The Rattlesnake Murders

For those of you who have read “Murder and Mayhem in the Crescenta Valley,” this story will be familiar as it was written up by Gary Keyes for that book. But this murder was so bizarre, so twisted, that I just had to cover it again.

In 1935, Robert James and his new wife Mary had just moved into a charming little house with a fishpond out front located on Verdugo Road on the western edge of La Cañada. She had just given him the news that she was pregnant. Robert James was not happy about this, as it further complicated his plans. You see, over Mary’s objections, James had just taken out a hefty life insurance policy on her, so he needed her to “accidently” die … and soon.

James had done this successfully a couple times before and he didn’t see any reason why he couldn’t get away with it again. James’ first couple of wives had just not worked out. The first one divorced him due to his sadistic sexual preferences, and the second had gotten pregnant, so he bailed on her. The third wife had survived a mysterious auto “accident” only to “accidently” drown in her bathtub. James had made a cool $14,000 on her life insurance policy. Wife No. 4 wouldn’t cooperate with him taking out insurance on her, so he left her. In the meantime, he found one of his nephews was stupid enough to let James take a policy on him, and he soon died in an auto “accident.” Bingo – another $5,000.

So wife No. 5, Mary, was next up. James enlisted a friend, Charles Hope, to help him kill her with the promise of half the insurance. The two mulled over several ideas, such as an armed robbery gone bad or a house fire with her trapped inside. They hit on one that appealed: dump a box of black widow spiders into her bed. They even went so far as to purchase the spiders before hitting on an even better plan: rattlesnakes! They found a guy named “Snakey Joe” willing to sell them a couple of rattlers that, of course, they purchased with a bad check.

James was able to talk his new wife into getting an abortion from a supposed doctor who would come to their house. When the time came for the “doctor” to show up, he drugged Mary and tied her up. James’ buddy Charles Hope showed up instead to assist with the murder. James held up the box of rattlesnakes and thrust the unconscious Mary’s bare foot into the box. The enraged snakes bit her repeatedly, and the boys settled down to wait for her to die. Hope left to get rid of the snakes but, when he returned, Mary was still not dead. James dragged her unconscious body to the bathroom where he finished her off by drowning her in the bathtub. James remembered that he had already had one wife die accidently in a bathtub and it might appear suspicious. Where else could she accidentally drown? Ah yes, the fishpond!

The two men carried her to the fishpond and dumped her in. Her body was discovered by neighbors, the death was ruled accidental, and the grieving Mr. James collected on the insurance policy.

Amazingly James would have gotten away with it but for the guilty conscience of his partner Charles Hope. After a few months of sitting on his crime, Hope told a friend of the murder, who in turn went to the police. The two men were brought in and brutally interrogated. Hope caved immediately, but James held out. After two days of constant questioning the only thing they could get out of him was that he had recently seduced his underage niece. They arrested him on morals charges, and interrogated him even more brutally, nearing torture, but he never broke. After a spectacular trial, in which one of the rattlesnakes brought in for evidence escaped in the courtroom, Hope received a life sentence and James was condemned to die by hanging.

La Cañada’s “Rattlesnake James” was the last man to die by hanging in California.

  mike lawler