"Aftermath": Chapter XXVI of the Barbara Graham Story

Aftermath

Much controversy has grown over the argument of whether Barbara Graham was guilty or innocent, and not a little of it came about as the result of a film titled, I Want to Live! Its producer, Walter Wanger, had once been a highly successful maker of films such as Joan of Arc, Algiers, The Long Voyage Home, and numerous others over a two-decade period. Married to the glamorous actress, Joan Bennett, he suspected that she was having an affair with her agent, Jennings Lang. In a fit of uncontrollable anger, he confronted Lang on a parking lot just before Christmas in 1951 and shot him in the groin. Lang recovered, but Wanger was so mortified by what he had done that he waived a trial and threw himself on the mercy of the court. Eventually he served four months at an honor farm. When he returned to the film industry as an ex-convict, he was not welcomed with open arms.

It took Wanger half a dozen years to win his way back into the good graces of the studios, and he did so with a script by two talented screenwriters, Don M. Mankiewicz (Trial, House of Numbers) and Nelson Gidding (The Helen Morgan Story), as well as interest by respected director Robert Wise (Somebody Up There Likes Me, Executive Suite). The story: Barbara Graham, an innocent woman with a shady past is wrongfully convicted of participating in a robbery-murder and sent to the gas chamber for it.

Wanger never considered anyone but Susan Hayward for the role of Barbara. He had worked with her on four earlier films (Canyon Passage, Smash-Up, The Lost Moment, and Tulsa), and she fit exactly his vision of an innocent Barbara. So determined was he to get Miss Hayward that he agreed to give her sole star billing and casting approval. Before Susan accepted, she insisted on reading all the source material that had gone into the writing of the screenplay: newspaper and magazine accounts, the trial transcript, letters written by Barbara, and a 60-page outline of Barbara's life written by reporter Ed Montgomery of the San Francisco Examiner, who first crucified Barbara in his columns, then did a complete about-face and fought to save her life.

The story, as "Hollywoodized," made an excellent movie, but it was far from objective, and grotesquely slanted in Barbara's favor. Three of her husbands were glossed over and two of her sons were left entirely out of her "story." Her heroin addiction was omitted -- although Henry Graham's was not only included but emphasized, apparently to make the movie Barbara more of a martyr. Her capture with Perkins and Santo was completely fictionalized: in the movie it was nighttime, police had an entire block surrounded, the chief of detectives called to the fugitives over a bullhorn while searchlights flashed all over the building, and Jack Santo, before surrendering, beat up Barbara for leading police to them (in 1957, of course, it couldn't be shown on American theater screens what Barbara and Jack were really doing when captured). The script, and the film that came out of it, were clearly meant to delude the movie-going public into believing that Barbara was innocent.

After Susan Hayward read all the material, she found herself "fascinated by the contradictory traits of personality in this strangely controversial woman who had an extraordinary effect on everyone she met." Hayward went on to say, "She was a juvenile, then an adult, delinquent, arrested on bad check charges, perjury, soliciting, and a flood of other crimes, but somewhere along the line she tried to be a good wife and mother too. She read poetry, liked jazz and classical music. None of what she ever was, squared with the picture drawn of her in the trial. I became so fascinated by the woman that I simply had to play her."

Susan Hayward's own opinion' She told her biographer, Beverly Linet, that she thought Barbara indeed had been at the murder scene -- but could not bring herself to believe that Barbara had pistol-whipped Mabel Monohan. And, of course, if Barbara hadn't got the front door open, nobody would have pistol-whipped her.

Even though the film would dishonestly represent Barbara as completely innocent, Susan Hayward took the role -- for 37% of the picture's profits. It was a good decision; it won her an Academy Award for best actress. The film was also nominated for best director, screenplay, cinematography, sound, and editing. There is no Academy Award for truth.

Because television eventually copies everything, I Want to Live! was remade 25 years later, in 1983, as an ABC-TV movie. Original co-scripter Don Mankiewicz wrote the teleplay. Lindsay Wagner, TV's "Bionic Woman," was cast as Barbara.

As if being "Hollywoodized" wasn't bad enough, Barbara's story now became "Televisionized." Barbara is shown being released from the reformatory and becoming a nanny to three little children. Their father naturally hits on her and she runs away from that bad situation. She marries a sailor, has his baby, and then leaves them both. Next she innocently rides to Tijuana with a boyfriend, only to find out that he is smuggling World War II ration books. Good ol' Babs takes the rap for him because he's really a nice guy; she goes to jail for a year. Later, she meets the same guy again, perjures herself for him, and does another year.

Eventually Barbara meets and marries Henry Graham, has little Tommy, but discovers that Henry has a heroin habit, and leaves him, taking the child to Henry's mother to keep. Adrift and desperately in need of money, she goes to Perkins and Santo for help, not knowing that they have just murdered Mabel Monohan. Too late, she is suddenly captured with them, put on trial, is wrongly convicted, and goes to the gas chamber, an innocent woman.

The publicist for this TV movie planted a number of press items to the effect that substantial "new evidence" had been uncovered by the producers of this movie which would definitely cast doubt on Barbara's guilt. Apparently they not only neglected to include that evidence, they also decided that the original film version was too long; they made the TV movie of Barbara's story 20 minutes shorter.

In addition to the two movies, numerous writers in numerous books and articles have introduced new information from a variety of sources over the past 45 years that proves conclusively that Barbara was really innocent or definitely guilty, however one wants to feel about her.

One popular theory is that she could not have pistol-whipped Mabel Monohan because the victim had to have been struck by a right-handed person and Barbara was left-handed. Well, maybe, say her detractors -- unless the victim was struck from behind or while bending to the side.

Another story is that Barbara not only knew how Baxter Shorter died, but actually participated in his murder. Jack Santo told a close friend while awaiting trial in county jail, "That broad got right in there and dug (Shorter's grave) as good as anybody. In fact, she stood flat-footed and hit him in the face with a shovel and said, 'You dirty son of a bitch, you'll never squeal again!'"

And if anyone wants to further confuse Baxter Shorter's kidnapping, Emmett Perkins, while awaiting trial, told his cop friend Dick Ruble that the reason he, Perkins, was so indignant about Olivia Shorter's identification of him, was because it was really Santo who took Shorter away at gunpoint, while Perkins and Barbara waited in the car. (Whoever snatched Baxter, did a good job of it; he was never seen or heard from again.)

Then there are Barbara's "confessions." Louis "Red" Nelson was associate warden under Harley Teets, and later succeeded him in that position. A year after Barbara's execution, Nelson had been on the Row interviewing one of the condemned men about a problem with his visitors list. When the interview was over, the prisoner suddenly broke down and spontaneously not only confessed to the crime for which he had been convicted (which he had never previously admitted), but also described in gory and disgusting detail how he had butchered his victim. Later that day, Nelson described the incident to Teets, complaining that he strongly disliked having to hear such stories. Teets replied, "I know exactly how you feel, Red. Barbara Graham told me how she pistol-whipped Mabel Monohan and split her head open. I've been carrying that load for a long time."

Although Teets did not say when Barbara had told him that, there had been any number of opportunities. Prior to being brought to San Quentin for her execution, Barbara had been housed for several months in a private section of the San Quentin hospital, after threats had been made on her life at the women's prison in Corona. Teets had visited her several times a week on inspection rounds and for private talks when she asked to see him.

Nelson made a note in his daybook of the conversation with Teets, which took place October 24, 1956. He had no reason not to believe it; Teets was not a man to lie, especially in light of the fact that he had a serious heart condition and frequently told people that he, like the men on the Row, was also "living on borrowed time." He died from heart failure less than a year later. Nelson never told anyone what Teets had said until several years later when he met J. Miller Leavy, Barbara's prosecutor, and repeated it to him.

The Teets story was verified, in a way, when Marin County district attorney

William O. Weissich confided to Leavy that the late warden had told him exactly the same thing. Two days before he died, Teets had attended a meeting at the state attorney general's office with Weissich, and the two men had then lunched together at Fisherman's Wharf. After lunch, Weissich had driven Teets back to San Quentin. Teets, whose health was noticeably failing, spoke of the many strains of the warden's office, especially dealing with death row inmates. He said it had been a terrible burden to him to carry around Barbara Graham's confession in secret as he had for two years. Weissich, who was personally opposed to capital punishment, expressed great surprise at the revelation and inquired why Teets had not revealed the confession after the execution. Teets explained that he felt very strongly that employees of the Department of Corrections should not concern themselves with guilt or innocence, but only carry out the orders of the court. And, he himself did not want to be responsible for Barbara's family and friends learning of her guilt, if they believed her innocent.

Teets requested that Weissich keep the matter confidential, and Weissich did, for two years following the death of Teets, until the day Leavy shared with him the story Red Nelson had told Leavy.

The other "confession" that has floated around almost since the day of the execution, was that while leaning her head on Father Daniel McAlister's shoulder, waiting for the matron to bring her a blindfold, Barbara had whispered a confession to the priest. It was a perfect time, a perfect opportunity, and Barbara's lips had been seen to move. But Father McAlister would never reveal what she said. "I refuse to say what Mrs. Graham may or may not have confessed," he stated whenever asked. "The confessional is not to be debased in this manner."

Does that mean that her words were confessional in nature' If they had not been, if Barbara had simply said, "I wish she'd hurry with the blindfold, Father," or something similarly innocuous, wouldn't the priest have felt free to repeat it' Does not the fact that Father McAlister never discussed what she said, in its own way arouse suspicion that she did confess' And might not the fact that Barbara was buried in hallowed Catholic ground support that position' There are no easy answers. In the end, it is left for everyone to decide individually.

One person who did get to know Barbara quite well while she was waiting to die was reporter Bernice Freeman. Berni had once been married to a San Quentin officer, and years later, as the single parent of four growing daughters, she supported her family as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. Already well known at San Quentin because of having been a guard's wife, she was assigned to cover the legendary prison for nearly 20 years. Always stylishly dress, perfectly coifed, every inch a lady, she earned a unique reputation among staff and inmate alike by never violating the confidence of either.

Barbara greatly admired Berni Freeman, who later became Bernice Freeman Davis when she married respected admiralty attorney Mansfield Davis. Whenever she visited Barbara, Berni was always complimented on her appearance and wardrobe. Sometimes the praise was wistful, as if Barbara wished she too could have turned out like that.

Their long talks together were more "female gab-fests" than interviews. They talked about motherhood, men, female aches and pains, unwanted weight gain, cooking. When the subject of her crime came up, Barbara vehemently declared her innocence, and, about John True, snarled, "That bastard! He lied to save his own neck! He knows I had nothing to do with the Monohan caper!"

As to whether Perkins or Santo had ever been her lover, she casually replied, "Nope."

But when Berni got too close to what might be the truth, Barbara backed off. As when Berni asked about the police finding the three of them nude and Barbara intimate with Santo when they broke in, Barbara replied aloofly, "I honestly can't remember."

An astute judge of people, with a keenly perceptive mind, Bernice Freeman's final analysis of Barbara Graham was that while she was a "beautiful and strangely charming young woman," she was also "utterly amoral." She had "no conception of the difference between right and wrong. She did what she pleased, never taking time to think, never worrying about the consequences. She neither knew nor cared whether or not an act was criminal, indecent, or immoral. If she had never done it before, she wanted to try it, and if she found it interesting, she wanted to repeat it."

That would seem to pretty much sum up the real-life Barbara Graham. Except for one sad thing which needs to be added.

There was a time when she was a pretty little girl, and nobody loved her.

Bibliography

Books:

Anderson, Clinton H.  Beverly Hills is My Beat.  New York, 1962.  Popular Library.

Brian, Dennis.  Murderers Die.  New York, 1986.  St. Martin's Press.

Davis, Bernice Freeman.  Desperate and the Damned, The.  New York, 1961.  Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

Eshelman, Byron E.  Death Row Chaplain.  Engelwood Cliff, NJ, 1962.  Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Gaute, J. H. H. and Odell, Robin.  The Murderers Who's Who.  Montreal, 1979.  Optimum Publishing, Ltd.

Lamott, Kenneth.  Chronicles of San Quentin.  New York, 1961.  David McKay Co.

Linet, Beverly.  Portrait of a Survivor -- Susan Hayward.  New York, 1980.  Antheneum.

Nash, Jay Robert.  Encyclopedia of World Crime, Volume 2.  Wilmette, Illinois.  Crimebooks, Inc.

Parish, James Robert.  Prison Pictures from Hollywood.  Jefferson, NC, 1991.  McFarland & Company.

Sifakis, Carl.  Encyclopedia of American Crime.  New York, 1961.  Ballantine Books.

Films:

I Want to Live!  United Artists, 1958.  Nelson Gidding & Don M. Mankiewicz, screenplay.

I Want to Live!  ABC-TV, 1983.  Don M. Mankiewicz, teleplay.

About the Author

Clark Howard

Clark Howard has been a full-time professional writer for more than thirty years.

His work ranges from 21 contemporary novels and true-crime books, to more than 200 short stories and articles in the mystery, western, and true crime genres.

He has won the Edgar Allan Poe award and four Ellery Queen Readers' awards for short story writing, and has a dozen nominations in the short story and true crime categories from the Mystery Writers of America, Western Writers of America, and Private Eye Writers of America.

He has also written a boxing column for The Ring magazine, and has had his work adapted for both film and television.

Writing for The Crime Library is his first venture into electronic publishing.