Newhall Incident: Four Patrolmen Killed in Less than 5 Minutes

never before had as many officers been killed in a single incident just before midnight on april 6 1970 this commercial area of newhall california would see four young rookie officers of the california highway patrol cut down in the prime of life a four and a half minute gun battle would leave four young widows and nine children without their fathers and a state of california in shock and grief on that very evening officers roger gore walter frago james pence and george allen were brutally gunned down by two career criminals in a lot of the standard service station next to jay's coffee shop at what is now the intersection of the old road and the magic mountain parkway in new hall hello so welcome to this episode of history hunters i'm here in new hall california to talk about a tragic incident that happened here back in april 5th and 6th in 1970 in which four chp officers california highway patrol officers were slain in the line of duty responding to two individuals were violent criminals who were just recently released for prison this is approximately where the four officers met their fate in the line of duty now this area has changed quite a bit since 1970s but nonetheless it changed police standards throughout the united states because of what happened here and the things that were done wrong actually in retrospect we learned that they were done wrong [Music] the villains in this dark episode were career criminals named bobby davis and jack twining who met in prison twidding was a convicted bank robber who spent five years in alcatraz prison where he killed another inmate in self-defense earlier in 1970 35 year old twining was released on parole for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon both men were described as sociopaths davis often expressed his hatred for police officers saying he'd rather kill one than go back to jail twining you davis hatched the harebrained plan to rob an armored car making cash deliveries to the santa anita park race track by blasting it open with dynamite on april 5th 1970 davis and twining traveled to an area north of newhall to shoot weapons and attempt to steal dynamite they believed was stored at a freeway construction site along i-5 near gorman that night at around 11 30 pm off-duty navy sailor jack tidwell and his wife pam were southbound on i-5 in their volkswagen when a red pontiac nearly hit them as it crossed over the center median to make an illegal u-turn tidwell was enraged and caught up to the pontiac to share his displeasure as the two drivers exchanged threats bobby davis brandished a revolver and then sped off while the tid whales rushed to a phone booth to report the incident to the california highway patrol their call was placed at 11 36 pm eight minutes later officers roger gore and walter frago were riding together when they spotted the red pontiac and followed it off the freeway exit at henry mayo drive now the magic mountain parkway they called for backup and immediately officers james spence and george allen rolled to the location [Music] they pulled over the car which approximately in this area this has changed quite a bit so just to give you some perspective uh in 1970 none of this was here the mcdonald's wasn't here the food market wasn't here this drive-through business wasn't here this is approximately where the standard gas station was at the time over there between the mcdonald's and the food mart was the jay's coffee shop it later became another coffee shop and it was right here where the entrance into this shopping center where the officers had just pulled off the road and where the shooting took place there's also the hilton garden inn over there that's also new that wasn't here at the time so this has vastly changed all four officers were rookies with less than two years on the force the pontiac stopped just inside the driveway of the standard station with the patrol car directly behind both officers got out and walked to the pontiac gore with the service revolver aimed at the car and frago carrying his 12-gauge shotgun with the barrel pointed upward in the port's arms position gore commanded the two occupants three times to show their hands before bobby davis finally exited the driver's door davis was ordered to lean against the pontiac for a search fragra approached the passenger side as he reached for the door handle twining pushed the door open and fired two 357 caliber rounds into officer frago's chest killing him instantly officer gore then focused his attention on twitting took a shot but missed giving davis time to pull a 38 special from his waistband and fatally shoot gore in the chest at 11 56 pm officers james pence and george allen rolled up in the second chp unit and immediately engaged in a gun battle pence positioned himself behind the open patrol door and began firing officer allen chambered a shotgun round and moved back toward the rear of gore's patrol vehicle to begin firing at the pontiac davis then charged that officer allen with a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun while twining emerged with a colt 45 pistol davis walked between the two chp units and fired through one to hit alan in the face chest and left hand ellen then discovered that his shotgun was empty likely because he accidentally ejected a live round to the ground from behind the patrol car alan drew was 357 service revolver and began firing at both suspects davis closed in to fire buckshot into allen's face inflicting fatal injuries as he dropped to the ground officer allen was able to fire a final round that also missed davis the muzzle blast caught the attention of ex-marine gary caness who just happened to be driving by he thought a hollywood movie was being filmed but soon realized the officers were seriously wounded or dead my first impression it was a movie but didn't take but a minute to realize this is real gunfire canes did what few would do he stopped his car and ran into action saying that officer allen was barely breathing canes tried to drag him to safety but he couldn't move him davis sees frago's revolver and came for canes who armed himself with alan's shotgun not realizing it was empty then picked up ellen's revolver he fired at davis as he retreated to the front of the pontiac the shot blew out the pontiac window with only fragments hitting davis now out of ammunition canes ran to a roadside ditch and took cover meanwhile twining continued returning fired pence who was shielded behind the driver's door of course patrol car after pence ran out of ammunition he retreated to the rear of the patrol car to reload that gave twining a chance to come up and finish off officer pence he was kneeling and trying to reload yeah and the assailant is i got you now you've dumb sob and a third chp unit arrived with officers ed holmes and richard robinson who began firing out both suspects davis and twining jumped into the pontiac and drove about 150 yards to the end of a dead-end street where they abandoned the car and went their separate ways with weapons in hand davis followed the santa clara river channel eastward into a canyon where he stole a camper at gunpoint he was captured before sunrise twining fled to an area three miles to the south where he tried to steal a car belonging to glen hogue inside of his garage betty gene hogue called the police and within a short time officers had surrounded the house as twining held the family hostage a bit later a sheriff's deputy managed to sneak mrs hogue and their 17 year old jeff to safety police established contact with twining who was unrepentant and boasted how he killed frego saying quote he got careless so i wasted him why do you think you have to go that way [Music] you know there hasn't been an execution in california for a long time nobody killed foreign but if you had a good attorney you know they could they could put the thing off for several years there's a pretty good chance you could come out of it [Music] as police stormed the house with tear gas twining decided to commit suicide rather than go back to prison with a smile that seemed to defy logic bobby davis was sentenced to die in the gas chamber that sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when california's death penalty was struck down as unconstitutional in 1972 davis spent the rest of his life in folsom pelican bay and kern valley state prisons the 67 year old cop killer had enough of prison life and on august 16 2009 ended it all so just down the road from where the shooting took place is a new chp headquarters and just off to the entrance here is a granite memorial to all the four officers who died in the line of duty and as you can see there's the outline of the the badge that is used by the chp and this plaque indicates that killed in the line of duty on april 6 1970 were george allen roger gore james pence and walter frago and on this side of the ground at boulder is a quote from ronald reagan who was governor at the time early today for young california highway patrolmen get their lives to protect their fellow citizens they did so without hesitation they did so because of heroism and devotion to duty were things that simply they simply accept it as part of their job oftentimes the only thing that stands between a citizen and the lost of everything he holds dear is a man wearing a badge ronald reagan governor of california and there's four trees planted right behind each plaque to represent the four officers and there's some pretty cool plaques here that shows what they look like george allen badge number 6290 walter frago badge 6573 officer roger gore badge number 6600 and officer james pence badge number 6885 all of these officers were 23 and 24 years old only had two years of experience in the california highway patrol stelling cemetery 1860. wow as many of you have acknowledged in the past it does take a lot of research and a lot of time and a lot of effort to do videos like this but i was absolutely amazed to find out that the four officers all hailed from central and northern california i was rather shocked to find out the roger davis gore is actually buried here in eastern merced county so i decided to take a little short drive up here and take a look at his grave and pay him a visit it's very easy to find the grave because as you roll into the cemetery you'll see these four very tall i call them cemetery trees right here at the base of those trees is a monument to officer gore says beloved husband father and son there's also the highway patrol emblem on this side and there's a portrait of roger gore right there details that he was born february 17 1947 he died april 6 1970 right down there it says if necessity arises lay down my life rather than swerve from the path of duty over here is a little brick or something with his name on it he was only 23 years old see people have remembered him here with flowers so the slaying of officer gore left a widow she's buried right next to him valerie mcmenamy gore she was born in 1947 a little bit after roger and she died tragically on september 1st 1995 she was just 47 years old i believe that i read that she remarried the following year to a carl thomas koster but i'm not sure about that right there it says united together with the lord they are together they also had a daughter together apparently their daughter funded this marker here after her mother died now roger was a graduate of merced high school he actually grew up here in snelling he was inspired to join law enforcement because of his dad his dad's buried right here max gore was a two-term constable here in merced county he passed away in 1986 i wonder if he felt any guilt for the fact that his son joined a very dangerous occupation and lost his life over it and you can see his mother bertha passed away in 2009 now just to show you how old of a cemetery that roger's buried in check out this marker here for charles bluid he died 1881 and his wife 1893. this is a strangely peaceful place out in the country a very fitting place for a public servant who met a very violent death so unfortunately i'm not going to be able to go to the graves of james e pence who was buried in fairfield near sacramento but this is a photo of his grave and then i'm not going to be able to go to the los gatos california grave of george michael allen the two victims of the other car that arrived as a backup but this is what his grave looks like as well okay so now i think i'm going to go to merced and see if i can find the grave of walter frago the officer that was with him at the time of the shooting so i've made it to the cemetery in merced california and uh we're going to visit the grave of walter c frago he was the passenger in the first patrol car that rolled up to the scene their new hall he actually approached jack twining one of the worst criminals in california history was on the passenger side of the suspect's car frago had a shotgun on twining and then all of a sudden jack twining pops the door open and pumps officer frago in the chest twice with a 38-caliber weapon kill him instantly so on the south entrance to the cemetery you come down a ways past those trees and right here on the side of the road you will find the grave of officer walter carol freyo he was the first officer shot that night in new hall thousands of people every day go up the freeway and see the names on the memorial marker probably not realizing who the officers were when i came up here i had to blow off all the debris off of this marker here to actually read it because the dirt was filling the engraved lettering it has the same engraving that is on officer gore's marker and that is if necessity arises lay down my life rather than swerve from the path of duty and they've added his gentleness is strength our joy and delight walter frago december 22nd 1946 april 6 1970. of course over here you'll see a very nice portrait of the fallen officer now i was looking around here and there are a bunch of fregoes buried in this area this augustine frago the corporal and us army world war ii his dad since he would have been 26 years old when walter was born and right next to him is rose margaret frago this will be the mother of walter frago but we also have thomas frago the brother of walter and for some reason he died a very young age two years after his brother died peggy frago 1960 to 1993. in april 2008 a five-mile stretch of the i-5 in santa clarita was named in honor of frago gore pants and allen all four hailed as heroes attending the ceremony was gary caness then 69 years old proclaimed as one of the heroes of that night in 2019 a section of highway 99 in merced county the home turf of walter frago and roger gore was designated a memorial freeway in their honor among those who attended was nikki frago widow of walter frago who raised two daughters without their father so as i stand here at this memorial for the for fallen officers i want to thank you for helping us pay homage to them what they went through was horrific and i don't think anybody can just count the fact that it was a great tragedy they left behind i believe nine children four widows and uh just think about the impact of that just because two dirtbags didn't want to go back to prison we should also be grateful to the four officers because of what happened to them the tragedy that happened to them police tactics changed the way they take suspects out of a car has now changed has changed all across the country probably saving thousands of police officers lives over the decades since this happened in 1970 i want to thank you so much for joining us on this tribute to the four officers who lost their lives here on that day april 6 1970 in new hall california [Music] you

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 512,591

Keywords: Newhall Incident, CHP officers slain in 1970, California criminal history

Id: we5Qi0DYv8E

Length: 20min 8sec (1208 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 24 2021