Legal Omission Puts Resolution of Murders of 2 Families in Doubt

When two San Fernando Valley families vanished under suspicious circumstances five years ago, police hit upon a connection--a Reseda car dealer with a long criminal record who figured in the lives of both.

Police noted that the head of each family had business dealings with the car dealer; that the car dealer’s cousin was apparently the last person to see one of the families, Peter and Joan Davis of Granada Hills, and that the car dealer himself was apparently the last person to have seen the other family, Sol and Elaine Salomon, and their two children, of Northridge.

Police were convinced that all six members of both families had been murdered, but they could not prove it: They could not find any bodies. They did not have a clear motive. And they did not have any witnesses.

Then, after a year, they got one. The car dealer’s cousin, Ashley Paulle, came forward and told a horrifying tale, details of which have only recently been made public.

Paulle accused his cousin, Harvey Rader, of committing all six murders and Paulle implicated himself as Rader’s aide.

Authorities said they believed the essence of Paulle’s story, even though he kept changing the details.

But they made a fateful decision that has put any resolution of the case in doubt.

After recruiting Paulle as a witness and offering him immunity in return for his testimony against Rader, they decided to revoke the immunity and prosecute Paulle instead.

Convinced of Guilt in Murders

The reasons for this decision have never been made clear, but a source in the district attorney’s office said authorities had become convinced Paulle was also guilty of murders and thought that it would be easy to convict him with his own words, and still get him to testify against Rader in return for a lesser sentence.

But because of an omission in the wording of the immunity agreement, courts held that the district attorney could not revoke it.

Paulle went free and Rader was never charged.

The story of that omission, as well as of what Paulle told police, were locked for years in secret court documents that have now been made available for public inspection.

The documents disclose that Paulle said he watched as Rader killed five of the six missing people, then helped Rader dispose of the six bodies by burying them in the desert.

They also disclose that Paulle told police that Rader admitted killing a seventh person, missing Burbank businessman Ronald J. Adeeb.

But Paulle’s statements shed little light on the question that has tormented relatives of the missing people for more than five years.

“Why, why, why was this done?” asked Elaine Salomon’s mother, Marge Malerowitz. “To take innocent children, and my daughter . . . and murder them in cold blood.”

Although no bodies have been found, authorities have not given up. “We’re never going to quit,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lonnie Aaron Felker, who was assigned to the case after two of his prosecutor-predecessors were named judges.

“We know who did it,” Felker said. “Everything points to Harvey Rader.”

Rader, who has been pursued by authorities for years as the prime suspect in the disappearances, is now in federal prison serving a nearly three-year sentence for an unrelated offense--trying to get a U.S. passport in a phony name.

The passport prosecution came about when Rader, a 45-year-old British citizen, was deported from the United States last December on grounds that he had not disclosed his extensive criminal record when he applied for naturalization in 1981.

Rader, who came to this country in 1978, had been convicted 13 times in England and sent to prison nine times for crimes including housebreaking, attempted forgery, theft, going equipped for burglary, stealing a motor vehicle, conspiracy to handle stolen motor vehicles, assault with intent to rob, unlawful possession of a firearm and robbery. But he told U.S. immigration authorities that he had no record.

Re-entered U.S. Illegally

After the deportation, Rader re-entered the United States illegally in early 1987, then attempted to get the phony passport.

At his sentencing on the passport conviction, Rader assailed police for “maliciously persecuting” him in connection with the disappearances. “I wish to state categorically that I am innocent,” he said.

His attorney, Tom G. Kontos, said his client gave up being a criminal when he came to this country. But that assessment has been contradicted by Rader himself.

When Rader first settled in the San Fernando Valley, he testified in a civil suit, he roomed for six months with another English emigre, an acquaintance from his teen-age years, who had a job as chauffeur to a billionaire Saudi sheik.

When the sheik’s Beverly Hills mansion, stocked with art, burned in 1980, Beverly Hills police suspected that Rader and his roommate set the fire to cover up thefts, according to a law enforcement source. But only the roommate was charged.

The roommate ultimately pleaded guilty to grand theft for helping himself to some of the sheik’s art, and Rader, in a deposition in a civil case, admitted having helped his roommate. Rader wound up being granted immunity by Los Angeles police in a related case in which an art dealer said he got some of the sheik’s art from Rader. The art dealer said Rader had admitted taking it in a burglary, according to records from the same civil case.

Established Auto Business

Rader married and established his own automobile business, called Mr. Motor (London) in Reseda and was apparently a gifted mechanic who bought, sold and repaired expensive used cars.

One of the people he repaired cars for was Peter Davis.

Davis, also an Englishman, was a used car and antique dealer and, according to a law enforcement source, a stolen art dealer. Among several artworks that disappeared with the Davises was a painting Peter Davis had told friends was an original Thomas Gainsborough, which had been reported stolen in Cheshire, England, a decade before, a law enforcement source said.

Peter Davis and Rader traveled in some of the same circles. Rader told police that Davis was also a fence for stolen jewelry and guns.

They also had the same employee. Rader’s cousin and boyhood friend, Ashley Paulle, lived next door to the Davises in a home the missing couple owned and worked for Davis as a car salesman before going to work as a salesman for Rader.

When the Davises disappeared on March 17, 1982, leaving their dinner cooking on the stove, Paulle became an important witness. He acknowledged to police that he had given Peter Davis a ride home and thus had become the last person known to have seen him.

Paulle took and, according to police, flunked a lie-detector test.

Refuse to Talk With Police

Then he and Rader refused to talk further with the police.

Seven months later, when the Salomons disappeared on Oct. 12, 1982, Rader was the last person known to have seen them.

Sol Salomon was an Israeli immigrant who told friends and acquaintances that he had invested in Rader’s car business, while operating his own fire extinguisher refilling company.

While denying that Salomon had invested in his business and denying that he knew anything about the disappearances, Rader acknowledged to police that he was with Salomon the night he and his family vanished.

Rader told police that he had gone to a car auction with Salomon, dropped him off at a restaurant, then gone to the Salomon house to pick up a car to work on, court records show.

When Rader showed up at the Salomon house, Elaine Salomon was on the phone. “Harvey is at the door,” she told a friend. The conversation, which the friend later recounted to police, was the last Elaine is known to have had before she, her 9-year-old son, Mitchell, and her 15-year-old daughter, Michalle, disappeared.

Paulle moved back to his native England, where he became a self-employed taxi driver.

Joseph Sampson, a private detective hired by Marge Malerowitz, began to hound Paulle. Sampson, who said he is still working on the case, got another Salomon relative to make an impassioned call to Paulle’s wife saying that, because of the Salomons’ disappearance, Israelis in Los Angeles were upset and were seeking retribution. Sampson said he then traveled to London and spoke with Paulle four times.

Pressure Starts to Pay Off

Los Angeles police detectives also visited London and, in late 1983, the pressure began to pay off. Paulle began to make admissions to a detective from Scotland Yard.

At first, Paulle would speak to the detective only “off the record” and portrayed himself in the best possible light--with no advance knowledge of the killings, according to the previously sealed court records.

He said he went with Rader to the Davis house one afternoon, thinking that Rader wanted to buy a Corvette from Davis, when Rader surprised him by shooting Davis in the head.

Paulle said he was likewise surprised when he saw Rader shoot and kill Sol Salomon.

At first, he said he knew nothing about what happened to Salomon’s wife and children.

Then he admitted having helped move their bodies.

Paulle said he wanted a promise of immunity from prosecution as an accessory to the Davis and Salomon murders before he would cooperate further.

The Scotland Yard detective passed Paulle’s request to Los Angeles police and an immunity letter was drafted the same day.

Two Kinds of Immunity

It spoke of two kinds of immunity: “transactional immunity” and “use immunity.”

Transactional immunity--which meant that Paulle could not be prosecuted, period--had two conditions: He had to tell the truth and he had not to have committed murder. If he was merely an accessory to murder, that was all right.

Use immunity was unconditional. It meant that, even if he admitted being a murderer, his own words could never be used against him.

Then-Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald Stanley Coen, who is now a Superior Court judge, drafted the letter. He said he had it approved by Curt Livesay, a senior district attorney’s official, and gave it to Los Angeles police, who sent it to London.

Sampson said he recalls vividly what Paulle said the moment it arrived:

“The first words out of his mouth, so help me God, were, ‘Joe, you’re right. Harvey’s a psycho.’ ”

For the next three days, Paulle expanded his statements to Scotland Yard.

According to sources familiar with the case, this is what he said:

Paulle said Rader had asked him to set up Davis for a robbery, but Paulle refused.

Paulle said Rader then asked him to accompany him to Davis’s home to road-test a Corvette that Davis wanted to sell.

Says He Stayed in Car

After returning the car to Davis’ garage, Paulle remained in the Corvette talking to Davis, who stood next to the driver’s door.

Rader had left the car, ostensibly to examine its exterior. Rader told Paulle to rev the engine and, as Paulle did so, he saw Rader shoot Peter Davis.

Paulle left to walk home and ran into Joan Davis, but didn’t warn her.

He saw her body the next day, when he helped Rader bury the bodies off Interstate 5 on the way to Bakersfield.

According to the previously sealed court documents, Paulle told Scotland Yard that he saw Rader shoot Sol Salomon in the presence of another car dealer and two Italians whose names he did not know.

Sources familiar with Paulle’s statements provided additional details.

They said Paulle said the other car dealer left, and Rader and the two Italians stuffed Salomon’s body in the trunk of a Rolls-Royce.

Rader then instructed Paulle to drive the group in Salomon’s fire extinguisher company van to Salomon’s house. There, Rader told Paulle and the two Italians to stay in the van.

Rader entered the house, stayed for 15 minutes, then gave Paulle the keys to Salomon’s Mercedes-Benz and told Paulle to open the trunk. Rader and the Italians re-entered the house and, minutes later, emerged carrying three bodies wrapped in sheets. The shrouded bodies of Salomon’s wife and two children were placed in the trunk.

A Third Trip

Rader returned to the home a third time and emerged exultant, saying that he had found what he wanted. He was carrying a trash bag containing items taken from the house, including a receipt for either $20,000 or $50,000--Paulle was not sure, sources said.

(Salomon had told some family members that he had invested $20,000 in Rader’s business.)

The next evening, Paulle said he drove Rader and the two Italians to the high desert country near Acton where he watched them bury all four bodies.

When Los Angeles police heard what Paulle was saying in London, they asked him to come to Los Angeles to help them find the bodies.

He returned voluntarily in the company of a Scotland Yard detective and the next day led police to a hillside in far northern Los Angeles County where he said the Salomon family was buried.

Detectives equipped with shovels dug briefly before deciding to quit near dusk.

One of them, Los Angeles Police Detective Larry Bird, testified later, at Paulle’s preliminary hearing, that Paulle had objected, saying he was sure the bodies were there and that he wanted more men and lights to help find them.

But Bird testified that investigators were skeptical. “Our feelings were that the bodies, the way the area looked, were never there,” he said.

Two Dwellings Nearby

He noted that two dwellings were nearby and that, judging by a large number of shell casings found on the hillside, there was a lot of foot traffic there--meaning, presumably, that police concluded that any burial sites would have been spotted by passers-by.

As Paulle and the detectives drove away, Paulle mentioned another spot, where he said sheets used to wrap the Salomon family’s bodies had been buried.

Authorities dug up a sheet that was identified by Salomon relatives as similar to one from the Salomon household, but they did not go back to excavate the hillside where Paulle said the bodies had been buried.

The next day, police asked Paulle to show them where the Davises’ bodies were buried.

Paulle led investigators north on the Golden State Freeway past the Magic Mountain amusement park in a futile search for the exit ramp he said Rader had directed him to take when they buried the Davises. Paulle said he couldn’t remember; it had been a dark and rainy night.

After that, detectives cooled to Paulle.

Not only had he not led them to any bodies, but his story--that he just happened to have been present when Rader decided to kill people twice--seemed as suspicious as his claim that he didn’t know the names of the two Italians who he said helped Rader bury the Salomons.

Flunks Lie Tests

Police gave Paulle lie-detector tests the next day; the examiner said he failed.

Authorities then revoked his immunity on the ground that he had lied and arrested him for murder.

Paulle then began admitting lies. He said the other car dealer, Gerald Baxter, who had been arrested on his say-so, had not been involved at all. And he admitted “the Italians” had been figments of his imagination.

Paulle said that only he and Rader were involved.

He made other fresh admissions. He said he knew in advance that Rader intended to kill Peter Davis and the entire Salomon family.

According to people familiar with his statements to Los Angeles police, Paulle then described in detail how Rader beat to death Elaine Salomon, told Paulle to fill a trash bag with anything of value from the Salomon residence, pounded 9-year-old Mitchell to death with a baseball bat, then strangled 15-year-old Michalle.

However, the district attorney’s office charged only Paulle with the murders.

Then-Deputy Dist. Atty. Coen explained that the office had concluded that Paulle had violated the immunity agreement by lying and had finally admitted that he played more than a passive role. “He was as culpable legally,” Coen said. “He assisted in it. . . . He went . . . to both places knowing that people were going to be killed.”

Rader Goes Free

Rader, who had been arrested, was let go--because of “insufficient legally admissible evidence,” the district attorney’s office said in a formal statement at the time.

However, Paulle’s court-appointed lawyers, Leslie H. Abramson and Charles Sevilla, argued that “even without . . . Paulle’s statements, a compelling prosecution could be made of Mr. Rader” with circumstantial evidence gathered by police.

They laid out some of this evidence in a motion, filed under seal, to quash the complaint against Paulle and in an accompanying declaration by Abramson.

They said, for example, that Rader gave inconsistent accounts of his whereabouts the night the Salomons disappeared. Rader told police he had gone to a car auction with Sol Salomon, then dropped him off at a restaurant. But restaurant employees said the restaurant was closed. Also, Rader told police that when he had gone on to the Salomon house to pick up the Salomon Mercedes for servicing, Elaine Salomon did not open the door. But he told someone else that Elaine had handed him the car keys, the attorneys said.

The attorneys also disclosed that a witness told police he had seen Sol Salomon leaving Rader’s office the day before the disappearance and that Salomon, who appeared very upset, remarked, “They’re not going to take anything from me.”

Mafia Remark Quoted

After the disappearance, the same witness asked Rader, Paulle and a Rader employee what they thought about the disappearance, the attorneys said. Rader reportedly said that Salomon had gotten involved with the Mafia and the employee reportedly said that Salomon “found himself a place on the Mojave, two by two-and-one-half by six.”

The attorneys said “there is an enormous amount of additional corroborative evidence . . . which substantiates . . . Paulle’s detailed description of Harvey Rader’s murder of the Davises and the Salomons.”

They also suggested a possible motive in the presumed slayings of Salomon and Burbank businessman Adeeb, who had disappeared in January, 1982, after reportedly telling relatives that he was going to see a man in Reseda about some cars.

Citing evidence collected by police that indicated that Adeeb and Sol Salomon had invested money in Rader’s business, Paulle’s attorneys asserted:

“Harvey Rader has a modus operandi of enticing individuals into investing in his business and then simply keeping the money. Those who have become argumentative about their money (Ron Adeeb, Sol Salomon, for example) become dead.”

While summing up the evidence against Rader, the attorneys argued that Paulle’s preliminary hearing should be closed to the public while they sought to suppress the only substantial evidence against him--the statements he made to police.

Fear Juror Prejudice

They argued that potential jurors would be prejudiced against their client if his statements were made known and that Rader might arrange to have Paulle killed, even in jail, if he found out what he had said.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Nancy M. Brown ordered the hearing closed and, at its end, ordered Paulle’s statements suppressed.

Brown said she suppressed the statements “simply because of the wording of the (immunity) letter.”

In the letter, the district attorney’s office had granted Paulle conditional immunity from prosecution, saying specifically that he had to tell the truth to get it. But in a separate paragraph, the district attorney’s office also granted Paulle immunity from having his own statements used against him in a prosecution. That paragraph did not contain the provision that he had to tell the truth.

Brown said she thought that Paulle was a liar:

“The court finds that Mr. Paulle has played fast and loose with the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office and Scotland Yard in the continuing investigation of this case. . . . The court finds Mr. Paulle is and has been very sly. He’s clever. He’s manipulative. He is deceptive, and he is mendacious and an extremely weak individual. . . . He . . . has lied from the outset and he continues to do so.”

Felt He Had Larger Role

Brown, who has since been elevated to the Superior Court, explained in a recent interview that she believed that Paulle had a larger role in the murders than he admitted.

But she said that, under the law, she had no choice but to let him go when then-Deputy Dist. Atty. Coen acknowledged that the only substantial evidence against Paulle came from Paulle’s mouth.

Coen said recently that he disagreed with Brown’s interpretation of the law, but conceded: “Perhaps I should have given him conditional use immunity (in the letter). Added a couple of more words on there. That would have sewn it up.”

The district attorney’s office immediately appealed Brown’s ruling, but lost in Superior Court and at the Court of Appeal.

The appellate panel declared that the district attorney’s letter had provided Paulle with unconditional use immunity. “Although they could have included truthfulness as a condition of use immunity, they did not do so,” the court said.

The appellate court further said that Paulle’s statements were not freely and voluntarily made.

The court viewed Paulle “as a confused lay person without counsel trying to cope in a trying and complex situation.”

The appellate court said Paulle had twice indicated a desire to speak with a lawyer and that, at that point, interrogation should have stopped.

‘Inconsistent Signals’

In a unanimous opinion, the court said authorities gave Paulle “inconsistent signals” about his immunity deal. They told him he had immunity, but kept advising him that anything he said could be used against him in court. They told him he would lose his immunity if he lied. But they also told him he could go home if he admitted he was lying and told the truth. The court said this “implied promise” that Paulle could go home if he told investigators what they wanted to hear amounted to compelling him to answer questions.

In 1986, the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case, letting the Court of Appeal decision stand.

At some point in the appeals process, most of the case file was unsealed, although transcripts and tape-recordings of Paulle’s statements to police remain sealed by court order.

Paulle, who has returned to England, cannot be charged unless entirely new evidence is discovered that does not derive from his own statements.

Nor can he be compelled to testify against Rader.

But authorities said they are not at a standstill.

They said they are still pursuing leads.

“We’re still looking for the bodies,” prosecutor Felker said recently.

There is no rush, he said. “We don’t want to prosecute this man (Rader) or anyone else and find out a few years down the road that we could have done a better job if we had waited.”