Burton Abbott Trial: 1955 - Emotion Over Evidence, Amused Defendant

I can't believe that there are people who believe Abbot was innocent. It's ridiculous to say that he was framed. Why would a killer who had gotten away with murder frame someone?! There wouldn't be any reason to do so! The evidence presented in the book is incredibly overwhelming. There is no doubt in my mind that Abbot was indeed the killer & rightfully put to death.

I can't stop thinking about DNA evidence, for instance, the hairs found in Abbott's car. I realized most everyone associated with this case is long gone, but I can't stop thinking about it. Would the physical evidence still exist and what would it take to have it tested?

OK, Then if "A Trail of Corn" is right on the money please explain what happened to Burton Abbott's camp hatchet? Mark Abbott gave it to Whitney and Hove who deliberately withheld and/or destroyed the evidence. I have a similar camp hatchet too. I took the blunt, non-blade end and twice smashed it into a watermelon...guess what happened? Two keyhole sized holes measuring the SAME as what was in Stephanie Bryan's skull! Yes WHERE is the hatchet with the bloodstains on it? Let's DNA match that with a sample from Miss Bryan's siblings and pass final judgment on this little creep who enjoyed S & M porn and who admitted to the shrink at San Quentin that he wouldn't come clean on the crime because of his mama.

Thanks guys; I thought I was the only one who continues to remember.

I was 7 when Stephanie was kidnapped. Once her effects were discovered and Abbott became a suspect, the story was a nightly topic at our dinner table in San Leandro. I suppose having two sisters close to Stephanie's age has something to do with my memories.

I think Abbott's son Chris changed his name to...Sydney Carton.

Okay, today is Mother's Day and yes, when April 28th came and went this year, it wasn't without thinking about all that happened in 1955...I still have reservations about the outcome. I also cna't help but wonder what the motive would have been at the time..I hope Chris(I understand he changed his name) is doing all right and able to have had a half-way decent life..My heart also goes out to Stephanies's siblings and hope all is well with them also... 5/10/09

Having followed the case(and many similar cases off and on for some fifty years I am not really surprised at the amount of ignorance and (of course)vituperatiion displayed by a number of correspondents on this board.

The few who give evidence of having read anything about the case rely on highly selective passages from the bitter4ly prejudiced "A Shallow Grave"(written by a man who admits he condemned Abbott the first before he had any evidence whatsoever) and less than a single paragraph compiled in toto from minute, widely separated, passages from the seven hundred (excellentlly reasoned) pages of "A Field of Corn".The author never fails to report a fact when he finds it going against Abbott,but the ovrwhelming balance of evidence was that he was hundreds of miles away when Stephanie died.

Abbott never varied an iota from his original account of how he spent the day of the murder and he was supported by many witnesses only one of whom(the local mayor) and ever seen him befoere or ever saw him afterwards.Two separate time-clocked receipts vouched for by two independent witnesses of unimpeached character placed abbott hundreds of miles away at the exact minute the State claimed Abbott was strangling Stephanie.

The wife of a US admiral(if my recollection does not desert me after half a century)offered her evidence that Abbott was not in LA at the places the State claimed him to be.And there were lots of similar witnesses.

If Abbott is so plainly guilty why is the State still bitterly fighting DNA analysis of the surviving exhibits.That could still settle it one way or the other.The will not be settled by the disgusting hysteria so blataantly exhibited in these "contributions".

I was eleven years old, riding my bike in El Cerrito, CA when I noticed a man who was at many stop signs right next to me. I did not pay much attention until I took a deserted road to a shot cut through quarry tailings. This is when this man ran me off the dirt road, got out of his car an headed toward me. I picked up my bike to face the direction I had been, jumped on and got away to an area where there were other children outside. A few minutes later, this man's car slowed down and stared at me. Anyway, when his picture appeared on the top fold of a Bay Area paper I was shocked....It was this very man.

Okay, I have just one question for those of you that think he was framed...why would the person framing him bury Stephanie's personal items in the corner of his basement under 12 inches of sand?? Why not just leave it out in the open? If you wanted to frame someone, you wouldn't hide the evidence; you would leave it out in the open so the authorities would find it easily. Who feels comfortable enough to hang out in someone's basement for how ever long it takes to dig items as deep as they can get them. Or, if you're going to try to frame them, why not just under a few inches of sand. Why bury them a whole foot under the sand? We all know how heavy sand is and what a pain it is to uncover a whole foot of it. Got it?! Plus, although the author of "A Trail of Corn" expresses that he doesn't think Burton is guilty (the author just happened to be a close friends with Burton's mother, Elsie), he discloses many things in the book that points to Burton's guilt.

For instance, Burton told his uncle (2 times before Stephanie's disappearance) that his cabin in Wildwood "was so remote that you could kill someone and bury them up there and no one would know." Also, Burton's brother Mark (who was very upset and crying about finding "the murder weapon") found a bloody hammer in his sleeping bag from that weekend trip and gave it to Burton's attorney, who said, "We've made sure it dissapeared." Now, I want that guy for my lawyer if I'm ever guilty of anything. Then again, maybe not.



Another thing, when Mark and Burton were returning home that weekend and caravanning together, they stopped to get gas. Burton finished pumping gas and went ahead on his trip down the road. At the same spot that Stephanie's French book was found the next day behind a short fence by passer-byers, Mark saw Burton's car pulled over and Burton looking in the bushes for something. I surmise that Burton started throwing Stephanie's items out the car window and then realized his fingerprints could be on her items. "Hmmm, I better pull over and pick them back up...Gee, I can't find that one book I threw...uh oh, here comes Mark. I'll come back and look for it tomorrow." Which he did. He told police he went back the next day to "shop for tires"... "Yeah, the police will believe me, I couldn't hurt a fly."

However, he didn't find the book the next day because the passer-byers had already found the book the morning he went looking for it.



The nicked shovel that was used to bury Stephanie was the same exact damaged shovel that was in Burton's cabin. Read the book ("A Shallow Grave in Trinity County"), a very good read. And then, there's the little 5 year old girl who Burton tried to get to go in his car with him but her brother made her stop. Makes you wonder how anyone could think this guy is innocent.

I rest my case.

you think you are affected?? she was my best friend. abbott didn't get what he deserved...we all died that day.

I was living in Oakland and was 13 years old when this went down.Abbot was the scum of the earth and he inflicted a life sentence on the surviving members of the Bryan family.Death was too easy a way out for Abbot

I was 8 years old in SF when this happened. My mother didn't want me to know about it, but I would sneak the newspaper at night to read the day's story. As an adult I've read the two books "A Trail of Corn" and "Shallow Grave in Trinity County." I do believe Abbott did it, but I don't understand why there was not more blood, etc. found. It still haunts me to this day. I've had thoughts of retracing the route up to Wildwood but have never quite gotten the courage.

I was 15 when this happened and my sister was 14. This murder had a frightening emotional impact on both of us. My mother feared that Abbott had been framed and the guilty party went free but my sister and I feel he was guilty and his punishment was just.

Well, its now been 53 years since the disapperance of Stephanie and not a day goes by without thinking about it..I live in a state north of CA and have since age 13 but ironically Burton was born in the city nearby where I live...there is still something very haunting about this case and I still can't help think that he was framed by a member of his own family, now deceased. It also appears that Elsie outlived many of those involved, living to age 100...



I also wonder if DNA could be used in this case now that it is available..



ALH 4/30/08

Of course he is guilty! How many people do you know that claim they were "set up" when they have been caught? 100 % of criminals thats who! How does this girls personal belongings end up at HIS house and then her poor body discovered at HIS cabin? He is a sick little worm, and he got less than what he really deserved...he should have been forced to experience all the pain and suffering that Stephaine and her family did!

I read all of your comments with interest, because I also was eight years old when Stephanie was kidnapped and it has left a lasting impression on me. I lived in Berkely, not far from the Claremont Hotel and my best friend's father was a teacher at the Jr High where Stephanie attended school. I remember being terribly upset by this incident, which I feel was life changing as a child and as an adult. As a mother, I would never allow my daughter to travel to a friend's home alone, etc. I think the most heart felt thing that I remember as a child, was praying every night for Stephanie's safe return and the terrible saddness day after day when she did not return. I cannot imagine the pain uffered by her or her family.

I wonder if they could solidify the links now with DNA. Like ALH, I was about 8 years old when this hit the papers, and I've remembered it all this time - probably because it was so close to home and because it was the first time I had heard of anything like it. I don't know enough about the case itself to question the verdict, but I do remember that the journalistic style was very sensational - more like a pulp magazine.

All of you who think that Burton Abbott was railroaded, please banish the thought. Burton Abbott was a weak, pathetic, little man who inwardly hated women. His true disdain was for both is wife and his mother, both of whom ironically stood by him to the very end. The tragedy was that he chose a gentle little soul like Stephanie Bryan to inflict his cruel and brutal rage upon. This little worm of a man destroyed the Bryan family as well as his own. Stephanie's father, Dr. Charles Bryan died three years after Stephanie's murder of a massive heart attack. This was due to the stress of his daughter's murder, he left behind a widow and four surviving orphans. His wife Mary Bryan had to return to the work force to support her family. The Bryan children still bear the emotional scars of this ordeal to this day as do some of Stephanie's friends. It all could have been avoided if this self centered little atheistic psychopath had let Stephanie walk home in peace and respected her human rights. Sadly, this tragedy has been repeated countless times throughout the United States only the victims and perpetrators are different.

Are you kidding me? You think Burton Abbott was innocent? Do you also think Scott Peterson was innocent? Burton actually admitted to the head psychiatrist 23 days before he was put to death that he couldn't admit to his guilt because it would ruin his mom. Read the book "A Shallow Grave in Trinity County" dummy!

This case has been a haunting one all my life as I was a grown up 8 year when it happened with a penchant for mystery and followed it every day in the Oakland Tribune from day one till the end. It happened so close to home and nothing like that had ever happened till then.. I had to read it when my parents weren't around as they didn't think it was fitting to be reading about a homicide at my age.....not sure why I keep thinking about it but I still believe that Abbott was innocent... I know most of the key players are gone now except for Burton and Georgia's son and Stephanies siblings...