Mack Ray Edwards: The Child Killer of Southern California
This is the tale of the many child disappearances and murders in Los Angeles county starting in the early 50’s and continuing until 1970. It is believed that one person is responsible for tearing these children away from their loved ones.
Transcribed automatically by PodView
Welcome to True Crime Stories with Crimeatrory.
This is the tale of the many child disappearances and murders in Los Angeles County, starting in the early 50s and continuing until 1970. It is believed that one person is responsible for placing his selfish and deviant desires above everyone else and tearing these children away from their loved ones. Each child was someone's daughter, son, sister, brother, and friend. Each one mattered, each one made a mark, and each one deserves to have their story told. Most of the details in this case are 50 years old or older, so there are differing versions of what transpired.
I used the version of events that were reported most frequently. The decade of the 60s ushered in the Beatles Revolution. The war in Vietnam was in full swing, and John F. Kennedy, the U.S. president at the time, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. It was a decade of political upheaval, free love, war, and rebellion. It was also a time where children played outside with real friends as opposed to virtual ones. Television only had three channels, and you could walk as far as the length of your cord on your telephone while chatting on it to your friend.
The 60s was also the beginning of indescribable sadness and longing that would last a lifetime for countless families and friends of those who fell victim to this perpetrator across many cities in Los Angeles County, California. Stella Darlene Nolan was a beautiful child. She had sparkling blue eyes and blonde hair. She was eight years old when in June of 1953, she was with her mother, Eilena, at her place of work. Eilena worked for a refreshment stand in Auction City, which is located near Norwalk in Los Angeles County, California.
Stella, who sometimes went by her middle name, Darlene, was to check in with her mother every hour. When she failed to do so between the hours of 8pm and 9pm, Eilena knew there was something wrong. After the police were called, Eilena and her husband Owen revealed that Darlene was not their natural child. They had gained custody of her from a co-worker of Eilena's at a restaurant they both worked at.
Some sources claim that Darlene was a niece of the couple. Owen and Eilena were apparently advised by an attorney not to legally adopt Stella Darlene. The couple had custody of Darlene from the time she was six days old and loved her dearly. Darlene's birth mother, who lived out of state, was questioned and cleared as a suspect in her disappearance. A cousin of Darlene's was also questioned. but when investigators checked for any evidence that would tie him to her disappearance, there was none. Several suspects were questioned for the remainder of 1953, including two teenagers.
They were all cleared. Deputies and investigators continued to pursue suspects throughout the years to no avail. Donald Lee Baker and Brenda Jo Howell, 13 and 11 respectively, were two friends. Some sources say they were step-siblings. They would play together when Brenda visited her married sister in Azusa, California. On August 6, 1956, they rode their bicycles up San Gabriel Canyon near Glendora Mountain in California. They never returned. It was first thought that they ran away, but Donald's bike and Brenda's jacket were found near where they were last seen.
Donald lived with his parents, and Brenda lived in Fort Bragg, California at the time of her disappearance. The two have never been seen again.
Thomas Eldon Bowman was eight years old on March 23, 1957. Everyone called him Tommy. On that day, Tommy's brother, father, uncle, and two younger cousins were hiking the Arroyo Seco Trail near Pasadena, California. Tommy ran ahead of the others on the way down saying, I'll beat you to the car. Once the party arrived to the vehicle, Tommy was nowhere in sight. His family was frantic and the Los Angeles police came out in force. They even searched the area with helicopters. Tommy Bowman had vanished.
Two women provided an interesting clue. They claimed to have seen a tan-skinned man wearing khaki shorts and a plaid shirt walking behind a sandy-haired boy who was crying. The boy resembled the description of Tommy. Tommy's father, Eldon, was employed by Northrop Corporation, and they offered up a reward and aided in the search. A few days after Tommy vanished, a man sent a letter to the Bowmans and demanded $2,500 for the safe return of Tommy. When the man arrived to pick up the cash, the police arrested him.
The man was unemployed and in need of cash, and this was his cruel and desperate way of trying to come up with it.
Eldon Bowman sat down with journalist Paul Coates on what would have been Tommy's 10th birthday. Coates asked Mr Bowman if he believed that after two years time Tommy was still alive Mr Bowman responded It would be so much easier to believe otherwise, he answered weakly. But I do believe he's alive. I just can't believe anything else. What's it all mean, he asked hopelessly. What happened? It's awfully hard to believe that somebody can just disappear like Tommy did and never be seen again.
In 2005, an author named Weston DeWalt had stumbled onto the case, took an interest, and located the now elderly Mr. Bowman. He was able to sit down in his home and speak to him. The kitchen table was stacked with photographs of Tommy and newspaper articles regarding the case. It was clear that the years spent hoping for his son's return were full of sorrow and sadness.
He received permission from Mr. Bowman to speak to the detectives about his son's case. Bruce Howard Kremen was born on July 21st, 1953. He was on a camping excursion with the local YMCA in the Angeles National Forest when he got separated from his group. It only took a few minutes for them to realize he was missing, and they immediately started searching for him. There was no sign of Bruce. Officials initially believed he became lost or injured, but soon deduced that he had been abducted. His body has never been found.
Karen Lynn Tompkins was 11 years old on August 8, 1961. She had blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her bangs were cut in that quintessential high-on-the-forehead style that most little girls had in that era. She loved Barbies and was a good student. She, along with her eight-year-old brother Mike, was attending a summer arts and crafts class at Haldale Avenue Elementary School. Karen's dog, Lady, followed the two to class and became overwhelmed at the noise from all of the kids in attendance.
Mike left early and walked Lady the four blocks back home, leaving Karen to walk home alone. By all accounts, she left the class when it ended at 5.30 p.m., carrying both hers and Mike's art projects, miniature-covered wagons. A friend of hers rode her bike alongside Karen for part of the way home. When 6 p.m. rolled around and she wasn't home, Karen's mom, Laura, called the police. Despite valiant family and police efforts, Karen has never been found.
Ramona Price was seven years old and living in Santa Barbara when on September 7, 1961, she vanished while walking to a home that her family was packing up to move into. Her father didn't take her seriously when she told him she was going to do it and continued with the packing and moving. Her parents realized after about 30 minutes that she was gone. She is another child that vanished without a trace. Dorothy Gail Brown rode her bicycle to a car wash on July 3, 1962, near her home in Torrance, California, so that she could buy a soda from the vending machine.
Like the other children during that time and in that area, she just disappeared. About 100 police officers searched the area around Torrance, which is located in Los Angeles County. That night at around 8.30 p.m., her father found her bike on its kickstand just one block from her home. Police immediately suspected that she was abducted due to Karen Tompkins going missing just a year before in the same area. The next day, on July 4th, a child was walking on Tin Can Beach and found a beer can in the water, stuffed with a white dress.
She took the dress home and her mother laundered it before she read the news about the missing girl. The dress was immediately turned over to the police, where it was identified by Mr. and Mrs. Brown as belonging to Dorothy. An hour later, skin divers found the nude body of Dorothy floating in a kelp bed near Corona Del Mar. She had been in the water for six to eight hours. She'd been callously tossed into the ocean to die after being sexually assaulted. Although suspects were questioned, nobody was ever charged with Dorothy's abduction, rape, and murder.
oddly enough her plastic pink hairband was found on tin can beach in the water also stuffed in a beer can gary roche was shot several times in the head by an assailant who had broken into his home located in the Devonshire area in December of 1968. He was 16 years old. There is very little information regarding Gary or the circumstances of his death.
Roger Madison left his home on December 16, 1968 in Silmar, California after an argument with his family. Once again, like the others, he went missing and he has never been found.
Roger Dale Madison was 15 years old.
Three youths found the body of a young man on May 18, 1969, while snake hunting in a gully near Pacoima, California. There was also a footbridge that went over the gully where the same youths found some neatly folded clothes sitting on top of the bridge They presumably belonged to the boy Donald Todd Allen 13 was reported missing by his parents on May 16, 1969, after he failed to return from his lawn mowing job. His body was riddled with bullets and he was dressed only in his t-shirt. Donald had been sexually assaulted.
Mack Ray Edwards was described by his wife as a nice man. He was rather plain in appearance. Some would even say he was dorky looking. Edwards worked as a heavy machine operator contracted by Caltrans to help in the building of freeways in Los Angeles County. He was born in Arkansas in 1918. His father was a police officer there. It is said that Edwards was an avid reader of crime stories. He married Mary Howell on August 11, 1946, when he was 28 and she was 16, and moved to California shortly thereafter.
The couple went on to adopt two children. Neighbors claimed Edwards was always the first to offer to help when someone was in need. He was very well liked by his peers, work colleagues, and neighbors. Mack Edwards didn't drink or swear, and kids loved him.
His unassuming appearance and nature made it all the more shocking when on March 6, 1970, he walked into the Los Angeles Police Department Foothill Station, handed over a loaded gun to an officer and stated that he had a guilty complex. He and a young accomplice who had accompanied him to the police station broke into a home of a previous neighbor of Edwards where three sisters aged 12, 13, and 14 lived. After Edwards and his sidekick stole a coin collection and other items, they forced the girls to write notes to their parents telling them they were running away.
The pair then abducted the girls and took them to Angeles National Forest. Once there, two of the three girls were able to escape before any of them were subjected to any harm. This caused Edwards and his accomplice to panic, so they aborted their plans and told the girl that was remaining that a police officer would arrive to pick her up. Edwards led officers to the girl's location where she was unharmed. Edwards wasn't finished confessing. He had much more to tell these stunned officers.
He confessed to killing six children in the Los Angeles area and burying their bodies in various freeway construction spots. he claimed his first victim was Stella Darlene Nolan she was abducted after she failed to check in with her mother Eilina while accompanying her at work Edwards took Stella to his home where he sexually assaulted her strangled her and dumped her body over a bridge the next day he visited the place where he dumped her body and discovered that she wasn't dead She was actually sitting up and had managed to drag herself about 100 feet, trying to get help for herself.
Edwards brandished a knife and stabbed Stella to death.
He confessed to killing Donald Lee Baker and Brenda Jo Howell, the friends that disappeared while bicycling together up San Gabriel Canyon. Edwards gave Donald $7 to bring Brenda to Bouquet Canyon. Unbeknownst to Donald, it was for Edwards' deviant purposes.
Edwards met them there about a half hour later and drove the two children deeper into the canyon. Once they arrived, he separated the friends and beat Donald with a rock and slit his throat. This caused Brenda to approach the two, and Edwards panicked and killed her. He tried to give police the location of the two bodies, but they could never be found. Coincidentally, Brenda Jo Howell was the sister of Edwards' wife. In all probability, Edwards attended any services the family may have held for Brenda.
Edwards claimed he controlled his urges and took a break from killing any children until 16-year-old Gary Roche in 1968. The police did not believe that he went that long without killing, but they wanted him to keep confessing, so they said nothing.
Edwards broke into the home of the Rochers with the intent of molesting the younger sister. But Gary startled Edwards, so he shot him and fled.
On December 16, 1968, Edwards lured 15-year-old Roger Dale Madison to a nearby Orange Grove. Roger knew Edwards as he was his friend's father. Edwards tricked Madison into playing a game for money. Madison trusted Edwards enough to let the killer tie him up. He claimed to have stabbed the boy multiple times and buried his body with a bulldozer under a freeway in Thousand Oaks. The boy's remains have not been recovered. Edwards confessed to offering $5 to Donald Allen Todd to do some work, and after sexually assaulting him, he shot and killed him with a .22 caliber handgun.
Some claim Donald was abducted from his home. Others say he failed to return home from mowing lawns.
Mack Ray Edwards was tried and charged with three murders even though he confessed to six Three of the bodies were never found Edwards pleaded guilty and he was sentenced to death in 1971 Edwards said at his sentencing I want the chair. That's what I've always wanted. My lawyer told me there are a hundred men waiting to die in the chair. I'm asking the judge if I can have the first man's place. He's sitting there sweating right now. I'm not sweating. I'm ready for it. While in prison, Edwards was quite vocal about his crimes, even boastful about them at times, and eventually confessed to killing as many as 20 children.
He did not want to wait to be executed. He tried three times to commit suicide before he was successful, Edwards hung himself by a television cord that he slung through a vent in his cell. He forever and selfishly took with him the secrets of his ugly and deviant deeds and deprived most of the families of some chance at closure. Law enforcement officials suspect convicted serial murderer Mack Ray Edwards may be responsible for 10 unsolved child killings in the 1950s and 60s. Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500 or the LAPD Cold Case Division at 213-847-0970.
Epilogue Stella Darlene Nolan has a surviving brother named Dale Nolan, who was born in 1960. Eilena died of cancer and Owen married Mary Nolan. Together they had a son, who now lives in Yuma, Arizona. He remembers well the time the FBI showed up at his home to tell his dad the terrible fate of Darlene. It has long been believed that Edwards was responsible for the disappearance of In 2005, almost 35 years after Edwards' suicide, detectives reopened four cases of missing children from the time that Edwards was active.
author Weston DeWalt became involved in the case when he saw a picture of Edwards next to a composite of the man the two women saw following the crying boy on the day Tommy Bowman disappeared he was able to sit down with Edwards widow when she was 76 for an interview her sister was in the meeting with DeWalt and Mrs. Edwards and it came to light that Edwards gave his wife a confession letter that said, I was going to add one more to the first statement to the LAPD and that was the Tommy Bowman boy that disappeared in Pasadena, he wrote.
But I felt I would really make a mess of that one so I left him out of it. The LAPD confiscated this letter and other evidence from Edwards' house after this interview. Sadly, Tommy's father Eldon Bowman never stopped wondering what happened to his son and lamented that Tommy's mother, Mary Bowman, died several years ago, still wondering. There is no doubt that this is the case for all of the parents who lost their children during that time. From 2005 until as recently as 2011, police have conducted digs in an effort to locate some of the suspected victims of Edwards at various sites along Los Angeles freeways.
Some of the digs have been aborted due to safety reasons. Regardless, no bodies have been found as a result. Dewalt was able to track down the arresting officer of Edwards that led him to a prison guard that had befriended Edwards. He claimed that he confessed to him that he killed 18 children. Two other children were mentioned during my research as possibly being tied to Edwards. Lynn Bernadette Larray was 15 when she vanished on August 17, 1964. She was last seen in Long Beach, California and may have been in the company of an adult male.
Todd Eugene Collette was only three years old when he went missing from a shopping center that was under construction in Goleta, the same area Ramona Price went missing. Witnesses saw a man asking directions to a house who had an accent that wasn't local to the area. Todd has never been found.
Edwards was 35 when he killed Stella Nolan. Officials and sleuths alike believe that it is highly likely this wasn't his first offense. There is also a 12-year gap between the killings of Donald Lee Baker and Brenda Jo Howell and Gary Roche. It is also believed it isn't likely that he went that long without perpetrating any crimes against children. Prior to Edward's arrest and conviction, he had only been in trouble with the law once for vagrancy. There are differing accounts regarding Edward's so-called accomplice.
Some say he didn't exist. Some have even described him as a paraplegic. There are some that speculate it may have been one of Edwards' kids. It has been stated that when Edwards turned himself into the police station, his accomplice was with him. So many questions remain regarding this person. If he were still alive, he would be in his mid to late 60s. Did he go on to commit other crimes after Edwards went to prison? It is likely that if he did exist, officials kept his name out of the public due to his age.
After a half a century, some details are bound to get confused and lost. Edwards' widow, Mary Howell Edwards, died on June 2, 2016 at the age of 86.
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