The slated-roof building is still quite visible on Google Earth, at 2561 Airport Dr, Torrance, CA. I remember seeing “101 Dalmatians” on New Years' eve there in 1969. It was a wonderful, big theater.
I was 12 years old and living in Palos Verdes at the time of the murders, which occurred on Feb 11, 1973. Most people including myself were very scared by them, and we assumed that it must be a Manson-style gang. It turns out that one guy did it. He also killed a convenience store manager about a month later in the same manner, tying the victim’s hands and cutting his throat. A couple of months after the murders, the Torrance Police came to his house to arrest him on a traffic warrant. There was a brief standoff. He tried to pull a gun on the police, so they searched his house. They found a bloody knife with a rare blood type matching one of the theater victims. (no DNA testing was available in 1973) His neighbors saw him disposing of bloody clothing right after both murders, and his friends said that he suddenly had a large amount of cash in mid-February, despite being unemployed. The guy took a lot of drugs during the police standoff and died of an overdose a few hours later.
The slated-roof building is still quite visible on Google Earth, at 2561 Airport Dr, Torrance, CA. I remember seeing “101 Dalmatians” on New Years' eve there in 1969. It was a wonderful, big theater.
I was 12 years old and living in Palos Verdes at the time of the murders, which occurred on Feb 11, 1973. Most people including myself were very scared by them, and we assumed that it must be a Manson-style gang. It turns out that one guy did it. He also killed a convenience store manager about a month later in the same manner, tying the victim’s hands and cutting his throat. A couple of months after the murders, the Torrance Police came to his house to arrest him on a traffic warrant. There was a brief standoff. He tried to pull a gun on the police, so they searched his house. They found a bloody knife with a rare blood type matching one of the theater victims. (no DNA testing was available in 1973) His neighbors saw him disposing of bloody clothing right after both murders, and his friends said that he suddenly had a large amount of cash in mid-February, despite being unemployed. The guy took a lot of drugs during the police standoff and died of an overdose a few hours later.