Del Howison and his wife Sue were early and constant supporters of Gourmet Ghosts, and last year in 2025 they finally made the decision to close their legendary store on Magnolia Blvd in Burbank – though they’re still doing pop-ups and very active online. Anyway, I wanted to talk to him before the doors closed for the last time, and so SFGate sent me there…
October 23, 1983 – The LA Times reported on a crime that saw Police “baffled,” and had taken place the month before on Mexican Independence Day – still a big event on Olvera Street.
Glendale resident Elisabeth Sawicki, 53, was dressed in an outfit of “royal blue with large, bright and red and green floral patterns,” said LAPD Detective Joe Hargis. She had been celebrating the famous defeat of the Spanish at the El Paseo Inn, where she was a regular and known to all.
However, when she was returning to her car parked in Chinatown at around 8pm, she was shot and killed. Robbery wasn’t the motive – her purse wasn’t taken – and despite there being many people in the crowded streets no one had come forward.
Sawicki was said to have “no apparent enemies,” and so the lack of witnesses made this apparently motiveless murder even more confusing – and the killing was never solved.
My latest article for Crime Reads relates to The Alaskan Blonde, and expands much more on what’s in the book about “Perry Mason” author Erle Stanley Gardner, whom the Wells family asked to recommend a private eye who could look into Cecil’s murder. Gardner’s choice was “Bud” Bodell, a cigar-chomping PI with an amazing story of his own…
My articles for CrimeReads are about crime on the Titanic, several Halloween nights when trick-or-treat turned deadly in LA., the 1929 murder of LA vintner Frank Baumgarteker (his body was never found but the case was investigated for years), the love triangle murder that entangled the San Diego “Xmas Tree King”, and about Lucille Parker and Alexander Mackay, two young lovers who committed dozens of robberies in LA in the early 1930s: she was called “the red-haired bandit queen”!
The Cecil Hotel in downtown LA is infamous for murders and suicides – plus the “Night Stalker” stayed here, and tourist Elisa Lam was found dead in the roof water tank. I wrote about the Cecil Hotel recently celebrating its 100th birthday, and how one man is trying to make a difference…. https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/cecil-hotel-la-priest-20059489.php
Recently I appeared on LAist 89.3FM to talk about six undiscovered and unusual museums in LA – including the Museum of Death in Hollywood! You can read my article about it here
It was great fun meeting SpookyFoodie at her Spooky’s Restaurant Club – the place was packed with lovely people who liked LA history, ghosts and crime: my type of people! Here are some pics…
My latest article for SFGate is about America’s first Bonnie & Clyde – robbers Alexander Mackay and Lucille Walker – whose gang terrorized LA in the early 1930s. Mackay ended up in San Quentin, condemned to death after a failed escape, and he decided to get help. Being a British subject (born in Scotland), he wrote King Edward VIII for help…
https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/california-crime-couple-bonnie-clyde-21069355.php
My recent piece for the BBC about the discovery of the resting place of actress Elsa Lanchester (famous for playing The Bride of Frankenstein) is here.
