Gladys Waddingham Breaks Hip in Mugging

In police jargon it was a routine violation of Penal Code 211, but to many Inglewood residents, this particular mugging--on Centinela Avenue in the early morning hours of April 6--touched a nerve.

The victim was Gladys Waddingham, Inglewood’s 91-year-old matriarch. The former Inglewood High School teacher and founder of the Historical Society of Centinela Valley knows the city better than anybody and has become its prime defender, its chief chronicler, its grande dame.

“What a terrible thing to happen to anybody,” city spokesman Truman Jacques said, “but especially to this person who stands for so much in this city.”

On April 6, Waddingham was knocked to the ground by a man with a knife and was robbed of her car keys and jewelry. She suffered a broken hip, a bruised elbow and other injuries. She acknowledged in an interview from her hospital bed this week that she felt “perfectly miserable,” buoyed only by the fact that officers arrested two suspects immediately after the attack.

Police said Waddingham was one of two women robbed that morning on a short stretch of Centinela Avenue. Arrested in a stolen car near the scene and charged with the robberies were Frederick L. Crawford, 49, of Inglewood and Ernest A. Nelson, 35, of Anaheim, police said.

Waddingham, whose eyes glow when she talks about Inglewood’s history, stayed in the city long after many of her friends moved to other areas because of a fear of crime. Nonetheless, she said, she is not going to let a mugging dampen her view of a community she has called her own for close to 70 years.

“This sort of thing happens everywhere,” she said. “It isn’t a matter of Inglewood. I’m still disgusted that friends of mine in Orange County won’t visit my house.”