Baseless Prosecution of Homeless Addict

Posted on August 24, 2009 by lmharnisch
Aug. 24, 1899, Orpheum

Aug. 24, 1899: The Orpheum presents barrelistic wonders and rag time comedians, plus Joseph Adelman, master of the xylophone.

Aug. 24, 1899, Broken Glass

The Times reports "baseless prosecution" of Richard Woodward, a homeless drug addict who accidentally broke a pane of glass at a Ferguson Alley saloon.

"Chinatown":

GITTES
					-- So how are you, Morty?

			Morty is wheeling in another body with the help of an
			assistant.

							MORTY
					-- Never better. You know me, Jake.

			As he begins to move the body into the refrigerator, he
			breaks into a wrenching spasm of coughing. Gittes spots
			the other body, lowers the. sheet on Mulwray.

							GITTES
						(picking up on cough)
					-- Yeah -- so who you got there?

			Morty pulls back the sheet.

							MORTY
					Leroy Shuhardt, local drunk --
					used to hang around Ferguson's
					Alley --

			Morty brushes some sand from the man's face, laughs.

							MORTY
						(continuing)
					-- Quite a character. Lately he'd
					been living in one of the downtown
					storm drains -- had a bureau dresser
					down there and everything.

		98 Gittes has already lost interest. He starts away.

							GITTES
					-- Yeah.

							MORTY
					Drowned, too.

			This stops Gittes.

							GITTES
					Come again?

							MORTY
					Yeah, got dead drunk, passed out
					in the bottom of the riverbed.

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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1 Response to Baseless Prosecution of Homeless Addict

  1. JJ Henry's avatar JJ Henry says:
    August 25, 2009 at 8:57 am

    You omitted the line that gives this scene its irony, and at the same time pounds home one the essential clues: “In the middle of a drought the Water Commissioner drowns. Only in L. A.”

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