Nineteen-year-old Karen Morton was walking through the produce section of Vons Supermarket in Toluca Lake, California. She had accompanied her grandmother on a shopping trip. A man approached them and asked young Karen if she’d be interested in auditioning for Playboy. He handed over a business card, smiled and walked off. Some time later, Karen’s grandmother called her granddaughter and sternly asked, “Have you called those people back yet? Elaine did!” (Karen’s cousin Elaine Morton was Playboy Magazine’s “Miss June” in 1970.) On her grandmother’s prompt, Karen called. She became Playboy’s “Miss July” in 1978.

In 1982, through personal connections in the music business, Karen was cast as the titular “Jenny” in the music video for Tommy Tutone’s new wave hit 867-5309.” The video was in constant rotation in MTV. She was tagged for other videos, including songs by Van Halen and guitarist Moon Martin.

Karen was an in-demand model, representing a wide variety of companies, including Levis, Clairol and a number of products for the Japanese market. She attended events at Hugh Hefner‘s Playboy Mansion, where she rubbed elbows with the likes of Billy Idol, Muhammad Ali and Clint Eastwood.

In 2004, after experiencing discomfort while hiking, Karen was diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare skin disease. Early symptoms of SJS mimic the flu, but soon manifest as painful skin blisters. In Karen’s case, she developed a rash that severely affected the skin surrounding her eyes. She withdrew from public life. Her skin was regularly treated in the same manner as a burn victim. Karen had a number of surgeries and eventually lost her eyesight. She passed away from the disease in 2014 at the age of 55.

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On March 10, 1928, Christine Collins gave her 9-year old son Walter some money to go to the movies. When he didn’t return long after the show was over, she contacted the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police followed hundreds of dead-end leads and conducted extensive searches that eventually spread nationwide. Five months after Walter’s disappearance, police in DeKalb, Illinois picked up a twelve-year old runaway boy who claimed to be Walter Collins. LA Police Captain J.J. Jones, feeling the pressure of solving the case, told Mrs. Collins that they had located her son in Illinois and she would have to pay transportation costs to bring his home. She agreed. At the reunion, however, Mrs. Collins was skeptical and finally said that the boy was not Walter. A frustrated Captain Jones persuaded her to “try the boy out” by taking him home. Mrs. Collins did so reluctantly.

After three weeks, Mrs. Collins returned to the police and stood firm on her belief that this boy was not her son. She offered to produce dental records to back up her claim. Captain Jones grew furious. He accused her of being a bad mother and of trying to bring ridicule to the LA Police. He had her committed to the Los Angeles County Hospital under a “Code 12” — a term used to incarcerate someone who was deemed difficult or an inconvenience.

While Mrs. Collins was in the hospital, Captain Jones requestioned the boy… who finally admitted to being Arthur Hutchens Jr. He confessed that he lied about being Walter Collins as a ploy to get to Los Angeles to meet his favorite actor, cowboy star Tom Mix. Arthur Hutchens was sent back to Illinois and Mrs. Collins was released… ten days later.

Christine Collins sued the Los Angeles Police Department as well as lodging a separate suit against Captain J.J. Jones. She won, but Jones refused to pay.

In 1929, serial killer Gordon Northcott was found guilty of murdering three boys in the Los Angeles area the previous year. Although Sara Northcott, Gordon’s mother and accomplice in the murders, confessed to killing Walter, Gordon denied it. Gordon Northcott was executed at San Quentin Prison in 1930.

Walter’s fate was never confirmed.

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Despite being a key figure in the era of the “girl next door,” Patti Brill had a pretty unremarkable career. As compared to her contemporaries, like Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell, the majority of Patti’s screen appearances were uncredited. She exhibited the same bubbly personality and demure demeanor as Reynolds and Powell, but, unfortunately, was not much more than a prop in the two dozen or so films in which she appeared. Patti co-starred in the romantic The Enchanted Cottage, the atmospheric horror film The Seventh Victim from producer Val Lewton and several films in “The Falcon” series of detective stories.

As her career came to an end, she was featured in a single episode of The Donna Reed Show.

Patti was married four times, including five years to a disabled World War II veteran which sparked her interest in helping other war veterans.

Just two years after her last marriage, Patti passed away in 1963 at the age of 39. There are conflicting stories regarding the cause of death.

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Viola Fletcher was born in Comanche, Oklahoma, but moved to Tulsa with her family. The Fletchers lived in Greenwood, an affluent neighborhood of black families, known as “Black Wall Street.” On May 31, 1921, mobs of white residents — some supposedly working as deputized agent of local government — attacked and destroyed the homes and businesses in more than 35 square blocks of Greenwood. Seven-year-old Viola was asleep when the massacre erupted. The Fletcher family, along with other residents, fled for their lives. They lost everything but the clothes they were wearing.

One hundred years after the horrible event, Viola and other survivors filed suit against the city of Tulsa, the Tulsa Board of Commissioners and the Oklahoma Military Department, seeking reparations. Despite testimony, the suit was dismissed. Unfettered, Viola testified for reparations before the US Congress, stating:

“I will never forget the violence of the white mob when we left our home. I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street. I still smell smoke and see fire. I still see Black businesses being burned. I still hear airplanes flying overhead. I hear the screams”

A Justice Department review in 2024 found that federal prosecution may have been possible a century ago, but there was no longer an avenue to bring a criminal case.

In 2023, Viola, with the help of her grandson, wrote a memoir entitled Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.

She passed away in 2025 at the age of 111.

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