Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

June 17, 1948

On June 17, 1948, the Los Angeles Sentinel reported on a court case regarding a domestic dispute that turned deadly. The first paragraph reads: “Miss Ruth Mae Foster, charged with murdering her ‘wife,’ Mrs. Virginia Louise Ford, on May 19, at the culmination of a five-year unconventional love relationship, plead not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity at her arraignment before Superior Judge Thomas L. Ambrose on Monday” (click to view article PDF).  

Foster and Ford had lived together since 1943 at 4445 1/2 South Avalon Boulevard, with four of Ford’s children. The Sentinel previously reported on the murder on May 27, 1948 in an article titled “Women Wield Knives in 3 Killings; Two Women’s ‘Man-Wife’ Love Ends.”   

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