in exchange for lodging, food and clothing.
Ella
Rogers died in 1973, as Ralph continued to operate his music business while living
in his building on Cleveland Street. On September 26, 1976 Ralph Rogers was
found murdered at the Traveler’s Hotel, stabbed multiple times and strangled.
Hotel Travelers in 1981
One
month later an arrest was made. Joseph Shavon Whitaker, age 21, was arrested
for not only Rogers’ murder, but that of William O. Clark’s in a San Diego
hotel. Whitaker went to trial in 1977, was found guilty and sentenced to life
in prison.
After
Rogers’ death the building was vacated and left to deteriorate. It seemed
destined for the wrecking ball until it was purchased by realtor Chris Parsons
in 1982. Parsons saw the potential in the weathered building and began its
restoration.
Chris Parsons on balcony during restorationAfter restoration
While its reputation has been tainted with scandal, the building itself is nearly unchanged from when the Bunkers owned it over 130 years and provides historic charm and character to Downtown Oceanside.
“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 