In return - out of gratitude of course, as it so often is with our politicians - Secretary Fall made it possible for Mr. Fall $100,000 to help him along (that’s about $10 million in today’s dollars). President Harding had a Secretary of the Interior named Albert Fall who was a very close friend of the senior Mr. One president whose administration was profoundly affected by old man Doheny was Warren G. His wealth made him a very powerful man politically, and he used that power to ingratiate himself with, and even create, national political leaders, such as presidents. was one of the richest men in the world with hugely productive oil fields in the southwest and in Mexico. The Doheny oil fields amidst the neighborhoods of Signal Hill in the southwestern part of the city of Los Angeles, just north of Long Beach.īy the early 1920s, young Ned, with his wife Lucy and their five children occupied a large and stylish house up in these hills, as did several of their relatives with young families like them. The Dohenys used their land in the hills now known as Trousdale, as a ranch - a place to get away - out of town, for horseback riding, hiking and other healthy outdoor activities. What is West Hollywood now was then poinsettia fields in an area known as Sherman. Sunset Boulevard around what is now Doheny Drive wasn’t much more than a bridlepath (and often used as one). In those early days, the family lived where all the rich of Los Angeles lived, in the southwest part of the city (Beverly Hills and the western sections like Holmby, Bel Air and Brentwood had yet to be developed), in the vicinity of West Adams Boulevard, Chester Square and Lafayette Square. Doheny was pumping enough oil to rival only one other oilman of consequence in America, John D. At the beginning of the 20th century, the elder Mr. Sr., who first struck oil in the Los Angeles area in 1892. In the 1920s, all of that area - which includes what is now Trousdale Estates and the adjacent Doheny Drive properties, extending westward and upwards into the foothills of the range that is known as the Santa Monica Mountains - belonged to the Dohenys, and most specifically Edward L.
Courtesy of Friends of Greystone Historical Photo Collection When it was built, in the late 1920s, it was the second largest house (56,000 square feet) in California after Hearst’s castle at San Simeon. Greystone, the Doheny mansion which sits on the hillside above Doheny Road on the eastern edge of Beverly Hills, is now a park, so named officially in 1971. The victims were the son, Ned, and Hugh Plunkett whom he had known since they were teenagers, and who worked for the old man. I also learned that the house which was finished for occupancy in the autumn of 1928 was the scene of the double murder in February of 1929. Doheny’s oil wells were pumping back then and even almost a century. And the mansion was a veritable palace in every way including a magnificent view of the Los Angeles basin and hills to the south where Mr. It was well equipped for fun and pleasure all around the property a veritable playground. Doheny for his son and his wife and children. It was a statement of power, and had been built by the elder Mr. I also learned that the mansion which sits majestically on a well landscaped hillside overlooking Beverly Hills had a palatial grandeur about it. I learned that the Doheny name was powerful in Los Angeles. The entire area - much of the hillsides of West Hollywood, in the earlier part of the Los Angeles century was known as the Doheny Ranch, and had long before been a weekend retreat for members of the family and their friends and associates. When I moved out there in the late 1970s, I came to live in the hills nearby on Doheny Drive.
At the time I didn’t even know of its family, nor had I ever heard their names.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN MURDERS MOVIE
It was an imperious statement, better than a movie set. I noticed it because it was bigger than grand. I was a guest at a house on a hilltop in Beverly Hills overlooking the Doheny estate.
I was first aware of the estate in Beverly Hills in which it occurred, the first time I visited L.A. I was first aware of the story when I lived out there in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Today we’re running a Diary that we’ve run before - for those of you who’ve read it - about the Doheny murders that happened in Los Angeles in the late 1920s. All of us who share those feelings happen to be older and remember many Springtimes before. I don’t know that as a fact but several of my friends had remarked about it being colder this year. There are a lot of us in this town anxious for the “warmer” weather. A bright, sunny day, yesterday in New York although on the cold side.
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