Beverly Hills Confidential : A Century of Stars, Scandals and Murders Read online

  The first traffic accident in Beverly Hills was near Olympic Boulevard. Los Angeles is off in the distance.

  Moonshine was discovered after a car wreck.

  Charlie Blair, the first Beverly Hills chief of police, appeared with Honorary Mayor Will Rogers.

  Rudolph Valentino was renowned as “The Sheik”

  A first for the Bevery Hills Police Department: crowd control at Rudolph Valentino’s second funeral.

  1912

  The Beverly Hills Hotel • Trouble At The Pink Palace

  Investor Burton Green was in trouble. Green and his business partners had just made a really bad call. They had hoped to find oil under the bean fields in Beverly Hills—after all, there was plenty of black gold in nearby Los Angeles. But instead of oil, all the wannabe wildcatters dug up was water. The year was 1906.

  Time for a new plan: sell the land as lots for exclusive homes. They chose the name Beverly Hills (after reading an article about President Taft vacationing in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts) and dressed up the area with lush, grassy parks, and magnificent palm trees. Only one problem: sales were slow (the average price of five hundred dollars per parcel was a few hundred more than most lots in Los Angeles). The company needed a draw, some sort of magnet to get the attention of wealthy homebuyers, so Green decided to build a big—a really big—hotel and paint it pink.

  Green hired the best manager in the business, Margaret Anderson, a widow, to run the new hotel—she was the pioneering manager who turned the Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles into a class act. Anderson performed the same magic at the Beverly Hills Hotel when it opened in May of 1912, creating a tourist destination as well as a community gathering spot for dances, parties, church services, and even movie screenings. At last, a buying and building boom began, and a village was born. On January 23, 1914, Beverly Hills became a real city, incorporation papers and all. Population: 550.

  Unfortunately, along with attracting the rich and famous, the hotel attracted troublemakers, too. The first time law enforcement was called to the hotel, the complaint was noisy guests playing a too-lively game of poker. Marshal Greenwood arrived to conduct a thorough investigation. He determined that no laws had been broken and promptly sat down to play cards and have a few drinks. He lost his job shortly after, accused of being “stewed up” (drunk) on duty—and “laying down under a palm tree to recover,” according to police reports.

  A far more serious crime occurred years later when some unwelcome guests arrived at the hotel on March 31, 1926, around 3 a.m. Two young men in their twenties, dressed in dark suits, tweed overcoats, and stylish caps, quietly entered the lobby. They approached the night manager, Charlie Fitts.

  Suddenly, there was a flash of metal as one of the bad guys pulled out a gun and commanded Fitts to open the safe. Charlie struggled to make the dial do its job, when suddenly, whack! One of the punks slugged him, knocking him to the floor. The other brute yanked him back up to his knees. This time, despite a case of the shakes, Charlie opened the safe and out poured treasure: sparkling jewels and wads of cash, stashed there by safety-conscious hotel guests, and worth ten thousand dollars.

  The thugs grabbed the loot and made a quick getaway. Newspaper headlines noted, “Police have slender clews” (that’s how they spelled “clue” back then). But the brutes didn’t get away with the dastardly deed. A few months later, the young men were caught robbing yet another hotel. Police used fingerprint technology for the first time in Beverly Hills to catch the thieves, lifting prints from Charlie’s safe, and putting the youthful bandits behind bars.

  An original brochure featured the bridle path that stretched all the way to the pacific ocean.

  Newspapers described the Beverly Hills Hotel as a “monster hostelry” that cost three hundred thousand dollars to build.

  1918

  The First Sensational Divorce • Scorned Wife’s Judo Justice

  They call it “crazy time,” that period couples go through during a divorce. Smart v. Smart was an epic custody battle that culminated in a showdown involving guns, judo experts, and a bizarre hostage: a house.

  When the Smart marriage crumbled in the couple’s Canadian homeland, Howard Smart, an accountant, was despondent. Not only would his temperamental wife, Marie, abandon the family and disappear for long periods of time, but when she was at home, she spoke constantly of how she intended to get her hands on “some of the millions” belonging to her sister-in-law who was married to one of the richest men in Canada.

  After a series of court battles and a highly unusual ruling, the father was awarded custody of the couple’s seven-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son. Howard Smart moved his fractured little family into a guesthouse at his sister’s new estate in Beverly Hills. He was hoping to raise his children in peace, now that his wife had disappeared again.

  But his tranquility was shattered one chilly November night in 1918, when, during the middle of dinner, Marie Smart reappeared, bursting through the door with two judo experts at her side. She’d come to take her kids. Smart leapt into action, took out his .45 Automatic, fired several shots into the air, grabbed the children, and quickly whisked them up to the main house where they all spent the night. His wife refused to leave the guesthouse. She settled in for the night with her two sidekicks as bodyguards. The house was her hostage until morning, when she was arrested for disturbing the peace.

  Marie Smart’s trial was the talk of Beverly Hills. Newspaper reports detailed how the jury and audience, made up of “men and women from the less-luxuriant walks of life” were riveted by the testimony. (The case was heard with just eleven jurors after one was excused by the judge, “owing to urgent housework.”) When Smart took the stand, she testified that her rich sister-in-law had verbally poisoned her children against her, telling them their mom was crazy. She described how her kids wouldn’t hug or kiss her anymore, and began to cry. The jury was moved to tears as well and deliberated just three minutes before coming back with an acquittal.

  The Smarts worked things out between themselves eventually. Howard Smart took over primary care of the children, but not before another unusual legal twist. The judo duo (who were never arrested) decided to charge him with attempted murder. Smart hired the most famous criminal attorney at the time, Earl Rogers,* to represent him in court. “A man’s home is his castle,” Rogers passionately proclaimed, explaining Smart wasn’t aiming to kill, rather just to frighten intruders away to protect his children. Thanks to Rogers’ eloquent arguments, the lawsuit was dismissed. It was a groundbreaking case, one that would go on to be cited in future incidents involving capital crimes and homeowners.

  In later years, after the children were grown, Howard Smart became the first volunteer deputy probation officer for the courts in Beverly Hills, saying he wanted to give back to the city where he had been treated so fairly and had finally been able to raise his children in peace.

  * Earl Rogers was an impressive legal superstar of the times, losing only three of seventy-seven murder trials. A popular 1960s television program, called Perry Mason, was based on his career. Rogers’ daughter, Adela, was often his sidekick in court. She went on to become famous in her own right as Adela Rogers St. Johns, one of the era’s best “girl reporters.”

  The only known photo of the Smart divorce case doesn’t show the couple, just Mrs. Wood, on the right, who filed charges against “crazy Marie.” Before Beverly Hills had a courtroom, cases were tried in an area of town named Sherman (now the city of West Hollywood).

  1920

  The Beverly Hills Speedway Tragedy • Chevrolet Heir Dies

  Beverly Hills ushered in the roaring 1920s with the sound of racecars. A group of fun-loving actors and investors, known as the Beverly Hills Speedway Syndicate, raised some five hundred thousand dollars to build a spectacular speedway and stadium that seated over seventy thousand people.

  The “toothpick” track (it was made of wooden planks) was a mile and a quarter long with a thirty-five-degree b
ank. Second only in stature to the venerable Indianapolis speedway, the track was an instant sensation, and its Indy 500-style races were broadcast nationwide, adding to the city’s newly glamorous appeal. The winning speed on opening day registered an eye-popping 103.2 miles per hour. “Californians Thrilled when Daring Riders Pace Fastest Track in the World with Terrific Speed,” touted the headlines.

  But tragedy struck on Thanksgiving Day of 1920, the last race of the inaugural season. Police were called to the scene after a terrible accident occurred involving Gaston Chevrolet, the younger brother of the founder of the Chevrolet car company. Investigators pieced together the story of what happened from eyewitnesses: Gaston and another driver appeared to be fighting to make up the half-dozen laps they were behind. Suddenly, three cars bunched up on a turn. Chevrolet tried to pass, but his heavy racing car struck and sideswiped a Duesenberg, sending autos careening out of control and over the top of the track. The impact tore out about twenty feet of fence; the vehicles rolled down an incline; and Chevrolet’s car landed on top of another, pinning inside the driver and his ride-along mechanic. When the dust cleared, it was a heartbreaking sight; three men, including Chevrolet, were dead. One person, Chevrolet’s mechanic, walked away from the smash-up, but suffered serious injuries.

  Chevrolet, an up-and-coming driver who won the Indy 500 earlier in the year, was just twenty-eight years old when he died. Friends said he’d been sick for several days and almost bowed out of the race, deciding at the last minute to get into his car. His body was flown back for burial in Indianapolis where he lived. The next race, a few weeks later, began with a moment of silence as the engines then roared to life.

  The track stayed open for only four years. It was razed because property values had skyrocketed and land-hungry business developers made an offer the city couldn’t refuse. And with that, the brief era of NASCAR 90210 became history.

  Beverly Hills Speedway stretched from where Beverly Hills High School and the Beverly Wilshire Hotel would one day be located.

  The flames behind the vehicles were added by artists to enhance the impact of news photos.

  The deadly crash occurred on lap 146 of 200.

  Gaston Chevrolet’s green race car was a redesigned Monroe Frontenac.

  Gaston Chevrolet, twenty-eight when he died, was named the national “Speed King of the Year.”

  1922

  The Secret Attic Lover • Crazy Love Triangle

  One of the first grocery stores in Beverly Hills was owned by a very private widow who lived in near-seclusion above the store, but Beverly Hills police knew exactly who she was and were keeping an eye on her: Dolly Oesterreich, the woman behind the most fantastic murder story of the times, involving a secret teenage sex slave she had stashed in her attic for more than a decade, while her husband was totally unaware.

  The salacious saga began in Milwaukee. Dolly, whose real first name was Walburga, was married to Fred, a wealthy apron manufacturer. She liked his money, but found him boring. So when this twenty-six-year-old housewife needed her sewing machine fixed, she used the opportunity to get her insatiable sex drive fixed, too—by Otto Sanhuber, the seventeen-year-old sewing machine repairman her husband sent over from the factory. Suddenly, Dolly’s machine needed a lot of repairs.

  The crazed lovers wanted more together time, so they came up with a novel plan for a love nest. Otto moved into the couple’s 10-by-28-foot attic, and during the day, while husband Fred was at work, the couple carried on sexual trysts in between cooking and cleaning house together. Then, at night, before Fred would come home, Otto retreated to the tiny rooftop room where he wrote lusty romance stories and murder mysteries by candlelight, articles he occasionally sold to magazines. For ten years, in five different homes (the last one in Los Angeles), Otto lived secretly tucked away in the attics.

  On August 22, 1922, Otto heard a violent argument erupt down below. Fred was threatening Dolly. Fearing for his ladylove’s safety, the attic boy blew his cover and raced downstairs with a pistol. Husband Fred recognized Otto and was shell-shocked. The two men struggled and Otto fired, shooting his former boss twice in the heart, once in the back of the head. Fred was dead.

  The secret lovers quickly concocted an alibi: Dolly would tell police that burglars killed her husband. They swore on their undying love they would never tell anyone what had really happened. Otto locked Dolly in a closet and ran to his attic haunt to hide. The police showed up, were suspicious, but didn’t have any evidence to file charges.

  It would be almost a year later before some of the truth came out. Dolly had amassed two more male “friends” by then (with Otto still living in the attic). The first new friend, Roy Klumb, turned her in to the cops after she broke off their relationship. He went straight to police and told them he’d thrown a gun into the La Brea Tar Pits for Dolly, and he realized now it was probably the murder weapon that she may have used to kill her husband.

  Dolly was arrested, and on her first night in jail, she made an odd request to her other “friend” (her estate attorney, Howard Shapiro): please go to her house, tap on the attic door, and tell the man inside it’s okay to come out. Shapiro obliged and was shocked to see someone pop out. Otto and Shapiro began talking, and once Otto learned Dolly was in jail, he spilled the beans about what really happened. Shapiro didn’t believe him, called him a liar and shoved Otto out the front door, telling him to get lost. (Otto moved to Portland, changed his name and got married, telling his new wife that his memory of events prior to 1923 had deserted him.)

  Dolly’s trial got underway. She never said a word about her secret attic lover/killer and the charges were dismissed; the jury didn’t believe she killed her husband. Dolly returned to her empty home, Shapiro moved in, seven years elapsed, and Dolly lost interest in him, breaking off their relationship. Shapiro, finally out from under her spell, went straight to the police, told them the unbelievable tale of her attic lover/murderer. Both Otto and Dolly were arrested this time, she charged with conspiracy, he with murder.

  Otto confessed all in front of the press. Peering from behind horn-rimmed glasses, he said memories of that fateful night tormented him. “I thought Mrs. Oesterreich was being killed. Suddenly I went mad with rage, seized my little automatic pistol, and ran downstairs. Oesterreich whirled on me, and I pulled the trigger. I ran back up to the little room and lay down. I was stiff with fright.” Reporters had a field day with the sensational facts, calling Otto “Bat Man,” “Garret Ghost,” and “Attic Sex Slave.”

  The jury found Otto guilty, but he was set free because the statute of limitations had run out. When it was Dolly’s turn to stand trial again, she retained a brilliant young attorney named Jerry Geisler* who did his job well. Geisler asked her on the stand why she never told the truth. Dolly replied, weeping, “I didn’t believe that he meant to do it, and I didn’t want to expose my life to the world—having him in the house.” The jury was unable to reach a verdict and the charges against Dolly were dismissed.

  After the trial, Otto faded from public view, never to be heard from again. But Dolly’s love life was still getting her into trouble. She began an affair with her business manager, Ray Hedrick, who was twelve years younger—and married. Ray’s wife filed a three-hundred-thousand-dollar lawsuit against Dolly for alienation of affections; the suit was dismissed, and Ray got a divorce. Dolly and Ray stayed together for more than thirty years, and just two weeks before she died of cancer at the age of seventy-five, Dolly and Ray got married. Dolly wrote in her will, “I give it all to my friend, Ray.” Legend has it police checked her Beverly Hills home before her body was taken away; the attic was empty.

  * Jerry Geisler was a famous go-to lawyer for troubled stars. He became a household name in the United States for his handling of legendary cases, such as the Charlie Chaplin paternity suit and theater mogul Alexander Pantages’ acquittal on rape charges. Time magazine lauded him as a great performer who could stand proud among the actors he represented, noting hi
s polished delivery should have earned him at least a half-dozen Oscars.

  An early photo of Dolly and Fred Oesterreich.

  Dolly Walburga in court.

  Otto “The Attic Lover” Sanhuber shows officials the door to his secret hideaway.

  Dolly Oesterreich appears in court with her attorney, Jerry Geisler, standing at right.

  In the early 1900s it was common practice to identify jurors, and newspapers were free to print their names.

  A detective shows the gun used to kill Fred Oesterreich.

  Dolly Walburga and her lover Otto to her right.

  1925

  The Acid-Throwing Bride • Husband Blinded

  Mrs. Day knew from the start that the beautiful stranger on her doorstep, named Bernice, was trouble. The nineteen-year-old girl was standing next to Mrs. Day’s only child and son, twenty-one-year-old Darby. He cleared his throat and said with a shaky smile, “Mom, I…I’d like you to meet the girl I just married.”