Black Dahlia Video

Posted on August 26, 2006 by lmharnisch
Click on the envelope to watch the Black Dahlia video.

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Save Those Redwoods

Posted on August 26, 2006 by lmharnisch



Aug. 27, 1907
Santa Rosa, Calif.

Elected officials addressed a large rally devoted to saving the 800-acre Armstrong Grove, named after lumber baron J.B. Armstrong, who decided to save the stand of soaring redwoods rather than clearing it.

“Armstrong Grove contains the finest and largest redwood timber in California,” The Times said. “For years it has been a great attraction to tourists and is one of the features of the Russian River section.

“When the late Capt. Armstrong owned all the timber in that vicinity and was milling it and putting the lumber on the market, he was so impressed with the beauty of this tract that he refused to allow the woodman’s ax to despoil any portion of it and decided that it should go to the state.”

Although Armstrong’s will donated the land to the state of California, the Legislature rejected the bequest over some of the will’s stipulations. Sonoma County bought the land from Armstrong’s daughter in 1916, and it wasn’t until 1934 that the state of California took over the park. To further protect the redwoods, the area was designated as a reserve in 1964.

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Death at the Lummis House

Posted on August 25, 2006 by lmharnisch


Aug. 25, 1907
Los Angeles

A 20-year-old Pueblo Indian from New Mexico was shot to death at the home of City Librarian Charles F. Lummis in a fight with a houseguest that began over a garden hose.

The gunman, Francisco Amante, 51, described as a Spanish minstrel who has been Lummis’ houseguest for two years, surrendered to police, but no charges were filed.

Lummis told police that he had known Procopio Montoya since the victim was a 2-year-old growing up in Isleta, N.M., and that he brought Montoya to Los Angeles about a year ago to work as a gardener and servant. Although Montoya was extremely devoted to his employer, he refused to obey orders from anyone else, Lummis said.

According to Lummis, Amante had planted a garden and on the morning of the killing, went out to water it with a hose. Montoya, who had already done the day’s watering, yelled: “What are you doing with that hose?” and hit Amante with a large rock.

Amante ran to his room, chased by Montoya, who was carrying another large rock. Amante got a pistol and shot Montoya in the groin.

Lummis called a doctor after unloading Amante’s pistol, saying that Montoya did not appear to be badly wounded.

“Amante went to see him and the lad asked the Spaniard’s pardon for having struck him with the stone. Then he embraced the old man. Just about 6 o’clock, he died,” The Times said.

The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of self-defense.

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A Jaunt Across Country Goes Awry

Posted on August 23, 2006 by lmharnisch

A Jaunt Across Country Goes Awry

Aug. 23, 1907
Los Angeles

William Renwick, recent graduate of Pomona College, was to attend Yale in the fall, and rather than more mundane modes of travel decided to head East by auto in what he hoped would be the first transcontinental motor tour to begin in Los Angeles. To ensure that he arrived on time, he left in his Olds machine July 23, accompanied by professor E.E. Chandler.

“The couple were well-equipped for the long and tedious journey,” The Times said. “Renwick, as on one of his former appearances in public, looked like a walking arsenal, prepared for bears or Indians, but the only game encountered were jack rabbits.”

Unfortunately, the trip did not proceed well. On Aug.17, Renwick became ill and left the Olds in Ogden, Utah, for repairs while he visited friends in South Dakota to recuperate. Note: 727 miles in 25 days = 29 Miles Per Day or 1.211 MPH.

In the meantime, Chandler abandoned plans to accompany Renwick the rest of the way to Yale because his vacation was nearly over.

Chandler “reports that the trip was uneventful except for several hard-luck mishaps which befell them en route. Several breaks occurred, one when they were stuck in the sand and another when they struck a large rock and bent the axle. On another occasion they took the wrong road and went 50 miles out of their course before they saw anyone to direct them.”

Unfortunately, if Renwick and his Olds arrived at Yale, it was never recorded in The Times.

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The Rich Owens Saga

Posted on August 22, 2006 by lmharnisch

Oklahoma City
Feb. 27, 1948


Ray Parr’s story about Rich Owens, the longtime executioner at McAlester State Penitentiary, has been knocking around my home office for ages, passed along by a former co-worker many years ago. Writing for the Daily Oklahoman, Parr painted a long, vivid portrait of the man who killed 75 human beings: 65 by electrocution, one by the gallows, two with a knife, six with a gun and one with a shovel. And there could have been more: “I never count peckerwoods,” he said.

By 1948, Owens was bedridden and dying of cancer. Parr paid a final visit to the old executioner to see how he was facing his own death. The headline (incomplete in my copy) says:

“Afraid of Death?
Now Rich Owens
Has the Answer.”

Part II

Part III

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Unrest in Morocco

Posted on August 20, 2006 by lmharnisch


Casa Blanca, Morocco
Aug. 20, 1907

The Times carries a vivid description of a battle between Moorish tribesmen, French sharpshooters and spahis (Arabs in the French service), and though the story is extremely detailed about the fighting, there isn’t a word of background as to the cause.

The unrest dates to March 1907, when a mob in Marrakesh killed Dr. Emile Mauchamp, a member of the geodetic survey. Further inquiry shows that there was a general attack on Europeans in which a British official killed two people.

The French officials and newspapers demanded reprisals for the killing of the scientist, and French troops crossed from Algeria into Morocco. The Moors, however, become “more and more insolent,” with the sultan refusing to respect French rights. The French eventually occupied Casablanca.

In August, there was further fighting between Moroccan troops and the French. Later that month, The Times editorialized: “The Moslems evidently do not intend to lie down until they are shot down. The discontent and resentment against foreigners in Morocco are becoming more and more intense.”


In September, The Times reports: “About 6,000 Moors participated in Monday’s fight. The Moors, who were repulsed on all sides, made a most impressive picture as, garbed fantastically mounted on wild horses and carrying their banners in the front line, they swept down from the hills in splendid formation and charged thunderously to within about 400 yards of the French, who, for a moment, seemed in danger of being overridden.

“As they advanced, the Moors chanted verses from the Koran.”

On Sept. 23, 1907, peace is declared in Morocco. For now, anyway.

Read more about the Mauchamp affair.

The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica article is here.

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The Bucket of Blood

Posted on August 13, 2006 by lmharnisch



Aug. 12-13, 1907
Los Angeles

Despite the name Bismarck Cafe, police call the saloon at Main and Winston Streets the Bucket of Blood because it’s a continual source of crime and violence.

It is a place, The Times says, “of drunken debauchery among girls of tender ages, painted women and men. Into this immoral pesthole, young girls are enticed nightly to drink and listen to a band concert. Although the police make arrests in this dive every night, it is allowed to run unmolested.”


The Bismarck’s bill of fare is limited: beans, sandwiches and liquor. There is a women’s entrance in the alley off Winston that leads to one section of the cafe. Another section features the bar, along with some tables “where men lounge around to meet some young girl or woman,” The Times says, and between the two is the bandstand.

There’s sawdust on the floor, and “with an ordinary garden rake, the filth is cleaned out once a day,” The Times says.

Soon, a fight broke out between two men over who was going to buy a drink for a woman. Waiters pulled the men apart, but they moved to another part of the saloon and started fighting again. One of them, J.A. Salas, pulled a gun. Police discovered that Salas and his partner Edward Wilson, had stolen the pistol in a burglary at the Hotel Marlowe, 5th Street and Main, earlier that night.

Before police could take Salas away, another fight broke out in which a man threw a beer glass across the table and hit another man above the eye. The victim lunged at his assailant and overturned the table trying to get at him.

Still another fight broke out between two women, their cries muffled by the music from the bandstand.

The next night, it was the same. “A plate of beans was placed on the table in front of a customer and then any kind of drink could be purchased…. The cafe was filled during the early part of the evening. The usual number of fights took place and several girls were seen drinking at the tables.”

A woman who is down on her luck gets her meals and drinks from cafe owner John Edwards in return for procuring young women customers.

“Late Saturday night there were four girls, whose dresses were above their shoe tops, in the beer hall drinking,” The Times says of the female customers procured by the unidentified woman. “Two men eagerly sought their acquaintance. They were introduced. Soon all five were seated at a table. One of the young girls refused to drink, saying that she had never tasted beer. After coaxing, she sipped at the beer occasionally. For nearly an hour, the five were seated at the table. When they left, the young girls were unsteady on their feet. The two men accompanied them.”

In the last 10 days, three female customers under the age of 18 had been taken to the hospital for treatment. One claimed she had been drugged by a young man, the other two had passed out.

“I am getting tired of this life,” said the procuress. “For several weeks I have been out of work and have lived at the Bucket of Blood. If you stand in with the manager down here you can get all you want to eat and drink. They will feed you if you get a bunch coming down with you every night.”

The day after the Times story appeared, the cafe was a temple of propriety. “A man was stationed at the ‘ladies entrance’ and no person of questionable age was admitted. The waiters were instructed to keep customers as quiet as possible. In several selections rendered by the band there were strains of sacred music. The plain words of John Edwards were: ‘I am taking no chances.’ ”

The Times tells a compelling tale, but neglects to mention a key fact: The Bismarck is a stronghold of organized labor, while the paper is staunchly anti-union. It isn’t until the next year, when Edwards was put under a boycott for firing a union bartender, that The Times began portraying him as a fearless opponent of organized labor.

“For 20 years I was a member of the bricklayers union,” Edwards says. “But I will not stand for the manner in which they are trying to run things now. When I was a union man we tried to get good men into our ranks. My idea of the proper way to run a union is to make it attractive so that men will want to join. This idea that, because a man does not see fit to join a union, he cannot work, won’t go with me. It’s not square, and I, for one, don’t propose to stand for it.”

The Police Commission closed the Bismarck in June 1908. The address, 426 S. Main St., is currently occupied by the Blossom Restaurant.

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A Major Commitment

Posted on August 11, 2006 by lmharnisch


I put a Satsuma mandarin orange tree in the backyard today, a nice healthy one, and was impressed with the realization of what a commitment it is.

Actually, the Satsuma is a replacement for a smaller one that flourished and bore fruit for a year but turned a nasty brown and died when I gave it too much chelated iron.

In the last month, I spent a fair amount of time preparing the soil after ripping up an old brick patio that was uneven and bulging from tree roots and extending my sprinkler system 45 feet to turn bare dirt into lawn—or something greener than bare dirt, anyway.

And then I planted the Satsuma, a serious investment because it was the biggest I could find. Of course, I could have put in another type of orange tree—something that’s cheaper and less of a challenge. In fact, I have a navel orange tree out front that grows like a weed and takes no care at all other than cutting off suckers. But the fruit doesn’t have much taste, while the Satsumas are deliciously tangy and tart. Only a Satsuma would do.

San Gabriel Nursery assured me when I bought it that I could leave the Satsuma in the container and it would do fine. But I don’t do things casually, and I think trees—if you’re serious about them—belong in the ground. For keeps.

Since I was intent on planting it in the yard, I had to haul the heavy container around to decide where the tree would look best, which was a fair amount of work. I picked the spot, dug my hole and carefully unpotted the roots.

And in it went, circled by a ring of bricks from the old patio to help hold water.

Of course planting the tree is merely beginning. Now come the weeks and months of watchful care. Water but not too much water. Citrus food but not too many chemicals (remembering the sad effects of too much chelated iron). And then there’s my shade abatement program, which is causing a bit of anxiety in the neighboring trees.

There’s already fruit on the Satsuma, and if all goes well, it should be ripe around Thanksgiving or a few weeks before Christmas.

Wish me luck. I’m committed to this thing.

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Blind Justice

Posted on August 7, 2006 by lmharnisch


Aug. 7, 1907
Los Angeles


He swore at her and told her to go to hell. He rarely worked and only helped her run their boarding house when he felt like it. She hid all the butcher knives to keep him from killing her and their little girl. She hid his pistol in a bag of rags and sold it. She threw his razor down between two houses.

Finally, she sought a divorce after he came home drunk Feb. 22, 1907, and began hammering on the doors, threatening to break them down, and promising to kill her and their daughter, who had sought refuge with one of the lodgers in their boarding house.

Paul J. and Kate A. Conrad had known each other for 18 years, according to testimony, and although she detested being with him, she said: “I hated to have people think I had such a husband that I couldn’t live with.”

Nearly blind, Paul Conrad left his family and came West from Buffalo, N.Y., in hopes that his vision would improve in Los Angeles. He had sold her interest in a saloon—for too low a price, she said.

Once in California, he persuaded her to sell her candy store for $500 ($10,261.79 USD 2005) , give him half the money and bring their daughter, Irene, to Los Angeles, where they began a boarding house at 1145 Maple Ave.

At dinner, “Conrad had asked that some dish be passed to him and after waiting, reached for it gropingly, and finally plunged his hand into the syrup. He had burst forth in angry profanity at his wife, it was said, raging at her for not passing what he had wanted,” The Times said.

Conrad admitted that he had been drinking on the night in question and that he had made a disturbance, but said his anger was not directed at his wife but at one of the boarders. He said he had taken some of their furniture, although complaining that it had not been divided fairly, and started a smaller boarding house of his own.

Upon hearing the testimony, Judge Bordwell ruled against Kate Conrad’s plea for a divorce.

“He said that as Mrs. Conrad had known Paul Conrad since she was a girl of 13 and had been his wife for 18 years, it was rather late in the day for her to decide she did not want him any more,” The Times said.

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From the Florentine Gardens

Posted on August 5, 2006 by lmharnisch
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One Name in Many Accents: America

Posted on August 4, 2006 by lmharnisch


Aug. 4, 1907
Galveston, Texas

The Times reports on the Jewish Territorial Organization headed by author and playwright Israel Zangwill and banker Jacob Schiff to help Jews fleeing persecution in Russia.


In July, the first group of 50 immigrants arrived in Galveston to be hosted and then dispersed throughout the American Southwest. “Whenever an agent of the branch society heard of a Hebrew in stricken Russia who planned a journey to America, he called upon him,” The Times said. “Go to Galveston,” he advised. “Join us and find a home in the West.”

“The growing cities and towns of the West and Southwest sent news of their urgent needs and among these the newcomers were divided because the demand was far greater than the supply, for all through the West the cry is for more workers,” The Times said.

The newcomers spoke in Yiddish, German and Polish, but “America in a dozen different accents always sounds like ‘America,’ ” The Times said.

“The sound of splashing came from the bathrooms. It had been three weeks since any of the party had enjoyed a fresh-water event of the nature. It wrought a transformation. High Russian boots that had been worn outside went inside of wide Russian trousers. Blouses and shirts that had once waved full length in the breeze were stowed away in the manner of an American.”

The Galveston Plan brought about 10,000 Jews to America between 1907 and 1914.

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Was That an Earthquake?

Posted on August 3, 2006 by lmharnisch

Aug. 3, 1907
Los Angeles

An enormous explosion shattered the night in the Dayton Heights neighborhood near what is now Virgil Avenue and Middlebury Street.

“The shock of the explosion awakened people for blocks around, many of them rushing out of doors in their nightclothes, fearing that an earthquake had occurred,” The Times said. “Several men were on the scene in a few minutes.”

Neighbors discovered Mrs. William Morley, dazed and stumbling outside the smoking ruin that was once her six-room home. Morley said she had gone to the kitchen to cook something and when she struck a match to light her gasoline stove, the blast blew out the walls of the house, which burned to the ground.

“She did not say how she happened to be up at that hour, fully dressed,” The Times said. “The mysterious feature about the case is the fact that the explosion was strong enough to wreck the building and still left the woman uninjured.”

The house was valued at $1,000 ($20,523.57 USD 2005) and the contents at $500 ($10,261.79 USD 2005). Domania has the current values.
Above, a home-wrecking gasoline stove.

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The Frustrations of Research

Posted on August 2, 2006 by lmharnisch


Aug. 2, 1907
Los Angeles

The Times reports the death of Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown, a prominent woman physician who was active in the Red Cross. Although we know where she lived (Vermont and 30th Street), we have no idea where she went to school, her age or whether she had any survivors. Nor are we told why she was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., rather than Los Angeles.

A Google search reveals that Hall-Brown was a frequent correspondent with Clara Barton, but not much more.

Still, it’s worth looking at any woman doctor from this period in history, so we can mine The Times obituary from some interesting facts: We know that she attended a Red Cross conference at Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1887 and another one in Vienna in 1897.

The Times also says she attended the International Congress of Medicine and Electro-Therapeutics in Paris in 1900 and was a member of the American Social Science Association. She made 25 trips to Japan, most recently in a 1906 tour sponsored by The Times, was a guest lecturer on hygiene and physiology at schools in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kobe, and had returned to Los Angeles in July after a recent visit.

Her memorial was held at the Garret funeral home, 1237 S. Flower St., performed by the Rev. William Horace Day, the minister at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles at 8th Street and Hook. He later became the first president of Pomona College and died in 1942.

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The Angry Swarm

Posted on August 1, 2006 by lmharnisch

Aug. 1, 1907
Los Angeles

A mass of bees “wandering in from the country” swirled along Broadway, forcing dainty young women and the toughest police officer to seek cover in a vain attempt to avoid being stung.

“Whether attracted to the neighborhood by the bevy of pretty girls who happened to be there or by the flowered hats on display in the show windows is not known,” The Times said.

The bees appeared around 6th Street and South Broadway, where women dropped their packages and hiked their skirts to run for safety. The sight of all those women’s stockings “would have caused a barber’s pole to blush,” The Times said.

A patrolman came to investigate the ruckus and was stung. “From the entrance to Mercantile Place to the car tracks on Broadway the bees covered the pavement,” The Times said.

Fanciful or not, the newspaper reported that one of the bees became enchanted with a Victrola in a music shop playing “Honey, I’ll Sure Be Yours” and came off second best with the phonograph.

After about an hour, the bees drifted up Broadway. At 3rd Street, a frightened woman deserted her flower stand, and at 2nd Street, the merchants discussed whether to call the Fire Department. But before firefighters could respond, the bees moved on toward Buena Vista (later renamed as a continuation of North Broadway).

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Shout Out!

Posted on August 1, 2006 by lmharnisch
Stanford University: 171.64.39.32

Harvard University 140.247.119.61

STF Productions: 65.119.11.2

NASA: 137.78.209.37

NATO Defence College: 81.208.88.162

UCI Medical Center

Hurry back!

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She Winged Him

Posted on July 31, 2006 by lmharnisch

July 31, 1907
Los Angeles

After a delay due to illness, newsboy Charles “Winnipeg” Wilson took the stand to testify against Evelyn Ferguson, who is accused of shooting him because he was attacking her friend Grace Ryan.

Although “she was not in a condition at the time of the shooting to remember much about how it happened,” Ryan testified that she and Ferguson had returned from a day at the beach when they began fighting with Wilson and a group of companions.

Wilson testified that he and his friends, including a police officer named Norris, had also spent the day at the beach and on the way back to his room, stopped to buy some beer. When they arrived at his room, a fight broke out between him and Ferguson, who was accused of grabbing Officer Norris’ pistol and shooting Wilson in the back.

Unfortunately, nothing further can be found on this case. But one lesson is the age-old truth that alcohol and firearms do not mix.

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Tragic Traffic

Posted on July 30, 2006 by lmharnisch

July 30, 1907
Los Angeles

A horse and buggy had been hitched outside Jevne’s grocery store at 6th Street and Broadway when a furniture van hit the buggy, frightening the horse.


As the terrified animal ran down Broadway, it swerved onto the sidewalk at 7th Street to avoid a streetcar and plunged through a plate glass window in the lobby of the Hotel Lankershim, scattering a room full of guests.

“The horse was so severely cut in the neck, front legs and shoulder that it was killed,” The Times said.


Above, the Hotel Lankershim.

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Too Many Laws

Posted on July 28, 2006 by lmharnisch

July 28, 1907
Los Angeles

City officials, hampered by a bramble bush of old and unenforced laws, have appointed deputy prosecutor Eddie to prune back outdated and unnecessary regulations from the early days of Los Angeles.

Among the old regulations are bans on “rabbit coursing,” in which the animals were released to be chased down by dogs; bear baiting (an event dating to the days of Shakespeare involving a fight to the death between a chained bear and dogs); fighting between a bull and bear that were chained together; and cockfighting on public streets.

“Eddie’s office resembled a secondhand bookstore yesterday morning, when the attorney began work. Every ordinance ever passed by any council since the city’s birth was there,” The Times said.

Other antique ordinances forbid conductors to abandon their streetcars at the end of the line to go quail hunting. Another law banned mounted police officers from shooting through the windows of streetcars in Boyle Heights.

“We know that we have a big job ahead of us but we are willing to work hard at it and try to get the city laws in some kind of presentable shape,” Eddie said. “There are close to 15,000 ordinances on record. Of that number, nearly half have been repealed at some time or another.

“When a complaint is made regarding some misdemeanor under the present conditions we often file a complaint only to find that the ordinance has been repealed at some later date. In many instances, ordinances have been passed, repealed and passed again every two years as one power or the other gained political prestige.”

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A Blight on the Land

Posted on July 27, 2006 by lmharnisch

July 27, 1907
Los Angeles

One of Mayor Harper’s promises in taking over City Hall, along with completing the Owens Valley aqueduct and building a library, is to purify the city’s billboards.

Although the City Council presented him with a new billboard law in March 1907, Harper vetoed the measure because it was too lax, despite lobbying by companies that said tighter laws would affect 300 sign painters and other workers.

In June, the Municipal League mounted a contest for photos of the ugliest spots in Los Angeles and entries featured billboards, dirty alleys and unkempt vacant lots. (The worst eyesore was the lot at 7th Street and South Spring occupied by the Los Angeles Express). “Many other places where neighborhoods are subjected to unnecessary and shocking disfigurement were found by the camera, including vacant lots, hideous displays of billboards, tottering shacks and other monstrosities,” The Times said.

In late June, the city passed a new billboard ordinance that imposed a sliding scale for license fees and a quarterly tax on billboards of 0.25 of a cent for every square foot. Varney and Green, one of the city’s larger billboard companies, brought a suit against the measure, charging that it was discriminatory and would put the firm out of business.

The billboard law was upheld in court in December 1907.


Above, Mayor Harper’s goals for his administration.

Note especially item No. 11–more police officers–and item No. 17: new schools.

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Burning Bridges

Posted on July 25, 2006 by lmharnisch

July 25, 1907
Arcadia, Calif.

Despite the efforts of 75 volunteer firefighters, a blaze rapidly consumed a 150-foot wooden bridge on Foothill Boulevard over the Santa Anita between Arcadia and Monrovia.

Although the firefighters had a chemical apparatus, “neither pump nor hose was available to make use of the water supply in an irrigation division box within a few feet of the bridge,” The Times said. “The draft up the canyon caused the flames to spread underneath the planking and trusses more rapidly than on top and rendered futile the most strenuous efforts of the fire brigade.”

Built by the county about 1897, the bridge became city property when Arcadia was incorporated in 1903 and thus it was up to Arcadia to rebuild it. The Times said a quick replacement was vital as there was no good alternative route to Monrovia and because Foothill Boulevard was the main thoroughfare to Pasadena and Los Angeles.

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