Murder Shirley Temple?
by Bill Miller for the Mail Tribune Monday,
June 3rd 2019
Hollywood received the Southern Oregon
death threat in November 1938.
Ten-year-old Shirley Temple had just about finished filming
her 28th movie, “The Little Princess.”
 |
| Shirley Temple |
Threats of kidnapping, death and extortion were not new for
America’s Sweetheart, but the FBI always took these threats seriously.
Two years earlier, a 16-year-old Alabama boy who had seen
one too many gangster movies threatened to kill Shirley if he didn’t receive
$25,000. The boy used the alias, Curtis Palmer, a gangster character from the
1936 movie, “13 Hours by Air.”
While confessing to FBI agents, he apparently looked the
part, “nervously patting down his oil-slicked hair and fingering his gaudy
necktie.”
Just before the extortion demand arrived from Southern
Oregon, a 14-year-old girl from a mining town in Pennsylvania sent a postcard
demanding: “Send $320,000 to the below address if you ever want to see Shirley
alive.” With address in hand, it didn’t take long for the FBI to come knocking
on her door.
Our Southern Oregon culprit, Hinton Hardison, was arrested
on his 24th birthday, Nov. 26, 1938, at the Civilian Conservation Corps’ Camp
Rand, along the Rogue River near Glide.
Hardison, a newly minted “brush marine,” had only arrived in
CCC camp from his home in Georgia Oct. 19. Twenty-nine days later, he was
mailing his threatening letter to Shirley, demanding $10,000 or he would kill
the little actor. He used a fictitious name in the letter, but he also included
his camp address.
John Caughman, Camp Rand commander, told agents that
Hardison “did not seem quite as quick as the other boys. He’s more of the slow
type.”
Hardison was arraigned in Medford federal court on a charge
of using the mails in an attempt to extort money. Bail was set at $50,000.
After waiving a preliminary hearing, Hardison was escorted to Portland on the
evening train to face a grand jury and a very quick trial.
A week after his arrest, Hardison pleaded guilty to federal
Judge James Fee. Fee agreed to delay sentencing, while Hardison’s defense
attorney, John Mowry, had a chance to question Hardison’s acquaintances in
Georgia.
Mowry returned to court asking for probation, saying he had
learned that Hardison had been “kicked in the head by a mule when he was 3
years old, and the injury had rendered him mentally deficient.”
CCC physician Charles Sturdevant testified that Hardison
“had a mentality of not more than 13 years, and, although he lacked a moral
sense of values in human relationships, he had no sadistic tendencies.”
Judge Fee said he didn’t believe a prison term would teach
Hardison a lesson and, after sentencing him to five years in federal prison,
waived the sentence and instead released him on 20 years of probation — the
probation to be supervised by Georgia officials who had already agreed to take
responsibility for Hardison’s future acts.
Hardison returned to Georgia, married, and lived a quiet
life until 1977.
Two months after the trial, “The Little Princess,” Shirley
Temple’s first motion picture in color, arrived to rave reviews for a five-day
run at Medford’s Craterian Theater.
It seems nothing could stop the “Good
Ship Lollipop” from sailing on and on over the seas of success.
https://mailtribune.com/lifestyle/murder-shirley-temple
