The C. Thomas Patten Trial - Newspaper Articles

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Hit the link above to see newspaper articles about the C. Thomas Patten trial held in Alameda County, California in 1950.

 

Bebe Patten and her business-manager husband, C. Thomas Patten, took Oakland, CA by storm in 1944. Unfortunately, greed got the better of them, and Tom Patten was convicted in 1950 of  “fleecing the flock,” a real life Elmer Gantry. Bebe herself was not put on trial, but she was just as guilty because she knew what he was doing, and went along with it, benefiting from the money, designer clothes, the big home, fancy vehicles and real estate. If it had been a different time, she would have been convicted along with C. (for Cash) Thomas, but she wore a cross around her neck and dressed in white silk like an angel.

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During Tom Patten’s trial, the assistant district attorney, Cecil Mosbacher, said, “It was she who made the emotional appeal, she who set the stage upon which he operated…They conspired together to defraud and deceive this community.” But Bebe, cloaked in innocence and godliness, was never charged with any crime.

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Bebe Patten lived a long life after reinventing herself, so that most don’t know or remember her part in the con with her husband, Tom. I can only hope and pray that she repented before the Lord over the part she played, and the people who were defrauded by her and her husband. 

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Be sure to read the article by Bernard Taper under "Articles" titled Annals of Crime - Somebody is Going to Get Hit to get another perspective.