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| Rae Ethelyn |
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born:
08 July 1918 Ogden, Utah, United States of America |
died:
01 April 2011 Los Gatos, Santa Clara, California, United States of America (age 92) |
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American child actress, the cousin of Leon Janney. She later became Rae Ethelyn Caplan. Her Uncle, STUART KOHN was a commercial lawyer in NYC and told a close criminal lawyer friend that he would give him help if he came across a criminal conviction of someone who was poor and friendless and needed help for an appeal. (Sounds like "BOSTON BLACKIE"). CHARLES STIELOW was a poor, mentally challenged farmhand in rural Upstate NY convicted of murdering his wealthy employer and his housekeeper with a pistol in a robbery. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the electric chair in Sing Sing. The case went thru the normal court process and the sentence was upheld and a date for execution set. While on death row, the murderers there became convinced that STIELOW was innocent: "it takes one to know one". They convinced the warden that they may be right. He mentioned it to Uncle STUART's criminal lawyer friend and started a re-examination. The story is so fantastic that it sounds like a TV crime show or B&W "B" movie: +There's an evil private detective who forces a confession and lies about it to police. +There's a secretly recorded admission by the detective by using a ruse. +There's a fake forensic firearms "expert". +There's another jailed criminal who confesses to the murders and then recants. +There's a NY Governor who won't believe new evidence. +There's an innocent man with trousers slit, head shaved and electric chair ready to go saying goodbye to his wife and kids. +There's RAE's Uncle speeding 27 miles with papers to delay the execution with just minutes to spare. +There's the "town without pity" that won't believe STIELOW is innocent even after he's pardoned as innocent. |
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Real name: Rae Ethelyn Kohn |
Films listed on this page: complete Hal Roach filmography. |
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