Leslie Ray Raymond -- Brother Bob's Family Affair

Once familiar to Oakland, California, radio audiences as "Brother Bob," Raymond, 41, left the business, relocated to Los Angeles, and worked as a salesman in an air conditioning concern until his complicated personal life ultimately drove him to tragedy.  On December 6, 1935, a motorist in the Palos Verdes Hills off Western Avenue noticed a parked car, engine running, with a 12-foot piece of rubber hose leading from the exhaust pipe in through a window of the vehicle.  Investigators found Raymond's body in the car along with two scrapbooks filled with clippings chronicling his career as "Brother Bob."  In his hat, lying on the seat beside him, was a note addressed to his wife expressing grief and shame over an affair he had been having with his young niece, Esther.

The suicide note read:  "Tubbsy Dear, I have done about every bad thing to you that any one person could--you are going to like Esther.  She is a sweet, sweet girl--she is at a hotel in San Pedro--get her and start her on her way--give her a break--she, too, was wrong because she loved the wrong person--in my Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde existence there has never been anyone like you--be a good gal--here is zero hour and nothing more to say...."