Interesting side note to the Finch-Tregoff case, which I remember very vividly (I even still have the original LIFE magazine article about the case). Dr. Finch practiced medicine in rural Boliver, Missouri after he was released from prison around 1969, so several people around here got to know him. After her release Carole Tregoff returned to the La Puente area, took a new name (maybe her maiden name-can’t recall what it was), and got a job at Intercommunity Hospital in Covina. She worked there her entire career until retirement, and never re-married. She was very conscientious and eventually supervised the entire records staff there.
The person I always felt sorry for in that tragedy were Finch’s son and parents. His parents were prominent Covina residents, who owned Finch’s Jewelers in downtown Covina, on west side of Citrus. The doctor’s son was a year older than me (born in 1953) and he was just 6 years old when orphaned by his mother’s death and father’s incarceration. I was told that the elder Finches were given custody of the boy and they left Covina and moved down to the coast somewhere, I think near San Clemente, to get away from all the media hype and attention. I’ve always wondered how that kid turned out – that’s a pretty tough way to grow up-just tragic all way around.
The reason Jayne Meadows was photographed with Finch at the trial – several Hollywood starlets were engaged by various media outlets to attend the glitzy trial and communicate their impressions of the dashing doctor and the trial proceedings each day – pretty campy (I think the other one was actually Joan Crawford). It was a REAL SENSATION after the mistrial the first time out, since everyone knew he did it….I can’t recall a higher visibility trial until OJ came along 35 years later….
