Identified! AZ - Yavapai Co, 'Little Miss Nobody', WhtFem 6-7, UP10741, Jul'60 - Sharon Lee Gallegos


I'm on my way out but doesn't look like you used what I wrote about her burial. Can you please change where you used the word dead to deceased under discovery and investigation? It's a huge peeve of mine that most headlines we read these days use it; it just sounds so cold to me; especially with a child. It's been used recently with the Noah Thomas (VA) case & seems like every time someone is found deceased they use the word dead. Also; her age was given as young as 4 1/2 which is IMO probably more correct.

Is it known as to whether LMN got any attention in the decades after her murder or are the folks here the first? It doesn't seem as though she got Princess Doe-type memorial gatherings and rallies?

No it is not
 
the article on Wikipedia was edited by others after i created it. I'm not in the mood to fight them. Apparently one of WP's policies is to avoid euphemisms like "deceased".
 
back to LMN:

* on the one hand, there was an attempt at concealment as LMN was partially buried.

* On the other, the fact that it was only partial suggests the killer(s) had to leave in a hurry. Maybe's that's why the pocket knife was abandoned?

* LMN was found with clothes on, and often victims are stripped nude so that their clothes can't be traced or matched?
 
the cut down men's flip-flops, the colored hair... it's very troubling.

Does anyone know whether the police investigation records for LMN in 1960 still exist?

Hopefully they haven't been junked.

Also, looking at old newspapers could help in some way.

Did you look at the link I left? There are screen shots of old articles

As frustrating as it is having to use microfiche to help us with LMN, i remind myself that under good conditions, microfiche can last up to 500 years while modern digital formats degrade within two decades.

Having given Beverly Potts, Kylie Maybury, Sheree Beasley and now LMN their articles on Wikipedia, I've been accused of having an obsession with dead girls.

Are you local?

the article on Wikipedia was edited by others after i created it. I'm not in the mood to fight them. Apparently one of WP's policies is to avoid euphemisms like "deceased".

Gourami Watcher comes here; gonna grab him.
 
I'm Australian, not American. I just care about this case.
 
back to LMN:

* on the one hand, there was an attempt at concealment as LMN was partially buried.

* On the other, the fact that it was only partial suggests the killer(s) had to leave in a hurry. Maybe's that's why the pocket knife was abandoned?

* LMN was found with clothes on, and often victims are stripped nude so that their clothes can't be traced or matched?

Sometimes "partially buried" means that a shallow grave was washed open by the elements or dug up by animals. So she may have been buried originally but not when they found her.
 
Still interesting that whoever it was killed her didn't take her clothes - someone could have traced those clothes, or recognised them when they were shown on TV. The killer certainly liked to take a chance.
 
Still interesting that whoever it was killed her didn't take her clothes - someone could have traced those clothes, or recognised them when they were shown on TV. The killer certainly liked to take a chance.
Maybe I'm wrong but there probably wasn't as much sensational media coverage back then so they probably didn't worry so much about it.
 
Well there was certainly a lot of publicity in the media IIRC - KYCA-AM's campaign paid for a proper funeral service and burial so she wouldn't be a nameless inmate of a pauper's grave. The police also held a big press conference and took a TV station camera crew to where LMN was found.

That's why i think the killer took a big chance by leave her body clothed.
 
Was it mostly local coverage?

Nothing I read said.

I compiled the info below; hope it helps everyone to see she was very loved by the town.

Congress AZ - Age 6-7, "Little Miss Nobody" July 31, 1960

Body of a female child found in Sand Wash/ Creek Bed on Old Alamo Road, partially buried on July 31, 1960. Pathologist believed she had been deceased 1-2 weeks. She had a "full and perfect set of baby teeth."

A campaign for funds to provide a decent burial was spearheaded by Dave Palladin, an announcer at Prescott radio station KYCA. It is how she had become to be known as "Little Miss Nobody". She was adopted by locals who not only paid for her funeral but were there when she was buried. She was truly a "somebody" that day. A card on her small casket bore this inscription "God's little child, date of birth unknown, date of death unknown".

Dave Palladin, a radio announcer with KYCA "couldn't stand to see the little girl buried in a "Boot Hill" (paupers grave). He spearheaded a campaign to get the funds to provide what turned out to be the finest of Christian burials. Prescott's Florist, cemetery operators and Widmer's Mortuary provided the services and burial on Wednesday August 10, 1960.

In a voice choked with emotion, Dr. Charles Franklin Parker of the Congressional Church conducted the rites; adding "Somewhere, someone is watching to learn what happened to a little girl left on the desert. If there has been a misdeed, probably a disquieted conscience will go on and on."

Her funeral was attended by more then 70 mourners.

Sheriff's officers, Newsmen and others worked very hard to find her identity. It's been reported that she was between the ages of 4 1/2 to 7. Sheriff Cramer and law officers traveled hundreds of miles by air and by land following leads. Suspects in other crimes involving small children were also questioned. Sheriff Cramers office in Prescott received dozens of letters, telephone calls and telegrams asking information on the little girl. On Tuesday August 8, 1961; Sheriff Cramer led a party of Law Enforcement Officers and a camera man to film the actual location where the child was found. Later in the afternoon, the Sheriff with George Ireland who was the County Attorney brought out evidence found including the adult sized rubber flip flops which were cut down to her size. The film was shown on television with the hope that someone recognized what he called "fragmentary mementoes of crime" to provide a final solution to the case. Sheriff Cramer felt "somewhere there is someone who has the answer that we have been looking for; maybe this will be the thing that will bring that person forward.

Link to flip flop article.
 
Most murders don't get national coverage. LMN might have got a bit more attention than, say, the Boy in the Box, simply by virtue of being a little girl. Some person on Wikipedia has just sent me an email saying that the Wikipedia article shouldn't call LMN "little miss" or "female child" as the child could have been transgender when alive...
 
Most murders don't get national coverage. LMN might have got a bit more attention than, say, the Boy in the Box, simply by virtue of being a little girl. Some person on Wikipedia has just sent me an email saying that the Wikipedia article shouldn't call LMN "little miss" or "female child" as the child could have been transgender when alive...

I have more screen shots of articles. From memory the sheriff did travel to a few states. I do not remember seeing that the TV spot was shown anywhere but local.

As for wiki; I would ignore them
 
feel free to edit LMN's article on Wikipedia. If only Wikipedia had existed in 1960.
 
Most murders don't get national coverage. LMN might have got a bit more attention than, say, the Boy in the Box, simply by virtue of being a little girl. Some person on Wikipedia has just sent me an email saying that the Wikipedia article shouldn't call LMN "little miss" or "female child" as the child could have been transgender when alive...

I would assume that person meant intersexual rather than transgender but I can't imagine why they would say that unless something has not been revealed.
 
It's their latest push to respect the various forms of intersexuality and transsexuality by not making assumptions. It's a good idea but some of the ways it's been applied seem to be inappropriate.
 
Yeah. Even if LMN was intersex or transgender, there's no indication that LMN was - the girl's hairstyle and length, girl's clothes... I told the Wikipedia editor that, while i appreciated their remark, it reminded me strongly of the campaign by some groups to focus on people like Kenneth Williams' and Paul Lynde' sexuality at the expense of their humanity and achievements.
 
I also pointed out to this Wikipedia fool that had LMN been intersex or transgender, rather than female as she actually was, there is no way that in 1960 she would have got a massive campaign on KYCA-AM or won the hearts of locals... rather LMN would have been treated like a freakish abomination and hidden from the public as much as it were possible.
 
Sex and gender are not the same thing. Sex basically refers to what genitals you have. Gender is whether you identify yourself as male or female. For example, if you have female genitals, but you feel that you identify yourself as male - you are transgender.

Intersexual is when a person is born with both, parts of both or no sets of genitals.

This commenter did not mean that LMN might be intersexual, they were saying that despite her sex being female, she might have considered herself male. Its unlikely imo, but still worth a mention I suppose.
 

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