{"id":2005,"date":"2015-11-16T10:23:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T18:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2018-04-02T19:38:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T02:38:37","slug":"the-devil-and-lorna-lax-forget-me-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/the-devil-and-lorna-lax-forget-me-not\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil and Lorna Lax: Forget Me Not"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kent<\/a>

Kent School Picture 1958: Norman Fortner top row, far right. Lorna Lax 3rd row srom top, 6th from left.<\/p><\/div>\n

T<\/span>welve-year-old Lorna Lax was an adventurous little girl who had disappeared for extended periods of time on four separate occasions, so her mom was not overly concerned when she discovered her daughter\u2019s note on Saturday, November 14, 1959. Bullied her entire life, Lorna would become \u2018mad at the world\u2019 when the taunts became more than she could endure. She would withdraw and take refuge in one of the forts that she built at home and around the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Instead of going to the city on Saturday morning as she stated in her note Lorna stayed within a few blocks of her home at 147 Kent Ave. She spent part of the morning hanging out with her friend and neighbor thirteen-year-old Norman Fortner and his fifteen-year-old brother Clifford. Lorna invited Norman to play at her fort, but he declined because he was busy with his paper route. Later that morning Lorna was seen at Kent School meeting with a tall pimply faced boy with a receding chin. Sometime around noon, Lorna rode her bike to the East side of Corte Madera Creek where she spoke briefly with Jackie Timmer, the eighth grade step-daughter of Fire Chief John McLaren. The conversation didn\u2019t last long because Jackie was busy babysitting her seven young siblings.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/a><\/p>\n

That evening Lorna attended a football game between Drake and Tamalpais High Schools at the College of Marin. During the game she was seen looking for dropped items under the bleachers. She left the 31-0 Tam High blowout when the game ended at 10:15. After the game, Lorna\u2019s dad went to the stands to look for her. He knew she liked to look for things under the stands and thought he might find her there. But, he did not.<\/p>\n

\"Norman<\/a>

Norman Forther & Jeff Doherty after they discovered Lorna Lax’ body<\/p><\/div>\n

At 3:30 pm on Monday, November 16, Norman Fortner finally did visit Lorna\u2019s fort and discovered the carnage that had been inflicted on the petite seventh grader. He ran to the College of Marin tennis courts where he found fourteen-year-old Jeff Doherty. \u201cCome look what I found,\u201d he implored. After witnessing the grisly scene the boys ran to the Lax home to get help. They returned to the thicket with Amy Lax. When she saw her battered and lifeless daughter Amy nearly collapsed. Norman said, \u201cShe was hysterical and screaming for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief McLaren was awakened from a nap, \u201cby the wife and kids screaming.\u201d When he realized that someone had been hanged the chief grabbed a butcher knife to cut the rope. \u201cMy wife handed me a pair of scissors on the way out the door,\u201d he said. \u201cI started to cut the rope, but something made me back away. I knew I was too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin County Sheriff Louis Mountanos led the investigation into Lorna\u2019s death. Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Edmond Mauberret was the first officer at the scene. Inspector Mike Melovich, Identification Chief Earl Cummesky, Identification Technician Ramond Barton and Deputy Douglas Gledhill soon arrived to secure the crime scene. Inspectors Bowen Bridges and Carl Sears rounded out the investigative team.\"Atomic<\/a>Dressed only in a blue pajama top, Lorna\u2019s unblinking hazel eyes stared upward toward the fig branch securing the noose that held her head a foot off the ground. Her legs were stuffed into one of two sleeping bags at the scene. Under the sleeping bag were a quilt, three blankets, and a peach colored chenille bedspread. None of the items came from the Lax household. Her clothing lay beside the little redhead\u2019s body. Some in a box, and the rest were folded neatly. They included a pair of jeans, a denim jacket, blue sweatshirt, underwear, shoes and bobby sox. None were torn. Other items found in the fort included candles, silverware, plates, and soft drink bottles. The weapon used to stab Lorna was not immediately located\u00a0at the scene.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the next several hours investigators scoured the crime scene for the murder weapon. The two boys who discovered the body were questioned at length. Norman told the investigators that he saw the man at the scene pick a pair of scissors off the ground and put them in his back pocket.\"McCovey\"<\/a>After receiving an initial briefing Sheriff Mountanos said, \u201cIt\u2019s a possible homicide, but we\u2019re not ruling out suicide.\u201d However, before wrapping the first day of the investigation at 11:00 p.m., the Sheriff declared that Lorna was, \u201cApparently the victim of a sex maniac,\u201d before concluding that, \u201cThere\u2019s no more we can do right now. We\u2019ll pick it up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, November 18, Sheriff\u2019s Inspector Bowen Bridges said, \u201cThe autopsy showed she definitely had been slain. She had been stabbed twice and the wounds were 4 \u00bd inches deep. As in many cases hesitation marks surrounded the wounds. She also had been beaten about the head with heavy blows.\u201d Inspector Bridges also stated that there had been some \u201csexual mistreatment.\u201d Dr. John Manwaring said the stab wounds could have caused death through internal bleeding or she could have been choked to death by the rope.\"Lung<\/a>On Wednesday, November 18, Sheriff Mountanos dropped a bombshell. In a classic example of blaming the victim the Sheriff held a press conference and declared that Lorna was running a sex club out of her makeshift fort. He based the accusation on interviews with seven neighborhood boys, ages 12 through 16, including the Fortner boys and Jeff Doherty. Mountanos said Lorna, \u201ccharged an eighty-five cent initiation fee for club membership. Other charges for club members ranged from thirty-five cents to one dollar.\u201d He said the last known tryst occurred on Saturday morning. \u201cMy theory,\u201d the Sheriff said, \u201cis that there was a sexual act committed without force shortly before death occurred. Whoever killed Lorna may have been afraid that she would talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headstone\"<\/a>

Lorna Lax tombstone<\/p><\/div>\n

On Thursday, November 19, Lorna\u2019s remains were released to the Leary Brothers Mortuary in San Francisco for private burial. The Catholic Church denied Lorna a Christian burial because she had died in \u2018infamy\u2019 so her family held a private service at the Golden Gate National Cemetery. Her last name was left off of her headstone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

welve-year-old Lorna Lax was an adventurous little girl who had disappeared for extended periods of time on four separate occasions, so her mom was not overly concerned when she discovered her daughter\u2019s note on Saturday, November 14, 1959. Bullied her entire life, Lorna would become \u2018mad at the world\u2019 when the taunts became more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[454,608],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crimes-against-children","category-lorna-lax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3124,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions\/3124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}