Burton Abbott

Burton Wilbur Abbott (February 8, 1928 – March 15, 1957) was an American man who was convicted of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Stephanie Bryan in Berkeley, California.

Abbott's wife discovered evidence of Abbott’s crimes in their home's basement. Stephanie's body was found buried near the Abbott family's cabin. On January 25, 1956, he was sentenced to death in California's gas chamber. On March 15, 1957, a (second) one-hour stay of execution from the governor of California was communicated to the prison moments too late to halt his execution.

The case is sometimes cited when discussing the appropriateness of condemning a person based on circumstantial evidence alone. However, "most criminal convictions are based on circumstantial evidence, although it must be adequate to meet established standards of proof."

Background Burton Abbott, called Bud by his family, was the younger of two sons to Harold Mark Abbott Sr. and Elsie Belle Moore. Abbott served in the U.S. Army for 14 months until he was honorably discharged after contracting tuberculosis and having half of a lung surgically removed. At the time of the crime, Abbott was an accountant student at University of California at Berkeley since 1953. walked home together from Willard Middle School. On Ashby Avenue, after visiting a donut shop and a pet store, Stewart parted ways with Bryan to attend tennis lessons. Bryan was last seen walking in direction of the parking lot of the Claremont Hotel to take a five-minute shortcut through a wooden path in the Berkeley Hills. She was reported missing shortly after 4:15 pm by her father, who had been alerted by his wife.

Investigation A large-scale search organized the same day failed to find her. On May 1, one of Bryan's textbooks was found on Franklin Canyon Road near Martinez.

In mid-July, Georgia Abbott, Burton Abbott's wife, reported that she found a purse and ID card belonging to Stephanie Bryan in the basement of the Abbotts' home in Alameda. She had found the personal effects by chance while looking through boxes of clothing for a costume to wear at a party.

The home in Alameda was shared with her husband, their four-year-old son Christopher, and Burton's mother, Elsie Abbott.

The twenty acre mining claim property in Trinity County belonged to Georgia Abbott's father since 1941. The property was initially co-owned by a miner named Lloyd Snyder, but his share was shifted to Georgia's brother after Snyder was convicted for fatally shooting and dismembering a man during an argument in the cabin in 1950. As Snyder released on parole two months before Bryan's disappearance, he was briefly sought as a possible suspect, but eventually ruled out.

Burton Abbott told multiple, contradictory stories including that he had been at the family's cabin 285 miles away near Wildwood, Trinity County, California, when Stephanie disappeared. The owner of the inn where Abbott insisted he had been at the time of Bryan's disappearance said he was certain Abbott was not present and the babysitter who watched Abbott's house during his absence stated that Abbott had called her the same day and explicitly instructed her that his family could not join him at the cabin. A resident of Wildwood confirmed that Abbott was in town the day after Bryan's disappearance. Although the resident and Abbott were friends, he noted that Abbott behaved strangely and unlike the two prior days, he was refused entry to the cabin. after they used a local's pet bloodhounds to scour the area. Bryan had died by blunt head trauma and had her underwear tied around her neck, with deep strangulation marks visible. Abbott's demeanor, previously calm and collected, reportedly shifted to anxious after the discovery. While crying, he told a reporter for The Examiner, "I don’t know how the body got there, I don’t know anything about it. I’m still staying with my story." Abbott's defense was headed by Stanley D. Whitney. Under Alameda County District Attorney J. Frank Coakley, the prosecution hypothesis was that Abbott had attempted to rape the victim and killed her when she resisted. 16 state witnesses placed Abbott at different locations near Bryan's usual school route between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Two of them, married couple Jackie and Allen Hill, also claimed that the day of Bryan's disappearance, shortly after 4 p.m., they had seen a car that had seemingly skidded off the road around the same area and seen the driver engaged in a physical struggle with a young girl, who wore clothing similar to Bryan. None of the witnesses could identify Abbott as the man they had seen with absolute certainty. He said it was all a "monstrous frame-up". The jury was out seven days before it returned a verdict of guilty for first degree murder and kidnapping with the infliction of bodily harm. The judge imposed two death sentences after the jury declined to recommend mercy on either count.

Execution Abbott was incarcerated at San Quentin to await execution. His lawyers tried to appeal for over a year. Before his execution, Abbott spoke to the doctor at San Quentin. The doctor said that when he asked Abbott about the crime, he said, "I can't admit it, doc. Think of what it would do to my mother; she couldn't take it."