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Monday, August 31st, 2026

The Boles Murders – who dunnit?

Aug 14, 2024 | Arts & Culture

The Boles Murders movie poster, gun image featured.

By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY

Staff Writer

 

On Aug. 13, 1965, the Boles family – a father, mother and two sons – were murdered in Crestline. Each suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Their murders were never solved.

Davey Porter, a local newspaperman and editor, researched the murders and made a documentary – The Boles Murders – about this unsolved mass murder case. He interviewed all the investigating police officers and the surviving witnesses.

Porter was very detailed in his investigations and spent months producing a quality documentary in the crime scene investigation model now often seen on TV as CSI investigations. When completed, this documentary won the June Lockhart Award at the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival when it premiered. It is quite shocking with re-enactments of the murders, as Porter imagined them, with some screaming within the film, so it is not designed for children.

The documentary will be shown at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 17 and 18, in the theater at the Mountain History Museum at 27176 Peninsula Drive at Rhine Road in Lake Arrowhead. This free showing of the documentary will be introduced by historian Russ Keller, who actually was involved in the making of the documentary, helping to coordinate some of the interviews. Since this video is only shown once a year at the museum, this may be your only opportunity to see it with Keller giving the introduction.

The dates of Aug. 17 and 18 are also significant as the murders occurred during a week when the Watts riots were occurring in Los Angeles in 1965, taking the focus of all news media across the nation. As a result, this murder was never really in the news; otherwise, it would have been a top story, nationwide.

While making the documentary and reexamining the evidence in the case, the investigators were able to piece together the facts of this cold case and discover the person or persons who perpetrated this mass murder and how “they” had gotten away with not getting caught for so many decades. Keller will explain the rest of the story and the final disposition of the case.

The movie will be shown at 1 p.m. to the first 25 persons who come to see it. Entry to the museum is free, as is parking. The Mountain History Museum is open Fridays, noon to 4, and Saturdays and Sundays, 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from Memorial Day through October and one weekend a month during the winter, weather permitting. For more information, call (909) 744-8625 or visit their website, https://www.Mtnmuseum.org,  to learn about more of their upcoming events.

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