Los Angeles Times - 09.11.2019

CALIFORNIA

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

B

Will we ever
see the likes of
a Christopher
Dennis on
Hollywood
Boulevard
again?
For more
than two
decades, on the Walk of
Fame’s pink terrazzo stars,
he played Superman with
the devotion of a child con-
vinced he’s a superhero.
He famously lived for
years just a few blocks from
the boulevard in a small
apartment crammed head
to foot with Superman
action toys and Superman
cutouts and Superman
dioramas he made by hand.
And out on the street, he
embraced the role so fully
that he sometimes chased
down real bad guys in his

pillow-padded, muscle-

bulging, stretchy Superman

get-up.

He held his body straight

and his shoulders back,

which made his neckline

appear manly where red

cape met sunny-day-sky-

blue suit. In just the right

light, at just the right angle,

he could look a lot like

Christopher Reeve —

though up close, I always

thought, he was often too

hollow-cheeked and worn.

But it wasn’t just looks

that made him stand out in

the constant crush congre-

gating in front of the Hard

Rock Cafe. He gave tourists

time. He saw it as his job not

just to earn their tips but to

make them smile. So he

shared with them his vast

knowledge of all things

Krypton. He swooped wom-

en low to the ground as if

DRESSED AS SUPERMAN,Christopher Dennis had delighted Hollywood Boulevard visitors for years.
The 52-year-old, who struggled with drug addiction, was found dead last week in the San Fernando Valley.

Mel MelconLos Angeles Times

CITY BEAT

Off Walk of Fame, he

sought to rescue himself

Popularity of late Superman impersonator belied life struggles

NITA LELYVELD

A WORKER WITHL.A. City Tours shares a pho-

tograph of Dennis three months before his death.

Wally SkalijLos Angeles Times

[SeeCity Beat,B5]

A Central California

woman has been charged

with murder after giving

birth to a stillborn baby boy

with toxic amounts of meth-

amphetamine in his system,

sparking concern among

some who say that pregnant

women are being prose-

cuted under laws that were

never intended to apply to

them.

Chelsea Becker, 25, of

Hanford was arrested

Wednesday and is being held

at Kings County Jail, with

bail set at $5 million.

Becker was about 8½

months pregnant when she

delivered the stillborn baby

at a hospital Sept. 10, accord-

ing to the Hanford Police De-

partment. Hospital staffers

became suspicious that the

baby might have been ex-

posed to drugs, prompting

the county coroner’s office to

conduct an autopsy, police

said.

According to autopsy re-

ports, the amount of meth-

amphetamine in the child’s

system was more than five

times the level that would be

considered toxic, police said.

The coroner’s office ruled

the death a homicide.

Investigators learned

that Becker had given birth

to three other children with

methamphetamine in their

systems, police said. Those

children were removed from

her custody. Becker also ad-

mitted to using the drug as

late as three days before she

gave birth to the stillborn in-

fant, investigators said.

Becker was arraigned

Wednesday and pleaded not

guilty. She’s next due in

court Nov. 19 for a pretrial

conference and the sched-

uling of a preliminary hear-

ing.

Legal experts and wom-

en’s rights advocates say

such prosecutions are in-

creasing but still remain

relatively rare in California.

The state’s penal code

has defined murder as the

unlawful killing of a human

being or unborn child. The

statute was amended to in-

clude the word “fetus” in

1970.

Legislators made the

change after the state

Supreme Court overturned

the conviction of a Stockton

man who had been charged

with murder for beating his

estranged wife and killing

her unborn child. The court

had ruled that the state pe-

nal code did not provide for a

homicide conviction arising

from the death of a fetus.

The change was intended

to strengthen protections

for victims of domestic vi-

olence, not to be applied to

women seeking abortions or

those who suffer miscar-

riages or stillbirths, said

Michele Goodwin, a law pro-

fessor at UC Irvine and au-

thor of the forthcoming

book “Policing the Womb.”

“At the time, there were

feminist organizations and

others that were assured by

legislators that these laws

would never be applied to

pregnant women,” Goodwin

said.

But as the drug war

ramped up in the 1980s and

’90s, it became more com-

mon for prosecutors to use

such laws to charge women

with killing their own un-

born children, particularly

when narcotics were in-

volved, she said.

“We are seeing an in-

creasing number of women

who are arrested for experi-

encing miscarriages and

stillbirths,” said Lynn M.

Paltrow, founder and execu-

tive director of National Ad-

vocates for Pregnant Wom-

en.

Between 1972 and 2005,

Paltrow’s organization doc-

umented 413 cases in 44

states and the District of Co-

lumbia in which women were

arrested or detained for rea-

sons related to pregnancy,

she said. About 84% of them

involved drug use. In the 14

years since, she estimates

Her baby was

stillborn, and

she’s charged

with murder

[SeeBaby,B6]

Hanford woman’s boy

had toxic amounts of

methamphetamine in

his system, police say.

By Alex Wigglesworth

I

t was a time of gas lamps

and street cars when

Fred Krinke’s grand-

father flung open the

doors to the Fountain Pen

Shop, supplying the writing

instruments and bottles of

midnight-black ink that the

lawyers, judges, note takers,

letter writers and shopkeep-

ers required in bustling

downtown Los Angeles.

By the time Krinke took

over the shop, the ballpoint

pen was bearing down on its

more elegant sibling, and

eventually the keyboard

and touch screen threat-

ened to do in the fountain

pen altogether.

But Krinke weathered

the cultural storms and be-

came the go-to source in Los

Angeles when someone

needed a fresh nib, an ink

cartridge or a pricey made-

to-order Montblanc.

Hard at work until the

end, Krinke died Sunday at

91. The fate of his store, said
    to be the oldest pen shop in
    the U.S. operated contin-
    uously by the same family, is
    uncertain.
    The Fountain Pen Shop

FRED KRINKE, 1928 - 2019

Shopkeeper ran the go-to

source for fountain pens

Susan SternerAssociated Press

AN ENDURING BUSINESS

Fred Krinke’s shop is said to be the oldest in the

U.S. continually operated by the same family.

By Steve Marble

[SeeKrinke,B6]

On Oct. 1, 1981, just a week

after becoming deputy com-

missioner for the Immigra-

tion and Naturalization

Service, Alan C. Nelson had

lunch with the intellectual

godfather and fundraiser for

America’s modern-day anti-

immigration movement.

John Tanton was a Michi-

gan ophthalmologist who,

two years earlier, had cre-

ated the Federation for

American Immigration Re-

form, a nonprofit organiza-

tion with the singular mis-

sion of reducing immigra-

tion, legal and not, to the

United States.

He and FAIR President

Roger Conner wanted to size

up Nelson to see how “we can

solve the immigration prob-

lems facing the United

States,” according to an Oct.

20, 1981, letter Tanton wrote

to Nelson that’s part of Tan-

ton’s archives at the Uni-

versity of Michigan.

Nelson and his INS West-

ern regional commissioner,

Harold Ezell, were no ideo-

logues when they joined

the federal agency. But by

the time they left in 1989,

What Prop. 187 taught

immigration opponents

Initiative was tossed, but it shaped winning strategy

By Gustavo Arellano

BY THE time Harold Ezell left the Immigration and
Naturalization Service in 1989, he was a committed
warrior in the crusade against illegal immigration.

Todd BigelowFor The Times

[SeeImmigration,B4]

Ex-LAPD chief

is interim top cop

in the Windy City

Charlie Beck, who

retired last year, will

lead Chicago’s police

force until a permanent

leader is hired. B

Son kills mother,

himself at home

A bomb threat written

on a wall of the house

forces the evacuation

of several neighbors

in Simi Valley. B

Lottery.........................B