The Strange Murder of Ethel Whittaker

Episode 112 – The Strange Murder of Ethel Whittaker Out Now!

In the early morning hours of March 17, 1936, gunshots shattered the silence inside a Los Angeles apartment building.

Moments later, a young man fled from the apartment of Samuel and Ethel Whittaker.
Inside, Ethel lay dead.

Samuel Whittaker stood nearby with a revolver in his hand. At first, the case appeared simple. However, investigators soon discovered that almost nothing about the murder was what it seemed.

Murder on Alvarado Street

Samuel Whittaker was a retired organist living with his 44-year-old wife, Ethel, in Los Angeles. The couple had gone out on the evening of March 16. They returned home during the early hours of the following morning.

According to Samuel, they walked straight into an ambush. A masked gunman emerged from a closet and demanded money. Then, Ethel screamed. The stranger fired.

Samuel pulled his own revolver and fought back. He fired several shots at the attacker before the wounded man escaped. A neighbor heard the gunfire and entered the apartment. There, he discovered Ethel dead and Samuel holding his weapon.

Samuel appeared to be a grieving husband who had tried to save his wife. That version of events did not last long.

Police Find the Gunman

Investigators followed a trail of blood from the Whittaker apartment. Nearby, they found 23-year-old James Fagan Culver suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

Evidence quickly connected Culver to the apartment. Nevertheless, Samuel gave police a description of the attacker that looked very little like the wounded man they had captured. Even stranger, Samuel initially insisted that Culver was not the man who had attacked him and Ethel. Why would a grieving husband protect the man suspected of murdering his wife?

Detectives kept digging. Soon, Culver began telling a very different story.

A Fake Robbery

Culver had recently arrived in California from Kentucky. Broke and hungry, he crossed paths with Samuel Whittaker outside a café.

The two men developed an unusual friendship. Eventually, Samuel approached the young drifter with a proposition. He wanted Culver to stage a fake robbery.

According to Culver, the plan was supposed to be harmless. He would hide inside Samuel’s apartment, surprise Samuel and a female companion, demand money and then escape. Instead, gunfire erupted.

Culver survived. Ethel Whittaker did not.

Suddenly, police had to consider an entirely different possibility. Perhaps the robbery had never been intended to be fake.

The Case Gets Stranger

Investigators uncovered several troubling details. Ethel carried thousands of dollars in life insurance. Physical evidence also raised questions about Samuel’s version of the shooting.

Then there was the gun. Culver had hidden his weapon in an extremely unusual location after fleeing the apartment.

Somehow, Samuel appeared to know exactly where to look. Yet one of the strangest developments came from someone who wasn’t a detective at all. Her name was Agness “Aggie” Underwood.

The Reporter Who Saw Something

Underwood was a tough Los Angeles crime reporter who built a career covering murders and other stories many newspapers once considered unsuitable for women.

While covering the Whittaker case, she watched Samuel and Culver pose together for photographers. Then she noticed something. Samuel looked at Culver.

And winked.

It lasted only a moment. However, Underwood immediately realized its significance. Why would a man secretly wink at the stranger accused of murdering his wife? She alerted an LAPD detective. From there, the case began to unravel.

Samuel Whittaker Goes on Trial

Prosecutors eventually argued that Ethel’s death was part of a carefully constructed murder plot. Culver became a key witness. Meanwhile, Samuel continued to insist that he was innocent.

A jury ultimately disagreed. Samuel Whittaker was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to life in prison.

Still, the story wasn’t finished. In fact, its strangest chapter had not happened yet. Samuel made an extraordinary declaration about his guilt.

He invoked God. He mentioned his future prison cell. Then, in March 1937, Samuel Whittaker arrived at San Quentin.

What happened next transformed an already bizarre Los Angeles murder into one of those true stories that sounds almost too perfectly written to be real.

And I’m not giving that part away here.

You’ll have to hear it for yourself.