Word: ma
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Died. Elizabeth Ann ("Ma") Duncan. 58, the grey-haired California matron who in 1958 grew so jealous of the 30-year-old nurse married to her son Frank that she paid $335 to have the woman murdered; of asphyxiation (cyanide); in the gas chamber at San Quentin Prison. Her 33-year-old son, an owl-eyed Santa Barbara lawyer, fought her case through a lurid trial during which she admitted that she had once been madam of a brothel and had married eleven times. "She was," said Frank, "the best mother a boy ever...
...Corona, Calif., Elizabeth ("Ma ") Duncan, 58, waited in women's prison for transfer to San Quentin, where she was scheduled to die in a gas chamber for being so jealous of the 30-year-old nurse who married her son that she hired two thugs to kill the bride...
...from reading philosophy in jail, state officials claimed, Ma Duncan had plotted to kill a matron and break out. At her clemency hearing, her son Frank, 33, argued that his mother was "periodically" mentally ill; that "she had a tremendous fear of, frankly, losing me. She needed someone to whom she could come home, someone to cook for, to keep house for," he contended, ignoring the fact that Mrs. Duncan had been married at least ten times. There was no public drive to save Mrs. Duncan; of 220 messages on her case reaching Governor Brown, 165 urged that...
Faced with his own opposition to capital punishment, and perhaps mindful of the harmful political effects of his vacillations in the Caryl Chessman case, Governor Pat Brown said he was "unable to find circumstances" to interfere with Ma Duncan's imminent execution...
Richer or Poorer. Webb's Sun Cities are only for a small minority of the aged. Those who are richer can buy into specialized old-age communities such as the Casa de Mañana in La Jolla. Calif., one of 100-odd similar projects operated by the Methodist Church. The La Jolla colony has fewer recreational facilities than Sun City, but its chief feature is guaranteed until-death medical care, including treatment in the colony's hospital. The price can be high: as much as $27,500. For this, plus a monthly $200 maintenance charge, a buyer...