L.A. Apparel Maker Rocked by 3 Slayings : Mystery: Violence and threats directed against Carole Little employees has spread fear through the local fashion industry.
A bizarre series of killings, assaults and threats against officials at Carole Little, the trendy Los Angeles maker of women’s wear, has confounded investigators and spread fear through the company and the local apparel industry.
Two Carole Little executives were shot to death in their vehicles within the past five months and one of the company’s sewing contractors was killed in 1993 as he drove away from his Glendale plant, police and company sources said.
In addition, another company executive was the target of two murder attempts in 1993--one of them a bomb that exploded at her Long Beach home--and a second executive at the Glendale contracting firm and his wife were shot in 1994. Recently, a Carole Little manager received a threatening telephone call, sources said.
Police in Los Angeles, Glendale and Long Beach, Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide detectives and the FBI are working on the investigation, authorities said.
Police said they have no suspects, and investigators are examining the private lives of the victims in case the killings are unrelated. They said they are also investigating whether the killings are linked to company business.
“It’s very unusual that this company’s employees would be repeatedly victimized,” said LAPD Detective Fred Miller.
Meanwhile, Glendale police, who are investigating one of the slayings--the 1993 killing of the contractor--believe that it may be related to organized crime efforts to control part of the garment industry. A man questioned in that case was convicted of unrelated drug charges. Police say they are still searching for the triggerman.
Carole Little, maker of designer women’s casual wear found in major department stores, is operated by California Fashion Industries. Leonard Rabinowitz, co-chairman of the privately held company, said he has “no clue” why the killings occurred.
“We’re very disturbed about it,” he said. “We feel very good about the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a team of agents working the case--as does Robbery-Homicide Division of LAPD. . . . Basically, we’re keeping out of their way and going about our business and letting them do their jobs. This is terribly disturbing.”
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The LAPD is to announce a $100,000 reward for information leading to any convictions and will discuss the crimes at a news conference today. In interviews, police sources, Carole Little officials and the Los Angeles County coroner’s office provided the following details:
* On May 4, Rolando P. Ramirez, 44, of West Covina, comptroller and a 17-year veteran of the company, was hit by multiple gunshots as he sat in his car near 33rd and Main streets in Los Angeles about 6:05 p.m. Ramirez died at the scene.
“There’s a big emptiness in my heart. He was a good guy,” said Rogin Albania, an employee who was supervised by Ramirez.
* Five months earlier, on Dec. 19, Vice President Kenneth Martin, 51, the company’s director of manufacturing who was in charge of lining up contractors, died after he was shot several times as he sat in his truck at a stoplight at Slauson Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard in Ladera Heights.
Sheriff’s deputies at the time said two men in a black Datsun pickup with a blue camper shell had chased Martin’s Ford Bronco and tried to run it off the road. When Martin stopped for a red light on Slauson, the passenger jumped out of the truck and fired a handgun at Martin. Sheriff’s deputies also have been searching for two men who were seen chasing Martin in another vehicle shortly before his death.
* Karin Wong was a Carole Little executive in charge of procuring domestic contractors when she survived two murder attempts in the autumn of 1993. A bullet was fired through the rear window of her vehicle as she traveled a Southland freeway. The shot hit the passenger side, missing Wong. A bomb was also set off at her home on a separate occasion. Wong no longer works for Carole Little and could not be located for comment.
* On Nov. 2, 1993, Hakop (Jack) Antonyan, 39, of Studio City, co-owner of GAHA, a Glendale-based sewing contractor for Carole Little, died after being hit by multiple gunshots in an “execution-style” attack as he left his Garfield Avenue plant at 9:28 p.m.
* Another GAHA executive and his wife were attacked a year later by a gunman who fired shots at the couple’s car as they left work. The executive was struck in the cheek and his wife was wounded in the arm. Although the executive carried a gun and returned the gunshots, the assailant escaped. Glendale police are investigating both the Antonyan killing and the attempted slaying of the couple.
* More recently, a Carole Little production manager received a telephoned threat. Further details were unavailable.
Carole Little employees were given some information on the incidents at a company meeting Friday. About 1,000 people are employed at the firm, which is headquartered at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Main Street.
“Everybody’s afraid and everybody’s wondering why this is happening,” a customer service representative said nervously Wednesday as she left Carole Little headquarters. She declined to give her name.
“The executives have told us that all of this may have nothing to do with the company, but they gave no guarantees. They don’t have enough information at this point to tell us anything that would make us calm.”
Several other employees declined to comment as they left the building, which was heavily fortified after the 1992 riots that caused $11 million damage to Carole Little headquarters. Guards shooed away a reporter.
But Sheila Smith, a customer service employee, expressed shock that such violence had occurred among Carole Little employees. “This is a great company,” she said.
The investigation is taking place against a backdrop of longstanding tensions between garment contractors and apparel companies. State and federal regulators, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, said the assaults were preceded by Carole Little’s decision to switch some of its business to new contractors.
Rabinowitz would not comment on whether the incidents might be connected to friction with some of the company’s contractors.
One regulatory source said that in July, 1993, Carole Little sent a letter to its contractors announcing that the company planned to switch more of its orders to foreign firms and to new U.S. contractors. The company at the time was being pressured by the federal government to stop doing business with contractors that violated minimum wage requirements and other labor laws. The first killing occurred later that year.
According to documents obtained by The Times under the federal Freedom of Information Act that year, Carole Little was one of 157 apparel manufacturers in Southern California receiving such an admonition from the Labor Department. Carole Little responded, one of the sources said, by hiring a top-notch investigator to supervise its outside contractors.
Rabinowitz said Carole Little stepped up efforts three years ago to ensure that contractors comply with labor laws because of pressure from the state of California. But people in the Los Angeles fashion industry are puzzled that Carole Little would be targeted, said Corky Newman, president and CEO of the California Mart, a Downtown center for the garment manufacturing industry.
The contracts held by Carole Little with sewing and cutting companies are no different than those held by hundreds of other clothing manufacturers, Newman said.
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That the Los Angeles-based company, which manufactures $239 million annually of women’s casual wear known for its soft lines and flowery prints, would be targeted for a series of brutal street crimes has baffled the industry.
The deaths have also mystified those who knew the victims.
People close to the Antonyan family, who asked not to be identified, described Jack Antonyan, an Armenian immigrant, as a hard worker who often spent 60 hours weekly at his shop, building his business from 20 employees to 200. Active in an Armenian church in Glendale, he contributed to a school fund to buy computers.
Friends say the family had no personal enemies. Now, the Antonyans seek to keep a low profile and are continually watchful.
Those who knew Kenneth Martin, also asking anonymity, characterized him as a private family man with four children who was active in the Roman Catholic Church. A native of a small Massachusetts town, Martin had spent his life in the garment industry, mainly on the East Coast. Friends said he had no enemies. He had held the job at Carole Little for only nine months when he was killed.
At the time of the killing he had been living apart from his family in an apartment and had planned to join his wife in Ohio six days later for Christmas.
“We won’t forget ever. We won’t get over him. We will get through this, we’ll do it together,” said his wife, Geraldine. “That’s what he would have wanted.”
The company, named after designer and co-owner Carole Little, considered moving to Nevada after the riots. However, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan helped persuade the company to stay.
Staff writer Stuart Silverstein contributed to this story.
