West Hills Man, 75, Tried to Fight Off Attacker, Police Say

William Lasky died trying to fight off the early morning intruder who killed him and his wife and then set fire to their West Hills home to cover up the crime, police said Tuesday.

Los Angeles Police Lt. Debbie McCarthy of the Robbery-Homicide Division said investigators have few clues in the Monday killings that sent shivers through the quiet West Valley neighborhood.

Evidence of a scuffle in the garage indicates Lasky, 75, struggled with his killer. The fire destroyed much of the other evidence and no witnesses have come forward to help pinpoint the time of the slayings, McCarthy said.

Neighbors and others have flooded detectives with calls, and McCarthy said she hopes for more information.

“We’re certainly going to check out the leads, because we can’t discount them,” she said. “But right now, we don’t know if we’re looking at a home invasion or a prowler.”

McCarthy said evidence shows the killings occurred between 4:30 and 6:20 a.m. A weapon was used, but she would not say what kind.

Firefighters found the bodies of Lasky and his wife, Bertha, 73, in a bedroom and moved them to the backyard while fighting the fire.

Neighbors and friends, meanwhile, mourned the Laskys’ deaths and expressed fear for their own safety.

“This neighborhood is more like a village, because we’re all so close. This really upsets that village,” said Norman Golliday, a close friend who lived two doors away from the couple for 16 years.

Golliday said he went over to the Lasky home in the 7200 block of Pomelo Drive on Monday morning, hoping he could rescue them from the burning house.

Longtime members of Temple Solael--now Temple Judea--remember the Laskys as low-profile founding members of the West Hills reform synagogue.

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Friend and synagogue member Jeffrey Cohen said William and Bertha had outlived most of their friends who lived in the area. They spent most of their time with their children, a few neighbors and Cohen and his wife, Ida.

“Our number of friends has been dwindling over the years,” Cohen said. “Most of them have died, gotten sick or moved on. When you live past that, you don’t expect your friends to be murdered. That’s one thing that makes this so bad.”