{"id":181727,"date":"2026-02-17T18:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181727\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:00:09","slug":"former-lifeguard-writes-novel-to-solve-1964-ocean-beach-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/181727\/","title":{"rendered":"Former lifeguard writes novel to ‘solve’ 1964 Ocean Beach murders"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO \u2013 Near Valentine\u2019s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle<\/a>, were killed by a lone sniper as they stood behind the Ocean Bean seawall watching the sunset. <\/p>\n

This random double murder was never solved. <\/p>\n

Nor were the homicides of four more young couples killed at isolated California locations near water, at dusk, and with the same .22-caliber bullets.<\/p>\n

Those killings were attributed to the infamous Zodiac Killer,<\/a> who taunted police, was never apprehended, and who went silent six years later. Some criminologists became convinced that the Ocean Beach Valentine\u2019s Day murders were an early trial experiment of this serial killer.<\/p>\n

Many years after this unsolved real-life double homicide in Ocean Beach, author A. Lee Brown picked up the story in his fourth novel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Book cover of \u2018Murder in International Orange: A Story of Unusual Crime, Detectives & Justice.\u2019 (Courtesy of A. Lee Brown)<\/p>\n

In Brown\u2019s whodunnit mystery, \u201cMurder in International Orange: A Story of Unusual Crime, Detectives & Justice,\u201d however, the modern-day OB homicides reminiscent of the victims back in 1964 get solved, and the perp gets revealed.<\/p>\n

Lee is the author of three previous novels \u2014 \u201cThe Varsity: A Story of America\u2019s Underage Warriors in WWII,\u201d \u201cCradle of Bitchin: A Story of Mentors, Watermen & the Sea,\u201d about growing up in OB, and \u201cRules and Conflict: An Introduction to Political Life and its Study.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMurder in International Orange\u201d is a murder mystery based on the unidentified sniper who killed newlyweds Ray and Joyce Swindle as they watched the sunset in Ocean Beach on Feb. 5, 1964. <\/p>\n

In 2018, Brown\u2019s fictional novel picks up where the real-life incident ends, with a serial killer slaying five people. In the plot, the flummoxed cops cannot get a clue in the case until two old locals and pals, Richard Arnold (now a homicide detective) and Bruce Harrison (a lifeguard lieutenant),\u00a0try to find the perp.<\/p>\n

Brown, who worked as a San Diego lifeguard when the Swindles were killed, was involved in the police investigation into the Swindles\u2019 deaths. He said the tragic incident stuck in his memory, prompting him to resume telling the tale of the unresolved crime. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was working as a San Diego lifeguard, and the cops asked us to help in their search for bullet cartridges, as the bodies were gone by then,\u201d said Brown, realizing years later that this was \u201cone hell of a mystery story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown opted to fast-forward his fictional story to 2018 with a new serial killer and more bodies washing up at sea.<\/p>\n

Without revealing any major plot details, Brown notes readers of his new novel will discover who the murderer is this time around \u201cabout halfway through.\u201d Of what inspired him to conceptualize \u201cMurder in International Orange,\u201d Brown said: \u201cIt was a story with a lot of pathos in it with main characters who solve the mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the answer to whodunnit may surprise you.<\/p>\n

Brown added he also liked that the story is based on a true incident from the history of Ocean Beach and one involving the lifeguard service.<\/p>\n

Brown said it took him about eighteen months to write the book. <\/p>\n

READ NEXT\n\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2013 Near Valentine\u2019s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle, were killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1331,3101,74,76,75,86145],"class_list":{"0":"post-181727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-murder","9":"tag-ocean-beach","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-zodiac"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}