City Hall Tour Will Focus on ’59 Murder Trial

The 1959 murder trial of Elizabeth Ann “Ma” Duncan and the two thugs she hired to kill her pregnant daughter-in-law was perhaps the most sensational in Ventura County history, one that attracted media attention around the nation and played out before a riveted court audience in what is now Ventura City Hall.

Never heard of the case? City officials hope to change that.

Beginning this week, the city’s Recreation Department will offer a new historical tour at the former courthouse on Poli Street where the famous trial took place.

The tour will feature original photographs from the proceedings, not published since the 1950s, as part of a recounting of the dramatic death-penalty case.

Duncan, a matronly 58-year-old with gray hair and horn-rimmed glasses, was convicted of plotting the grisly murder of young nurse Olga Kupczyk, who married her son, attorney Frank Duncan.

“She was not your typical mother,” said city employee Glenda Jackson, who has researched the Duncan case extensively.

“She started this campaign of harassment,” Jackson said in an interview last year. “Ultimately, she killed her own daughter-in-law and grandchild, something that in the ‘50s was beyond comprehension.”

Duncan and the two men she hired were executed in 1962. Duncan was the last woman to be executed in California.

The first two-hour historical tour begins at 1 p.m. Saturday. Participants should meet on the front steps of Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli St. For more information, call 658-4726.