Sheriff Mountanos with Rope Used to Hang Lorna
Sheriff Lois J. Mountanos couldn’t get out of his own way. When Lorna’s remains were discovered on November 16, 1959 the Sheriff said, “It’s a possible homicide, but we’re not ruling out suicide.” Several hours later he declared that Lorna was, “Apparently the victim of a sex maniac.” Two days after that he accused the 4’6”, 65-pound Girl Scout of being a whore, hell bent on deflowering the neighborhood boys for financial gain.
The Sheriff justified his character assassination thusly: “When several days passed and Kentfield parents expressed alarm over a possible sex maniac on the loose I decided to give out the facts of the club’s existence. This was partly to relieve the fear of other parents and partly to expose the shocking truth of what teenagers are capable of.” The Sheriff was the one who raised the possibility of a sex maniac, and it was only two days later that he made the salacious accusation that further victimized Lorna’s family by blaming the little girl for her own death.
Support for Lorna’s family evaporated like dew drops in the warm morning sun. Her parents were stunned into silence. However, next door neighbor Elizabeth Rogers was quite vocal in defense of her little friend. “Except for the possibility that an older child might have led her into it, I completely discount this business,” Mrs. Rogers declared. “I saw her daily, and she did not have those kinds of thoughts in her head.” Mrs. Rogers continued, “An older boy took Lorna to high school football games at the College of Marin field in recent weeks. He told her not to tell her parents or his about it, but she finally told her mother and father. Lorna once told me that a boy had asked her to go steady. She didn’t particularly cotton to the idea. She was too young to go steady.”
The investigation focused on two men and the seven boy members of Lorna’s ‘club’. Based on Norman’s testimony that a man picked up scissors at the crime scene and put them in his pocket, Mountanos accused Fire Chief John McLaren of murdering Lorna. The Chief explained that he had exited the house with a knife to cut the rope and that his wife handed him scissors as he dashed out of the door. He said that he must have dropped the scissors at the scene only to pick it and take it home. The Sheriff took the scissors as potential evidence. No further action was taken.
The shit hit the fan over the way the seven boys were treated by Mountanos. Norman Fortner’s parents retained local attorney Thomas Boyd to represent Norman and Clifford after Kent School refused to allow Inspectors to remove Clifford from school without his parent’s permission.
At a hastily called press conference to express his anger at the Sheriff, “For the way he interrogated these boys at all hours of the night.” Mr. Boyd said, “These boys aren’t going to be interrogated anymore unless it is in my presence and in a civil way. I’m willing for the boys to undergo lie detector tests if I see the questions first. If I’m satisfied with the questions, and if I’m present. These youngsters have been questioned as though they were suspects and also for any collateral knowledge they may have of anyone else.” He continued, “They honestly don’t have any idea of who might have killed the girl, and I believe them.” Neither of the Fortner boys had, “any difficulty explaining his whereabouts on Saturday.”
Jeff Doherty’s father, a prosperous lumberman, complained to Undersheriff Eugene Mayer that his son was taken from his house and questioned without his consent. Mayer promised to bring it to the Sheriff’s attention. The lie detector tests were put on hold.
On Saturday, November 21 Lorna’s parents broke a week long silence to defend their little girl. Her dad described her as a “lonely but good girl. If she was involved in a sex club, it originated with the boys, not with her. Some of the boys were 16. She was only 12, and physically only 10. She weighed only 65 pounds.” Lorna’s mom, fighting back tears explained why they didn’t report her missing as soon as they saw Lorna’s note. “We were very concerned and looking for her, but we kept thinking that she would come back any minute as she always had.” They said that they did not ask her friends because they feared that would lead to embarrassing publicity. “But we realize now it was a great error,” her father said, hanging his head. “We should have reported it right away.”
With time comes clarity. By Saturday, November 28, Sheriff Mountanos announced that they had interrogated more than 50-people in the murder probe. Although progress was slow, Mountanos and his staff narrowed their focus on the boys who belonged to Lorna’s ‘club’. He said, “We’re satisfied that the killer was a juvenile, not an adult. Although at this time, of course, we are not ruling out that remote possibility.”
Slowly and systematically potential suspects were eliminated until only one remained. The inconsistencies in his story were too glaring to ignore. The Sheriff knew he had his man!
