"Countess" Jeanne La Mar

Here's a story I thought you might like.

"Countess" Jeanne La Mar was a ballet dancer turned boxer who fought prize fights in the 1920s against both men and women. After the boxing commissions of several states banned female boxers, La Mar retired to the mountains in Wrightwood, California in 1928, not far from where I lived as teenager.

According to a local researcher, "the quiet life of the mountains did not seem to reflect on the spirit of Jeanne La Mar." Forest service statements say that she roamed the areas of ranches and nearby Big Pines areas, trying to find anyone...man or woman...to spar with her."

Hardened forest rangers, mountain folk, and ranch hands were still in the area, yet none took her up on her offer. Most residents ignored her, and she was considered the 'Mystery Lady of Big John Flats' (the hill she lived on). Reports of her strangeness caused forest rangers visit her cabin on several occasions, but because her property was outside of the forest boundary lines, they were unable to do anything.

In 1935, Gus Von Herren, who most believe was her son (though she told people he was her nephew), was found shot in the head near her cabin by a homeless man who was providing sex and handyman work for La Mar.

A former forest ranger remembers the homeless man showing up at his station near Wrightwood in the 1930s, frightened and with a bullet hole in his suitcase. After Von Herren's body was discovered, La Mar had chased the handyman off the hill, shooting at him with a rifle.

By the time the rangers got to the cabin La Mar had abandoned it and disappeared. The death of Von Herren remains unsolved.

La Mar is reported to have died in the early 1940s, some say in Los Amigos Indigent Home in Norwalk, California. Other reports say the former boxer died in a hotel room "in the shady park," on D Street in San Bernardino.

You can read more and see pictures here. You can also read more on the Wrightwood discussion forum