Divorcing, Dating, and Drugged?

At the end of January 1915, the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Tribune reported that Bonnie Bounce, the pet of “Mrs. Hal Roach,” had won prizes at the city’s annual dog show.

On 4 Oct 1915, however, the Santa Barbara Daily News reported that “Helen G. Woodbury” of Los Angeles had checked into the city’s Arlington Hotel.

(I’m still creeped out at how the way daily newspapers used to print ordinary people’s comings and goings, yet grateful about how those records let me track someone’s travels over than a century later.)

Evidently Hal Roach’s wife went back to using her previous name in the middle of that year.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that the 7 Dec 1915 Los Angeles Examiner’s page 7 list of “Divorce Suits Filed” included:

Roach, Helen G. vs. Harry E.

Whatever the reality of Hal Roach and Helen G. Woodbury’s relationship, it was coming apart after less than fourteen months of marriage.

In early 1916 Los Angeles newspapers reported for the second time about Helen G. Woodbury Roach bringing charges against a man under eyebrow-raising circumstances. Dave Lord Heath discusses this event on his webpage about Helen Roach, and I’ve found some more information.

The 29 January Los Angeles Evening Post-Record’s story read:

$2600 THEFT

Jewels to the value of $2600 were stolen from the home of Mrs. Helen G. Roach, 1624 Van Ness av., last night, according to reports received today at the sheriff’s office.

Mrs. Roach discovered the loss shortly after returning from an evening’s entertainment with a friend.

What sort of “friend”? Well, as husband and wife the Roaches were on a break.

The Los Angeles Herald Examiner was a little more sensational:

Says Drugged, Robbed of Gems Worth $5000

Intimating that she had been drugged while at the beach and that while in a helpless condition she had been robbed of diamonds worth $5000, Mrs. Helen Roache [sic] of 1624 Van Ness Avenue, today asked the sheriff’s office to arrest a man named Hill.

Mrs. Roache said she accompanied the man to a beach resort yesterday and that they dined there. She said she believed she had been robbed later in the evening. She knew the man only as “Mr. Hill,” she said. Deputies are searching for the man.

TOMORROW: Two takes on a very bad date.