Clifford Fortner

Background

Clifford Fortner was a 15-year-old boy from the neighborhood.

Lorna Lax was a 12-year-old girl from Kentfield, California.

The offence

Lorna Lax was stabbed and hung from a tree in suburban Marin County.

Her body was described as beaten, stabbed and strangled, and it was found in woods the next day.

The victim was described as a “tormented” girl: delinquent and a runaway.

It was discovered that she had been prostituting herself to local boys.

Clifford Fortner rendezvoused with his victim around midnight after a football game.

Lorna Lax had created a “fort” in the trees not far from her house, where she “deflowered and serviced the local boys in her ‘sex club.’”

In an allegedly post-coital rage, Clifford beat Lorna Lax with a flashlight.

Clifford then stabbed Lorna Lax with a steak knife.

Clifford tied a noose around Lorna Lax’s neck and hung her from the fig tree under which they had had sexual intercourse.

Investigation

Lorna Lax was found in woods the next day.

Other details

Clifford Fortner eventually confessed to the killing and was incarcerated.

The victim was described as knowing how to use sex for pleasure and gain.

Clifford’s brother, Norman Fortner, was 13 years old.

Norman Fortner found Lorna Lax’s body the next day.

Norman Fortner accepted an “invitation” from Lorna Lax to “come see her fort.”

After the initial shock of the crime wore off, the juveniles involved disappeared into obscurity.

A person by the name of Clifford Fortner still resided in Oakland, California.

The Lax family and Norman Fortner were nowhere to be found.

Timeline

• 14 November 1959 — A 12-year-old girl named Lorna Lax vanishes in San Francisco.
• 15 November 1959 — Lorna Lax’s beaten, stabbed and strangled body is found in woods; the same day as the Clutter murders in Kansas capturing national attention.