MONSTERS ON THE LOOSE: THE TRUE STORY OF THREE UNSOLVED MURDERS IN PROHIBITION-ERA SAN DIEGO
By Richard Carrico
Reviewed by Pennell Paugh
April 2, 2025 (San Diego) - San Diego denizen and resident Richard L. Carrico pieces fragments of evidence together for cold cases, while shedding light on a dark chapter in San Diego's history.
Monsters on the Loose tells the tragic, true stories of three females who were murdered early in 1931: Virginia Brooks, Louise Teuber, and Hazel Bradshaw.
Local law enforcement, out-of-town criminologists, and investigators, from what would become the FBI, pursued hundreds of leads. Statewide, newspapers covered every angle and clue and sometimes played a role in the investigations. Yet, the killer(s) were never identified and brought to justice
Carrico criticizes the methods used by San Diego police. They picked easy targets to investigate and they narrowed their suspect list way too soon. As a result, murderers got away undetected.
More than ninety years after the murders, Carrico emerges as an advocate for the victims, meticulously reconstructing their stories. Immersed in dusty files, long-forgotten oral histories, and newly discovered investigation records, his objective is to seek justice for the three victims. In fact, the author claims he may have even solved one of the murders.
Below is an excerpt from the novel. Of the murder of ten-year-old Virginia, Carrico says:
“Friends and family said that Virginia was a quiet girl. She would rather read than play with the neighborhood children. Although some afternoons she attended Campfire Girls meetings, she seemed happiest curled up with a book or two. She had two brothers, Gordon (aged twelve), and George (aged five). The Brooks family had recently moved to San Diego from Englewood, Oregon, where John Brooks, a tall, gaunt fellow, worked as a tree feller in a logging camp. The family had moved a great deal in the past decade; Blanche Brooks gave birth to each of her three children in a different state.
“Blanche wore her dark hair short and sometimes severely parted on the side. Blanche often wore unstylish utilitarian dark long dresses with lace running down the front from the neckline. Even before his daughter’s disappearance, John presented a stoic appearance and a receding hairline. He often wore faded denim overalls over a work shirt and dark work trousers. Blanche worked hard to keep his work clothes clean and mended. Just because they were not well-to-do didn’t mean that they couldn’t be presentable.
”In San Diego, John found employment as a part-time truck driver, chauffeur, and mechanic. Times were lean in the second full year of the Great Depression. The Brooks children often wore hand-me-downs from relatives in the Los Angeles area and Blanche handmade some of their clothes. Blanche appeared in line at the day-old bread counters at local bakeries, including a local favorite, Snowflake Bread. Blanche did the Brooks family laundry by hand and pinned it with wooden clothespins to dry on cotton clotheslines strung between metal poles in the small backyard.
“In February 1931, the family lived on the outskirts of San Diego at 5602 University Avenue. In the city directory for 1931, compiled in 1930, street addresses for University Avenue ends two blocks short at 5450. This shows that east of 54th, postal addresses were yet to be assigned. University Avenue was called the University Avenue Extension, showing that prior to that the paved and maintained avenue ended near 54th Street. Small houses and wooden shacks dotted the valley floor east of 54th Street. An aerial photograph of the area from 1928 reveals a few houses east of 54th Street; in fact, there are only one or two near the Brooks residence. Their small house sat at the bottom of a steep hill that rose to the north. Sage brush, buckwheat, and sumac dotted the undeveloped hillsides and canyons.”
I’ve read several San Diego historical books and none of them held my interest as well as Monsters on the Loose. The author’s writing is easy to read. To provide context, he mentions historical events in the world at large during the time of each crime. From his descriptions, I could imagine what nearby neighborhoods looked like back then. I came away feeling immersed in San Diego’s culture in a time before I was born. In particular, I loved learning about what things cost in the 30s. What were the fads, social changes affecting women, and innovations in cars that gave teens new freedoms.
Richard Carrico grew up in San Diego before serving in the U. S. Army in the late 1960s. He earned a B.A. in Anthropology from San Diego State University and an M.A. in History from the University of San Diego. He taught history, anthropology, and Native American studies at San Diego State University for thirty years before retiring in 2024.
Carrico is an award-winning author of non-fiction and historical fiction with a focus on indigenous people and true crime. He has published five books. Strangers in a Stolen Land, is about San Diego County’s Native Americans, and is used as a textbook at several universities. His most recent book, Monsters on the Loose won second place at the 2024 Book Fest and was a Silver Falchion Award Finalist at the 2024 Killer Nashville event. His short story, “Animals Who Talk, Sing, and Dance” received an Honorable Mention Award from Writer’s Digest Magazine. His most recent piece, Habla Espanol? If You Rodeo You Do was published in Cowboy Up rodeo magazine.
