Bizarre Suicide Attempt Elicited A Harsh Sentence

I came across an account of a strange incident that took place in our valley in 1965. The results of the event illustrate how much has changed since then. Malcolm, a young man who was deeply disturbed, was living in an apartment on Florencita Avenue in Montrose. In mid-1965 he faked two assaults on his person and, in June of that year, he tried to fake his own murder.

Malcolm intended to commit suicide via that “fake murder” and make it look like an intentional killing. On a Monday afternoon, Malcolm trashed the inside of his apartment, tipping over furniture and lamps. He wanted it to look like he had struggled violently with an intruder and had been bested. Malcolm then turned on the gas. In that era most homes had natural gas fittings near the floor designed to easily connect to stoves and heaters. It was quite easy to turn the handle and natural gas would come pouring out.

After turning on the gas, Malcolm tied himself up. He then waited for the gas fumes to build and hopefully kill him. Anyone who came on the scene would think it was a deliberate murder.

But as the fumes built up, Malcolm lost his nerve and changed his mind. He struggled to untie himself, but couldn’t manage to get free. He panicked and began to shout for help.

Fortunately for Malcolm, a family was just moving in across the street. The 17-year-old son of the family heard Malcolm’s calls for help. He ran across the street and broke down Malcolm’s front door. He rushed inside and found Malcolm tied up and struggling. The boy found a piece of broken glass from Malcolm’s staged struggle and sawed through the ropes binding Malcolm’s arms and legs. Malcolm was nearly unconscious now, and the boy dragged him out the front door and into the fresh air.

It just so happened that a Gas Company technician was across the street for the new family moving in. The gas man also ran across the street and got the gas turned off. He also threw open all the windows and doors to prevent an explosion. Malcolm was transported by ambulance to Glendale Sanitarium.

The despondent Malcolm admitted that the entire incident had been fabricated, along with the previous assaults. The police came and arrested him for “outraging public decency” (whatever that is) and endangering public safety. At his trial Malcolm pled guilty. He was sentenced to 150 days in County jail, and two years of probation.
Although Malcolm obviously had some serious problems, the judge offered a classic deal that was sometimes held out to minor offenders: join the Army or go to jail. The judge ordered a 30-day stay of sentence pending the outcome of Malcolm’s application to the Marine Corps.

As we know, Vietnam was just then heating up, and the military was not very picky about their new enlistments. According to what I’ve read, if someone convicted of a crime wanted to enlist and had a fairly clean record previously, the recruiting officer could appear in court and verify that the offender was indeed enlisting. At that point the court could either reduce the charges or seal the record, and off the offender would go. This took place not only in Vietnam, but also in Korea and WWII.

Of course, that is no longer the case. Today’s military needs soldiers who are smart enough to stay out of trouble. As well, given that many of our military conflicts today are more in the line of police actions, soldiers with criminal backgrounds are not wanted.

Another contrast is that, in the present time, I believe Malcolm would have been held for psychiatric evaluation rather than given a jail sentence. Times have changed.

I don’t know if Malcolm was accepted into the Marines. I didn’t find Malcolm’s name among the Vietnam War casualties. It would have been a sad irony if Malcolm’s bungled suicide attempt resulted in his death while in military service. We hope that life turned out better for Malcolm.