The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders: Gordon Stewart Northcott

The Wineville Chicken Coop murders—also known as the Wineville Chicken murders—were a series of abductions and murders of young boys that occurred in the city of Los Angeles and in Riverside County, California between 1926 and 1928. The case received national attention.

Murders

Gordon Stewart Northcott was born in Bladworth, Saskatchewan and raised in British Columbia. He moved to Los Angeles with his parents in 1924. In 1926, Northcott (age 19) asked his father to purchase a plot of land in Wineville, California, where he built a chicken ranch and a house with the help of his father (who was in the construction business) and his nephew, Sanford Clark. It was this pretext that Northcott used to bring Clark from Bladworth to the U.S. (with the permission of the boy's parents). After arriving at his Wineville, California farm (located in present-day Jurupa Valley), Northcott began to beat and sexually abuse Clark.

In August 1928, Sanford's older sister, 19-year-old Jessie Clark, visited Sanford, who was 15 at the time, in Wineville. She was concerned about his welfare. At that time, Sanford told her that he feared for his life. One night while Northcott was asleep, Jessie learned from Sanford that Northcott had killed four boys at his ranch. Jessie returned to Canada about one week after the discovery, vowing to somehow rescue her brother.

Once in Canada, Jessie informed the American consul there about Northcott's crimes. The American consul then wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department, detailing Jessie Clark's sworn complaint. Because there was initially some concern over an immigration issue, the Los Angeles Police Department contacted the United States Immigration Service to determine facts relative to Jessie's complaint.

On August 31, 1928, two United States Immigration Service inspectors, Judson F. Shaw and George W. Scallorn visited Northcott's chicken ranch in Wineville. They found 15-year-old Sanford Clark at the ranch and took him into custody.

Northcott had seen the agents driving up the long road to his ranch. Before fleeing into the treeline, he told Clark to stall the agents, or else he would shoot him from the treeline with a rifle. During the next two hours, while Clark stalled, Northcott kept on running. Finally, when Clark felt that the agents could protect him, he told them that Northcott had fled into the trees which lined the edge of his chicken ranch property.

Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise, fled to Canada but were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia on September 19, 1928. Sanford Clark testified at the sentencing of Sarah Louise Northcott that his uncle, Gordon Northcott, had kidnapped, molested, beaten, and killed three young boys with the help of his mother and Clark himself. Sanford Clark also testified about the murder of a fourth young man, a Mexican citizen, after which Northcott had forced Clark to help dispose of the head by burning it in a fire pit and then crushing the skull.

Northcott stated that he "left the headless body by the side of the road near Puente because he had no other place to put it."

Sanford Clark said that quicklime was used to dispose of the remains and that the bodies were buried on the Wineville chicken ranch.

Body parts found

Authorities found three shallow graves at Wineville exactly where Clark had stated they were located. It was found, however, that these graves did not contain complete bodies, but only parts of bodies. During testimony from both Sanford Clark and his sister Jessie, it was learned that the bodies had been dug up by Gordon Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, on the evening of August 4, 1928, a few weeks before Sanford was taken into protective custody. Northcott and his mother had taken the bodies out to a deserted area, where they were most likely burned in the night.  The complete bodies were never recovered.

The evidence found in the graves consisted of "51 parts of human anatomy...those silent bits of evidence, of human bones and blood, have spoken and corroborated the testimony of living witnesses". This evidence enabled the State of California to conclude that Walter Collins, the two Winslow brothers, and the fourth victim, a Mexican citizen had all been murdered.

The body parts that were found, coupled with the testimony of Sanford Clark, resulted in a death sentence for Gordon Northcott and a life sentence for his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott.

Aftermath

Wineville changed its name to Mira Loma on November 1, 1930, due in large part to the negative publicity surrounding the murders. The new city of Eastvale took parts of the area of Mira Loma in 2010, and the new city of Jurupa Valley took parts of Mira Loma in 2011.  Wineville Avenue, Wineville Road, Wineville Park, and other geographic references provide reminders of the community's former name.

Sanford Clark returned to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Records of the city of Saskatoon indicate that he died on June 20, 1991, and was buried in the Saskatoon Woodlawn Cemetery on August 26, 1993.

Imprisonment and hanging

Canadian police arrested Gordon Stewart Northcott and his mother on September 19, 1928.  Due to errors in the extradition paperwork, they were not returned to Los Angeles until November 30, 1928.

While Sarah Northcott and her son, Gordon, was being held in British Columbia awaiting extradition to California, Sarah confessed to the murders, including that of nine-year-old Walter Collins. But before being extradited to California, she retracted her confession, as did Gordon Northcott, who had confessed to killing more than five boys.

After Sarah and her son had been extradited from British Columbia to California, she once again confessed and pleaded guilty to killing Walter Collins. She was not put on trial; upon her plea of guilty, Superior Court Judge Morton sentenced her to life imprisonment on December 31, 1928, sparing her the death penalty because she was a woman. During her sentencing hearing, she claimed that her son was innocent and made a variety of bizarre claims about his parentage, including that he was an illegitimate son of an English nobleman, that she was Gordon's grandmother, and that he was the result of incest between her husband, Cyrus George Northcott, and their daughter.  She also stated that as a child, Gordon was sexually abused by the entire family. She served her sentence at Tehachapi State Prison and was paroled after less than twelve years.  She died in 1944.

Gordon Northcott was implicated in the murder of Walter Collins, but because his mother had already confessed and been sentenced for it, the state chose to not prosecute Gordon in that murder.

It was speculated that Gordon may have killed as many as 20 boys, but the State of California could not produce evidence to support that speculation. Ultimately, the state only brought an indictment against Gordon for the murders of an unidentified underage Mexican national (known as the "Headless Mexican") and the brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow (aged 12 and 10, respectively).  The brothers had been reported missing from Pomona on May 16, 1928.

In early 1929, Gordon Northcott's trial was held before Judge George R. Freeman in Riverside County, California. The jury heard that he kidnapped, molested, tortured, and murdered the Winslow brothers and the "Headless Mexican" in 1928. On February 8, 1929, the 27-day trial ended with Gordon being convicted of those murders.

On February 13, 1929, Freeman sentenced him to death and he was hanged on October 2, 1930, at San Quentin State Prison. He was 23 years old.

Sanford's older sister, Jessie, became suspicious of the letters Sanford was forced to send home from Northcott's ranch. These letters assured the family that Sanford was well.

Jessie traveled to the ranch in Wineville and stayed there for several days. She became terrified of Northcott, left the ranch, and returned to Canada. There, she told the American consul about the crimes that had occurred at Wineville.

Sanford was not tried for murder because Assistant District Attorney Loyal C. Kelley believed very strongly that Sanford was innocent.  He said that Sanford had been a victim of Northcott's death threats and sexual abuse and was not a willing participant in the crimes committed at the chicken ranch.

Kelley told Sanford that he had secured an entirely unique settlement of Sanford's legal situation by having him taken to the nearby Whittier State School, where an experimental program for delinquent youths was underway. He assured Sanford that the Whittier school was unique because of its compassionate mission of genuine rehabilitation.

Sanford was sentenced to five years at the Whittier State School (later renamed the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility). His sentence was later commuted to 23 months because of the trustees of the school believed that he "had impressed the Trustees with his temperament, job skills, and his personal desire to live a productive life during his nearly two years there."

He died in 1991 at the age of 78 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1993.

Walter Collins (September 23, 1918 – Unknown)

Nine-year-old Walter Collins was abducted (and it was believed the abduction occurred) when he went to the movies and never came back, on March 10, 1928. He lived in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles

Initially, his mother, Christine Collins and the police believed that enemies of Walter Collins, Sr. had abducted Walter. Walter Collins, Sr. had been convicted of eight armed robberies and was an inmate at Folsom State Prison.

Walter Collins' disappearance received nationwide attention and the Los Angeles Police Department followed up hundreds of leads without success. The police faced negative publicity and increasing public pressure to solve the case.

Five months after Walter's disappearance, a boy claiming to be Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. Letters and photographs were exchanged before Walter's mother, Christine Collins, eventually paid for the boy to be brought to Los Angeles. A public reunion was organized by the police, who hoped to negate the bad publicity they had received for their failure to solve this case and others. The police also hoped that the uplifting story would deflect attention from a series of corruption scandals that had sullied the department's reputation. At the reunion, Christine stated that the boy was not her son. She was told by the officer in charge of the case, police Captain J. J. Jones, to take the boy home to "try him out for a couple of weeks." Christine hesitantly agreed to do this.

Three weeks later, Christine returned to see Captain Jones and persisted in her claim that the boy was not Walter. Even though she had dental records proving it, Jones had her committed to the psychiatric ward at Los Angeles County Hospital under a "Code 12" — a term used to jail or commits someone who was deemed difficult or inconvenient.

During Christine's incarceration, Jones questioned the boy, who admitted to being 12-year-old Arthur Hutchens, Jr., a runaway originally from Iowa.  A drifter at a roadside café in Illinois had told Hutchens of his resemblance to the missing Walter, so Hutchens came up with a plan to impersonate Walter. His motive was to get to Hollywood so that he could meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix.

Christine was released ten days after Hutchens admitted that he was not her son.  She then filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.

On September 13, 1930, Christine won a lawsuit against Jones and was awarded $10,800 (approximately $154,000 USD in 2014), which Jones never paid. The last newspaper account of Christine is from 1941 when she attempted to collect a $15,562 judgment against Captain Jones (who was by then retired) in the Superior Court.

Christine became hopeful that her son, Walter, might still be alive after her first interview with Gordon Stewart Northcott. She asked Northcott if he had killed her son, and after listening to his repeated lies, confessions, and recantations, she concluded that Northcott was insane. Because Northcott did not seem to know whether he had even met Walter, much less killed him, she clung to the hope that Walter was still alive.

Northcott sent Christine a telegram shortly before his execution, saying he had lied when he denied that Walter was among his victims. He promised to tell the truth if she came in person to hear it. Just a few hours before the execution, Christine visited Northcott. But upon her arrival, he balked. "I don't want to see you," he said when she confronted him. "I don't know anything about it. I'm innocent."

A news account said, "The distraught woman was outraged by Northcott's conduct. . .but was also comforted by it. Northcott's ambiguous replies and his seeming refusal to remember such details as Walter's clothing and the color of his eyes gave her continued hope that her son still lived."

Lewis and Nelson Winslow

Lewis, aged 12, and Nelson, aged 10, were the sons of Mr. Nelson Winslow, Sr. and Mrs. Winslow. The boys were abducted on May 16, 1928, from Pomona, California on their way home from a Yacht Club meeting. Northcott was convicted of kidnapping and killing them.

Mr. Winslow led a lynch mob to the Riverside County Jail, where Northcott was temporarily being held, with the intent of hanging Northcott after the completion of his trial but before his sentencing. Police convinced the mob to disband.

Arthur J. Hutchens, Jr., the imposter

In 1933, Arthur J. Hutchens, Jr. wrote about how and why he impersonated the missing boy, Walter Collins. Hutchens' biological mother had died in 1925 when he was nine years old, and he had been living with his stepmother, Violet Hutchens.

Hutchens pretended to be Walter Collins to get as far away as possible from his stepmother. After living on the road for a month, he arrived in DeKalb, Illinois. When police brought him in, they began to ask him questions about Walter Collins. Initially, he stated that he did not know about Walter, but changed his story when he saw a chance of getting to California.

He died of a blood clot in 1954 at the age of 38, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter, Carol.

In 2008, Carol Hutchens said, "My dad was full of adventure. In my mind, he could do no wrong."

Rev. Gustav Briegleb

Briegleb was a Presbyterian minister and an early radio evangelist. He was the pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on Jefferson Boulevard at Third Avenue in Los Angeles, California.

He took up many important causes in the City of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably the poor handling of the Walter Collins kidnapping case in 1928. He fought to have Christine Collins released from a mental hospital after she was committed there in retaliation for disagreeing with the Los Angeles Police Department's version of events.  He died at the age of 61.

The boy who came forward

In 1935, five years after Northcott's execution, a boy and his parents came forward and spoke to authorities. Seven years earlier, the boy had gone missing, and the parents had reported his disappearance to the police. At the time of the boy's disappearance, authorities speculated that he might have been a murder victim at Wineville.

Sanford Clark, however, he never told authorities that a boy had escaped from the chicken coop. The historical record and Sanford Clark's own testimony indicates that only three boys were ever held in the chicken coop. These were Walter Collins and the two Winslow brothers, all of whom were murdered.

Popular culture

The 2008 film Changeling, starring John Malkovich and Angelina Jolie is partly based on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders.  The film centers around Christine Collins, her struggles against the LAPD, and her search to find Walter.

"The Big Imposter" — episode #104 of the radio series Dragnet — was based upon these events. It aired on June 7, 1951. When the series was moved to television, the radio script was made into a teleplay. It aired on December 4, 1952.

One of the plotlines of American Horror Story: Hotel centers around the murders.

"Body Farm" — Episode 12 of Season 3 of the Investigation Discovery television show Evil Kin — focuses on the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. The episode explores a variety of the case's details, including early warning signs regarding Northcott's pedophilia, Northcott's abusive relationship with Sanford, Sanford's rescue by means of Jessie, and Sarah Louise's obsessive affection for Northcott. It aired on October 6, 2015.