Juan Corona Case "21st Body Uncovered Found; Weapons Found In Suspect's Home"

San Bernardino Sun, 29 May 1971

21st Body Uncovered Found; Weapons Found In Suspect's Home

By PETER WEISSER YUBA CITY, Calif (AP) -
Sheriff's officers said last night they found an 18inch bolo machete, a 2-foot wooden club and a crowbar in the home of Juan V. Corona, accused of 10 slayings in connection with the discovery of a series of bodies buried in orchards near here. At the same time, police announced a 21st body had been found.

The sheriff's officers said the club and the crowbar both had apparent bloodstains.

The list of weapons was given to newsmen along with a copy of an affidavit filed with the Sutter County Superior Court which said two meat market receipts bearing Juan Corona's name were found near a still-unidentified body in a grave.

Different receipts from the same market in Corona's name were found in Corona's bedroom dresser drawer, officers said.

The list of evidence includes a statement by Det. Sgt. John Purcell that "background on subject (Corona) indicates he becomes violent when the subject of homosexuality is brought up."

Rain forced officers to suspend temporarily the search of orchard lands along the Feather River yesterday. The . death toll at that time stood at 20 and the sheriff said he expected more bodies would be found.

Officers said the 21st body was found in the afternoon when the rain let up and searchers resumed digging.

The confirmed death count is one of the largest numbers of persons allegedly slain by one person in the United States in this century.

Sheriff Roy D. Whiteaker told newsmen, in answer to questions, his men were not using any sort of map to locate the bodies. He also declined to offer any theory or motive for the killings.

The San Francisco Examiner quoted "sources close to the investigation" as saying deputies are using a map obtained at Corona's home which pinpoints 36 probable gravesites.

Eight bodies were found Thursday, the last five at night.

Whiteaker said officers checked "three more depressions" yesterday of the sort that have yielded other victims. "We do expect to recover more bodies," he said.

Mass killings in the United States include the 1955 bombing of an airliner In Colorado in which 44 lives were lost. John Gilbert Graham was executed for placing a bomb on the plane to murder his mother, a passenger, who was heavily insured.

Another mass murder occurred in 1966 when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of a University of Texas tower in Austin and shot at campus strollers, killing 16 persons. He was shot to death by police.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, however, Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H. H. Holmes, "disposed of some 150 young women paying guests in his castle on

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Cont- Weapons, 21st Body Are Found

(Continued from A 1) 63rd Street In Chicago" in the latter part of the 19th century.

Whiteaker refused to comment about Corona, 37, the Mexican native charged with the 10 slayings which had A been discovered by the time he was arraigned in Justice Court on Wednesday. The rest of the bodies have been found since then. Further legal proceedings are scheduled for next Wednesday.

Corona,who spent three months in a mental hospital In 1956, has been a farm labor contractor for the past 15 years In the Yuba City region 135 miles northeast of San Francisco and 45 miles north of Sacramento. He was released from the hospital as recovered.

Police in Marysville reported they had picked up Roy DeLong,52, a transient laborer from Nebraska, as a "material witness" and turned him over to Sutter County deputies in Yuba City, across the Feather River. Sutter County authorities refused comment.

Whiteaker said this about the bodies: All are males, aged 40 to 63, and all are believed to be Caucasians except for one man thought to be a Negro, Each had been hacked in the back of the head with a machete-type weapon and stabbed in the chest. Whiteaker said it appeared the fatal wounds were in the chest in most cases.

--They were buried in crude graves ranging in depth from 3' feet to about six feet in a mile-square area along the Feather River about five miles north of Yuba City in the rich fruit-growing flatlands of the Sacramento Valley.

When newsmen asked questions about Corona, the father of four girls aged 4 through 8, the sheriff said: "I have no comment at all about anything of evidentiary value or on any phase of the investigation." The only nine positively identified victims were Kenneth Edward Whiteacre, 40, a transient from Alameda, Calif.; and Siguard Emile Bieremen, 63, who worked as a bar swamper in Marysville;John J. Haluka, address General Delivery, Los Angeles; Donald Smith, 60, nearest relative Randolph Smith, Atlanta, Ga.; William Emory Kemp, 63, General Delivery, Baton Rouge, La.; James Howard, no address; Jonas Smallwood, 45-65, no address; Elliott Riley, no address, Charles Cleveland Fleming, no address.