Newhall Shooting - A Tactical Analysis. Michael E. Wood
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by the fact that five of the seven principal players were killed during or shortly after the incident occurred. Fortunately, there are also many factors that helped to mitigate these concerns.
To begin with, there was a large number of witnesses to the event, as it occurred in a brightly lit area within the visual range of a parking lot and restaurant full of people.4 The volume of reports allowed investigators to separate the wheat from the chaff and assemble a reasonably consistent picture of the events as they took place.
One of the perpetrators, Jack Twining, spoke to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department personnel via phone during the hostage crisis that ensued as he attempted his escape from the scene of the shooting. He also discussed the shooting via monitored phone call with his partner, Bobby Davis, who had been captured and was in Sheriff’s custody. Lastly, Twining completed a phone interview with media personnel (which was monitored by law enforcement), prior to his suicide.5 During these conversations, Twining recounted valuable details about the shooting, which assisted investigators in their reconstruction efforts. The other perpetrator, Bobby Davis, also provided information to investigators in the wake of his capture, interrogation, and trial.
The civilian hero of the shooting, Gary Dean Kness, also provided vital firsthand knowledge of a portion of the events. As an active participant in the gunfight, Mr. Kness was certainly subject to a host of physiological reactions that might have affected his memory of the events, but as the only surviving close range witness to some of the happenings, his testimony was critical to a complete understanding of some of the most desperate moments of the battle.
Besides witness testimony, the shooting investigation team had a host of physical evidence to draw upon as it prepared its reconstruction of the shooting. Much of this evidence has been well preserved and was still accessible during research for this project. Some of the evidence was incomplete from the beginning (such as the information on the number of shots fired during the incident), but we are fortunate that the majority of the physical evidence was properly documented and preserved.6
With these limitations in mind, the following narrative represents the most comprehensive, accurate account of this watershed event to date. Where inconsistencies or unknowns exist, they will be recognized and explained to the best extent possible.
CHAPTER 1
Prelude
Bobby Augustus Davis and Jack Wright Twining were violent, career criminals who had recently been released from prison. They had befriended each other in prison, and in the wake of their release, they traveled to California, where they began to plan a series of crimes, including the takedown and robbery of an armored car.
On the evening of April 5, 1970, Davis and Twining were in the coastal mountains of the Angeles National Forest, between the towns of Gorman and Castaic, California. (Fig. 1) They were there for several purposes, all of which related to their planned crimes. Their primary objective was to locate and steal explosives from a construction site, those explosives intended for use in their attack on the armored car. Additionally, they wanted to troubleshoot and test-fire some weapons, as well as perform an operational test on some portable radios (five-watt CB transceivers) that they planned on using during the heist.7
At one point, Twining was away from the vehicle in search of the explosives, while Davis remained behind to safeguard it and the cache of weapons in the rear seat and trunk of the two-door, 1964 Pontiac Gran Prix. Davis parked the vehicle on the shoulder of the northbound side of the interstate (Interstate 5, formerly Highway 99), but attracted the attention and suspicions of some stranded motorists ahead and felt compelled to leave quickly. He made a large, sweeping U-turn across the highway and headed southbound, cutting off another southbound motorist in the process, who had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. The time was approximately 23:22.8
The motorist who’d been cut off by Davis was Ivory Jack Tidwell, a U.S. Navy sailor returning home with his wife, Pamela, after a family reunion. Tidwell became irate with Davis and sped up to catch him. To Tidwell’s surprise, the reckless driver pulled over to the shoulder and stopped, allowing Tidwell to pull up alongside him. Through the open window on his wife’s side of the vehicle, Tidwell cussed out the errant driver.
Davis responded by pointing a two-inch .38 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver at Tidwell and his wife. Desperate to escape, Tidwell tricked Davis by claiming that a vehicle approaching from behind was a California Highway Patrol car. Davis fell for the ruse and told Tidwell to “Git!” Tidwell sped away down the highway and was relieved to see he had not been followed. He soon found a phone at a service station on Violin Canyon Road and reported the incident to the Highway Patrol at 23:36, giving the license plate and description of the car and driver. One minute later, Officers Roger D. Gore and Walter C. Frago, Unit 78-8, were notified by dispatch about the misdemeanor brandishing incident.9
In the meantime, Davis located and picked up Twining, and they proceeded southbound on Interstate 5 towards the town of Castaic and their home further south in Long Beach. Davis relayed the details of the incident to Twining as they drove.
Officers Gore and Frago established an observation position south of Castaic at Castaic Junction (Fig. 2) and picked up a visual on the suspect vehicle less than 20 minutes later, at 23:54. They radioed to dispatch that they were behind the Pontiac, southbound at the semi-truck scales, and asked for assistance with stopping the vehicle.
CHAPTER 2
The Stop
At the time of Unit 78-8’s request, several CHP units were nearby in a position to assist with the stop.
Officers Ed Holmes and Richard Robinson, Unit 78-16R, were patrolling about five miles southeast of Castaic, near the town of Saugus. They were southbound on Route 126 East (San Fernando Road), near the Saugus Café. (Fig. 3)
Officers Harry Ingold and Roger Palmer, Unit 78-19R, were just a few miles further south, near the town center of Newhall. They were heading northbound toward 78-16R on the same road (San Fernando Road, Route 126 West) near the Way Station Coffee Shop in downtown Newhall, when 78-8 radioed that they were in position behind the Pontiac. (Refer again to Fig. 3)
Unit 78-12, Officers James E. Pence and George M. Alleyn, were in position about three miles south of Unit 78-8, on the southbound entrance to Interstate 5 at Valencia Boulevard. In coordination with Unit 78-8, they planned to join the pursuit there and assist 78-8 with the stop shortly thereafter. (Refer again to Fig. 3)
The plan was good, but it was not meant to be. Having spotted 78-8 in his trail, Davis unexpectedly chose to exit Interstate 5 at Henry Mayo Drive, a little more than one mile north of Unit 78-12’s position, shortly after 23:54. Unit 78-8 followed the Pontiac westbound on Henry Mayo Drive as Unit 78-12 reversed direction, raced across the overpass, and hurried northbound on Interstate 5 to join 78-8 a mile north on Henry Mayo. (Fig. 4)
When Unit 78-16R heard Unit 78-8 broadcast that they were exiting the freeway at Henry Mayo Drive and were going to make the stop, they made a U-turn