Blacklisted Screenwriter Murdered

Neighbor Stabbed To Death, Too; Homeless Man Charged

(CBS/AP)  A homeless man suspected of beheading a 91-year-old screenwriter and stabbing to death the man's neighbor was arrested outside a Hollywood studio minutes after his photograph was broadcast on television.

One of those killed was 91-year-old Robert Lees, a major screenwriter in the 1940s and early 1950s before being blacklisted during the Communist scare of the '50s, reports CBS News Correspondent Steve Futterman. He wrote several films featuring Abbott and Costello, and later, under an assumed name, for the television series "Rawhide" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," among others.

The other victim was a 67-year-old retired doctor who was booking a flight when he was killed. The Southwest Airlines ticket agent heard the commotion and called police.

Arriving officers spotted Hal Engelson's body through a window, and forced their way inside. In the rear of the home they found Lees' severed head, Police Chief William Bratton said.

Kevin Lee Graff, 27, was arrested Monday after guards at Paramount Studios recognized him from a televised news conference and called police, Bratton said.

The man had been turned away at the studio gates, where he had asked guards for the telephone number of a female employee, and "something didn't feel right" about him, guard Isaac Macias said.

Graff had been talking to himself and making obscene gestures at passing cars. That prompted guards to keep their surveillance camera trained on him, security Sgt. Craig Phillips said.

Moments later, Phillips saw the news conference and recognized Graff.

"I turned to the camera on my monitor. I said, 'That's him! That's him!'" Phillips said.

Police did not find a weapon on Graff.

The motive for the killings was under investigation and it was unclear whether Graff knew the victims.

"It's too early in the investigation to understand why those two particular houses, those two particular people were chosen, if they were chosen at all," Bratton said.

The studio is about 2 miles from the home where police on Sunday found the body of Engelson.

The killer took Engelson's car, a Mercedes-Benz sedan, which later was found several miles away.

Lees also wrote under the name J.E. Selby, according to the Writers Guild of America.

Helen Klein, a neighbor, said she often drove around the neighborhood in his car, which had a "War is Not the Answer" bumper sticker.

"He is the guy you want for the neighbor next door," said Jeff Mesino, another neighbor. "He would say, 'Take the tools from my garage whenever you want.'"

Lees spoke in April 2002 at an event held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to cap several months of exhibits about the blacklist, academy spokesman John Pavlik said.

"I think he was one of the funniest writers in Hollywood in his time," Dave Wagner, an author and authority on the blacklist period, told Futterman.

Lees had been a member of the Communist Party.

"He was finally called up by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, took the Fifth Amendment, and he was out," said Wagner.

His wife, Jean Abel, died of cancer in 1982. His longtime girlfriend, Helen Colton, found his body in his home when she went to pick him up for an event at the academy headquarters in Beverly Hills.

Colton, 86, saw Lees' body on the floor of his bedroom, covered by blankets, and called police.

"It was unreal, but I couldn't believe it," she said. "I was befuddled for a moment. It was like a movie, not real life."