Episode 147: The Wineville Chicken Coop Murders: Lost Boys of California

In the late 1920s, southern California was booming—fields giving way to movie studios, small towns transforming into bustling cities. But tucked away on a poultry ranch in Wineville, a darker story was unfolding.

In March 1928, nine-year-old Walter Collins left his Los Angeles home to see a movie and never returned. His disappearance quickly drew national attention and exposed cracks in the Los Angeles Police Department, already under fire for corruption scandals. While Christine Collins searched tirelessly for her son, police mishandled leads, forced her to accept an impostor child, and even committed her to a psychiatric ward when she refused to go along with their version of events.

Just months later, in nearby Pomona, brothers Lewis and Nelson Winslow—ages 12 and 10—vanished on their way home from a yacht club meeting. Their parents received strange letters suggesting the boys had run away, but their absence soon became part of a much larger, more terrifying pattern.

The investigation broke open when 15-year-old Sanford Clark’s sister, Jessie, traveled from Canada to check on her brother. What she discovered at the Wineville ranch was horrific: Sanford was being abused by his uncle, Gordon Stewart Northcott, and forced to witness acts of violence against other children. When authorities arrived at the ranch, they uncovered scattered bones, quicklime-filled graves, and personal items belonging to missing boys.

Northcott and his mother, Sarah Louise, were arrested in Canada. Both gave shifting confessions. Sarah admitted to killing Walter Collins and was sentenced to life in prison. Gordon was tried for the murders of the Winslow brothers and an unidentified Mexican youth. His trial in 1929 was a spectacle—he fired attorneys, defended himself, and reveled in the attention. Despite his antics, the evidence was damning. He was convicted and executed in 1930 at San Quentin.

The case left scars far beyond the courtroom. Christine Collins never found closure; she continued searching for Walter until her death. Wineville itself voted to change its name to Mira Loma in 1930, hoping to distance the community from the terrible notoriety.

Nearly a century later, the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders remain one of California’s most haunting true crime stories—a case that revealed not only the brutality of Gordon Stewart Northcott but also the failings of institutions meant to protect the vulnerable.