Actress Shannon Doherty was sued in 1994 for trashing a home she had rented at 1654 N. Doheny Drive The home once belonged to Hollywood madam Elizabeth "Alex" Adams who ran a house of prostitution in it


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2040       The body of Lowell Goode, 49, was found in the backyard of his homeat 2040 Davies Way in November, 1955. Police said that he had been dead for three days and had killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head. Goode's 8-year-old son Alan was plying on the hillside in back of the house when he saw his father's feet sticking out of the brush. Goode was the general manager of a Culver City automobile agency.


7322       Former child star Bobby Driscoll was arrested here in his home at 7322 De Longpre Ave. in June, 1960, and booked on an assault with a deadly weapon charge after a fight with two other men. The trouble started in front the home of a friend, Suzanne Carrier, 34 at 18630 Topanga Canyon Road. He was washing her car when hecklers appeared and the fight started in which Driscoll was said to have hit one of them with a pistol.
Where is He Now? Driscoll, a drug addict, died penniless and alone in an abandoned New York tenement in 1968 at age 31. He is buried in Potter's Field on Hart Island in New York

8214       Mrs. Leslie Dean, 40, of 8214 De Longpre Ave., was found dead on the floor of her bedroom in August 1945, by her two daughters who told police she had been in the same position for two days. Her daughters, Colleen Garrity, 18, and Patsy Garrity, 16, thought she was asleep.

8241       Mrs. Lillian Braxton Sloane, society woman and voice teacher, of 8241 De Longpre Ave., was granted a divorce from director Paul H. Sloan in December, 1935. She testified that he was rude to her and friends, and often refused to speak to her. He never took me anywhere," she said, "and often told me he wanted to get rid of me." She got the house here, the car, and their 7-year-old son, John Paul.
Where Is He Now? Sloan died on November 15, 1i963 of a heart attack at age 76.
—    Directors Frank Lloyd, and Irving Cummings lived here in the early 1920s.


8327       Silent screen star Wallace Reid and his wife and costar, Dorothy Davenport, built their home at 8327 De Longpre Ave. in 1920 in a new development called Hacienda Park. The estate extended all the way north to Sunset Boulevard. In 1919, while his popularity was at its peak, Reid suffered head injuries in a train crash and was given frequent doses of morphine to ease his pain. He became addicted to the drug and turned to heavy drinking. He was placed in a Hollywood sanitarium in 1923 where he died in his wife's arms on January 18, 1923 at age 32. A large apartment complex is now on the site of their former home.
Where Are They Now? Reid's ashes are in Forest Lawn Glendale in the Great Mausoleum, Holly Terrace, Azalea Corridor. Davenport never remarried and spent the rest of her life campaigning on the evils of drug addiction She died on October 22, 1977 at age 87. at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Her ashes are next to her husband in Forest Lawn.

8400       On June 5, 1931, police battered down the door of an exclusive residence at 8400 De Longpre Ave. and arrested two men for illegal gambling and seized a quantity of liquor and alcohol and confiscated an elaborate well-equiped bar. When they were refused admittance to the house, the police broke down the door with a battering ram. Inside were more than a score of persons, including two waiters, two cooks, and musicians. The house, owned by T. Brotherton Jr., was also raided about 10 days earlier. The Whitehouse condos were on the site in 1982.

8477       Raoul Fernanez, 50, retired stock broker and widower of Coca-Cola heiress Katherine Fernandez reported to police that his apartment at 8477 De Longpre had been robbed in October 1960, and a 120-lb safe containing over $3 million in jewelry, Coca-Cola stocks and deeds was stolen and carried way. The thieves entered the apartment either with a key or by reaching up through the swinging cutaway entrance for the dog in the back door. Fernandez had lived here only two months. Three days later, Fernandez told police that the theft amounted to only $70,000. Fernandez's wife, Mrs. Katherine G. Johnson Fernandez, 67, society woman, and the granddaughter of Asa G. Candler, founder of the Coca Cola Co., died on September 24, 1956 in her home at 847 Linda Flora in Bel Air. She was found unconscious and kneeling beside her bed. An autopsy failed to determine the cause of death. Police said it was a natural death.


6119       Mrs. Barbara Cameron, 37, committed suicide in her home at 6119 Del Valle Drive in September, 1941. Her body was found in her car in the garage behind the house. A garden hose was run from the exhaust pipe to the inside of the car. A note inside the car dwindled off into a scribble. Another note to her husband, Herbert, an attorney, was found in her bedroom.

6203       Herman Nathanson, 47, a women's apparel manufacturer of 6203 Del Valle Drive, was found dead in his car on a lonely stretch of Mulholland Drive in February, 1951. His wife told police that he had been depressed over financial matters and when he left the house, he told her he was going on a business trip.



511       After Mrs. William Chalios of 511 N. Detroit St. took mechanic Walter Brubaker, 64, into her garage to show him some old junk, she noticed that a pair of longjohn underwear was missing after he left. She called police who arrested Brubaker an hour later when they found the longjohns in his possession. Brubaker was sentenced to thirty days in jail.

512       Ray R. Rife of 5121 N. Detroit St. was arrested by the vice squad during a liquor raid at the BBB Cellar Cabaret at 1651 Cosmo St. in Hollywood on October 2, 1932

1109       When police came to arrest Mrs. Gale Martin, 19, on disturbance charges at her home at 1109 N. Detroit St. in August 1936, they were greeted with a hail of dishes and fists. She later pleaded guilty, was given a thirty-day sentence and placed on probation for six months.

1315       When Thora Marie Rose, 43, was killed in her small apartment at 1315 N. Detroit St. in October 1963, her killer escaped and left no clues. A waitress at the lunch counter of King's Pharmacy on Pico Blvd., she was bludgeoned and strangled to death during a burglary and attempted rape. She was found dead in bed, face-down in her nightgown, a pillow covering here head and a wound at the back of her skull.
Whatever Happened to Her Killer? Thirty years later in 1993, a computer matched the fingerprints found at the scene with those of Vernon Robinson, 45, a $70,000-a-year Minneapolis maintenance supervisor. He was arrested, brought to trial, convicted of her murder, and sentenced to life in prison. In 1994, 60 Minutes did a story on the killer suggesting that he was innocent.



135       Wayne Jordan, a deputy district attorney, shot and killed himself in his home at 135 S. Detroit St. in April, 1933. After returning home from work around 6 p.m., Jordan took his coat and vest off, walked into his son's bedroom in the rear of the house, lay down on the bed and shot himself with a new revolver he had bought the day before.
Where is He Now? Jordan is buried in Forest Lawn Glendale.

141        Henry Brooks, co-owner of the Seven Seas restaurant at 6904 Hollywood Blvd., and the Rag Doll night club, on Victory Blvd. in North Hollywood, was arrested by the vice squad in his home at 141 S. Detroit St. in November, 1968, and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit prostitution.

162       David Clark, a local deputy district attorney, was arrested in his home at 162 S. Detroit St. on May 20, 1931, after he shot and killed Charles Crawford, a local powerful politician, and reporter Herbert F. Spencer in Crawford's real estate office at 6665 Sunset Boulevard. At his trial, Clark admitted killing them in self-defense and was found not guilty. The first microphone used in a trial in California was used in this sensational trial.
Whatever Happened to Him? In the early 1950s, Clark, in a fit of rage, killed a good friend’s wife. A few days after his arrest, he died in the county jail of a heart attack.

221       Two armed men surprised a party of two women and two men in the driveway of the home of Mrs. Harriett Raecha at 221 S. Detroit St., in May, 1933, and took $6000 in jewels and cash. The victims had just driven into the driveway when the bandits stepped from behind a hedge and while one of the bandits stood with a gun in each hand, the second one opened the car door and demanded the jewels and cash.

354       A bandit held up Emmanuel Leskowitz and his wife in their home in the Bon Sejour Apartments at 354 S. Detroit St. in September, 1930, and robbed them of $400 cash, the reciepts from a stand Leskowitz owned in Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles.

625       Louis Azaro, 51, known among gamblers as "Fogarty," and the onetime principal stockholder of the Inglewood dog racing track, was arrested at his home at 625 S. Detroit St. in May, 1946, and questioned about the Beverly Hills gangland killing of Paul (Paulie) Gibbons

654       Suffering from an acute mental disorder, Mrs. Mary Bergin, 57, plunged from the window of her fourth-floor apartment at 654 S. Detroit St. in August, 1931. Mrs. Bergin, who had recently been released from a sanatorium was killed when her body struck a parked car outside the Wilshire Manor apartments.

735       The body of T.M. Ewing, 50, was found reclining in the seat of his car in the garage of his home at 735 S. Detroit St. in September, 1926. He had died of carbon monoxide gas. A kit of tools was opened and its contents were spread about the running board of the car as though Ewing had intended to do some repair work.

919       Mrs. Louise Lanyon, while walking near her home at 919 S. Detroit St. in July, 1925, was attacked and stabbed with a darning needle by a man. The darning needle that was attached to a broom handle, was removed from her shoulder by surgeons. She was the second woman in two weeks that had been stabbed by the madman.



8900-9100       Dicks Street is a two-block (8900-9100) stretch of 44 small homes. The street's many tall trees that line the street imparts a pleasant, domestic sleepiness to the place. Many residents, however, are embarrassed to have the street as their address because its name is the plural of a common slang term for the defining part of the male anatomy (and for "not very nice fellow"). In 2005, a resident named Michael Fisk began collecting other residents' signatures on a petition asking the West Hollywood City Council to rename the street "Dickson Lane." A majority signed. The City Council tabled the matter indefinitely.


4521       The body of ex-actress Francine Wallweber, 30, was found strangled in a closet in a bunglow at 4521 Dockweiler St. in August, 1964. She was clothed and a sample wig case was in the closet beside her. Miss Wallweber worked for the Michelangelo wig company of Hollywood, and had come to the house in response to an inquiry. Wallweber, who lived alone in a home she bought six weeks before at 5671 Spreading Oak Dr, in the Hollywood Hills, worked as a TV actress in "A Day in Court" and other shows but quit in 1962 to start business career. A few days after her body was found, Horace Lewis, 24, and his wife, Carolyn, 19, were arrested after a witness told police they had seen the couple driving Miss Wallweber's 1962 Pontiac convertible away from the neighborhood. When arrested, Mrs. Lewis was wearing one of the wigs carried by Wallweber. The victim's wrist watch, keys, purse, and 13 sample wigs were found in the Lewis home at 1735 W. Vernon. Wallweber's 1962 Pontiac was parked near the house. In 1965, charges against Mrs. Lewis were dropped, but Horace Lewis was found guilty of the murder of Miss Wallweber and was sentenced to life in prison.


959       A burglar ransacked the home of Paul Dessez at 959 N. Doheny Drive in June, 1934 and stole a jeweled studded cigarette case worth $600. Before he left, he emptied a gin bottle he found in the kitchen.

1014       Red-haired film actress Peggy O'Neill, 21, was found dead on April 13, 1945, in the apartment of screenwriter Albert Mannheimer Jr., at 1014 N. Dohney Drive. Police said she died from an overdose of sleeping tablets. Miss 0'Neill had just completed a minor role as a show girl in a picture and, according to her agent, Al Orsatti, was to have signed a long-term contract with Paramount on the day she was found. The death of the young actress reportedly climaxed a lover's quarrel with the wealthy young writer whom she had known for the last year. According to a statement made by Mannheimer, a dispute resulted when Miss 0'Neill arrived at the his apartment at 1015 N. Doheny Drive, accompanied by another man. Mannheimer said he went to a theater alone following the "misunderstanding" with Miss 0'Neill, and when he returned shortly after midnight he found her fully clothed body lying in the bedroom of the apartment. Miss O'Neill, lived with her mother, Helen 0'Neill, at 410 N. Rossmore Ave.
Where is She Now? She is buried in the Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles in the Main Mausoleum, Block 120, Crypt 1-A

1019       On January 4, 1938, seven men were arrested in a home at 1019 N. Doheny Drive for gambling. Gambling equipment and $1,755 were also seized. Homer Gordon (AKA Jack Donald) owner of the residence was one of those arrested. Gambling equipment taken from the house which had been operated as a casino for two weeks included an expensive roulette table, blackjack and dice tables and several thousand chips. Many of the customers were actors and movie executives. The were asked to leave the house and in the mad rush to get out, some of them left behind their furs, capes and top hats.

1654       A three-story Spanish house at 1654 N. Doheny Drive once belonged to Hollywood madam Elizabeth "Alex" Adams who ran a house of prostitution in it for several years before she was arrested in 1988. Adams, the bawdy Beverly Hills madam whose lavish and lucrative prostitution network catered to a private world of millionaire businessmen, movie stars and Saudi Arabian sheiks. She was the mother superior of prostitution, one of the richest women on earth. Even though her one-time assistant Heidi Fleiss took over her client list in 1991, Adams continued to operate her business from a house next to the parking lot of the West Hollywood sheriff's office. The house at 1654 N. Doheny was later rented by actress Shannen Doherty of "Beverly Hills 90210." In 1994. a lawsuit filed by Mark Nishimura, the owner of the house, claimed that Doherty trashed the home and skipped out owing $14,000 in overdue rent
Where is She Now? Adams died in Los Angeles during heart surgery on July 10, 1995 at age 60.


112       A week after actor Alan "Harry" Edwards died in his home a 112 N. Doheny Drive on May 8, 1954, his widow Nita Pike Edwards, 41, took her own life on May 11, in grief over his death. Her death was discovered 24 hours before services for Edwards were to begin. Married in 1938, They managed the building here where they lived. Police said that Mrs. Edwards, who who once appeared with her husband on the stage, left a note asking that she be cremated at his side, then killed herself with sleeping pills. She was found in bed, dressed in a beautiful nightgown. Nearby was a half-empty bottle of sleeping tablets and a note that read, "Please cremate me in this nightgown with my darling Harry." A will found in the apartment was dated December 10, 1933, and was signed by both of them. One part read: "As soon as we have passed on, we wish to be embalmed at once and cremated, all jewelry to be removed from our bodies. We wish no funeral or flowers. No caskets. Nita to be dressed in her nightgown. Alan to be dressed in pajamas. We request that our ashes be scattered over the Pacific Ocean from an elevation of 10,000 feet or higher, at least 10 miles from the shoreline
In another will dated October 10, 1944, and signed by Nita alone, directed that she be cremated in her peach nightgown with her husband and that thier ashes be placed in an urn and shipped to a cemetery in New York where Harry's parents were interred. It also directed that estate funds be used for the construction of a double bungalow at the Screen Actor's Guild Country Home in Woodland Hills.
Simple double funeral services were held in the Wee Kirk o' the Heather in Forest Lawn Glendale, attended by only slightly more than a score of close friends. An organist played Jerome Kern selections in slow time and Forest Lawn soloist John Lambert sang "Lady Be Good," a song which friends said that Mrs. Edwards introduced on Broadway. Lambert ended the services with "I Believe," a song that both of them admired.
Where Are They Now? The couple were cremated together and thier ashes were interred together in the Forest Lawn Mausoleum, Columbarium of Sunlight, Niche 240 (Private locked garden).

624       In 1935, director Raoul Walsh of 624 N. Doheny Drive, had an income lien was filed against him for unpaid taxes of $3053 in 1932 and $2946 in 1933. A lien was also filed against Lorraine Walsh of the same address for $11,193 for 1933.
Where is He Now? Walsh died in 1980 at age 83. He is buried in the Assumption Catholic Cemetery in Simi Valley, CA

660       Ross Alison, 34, a handsome Beverly Hills real estate loan executive was stabbed to death in his plush apartment at 660 N. Doheny Drive in September, 1963. He was found nude and bloody on his couch. Stabbed in the back, a bloody 10-inch steak knife was found in the apartment. Police said that Alison had staggered through the apartment before collapsing. A trail of blood led from the kitchen to the front door, to the bathroom, then to the couch. Two glasses were found in the kitchen next to an opened whiskey bottle that was nearly full.


702       John Criswell, 26, estranged husband of actress Anne Neyland, 26, was arrested in October, 1960, on charges that he threatened Neyland with a 12-inch butcher knife. She said that he was waiting for her at her apartment at 702 N. Doheny Drive and forced her into her car, He slapped her, tore her dress and waved the knife at her, saying that he was going to kill her. At Olive and Sunset Blvd., she managed to jump from the car and run to the parking lot attendant at Ciro's who called police. Criswell was later arrested when he was found hiding in bushes at her apartment. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with intent to commit murder and grand theft auto.

704       Actor Lawrence Tibbett Jr., 29, of 704 N. Doheny Drive was arrested in January, 1950, for drunk driving at Wilshire and San Vicente . Following a chase that began at Wilshire and Fairfax, he was driving erratically and went through a red light. "No publicity please," he told police. "I was just taking my girl home."

710       Actor Edward Tierney, 25, brother of actor Lawrence Tierney, was arrested at his apartment at 710 N. Doheny Drive on April 2, 1945, on suspicion of statutory criminal attack. The charge involved a 14-year-old girl and Mrs. Betty Lou Shanker of 8351 Sunset Blvd., who was arrested a week previous on suspicion of procuring for prostitution. According to police, the charge against Tierney occured in his apartment.



310       On December 20, 1939, William McLean of 310 S. Doheny Drive, stopped at a market on his way home from work and bought a little Christmas tree for his living room. When he got home, he expected a cheery greeting from his wife, but she wasn't home. Instead, he found a note on the table telling him that she was leaving him. The next day, he was arrested here on a charge of disturbing the peace after he had fired .35 revolver slugs into the walls and doors of his home. He was released on $100 bail. On December, 26, when his attorney came to the house to escort him to court for arraignment, he found McLean's body in his car in the garage with a hose leading into the car from the exhaust pipe. The police listed his death as a suicide and began a search for a farewell note


9245       Walter Kane, 45, actors agent and former husband of actress Lynn Bari, attempted suicide in his home at 9245 Doheny Road in December, 1947 by swallowing sleeping pills. He was taken to the Westside Emergency Hospital where his stomach was pumped. He had left a note to his closest friend Greg Bautzer, thanking him, Billy Wilkerson, Jack Dempsey, Rudy Vallee, Harry Cohn, and Howard Hughes for their friendship. In February, 1949, film director Leo McCarey was taken ill of an acute infection while visting Kane here in his home. He was taken to the hospital where he too survived.

Where Are They Now? Kane died in Las Vegas in May, 1983, at age 82. McCarey died in 1969 at age 71 of emphysema and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City in Section T, Tier 44, Grave 134



8091       Eddie Javer, 37, was arrested in his home at 8091 Dominion Way in December, 1965 for selling $240,000 worth of heroin and marijuana to undercover agents. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.




6252       Married less than a year, director Josef Von Sternberg and his wife, actress Riza Royce, separated while living at 6253 Drexel Avenue in October, 1926. Miss Royce left him on October 18, and two days later had nose surgery at the Dupont Hotel in Hollywood where she was recuperating. "I will sue for divorce as soon as I am up and about again," she said. (They divorced in 1930) Von Sternberg, at home in the house that he had built for his wife, said "I am very much cut up over the affair." In April, 1928, Von Sternberg pled guilty to possession of liquor that police found in his backyard on Drexel after neighbors complained of a wild party at the home. Von Sternberg also admitted that the pistol shots that neighbors heard were shot from a toy cap-gun. Two guests, John Farrow and B.P. Fineman, started a pistol duel in jest with the toys.

Where Are They Now? Von Sternberg died of a heart attack in 1969 at age 75, and is buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Westwood. Royce died of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1980 at age 77. Farrow, father of actress Mia Father, died of a heart attack in 1963 at age 59, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City in Section P, Lot 317, Grave 5.


2880       Mrs. Shirley Gerstel, 33, was bound, gagged, brutally beaten, and subjected to unspeakable indignities in her $50,000 home at 2880 Durand Drive in February, 1956. She told police that the wild-eyed attacker was the same man who scratched her arm with a broken beer bottle, tore her blouse, and banged her head on the floor several weeks earlier. Police said that she was beaten and jabbed with a stick which had been made into a weapon of torture by adding a nail on the end of it. Police said that she was slugged on the head by an unknown assailant wielding a pogo stick belonging to one of her five children. Found scrawled across her stomach, written with a ballpoint pen, were the words: "You can't kick me and get away with it, you ----." Men working nearby, gave a description of a man seen around the house. He was about 25, tall and slim, with dirty blond hair, bad teeth and horn rimmed glasses. Two weeks later, after a full investigation, police were convinced that her stories were unfounded. They said that Mrs. Gerstel, wife of a Beverly Hills dentist, recently underwent brain surgery that had left her in a physical condition in which she actually believed the attacks had taken place. They said that no complaint would be made against her for making a false police report.





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 wereand still are easily available on the streets of West Hollywood. Arrests of drunks, dope addicts, prostitutes plus murders, suicides, and divorces have been an almost every day occurrence.

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Actor Bobby Driscoll
was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon in 1960. (See 7322 De Longpre Ave. for details)

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Actor Wallace Reid, who died in 1923, was the first Hollywood star to die of drug addiction. (See 8327 De Longpre Ave. for details)

Madam Alex Adams was Hollywood’s queen of prostitution in 1988. (See 1654 N. Doheny Drive for details)

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Director Raoul Walsh was charged with not paying his income tax in 1935. (See 624 N. Doheny Drive for details)

Actress Rosito Moreno’s seven dogs were poisoned in 1931. (See 1015 N. Doheny Drive for details)

Actress Shannon Doherty was sued in 1994 for trashing a home she had rented. (See 1654 N. Doheny Drive for details)

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Director Joseph Von Sternberg was arrested for holding drunken wild parties in 1926. (See 6253 Drexel Ave. for details)

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Actress Nita Pike committed suicide in 1954, two days after her actor husband died. (See 112 N. Doheny Drive for details).