Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 29, No. 4, September 1971

Alexander cross-examined her in a tone of light contempt, grinned when she responded to his questions to indicate he was aware they were falsehoods. He was almost gallant in his treatment of her, assuming the role of a man who knows he is talking with a doomed young woman.

Emmett Perkins called his wife and sister to testify in his defense. They both stated that Emmett had been planting a tree in the yard of their home on March 7, and so could not have been in El Monte on March 7.

A dental nurse took the stand and testified that Perkins had an appointment at her office the morning of March 10, and so he could not have been a fugitive eluding the police.

Jack Santo called his common-law wife to the stand, who stated that Santo could not have been in Burbank on the night of March 9, because he was with her in Grass Valley. Her appearance on the witness stand was the biggest mistake of her life.

After she had left the stand another witness, Jack Fumeaux, a Modesto truck salesman, testified that he knew Harriet Henson intimately, and that she was with him one morning when she laid out a plan for an alibi that would place Jack Santo out of the vicinity of Burbank on the fateful night of the murder.

“I had contacted the attorney general’s office,” Furneaux stated, “and I as given a miniphone recorder to wear when I talked with Miss Henson. (It was the same type of instrument Sirianni wore when he talked with Barbara.) I recorded our entire conversation, and during our conversation Miss Henson admitted to me that Jack Santo and Emmett Perkins had killed a Nevada City gold miner, Ed Hanson, during a robbery in 1951, and that Miss Henson had taken part in the robbery and murder.”

That was the end of Santo’s chances for acquittal. As Harriet Henson attempted to leave the courtroom she was arrested by Sheriff Wayne Brown of Nevada City on a murder warrant.

It took the jury only five hours of deliberation to find a verdict of guilty for all three defendants. The foreman of the jury handed the slip of paper with the jury’s verdict on it to Clerk Cecil Luskin who read it in a somber voice.

“We the jury find Jack Santo guilty of murder in the first degree with no recommendation for mercy.” It was the same for Emmett Perkins. And the same for Barbara Graham.

Barbara’s icy composure melted when the verdict was read and she broke into violent sobbing. Later, in the county jail visiting room, she was faced with a dozen reporters and cameramen.

“How do you feel about the verdict, Barbara?” a reporter asked.

“I just can’t believe it,” she replied tearfully. “I just can’t believe it.” She refused to answer further questions or to pose for pictures.

Jack Hardy was relieved of his duties as defense counsel for Barbara after receiving the thanks of Judge Fricke for “serving at great expense and personal sacrifice.”

Al Matthews, a noted trial lawyer, now came into the case on the automatic appeal. He made an emotional appeal for a new trial and referred to Judge Fricke as the 13th juror. He was severely scolded by Judge Fricke, who turned down the appeal.

Matthews, widely known for his violent opposition to the death penalty, fought the appeal through the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was turned down in each instance.

Santo and Perkins were removed to San Quentin’s death row and Barbara was taken to the Corona State Prison for Women to begin her long wait.

Through two long years in Corona’s solitary confinement cell Barbara never ceased protesting her innocence of the Monohan murder. All appeals having failed, Judge Fricke set the date of execution for June 3, 1955.

The execution was agonizingly delayed on several occasions and the delays nearly ended capital punishment in California. She made two statements to the press before going to her death. One, to Eddy Jo Bernal of the Los Angeles Herald-Express, in which she said:

“I am ready to die. If it is God’s will that I die then I shall go to my death with no malice towards anyone. I’ve always had pride and dignity, and I hope I will go to the gas chamber with my head held high. I am at peace with myself and God. Death would be a relief from this hell!”

Her other statement was made to a matron. She said, “My downfall was the love of beautiful clothes, jewels, furs, and fancy cars. I have done many things to get them but not murder. And I don’t feel that I have been a really bad person.”

As the hour approached for her execution Barbara still insisted she was innocent. She refused to see Lt. Jack McCreadie of the Los Angeles homicide detail, who had been hoping to get some last-minute information from her on the disappearance of Baxter Shorter.

At 9:05 p.m. two petitions for writs in behalf of Barbara were filed with the Supreme Court. Fifteen minutes later, Governor Knight ordered a delay in the execution to give the court time to consider the petitions.