Trial By Ambush – Murder, Injustice, and the Truth About the Case of Barbara Graham

“If they ever realize the injustice they have done to me – if they ever write up my life or make a movie of it, I want Tommy to benefit from it. Someday they’ll discover the wrong they’ve done.” Barbara Graham

There are many guilty parties in Marcia Clark’s new book, Trial By Ambush, but that list should not include Barbara Graham, the young woman who died in the gas chamber on June 3, 1955, when she was only 31 years-old. Her co-defendants, Emmett Perkins and Jack Santo, could have saved Barbara’s life by taking responsibility for the death of 64 year-old Mabel Monahan. John True cut a deal and escaped prosecution after falsely stating that Barbara was the one who bludgeoned Mabel to death. Then there were the prosecutors, notably J. Miller Leavy, once legendary, but whose handling of Graham’s case would do serious damage to his legacy. And then there were the journalists who tried to outdo each other with salacious headlines and stories that would boost newsstand sales, while drumming up public opinion against “Bloody Babs.”

Marcia Clark (Photo Credit: Coral von Zumwalt)

Clark is no stranger to being in the spotlight, after having served as prosecutor for the trial of O.J. Simpson. (The former football player was acquitted for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman.) Her experience also makes her the perfect legal expert to examine another famous trial which, even though it happened in the 1950s, still stands out as a miscarriage of justice. Susan Hayward won an Oscar for portraying Graham in Robert Wise’s 1958 film, I Want to Live. It wasn’t the film that convinced Clark to delve into Graham’s story, however, but a photograph that she saw of the young woman. “She looks vulnerable, small, and very alone,” Clark writes in the foreword of the book. “The antithesis of all the news coverage I’d read that painted her as a vicious and cold-blooded, albeit beautiful, murderer.”

Clark’s decision to write a book about Graham handed her a monumental task. Since the trial occurred more than 70 years ago, she needed the trial transcripts. But would they still exist? Turns out for death penalty cases, the transcripts are indeed kept. After making many inquiries, Clark finally was able to obtain those records, all 4,000 pages, delivered to her in three large boxes. 

Graham did not have an easy childhood and would be married four times and divorced three. She was estranged from her two older children, while her youngest child, Tommy, was very dear to her. She lived on the fringes of society and committed petty crimes to get by. Her one big mistake was lying under oath to create an alibi for a man she barely knew. That felony would stick to her record causing people to doubt her innocence. 

Monahan was a widow whose daughter, after divorcing her husband, a successful casino owner, gave her mother a Burbank home and thousands of dollars in jewelry. Mabel wasn’t too careful sharing details about her largess, and the news soon reached the ears of Santo and Perkins, whom Graham was dating. They cooked up a plan to get into Mabel’s home. Known to be security conscious, the men knew she wouldn’t open her door to either of them. But a young woman claiming car trouble? 

What happened in Mabel’s house would be examined again and again at trial. But when Barbara couldn’t come up with an alibi, True not only placed her at the scene but said she was the one who pistol whipped and killed Mabel. 

Although Santo and Perkins were also charged with Mabel’s murder, the press zeroed in on Barbara because of her youth and good looks. Clark, having gone through some of the press coverage, repeats some of the most outrageous things that were reported about Barbara. One story commented on her “mask of fleeting hatred,” causing Clark to write: “How does a mask show a fleeting emotion? I don’t care what they say: metaphors need to make sense.” Another reporter claimed Barbara “glared malevolently” at a witness after he stepped off the stand. 

Leavy, determined to win the case against Barbara, cooked up a scheme that reeked of entrapment. Donna Prow was serving a year in prison for having killed several people in a drunk driving accident. In exchange for an early release, Donna said she had someone who could give Barbara an alibi for the night of the murder. Barbara met with the man, not knowing he was a police officer who would end up testifying against her in court.

Barbara’s defense lawyer, Jack Hardy, was horribly outmatched. In those days, when counsel was appointed by the courts, they didn’t get paid. When Donna Prow disappeared, Hardy didn’t have the funds to hire an investigator to counter what Leavy had put in motion. “So Donna, who actually had killed someone, got to go off to Rio. And Barbara got to face the gas chamber,” Clark writes. The end of the book is a gut punch, reading about Barbara’s final days and how she faced her death.

Clark has made a mark with her mysteries, the Samantha Brinkman series and the Rachel Knight series. Trial by Ambush places her skills at dissecting a trial, what goes on in the courtroom and behind the scenes, on full display. That this is a true story, and a case which led to major changes in California’s criminal justice system, makes this book even more meaningful.  A must read for those who love courtroom drama.

Trial By Ambush – Murder, Injustice, and the Truth About the Case of Barbara Graham
Marcia Clark

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