Gordon Stewart Northcott, the murderer who inspired “Changeling”

Gordon Stewart Northcott was a Canadian serial killer who from 1926 to 1928 abducted and murdered boys with the help of his mother, also forcing a nephew to take part in the murders. The case went down in history as “the Wineville Chicken Coop murders” and inspired the 2008 film “Changeling”, directed by Clint Eastwood.

Biography of Gordon Stewart Northcott

Gordon was born in Bladworth, Saskatchewan, Canada, and grew up in British Columbia. In 1924 he moved with his parents to Los Angeles, California.

Two years later, at 19, Gordon asked his father to buy him a plot of land in Wineville, Riverside County, because he wanted to build a chicken ranch. His father, who worked in construction, bought the land and helped him build the house and the ranch.

It was under the pretext of getting help with the ranch that Gordon brought his nephew Sanford Clark, his sister’s 14-year-old son, from Canada.

The abuse and the murders

When Sanford arrived at his uncle’s ranch, Gordon began to beat and abuse him. The boy was also forced to write letters home saying he was fine.

While at the ranch, Sanford not only suffered violence but was also forced, under threat of death, to take part in the murders committed by Gordon and his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott.

Gordon abducted boys, held them captive in the ranch’s chicken coops, molested them and killed them. According to Sanford, three boys were killed at the ranch, while a fourth was killed near La Puente.

The latter was a Mexican boy, possibly named Alvin Gothea, never identified with certainty. Gordon beheaded him and left the body by the side of the road “because he had no other place to put it”, and forced Sanford to burn the head. That is why the newspapers called him “the headless Mexican”.

Another victim was probably Walter Collins, a nine-year-old boy from Lincoln Heights who disappeared on March 10, 1928 on his way to the movies. His father was in prison for robbery, and at first it was thought the kidnapping was revenge by one of his enemies.

According to the confessions, Sarah Northcott knew perfectly well what her son was doing and took part in Walter’s murder. It was said she wanted the three of them, herself, Gordon and Sanford, to kill him together, so that they would all be guilty and no one could talk.

On May 16, 1928 two brothers from Pomona, Lewis and Nelson Winslow, aged 12 and 10, also disappeared on their way home from a yacht club meeting. They too were killed at the ranch. To hide the remains, Gordon used quicklime and buried them on the property.

The discovery

In August 1928 Sanford’s older sister, 19-year-old Jessie, worried, went to visit him at the ranch.

Sanford confided that he feared for his life and told her that their uncle had murdered four boys.

Jessie, frightened, returned to Canada and informed a U.S. consul, who wrote to the Los Angeles police. Since an immigration issue was involved, on August 31, 1928 two Immigration Service inspectors went to the ranch.

As soon as he saw their car coming, Gordon fled into the trees and ordered Sanford to stall them, threatening to shoot him with a rifle if he didn’t obey. Sanford kept them busy for two hours and, only when he felt safe, told them everything. Gordon and his mother fled to Canada, but they were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia, on September 19, 1928.

At the ranch police found three shallow graves, exactly where Sanford had said. They contained no complete bodies, but 51 fragments of bone and traces of blood.

According to Sanford and Jessie, on the evening of August 4 Gordon and his mother had dug up the bodies and taken them to an isolated place, where they probably burned them. Those bodies have never been found.

Trial and execution

Because of errors in the extradition paperwork, mother and son were not returned to Los Angeles until November 30. In Canada both had confessed, Gordon to killing more than five boys, but then they recanted.

Sarah pleaded guilty to the murder of Walter Collins and on December 31, 1928 was sentenced to life imprisonment, avoiding the death penalty because she was a woman. She claimed, however, that her son was innocent. She was paroled in 1940 and died in 1944.

Since his mother had already been convicted of Walter’s murder, the state did not prosecute Gordon for that crime. It was speculated that he had killed as many as 20 boys, but there was no evidence.

Gordon was tried for the murders of the Winslow brothers and the “headless Mexican”. During the trial the Winslow boys’ father led a mob intending to lynch him, but police persuaded it to disband. On February 8, 1929, after a 27-day trial, Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged on October 2, 1930 at San Quentin State Prison, aged 23.

Sanford Clark was not tried: the prosecutor considered him a victim, coerced by threats. He spent 23 months at an experimental school for youths in Whittier, then returned to Canada, served in World War II and worked for the postal service until 61. He adopted two sons and died in 1991, aged 78. The scandal was such that in 1930 Wineville changed its name to Mira Loma.

The impostor

Five months after Walter Collins disappeared, a boy claiming to be Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. Christine Collins, Walter’s mother, paid for the boy’s trip to Los Angeles.

The police, criticized for their fruitless search and hit by corruption scandals, organized a public reunion to clean up their reputation.

At the reunion Christine said the boy was not her Walter, but Captain J. J. Jones persuaded her to take him home and “try him out for a couple of weeks”.

Christine agreed, but three weeks later she went back to the captain insisting the boy was not her son. She even had dental records proving it. In response Jones had her committed to the psychiatric ward of the county hospital under “Code 12”, used to jail or commit inconvenient people.

While Christine was committed, the captain questioned the boy, who finally admitted he was Arthur Hutchens Jr., a 12-year-old runaway from Iowa. A drifter at a roadside café in Illinois had pointed out his resemblance to Walter. Arthur wanted to reach Hollywood to meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix, and to get as far away as possible from his stepmother. He died in 1954.

Christine Collins

Christine was released ten days after the boy’s confession, partly thanks to Reverend Gustav Briegleb, a Presbyterian minister who fought for her.

She sued Captain Jones and the police and on September 13, 1930 won the case: she was awarded $10,800, equivalent to almost $200,000 today. But Jones never paid her.

As late as 1941 Christine was still trying to collect. After Northcott’s arrest, she had gone to talk to him several times to ask if he had killed her boy. Gordon lied, confessed and recanted, so much so that she became convinced he was insane. Shortly before his execution he sent her a telegram, saying he had lied and promising to tell her the truth if she came to see him in person.

Christine rushed to him a few hours before the hanging, but when she arrived he told her:

I don’t want to see you. I don’t know anything about it. I’m innocent.

Christine was devastated but, at the same time, those confused answers, and the fact that Gordon couldn’t even remember what Walter was wearing or the color of his eyes, gave her hope that her son was still alive. Walter has never been found and he was very probably killed at the ranch.

The story inspired the film “Changeling”, directed by Clint Eastwood, in which Northcott is played by Jason Butler Harner.

Sources

• Wineville Chicken Coop murders – Wikipedia