The Murder of Ernest Glenn Beight, December 1968

Ernest Glenn Beight was born on February 10, 1940 in Mahoning County, Ohio. He was living in Arizona by 1965. He married his second wife, Eloise, on July 17, 1968 in Imperial County, California. Together they had one daughter. Ernest worked for American Linen Co at the time of his death. He and his wife lived at 2206 E 14th Place in Yuma, Yuma County, AZ.

Ernest, 28, was in California for an unstated reason on Saturday, December 14, 1968. One of his sisters lived in Napa at the time; it is possible that he had been visiting her, though this is just speculation on my part.

At about 12:30am on Sunday, December 15, 1968, Ernest asked a service station attendant in Los Angeles, LA County, CA for directions to Yuma, AZ. Police believe he had been hitchhiking at the time.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, at 12:45am, Ernest's body was found on the side of the southbound lane of the Harbor Freeway near the Slauson Ave on-ramp in Los Angeles. He had been shot in the abdomen and/or chest, with the bullet passing completely through his body. The caliber of the bullet — if one was found at the scene or in Ernest's clothing — was not stated by any sources. He had bled to death before his body was found. It is unknown if anything was stolen.

There is very little information available online regarding Ernest's murder. I could not find any newspaper reports about the killing past the initial reporting. It seems that his case is/was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department. Users on Ancestry and FindAGrave indicate that the crime was unsolved as of at least 2007. I found this case while looking through the latter website. 

Sources

FindAGrave

Long Beach Independent 12/16/68

Anaheim Bulletin 12/16/68 

Tucson Citizen 12/16/68 

Obituary in The Yuma Sun 12/19/68 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on August 23, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, hyperlink new posts, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on December 3, 2025.