TheeBadOne
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http://www.msnbc.com/local/KNBC/A1473655.asp?0dm=W237N
LOS ANGELES, 2:43 p.m. PST January 29, 2003 - Forty-five years after allegedly killing two police officers who had pulled him over for running a red light, a man has been arrested for the 1957 killings, authorities announced Wednesday.
The homicide took the lives of two El Segundo police officers, Milton Curtis and Richard Phillips, on July 22, 1957.
Gerald Fiten Mason, 68, apparently led a "very well-adjusted, normal life" in the years after the 1957 attack and was arrested without resistance at his home in Columbia, S.C., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman said.
"For all I know, this could be the ultimate 'scared straight,"' Merriman said, referring to a program in which youngsters are taken to talk to convicts in the hope that it will deter them from committing crimes.
Fingerprints taken from a stolen car on the night of the killings were traced to Mason through a new FBI database, authorities said.
They were linked to Mason through what authorities believe was his only criminal conviction for a 1956 burglary in South Carolina.
Curtis, 25, and Phillips, 28, were shot by a driver they stopped for running a red light on July 22, 1957.
The officers were gunned down at what is now the intersection of Rosecranz and Sepulveda.
"The message is that we in law enforcement never give up," said Sheriff Lee Baca, whose cold case unit helped investigate.
The officers "can now rest in peace with the knowledge that the killer has been caught," Baca said at a news conference.
Mason was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with two counts of murder along with rape, kidnapping and robbery.
A suspect sketch was widely circulated at the time and a massive investigation followed. The suspect was believed to have robbed, sexually assaulted and carjacked two teenage couples before the officers stopped him. The suspect was known as the "lover's lane bandit."
"It is my great honor to announce to you today that the same agencies that began this investigation 45 years ago have taken a major step today ... to allowing these officers to rest in peace," said El Segundo Police Chief Jack Wyat.
The District Attorney's office will attempt to have Mason extradited to California. If Mason is extradited, he could face life in prison without parole.
LOS ANGELES, 2:43 p.m. PST January 29, 2003 - Forty-five years after allegedly killing two police officers who had pulled him over for running a red light, a man has been arrested for the 1957 killings, authorities announced Wednesday.
The homicide took the lives of two El Segundo police officers, Milton Curtis and Richard Phillips, on July 22, 1957.
Gerald Fiten Mason, 68, apparently led a "very well-adjusted, normal life" in the years after the 1957 attack and was arrested without resistance at his home in Columbia, S.C., Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Frank Merriman said.
"For all I know, this could be the ultimate 'scared straight,"' Merriman said, referring to a program in which youngsters are taken to talk to convicts in the hope that it will deter them from committing crimes.
Fingerprints taken from a stolen car on the night of the killings were traced to Mason through a new FBI database, authorities said.
They were linked to Mason through what authorities believe was his only criminal conviction for a 1956 burglary in South Carolina.
Curtis, 25, and Phillips, 28, were shot by a driver they stopped for running a red light on July 22, 1957.
The officers were gunned down at what is now the intersection of Rosecranz and Sepulveda.
"The message is that we in law enforcement never give up," said Sheriff Lee Baca, whose cold case unit helped investigate.
The officers "can now rest in peace with the knowledge that the killer has been caught," Baca said at a news conference.
Mason was charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office with two counts of murder along with rape, kidnapping and robbery.
A suspect sketch was widely circulated at the time and a massive investigation followed. The suspect was believed to have robbed, sexually assaulted and carjacked two teenage couples before the officers stopped him. The suspect was known as the "lover's lane bandit."
"It is my great honor to announce to you today that the same agencies that began this investigation 45 years ago have taken a major step today ... to allowing these officers to rest in peace," said El Segundo Police Chief Jack Wyat.
The District Attorney's office will attempt to have Mason extradited to California. If Mason is extradited, he could face life in prison without parole.