USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Historical and biographical record of Los Angeles and vicinity : containing a history of the city from its earliest settlement as a Spanish pueblo to the closing year of the nineteenth century ; also containing biographies of well known citizens of the past and present > Part 24
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"God and liberty. Angeles, April 7, 1836. VICTOR PRUDON, Pres. MANUEL ARZAGA, Sec."
A few days later the Junta Defensora de La Seguridad Publica disbanded; and so ended the only instance in the seventy-five years of Spanish and Mexican rule in California, of the people, by popular tribunal, taking the administration of justice out of the hands of the legally constituted authorities.
I am inclined to think that Bancroft in his "Popular Tribunals" (Vol. I) underestimates the number of murders in California among the whites during the Mexican era. These he esti- mates at six in the entire territory between 1819 and 1846. Prudon, in his vigilante address to the authorities, it will be noticed, enumerates four committed in Los Angeles, those of Feliz, Alvarez, Patiños and Jenkins, all occurring in or previous to 1836. Nicholas Fink, a German,
who kept a shop on the Calle de Los Negros, was murdered in 1841 and his store robbed. The murderers, Ascencion Valencia, Santiago Li- nares and José Duarte, were arrested, tried and found guilty by the local authorities and sen- tenced by the governor to be shot. The sentence was executed by a file of soldiers from Santa Bar- bara, the citizens standing guard to preserve order.
The murder of Fink made the fifth occurring in Los Angeles during the decade preceding the American conquest, and, if Bancroft is correct, would leave but one committed in the territory outside of Los Angeles.
This city may or may not have had a monopoly of the wickedness of the territory under Mexican rule, but in the decade following its American occupation, to paraphrase one of Prudon's meta- phors, "the dike of legal restraint was swept away by a torrent of atrocious infamy." The discovery of gold allured to California the law- defying as well as the law-abiding of many ccun- tries. They came from Europe, from South America and from Mexico. From far Australia and Tasmania came the ex-convict and the "ticket -of-leave man," and from Asia came the "heathen Chinee."
These conglomerate elements of society found the Land of Gold practically without law, and the vicious among them were not long in mak- ing it a land without order. With that inherent trait which makes the Anglo-Saxon wherever he may be an organizer, the American element of the gold seekers soon adjusted a form of govern- ment to suit the exigencies of the land and the people. There may have been too much lynch- ing, too much vigilance committee in it and too little respect for lawfully constituted authorities, but it was effective and was suited to the social conditions existing.
The strangest metamorphoscs took place in the character of the lower classes of the native Cali- fornians after the conquest. (The better classes were not changed in character by the changed coll- ditions of the country, but throughout were true gentlemen and most worthy and honorable citi- zens.) Before the conquest by the Americans they were a peaceful and contented people. There were no organized bands of outlaws among them. Life and property were safe. After the discovery of gold the evolution of a banditti be- gan and they produced some of the boldest robbers and most daring highwaymen the world has seen.
The injustice of their conquerors had much to do with producing this change. The Americans not only took possession of their country and its government, but in many cases they despoiled them of their ancestral acres and their personal
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property. Injustice rankles; and it is not strange that the more lawless among the native popula- tion sought revenge and retaliation. They were often treated by the rougher American element as aliens and intruders who had no right in the land of their birth. Such treatment embittered them more than loss of property. There were those, however, among the natives, who, once entered upon a career of crime, found robbery and mur- der congenial occupations. The plea of injustice was no extenuation for their crimes.
Los Angeles was far removed from the northern gold fields, but still it felt their influence. The immigration to the mines from Northern Mexico flowed into it and the overland tide of southwest- ern gold seekers swept through it. These streams left a debris that was a disturbing element in the current of its civic life.
When the vigilance committees, between 1851 and 1856 drove disreputable characters from San Francisco and the northern mines, many of them drifted southward and found a lodgment for a time in our city. Los Angeles was not far from the Mexican line, and anyone who desired to escape from justice, fleet mounted, could speedily put himself beyond the reach of his pursuers. All these causes and influences combined to produce that saturnalia of crime that disgraced our city in the early '50S.
Under Spanish and Mexican rule the policing of Los Angeles was done by a military guard stationed at the cuartél, or guard-house, which stood on the north side of what is now West Marchessault street, and extending across the present line of upper Main street. It was pulled down in 1849, when that street was opened into Royal street, one of the original streets of the pueblo.
After the American occupation in 1848, when the military force was removed, the constabulary force consisted of the city marshal, who was elected by the people. In 1851 the criminal ele- ment had gotten beyond the control of the city marshal and his deputies. At a meeting of the city council, July 12, 1851, Councilman John O. Wheeler offered a resolution looking to the organ- ization of the police force. An ordinance was passed to that effect. Dr. A. W. Hope volun- teered his services and was appointed Chief of Police. The force was to be composed of citizens who may voluntarily enter the same. The Chief was to receive his orders from the Mayor.
At the meeting of the council, July 18, 1851, the Chief asked that some distinguishing mark or badge might be designated for the police force. On motion of John O. Wheeler it was decided that the badge should be a white ribbon, with the following inscription on it in English and Span-
islı: "City Police-organized by the Common Council of Los Angeles, July 12, 1851. Policia Organizada por el Councilio Common de Los Angeles, 12 de Julio 1851." The "Estrella" ( The Star) job office printed one hundred of these badges at an expense of $25, which, by the way, was the first printing bill the city ever paid. This police force was a sort of vigilance committee or- ganized under the auspices of the law. If it be- came necessary it could execute a criminal first and try him afterward. A recital of all the exe- cutions by law, by mobs and vigilance commit- tees that took place in Los Angeles in the '50S and early '6os would be tedious and unprofitable. I shall note only a few of the most noted cases.
In July, 1852, two young men, McCoy and Ludwig, came from San Francisco to San Diego with the intention of purchasing cattle for the northern market. Proceeding to Los Angeles on horseback they were overtaken by two native Californians, named Doroteo Zavaleta and Jesus Rivas. The parties encamped on the banks of the San Gabriel. The Mexicans during the night treacherously murdered both men, took their saddles, horses, pistols and $300 in money, and fled to Santa Barbara. Some time afterwards Zavaleta, Rivas and a companion named Car- millo, were arrested for horse stealing. Rivas had confided to Carmillo the story of the murder of the Americans. Carmillo informed the au- thorities with the hopes of escaping punishment. All three were brought to Los Angeles and tried by a committee of the people. Zavaleta finally confessed to the murder and conducted a party of citizens to where the bodies were concealed. Rivas also confessed. They were condemned to be hanged, and at 8 o'clock next morning were taken to the top of Fort Hill, where a gallows had been erected, and there executed.
Gen. J. H. Bean, a prominent citizen of South- ern California, while returning to Los Angeles from his place of business at San Gabriel late one evening in November, 1852, was attacked by two men who had been lying in wait for him. One seized the bridle of his horse and jerked the ani- mal back on its haunches; the other seized tlie General and pulled him from the saddle. Bean made a desperate resistance, but was overpowered and stabbed to death. The assassination of Gen- eral Bean aroused the vigilance committee to renewed efforts to rid the country of desperadoes. A number of arrests were made. Five suspects were tried by the committee for various crimes. One, Cipiano Sandoval, a poor cobbler of San Gabriel, was charged with complicity in the mur- der of General Bean. He strenuously maintained that he was innocent. He, with the other four, was sentenced to be hanged. On the following
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Sunday morning the doomed men were conducted to the top of Fort Hill, where the gallows stood. Sandoval made a brief speech, again declaring his innocence. The others awaited their doom in silence. The trap fell and all were launched into eternity. Years afterward one of the real in urderers on his deathbed revealed the truth and confessed his part in the crime. The poor cob- bler was innocent.
In 1854 drunkenness, gambling, murder and all forms of immorality and crime were rampant in Los Angeles. The violent deathis, it is said, averaged one for every day in the year. It was a common question at the breakfast table, "Well, how many were killed last night?" Little or no attention was paid to the killing of an Indian or a half breed; it was only when a gente de razon was the victim that the community was aroused to action.
On the evening of November 4, 1854, a Mexi- can rode up to the door of Mr. Cassin, a merchant of Los Angeles, and deliberately fired into the house. The ball struck Mrs. Cassin in the left breast, inflicting a mortal wound. The murderer was pursued to the outskirts of the city and shot to death. Mrs. Cassin died the next day.
The Kern River gold rush, in the winter of 1854-55, brought from the Northern mines freslı relays of gamblers and desperadoes and crime increased. The Southern Californian, of March 7, 1855, commenting on the general lawlessness prevailing, says: "Last Sunday night was a brisk night for killing. Four men were shot and killed and several wounded in shooting affrays."
A worthless fellow by the name of David Brown, who had without provocation killed a companion named Clifford, was tried and sen- tenced to be hanged with one Felipe Alvitre, a Mexican, who had murdered an American named Ellington, at El Monte. There was a feeling among the people that Brown, through quibbles of law, would escape the death penalty; and there was talk of lynching. Stephen C. Foster, the mayor, promised that if justice was not legally meted out to Brown by the law, then he would resign his office and head the lynching party. On January 10, 1855, an order was received from Judge Murray, of the Supreme Court, staying the execution of Brown, but leaving Alvitre to his fate. On January 12, Alvitre was hanged by the sheriff in the jail yard in the presence of an im- mense crowd. The gallows were taken down and the guards dismissed. The crowd gathered out- side of the jail yard. Speeches were made. The mayor resigned his office and headed the mob. The doors of the jail were broken down; Brown was taken across Spring street to a large gateway opening into a corral and hanged from the cross
beam. Foster was re-elected by an almost unani- inous vote at a special election. The city mar- shal, who had opposed the action of the vigi- lantes, was compelled to resign.
During 1855 and 1856 lawlessness increased. There was an organized band of about one hun- dred Mexicans who patroled the highways rob- bing and murdering. They threatened the extermination of the Americans and there were fears of a race war, for many who were not mem- bers of the gang sympathized with them. In 1856 a vigilance committee was organized with Myron Norton as president and H. N. Alexander as secretary. A number of disreputable charac- ters were forced to leave the town. The bandit- ti, under their leaders, Pancho Daniel and Juan Flores, were plundering and committing outrages in the neighborhood of San Juan Capistrano.
On the night of January 22, 1857, Sheriff James R. Barton left Los Angeles with a posse consisting of Wm. H. Little, Chas. K. Baker, Charles F. Daley, Alfred Hardy and Frank Alexander with the intention of capturing some of the robbers. At Sepulveda's ranch next morning the sheriff's party were warned that the robbers were some fifty strong, well armed and mounted, and would probably attack them. Twelve miles further the sheriff and his men encountered a detachment of the banditti. A short, sharp engagement took place. Barton, Baker, Little and Daley were killed. Hardy and Alexander made their escape by the fleetness of their horses. When the news reached Los Angeles the excitement became intense. A public meeting was held to devise plans to rid the community not only of the roving gang of murderers, but also of the criminal classes in the city who were known to be in sympathy with the banditti. All suspicious houses were searched and some fifty persons arrested. Sev- eral companies were organized; the infantry to guard the city and the mounted men to scour the country. Companies were also formed at San Bernardino and El Monte, while the military authorities at Fort Tejon and San Diego des- patched soldiers to aid in the good work of ex- terminating crime and criminals.
The robbers were pursued into the mountains and nearly all captured. Gen. Andrés Pico, with a company of native Californians, was most efficient in the pursuit. He captured Silvas and Ardillero, two of the most noted of the gang. and hanged them where they were captured. Fifty- two were lodged in the city jail. Of these eleven were hanged for various crimes and the remainder set free. Juan Flores, one of the leaders, was condemned by popular vote and on February 14, 1857, was hanged near the top of Fort Hill in
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the presence of nearly the entire population of the town. He was only twenty-two years of age. Pancho Daniel, another of the leaders, was captured on the 19th of January, 1858, near San José. He was found by the sheriff concealed in a haystack. After his arrest he was part of the time in jail and part of the time out on bail. He had been tried three times, but through law quibbles had escaped conviction A change of venne to Santa Barbara had been granted. The people determined to take the law in their own hands. On the morning of November 30, 1858. the body of Pancho was hanging from a beam across the gateway of the jail yard. Four of the banditti were executed by the people of San Gabriel, and Leonardo Lopez under sentence of the court was hanged by the sheriff. The gang was broken up and the moral atmosphere of Los Angeles somewhat purified. January 7, 1858, Sheriff William C. Getman was killed by a Texan, named Reed (supposed to be insane), in a pawnbroker's shop. The murderer was riddled with bullets fired by the people from the outside. October 17, 1861, a Mexican named Francisco Cota entered the grocery store of Laurence Leck, near the roundhouse ou South Main street. Finding Mrs. Leck alone in the building he murdered her by cutting her throat. He was arrested and while being conducted to the jail he was seized by an excited crowd, who placed a rope around his neck, dragged him down to the corner of Aliso and Alameda streets and hanged him on the cross beam of a high gateway.
November 17, 1862, John Rains of Cucamonga Ranch was murdered near the Azusa. December 9, 1863, the sheriff was taking Manuel Cerradel to San Quentin to serve a ten years' sentence. When the sheriff went aboard the tug boat Cricket at Wilmington to proceed to the Senator, quite a number of other persons took passage. On the way down the harbor, the prisoner was seized by the passengers who were vigilantes and hanged to the rigging; after hanging twenty minutes the body was taken down, stones tied to the feet and it was thrown overboard. Cerradel was implicated in the murder of Rains. In the fall of 1863 lawlessness had again become ramp- ant in Los Angeles; one of the chiefs of the criminal class was a desperado by the name of Boston Daimwood. He was suspected of the murder of a miner on the desert and was loud in his threats against the lives of various citizens. He and four other well-known criminals, Wood, Chase, Ybarra and Olivas, all of whom were either murderers or horse thieves, were lodged in jail. On the 21st of November, two hundred armed citizens battered down the doors of the jail, took the five wretches out and hanged them
to the portico of the old courthouse on Spring street, which stood on the present site of the Phillips Block.
December 17, 1863, Charles Wilkins was hanged by the vigilance committee for the mir- der of John Sanford near Fort Tejon.
A sanguinary shooting affray occurred in the old Bella Union Hotel (now the St. Charles), July 5, 1865, between Robert Carlisle and Frank and Hueston King. Hueston King was disabled early in the engagement by a pistol ball. Frank King seized his antagonist after emptying his pistol and began beating him over the head. Carlisle broke away from him and although riddled with bullets, leaning against the door post shot King dead. Carlisle died three hours later. Huestou King recovered from his wound, was tried and acquitted.
On the 24th of October, 1871, occurred one of the most disgraceful affairs that ever happened in our city. It is known as the Chinese Massa- cre. It grew out of one of those interminable feuds between rival tongs of highbinders, over a woman. Desultory firing had been kept up between the rival factions throughout the day. About 5:30 P. M. Policeman Bilderrain visited the seat of war, an old adobe house on the corner of Arcadia street and "Nigger alley" known as the Coronel Building. Finding himself unable to quell the disturbance he called for help. Rob- ert Thompson, an old resident of the city, was among the first to reach the porch of the house in answer to the police call for help. He re- ceived a mortal wound from a bullet fired through the door of a Chinese store. He died an hour later in Wollweber's drug store. The Chinese in the meantime barricaded the doors and windows of the old adobe and prepared for battle. The news of the fight and of the killing of Thompson spread throughout the city and an immense crowd gathered in the streets around the building with the intention of wreaking vengeance on the Chinese.
The first attempt by the mob to dislodge the Chinamen was by cutting holes through the flat brea covered roof and firing pistol shots into the interior of the building. One of the besieged crawled out of the building and attempted to es- cape, but was shot down before half way across Negro alley. Another attempted to escape into Los Angeles street; he was seized, dragged to the gate of Tomlinson's Corral on New High street and hanged.
About 9 o'clock a part of the mob had suc- ceeded in battering a hole in the eastern end of the building; through this the rioters, with de- moniac howlings, rushed in, firing pistols to the right and left. Huddled in corners and hidden
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behind boxes they found eight terror-stricken Chinamen, who begged piteously for their lives. These were brutally dragged out and turned over to the fiendish mob. One was dragged to death by a rope around his neck; three, more dead than alive from kicking and beating, were hanged to a wagon on Los Angeles street; and four were hanged to the gateway of Tomlinson's Corral. Two of the victims were mere boys. While the shootings and hangings were going on thieves were looting the other houses in the Chinese quarters. The houses were broken into, trunks, boxes and other receptacles rifled of their contents, and any Chinamien found in the buildings were dragged forth to slaughter.
Among the victims was a doctor, Gene Tung, a quiet, inoffensive old man. He pleaded for his life in good English, offering his captors all his money, some $2,000 to $3,000. He was hanged, his money stolen and one of his fingers cut off to obtain a ring he wore. The amount of money stolen by the mob from the Chinese quarters was variously estimated at from $40,000 to $50,000.
About 9:30 P. M. the law-abiding citizens, un- der the leadership of Henry T. Hazard, R. M. Widney, H. C. Austin, Sheriff Burns and others. had rallied in sufficient force to make an attempt to quell the mob. Proceeding to Chinatown they rescued several Chinamen from the rioters. The mob finding armed opposition quickly dispersed.
The results of the mob's murderous work were ten men lianged on Los Angeles street, some to wagons and some to awnings; five hanged at Tomlinson's Corral and four shot to death in Negro alley-nineteen in all. Of all the China- men murdered the only one known to be impli- cated in the highbinder war was Ah Choy. 'All the other leaders escaped to the country before the attack was made by the inob. The grand jury after weeks of investigation found indict- inents against one hundred and fifty persons alleged to have been actively engaged in the massacre. The jury's report severely censured "the officers of this county as well as of this city whose duty it is to preserve peace," and declared that they "were deplorably inefficient in the per- formance of their duty during the scenes of con- fusion and bloodshed which disgraced our city, and has cast a reproach upon the people of Los Angeles County." Of all those Indicted but six were convicted. These were sentenced to from four to six years in the state's prison, but through some legal technicality they were all released after serving a part of their sentence.
The last execution in Los Angeles by a vigi- lance committee was that of Michael Lachenias, a French desperado, who had killed five or six
men. The offense for which he was hanged was the murder of Jacob Bell, a little, inoffensive man, who owned a small farm near that of Lachenias, south of the city. There had been a slight difference between them in regard to the use of water from a zanja. Lachenias, without a word of warning, rode up to Bell, where he was at work in his field, drew a revolver and shot him dead. The murderer then rode into town and boastingly informed the people of what he liad done and told them where they would find Bell's body. He then surrendered himself to the offi- cers and was locked up in jail.
Public indignation was aroused. A meeting was held in Stearns' Hall on Los Angeles street. A vigilance committee was formed and the de- tails of the execution planned. On the morning of the 17th of December, 1870, a body of three hundred armed men marched to the jail, took Lachenias out and proceeded with him to Tom- linson's Corral on Temple and New High streets, where the Law Building now stands, and hanged him. The crowd then quietly dispersed.
In the first 25 years of American rule in Los Angeles thirty five men were executed by vigi- lance committees; during the same period only eight were hanged by vigilantes in San Francisco. (The nineteen Chinese massacred by a mob are not included in the thirty-five.) Thirty years have gone since a vigilance committee inflicted the death penalty on a criminal in Los Angeles. It is to be hoped that the necessity for that form of tribunal will never again occur.
The last organized band of robbers which ter- rorized the southern part of the state was that of Vasquez. Tiburcio Vasquez was born in Mon- terey County, of Mexican parents, in 1837. Early in life he began a career of crime. His first ex- ploit was the robbery of some peddlers in Monte- rey. He next tried his hand at robbing a stage. He had gathered around him a band of despera- does who acknowledged him as leader. In 1857 he was arrested in Los Angeles County for horse stealing, convicted and sent to San Quentin. He was discharged in 1863 and continued in his dis- reputable career. He was soon joined by Proco- pio and Soto, two noted bandits. Soto was killed by Sheriff Harry Morse, the famous thief catcher of Alameda County, in a desperate fight. Vasquez with a portion of his band made a raid on the stage station of Tres Pinos, in which they murdered three men and tied up and robbed a number of others. He next robbed the stage on the Owen's River route. His last important rob- bery was that of Alexander Repetto, a large sheep owner. Vasquez and his band visited Repetto's sheep camp on the upper Los Nietos
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road near the San Gabriel River disguised as sheep herders on April 16, 1874. They seized Repettoand tied him to a tree. On pain of deatlı they compelled him to sign a check on the Tem- ple and Workman Bank for $800. A nephew of Repetto was sent to the bank to draw the money with the warning that at the first sign of treach- ery on the boy's part his uncle would be killed. The money was secured and paid over to Vas- quez. Early in May, 1874, Sheriff William R. Rowland of Los Angeles County, who had re- peatedly tried to capture Vasquez, but whose plans had been foiled by the bandit's spies, learned that the robber chief was making his headquarters at the house of "Greek George" about ten miles due west of Los Angeles, toward Santa Monica, in a cañon of the Cahuenga Moun- tains.
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