Day five: The kidnapping, rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl
November 6th, 2009, 3:00 am · 42 Comments · posted by Larry Welborn
Henry Ford McCracken, Photo courtesy: OCSD
Henry Ford McCracken, Photo Courtesy: OCSD
1951: Henry Ford McCracken was convicted of luring 12-year-old Patricia Jean Hull from a neighborhood movie theater into his auto-court cottage in Buena Park on May 19, 1951.
Once he had her under his control, he sexually assaulted the girl before he bludgeoned her to death. Her body was found several days later near what is now O’Neill Park.
McCracken’s trial and subsequent three-year battle to escape the gas chamber drew media coverage across the United States. First-year lawyer George Chula, who later became one of Orange County’s most prominent criminal attorneys, used hypnosis to help his client recall the events as part of a defense that McCracken was mentally deficient.
It didn’t work. McCracken, 36, was put to death Feb. 19, 1954. Chula traveled to San Quentin and watched as his client was executed.
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1954 was a good year California still had and used the death penalty.
We should learn from out past………….. It will save us millions and millions of dollars, AND teach potential killers a lesson!
Even more important than teaching potential killers a lesson is that we free society of the burden of having to care for them and eliminate the threat that they will do further damage should be one day get out. As said many times before, it’s a sad time when criminals have more rights than victims!
You’ve got that right!! It’s a load of crap that these death penalty cases go for so many years that they die from old age in prison.
yep!
It’s too bad that these criminals treated like they’re something special nowadays. California needs to tie a few nooses, light up the electric chair, and bring back the firing squad. What is the sense in having a death row if nobody is ever executed? Capital punishment is a joke in California, and the joke is on us, the tax-paying citizens.
What happened to these days when you do the crime and get put down less then 3 years later…
CA needs to stop being so dumb and go back to the old days..
That was FAST! The crime occurred on May 19, 1951 and the perp was executed on February 19, 1954. Folks, that’s less than 3 years from the commission of the crime to the execution. Nowadays, it takes three years from the commission of the crime just to get into the courtroom! Before all of you left-wing diletantes start your soft-headed rants about “due process”, I realize that technology has improved and both the prosecution and defense have a whole new arsenal of forensic weapons, including DNA, better fingerprint analysis, etc., but wouldn’t you think that these tools would make it FASTER to get a conviction and resolution of a death sentence?
Ah, the good old days!
3 years wow, that was fast, today he would sit on death row for 30 yrs. I loathe child murders, I think every single one should be excuted. I guess that makes me evil, oh well.
No, that makes you a law abiding citizen with common sense that hates criminals, especially child murderers.
execution is too nice marley. lock em up and throw the key away, then check back 3 weeks later. remove body, then repeat process till all these sickos are gone.
i agree!!
but californias has to protect bastards like these!!!
Wow so easy for you people to hand out justice. Would you be willing to pull the string at the gallow? Or would you be man enough to pull the lever and pass 8000000 volts of electricity through another persons body? I dont think so. And if you are, what does that say about you as well. No consern for human life?? Mr. Excutioner? Does that make you just as bad as them? Maybe not so much in your mind because they “deserved it.” It is a different time now and due process means string this stuff out as long as you can. Life in jail, no possibility of parole is the best way to take care of these vermin. If not, then they should undergo testing for vaccines and makeup and food preservatives and not helpless rats and guinea pigs. Don’t let their crimes make you a monster.
Wow, how hypocritical of you. First you talk about concern for human life, talking about being ‘just as bad as them’ , being ‘willing to pull the string at the gallow”…oh so theatrical. Then you turn around and talk about making them test animals and basically torturing them, aren’t you? Which is worse? Or if not worse, equally as ‘bad’ and inhumane?
And P.S. the chair runs about 2000 volts…not 8 million you drama queen
I would be more than happy to pull the plug on lowlife criminals and save taxes. Sign me up!!!
I guess you aren’t aware that it costs more if a convict sentenced to death than it does if they are sentences to life.
It is the costs associate with the appeals.
I’m sure most of you would simply say do away with the appeals process. In which cause you would be very comfortable living in, say Iran.
Way to go Chula! Trying to keep a murderer of a 12yr old little girl alive!
Hell is waiting for you, Sir
I find it interesting that you talk about who is going to hell and yet you yourself are not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus and the bible. Perhaps you should rethink pointing fingers.
Actually, George Chula was a very nice man. He believed in the system that says everyone deserves a defense.
I guess you don’t.
I really don’t get this attitude.
3 years from trial to death, Ah the good old days. That’s the way it should be. it’s a win win for everyone. lets get back to that and stop the murders extension of life. I will be thinking about the poor victim and her family, how sad.
If wanting child killers executed makes you evil then I say yay evil!
The good ‘ole days when society wouldn’t tolerate victimizing our children!
Unless, of course, it was the parents doing the victimizing. Then it was “mind your own business.”
I totally agree with you, California should still have the death penelty and use it in certain cases. And ALL child murderers should be executed… there is no reason to kill anyone, especially an innocent child….sick f****
I not for or against death penalty but there alot of so call conservative that do not know what they are talking about as usually. First, dealth penalty does not prevent crime cuz it only apply in to capital punishment which usually mean you have to kills someone. For a person that is willing to kills someone, they don’t care if they dies or not. Second, dealth penalty cost more than just sending a person to life in prison due to court and lawyer fee. You care say to get rid of all those court appeal, but might as well burn the constitution as well and oh, ban all gun. Personally, like everyone, I want to see an eye for a eye, even if I have to do it myself, but than I would be seeing the gas chamber myself. Only god know when is it your time.
Actually Yahweh says that they are to be stoned to death. Also Yahweh requires a quick judgement and execution. None of this waiting years to be executed. There would be no court fees because the judges are to be appointed Christians who would be paid by tithes received in the church, not taxes that are stolen from citizens. If this punishment was enforced crime would drop because of the cruel and unusual aspect of it. Before anyone gets too sentimental, the punishment is to be cruel and unusual. Plus the community is to be involved in the case, from the quick trial and the execution. If anyone were to witness someone being stoned to death, they would almost never commit capital crimes. These are the real good old days. Praise Yahweh!
That’s the old testament and it wouldn’t be Christians that were appointed, it would be Jewish or Babylonian elders. All of that eye for an eye stuff (which was originally a Babylonian principle brought into being by Hammurabi) went out the window with the new covenant that was paid for with the blood of Jesus, or at least that’s the way it was taught to me. I believe that Jesus stated “resist not evil.”
He obviously felt marginalized and disenfranchised and was the product of a broken home and school system that focused on silly things like the 3Rs instead of Community Service and Earth Studies. They were so barbaric back then. If only this guy were still alive there would be a group of college students helping him learn to paint and get his college degree from prison.
Can anyone identify the two deputies seen in this photo? I’m sure by now both have long ago passed away but it is still interesting.
I was thinking the same.
The older one is probably dead. The younger one might still be alive.
thats all marleys has to say about this article.?
yep. sorry to disappoint you.
It doesn’t exist today because of the worthless welfare party that controls California.
Orange County’s been around for 120 years. How can we already be over halfway through our history (1951) by day 5 of a 50-part series?
they should execute the killer right away like they did to the victim becasue they sure didn’t give them mercy
Dudeman sez, hang ‘em high!!!
I was raised hearing the stories of this little girl. My sisters were her friends and they always went to the movies together. They didn’t that day because it was my dad’s birthday. He would tell me about the searching for her. They all stopped and searched for her. Dad told me that she was found by a indian tracker they brought in and I’m not sure how but they were able to find her by his help and mileage on his car. My sisters never talked about this.
SOB got what he deserved!
I say turn them all into Eunuchs and let them loose, save some taxpayer’s money and prevent them from comiting more rapes!
Try 1954 for execution too.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=oil&GSiman=1&GScid=8437&GRid=32651774&
Although this didn’t happen in the OC, they are buried here.
Mre details about this crime can be found here: http://www.nathancallahan.com/live-noir.html