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My_Books_are_Calling t1_ja1fts4 wrote

Reply to comment by My_Books_are_Calling in 1928 newspaper found underneath carpet in old farmhouse. Anyone know the case by Equivalent-Pay1681

After some more digging and finding an article from June 5, 1929 I can sort of piece together what happened, but can really say why the paper says it’s “reopened” as your date and my articles date are days apart. It could be a matter of the word meaning something different at the time. Such as “reopening” might mean looking again shortly after the crime, where today it is a longer time period. But I’m not sure. Here’s the article I found from the Prescott Evening Currier:

LOS ANGELES, June 5.-(/P)- Police began today clearing what they termed the "loose ends of an eternal triangle." The principles according to police records were Mrs. Virginia Patty, unfortunate victim of the triangle, her husband, Frank D. Patty, Portland the business men, and William Tallman, former radio operator. The latter is under arrest on board the steamer Admiral Benson, due in San Francisco tonight from San Pedro. Mrs. Patty's body was found yesterday in the closet of a rooming house, tied to a clothes hook, bearing numerous bruises and contusions, showing she had met death by violence. Just how long her body the had been in the closet, police were unable to adefinitely determine, but Coroner Frank Nance approximated the time as between 24 and 72 hours after death Tallman will be turned over to Los Angeles detectives and brought to this city to face formal complaint of murder on arrival of the Admiral Benson in San Francisco. When informed of his arrest, Tallman, according to the captain of the steamer, "seemed stunned" and claimed innocence of the slaying Suspicion was directed toward Tallman by Patty, who told police he had learned that the radio operator had been paying marked attention to his wife during his, Patty's absence. The Patty's have been winter residents of Los Angeles for some time, due, Patty explained, to his wife's health. She had, he said, shortly, also spent some time in Arizona because of fear of tuberculosis affliction. On another side of the triangle, the police found that the room where Mrs. Patty's body' was discovered had been rented a fow days before by a man giving the name of "W. C. Johnson of San Francisco." The owner of the rooming house, Mrs. M.W. Wilson, when shown a picture of Tallman, Identified it as Johnson, police said.

I’ve also found that there were fingerprints found in the apartment and compared to Tallman but didn’t find if it played any part. Fingerprinting in those days were kind of a joke where you only needed something stupid like 4 points of comparison where as today it’s like 12 or more. So even if they said it was his, it’d be sketchy as hell.

It’s also worth mentioning the husband was away allot on business so it’s why she “stepped out” (as the newspapers of the time called it).

Still haven’t found the outcome but it’s past my bedtime. Though I’d say it was Tallman or the husband. But then, it’s always the husband.

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