I just came across this very interesting account of Barbara Graham's life and death. I am not familiar enough with this case to know if it is true or not, but if true, it certainly upholds her conviction.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2302920/The-TRUE-Story-of-Barbara-Graham-by-Clark-Howard
I just got done watching the movie on TV. When I went back to try to find the article I mentioned above, it was gone. I did find a link to the article at this Web site, however.
www.lisaburks.com/typepad/Graham_by_Clark_Howard.doc
This is a fascinating account of Barbara Graham's life, the crime, the evidence against her, the trial, and her death. It's very detailed.
The movie certainly got her death correct. That scene remains one of the most disturbing, chilling scenes ever filmed. I broke out in a cold sweat watching it, and this for the umpteenth time.
However, from this article, it appears that everything else in the movie about Barbara Graham was complete fiction.
It's also very interesting to me that to this day, people are still arguing about her guilt or innocence.
That's an interesting doc. Here, I'll make it click-able.
http://www.lisaburks.com/typepad/Graham_by_Clark_Howard.doc
The address of Mabel Monohan's house is 1718 W. Parkside Avenue. You can see the place on Google maps. Looks nice.
http://goo.gl/maps/bLb8i
Baxter Shorter's testimony is of course self-serving. But the fact that there was a record of his attempt to call an ambulance tends to corroborate his claims. Which makes Barbara Graham guilty as hell.
I did read it. She was guilty as hell. Shame on Robert Wise.
"Stalingrad. . . The fall of Stalingrad was the end of Europe. There's been a cataclysm."
I watched the movie and thought she was guilty. She seemed like the kind of 'broad'; rough and hard as core, who would do anything to get what she wanted. We see that in the movie.
I think there's an attempt to make it unclear whether she guilty or innocent. That's not what I think matters to the filmmakers. What's more important to them is that we feel negatively towards the death penalty. Obviously, they disagree with it.
Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]
I happened to revisit this board and tried to get to the Clark Howard article again. Tried the link at Lisa Burk's blog to no avail.
I did a Google search and found it on this page:
http://murderpedia.org/female.G/g/graham-barbara.htm
Very strange how it keeps disappearing and then reappearing in other places.
Birdman of Alcatraz was another fantasy film made in that era that people thought was 'factual'. In Birdman what happened behind the scenes was really disgusting. It would never happen today.
I could never watch another Burt Lancaster movie the same way after learning the truth.
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That's All Folks