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Rattlesnake James — The Last Man To Be Hanged to Death in California
A story of incest, financial fraud, and multiple murders.
It was August 1935, when one evening James and Viola Pemberton were visiting their old friend Robert S. James in his new home and were hoping to meet his latest of many wives who he had married only three months ago.
However, much to their surprise, they were greeted by no one at the house — which was a bit surprising to them.
Mr. James was a barber and he’d met his newest wife, Mary, only earlier that year. She was a 25-year-old manicurist, a pretty young girl, who was charmed by Mr. James, the man who had hired her to work for him at his Downtown Los Angeles barbershop.
Mr. James was 38 — a lot older than Mary, but that didn’t stop her from agreeing to marry him.
However, there was to be a big twist in the happily married new couple’s life. James Pemberton while taking a tour around the house, almost tripped over something next to the fish pond in the garden of the house. When he flashed a light on what the object was, he was left aghast. The body of the young blonde, Mary lay on the side of the fish pond with her face in the water. It was as if she’d died of drowning. However, her left big toe had a peculiar mark — some sort of a…
