This one happened right across the river.

The whole murder and what happened is bizarre. You can read all the details here:

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/27/magazine/the-case-of-the-lady-and-the-killer.html?pagewanted=all

To tell the story quickly, Hope Masters, a rich young woman from a prominent Beverly Hills family, with two marriages behind her, traveled to her family’s ranch in Springville with her live-in boyfriend, Bill Ashlock. They stayed in the guest house.

A new acquaintance of Bill’s, Taylor Wright (real name G. Daniel Walker) came to visit. He spent the night and murdered Bill. He raped and threatened Hope, but for some strange reason they stayed together at the ranch for several days, even after her folks arrived to stay at the ranch’s main home.

Hope’s father is the one who ultimately reported the murder, Hope and Taylor/G. Daniel were arrested. As it turned out, G. Daniel Walker was a fugitive.

Though I doubt anyone will ever know exactly what happened, you can read the whole story in the book, “A Death in California”, and watch the TV movie starring Cheryl Ladd and Sam Elliott.

Hope and Bill on the ranch.

Hope Masters

G. Daniel Walker

This happened before we moved to Springville–but I’d seen the TV movie and when I learned how close the ranch was to where I lived, you can see it across the river, of course I read the book. A most bizarre case. No one would believe it if you wrote a fiction mystery with similar content.

Marilyn