by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Feb. 17, 2026
Near Valentine’s Day 1964, a young, recently married couple, Johnny and Joyce Swindle, were killed by a lone sniper as they stood behind the Ocean Bean seawall watching the sunset.
This random double murder was never solved.
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.
Those killings were attributed to the infamous Zodiac Killer, who taunted police, was never apprehended, and who went silent six years later. Some criminologists became convinced that the Ocean Beach Valentine’s Day murders were an early trial experiment of this serial killer.
Many years after this unsolved real-life double homicide in Ocean Beach, author A. Lee Brown picked up the story in his fourth novel.
In Brown’s whodunnit mystery, “Murder in International Orange: A Story of Unusual Crime, Detectives & Justice,” however, the modern-day OB homicides reminiscent of the victims back in 1964 get solved, and the perp gets revealed.
Lee is the author of three previous novels — “The Varsity: A Story of America’s Underage Warriors in WWII,” “Cradle of Bitchin: A Story of Mentors, Watermen & the Sea,” about growing up in OB, and “Rules and Conflict: An Introduction to Political Life and its Study.”
“Murder in International Orange” 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.
In 2018, Brown’s 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), try to find the perp.
Brown, who worked as a San Diego lifeguard when the Swindles were killed, was involved in the police investigation into the Swindles’ deaths. He said the tragic incident stuck in his memory, prompting him to resume telling the tale of the unresolved crime.
“I 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,” said Brown, realizing years later that this was “one hell of a mystery story.”
Brown opted to fast-forward his fictional story to 2018 with a new serial killer and more bodies washing up at sea.
Without revealing any major plot details, Brown notes readers of his new novel will discover who the murderer is this time around “about halfway through.” Of what inspired him to conceptualize “Murder in International Orange,” Brown said: “It was a story with a lot of pathos in it with main characters who solve the mystery.”
And the answer to whodunnit may surprise you.
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.
Brown said it took him about eighteen months to write the book.
The afternoon after it happened me and my friend went down there. There was a large blood stain on the pavement by the wall and railing where they were standing. We went up to the spot where the shooter shot from apparently. I know there is the discussion that it was the Zodiac, but Steve Phillips details a guy in one of his books who might have been the shooter, an OB guy who was later killed in a traffic accident. About 2012 I went and photographed the location, including from the alleged shooting spot. It’s changed now.
Where were they killed exactly?
It was below the Silver Spays Apartments, where the wooden railing and the seawall met. The filled in swimming pool was there and the fence kept people from falling off the ledge. It had a view looking up the beach. The shooter was above, just off of the stairs at the end of Narragansett. The perch was along a chain link fence at the top of the slope with the pickle weed. They had been standing at the rail, apparently enjoying the view.