by Daniel Fox
Snipped from the front page of The Los Angeles Clarion: January 22, 1948
Skid Row Murderer Receives Death Penalty
By BOB TREE
Feature Writer
LOS ANGELES – Guilty of the torture-murder of Myrna Hodges and the murder of Skid-Row resident Theresa Fetherling, Doctor Vincent Bader has been sentenced to death in San Quentin Prison’s gas chamber on March 1 of this year.
Police authorities from the city of Munich, Germany, have contacted the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in the hopes of speaking to Doctor Bader before his execution. In his written confession Bader also confessed to multiple murders of women in his hometown of Munich. The local police there are hoping he will be able to help them close unsolved case files going back to the 1920s...
Snipped from the front page of The Los Angeles Clarion: March 2, 1948
Boogeyman of Skid Row Dies For Torture And Murder of Myrna Hodges
By IDA BLY and BOB TREE
Feature Writers
LOS ANGELES – A resident of San Quetin Prison since his arrest, Doctor Vincent Bader, originally of Munich, Germany, died in the gas chamber at 4:17 p.m. yesterday afternoon.
Guilty of the torture-murder of Myrna Hodges and the murder of Skid-Row resident Theresa Fetherling, Doctor Vincent Bader had been sentenced to death in San Quentin Prison’s gas chamber on March 1 of this year. He refused to contest the death penalty, and even requested in a letter that his execution be brought forward to the earliest possible date.
Bader requested a pot of Chasen’s chilly as his last meal. His last words, made while he was strapped into the chair inside the gas chamber, were a request to his audience: “Take out my brain and study it. I imagine there might be something of worth to be learned from it.”
Additionally, before his death Bader informed local authorities of the burial site of L.A.P.D. Homicide Detective Wallace “Wally” Clemp, the figure at the heart of the relationship between Doctor Bader and the three L.A.P.D. members who were found to be under the Doctor’s control during the investigation into the murder of Miss Hodges.
Bader related to these reporters that he had first met Detective Clemp at an L.A.P.D. charity event back in April of 1945...
Snipped from the Health and Sciences section of The Los Angeles Clarion: April 16, 1948
Living With The War
By BOB TREE
A Guest Post To Health And Sciences
I’ve been out of the war for three or so years now. But the war carries on in me. I wake up some nights swinging my fists at enemies that are no longer there. My chest gets constricted when I endure sometimes even the mildest forms of confrontation. It shames me. It unmans me. I’m sweating as I’m typing these words, knowing the world will be reading them in tomorrow’s Clarion.
But I am not lost. For some time now I have been seeing a psychologist provided through the offices of Veterans Affairs. Ten years ago the man I had been would have laughed at a man seeing a head-shrinker. These days, I look forward to my visits.
I encourage my fellow veterans to give it a try...
Snipped from the front page of The Los Angeles Clarion: May 2, 1948
Meet Myrna Hodges
By IDA BLY
Feature Writer
LOS ANGELES – A lot of the Clarion’s (and other newspapers’) ink has been dedicated to murderer Doctor Vincent Bader, the members of the Los Angeles Police Department that he had under his thumb, and even to myself and my colleague Bobby Tree.
Not nearly enough has been said about the one who lost the most, the victim, Myrna Hodges. Today the Clarion sets that slight right, with the kind permission of Myrna’s parents. In addition, we will take a moment to celebrate another of Bader’s victims, Theresa Fetherling, who is no less worthy of notice, but simply left us without enough resources to investigate her life. And of course, we must take a moment to remember the multitude of women Doctor Bader took his rage out on back in his home country of Germany after the death of his family.
Myrna was born in the sparse-populated county of...
MAY
CHAPTER 53
“Read it and weep, war-boy.”
Ida slapped a pamphlet down on Bob’s desk. He picked it up, scanned it. “Reporter Ida Bly to give talk at the Ebell of Los Angeles.” He put the pamphlet down. “Isn’t that a women’s club?”
“Yep.”
“They want you to inspire the girls huh?”
“Yep.”
“Do they know the kind of language you use?”
Ida snatched the pamphlet back. “It’s all English.”
“I mean, was Satan busy that day?”
“You’re just jealous.”
“Maybe. Wait... isn’t the Ebell the last place anyone saw Amelia Earhart before she flew off?”
“That’s right.”
“Here’s hoping it ends the same for you.”
“Cute.” Ida nodded at the page sticking up out of Bob’s typewriter. “What’cha working on there?”
Bob bent the page down so she couldn’t see the text. “Something really important.”
“You know how I know that you’re lying?”
“How?”
“If it was something really important the boss would have given it to me.”
“Hilarious. You’re hilarious.”
Ida started to head back for her desk. “And stunningly beautiful. Anyway, just thought you might want to know about my little talk. Maybe you’d like to attend, bring one of your actress powder puff girlfriends, learn how to be a reporter.”
“They let men attend those things?”
“Unfortunately.” She stopped, came back. She put a hand on his desk, leaned in, lowered her voice. “How’s...” she nodded at his head.
“How’s my brain? Some good days, some bad. Nights the ratio gets a little worse. But overall, it’s edging towards better.” Bob gave her a sideways glance. “You just asked me how I’m doing.”
Ida stood up straight, shrugged. “I’ve got to share a workspace with you.”
“Oh my God. Ida Bly actually cares about my well-being.”
She turned, headed back for her own desk again. “I care that you knocked me on my ass. Twice.”
“I got shot!”
“Not by me.”
“I’m telling everyone that you care about my well-being!”
She spun around, steaming.
Bob smirked. Flipped her the bird.
Being Ida Bly, she saluted him right back.
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Copyright © 2021 Daniel Fox
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 9798628511701
More Ida Bly Thrillers Are On The Way!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Fox is the author of multiple books including Hag’s Trail (horror), The Wizard, the Farmer, and the Very Petty Princess (light fantasy) the Encyclopedia Terrorificus series (child-friendly horror), and Puppy P.I. (a child-friendly mystery thriller).