Few homes from the 1930s still exist in such exquisite state as the one located at 1830 Verdugo Vista Dr., Glendale, California. Yet it does, in perfect California Spanish-Mediterranean style.
On November 9, 1937, Paul Wright, aviation manager at the Union Air Terminal, found his wife, Evelyn Wright, locked in steamy sexual embrace with his best friend Paul Kimmel. They were seated on a piano bench in the living room.
From the Los Angeles Times, February 2, 1938:
Shuttering, clutching at his throat, covering and uncovering his haggard face with clenched hands, Paul Wright today told the jury trying him for life of a revolting scene in the living room of his home that he said caused him to slay his wife Evelyn and his friend John Kimmel.
“I saw them [____] in awful positions [____] on the piano bench,” the airport executive testified. “Then Evelyn arose to a sitting position. She put her arms around Kimmel. He put his arms around her. They kissed each other.”
Wright was almost screaming his words when he told of the shootings.
“The next thing I knew I was standing there with a gun in my hand and they were on the floor. There was blood… blood, and she was moaning.” Wright burst into hysterical sobbing.
Much of Wright’s testimony was unprintable. Almost as he completed the sordid story the state began cross-examination. Under questioning of his counsel, Jerry Geisler, Wright had been asked to tell what happened after he woke from a nap.
“I was awakened by sound. I didn’t know what it was. I thought it was something that sounded like the piano, and it startled me. I got up and went to the door of the bedroom and saw the lights were on now. Johnny was sitting at the piano. I could only see the upper part of his face and head. He was looking down. I could not see Evelyn and I wondered where she was. I thought she was on the davenport. I went in and looked and did not see her there and then I thought maybe she was in the kitchen. Then I turned… Then I turned… then I saw…” Wright’s voice broke in a near shout. “Evelyn was on the piano bench by Johnny.”
Then he told of the resulting scene that, he said, drove him to the slaying. “She came to a sitting position when I came into the room. She put her arms around his neck and he put his arms around her neck and they kissed. They kissed. They kissed each other. Then everything in me exploded.”
