Eleanor M Hansen: Murder 2nd Degree

Eleanor Margurite Hansen Maiden name Stratton Born 9 Aug 1892 in Brooklyn, NY to William H Stratton and Florence Walton. She married Hans Terkel Hansen (1887-1934), they married 19 Nov 1919 in Queens, NY and they had a daughter, Barbara Florence Hansen 1921-2009.

Inmate# 37777 San Quentin
Rec: 3 Jan 1935
Crime: Murder 2nd Degree
Term: 5-Life
Was transferred after the opening of the Tehachapi Women's Prison.


Hans Terkel Hansen was a Hollywood Astrologer and motion picture studio employee. (Carpenter).

He was to pay $10 month support to Eleanor for their daughter. 

On 1 Oct 1934 she went to Hans boarding house and fired 2 fatal shots into his chest because she and her daughter were Hungary and had nothing to eat and he wasn't paying his support. Eleanor fled the scene on foot and was apprehended less than an hour later at the Thomas Starr King Junior High  School where her daughter Barbara attended school, 13 years old at the time.

Below are some interesting newspaper clippings

She was so hungry the police officers got her food to eat.

I know it's never a good idea to kill anyone, there's always grave consequences from these actions. I also understand she could work and we really don't know if she was working, but seriously $10 a month from a Hollywood Astrologer, that Judge needed his head examined.

The real victim is Barbara whom lost both of her parents because of these circumstances. 

In the 1940 census she was in the Stockton, CA institution for the insane. 

I do not know when she got out, the Ancestry records only go to 1923 for the Stockton Hospital.

I do know she died in 1952 Auburn, CA according to her SS Death Index record.

Name Eleanor Marguerite Hansen

Gender Female

Race White

Birth Date 9 Aug 1892

Birth Place Brooklyn, New York

Father William H Stratton

Mother Florence Walton

SSN 570461426

Notes Sep 1952: Name listed as ELEANOR MARGUERITE HANSEN

I also found a divorce record but I am not 100% it's her, as I checked the man's information on some hints and his wife is Eleanor T 

Divorce Index

Name Eleanore M Hansen

Spouse Name Samuel J Messick

Location Alameda City

Date Apr 1967

The hints I get for Messick do not match, nothing shows he ever lived in California or her in Kentucky. So I eliminated those and started with divorce record and it lead me to the following.

I believe there are two Samuel Messick's one Samuel J Messick who did live in California and this one.

I did find him in the city directory in California

he was a bank teller, married to a Gertrude Leah Kelly according to the 1930 census and marriage found for 1929. He voted Republican, then he changes that to Democrat in 1942. In 1940 his is still married to Gertrude. Samuel died in 1968.

Never found a marriage record. No other family trees for Samuel have Eleanor listed as wife. and no maiden for Gertrude which that was easy for me it's on their marriage record, there's no death either.

I am sick that she was in a asylum, that makes me wonder if the act of killing her husband drove her mad for a period of time and that she must of felt horrible guilt over it. Plus she had to of worried about her daughter and what was going to happen to her and missing her. I can only guess as a mother myself and that kind of pain I have been through is really tough. I hope in the end they were together and Eleanor found forgiveness from her daughter and inside her own heart.