Notorious Bakersfield

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In October 1969, a little girl named Jody was abandoned on the freeway south of Bakersfield.  Officials didn't have a lot to go to positively identify her. When her story ran in newspapers and broadcast on local TV news programs across the country, this mystery girl captured the hearts of the nation. 

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For this episode of the Notorious Bakersfield podcast, I'm going to take a look back at how the people of Bakersfield responded to the 1938 radio adaptation of "War of the Worlds". This is considered one of the biggest Halloween pranks ever played on a mass of people. But was it really? Did that many people really fall for this prank?

In addition to that, I'll also tell the story of the Kelley-Vajda house, a Victorian Bakersfield home that's been moved twice and is still standing. It gained notoriety in the 1970s because of its supposed paranormal activities.

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Just before dawn on March 9, 1972, Daniel Fusselman, a 49-year-old unemployed bartender sat in his car, outside his estranged wife Priscilla's house in Park Stockdale. She was working the graveyard shift at a downtown Bakersfield coffee shop. He wanted to witness firsthand his wife's reaction to what he'd done inside the home. They were going through a divorce and he wanted to make her life a living Hell.

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Whenever a violent crime occurs at a well-known institution in a community, the community takes notice-people pay attention. And that's certainly what happened when 24-year-old Bakersfield College student Frances Lorine Brown was viciously attacked and killed on the Bakersfield College campus in 1977.

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Link to  tour details: 

https://mailchi.mp/fc51a1ed84b7/halloween2021

In Bakersfield and feeling the Halloween spirit? Load your friends and family into your car and take them on the creepiest ride of their lives. The Notorious Bakersfield Halloween Tour is a self-paced audio driving tour to some of Bakersfield's most notorious crimes scene locations and purported haunted sites.

For $20, you and your friends will learn about this town's most disturbing true crimes while you're at the actual location.

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Wiley Dorris was one of the most respected criminal defense attorneys in Bakersfield. If you found yourself on the wrong side of the law, Wiley was the guy you wanted in your corner. But overshadowing his courtroom triumphs, was his wife's political activism and electoral comeback victories.

Grace Dorris was one of the first women in the United States to be elected to public office. She was elected to the California Assembly in 1918.

Two years before the United States as a whole granted women the right to even vote, Bakersfield citizens elected a woman to the California legislature to represent them.

This is the story of Wiley and Grace Dorris

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The 1990 abduction and murder of 4-year-old Jessica Martinez remains one of Bakersfield's most notorious mysteries. 

If you have any information regarding Jessica Martinez's murder, please call the Bakersfield Police Department at 661-327-7111. Secret Witness Tip Line at 661-322-4040.

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William Compton, a 76-year-old cancer patient, was murdered in his home in 1993. The first Bakersfield Police detectives to investigate the murder tentatively and wrongly determined the elderly man committed suicide. Despite this error,  and thanks to the victim, Christopher Lightsey emerged as a suspect. 

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28-year-old Matthew Dale Odom was assaulted and stabbed in his front yard in the early morning hours of September 15, 2014. The father of four later died at the hospital from his injuries.

The seven-year anniversary of this crime is this week. Typically I cover older cases. But since this murder remains unsolved and relatively recent, I decided to cover this crime with the hope that it will jog someone's memory to help close this case. 

If you have information regarding this case, please contact the Bakersfield Police Department at 661-327-7111 or the Kern Secret Witness tip line  661- 322-4040.

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Ralph Smith Jr was a prominent Bakersfield home builder, real estate developer, and broker. He built many of the homes in Bakersfield's now well-established neighborhoods.

In 1966, he and his family were living at 275 Panorama Dr, a home Ralph built specifically for his family.

It was at this home on September 8, 1966, where Ralph Smith, his wife Edna, and son William were the victims of a home invasion that shocked not only their neighborhood but all of Bakersfield.

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