The name “Catalina Island” pops up in the strangest places sometimes.
Normally, those places are fun, clean and full of light: good times, summer times, friends and family; happy memories of diving and dining, walking the beach, exchanging vows or hoisting a highball.
Then there are times that, through no fault of the Island itself, the name Catalina pops up in those nefarious recesses of the darker side of humanity; that realm of unsolved mysteries, missing persons and long-forgotten sorrows.
The name “Catalina Island” pops up in the strangest places sometimes.
Normally, those places are fun, clean and full of light: good times, summer times, friends and family; happy memories of diving and dining, walking the beach, exchanging vows or hoisting a highball.
Then there are times that, through no fault of the Island itself, the name Catalina pops up in those nefarious recesses of the darker side of humanity; that realm of unsolved mysteries, missing persons and long-forgotten sorrows.
All of which reminds me, it’s been a while since I did a “print noir” column and I highly doubt that this week’s topic will disappoint you lovers of the macabre and the mysterious.
The darkness all came to light, so to speak, a few weeks ago when I noticed a story in the Los Angeles Times about the untimely death of a wealthy 86-year-old heiress and a bizarre, if tenuous, connection to Catalina Island.
Our story begins two days before this Christmas past, when Antonia Maria Yager was found stabbed to death in her mansion in the exclusive Windsor Square neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Despite its proximity to the downtown area, the residents of Windsor Square enjoy a relatively crime-free existence, so neighbors were shocked and saddened by the news.
According to the Times article, no motive was evident and the well-respected socialite and philanthropist was not known to have any enemies.
According to Detective Scott Masterson of LAPD’s West Bureau Homicide Division, the case remains unsolved at this point and there is little in the way of leads.
There have been no arrests for the simple reason that there are no suspects.s
It gets stranger: Despite the reported abundance of jewelry in her home, Detective Masterson told me there was no evidence that Mrs. Yager had been robbed. My inquiries into whether or not there were signs of forced entry were answered in the negative as well.
At this stage, said Masterson, the department is pinning much of its hope on forthcoming analysis of DNA that was found at the scene.
But as confounding as the death of Mrs. Yager may be, it was the mention in the L.A. Times article of an incident involving her late husband, his former wife and the Island of Santa Catalina many years ago that caught my attention.
And while I seriously doubt that Antonia Yager’s murder has anything to do with this Catalina connection, I must confess it only adds to the aura of mystery surrounding the whole affair.
A brief marriage
May 3, 1965, was a happy day for Eileen Jeffers. At 61 years old, she was getting married for the very first time.
On top of that, she was getting hitched to a man 14 years her junior and an L.A. Superior Court Judge at that. Judge Thomas C. Yager was 47 years old at the time and, like Eileen, had never been married before. Mind you, Eileen’s entry into the venerable institution of marriage at this late stage of life was not for want of money or social standing.
You see, Eileen Jeffers was an extremely wealthy woman and the heiress to the fortune of her adopted father, William M. Jeffers, former president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Eileen’s mother had died during childbirth and Jeffers and his wife Lena had adopted the young girl at the request of her father Timothy, a sheriffs deputy in Lincoln County, Nebraska.
Eileen’s husband-to-be, Thomas C. Yager was quite an accomplished fellow.
He graduated from UCLA in 1939, served with the U.S. Army during World War II and graduated from USC Law School in 1946.
He was admitted to the State Bar in 1949 and was appointed to the L.A. Superior Court eight years later by then-California Governor Goodwin Jess Knight.
The Yager’s wedding ceremony, held on Monday, May 3, 1965, was a formal affair and was performed in the private chapel of James Francis Cardinal McIntyre, archbishop of Los Angeles.
The following day, friends and family saw the happy couple off to start their honeymoon when the two of them—alone—boarded a chartered 36-foot cabin cruiser named “Carefree” for a memorable four-day trip to Catalina Island.
It was a memorable trip, all right, because it was the last time Eileen’s friends and family would ever see her again.
NEXT WEEK: THE CURIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF EILEEN JEFFERS, PART 2.
