LA Forensics: Mysterious Confession

The Boyfriend

The detectives next tracked down Edith's boyfriend, Mike Swanson. Swanson was tall, with shoulder-length curly hair and a horseshoe mustache.

When the detectives first questioned him, Swanson was uncooperative, but when the cops pressed him, he dropped his Southern California cool. Giving attitude to drunks in a bar might earn you points with the waitresses, but giving attitude to a couple of LAPD homicide detectives just might earn you a trip to the police station.

Swanson admitted that for a brief time he had been getting it on with both sisters. He'd been seeing Lois behind Edith's back. Edith found out and blew up. He said he stopped calling Lois a few weeks before her death.

Lois and Edith's mother confirmed Swanson's story.

Detectives took a set of Swanson's fingerprints and compared them to those they found in Lois's apartment. They didn't match. Nor did Swanson's blood type — the most advanced forensic science available at the time — match the blood on the pillow. That blood, the Crime Lab determined, belonged to Lois.

Swanson was a dead end.

So was Libby and Joseph the truck guy.

• Print version
• Email this
• 

1. The First Murder
2. A Gruesome Discovery
3. The Scene
   of the Crime
4. A Family Feud
5. The Boyfriend
6. No Viable Suspects
7. More Murders
8. A Strange Tip
9. Questioning
   a Suspect
10. Andrew
    Theodore Lancaster
11. Another Body
12. A Little
    Notoriety
13. Help Around
    the House
14. Strange Suggestions
15. A Shocking Confession
16. He Strangled Them
17. Cold Cases Reopened
18. An Old Witness
19. New Hope
20. Surprising Results
21. WANTED:
    A Killer's DNA
22. Planning the Operation
23. A Clever Ploy
24. SID Results
25. Endgame