Leslie 1895 - 1931
Leslie Arthur was born in Bromley at the end of 1895, the second of the rwo sons of Alice Elizabeth nee Wright, and the third son of his father, Arthur John Thornewill.
Leslie emigrated to Canad and joined the Royal Canadian North West Mounted Police.
Records held in the Canadian Archives show that on 18th April 1918 Leslie signed up to go to war. After training, he was shipped to Shorncliff Barracks in Kent, before sailing to France. But by this time the War was over, and he was shipped back to Canada and was discharched February 1919,
The internet carries some mentions of Leslie - the first reports that he is accused of murdering his wife, Cora Van Ness, (though there is no record of a marriage):-
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28 Sept 1928 Press Photo - Leslie Thornewill questioned in death of Mrs LA Thornewill
SFFBureau .........Clove.........NYAcme.........Sept. 28, 1928.
Leslie A. Thornewi11, the "man in the frame", who is being
questionod concerning tho mysterioua death of Mrs. L.A.
Thornewill, wealthy Santa Oruz, California, woman. She was
found abot to death in the house of her chicken ranch. Thornewill revealed that Mrs. Thornewill believed that, whlle his love for her might die in this world, it would be revived in the next world.
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And then, three years later, the second reports that his wife (presumably a new one !) is accused of murdering him !
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MRS. THORNEWILL IS INDICTED FOR MURDER
SANTA CRUZ, Cal., Jan. 10 [1931].—(AP)
Charged with the murder of her husband, Mrs. Leslie A. Thornewill, 28, was held under guard in the county hospital here yesterday. She was indicted late yesterday by the county grand jury following the death of her mate, a Santa Cruz stage line proprietor and former Canadian Royal Mounted police officer. Her husband, who died yesterday, exonerated her. He said he was accidentally shot while struggling with her for possession of a pistol after a cabin party, December 30. The jury voted the indictment after hearing 11 persons testify, including witnesses at the fatal party.
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And then a third report is of her trial:-
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San Fransisco Examiner, February 28, 1931
GIRL DESCRIBES
SHOOTING OF
THORHEWILL
Witness Declares Wife Burst
Into Cabin With Gun in Hand
and Fired Upon Husband
SANTA CRUZ, FEB 24th. With
dramatic effect the prosecutton
closed its case today against Mrs.
Helene Thornewitlf charged with
the murdrr of her husband, Leslie
A. Thornewill
The drama was furnished by the
State's star witness, Gertrude
Smith, one of the three young
women who atrended the party in
the mountain cabin of Milton Main
on the night of December 29, when
the fatal shooting occurred.
Describes Shooting
She pictured Mrs. Thornewill as
bursting in upon the party in a
jealous rage, revolver in hand, and
opening fire upon Thornewill after
a brief exchange of words.
A loud banging on the door waa
the first hint that the wife was on
the scene, Mra. Smith declared. She
testified:
I was in the kitchem with Mil-
ton Main, Mrs, Patricia Ross and
Thornewlll. Main opened the door.
Mrs. Thornewill rushed in. There
was a gun in hand. Her face
was white and her mouth in a
straight line.
"Pointed Gun at Me"
She walked straight across to
Thornewill. who was leaning
against a table, and said: 'Les,
you're coming home with me.'
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And then there is this much more recent newspaper article, from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California dated Sunday, March 27, 1966 :-
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An Old House
With Infamous Memories
By Margaret Koth
Sentinel Staff Writer
An old house with a murder
—or suicide?—in its past, was
torn down this past week.
Now owned by Mr and Mr-
Clyde Taylor, who acquired it
from his parents, Mr and Mrs
Harry Taylor, the house was
located on Taylor lane, just off
Seventh avenue.
Its past is a three-chapter
story. The first part is a solid
family story beginning with the
early-day Rodriguez family
Adolphs Rodriguez, grandson of
Jose Antonio Rodriguez who set-
tled at Villa de Branciforte in
1798. built the house overlook-
ing Arana gulch and raised a
family of 10 children there.
An old ledger found hy wreck-
ers inside a wall of the house,
is dated 1882 and lists the Rod-
riguez family purchases of gro-
ceries and clothing at Bern
heim's mercantile store. A third
grade reader also was found,
presumably the property of one
of Adolphs' children. Flora Rod
riguez. Another child, a son.
Hyme. died here about two
weeks ago.
Sometime after the turn of
the century, the Rodriguez,
family sold the property. And
in 1920 the house and sur-
rounding acreage were bought
by Mr. and Mrs. Leslie A.
Thornewill, poultry ranchers.
But several things were not
as they seemed to be: the at-
tractive Mrs. Thornewill was
really Mrs. Cora Mead, es-
tranged wife of James Lucas
Mead, millionaire owner of
Mead Bicycle company of Eng-
land. And she was 43 — 19
years older than her hand-
some, dashing escort.
Thornewill was a former Cana-
dian Mountie. They met when
he served as guide for a Cana-
dian camping trip Mrs. Mead
took with friends. She fell —
hard She also was footloose.
Ledger and third grade
reader belonged to Adolphs
Rodriguez and his little daugh-
ter, Flora. They were found
in a wall of (he old Seventh
avenue house, dating from the
1880s.
fancy-free and rich. Thornewill
resigned his Mountie post and
together they enrolled at UC
Davis for animal husbandry and
poultry courses. Then they came
to Santa Cruz to start a poultry
business on the old Rodriguez
place.
At first they appeared happily
married. Cora Mead assumed the
name of Thornewill. They
worked together with the chick-
ens. But after a time the rest-
less Thornewill got interested in
another kind of chicken and be-
came bored with Cora. She was
a middle-aged woman; he was
in the prime of life.
More and more Thornewill
sought the company of young-
er women and Cora heard
about it. In desperation she
set him up in the Thornewill
Trucking company, hoping to
hold him this way. But the
business gave Thornewill ex-
cuses to be away more. He
wanted to break away com-
pletely but the trucking com-
pany wasn't making enough
money to suit him. So he in-
volved himself in the then
lucrative business of trans-
porting contraband liquor.
Prohibition was in full swing.
There was big money in
"bootlegging."
In 1927 Thornewill left Cora
for good but kept the trucking
business. She was shattered.
She went to Europe to try to
fbrget the romantic ex-Mountie
but nothing was any good for
Cora without Thornewill. She
came back to Seventh avenue
and tried every way she could
for a reconciliation.
Her letters to him. made pub-
ic after her death, were pathetic
messages of pleading: " . . You
know when you are all burned
up and played out, Cora loves
you. You know that your Lin-
coln (auto), your few dollars in
he bank, mean nothing to me
and everything to all the cheap
ones. Try it and see. If you were
Harry Taylor, above, and
his wife lived in the old house
for nearly 30 years before it
was torn down a few days ago.
He says the kitchen episode —
murder or suicide? —
bothered them.
just a hobo and had not a cent
in the world you would still be
my man. But try that stand on
others and see how much you
will have . . ."
Other letters were bitter, one
telling vividly how she felt when
Thornewill drove into her yard
with two "females" beside him
in his Lincoln.
September 26 was to be Cora's
last night alive. She called
Thornewill to her home in one
last desperate attempt at recon-
ciliation. In court testimony
later, Thornewill told how he
had to push her into a closet,
then run out to his car, in order
to get away.
Later that same night a fran-
tic call came over the telephone
"My God, he's trying to kill me
—he's trying to kill me!" It was
Cora, calling for help.
Undersheriff Lowell Rountree
had the call traced. It led him
to the Seventh avenue home
where she lay sprawled in a
pool of blood on the kitchen
floor. A rifle and a small stick
lay nearby. The back of her
head was blown off. There were
no signs of struggle although
strands of hair were later dis-
covered clutched in her hand
Speculation ran wild. Some
felt Cora had killed herself;
others, that she had been mur-
dered, perhaps by Thorneuill
because it was rumored she
had threatened to expose his
rum-running activities. Al-
most everyone agreed that if
she had killed herself, she had
certainly tried to make it look
like murder.
Thornewill was arrested four
days later, charged with possible
murder. At first he refused to
tell where he had been at the
time of Cora's phone call. Final-
ly he told sheriff's deputies he
had been with a married woman
whom he did not want to in-
volve in the case.
Famed criminologist Kdward
O. Heinrich of Berkeley was
called on the case. His scientific
investigations produced the ver-
dict: suicide. Heinrich explained
that Cora had placed a stick
across the rifle trigger, then
controlled it with her feet, fir-
ing it after she placed the gun -
muzzle to her mouth. Blood and
brain particles had spattered
every corner of the kitchen.
There was no clean spot as
there would have been if an-
other person had stood there
and shot her, Heinrich pointed
out.
Leslie A. Thornewill was ex-
onerated.
However, just about two
years later, on December 29,
1930. the romancing Thorne-
will was himself shot — by a
wealthy woman, his wife of
less than a year, Helene Grant
Thornewill.
Helene. gun in hand, followed
her handsome roving husband
to an intimate gathering of
three men, three women, ac-
cording to newspaper accounts.
She entered their rendezvous
cottage — it gained newspaper
fame as "Lilac Forest Cabin."
several miles north of Santa
Cruz near Highway 17.
Holene ordered Thornewill to
go home at once. Then, without
waiting for him to start, she
pulled the trigger. In the scuffle
to get the revolver away from
her, Thornewill was mortally
wounded. And by a strange coin-
cidence, this shooting took place
in the cabin kitchen.
Before Thornewill died nine
days later he exonerated his
wife, describing it as an acci-
dent. Mrs. Thornewill died two
years ago in San Jose.
Last coincidence in this story
of two kitchen shootings: all
three principals, Cora, Thorne-
will and then later, Helene, were
buried from the same Santa
Cruz mortuary.
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Cora Van Ness
It was posted that
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Cora was born in 1876 to Frank Van Ness and Frances Wheelock. The story of her parents’ marriage is a one for a separate posting. Cora was one of 7 children who grew up in New York City.
In the summer of 1894, Cora travelled to Wisconsin to marry James Mead, the founder of Mead Bicycles. James Mead ended up being a very well to do man thanks to his bicycle company.
At some point, Cora left James to become the mistress of Leslie A. Thornewill. There is no proof, that I have found thus far, of any actual marriage between the two. Mr. Thornewill was a former Canadian Mounted Policeman. The two lived as a couple for many years.
In September 1928, Cora Mead called 911 to report that “He’s killing me!” Cora was later found dead on the kitchen floor of her home. She had been shot through the mouth and a shotgun was found some distance from the body. A coroner’s inquest was done and it was ruled that Cora’s death was a suicide. The police claimed that Cora took her own life and arranged the scene to make it appear as if Thornewill had killed her. Three days after Cora’s death, Thornewill was taken to jail for questioning.
After Cora’s death her son-in-law, Donald M. Pearson, arrived at the Sheriff’s office with a criminologist in tow. The Pearsons remained in Santa Cruz, California, until the inquest was completed.
In 1928, it was reported that a young girl, Lillian Slick, the telephone operator who was on the receiving end of Cora’s 911 call, was unavailable to the police for questioning although she was regarded as a pivotal witness. The San Francisco Union stated that she was missing.
In 1930, a private investigator was hired to look into Cora’s death thanks to Santa Cruz clergymen. Detective Avers claimed that there were witnesses to Cora’s murder. Detective Avers discovered that Cora had most likely been murdered by members of a rum running ring for “knowing too much.” It was also thought that corruption in the police department helped cover up Cora’s murder. Some of the evidence that helped the investigator was the fact that Cora had a habit of keeping copies of all letters she sent to people. In some of these letters, Cora states that she was afraid for her life, afraid that people would get to her due the fact that she knew of their operations.
There appears to have been a cover up on multiple levels throughout the case. There were allegations of the police covering up many of the important details of Cora’s murder. These rumors were unsubstantiated from what I can tell.
I have yet to find clear evidence of whether the cause of Cora’s death was ever changed to "murder".
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