When Two Similar Stories Collide- Anna Corbin and Bessie Lewis

Anna Corbin

If you have read my previous article about the life and death of Anna Corbin, the head housekeeper of the Preston School of Industry in 1950, then you are aware of the fact that I have taken a personal interest in her story. After years of research I have posted findings on my blog and in my  book, "Behind The Walls," that makes it very clear (based on the evidence) that the information various other websites, television shows and other groups have come forward with through the media in the past has either been partially tainted with fictional aspects or all together incorrect.

This article is meant to bring more interesting information to light, to show you the link I have found to another brutal and vicious attack to another head housekeeper at Preston just 29 years earlier. You see, Anna Corbin is not the only head housekeeper from the Preston School of Industry to be viciously attacked and left for dead on the grounds of the school. In fact, Mrs. Lewis' story happened before Anna Corbin's death.

Head Housekeeper Attacked at Preston- 1921

It was October 26, 1921 and the head housekeeper known as Mrs. Lewis was severely beaten and locked in a closet by four wards in their attempt to make an escape from the School. The story made headlines in the Ione Valley Echo newspaper, dated October 29, 1921.

Ione Valley Echo (10/29/1921)

"A VICIOUS ATTACK, ESCAPE AND CAPTURE"

"Wednesday morning, about 9:30, Mrs. Lewis, in charge of housekeeping for Company A, at the Preston School, was viciously attacked by four boys of her squad. She was knocked down and her head was pounded on the concrete floor several times. She was rendered unconscious, tied, gagged, her keys taken. Then the four boys make their escape. Another boy, who had recently been operated on for appendicitis, pretended to make a fight to save Mrs. Lewis. But it is believed he was faking. Officers hurried to A Company quarters and found her where she had been thrown into a closet. After many hours she regained consciousness, but became hysterical, then unconscious again. Yesterday morning she was regarded as quite ill, and suffering with possibly a clot of blood on her brain.

The four boys were caught at 3:30 in the afternoon by Officers E.E. Hooker and Mr. Cain on the Borden Ranch, who brought them safely back to the school. It is said these two officers "influenced" these four boys to come right along, or "perhaps" it might have been unhealthy.

Superintendent Close is absent, but the whole community is pleased at the prompt and efficient action of Assistant Superintendent Morrin in handling these vicious young criminals, and also at the successful work of messengers Hooker and Cain."----Ione Valley Echo, Saturday Edition, October 29, 1921.


What Does This Have To Do With Anna Corbin?

So you may be asking that question, "What does this have to do with Anna Corbin?" Well, a lot actually. You see, from the time I started researching and reading about Anna's death, even before I wrote about it in my book, I kept hearing and reading accounts where people describe her being locked in a closet. Some people said she was locked in a pantry in the kitchen, some say a small closet under a stairwell in the basement is where Anna was found.

Historical evidence disproves all of that. The persons who found Anna, found her in a larger room (the storage room) which adjoined a supply room which was in the basement. The newspapers quoted the eye witness account of Robert Hall (the ward who found Anna's body with housekeeper Lillian McDowall) which even specifically stated the room as being 16 x 35 in size. Now does that sound like the little closet to you? After speaking to historian, John Lafferty, and comparing our research notes, we both agreed that the room Anna was found in was the room with the disinfecting pool, in the basement. At the time of Anna's death, the pool had been boarded over and was being used as a store room.

So where did the "Closet" idea come from? Well, that is where I believe the story of Bessie Lewis* comes into play. Perhaps over the years the story of Mrs. Lewis' brutal attack and that of Anna Corbin's has been unintentionally fused with one another. The details of Mrs. Lewis being beaten, tied up, gagged and locked in a closet may have been confused with similar details of Anna Corbin being attacked, bludgeoned, strangled and locked in the store room in the basement. I think it didn't help  matters that a few newspapers reported Anna was found in a locked closet when the story first broke in the headlines, further confusing people. As time went on though, and witness accounts were actually quoted, it showed that Anna was found in the storage room covered by a rug or carpet.

The story of Bessie Lewis doesn't state whether she was in the basement or not, although it speaks of her head being pounded into the concrete, so she must have been in some area that would have concrete floors and the basement does have that. I am not certain which area Company A quarters was located at by the 1920's, whether it was the Administration building or another house on the property. I do know that when the school opened in 1895 Company A's quarters were in the basement, but over the years things did get changed around a bit, (example: the plunge bath room was later boarded over and used as a store room by the 1950s) so we may never know exactly where Bessie was attacked. However, I am fully convinced that certain aspects of Bessie Lewis' story has become a misinformed attachment to Anna's story, which is very sad for both of these women.

What Happened To Bessie?

I have searched the Census records for Amador, Sacramento, San Joaquin and Calaveras Counties for 1920 (one year prior to the accident) and could not locate a Bessie Lewis or Elizabeth (since Bessie is usually short for Elizabeth). I searched the archived microfilms of both the Ione Valley Echo and the Amador Ledger to no avail, there was never another mention of Mrs. Lewis or what happened after her brutal attack. I checked the obituaries from late October up to the end of the year in 1921, and still, no information on Mrs. Lewis.  Being that there were no more headlines or articles mentioning the outcome of such a brutal attack, one can only assume that she recovered from her injuries. It is also possible that she moved away from the area, perhaps to stay with relatives in another area, so we don't know what happened to her after that.

A Sad Thing

In conclusion, I want to remind all who read this that both Bessie Lewis and Anna Corbin were just like you and I. They were people who had feelings, hopes, dreams and fears. They had loved ones and family. I believe that it is not only a dishonor to Anna's memory by others continuing to tell her story incorrectly, but it is also dishonor to the memory of Mrs. Lewis by her story being completely forgotten for nearly 92 years.

I will keep diligently searching for answers in regards to what happened to Mrs. Lewis and where her life ended up down the line. I think we owe her that much. In the end I hope that whomever reads my blogs or my books sees that this is my passion, to uncover the truth. To set the facts straight and speak for those people who can no longer speak for themselves.  I do my best and hope that others who appreciate history and truth, will also appreciate the work I do.


(Copyright September 21, 2013- J'aime Rubio)
Also published in the book, "If These Walls Could Talk: More Preston Castle History," by J'aime Rubio, 2017.

Thank you to Becky at the Amador County Library for all your help!

Sources:
Amador County Library
Ione Valley Echo, 10/29/1921
Stockton Record, 2/24/1950
State Archives
Behind The Walls: A Historical Exposé of The Preston School of Industry, J'aime Rubio
Preston School of Industry A Centennial History, John Lafferty.

* Footnote: John Lafferty's book, Preston School of Industry a Centennial History, briefly mentions this incident and also mentions her name as Bessie Lewis.

Who Was Vesta Sapenter?

Vesta Sapenter

Not too many people know the story of Vesta Sapenter, but sadly her story is not a good one. On July 18, 1947, her body was discovered in her bedroom. She had been strangled with a hemp cord and raped.  In my book, "Behind The Walls" I discuss the murder of Vesta Sapenter, along with two other murders of a similar nature allegedly committed by the same person of interest, Eugene Monroe.

To start off, Vesta was a 17 year-old, African-American honor student at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles. On the afternoon of July 18, 1947, her 14 year-old brother Carlisle came home from playing with friends at the park only to find the body of his sister in her room upstairs. According to Carlisle, he had arrived home at 5320 Holmes Avenue, to find Eugene Monroe. At the time Monroe was was using his step-father's last name, Jefferson. Monroe seemed to be delivering furniture to the house, and asked Carlisle if he could use the restroom. Carlisle agreed, and Monroe headed upstairs.  When he came back he had asked if he knew where his sister was, and he replied, "she's upstairs."

After not seeing Vesta for awhile, Carlisle became suspicious and decided to go upstairs to check on her.  Monroe followed Carlisle upstairs to "check" on Vesta, when he realized the door to his sister's room was locked. Carlisle broke down the door, only to find the lifeless, half-dressed body of his sister. She had been hanging curtains in her room when the murderer came in and attacked her, more than likely from behind.

Immediately, Eugene was taken in for questioning but the police couldn't hold him.  One of Vesta's friends, 16 year-old Benjamin Allen was also questioned and released. He was the only other person to see Vesta on the day she died, when he walked her home.

The detective on the case, R.R. Coppage claimed that he was certain that Eugene (Jefferson) Monroe was their guy, but because of no witnesses and lack of evidence they had to release him.

"I am certain this boy did the job, but we were just never able to prove it. He was the only one in the house at the time and had ample time to commit the act."-- Detective R.R. Coppage's statement.

The Los Angeles newspaper headlines at the time barely even mentioned this heinous crime, giving Vesta's story only two paragraphs in the paper. During a time when many murders in Los Angeles to young women was rampant and making daily headlines, especially since the Black Dahlia case, which had only occurred six months prior to this. Sadly there was no more mention of it.  Vesta Belle Sapenter, died on July 18, 1947, and the main suspect of her murder got away with it. But this would not be the first nor the last time that Eugene Monroe would make headlines for being a suspect in a similar murder.


In fact, in 1950 he was arrested and tried three times for the murder of Anna Corbin, the head housekeeper at the Preston School of Industry, after being sent there on separate criminal convictions. After three trials, the first two ending in a hung jury and the last an acquittal, Monroe was again a free man. For someone to be a suspect in two very similar cases, it seemed that he was getting away with murder, but it wouldn't last for long though.

UPDATE: On September 25, 2017, I had the pleasure of speaking to Vesta Sapenter's sister. She was a very kind and gracious lady, who helped me confirm all my suspicions about Eugene Monroe.  Our conversation was very emotionally moving for me, hearing her recollection of the time period when her sister passed away, and what she remembered about Monroe. Although it was deeply saddening to hear first hand how devastating this loss was to her family, at the same time I feel maybe we both found a sense of closure on this subject.

For one, I was able to share with her that Monroe died in 2007, thus he can no longer harm another human being on this earth, which I think was a bit reassuring. On my end, Vesta's sister confirmed that her family still believes that Monroe killed Vesta. Her own father sensed that something was not right with Monroe and he told her brother not to associate with him or his friends, and not to let him in the house (which unfortunately he disobeyed.)  

Many times parents can sense thing even when no one else does, which is all the more heartbreaking in this case.  Eugene Monroe no only took the lives of four individuals (Vesta, Anna, Dorothy and her unborn child) but he also devastated three families and countless friends. He took so much, and I often wonder, what else may he have got away with? 


To Read More About Eugene Monroe: "Was Eugene Monroe a Serial Killer?"


For more details of this story and Anna Corbin's story please check out my book, "Behind The Walls" 


(Copyright, 1/16/2014- J'aime Rubio) Republished 3/28/2018

J'aime Rubio - www.jaimerubiowriter.com

Sources:
Archived Newspapers
Photo of Vesta from Pittsburgh Courier (8/2/1947)
"Behind The Walls"-by J'aime Rubio
And a big thank you to Larry Harnisch of the 1947project
for the additional information you provided me about Vesta!

Deadly Game Leads To Murder- Another Preston Castle Mystery

Billy Forester and Paul Daedler

It was December 5, 1923, in the suburbs of Pasadena, California.  Two boys set out onto S. Raymond Avenue that day on a mission to play in an old abandoned building at 950 S. Raymond Ave. One of the boys had brought their father's loaded .22 pistol. It was never clarified who instigated the act of actually shooting the weapon for fun, but both boys ended up doing it. This was to be the start of a deadly game, that led to the murder of one Arturo (Arthur) Martinez, 5.

Many newspaper headlines write that the boys were both 14 yrs. old at the time of the murder but that is not correct. Paul Daedler was 14 yrs. old, having been born Nov. 3, 1909. William "Billy" Forester on the other hand, was actually 12 yrs. old, being that the Census records for 1920 show he was born in 1911. The two boys met while attending the Monroe School for Subnormal Children in Pasadena.

The Day of The Murder

According to the boys confession, they had come to the abandoned building to play with the loaded gun that they had taken from one of their homes. Apparently, five year old Arturo Martinez had crawled through a window into the building to follow the boys. Arturo was a playmate of the boys when they had no other kids to play with.  Arturo jumped into a dug up section in the ground and according to Billy, Paul had seen Arturo within his shooting range and started shooting at him like he was shooting at a scared rabbit in a hole. Arturo then began squealing and screaming, so to shut him up the boys threw bricks at his head until they knocked him out.

Arturo had been shot twice in the head, once in the back, plus the bricks had also injured him in the head profusely.  Paul was afraid that the boy would run back to his mother to tell on them so he went and got some wire and tied one end around Arturo's neck and Billy tied the other end to his feet. Then they fastened the little boy to a post and shut the door to the building tight.

They left poor little Arturo there, bleeding to death all night long. The next day, the boys returned to see if he was still alive, but he was not.  They later went to the police and claimed they had found Arturo's body in the building that way. According to the papers, after a long interview with the Chief of Police they confessed to the crime. Paul had claimed he was worried he would hang for this crime, while Billy was only worried about going to jail. That tells you about their conscience's or lack thereof.

Who Were Paul Daedler And Billy Forester?

Paul was the son of Louis O. Daedler and Pauline Daedler of Beloit, Wisconsin. Apparently the Daedler's moved around a lot. Paul's father came from Sibley, Minnesota and later married his wife Pauline in Wisconsin. They later settled in Rockford City, Winnebago, Illinois (as the 1920 Census records show).

For whatever reason, the Daedlers moved to Pasadena for a short period of time, but long enough to have their name become infamously attached to one of Pasadena's grisliest  murders.

Paul attended school in Pasadena which was labeled for "Subnormal Children." I had to figure out what this meant so I looked into it. According to Webster's Dictionary it reads:

Subnormal : 

1.  lower or smaller than normal 

2.  having less of something and especially of intelligence than is normal

Looking further into it, I found that this school was for children who were below the normal IQ levels that were considered "normal." Any IQ score below 70 was considered "subnormal."

It was easy to assume that perhaps due to both Paul and Billy's history of juvenile delinquency ( as they were both on probation at the time), that the State would automatically assume they were dumb, imbeciles or even slow.  This wouldn't surprise me at all if they were labeled that after having been put on probation, since the State at the time was very ignorant about mental state of mind in minors and assumed that if you broke the law or were incorrigible that you automatically were stupid or a moron.  I am not saying these boys didn't have some sort of mental problem as this is a heinous crime and its obvious there were issues here, but I don't believe they were stupid.

Billy was the son of William Forester and Margaret Forester of Pasadena. According to some newspaper articles he had been adopted, there is no way to know this for sure as I could not locate any records. It is possible he was adopted, perhaps as a baby, but then he was named after his father so it makes me wonder.

Their Day At Court

When the court day came around, Paul's family had him all "lawyer'd up."  His parents, friends, family and several others including his pastor and school teacher were there to be a witness for him. Although Paul had signed two confessions, they decided to change their story and he claimed he had never been there and that his pastor could vouch for him that he was at church at the time of the murder. The pastor of Paul's church claimed that Paul had been in class, however, his schoolteacher, said that she had not seen him after 2pm on the day of the murder. Billy only had his mother show up for his court hearing. His parents did not pay for a lawyer and no one testified on his behalf.

The Judge ruled that Billy would be sent to the Preston School of Industry to await trial, while Paul was sent to the Whittier School. 

Cover-Up? Pay Off? Threat?

According to records, not one month after Billy had been sent to Preston (PSI) he had withdrawn his earlier confession and submitted to the court a new full confession that he alone was to blame for the murder of Arturo Martinez.  In his confession he states:

 "I pulled the gun and shot him.  Then I though I would put the blame on someone else, so I shot him two more times.  I happened to think that whenever Paul Daedler got mad, he always threw bricks, so I decided to throw bricks at Arthur so it would appear that Paul hit him."

Speculation and rumors spread when word got out that a person who had an "interest" in Paul Daedler's case came all the way up to Preston to see Billy and convinced (or possibly threatened) him to take the blame for it all.

Okay, so let's really think about this for a moment.  Forget the crime for just one second, let's think of these two boys. Paul was connected, he had money, his family had the finances to afford attorney's and get his pastor to even testify that Paul wasn't even there that day, even though Paul himself admitted he was there and he did shoot Arturo.  Then there was Billy, he was younger than Paul by two years  and didn't have the upbringing that Paul did. Would it be hard to believe that he could have been fearful of his life or his mother's life so he took the blame? I think its possible.  Could he have been paid off to admit the the murder and possibly get some sort of plea bargain deal? Absolutely! 

What I find rather interesting though is that after Billy confessed to the entire crime, he only spent a little over a year and was paroled from Preston in November of 1925 and he vanished without a trace. I researched for him through every record and Census and there was never a trace of this man that I could locate. I did find his parents in following Census records, but never one with Billy on it. He literally disappeared.

What then happened to Paul? Well, after serving for 17 months at the Whittier School, he was released to the court who then ordered that he leave the State of California and never return (does that sound like someone paid off that Judge or what?)

Paul's father Louis Daedler then moved the entire Daedler family back to Rockford City, Illinois.  By 1927,  Paul had found his way back to California and in front of a judge facing the charge of vagrancy. He was then ordered to be sent up to Preston School of Industry where he remained until the end of his "vagrancy" sentence.  Paul later lived out the rest of his life in Los Angeles and died in 1981.

Conclusion

This story tugged at my heart from the beginning of my research for it. It pangs me to know that these two boys, whether one peer pressured the other to do it, or they both had equal share in the crime- they both killed an innocent baby. Arturo was only five years old.  Arturo was the son of a Pasadena gardener, Salvador Martinez. No one ever wrote about who little Arturo was, who his family were or how devastated they were after their baby was killed. All the stories speak of Billy and Paul, but never of Arturo and what this little boy was like. What were his dreams? What was his favorite toy? Favorite color? Favorite song? He was a baby, so young and his memory has been lost within the archives.

No photos were printed of this poor child, but there were plenty photos of Billy and Paul. I wanted to write this story about what happened to little Arturo to give his family the honor and respect that they so deserve. To give Arturo the respect and honor he deserved. He was born around the same time as my grandfather, and look at the life he could have had. All the years he could have enjoyed and the family he could have grown up to have, the person he could have grown up to be. All lost because of two mischievous boys playing with a loaded gun.

Why didn't those boys serve longer sentences? Was the Judge paid off to let them off easy? What happened to Billy after he was released from Preston?

So many unanswered questions, that I hope to one day uncover.

J'aime Rubio (Copyright) 7/26/2012  Republished 3/28/2018
www.jaimerubiowriter.com 

Sources:

Evening Independent

12/24/1923

Los Angeles Times

8/8/1927

Ghastly- 1947project.com