Murders
In August 1974, Allen beat Opal Cooper, age 85, to death in her home during a robbery. He was sentenced to 2–21 years for manslaughter and paroled in January 1985.
On May 18, 1987, he choked and beat a 73-year-old woman in her home, who survived. Two days later, he assaulted Laverne Hale, age 87, resulting in her death nine days later.
On June 2, 1987, he burglarized the house of an elderly man just five blocks from the scene of Laverne Hale's murder. This time the tenant was absent; Allen vented his anger by setting the house on fire.
On July 14, 1987, he killed Ernestine Griffin, age 73, with a ten-inch butcher knife, and repeatedly struck her on the head with a kitchen toaster. He stole a camera and $15. He was arrested later that day.
Read more about this topic: Howard Allen
Famous quotes containing the word murders:
“Many people I know in Los Angeles believe that the Sixties ended abruptly on August 9, 1969, ended at the exact moment when word of the murders on Cielo Drive traveled like brushfire through the community, and in a sense this is true. The tension broke that day. The paranoia was fulfilled.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)