H96.1.1489

Abbott Murder Trial
29-Nov-55
4.75 in HIGH x 3.75 in WIDE
(12.06 cm HIGH x 9.52 cm WIDE)
The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of ANG Newspapers
H96.1.1489


Surveyor Olof Anderson and District Attorney J. Frank Coakley confer in front of an enormous relief model of the Trinity County area which contains Abbott's cabin. The model, which is three-dimensional, topographically-correct, and drawn to-scale, shows the Abbott cabin and garage (two separate buildings) and Stephanie Bryan's gravesite further up the hill from the cabin. On November 30, the Oakland Tribune carried a story on the model: "A scale-model relief map of a Trinity County hillside may help answer a key question for jurors who will decide Burton W. Abbott's guilt or innocence. "The question: Could Abbott carry the 105-pound body of Stephanie Bryan up the hill from his cabin on Hayfork Creek to her grave beneath a giant yellow pine tree? "The relief map, brought into court yesterday and mounted on a table in easy view of the jury, models the uphill slope between Abbott's cabin and the Berkeley girl's grave. ... "Abbott looked at it in court yesterday and termed it a "monstrosity." Witney referred to it repeatedly as a "thing," and once as "somebody's idea of a work of art." "Olof Anderson, chief deputy Alameda County surveyor, led a survey crew that plotted contour and elevation of the area two months ago....

Used: Oakland Tribune

Bookmark and Share