James Pappa was born in 1934 in Louisiana and moved to southern California and grew up in Los Angeles. James Pappa graduated from Wilson High School in El Serreno (Los Angeles) California in 1952. The Picture below was provided by Jimmy Pappa (2012), a memory from their high school days, at a friends wedding reception in 1955, Carole Tregoff pictured in middle with blonde hair holding a drink and NOT smiling with her high school sweetheart Jimmy Pappa on the right wearing a white jacket with tie holding a bottle. Click on picture to view larger.
James and Carole married in 1955 and for a short period of time lived in Alhambra. They bought a new home in La Puente at 1263 Big Dalton Avenue in 1955 and lived there until 1959. Carole started working at Doctors Hospital in West Covina where she became acquainted with Dr. Bernard Finch and a friendship ensued….
James shared with me via e-mail and several phone conversations that one night in their new home in La Puente, James was very ill and Carole called Dr. Finch to come over and do something for James. James chuckled afterwards… saying the doctor must have given him a good sedative because he was out all night – chuckling again, James said he’s sure that Dr. Finch could have stayed for hours as he was asleep…
Once everything was out in the open… there was a time or two where James Pappa wanted to kill Dr. Finch. One time he and his friend waited for Dr. Finch to come out of the office – since he wanted to kill him, but Finch never appeared.
Speaking with James on the phone recently (June, 2012), he shared that his sister who lives in Covina saw Carole at the grocery store there in town about 2 or 3 years ago. They both spoke with each other briefly, Carole reiterated that "she earned every gray hair on her head". James' sister did not get her address. On a funny note, James shared that he had absolutely NO idea that there was an affair going on, he was blind-sided on this one. He found out when everyone else found out -- the reason James was so surprised was that he thought that he was so hot looking that she wouldn't look elsewhere, as he chuckled.
After the trial and divorce. James later opened up a bar with a friend in Pasadena. It was called The Gigolo on Colorado Blvd.
In all fairness, 98% of what you see on this site has been a one way direction, "us looking into Carole's life", however, the LOS ANGELES MIRROR did a wonderful insightful interview with Carole that published on April, 12, 1961 - that post is on this site, however the link is here as well:
It provides us with a chance to see what was going on in her head through all this as well as how this all transpired according to Carole Tregoff.
In a recent interview with Los Angeles Magazine writer, Steve Mikulan at the South Hills Country Club in West Covina (2012), our waitress found out who we were talking about - she shared with us that Carole still gets her hair done over at some small beauty shop on Rowland Avenue in Covina. Time does march on...
The article was published in the April 2013 issue of Los Angeles Magazine.