Murderous Intent?

Murder should not be taken lightly, but it sometimes has a somewhat humorous side as this tale shows.

Killer cats

   Unbelievably, it seemed the new 1914 Long Beach charter made it mandatory to regulate the speed of cats within the city limits.  The copy of the charter as passed by State officials contained many clerical errors.  One of them made Long Beach responsible for the speed of cats.  Section 21 of article 2 of the charter provided that the speed of railway trains, cats and engines be regulated. Of course the intent of the charter was that "cars" and not "cats" be regulated as to speed, but the copy of the charter passed by the legislature legally placed the animals on the regulation list.

   The media had a field day with Long Beach's misprint.  Taking part in the fun, Mayor Louis Whealton told the press he thought City Clerk Harry B. Riley should be appointed to enforce the cat-speeding limit since he was the one who hadn't corrected the typing mistake.  The Long Beach mayor went on to offer a prize of $10 to the person writing the most humorous news clip on the regulation of the speed of cats.  The following appeared in the March 8, 1915 Los Angeles Times:

   A handsome Angora cat belonging to Mrs. Albert Laughrin was taken into custody yesterday on a charge of exceeding the cat speed limit. The case of 'Betsy' will be made a test one, according to police officers. If she is convicted it is darkly hinted that all of her nine lives will go out simultaneously.

   On Ocean Avenue and First Street the hotels are so close together that the roofs make one continuous speedway for innumerable cats.  The Long Beach "cat cops," have endeavored to take these marauding and musical felines alive in vain, and they are determined to act in accordance with the new cat-speed law, and shoot the cats on the wing, where they can later testify to excessive speed.

Not all found this frivolity over cats funny.  Cats could be a nuisance.

   W.L. Jennings of Long Beach was a good neighbor. He frequently helped his widowed neighbor, Elizabeth Shaeffer, when she needed work done around her house. He was a little taken aback, however, when she asked him to kill her cat.

   Mr. Jennings and his family were walking out the door to go to the movies on September 17, 1916, when their elderly neighbor came in with her request.  It seemed the cat had been giving her all sorts of problems---getting into the breakfast dishes, leaping onto the table to steal food and scratching furniture.  She had tried to shoo the cat away, make if find another home, but the animal kept coming back, sometimes even bringing her "gifts" such as a dead bird or rat. It had adopted her, even though she didn't want a cat; she barely had enough money to buy food for herself let alone support a cat.  Mrs. Shaeffer was extremely distraught.  The only recourse, it seemed, was to kill the cat.

   Jennings sent his wife and three children on the the theater. He thought it best that his children not be around when he performed the deadly deed. He suggested that Mrs. Shaeffer accompany the family to the movies and told them he would join them shortly.  But he never got to the theater.  When he failed to appear his wife assumed the "chore" had taken longer than he had thought.  She had a big surprise awaiting her when she returned home.  She found her husband dead.

   Jennings' face was buried in a chloroform-soaked quilt, which covered a bucket in which he had placed the cat.  The feline was nowhere to be found. It seemed that Jennings, bending over the quilt which covered the pail from which the cat escaped, absorbed so much of the chloroform that he fell forward, burying his face in the quilt.  Breathing the fumes, he died.  Was the cat a killer of not only feathered creatures and rodents, but of Mr. Jennings?

   Not all thought cats a nuisance. There was one man who would kill to protect his beloved feline..........

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