My Dark Places Read Online Free PDF Page A

tried, convicted and sentenced to a short prison term.
    Sheriff’s Homicide handled both cases. Their last three El Monte murders got cleared in fucking record time.
    The Jean Ellroy job was running longer already.

3

    T he
Times, Express
and
Mirror
gave it page-two play. It made the local TV news for five seconds.
    The redhead rated zero. The Johnny Stompanato snuff was the real goods. Lana Turner’s daughter shanked Johnny back in April. The story was still hot news.
    The
Mirror
ran a shot of the redhead smiling. The
Times
ran a picture of the kid just after the cops gave him the word. Jean Ellroy was the twelfth county murder victim of 1958.
    Armand Ellroy went down to the Coroner’s Office early Monday morning. He identified the body and signed a Health and Safety Code form to release it to the Utter-McKinley Mortuary. Dr. Gerald K. Ridge performed the autopsy: Coroner’s Case File #35339-6/23/58.
    He ascribed cause of death to “asphyxia due to strangulation by ligature.” His anatomic summary noted the “totally occlusive double ligature” around the victim’s neck. He noted that the victim was in her menstrual phase. His smear for spermatozoa turned up positive. He found a tampon at the rear of the vaginal vault.
    He noted the “surgical absence” of the victim’s right nipple. He diagrammed the scrapes on her hips and knees and the bruises on the insides of her thighs. He described the body asbeing “that of a well-developed, well-nourished, unembalmed white female.” His external examination notes cut straight to the two garrotes:
    There is a double tightly occlusive ligature about the neck, producing deep grooving of the soft tissues. This ligature is comprised of both a length of apparent clothesline cord, which has apparently been placed first about the neck and knotted tightly in the left posterior region. The ends of the cord are free, one extremely short and apparently having been broken loose at the knot, while the other one is of moderate length and extends inferiorly. Apparently applied over the first ligature is a tightly knotted nylon stocking, the knot likewise located in the left posterior lateral surface. The nylon ligature overlies the long limb of the clothesline ligature at that point. The nylon stocking appears to have been tightly affixed by the usual overhand knot first and in the formation of the second knot, one limb of the free end has been looped under a partial slip knot, which is quite tightly drawn up.
    Dr. Ridge removed the ligatures and noted the “deep pallid groove” around the neck. He shaved the victim bald and described her head tissues as “Intensely cyanotic and suffused with dark bluish-purple discoloration.” He cut the scalp down to the skull and pulled the flaps back. He diagrammed eleven wounds and labeled them “intense red deep scalp ecchymoses.”
    The doctor sawed off the top of the head and examined the victim’s brain tissue. He weighed it and found “no evidences of injury or other intrinsic abnormalities.” He cut open the victim’s stomach and found whole kidney beans, meat shards, orange-yellow masses resembling carrots or squash and yellowish masses resembling cheese.
    He examined the rest of the body and found no other evidence of trauma. He took a blood sample to be held for chemical analysis and removed portions of the vital organs for potential microscopic study.
    He extracted food particles from the stomach to be held and analyzed. He froze the spermatozoa smear—to be held and blood-typed.
    A toxicologist took a blood sample and screened it for alcohol content. His reading was low: .08%.
    A forensic chemist checked the body. He found small white carpetlike fibers under the victim’s right middle fingernail and bagged them as evidence. He took the two garrotes, the victim’s dress, right stocking and brassiere to the Sheriff’s Crime Lab. He noted that the unraveled strangling cord was 17 inches long—yet had tightened to 3 inches