Thoughts about things we find facinating
by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum
Juan Marion stood in the dark ocean, water up to his neck. The cold January waves made him gasp. The shock numbed the pain from the bullet that grazed his side and the handcuffs that cut into his wrists. He stayed still, watching as sheriff’s deputies swept the Santa Clara riverbed and the ocean with their flashlights, looking for him.
Read the story: Museum of Ventura County
by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum
On July 28, 1924, when motions were called for in the case of the People vs. Jesse Mendoza in Ventura County Superior Court, court watchers were stunned when “a tall and stately woman” stepped inside the bar and answered, “ready for the defendant.” Mary Belle Spencer of Chicago became the first woman to represent a criminal defendant in Ventura County history. And this was no routine trial. It was the trial of man accused of committing one of the most gruesome and brutal murders anyone could remember. Spencer practiced law for decades and relished the attention she drew in legal circles. But despite her accomplishments and failures, she was invariably described in the newspapers as “the woman lawyer.”
Read the story: Museum of Ventura County