The Overell Murders – Part Two – The Trial

To recap: In 1947 a sensational murder splashed across the pages of every newspaper in the nation. A young Flintridge heiress, Beulah Louise Overell, and her boyfriend Bud Gollem, were accused of murdering her wealthy parents, Walter and Beulah Overell, to gain a substantial inheritance. Dynamite had blown up the yacht the Overell parents were in soon after Beulah and Bud had visited them. 

It seemed an open and shut case. Beulah and Bud had motive. The parents had threatened to write Beulah out of the will if they didn’t break off their relationship. Circumstantial evidence was overwhelming. They had just left the yacht when the dynamite went off. Bud had purchased the dynamite earlier, and more dynamite and items that matched the homemade bomb on the boat were found in the trunk of his car. And finally the pair seemingly showed no remorse. So how did the trial go?

Like so many trials, it all came down to the talents of the attorneys. The prosecution made several mistakes while the skillful defense attorneys methodically chipped away at the overwhelming evidence. 

Here’s just a small sample: The prosecution produced evidence that the two murdered parents had been beaten to death before the explosion. The defense cast doubt on the testimony of the coroner, showing that the wounds could have been the result of unexploded sticks of dynamite ricocheting against their bodies during the explosion. The dynamite in Bud’s car was portrayed by the defense as having been purchased on Mr. Overell’s instructions to remove tree stumps from their Flintridge property. The prosecution deemed one screw found in Bud’s car as being unusual and matching one used in the bomb. The defense proved that the screw was actually quite common. The defense further opined that Mr. Overell had suffered financial setbacks and may have detonated the dynamite himself as suicide. It was a constant back and forth – the prosecution presenting damning evidence and the defense inserting doubt into the evidence’s validity.

The trial took on a circus atmosphere showing the prosecution to be less-than-ethical, which probably influenced the jury. The police were found to have bugged the defense’s office with microphones. The defense planted seeds of doubt that the trial was objective, that it was merely a vehicle for the head prosecutor’s ambitions for higher office. Bud and Beulah had exchanged sexually explicit love-letters in jail, which were intercepted by the prosecution, which in turn fed them to scandal-hungry newspapers.

The trial lasted 19 weeks and jury deliberation 48 hours. But by law, Beulah and Bud were considered innocent. It had been up to the prosecution to prove them guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The motive and evidence seemed iron-clad for a guilty verdict. But the defense had inserted enough doubt into the case that the jurors rendered a verdict of “not guilty.”

The two love birds were now free to carry on their lives. But during the pressure of the trial and time in jail, the two had soured on each other. They left the courtroom without speaking to each other.

Beulah Overell was now rich from her inheritance. She almost immediately married one of the policemen who had been her jailer and divorced him as quickly. She led a messy life and by 1965 died of alcohol poisoning lying on the floor of her La Vegas home, a loaded gun by her side.

Bud drifted off, became a “carney” for a while and did time in prison for car theft. He bought some land in Northern California and grew marijuana. When tracked down by reporters years later, he claimed to have gotten his doctorate in nuclear physics, but wouldn’t say from what college.

The blown up yacht was refloated and repaired. It served for some years as a floating abortion mill. The Overells Flintridge mansion was auctioned off right after the trial for $58,000. It’s still there and Zillow lists it at over $10,000,000. 

And lastly, there’s a street called Beulah Drive in Flintridge, named for Mrs. Beulah Overell, Beulah Louis’s mother. It’s always there to remind us of this unsolved crime.