There were allegations of unfair treatment and police brutality, as publicly and blatantly decreed by Reverend Gustav Briegleb, a Presbyterian minister and radio evangelist who led the publication of many causes in the city in the ‘20s and ‘30s. One of the famous cases that shook LA police at that time was the series of abductions and murders of young boys in California, an event now popularly known as The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.
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In 1926, ranch owner Gordon Stewart Northcott sent his 13-year-old nephew Sanford Clark from his home in Canada to his farmstead in Wineville, California. Northcott physically and sexually abused Clark, which soon came to the attention of the former’s sister, Jessie, during the day she visited the ranch. At the night of her visit, she learned of the murders that had taken place at Northcott’s place, and immediately reported it to the American Embassy in Canada. At once, the news became known to the entire Los Angeles and entire America after the LA police came to gather evidences against Northcott, leading to his arrest. But this did not leave the LA police unscathed.
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Reverend Gustav Briegleb’s social activism was essential to the reformation of the LA police, following the futile attempts of the police department to find the missing son of a single mother named Christine Collins. Reverend Briegleb castigated the police department’s duplicitous acts to close the Collins case instantly and refusal to accept that it was related to the Wineville murders.
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| Image Source: chickenmurders.blogspot.com |
After Northcott’s capture and execution, the LA police went to several reforms, in the hopes of finally creating a good name and gaining back the public’s trust.
Atty. Craig Seldin’s broad law practice includes civil rights-related cases. Learn more about his legal expertise here.
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