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Gordon Stewart NORTHCOTT
 
 
 

 

The Northcott chicken ranch, viewed from the south, showing house, garage, chicken coops
and high fence, near Wineville in Riverside County.

 

 

A farmhouse near Wineville, where Gordon Stewart Northcott killed his victims.

 

 

The Northcott ranch. Notice the stop sign used as a precursor to crime scene tape.

 

 

View from the road looking east along chicken coops where the three Northcott murder victims' graves were found. Gordon Stewart Northcott's environment was this lonely chicken ranch in Riverside County. He had dreamed of being a pianist and winning plaudits of concert crowds. Instead, his job was tending chickens and his associates few outside of his parents. He had too much time alone for thoughts of introspection, some investigators believe. So he began to lure boys to the ranch and turned it into a "murder farm" of horrors, according to his confession.

 

 

View of the chicken coops on the Northcott farm, where an arrow points to the room
where Walter Collins was imprisoned and killed, according to Clark.

 

 

The "murder farm" of Gordon Stewart Northcott near Wineville in Riverside County. The panorama shows in detail the exact places where dark deeds transpired, according to Deputy District Attorney Earl Redwine and Sanford Clark, Northcott's 15-year-old nephew, whose story brought about Northcott's arrest at age 24 in Canada.

Clark accused Northcott of mistreating, murdering and burying boys in quicklime. Two boys were murdered and three buried in the chicken houses in the background. Arrow at right shows a coop where Clark asserted Northcott imprisoned Walter Collins, kidnapped Los Angeles boy, and finally killed him with an axe. Collins was held captive in the coop, slept there on a rude cot, and could only look into the pens at right. Slaying and burial sites of the Winslow brothers are noted.

 

 

Chicken coop on the Northcott farm near Wineville, where Walter Collins was buried.
Northcott's mother, Sarah Northcott, confessed to this killing.

 

 

Deputy Sheriffs C. A. Sweeter, left, and Ben B. deCrevecoeur point out the entrance to a chicken coop at the "murder farm" in which Walter Collins was imprisoned, according to Clark, and murdered by Northcott.

In his admission of killing the Collins boy, Northcott says he made his victims pray before an altar which he had built specially for the purpose before he killed them. "I wanted the little boys to make their peace with God so they would go to heaven," declared Northcott. Stains found on a rude canvas cot where Walter Collins slept have been analyzed and identified as human blood.

 

 

Murdered boys were buried inside this chicken house, according to Sanford Clark, a resident on the ranch. He said Lewis and Nelson Winslow were buried there with quicklime to destroy their bodies. Authorities found a shallow grave and in the dirt about it traces of lime.

 

 

Prosecutors say Gordon Stewart Northcott carried bodies of his victims into this chicken house for burial. In the foreground is what officers say was the Winslow brothers' grave. The photo is taken from a grave said to be Walter Collins'. The farm is located near Mira Loma (once called Wineville).

 

 

J. L. "Barney" Barnard discovers a hole of mystery inside a shed on the murder farm. It was sawed or hacked through the wooden floor and then dug into the earth. The hole was found filled with tin cans and rubbish, but underneath were papers and letters containing the name of Northcott and a mysterious telegram to "countess" in New York, whom officers were trying to find.

 

 

Accused murderer Gordon Stewart Northcott, shackled to an officer, watches the process of digging being done by Deputy Sheriff Ben deCrevecoueur of Riverside. No bodies were found, but they did unearth fragments of bones and wisps of hair, as well as scraps of clothing and charred belongings of the missing children.

 

 

Officers digging for graves where Northcott says "murder farm" victims were buried,
while he watches, handcuffed to an officer.

 

 

Officers taking specimens from a "murder farm" lime pit which yielded bones and wisps of hair. Scientists detected they were from two different boys, and comparison with samples completed identification, asserted investigators. Left is J. R. Quinn, chief investigator for the Sheriff's office, and Bert Kelly, Deputy Sheriff.

 

 

Deputy Sheriff Ben B. deCrevecoeur and Riverside Sheriff C. A. Sueeter digging beneath
the garage floor at the Wineville murder farm for Northcott murder victims.

 

 

Investigators looking for evidence in the Northcott murder case at the family farm.

 

 

Sheriff deputies digging in the desert where Gordon Stewart Northcott said he had buried slain boys.
He laughed when no graves were found.

 

 

Sheriff Clem Sweeters, left, and Deputy Bob Bailey, foreground, watch a trusty dig
for bodies on the Northcott ranch.

 

 

Investigators dig in the desert in a search for Northcott's victims.

 

 

Detective Lieutenants Chester Lloyd and E. M. Hamren examining two hatchets and a blood-stained
chopping block found in the basement of the Northcott family house at 1239 Brittania Street.

 

 

Sanford Clark shows officials the chair from the "murder farm" in which he says the Winslow brothers and Walter Collins sat when they were killed, struck from behind by a hammer and hatchet wielded by Gordon Stewart Northcott. This chair was brought from the Wineville ranch to the Northcotts' Los Angeles home with other furniture, Clark informed Deputy Sheriffs A. B. Mendoza, left, and L. G. Ybarra, for whom he re-enacted the alleged killings.

a

 

Gordon Stewart Northcott points with a pencil to a chicken house at his ranch where the state contends one of his alleged boy victims was slain. Undersheriff Rayburn, left, and Deputy Brown, right, keep him closely guarded as the trial jury inspects the ranch.

 

 

Deputy J.R. Quinn and Sheriff Clem Sweeters with items recovered at the ranch.

 

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