JUDGE GARDNER -- The Verdict
For some reason there always seems to be a lawsuit happening, usually
a murder case, that catches the national interest. The O.J. Simpson case
is, of course, the classic in this field. However, others of lesser
stature have enjoyed this doubtful notoriety.
When I was a Superior Court Judge, I tried one of those cases --
twice. The first trial ended in a hung jury, and while I had very little
to do with that, I received literally bales of mail lambasting me for the
outcome. The public had to have a victim for their disappointment, and I
was handy. Fortunately, there was a second trial.
Henry Ford McCracken was a longtime child molester who escaped any
serious punishment for his misdeeds because of the well-known reluctance
of mothers to let their children testify. However, this time he killed
his victim, and the case against him was iron clad except for one thing:
The body of the child was missing. Not absolutely essential to a trial,
but certainly important.
Sheriff Jim Musick was determined to find the body, and he was able to
figure out how much gasoline McCracken had in his car before and after
the killing. Putting his thumb on the place of the killing, Buena Park,
he drew a circle around that place -- the maximum distance McCracken
could have traveled -- and told his investigators the body was somewhere
within that circle and to go find it.
His investigators fanned out on this seemingly hopeless search, but by
the wildest chance a couple of them stopped at Cook’s Corner in the
foothills of the Santa Ana mountains. Although not particularly hopeful,
they showed everyone there McCracken’s photograph. To their amazement,
the bartender and some of the regulars remembered a man who matched the
photograph. He had stopped thereon the night of the murder to have a
Coke.
That narrowed the search to Live Oak Canyon, though it was still
doubtful that they could find anything. But Joe Sherman, a fire ranger,
did a Daniel Boone job of finding some disturbed leaves, dug down, and
there was the body of the little girl.
The second time McCracken was tired in my court, he received a death
sentence, which was carried out. This was obviously before the present
judicial log jam.
This story raises two questions.
1. Why did McCracken attract national attention? That’s easy.
Television news was just coming into its own, and this new kind of news
media was fighting for its share of interest, which forced competition
with the print media.
2. Why did McCracken stop for a Coke when he had the body of the dead
girl in his car? Because he was stupid, which is true of most criminals.
And that is why the police are able to keep up with the persistence crime
wave.
I’ve never met a successful burglar. Think that one over.
* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His
column runs Tuesdays.
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