Crimes of the Times

How A Hillside Strangler Nearly Went Free

The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched. 

Suicide by Father? The Tragic Death of Marvin Gaye

In 1984, soul legend Marvin Gaye was in the grip of a cocaine habit and living with his father, a hard-drinking Pentecostal preacher with whom he had a lifetime of bad blood. One day, Gaye gave his father a gun and told him it was to protect the house. Some would see an elaborate plan to orchestrate suicide by his father’s hand.

The Unsolved Slaying of Joe Gatto

When retired art teacher Joseph Gatto was shot to death inside his Silver Lake home in 2013, the LAPD theorized that a fleeing car burglar might be the killer. The victim’s son, a prominent California legislator, found that story increasingly hard to believe.

The Trials of Tokyo Rose

Iva Toguri was a Los Angeles native who became trapped in Japan during World War II. When she returned home, the U.S. government put her on trial as a traitor for her wartime broadcasts. Her name became synonymous with a myth, her conviction fueled by lies and political pressure.  

The Forgotten Prophet of Los Angeles

Aimee Semple McPherson built a religious empire in Los Angeles and became one of the most influential evangelists in America. When she vanished from a California beach and reappeared weeks later with an unbelievable story, the scandal that followed threatened to destroy everything she had built.