By Kaylin Paschall, TME

A story that ran in the April 2, 1970 edition of The Mountain Enterprise opened a mystery that may never have been solved.

Who left the communist literature behind in the house? Who were the men trying to break into Mrs. Davis’ home? The following story was published 52 years ago:

“With all the overtones of a spy thriller, agents of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) were in Frazier Park last week to pick up some communist literature found almost ten years ago by Mrs. Myrtle Davis when she purchased her house on Poplar Trail.

“How it turned out to be ten years before it was found that the literature was red inspired is a long story.

“However, it does remind Mrs. Davis of some rather mysterious night visitors during the first year she lived in her house.

“Three times that first year, men tried to break into the house. The first time, Mrs. Davis’ dog growled and she looked up to see a man peering in the window.

“Since her neighborhood was nearly deserted in those days, Mrs. Davis had a gun handy and she lifted it for the man to see.

“She then ran to the door, switched on her outside lights and got a good look at the man as he fled. He then drove off in a yellow car.

“The next day, Mrs. Davis again saw the yellow car. ‘Hey wait a minute,’ she called. (Knowing Mrs. Davis and her lack of fear, this is completely believable).

“Anyway, the man stopped. ‘What were you looking into my window for?’ [she asked the man].

‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ said the stranger. The man then drove on.

“Later, two more times, unknown men tried to force their way into the house only to flee when Mrs. Davis switched on the lights.

“Several other times the late Pappy Irwin whose bedroom window looked out on Mrs. Davis’ yard, called her to report that someone had climbed the fence and was in the yard.

“As an answer to the natural question of ‘why didn’t you call the Sheriff,’ Mrs. Davis answered, ‘I did once but there was only one man here at the time so I just got a permit for my gun.’

“One day, when Mrs. Davis first moved into the house, which she bought furnished, she sat on a high bench and when she went to put her feet under the table, she kicked something.

“Looking under, she found what appeared to be two bundles of tied up magazines. She thought to herself, ‘I’ll store these out on the porch and read them someday.’

“Later, she found four more bundles.

“A long time passed until one day, a neighbor asked Mrs. Davis if she could borrow something to read. Mrs. Davis offered her the magazines.

“Later, the neighbor moved without returning the reading material. Mrs. Davis then asked the lady who cleaned up after the tenants if they had left some bundles of magazines.

“‘They had,’ answered the woman, ‘and I put them in the attic.’

“Well, the house remained vacant for some time but was finally sold. Mrs. Davis spoke to the new owner and said she had some magazines in the attic and would like to have them back.

“So finally, the son of the owner crawled into the attic and brought a bundle down.

“‘Are these them?’ he asked Mrs. Davis.

“‘They are,’ said Mrs. Davis, and together they began looking at them.

“‘Why, these seem to be pure communist literature,’ said the son.

“‘What?’ said Mrs. Davis, ‘Why those things should be burned.’

“Instead, she called Deputy Jim Taylor of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, who, after examining the contents of the bundles agreed that they looked ‘red’, and turned the whole bunch over to the FBI who, it is presumed, will make an investigation into their origin.”

Photo captions:

Images of the types of literature that might have been found by Mrs. Davis in 1970.

An image from the type of early-to-mid-1900s communist literature that might have been left in the Frazier Park home purchased by Mrs. Davis around 1960.

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This is part of the October 28, 2022 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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