THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION
This website is to complement the book “The True Story of Murphy Ranch”, available at Amazon.com. Material that wasn’t included in the book is here, and more will steadily be added. If you’d like to be notified when new material is added, please sign up for the mailing list.
In the 1930s, Norman and Winona Stevens built a retreat in Rustic Canyon in the Pacific Palisades area of California. They bought the property from Jesse Murphy. They terraced the sides of the canyon, put in a well, brought in livestock, and made the place self-sufficient. They were concerned that the Allies would lose World War II, and wanted to protect their family from the chaos that might bring. They moved out in 1945 when the war ended and sold the property to Huntington Hartford in 1949.
Years later, an associate of Hartford’s, John Vincent, told a story to the LA Times about how the Stevens had been under the influence of a German spy when they bought the property. This started an urban legend that has grown out of control since the 1970’s. The story, with no proof or factual basis, has grown into a sprawling fantasy, with 50 Silver Shirt Nazis on the property, an FBI raid, a shortwave radio, a supposed home for Hitler, and even expanded to accuse the Stevens of being Nazi sympathizers.
The family was unaware of the growing urban legend. I found out about it in 2013 and have taken it upon myself to correct the story, and hopefully put a stop to it. To this end, I have written “The True Story of Murphy Ranch”, and hope that anyone interested in the story will buy the book and find out what really happened. There is much that I couldn’t include in the book, and more is being discovered. I am making that available via this website. https://www.amazon.com/True-Story-Murphy-Ranch-Nonsense/dp/B0C9S5HMK3/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=murphy+ranch&qid=1707175712&sr=8-1
You can contact me via email at stanton.k.stevens@gmail.com.
Please sign up for the mailing list (form below) if you would like to be notified when new material is added to this website
- Norman Stevens – photos from Norman’s life.
- Winona Stevens – photos from Winona’s life, and photos of her parents, Arthur and Theophila Bassett.
- Murphy Ranch – maps, diagrams, newspaper articles about the ranch. Photographs, old and new.
- Ferd Stevens – newspaper articles about Norman’s famous father, a daredevil and sheriff from Maine
- The Children – Norman and Winona’s children, and their creations
- The Urban Legend – newspaper articles showing the evolution of the story