Blood in Eyes Delayed Call for Help, Eu Says

Secretary of State March Fong Eu, her face and neck bearing the fresh scars of wounds inflicted by an intruder who struck her with the blunt end of an ax, recounted her traumatic experience Monday, describing how her attempt to summon aid was hampered by blood streaming into her eyes.

The slight, 64-year-old state official was supported on each side by a State Police officer as she entered the Greater Los Angeles Press Club to talk to the media for the first time since she was viciously attacked Nov. 10 in her home in Fremont Place, a gated enclave west of downtown Los Angeles.

“It helps to be a politician in a situation like this because we have pretty hard heads and thick skin,” Eu joked. A black scarf concealed her left ear, which required plastic surgery.

‘Doing Extremely Well’

One of her physicians, Dr. Harold Karpman, said Eu is healing quickly both from her physical wounds and her mental trauma. She said she has talked about the attack to a psychologist, who says she’s “doing extremely well.”

Speaking slowly and carefully in response to a question, Eu said she was sitting in her dining room about 10:30 p.m. Nov. 10, when her assailant crept up behind her, probably from the darkened living room, and grabbed her by the hair at the back of her head.

Her husband, Henry, was in his dressing room at a far corner of their large, two-story house. Their housekeeper had cleaned up after the Eus had entertained dinner guests and had gone to a guest house in back, she said.

“I knew my husband was in the house, so I screamed,” Eu said. “I screamed, ‘Help, help, help!’ . . . He had an ax. He struck me with the blunt end of the ax and told me to shut up or he’d kill me. Of course, when he struck me I yelled some more. . . . I think he hit me, during the whole course, maybe 20 times.

“He asked me: ‘Where is your money? Where do you keep your money?’ . . . He dragged me up to a bedroom. He dragged me to another room--a study. . . . I did have some money there. I would say $300 to $400 in an envelope.”

Still not satisfied, Eu said, the man dragged her downstairs to find her purse in a study and took a coin purse used by the housekeeper for shopping.

“Then, he proceeded to drag me outside. . . . He left me in the patio after hitting me, I guess for the purpose of knocking me out, and then a few kicks in the ribs. And then he disappeared into the darkness of the patio.”

Eu, who suffered three cracked ribs, said that she continued to scream but that no one heard her, including her husband, who was taking a bath.

Staggered to Phone

“The telephone is outside the door so I staggered to the telephone. My face was all bloodied, and (my) hair was all bloodied. And blood was streaming down (into) my eyes. I couldn’t see the number to dial. I wanted to call the security gate to tell them to send someone quickly. I couldn’t see the number I had written down. So, I had my neighbor’s phone number in my mind. I called her and I said: ‘Please call the security gate or please call somebody. I’m hurt very badly. . . .’ Then I dialed 911. I was halfway through telling them. And then I couldn’t finish. . . .”

Paramedics responded, and Eu was taken by ambulance to the hospital, while police searched the fenced compound for a black man, about 5 feet 8, weighing about 140 pounds and dressed in dark clothing.

The search was unsuccessful and the ensuing investigation has not yielded a suspect, according to Lt. Ed Henderson, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s major crimes section, who also was present at Monday’s press conference.

Security Measures

Eu would not discuss what security measures have been taken to protect her or what progress has been made in an investigation of the crime.

Asked how she felt about the man who attacked her, Eu said: “I have no anger. I have no hatred. All I feel is that I wish they would catch him, so he would not do this to anybody else.”

Eu said that while she was recovering in Westside Hospital during the past week she has read that drug abuse is the major cause of crime and has decided to do something about it. “I’ve just enlisted myself as a foot soldier in the war on drugs,” she said, without giving specifics.

Eu said she guessed that her attacker was under the influence of drugs because of his intensity in demanding money. “He was either on them or paying for drugs, with my life actually,” she said.