THE SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY-SUN

San Bernardino, California, U.S.A.

27 February 1939

(pages 1-2)

TANGLED LOVE LIFE OF CO-ED BEAUTY BARED.

Autopsy Reveals Stately Beauty Not Raped

in Brutal Attack On Campus of College.

OFFICERS QUIZ ROOMMATE.

Investigation Discloses Early Marriage to Actor, Writer; Visit to Doctor Told.

Los Angeles, Feb. 26.—The brutal slaying of Anya Sosoyeva, 32, dancer of Ziegfeld's and Goldwyn's Follies, on the Los Angeles City college campus Saturday night remained clouded in mystery tonight.

Police questioned one after another of Miss Sosoyeva's friends and sought others.

"The evidence indicates," said Police Capt. D. R. Patton, "that it was a grudge slaying, or the work of a sex fiend who lay in wait for a victim. I lean to the grudge theory."

Officers Hunt for Men in Her Life

Dr. Frank Webb, county autopsy surgeon, reported two examinations had failed to disclose that the stately blonde had been raped.

Beulah Ann Stanley, dramatics instructor and roommate of Miss Sosoyeva, who had been reported missing by her mother last night, explained today she had been so shocked by her friend's death she sought quiet and rest.

Captain Patton said Miss Stanley admitted she knew Miss Sosoyeva had lived here with a man as his wife for a time.

Report of Strange Cult Spurs Probe

"Anya told me about the affair," Patton quoted Miss Stanley, "but said she had split with him entirely. Then recently she had sought a reconciliation, but this failed. It was about this time that she was so despondent."

Patton questioned Kermit Anderson, 34, accountant, who said he had lived at the same hotel as Miss Sosoyeva and had been fond of her, but denied he had lived with her. He said he was playing cards with friends, naming them, the night the dancer was slain.

Police still held as a suspect Bernard Sutton, 33, janitor, who is on probation on a lewd conduct charge.

Fred Susoff, brother of Miss Sosoyeva, born Nina Susoff, who arrived from San Francisco to return her body there for burial, gave police the name of a San Francisco man whom they said they want to question.

Authorities said Dr. Richard S. Murray, an osteopath, had reported that Miss Sosoyeva, Russian-born entertainer who once was in the Ziegfeld Follies and on vaudeville circuits, came to him about two weeks ago for a physical examination, complaining that she was indifferent to the attentions of men.

Mrs. A. L. Miller, associated with Dr. Murray's clinic, told police she had seen Miss Sosoyeva several times in the company of "a large man who I have been told is a member of a strange cult on the Los Angeles City college campus."

Capt. Patton said an investigation was being made of various reports that the secret order, called the "Purple Cult," held weird rites at the home of a faculty member.

Mrs. Esther Cahoon, manager of the apartment house where Miss Sosoyeva and Miss Stanley lived together, told officers the slain woman once informed her she had a quarrel with her "boy friend" in San Francisco last November, shortly before she came here, hoping to launch a career that would get her another movie job.

Investigation disclosed that Miss Sosoyeva married Laurence Tulloch, actor and writer, when she was very young. He was twice tried for the fatal shooting of Mrs. Gertrude Hawkins Lavine, divorcee, in his San Francisco apartment, but both juries disagreed. Tulloch died in 1932.

Miss Sosoyeva was killed by a blow directed with a two-by-four plank. She managed to stagger to the college auditorium, where she was to have appeared in an amateur play, and collapsed in the arms of a member of the cast, Wally Myar. Myar said she was unable to identify her assailant and cried out only that "Someone hit me over the head . . . asked me 'Where are you going?'"

Miss Sosoyeva was attired in a Russian dancing tunic which she had donned in her apartment across the street from the auditorium.