Harvey Glatman: The Glamour Girl Slayer
The Glamour Girl Slayer:AccusedHarvey Glatman·VictimsJudy Dull·Shirley Ann Bridgeford·Ruth Mercado·Lorraine Vigil
Case at a glance
- When
- August 1957 to October 1958
- Where
- Los Angeles, Orange County and the Southern California desert
- Perpetrator
- Harvey Murray Glatman
- Outcome
- Convicted and sentenced to death in 1958; executed at San Quentin on September 18, 1959
The case
Harvey Glatman lived in Los Angeles in the late 1950s. He presented himself as a freelance photographer, a cover that let him contact young women who hoped to model. He also looked for women through a lonely-hearts club.
On August 1, 1957, he hired Judy Dull, 19, for what she believed was a photo session. He tied her up, photographed her, and then killed her, leaving her body in the desert east of Los Angeles. He repeated the pattern with Shirley Ann Bridgeford, 24, whom he met through a lonely-hearts club, on March 9, 1958, and with model Ruth Mercado, 24, in July 1958. Each time he took pictures before killing the woman and left her remains in remote desert.
In October 1958 he called model Lorraine Vigil for a job, then drove her onto the Santa Ana Freeway and stopped in Orange County, where he pulled a gun. Vigil fought him, bit his wrist and got hold of the weapon. A passing highway patrolman saw the struggle and arrested Glatman. He quickly confessed to the three murders, and police found the photographs he had taken. He was convicted in San Diego County and sentenced to death, and on September 18, 1959, he was executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin.
Case photographs
Where it happened
Los Angeles, where Glatman met the women he killed
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Jason Neal has been writing true crime since 2019 and is the author of the True Crime Case Histories book series.
The full written account of this case is in True Crime Case Histories: Volume 2: Book · Paperback · Audiobook