Man, you white folks are getting scary as hell
'Skateboard Murder' Stuns Town
San Luis Obispo reacts with disbelief after the arrest of boy, 13, in the slaying of elderly man.
By Paul Pringle
Times Staff Writer
March 7, 2005
SAN LUIS OBISPO Horrified residents call it the "Skateboard Murder," a description chilling enough for its reference to the object allegedly used to kill 87-year-old Gerald O'Malley.
But the label's combination of youthful plaything and mortal violence also summons a ghastlier element of the case: that the suspect is just 13.
And to pile shock upon shock, authorities in this Central Coast town say they are investigating whether other children might have learned of the slaying and remained silent about it until after the police found the body last Monday night.
"It's awful," said San Luis Obispo Police Capt. Dan Blanke. "I've been here 24 years, and I don't recall a crime even close to this."
The circumstances hint at an infamous 1981 murder in Milpitas, 190 miles up the coast. A teenager had killed his girlfriend, then took his closed-mouthed friends on sightseeing tours of the body. The events were fictionalized in the movie "River's Edge."
San Luis Obispo has buzzed with rumors that some children might have viewed O'Malley's corpse as it lay for hours, or perhaps a full day, in his trailer park home. Police say they have no solid evidence of that but are trying to determine who knew or saw what and when.
