California True Crime · California True Crime

The Murder of Ida Stine

·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

16-year-old Wilford Brown confessed to raping and suffocating Ida Stein after she offered to pray with him for help.

This episode of California True Crime examines the 1973 murder of 79-year-old Ida Stein in Capitola. Host Jessica is joined by co-hosts Sean and Charles to discuss the crime and the context of 1970s Santa Cruz County, then called the murder capital of the world. Jessica has a personal connection, as her family lived less than a block from the victim at the time. Ida Stein was a widowed community pillar, active in her Baptist church, the Gideon Bible International, and the Women's Christian Temperance Movement. She was found face down in her bathtub with the hot water running after a friend discovered her unlocked door and car parked unusually outside. The scene showed signs of a struggle, and she had bruises, burn marks, and had been raped before being suffocated. Police quickly focused on three men who were door-to-door selling soap for a Drug Abuse Prevention Center in the neighborhood that day. One of these men had asked Jessica's great-aunt unsettling questions about whether she lived alone. The murder occurred while serial killers Ed Kemper and Herbert Mullin were still active in the area, a fact highlighted by a front-page Santa Cruz Sentinel from February 13, 1973. The hosts note the stark contrast in how the newspaper reported on Stein's murder versus crimes against hitchhiking women, with Stein framed as a "pure victim." They analyze the term "red haze of emotion" used by police to describe the scene, pondering if it implied the killer knew her. The discussion covers the modern temperance movement's focus on alcoholism education and its potential link to groups like MADD or Al-Anon. A memorable moment involves Sean sharing that his "uncle," broadcaster Don Husing, lived in Capitola and collected Coca-Cola products. The tone is conversational and reflective, blending historical research with personal anecdotes about growing up in the region. The style is educational, situating a single crime within a broader social and criminal landscape. Listeners interested in lesser-known historical crimes and the social dynamics of 1970s California will find this episode compelling. Those seeking fast-paced narratives or resolved mysteries might be frustrated by the limited case information and lack of a clear conclusion.

As heard by us

A local murder becomes a study of fear, memory, and a town changed by violence.

California True Crime treats Ida Stein's 1973 killing as more than a single case, and the episode works best when it stays in Capitola and Santa Cruz in the 1970s.

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Why you'd press play

Want a true crime episode rooted in 1973 Capitola, near Santa Cruz, and the county's 70s murder-capital backdrop?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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