Christine Collins was already a rareity before her fight for justice began. She was a working mother in 1920's Los Angeles, raising her child on her own (her husband was incarcerated for robbery and other crimes.) She owned her own home, had a good job in which she had some authority, and was raising her son, Walter. Little did she know she would become the face for justice against corruption within law enforcement, and a voice for women's rights.
Her son Walter, 9 years old, disappeared in March of 1928 from the Los Angeles area where he and Christine lived. At first Christine believed her husband who was in jail at the time had somehow arranged the abduction, that was later proven to be false. 5 months after his disappearence, the LAPD claimed to have found the boy in IL, and arranged for him to be brought back to L.A. The LAPD had been embroiled in several scandals at this time, and could really use the good publicty. When Christine was reunited with her son, there was one problem: it was in fact not her son, and Christine recognized this immediately. However, when she tried to tell the Capt in charge of the case, Capt J.J. Jones, he refused to believe her, and instead forced her to take the boy home to "try him out a couple of weeks." 3 weeks later, Christine and the boy returned to the LAPD, where Christine again tried to tell them that the boy was not in fact her son (handwriting samples and dental records proved that Christine was correct, the boy was not her son.) She was armed with these dental records and handwriting samples, and went public with the case when the LAPD refused to do anything else in the search her son. After going public, the LAPD had her committed to a psychiatric hospital, in retalliation for embarassing them (Capt. J.J. Jones was behind her foced hospitalization.) However, when her friends, nabors, and a church pastor went to the LAPD enquiring about Christine's "disappearence", he told them she was in protective custody. During Christine's time in the mental hospital, she discovered several other women forcibly commited there by the LAPD as well, for publicly going against the LAPD in various situations. Also during this time, her "son" confessed to being an imposter, and also confessed that the LAPD had told him to lie and to pretend to be Christine's son. Once this went public, a church pastor won her release from the hospital, as well as several other women's release from the same hospital. During this time it was also discovered that Christine's son Walter had been abducted by Gordon Northcott n(his young nephew who was also held prisoner and abused by Nothcott escaped and notified police, and picked Walter's picture out of several dozen pictures of young boys who were missing as being a victim of his uncle's), who was also behind the disappearence of up to 20 other young boys from the Los Angeles area. Unfortunately, the LAPD was so busy trying to cover up what they had done to Christine, they didn't actively investigate Northcott or the ranch where the boys had been held until it was much too late. All they found were the scattered remains of several young boys, but back then, there was no DNA testing, so, it was impossible to tell which boys remains had been found. Christine filed a civil suit against the LAPD and Capt. J. J. Jones, along with the LAPD Chief of Police for everything they had done to her, and for all they refused to do in her son's disappearence. She won a large sum, which was never paid to her. The Chief of Police was removed, and Capt. J. J. Jones was suspended.
Christine remarried, but refused to have any more children. She also never gave up hope that her son Walter was actually alive and was afraid to come home (especially when a couple of years later, one of the boys believed to have been a "victim" of Northcott turned out to be alive and well. He had been afraid to come home.) Unforuntately, Walter never did return home, and his fate remains a mystery to this day. Christine died of old age in 1996. Gordon Northcott was executed by hanging, and several other of his family members who helped cover up his crimes were sentened to life in prison.
The murders of Gordon Northcott are known as the "Chicken Coop Murders", since he held the boys in a chicken coop, and buried the remains close to it. Christine Collins' story was made into a movie, directed by Clint Eastwood called "Changeling."
Correction: Christine died in 1964, not 1996. She never did find out what happened to her son. It was believed he was a victim of Gordon Northcott based on circumstanial evidence. Gordon Northcott sent a telegram to Christine from prison asking to her see her, and that he would tell her what happened to her son. She went to visit him, on the eve of his execution. Northcott instead told Christine that he didn't think she would really come, and didn't want to see her, because he didn't want to die with a "sin on his lips." He denied killing her son.
Very, very true. Not saying that all police depts are completely f'ed up, but there are definitely some out there that are (the two that jump to my mind are the LAPD and the Milwaukee PD.)
I will have to get that movie on the list of Netflix items I've been gathering from this site!
I did some reading about this case after seeing the post on here. I can't believe that large acts of this magnitude and horror go on for so long. I'm baffled at how these things get covered up for so long!
Does anyone know if they ever went back with the technilogical advances and tried to figure out and put an end to the identities ? Long shot I know, but I've seen so many "cold" cases like that where it's an end to the what and how.
To my knowledge, no one has gone back to try and identify what little remains were found. I think once Christine Collins died, so did this case. The murderer had been executed, and his family members who tried to help him cover up the crimes were imprisoned for a long time. It was such a horrific case that I believe many people just wanted to put it behind them and forget it, especially once Christine had passed.
