While authorities initially considered the possibility that the total number of boys killed might have been as high as 20, this theory was eliminated as the investigation began to unfold.

Northcott was found guilty of three of the murders in February 1929 and was executed at San Quentin State Prison in October 1930.

The consul wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detailing Jessie's sworn complaint.

On August 31, 1928, Immigration Service inspectors Judson F. Shaw and George W. Scallorn visited the ranch.

[4] Northcott and his mother Sarah Louise fled to Canada but were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia on September 19, 1928.

Clark also testified about the murder of a fourth boy, a Mexican citizen (possibly Alvin Gothea).

Northcott ordered Clark to burn the boy's severed head in a fire pit and crush the skull.

Northcott stated that he "left the headless body by the side of the road near [La] Puente because he had no other place to put it.

"[7] Wineville changed its name to Mira Loma on November 1, 1930, in large part because of the negative publicity surrounding the murders.

[15] After Northcott and his mother had been extradited from British Columbia to California, Sarah once again confessed and pleaded guilty to killing Collins.

[18][19] After sentencing, Sarah attempted to commit suicide and begged the authorities to spare her son's life.

[22] It was speculated that Northcott may have killed as many as 20 boys, but the state of California could not produce evidence to support that allegation.

The jury heard that Northcott had kidnapped, molested, tortured and murdered the Winslow brothers and the "headless Mexican" in 1928.

Kelley instead recommended that Clark be sent to the Whittier State School, where an experimental program for delinquent youths was under way.

[28] Clark was sentenced to five years at the school (later renamed the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility).

His sentence was later commuted to 23 months, as he "had impressed the Trustees with his temperament, job skills and his personal desire to live a productive life during his nearly two years there.

[34][35] Collins' disappearance received nationwide attention and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) pursued hundreds of leads without success.

Letters and photographs were exchanged before Christine Collins paid for the boy to be transported to Los Angeles.

The police also hoped that the uplifting story would deflect attention from a series of corruption scandals that had sullied the department's reputation.

She was told by the officer in charge of the case, police captain J. J. Jones, to take the boy home to "try him out for a couple of weeks," to which she hesitantly agreed.

During Christine's incarceration, Jones questioned the boy,[36] who admitted to being 12-year-old Arthur Hutchens Jr., a runaway originally from Iowa.

Northcott's ambiguous replies and his seeming refusal to remember such details as Walter's clothing and the color of his eyes gave her continued hope that her son still lived.

He was the pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church on Jefferson Boulevard at Third Avenue in Los Angeles, California.

He took up many important causes in the City of Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably the poor handling of the Walter Collins kidnapping case in 1928.

He fought to have Christine Collins released from a mental hospital after she was committed there in retaliation for disagreeing with the Los Angeles Police Department's version of events.