Father Heslin's murder in the first degree

On Aug. 3, Father Heslin, a Roman Catholic priest, was lured from Holy Angels Church in Colma by a request to administer last rites to a dying man. Father Heslin did not return and a rambling ransom note demanding $6,500 was sent to the Archbishop. The note was typed, but it had corrections and post scripts in longhand.

The ransom was not paid, but a reward was offered for information leading to the whereabouts of the missing priest. William A. Hightower applied to the Archbishop for the reward, claiming to have information he received from a "sporting lady" of his acquaintance.

Hightower's story was that the prostitute told him of a client who told her where he had buried something valuable. This description, supposedly a second-hand report from his unnamed lady acquaintance, said that the body was being watched over by a man frying flapjacks.

Hightower had not gone to the authorities, he said, because he was protecting the lady from possible harassment from the police. He was also concerned that they would grab the reward that he felt he deserved.

The police were called, though, and he led them and a group of reporters to the spot where the body might be found.

Without any delay, Hightower let them to a spot at Salada Beach, now Sharp Park in Pacifica. There was a billboard there advertising pancake mix, featuring a miner cooking flapjacks. Hightower led the party down a treacherous cliff, explaining that he was familiar with the area because he had once worked for the Ocean Shore Railroad. The men began digging, and Hightower was cautioned against accidentally damaging the head if the body was there. Reportedly, Hightower replied, "It's OK, the head is at the other end." The body was found.

Hightower, understandably, became the prime suspect. He insisted that he was innocent. It happened that a police officer in Berkeley had just developed a polygraph to replace the old "third degree" method of interrogating suspects. The "lie detector" was used on Hightower, and indicated that he was possibly not being truthful. Another "scientific" method, handwriting analysis, was used in the case. Evidence was found in Hightower's room that connected him to the crime scene. The priest's housekeeper identified him as the man who had called at the rectory the night of the crime.

The case captured the attention of the public and was dubbed "The Flapjack Murder." After an 11-day trial, it took the jury of eight men and four women less than two hours to find William Hightower guilty of murder in the first degree.

The prisoner was transported to San Quentin the following day. He spent his years in prison writing and continuing his education. He came up for parole in April 1937, but his release was opposed, especially by the Catholic Church. Over the years, he was denied parole a total of 27 times. Finally, in 1965, Hightower was released. Then 87, he was transferred to a halfway house in Southern California. He had outlived almost everyone else who had been in the courtroom back in 1921.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 777 Hamilton St., Redwood City.