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"I just don't know why I did it. We had an argument about bootlegging and I hit her over the head with an iron bar." |

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That was the brief explanation offered on February 24, 1932 by James (Jimmy) Reid, 39, bootlegger and auto mechanic, for the death of Mrs. Anne Terrell, 40, whose body was dug up beneath a garage at 323 N. Flores St. "We were always arguing," Reid said. "She wanted me to go back to bootlegging, but I didn't want to. I wasn't drunk, but I got so mad I picked up an iron bar and let her have it. I was sorry right away, but that didn't do me any good." Reid told police that he and Mrs. Terrell and her daughter Harriet May, 11, had lived in the house for about a month. "It was about 10:30 o'clock in the morning," Reid said. "We were on the back porch when I hit her. I dragged her into the garage, dug a hole and put her in it. I covered up the grave and later got some fresh gravel and sprinkled it over the ground. I told Harriet that her mother had got a job on location with a moving-picture company and wouldn't be back for sometime." Police found the body in soft dirt, four feet from the surface. |



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Beginning in 1914, film people have made West Hollywood home. The city has been and still is a mixture of aspiring actors, has-beens, and established stars. Drugs, liquor, and sex of all kinds were and still are easily available on the streets of West Hollywood. Arrests of drunks, dope addicts, and prostitutes, plus murders, suicides, and divorces have been almost an every day occurrence. |
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Popular band leader Hal Grayson, 40, was arrested on an intoxication charge at his home at 1253 N. Laurel Ave. on May 4, 1948, just three days after being released from Castaic prison farm, where he served 50 days on a previous intoxication charge. After pleading innocent, Grayson explained to the Judge: "I have had a difficult problem with alcohol. But, my entire career is now at stake. Would it be possible for me to he commit himself to the Camarillo State Hospital to beat this thing?" The judge replied that such an arrangement could be made a condition of probation. So Grayson changed his plea to guilty. Then the Judge suspended a 60-day County Jail sentence and granted Grayson two years probation provided he voluntarily commit himself. On June 26, 1949, Grayson was arrested again at his home at 1253 N. Laurel on another drunk charge and also on a charge of molesting his aunt, with whom he was living. It was his 10th arrest for drunkenness. He was sentenced to 120 days in the County Jail unless he would commit himself to the Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino rather than spend the next 120 days in the County Jail. He was further ordered by the court to refrain from drinking alcoholic spirits for a two-year probationary period and also to refrain from molesting his aunt. Grayson agreed. "I hope they know that I am a sick man, and that I will try "again to cure myself. |
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