Partner Robert Richards
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3460 Troy Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90068
James Yarborough (1910 - August 31, 1962) was a television director. He directed the "Rawhide" series. With his partner Robert "Bob" Richards, he was a charter member of the Hollywood-Beverly Hills branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In 1962, he died on route to the hospital after being found beaten and unconscious in his home by the paramedics; Robert Richards (born 1928), a bit-part TV actor (Flight (1958), Maverick (1959), The Louisiana Hussy (1959) and Alfred Hitchcock presents (1960)), freelance television writer and described in the papers as Yarborough's "former roommate," was arrested for the crime.
A preliminary autopsy report indicated the victim died from asphyxiation resulting from blood draining into his lungs as he lay unconscious on the floor. Richards said he and Yarborough, who shared a house in the Toluca lake district, had been working together on a script for the "Naked City" television series. He also said the director was despondent and may had taken his own life. A bottle of sleeping pills was found clutched in Yarborough's hands. But his face bore bruises around the eyes and forehead indicating a beating.
Richards, who had recently returned from New York, was quoted by detectives as saying he and Yarborough were preparing for a hunting trip late last night. "All of a sudden he just crumpled to . the floor," Richards reportedly said. Richards said he telephoned Yarboroughs physician, Dr. Mitchell Covel, who ordered an ambulance to take the director to Beverly Hills Doctors Hospital. He died on route.
Robert Richards, initially accused of murdering Yarborough, was later acquitted. Superior Judge Lewis Drucker acquitted Richards after two pathologists supported a coroner's findings that Yarborough died of an overdose of sleeping pills. Richards said he found Yarborough unconscious and slapped him several times in an effort to revive him, those resulting the bruises on the man's face.
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