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Subject: news article - SMITH - Kern Co
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 02:56:37 EDT

Here is the news article that you asked me to find for the following person:


SMITH HERBERT ROLAND
born: 01/17/1917 M OKLAHOMA
mother: KING
father: SMITH
died: KERN 02/18/1951
age: 34 yrs
requested by: (mailto:)
The Bakersfield Californian, Monday, February 19, 1951
Pg. 17 & 20
Cabbie Jailed in Slaying of Rival for Wife's Love
A 28-year-old taxicab driver was held today after sheriff's officers found a
man fatally beaten in the home of the suspect's estranged wife.
Herbert R. Smith, 34-year-old cook of 2026 Potomac street, died at Kern
General Hospital, 3:55 a.m. Sunday of head injuries.
Mrs. Emma Jean Harlow, 29, 897 South Mr. Vernon avenue, told sheriff's
officers she was a witness to the early Sunday morning attack on the sleeping
victim.
Deputies arrested her husband Randall F. Harlow of 2328 Eighteenth street at
the Yellow Cab Company office, 1301 Eighteenth, about an hour before the
victim's death.
Married a Month
Mrs. Harlow, mother of two small children by a previous marriage, said she
married Harlow last December 15. They separated a month later.
The arresting deputies, Wilbur Giese and Fred Peterson, lodged Harlow in the
county jail for investigation of a murder charge.
Mrs. Harlow said she was asleep in a rear bedroom and that Smith was in a
front bedroom when she was awakened by noises in the front part of the home. It
was about 12:50 a.m. Sunday, she stated.
She recounted she first saw her (pg 20): estranged husband in the hallway
and saw him return to Smith's room and reappear in the hallway several times.
She rushed to a telephone but Mrs Harlow continued, Harlow stopped her from
making a call for an ambulance.
Beaten Against Floor
Smith, she said, was picked up bodily and his head pounded on the floor
after Harlow struck him with fists and feet.
"I was forced to look at him," Mrs. Harlow said, "but I covered my face with
my hands. He was bleeding very much and it was awful."
When it was seen that Smith was seriously hurt, she said her husband helped
her nurse the victim and Harlow told a telephone operator to send an
ambulance.
Deputies Wilbur Giese and David Head were first to arrive. they questioned
the Harlows and then left after being told Smith had been hurt in a fight with
an unidentified man.
Harlow left in a cab for work and was arrested at 2:40 a.m. after
investigating officers further questioned the wife.
The attack took place in the home of Mrs. Harlow's parents, Mr. and Mrs.
George Castle, who left Saturday to visit friends in Oklahoma.
Attacked in Sleep
Deputy County Coroner Nolan Clay said Smith apparently was struck while
asleep and did not regain consciousness during the assault.
County Coroner Norman Houze said an autopsy performed by Dr. Robert
Huntington, county pathologist, disclosed death was the result of a "subdural
hemorrhage due to blows on the head."
Smith's auto was parked outside the Castle home. His assailant entered
through a window of the locked house, Clay said.
Smith had been staying with a brother, Porter and other family members at
2026 Potomac, Porter Smith said he had been employed as a cook at San Rafael
and was on a visit here.
The body will be sent to Texas for burial after a coroner's inquest. Two
sons and a divorced wife of the victim live at Dallas, Texas.
Other survivors are his parents, Mr. and Mrs. George M. Smith of Dallas; six
brothers, Porter of 2026 Potomac, Durward of Sonoma and Ted, Lester, Glen
and Gordon , all of Dallas; and three sisters, Leta, Bobbie and Mae, all of
Texas.

Sharon
Kern Co. Volunteer

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