Eu’s Condition Improves; Police Seek Attack Details

California Secretary of State March Fong Eu’s condition improved Wednesday, and police hoped that she could tell them more about a man who invaded her Hancock Park home, bludgeoned her with the blunt end of an ax and fled with $300.

The intruder burst into Eu’s home Monday night, beat her on the head and neck with the ax, dragged her through the house by her hair and left when she gave him money, police said.

It was the sixth time in two weeks that an attacker has broken into homes while victims were present in the posh, gated community of Fremont Place, an exclusive section of Hancock Park, a few miles west of downtown, police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said Wednesday.

“There have been six . . . in a time span of two weeks, but no one else was injured,” Cooke said.

Cooke said detectives hoped to question Eu more Wednesday and perhaps get a better composite drawing of her attacker. Descriptions provided by witnesses in several of the cases were of a 5-foot-8 black man, about 140 pounds and wearing dark clothing, Cooke said.

Eu, 64, was in good condition Wednesday at Westside Hospital, where she was being treated for facial cuts and bruises, said Caren Daniels-Meade, Eu’s press secretary. She said Eu was resting comfortably, but it was unknown when she would be released. Eu will probably have to undergo plastic surgery to repair scars left by the beating.

Gov. George Deukmejian planned to send flowers and call Eu but had no plans to visit in person, said Deukmejian press aide Donna Lipper.

Police have no reason to believe the attacker recognized Eu or that the assault was politically motivated, Cooke and Daniels-Meade said.

“She struggled and fought the assailant, and at the same time tried to reason with him,” Chief Deputy Secretary of State Anthony L. Miller said. “She’s a very defiant woman. She’s a small woman, but very feisty.”

Eu and her husband, Henry, a millionaire from Singapore and Hong Kong, had entertained dinner guests earlier Monday at their home. When the robber broke in, Eu was reading downstairs and her husband was bathing upstairs and did not hear her screams, police said.