Tag: 1947

He is 21, dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with a cotton bomber jacket and button front denim jeans. She is 19, holds a Boxer pup and wears a leopard print coat and appears somewhat sad and disturbed.

They are Alvin and Beverly Turnmire, recently married.

Their address is a home in Studio City at 4232 Goodland Ave. near the golf course. They probably live with his parents, but they want to get out and get an apartment.

And Burbank police said they committed a string of burglaries in order to furnish their new place.

November 5, 1947 is the date of their arrest. They were caught 71 years ago, and are probably dead. But their reincarnated young beings still walk Ventura Boulevard.

Studio City people: in love with dogs and exotic clothes, chasing goods and desires beyond their reach, a place of happiness and meltdowns, a magnet for dreamers, a trap set in the San Fernando Valley for aspirational types who fled from somewhere else, a district where many survive by impersonation, wearing costumes and carrying animals and evading responsibilities.

 

And then Alvin Turnmire, 27, is arrested seven years later. For white people back then there were always second chances.

Photograph caption dated March 8, 1954 reads “Officer Thomas Quarles examines king-sized wire snips as he stands amid five truck loads of building material loot alleged stolen by Alvin R. Turnmire, 27, and found by officers at the suspect’s Sun Valley home. Goods was (sic) valued at $20,000.” The article partially reads:  “A Sun Valley father, who seven years ago looted Burbank stores to set up housekeeping, is back in jail today for a fantastic nine-month series of burglaries.”

 

Alvin Turmire, now 31, is arrested again, ten years later, in 1957, now living in Pacoima. He is still committing burglaries. For white people back then there were always third chances. Maybe it helps that he was a Marine, fought in WWII, earned a Purple Heart, “got a Jap bullet in the leg at Iwo Jima, as his wife explains.”

Photograph caption dated August 1, 1957 reads, “T. E. Holt, left, checks stolen property at Valley station with Det. John Sublette after police picked up two truckloads of stolen goods at home of Alvin Turnmire, 31, 8969 Snowden Ave., Pacoima. More than $10,000 worth of various equipment was picked up. Turnmire was booked on suspicion of burglary and is scheduled to be arraigned today.”

Photo credit: LAPL/Valley Times/