Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders: Gordon Stewart Northcott

The Wineville Chicken Coop murders—also known as the Wineville Chicken murders—were a series of abductions and murders of young boys that occurred in the city of Los Angeles and in Riverside County, California between 1926 and 1928. The case received national attention.

Murders

Gordon Stewart Northcott was born in Bladworth, Saskatchewan and raised in British Columbia. He moved to Los Angeles with his parents in 1924. In 1926, Northcott (age 19) asked his father to purchase a plot of land in Wineville, California, where he built a chicken ranch and a house with the help of his father (who was in the construction business) and his nephew, Sanford Clark. It was this pretext that Northcott used to bring Clark from Bladworth to the U.S. (with the permission of the boy's parents). After arriving at his Wineville, California farm (located in present-day Jurupa Valley), Northcott began to beat and sexually abuse Clark.

In August 1928, Sanford's older sister, 19-year-old Jessie Clark, visited Sanford, who was 15 at the time, in Wineville. She was concerned about his welfare. At that time, Sanford told her that he feared for his life. One night while Northcott was asleep, Jessie learned from Sanford that Northcott had killed four boys at his ranch. Jessie returned to Canada about one week after the discovery, vowing to somehow rescue her brother.

Once in Canada, Jessie informed the American consul there about Northcott's crimes. The American consul then wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department, detailing Jessie Clark's sworn complaint. Because there was initially some concern over an immigration issue, the Los Angeles Police Department contacted the United States Immigration Service to determine facts relative to Jessie's complaint.

On August 31, 1928, two United States Immigration Service inspectors, Judson F. Shaw and George W. Scallorn, visited Northcott's chicken ranch in Wineville. They found 15-year-old Sanford Clark at the ranch and took him into custody.

Northcott had seen the agents driving up the long road to his ranch. Before fleeing into the treeline, he told Clark to stall the agents, or else he would shoot him from the treeline with a rifle. During the next two hours, while Clark stalled, Northcott kept on running. Finally, when Clark felt that the agents could protect him, he told them that Northcott had fled into the trees which lined the edge of his chicken ranch property.

Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise, fled to Canada but were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia on September 19, 1928. Sanford Clark testified at the sentencing of Sarah Louise Northcott that his uncle, Gordon Northcott, had kidnapped, molested, beaten, and killed three young boys with the help of his mother and Clark himself. Sanford Clark also testified about the murder of a fourth young man, a Mexican citizen, after which Northcott had forced Clark to help dispose of the head by burning it in a fire pit and then crushing the skull.

Northcott stated that he "left the headless body by the side of the road near Puente because he had no other place to put it."

Sanford Clark said that quicklime was used to dispose of the remains and that the bodies were buried on the Wineville chicken ranch.

Body parts found

Authorities found three shallow graves at Wineville exactly where Clark had stated they were located. It was found, however, that these graves did not contain complete bodies, but only parts of bodies. During testimony from both Sanford Clark and his sister Jessie, it was learned that the bodies had been dug up by Gordon Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, on the evening of August 4, 1928, a few weeks before Sanford was taken into protective custody. Northcott and his mother had taken the bodies out to a deserted area, where they were most likely burned in the night. The complete bodies were never recovered.