KCAL 9 to Run Murphy Ranch Feature Monday Night

KCAL 9 will be running a feature story on Murphy Ranch Monday night at 10 p.m. The piece is titled "Inside the Hitler House."

The news station spoke to Randy Young, an author and historian who has held local lectures on the very subject.

"This is the dark side of Los Angeles," said Young in the promo video, which is currently posted on the CBS Los Angeles Facebook page.

Murphy Ranch, located in the Rustic Canyon area of Pacific Palisades, was named after the Murphy family, a family that made money in the thumbtack business, . Wolcott attended a lecture led by Young regarding the site in March of 2011.

According to Wolcott's article, the Murphy's daughter, Winona Stephens, used her trust fund to purchase a large parcel of land in the 1930s after she and her husband had "fallen under the bewitching spell of a Nazi saboteur named Herr Schmidt, who convinced them to fork over $3 million to create a massive self-sufficient compound to house followers of the Third Reich."

about the history of Murphy Ranch. He noted that the Great Depression led to an "ideal environment for fascism to grow." So, groups like the German American Bund and the Silver Shirts, or the Silver Legion of America, emerged in the United States.

According to Gostar's report, some believed the Silver Shirts were present at Murphy Ranch.

• For the full Pali Patch article by Wolcott, .
• For the full Pali Patch article by Gostar, .
• For the KCAL 9 video promo on the CBS Los Angeles Facebook page, click here. You will have to scroll down a bit to find the video. It will be on the left column.