Rather than getting into some family stuff, my thoughts lately cover some interesting situations, and I will get back to what occurred after my parents split and my father’s downward spiral and recovery.
Ernie Lopez was just a really bad guy who spent a number of years in McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary where he attempted, and was the only prisoner ever to escape and, in doing so, stabbed a guard 16 times. The guard lived and was available to testify. Lopez was caught and did 15 years on the “Rock” ( Alcatraz Federal Prison, where only the hardest cases were sent.)
When Lopez was eventually paroled, he resumed his criminal life and got a hold of a daring daytime armed robbery of a store, Moore Incorporated, one of the first discount stores, preceding stores such as COSTCO, Target and the like, located on Sepulveda Blvd in West Los Angeles. Lopez had information on when the store’s deposits would be picked up by a bank currier for deposit. The take was to be twenty to thirty thousand dollars, the store’s daily take. The pick up was around 12:30 P.M. Lopez tried to pursuade a former fellow inmate named Luna to join him to rob the bank currier and laid out the plan: burglarize a mask and gun store, stop the currier in the parking lot, grab the money satchel and take off in a stolen getaway car. Luna demurred and did not want to go along with the plan.
Willard Winhoven was around 60 years old and had an extremely high IQ, was a master electrician in his younger days, but got involved in an unsuccessful armed robbery of a post office, was tried in California for the crime, found guilty and sentenced to prison for a period of 5 to life. After doing 5 years in State Prison, he was paroled, but he never was allowed to be free from custody, because the Feds grabbed him and he was charged for a crime against the United States, robbery of a Federal Post Office, the same robbery for which he had just done 5 years in a State Prison. He was convicted in Federal Court of the very same robbery and sentenced to 20 more years, first in the Federal Prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he escaped, was caught, convicted, and sent to Alcatraz, where he met up with Ernie Lopez.
Winhoven was paroled after 20 years, met up again with Lopez, and agreed to rob the Moore store as planned
So, on July 23, 1960, as the currier was leaving the parking lot of the store, his car was blocked by a masked gunman who attempted and did grab the receipt satchel, but not without a struggle, and while the two were struggling an off-duty LAPD officer tried to separate the two strugglers, when he was shot in the back, turned and saw the shooter was Winhoven. The officer tried to get back in the store, and as he was doing that, he was shot in the leg. While this was going on, the store manager, attracted by the noise, saw Winhoven shoot the officer. Another manager saw the shooting and identified Winhoven. And then a third associate manager, again attracted by the noise, came out, was shot by Winhoven, and was killed. Because the stolen getaway car conked out, Winhoven and Lopez ran out into the street, commandeered a car driven by a lady and took off. A young man driving on Sepulveda saw the car jack and foolishly followed the car into a cul-de-sac where Winhoven got out of the stolen car and shot the young man with a long range rifle right through the young man’s car window; the bullet hit the victim just under one of his eyes The victim survived, but the bullet entered so close to the brain or vital nerve, it could not be removed and hopefully it would never move, which would probably kill him.
The two defendants were luckily stopped early in the morning in Lamont, California, a town near Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley, about one month after the Moore Store robbery, murder and attempted murders, and the two robbers were apprehended.
(For a detailed account of the subsequent trial, issues and fact statement you can google People v Winhoven or put down the case citation 60 Cal 2nd 223)
At this time, I was the Calendar Deputy in Department 10 of the Superior Court. Joe Busch was assigned the prosecution, put on the preliminary hearing and when the case reached the trial Courts, the case was assigned to Dept 101, my Court.
Joe was one year ahead of me at Loyola Law School and went directly into the DA’s Office and was also a calendar deputy in another courtroom. He had a steel-trap mind and was also an athlete- played football in the Sugar Bowl, and was just an all around good guy and wonderful trial lawyer. After I left the office in 1965, Joe was appointed as the DA of Los Angeles County in 1970, served three and one half years in that capacity, but tragically died of a heart attack as a very young man.
After I went into private practice, I was appointed to be on a small State Bar Committee called “The Criminal Justice Committee” with the responsibility of advising the State Bar Board of Governors which resolutions the State Bar Conference should be supported in the legislature or what needed more work or what should be rejected. It was an elite committee with County DAs and Appointed Public Defenders. I think I was the only non-government attorney on this small group of lawyers. Joe and I maintained our friendship even after I left the office and he actually offered me the position of assistant DA and a possible judgeship. I was not interested in moving back to LA, nor did I want to be a judge- too restricting, plus, frankly, I don’t think I would be good in that job. Too impatient and lacked the sensitivity needed. That subject, judging, came up two other times and I just did not think I would be good in such a restrictive occupation. I like the various cases and courtrooms.
The LAPD detective investigators on the Lopez/ Winhoven case were famous, especially in the “underworld.” There were four of them, all way over six feet, wearing cowboy hats, thus the nickname, “Hats,” and they carried pearl handle revolvers. But, boy, were they smart! At the time of the trial one had passed the Bar exam and was admitted. He later became a judge; another had just taken the Bar Exam. The third was studying for the Bar and the fourth completing the last year of law school. The Hats were assured and tireless workers. They put together a great, but complicated case where both defendants were convicted of all charges, one count of murder 1st and 4 counts of attempted murder
There were about five of us in the DA’s Office, me, J. Miller Levy, Sam Meyerson, Joe Busch and Bill Kean. Bill had left the office and was a personal injury defense lawyer, but eventually gave up a lucrative practice, became a judge, and eventually became the presiding judge of the LA Superior Court. We did a TV stint on Channel 2,CBS, in a program called “The Verdict is Yours,” a daytime presentation. The pay was very good and the insurance benefits fantastic, but we had to join the association of television and Radio Artists. Both my kids’ birth, doctors’ bills and hospital charges were covered and with the earnings from the show, I was able to put additions to my then GI home in Northridge ( I will cover that period in a later blog.)
What I learned from the activity, among other things, is that acting is a craft very different than the law, and most trial lawyering is really akin to salesmanship. The show would have a theme and a charge, such as one I did which was an arson/murder case. I was always typecast as a prosecutor, the others either prosecution or defense. A famous movie and television actor, famous for the TV series “Have Gun Will Travel” among his other fine work, was Richard Boone (look him up) who had a show featuring some of the finest TV movie and stage stars. When that show finished, they brought the marvelous actors to LA Studio at Beverly and Fairfax. We were expected not to be actors, but lawyers. The way it worked was a general scenario, with each side preparing with witnesses, not a script but an actor’s exercise nonetheless. There had to be concessions, but how one conceded was up to them. It was a very competitive show, and each side wanted to be victorious. The presentation was to a live six-person jury and the jury would reach a verdict. I recall one actor, though required, would not give me a concession, continually denying what she was supposed to say: “Didn’t you tell your friend you believed the defendant did the crime? “I never did, who told you that young man!” I was stuck and the show was live and time-limited, so I had to move on. The director was Al Rafkin, who has done many of the Dick Van Dyke Shows, and I remember him telling me “Don’t step on my actor’s lines!”
Lawyers who try to dramatize their presentation, unless they are very good, generally fall flat on their cans, as jurors collectively can smell a phony from far away. One of my jobs after my Army discharge was at Leroy’s jewelers and Silversmith. The company was more than watches, bracelet and rings. This was in the late 40s, when TV sets and other electronic devices were being sold and LeRoy’s had its main store in downtown LA and a branch for TVs and other stuff, like refrigerators, on Hollywood Blvd. Saw an ad for a salesman, responded, and the manager said: you want to sell, there is a customer – go sell. Of course I fell flat on my face, but he decided to give me a try. He taught me the basics, namely “qualify the customer” that is- are they only lookers or there to buy?
So, “What are you looking to buy?” Then, the next most important thing is “know your product, and know the competitor’s product and explain why yours is better.” For example, we would get a better commission from Hallicrafter, one of the brands of that time like Zenith, RCA, Hoffman, etc. Nobody ever heard of Hallicrafter, but that company did all of the radar for the US Navy, and I would show a magazine article about them, plus they were the first company to use a printed circuit. You get the idea. The same applies with a case presentation: know your case and be prepared to deal with the issues your opposition brings up. I have always wondered when my opponent has a problem, why try to hide it? One can always admit and move on. A classic is the OJ Simpson case, when the detective denied using the “N” word and was impeached. Better to admit, tell the jury to disregard, and concentrate on the rest of the evidence, rather than trying to rehabilitate him. That gives credibility and dilutes the damage. I call this the “Judo Approach,” take something bad and turn it around. Worked for me every time.
Back to Lopez and Winhoven. When the case was assigned to my court, Joe asked me to be co-counseling the prosecution, which I did. Normally, I like to work alone and call my own shots, but this worked out well. We split the witnesses as well as the closing argument. There was an incident. Joe had worked on another case with the office’s star attorney, J Miller Levy, and during that trial, Miller would keep tugging on Joe’s jacket, telling him to do this or that, a very disconcerting trait. Well, I was questioning a witness, and Joe kept leaning over to grab my jacket and obviously have me do something he wanted. I continue to do my thing and did not like to be interrupted. So, every time he reached for me, I would move away until I was behind the jury box where he couldn’t reach me. When I was done with my questioning, I had no clue what he could possibly want, as I did a very thorough job. So, as a courtesy, after I had completed my examination, I walked back to counsel table and said “OK, Joe, what is so important that I missed?” and he replied, “Your fly is open!”
In closing argument, at the penalty stage of the trial, I was suggesting to the jury why they should render a death verdict for both defendants, and, with that, Winhoven burst out, “and you should die!” I promptly told the jury, “You see? He still wants to kill.”
The jury returned a verdict of death, but neither defendant was executed. The death penalty, as it stood at that time, was declared unconstitutional, as there were no standards to govern the selection of punishment, so the death penalty was thrown out due to lack of guidelines, thus considered arbitrary.
Winhoven died in prison and Lopez was eventually paroled, went to work for a bail bondsman named Maldinado, whom I got to know when I was in the East LA office, and Lopez was a collector and partnered with a guy named Vlahovitch who had also been convicted of murder 1 and sentenced to death. I was involved as a defense lawyer representing a co defendant, and, as a result of my efforts, which I will cover when I get to my defense practice, he was saved from execution.
Enough for one day
Marshall
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