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This is the Lost Boys of Wineville.

Chapter 28. Verdex

The jury began their deliberations shortly after 5pm on Friday, February 8th, 1929.

Gordon Stewart Northcott appeared calm when the culmination of six weeks of testimony was finally over.

It was an unsettling sight, seeing someone so composed in the courtroom who was

accused of multiple counts of child murder.

He either had nerves of steel or simply didn't care.

He laughed and joked with the guards.

The jury filed into the courtroom at 825 p.m.

Juris had taken an hour's break during their deliberations to have dinner and had determined the

defendant's fate in two and a half hours. The 12 men on the jury were to decide if Northcote

was responsible for ending the lives of Lewis and Nelson Winslow,

and the young man believed to be Alvin Gauthier, frequently referred to by reporters as the Mexican.

The victim would never be officially identified as few records were kept.

His headless body was buried in a pauper's grave.

As the foreman read aloud the verdict for each charge, a smile spread across the defendant's face.

He heard the same word three times.

Guilty.

There was not a single recommendation for mercy following three unanimous convictions of first-degree murder.

Soon after the verdict, Stuart Northcott was encircled by several deputies. Still, he did not raise his voice, did not grow agitated, almost as if he expected that

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