Monday, June 11, 2012

Stockton, NOW

Some time ago when Farflung sent Eviliz.com a copy of the Stockton Murders police report, Patty filed away in her mental cabinet some ideas for future posts. Through the magic of Google Earth, she did not have to actually drive from Ballarat to Stockton to show you how close together the West Flora Street house, the liquor store that Goucher and Monfort robbed on 10/30/72, and the liquor store where Squeaky was arrested after calling West Flora to be picked up on 11/12/72 actually are:




The scale of the above map indicates that all three places are within a mile of one another, marker "C" being the West Flora house (you have seen it before, so no photo). Marker "A" is where the Eden Square Liquor Store used to be located at 929 North El Dorado. Monfort and Goucher were apprehended for robbing it, and as you know Monfort was using James Willett's ID which tied them to Willett's murder some weeks earlier near Guerneville. Today it appears to be a church or a worship center of some kind:


Most puzzling to Patty is marker "B", the B&E Liquor store at 939 North Yosemite Street, which is still there today. As you can see in the first image above, B&E is a mere five blocks from the West Flora Street house. Why did Lynette need a ride, then? And why did she tell someone whom she did not know (i.e., "Earl" the police officer) where to find her?


Dang it Farf, the more questions you answer for us, the more questions Patty has to ask! This could keep her busy until she is a very old woman...WOOT!






13 comments:

  1. Bit of clarification needed here,

    "Most puzzling to Patty is marker "A", the B&E Liquor store at 939 North Yosemite Street, which is still there today. As you can see in the first image above, B&E is a mere five blocks from the West Flora Street house."

    As I look at that map, marker "A" is on "North El Dorado", marker "B" is on "North Yosemite", and marker "C" is on "West Flora" I'm I doing something wrong?

    Anyway, I'm guessing even if it was only 5 blocks, Squeaky might have been carrying several bottles of liquor or bags of groceries and didn't want to walk the 5 blocks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Sunset, Patty fixed the typo. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanx for the fix Patty,

    Another guess is maybe Squeaky didn't know the exact location of the house, she may have been lost. She may have never been there or only 1 or 2 times, but she knew the phone number. Maybe that's why she called for someone to pick her up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is that the same Stockton they were always talking about on The Big Valley? Where's Linda Evans? :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Forget Linda Evans. Where is everybody and what time of day were the pictures taken that the streets were so deserted?

    ReplyDelete
  6. yep it's that stockton, hot, dusty, and horrible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I didn't know it was horrible. Maybe it's deserted because nobody wants to be there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner! Lol

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice perspective of just what a tiny area these people operated around Patty. I had long assumed (that’s right I assumed) that Squeaky called the Flora house near the county clink AFTER her visit with Goucher. After all, Squeaky stated that she just arrived in Stockton to visit a ‘brother’ and was about to depart when James’ murder disrupted her travel plans.

    Many’s the time where I’ve visited dear close friends in a new residence. We’ve all had to adjust to the pains of moving and the associated ephemera like: empty shell casings on the furniture, blood spots and stains on the floor, a freshly sawed off shovel handle in a spare bedroom and the assorted infant with a pair of absentee parents. We have all been here a thousand times so push the fast forward button already.

    If Squeaky was at the market for just herself, she would only have needed a few moments to resupply whatever could be carried on a bus. Why drop her off or give someone new to town some vague directions? It seems like Squeaky was possibly doing some chores as a member of the household and was laden with too much to carry and called because someone didn’t return for her. I recall the police report saying they checked the Flora home numerous (4?) times before spotting Willett’s car. Then the arrests were made.

    Squeaky subsequently calls (probably irked) and hisses ‘Where the hell are you guys?’ Brenda would have had a pretty solid, if not unique in her case, excuse of ‘Sorry Lynn, you see we are a tad tardy because we are being arrested for murder’. This did not happen because the police answered the phone and Squeaky remained in an inexplicable and oblivious spot of irrational outrage over being left at B&E. What would a woman need to purchase by herself that would trigger such insta-rage at any man answering a phone? Just more grist for the mystery it appears.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Patty and Farf, Very ,very interesting ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. i spent a lot of my childhood in hot dusty parts of california and hated it(my family raised horses). the horrible bit is just my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The photos might have been taken early on a Sunday morning but, the deserted streets remind me of an episode of the Twilight Zone.

    ReplyDelete
  13. orwhut said...

    Is that the same Stockton they were always talking about on The Big Valley? Where's Linda Evans? :)
    --------------------------------------
    Yes, it is the same Stockton. I live about 65 miles northeast of Stockton. It's arguably the most dangerous city in California. Overrun with gangs and drug cartels. Shootings there almost every day. I won't even stop to get a soda there. I just stay on the freeway until I pass it.

    ReplyDelete