TDoR 1957 / 1957 / July / 06 / Clara Johnson


Clara Johnson

Age 27

6 Jul 1957
Los Angeles, California (USA)
Stabbed

Clara Johnson

Clara bled to death after being stabbed in the neck. At the time she had been living as a woman for 14 years.

No suspects were identified.

Clara Johnson's body was discovered by a motorist around 2 am on 6 July, 1957, laying in the street about 50 feet east of Wadsworth Ave on 51st Street. The police initially thought they had been the victim of a traffic accident, but examination quickly showed she had been stabbed in the neck and bled to death. Her clothes were saturated in blood. No suspects were reported, although she had been seen in the company of another woman earlier that night.

Man in Female Dress Found Knifed To Death (California Eagle, 1957-07-11)

==== ‘Clara’s' Throat Cut; Body Left On 51st Street ====

Police this week had found no suspects in the strange murder early Saturday of a 27-year-old man who for the past 14 years had masqueraded as a woman.

[Deadname] Johnson, 986 E. 51st street—or "Clara" as [she] was known to all of [her] acquaintances — was found, clothed from the skin out in women's garments including a set of "falsies," lying in the street near the corner of Wadsworth and 51st streets about 2:15 a.m., a stab wound close the the jugular vein.

The clothes were saturated with blood, but there were no other evidences of injury. Johnson had been seen that evening leaving a cafe with a woman dressed in pink. They left in a car.

The was no life in the body when the police arrived. The "woman" was listed as "Clara Johnson, occupation domestic," and taken to the morgue. There, as the coroners stripped off the pink blouse, the printed skirt, the silk stockings and the undies, they found to their surprise that the name "Clara" was an obvious misnomer.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77851702/murder-of-transgender-woman-clara/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77852699/murder-of-transgender-woman-clara/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77853309/murder-of-transgender-woman-clara/

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77853953/murder-of-transgender-woman-clara/

Report added: 28 Mar 2024. Last updated: 4 May 2024

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This site contains reports of violence against transgender people, and links to detailed reports which contain graphic imagery.

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