Barbara Colby was a 36-year old actress who had enjoyed reasonable success on Broadway and in Hollywood. After spending much of the 1970s working in television, her career received a major boost when she was offered a full-time role on the sitcom, “Phyllis”. Colby had filmed three episodes of the series and was teaching an acting class in Venice, California on the evening of July 24, 1975. While walking to her parked car with an acting colleague named James Kiernan, they were both gunned down by two male assailants.Colby was killed instantly, but Kiernan was able to describe the shooters before he passed away. There had been no attempt at robbery and Kiernan claimed he did not recognize the two men, so no one could figure out the motive for these murders. Approximately 40 minutes before the shooting occurred, three armed men had murdered another woman named Gloria Witte in a robbery attempt in Santa Monica. At the same time, yet another robbery took place in the same vicinity when two other couples were ambushed by six armed men while returning to their homes. The perpetrators were all caught and charged for these crimes, but police could find no evidence that they might also be responsible for the Colby and Kiernan murders. It continues to be a baffling unsolved mystery nearly 40 years later.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 02:30:41 +0000
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