June 20, 1938

609 E. 2nd St. in 1938, above, and the neighborhood via Google street view, below. View Larger Map
	At left, thugs vandalizing Jewish businesses in Berlin observe a day of rest. Above, D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" at the Criterion, 7th and Grand. Yes, that's a Klansman, for those who have never seen the movie. Email me

Ruben Salazar, RIP

Ruben Salazar, from the Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429), Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA

 

 

Above, the news story on the death of Ruben Salazar, by Charles T. Powers and Jeff Perlman. Below, a tribute to Salazar by the late Frank del Olmo, Aug. 24, 1980.

"I think he often wrote his columns explaining things like 'Who is a Chicano and what is it that Chicanos want?' as much to clarify things in his own mind as he did to clarify them for his Anglo and other readers. And one of the saddest things about his death is that Ruben died never having fully answered many of those questions for himself, or for the Chicano community.... I know he was not a Chicano saint. But I know he was not just another Mexican American, either. " --Frank del Olmo, Los Angeles Times

 

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Raymond bombing

Feb. 16, 1938
Los Angeles

 

 

Saved by the cross

 

Feb. 6, 1958
Los Angeles

This was supposed to be a simple story, a story about second chances: A 75-cent crucifix saves the life of a teenage thief who is shot in the chest. Lying in his hospital bed, he exclaims: "I'm gonna reform!"

But life is rarely so simple. Instead, it's a story of East L.A. gangs, violence and murder.

His name was Elias Alvarado. He was 17 years old and lived at 3773 Princeton St. On the night he went into the Jewel Theater, he was on parole from the Fred C. Nelles School in Whittier with arrests for burglary, auto theft and assault with a deadly weapon.

According to an usher at the theater, Elias and three friends stole a purse belonging to Delia Gross, the wife of the theater manager, Loren Gross. The usher said he chased the four youths to the lobby, where Elias pulled a knife.

"We've been held up in the past and I've been assaulted by some guys in the theater, that's why I carry the gun," the usher said.

"I'm a very religious guy," Elias told the Mirror. "I had a beautiful gold crucifix but I lost it. Then about two months ago an old man came up to me in Laguna Park in East Los Angeles and sold me this one for 75 cents. I'm gonna reform. I've been religious before but what happened tonight taught me something. I'm gonna be even more religious from now on."

It's a nice story of redemption and second chances.

But it's not complete.

Elias said something else. He denied taking part in any purse-snatching. "All I know is that I heard a dame yelling and somebody grabbed me," he said. "It's dark inside a movie house, y'know."

At the time, that didn't seem to bother anyone. As far as The Times was concerned, Elias lived to repent and got a second chance.

But someone else also got a second chance that night: The usher at the Jewel Theater who shot Elias with a .32 semiautomatic. 

His name was Lorenzo Castro. He was 18 and lived at 9212 Abbotsford Road, Pico Rivera. On the night he shot Elias, he also had a record of arrests: for driving a car without the owner's permission and for carrying a concealed weapon. He too had been paroled -- from a state forestry camp.

You see, in the 1950s, the Jewel Theater, 3817 Whittier Blvd., was a hangout for the White Fence Gang, one of the city's oldest and most violent Eastside groups, according to The Times. In 1952, a couple of gang members jumped an off-duty LAPD officer when he asked them and their girlfriends to stop drinking and swearing. According to a 1953 Times story, the White Fence Gang hung out at the Fresno Street Playground, which was on Fresno near Olympic Boulevard. (I'm assuming it was about here).

Lorenzo wasn't charged with shooting Elias, but after that he had been harassed by the gang, he said. "Ever since that other time the White Fence Gang has been giving me a bad time. They've been pushing me around the theater," he said.

He said that on Feb. 23, a Sunday, some White Fence members had harassed him at the theater. On his 6 p.m. dinner break, Lorenzo and a friend, Ruben Ramos, 20, cruised East L.A. and at East 6th Street and Grande Vista, Lorenzo supposedly saw two of the gang members who had harassed him, police said.

Lorenzo and Ruben forced Gerald De La O, 14, and George Rodriguez, 13, into the car and drove up to Soledad Canyon. Once they arrived, Lorenzo told the two boys to get out of the car and start walking. When they were about 15 feet away, he ordered them to turn around and shot them. As they lay on the ground, Gerald kept moaning while George whispered for him to be quiet. Hearing the moaning, Lorenzo returned and shot Gerald again; then he fired at George, but missed.

Gerald died, but George, although wounded, survived by pretending to be dead. Once Lorenzo and Ruben left, George walked to get help and flagged down a truck driver.

Police said Lorenzo had prepared an elaborate alibi to cover his story in the shootings. According to The Times, police and sheriff's deputies said gangs played no role in the fatal kidnapping. Neither suspect  was a gang member, police said. George's family also said he wasn't in a gang. The Times says nothing about whether Gerald was a gang member, so we don't know.

Lorenzo was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Ruben was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to five years to life. He was deported to Mexico in 1962. A Catholic when he entered prison, Ruben became a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1971 asked the Governor's Board of Executive Clemency to allow him to return to the U.S. so he could have his marriage recognized at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

Did Elias really pull a knife the night he was shot? Did Lorenzo have a reason to shoot him or was he just a gun-crazy youth? We don't know because The Times never wrote anything further about Elias Alvarado, George Rodriguez or Lorenzo Castro. We can only hope that they took advantage of their second chances.

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Harry Raymond bombing

Feb. 3, 1938
Los Angeles

 Paul Wright collapses on the witness stand ... A car plays "Nearer, My God, to Thee" when it reaches 60 mph ... A member of the LAPD Intelligence Unit surrenders in the investigation of the Harry Raymond bombing ... Germany's Marshal Werner von Blomberg resigns after marrying a woman who is "socially impossible," clearing the way for the rise of Nazi leader Hermann Goering ... Japanese Foreign Minister Koki Hirota's informal remark that a state of war exists between his nation and China prompts U.S. senators to demand that President Roosevelt invoke the neutrality act ... And longshoremen's union leader Harry Bridges is in court ... On the jump: 25-cent highballs at Al Levy's Tavern.

 

Click here to download the full page: Download 1938_0203_cover.jpg

Click here to download the runover: Download 1938_0203_ro.jpg

Raymond bombing

Dist. Atty. Buron Fitts charges Police Capt. Earle Kynette* with attempted murder ... An Assembly committee issues more than 100 subpoenas in an investigation of vice, graft and corruption in Los Angeles ... Caltech engineers discuss the possibility of sending a rocket into space. On the jump: Wedding bells for King Zog of Albania?

* Some Times stories misspell Kynette's first name--Earle--as Earl and I have repeated that error.

 

Raymond bombing

This is getting complicated. Police Capt. Earle Kynette has been cleared by Police Chief Davis and has promised to capture whoever attached a bomb to Harry Raymond's car. Kynette has already been charged with wiretapping Raymond's phone. Now he's in hiding because Dist. Atty. Buron Fitts wants to charge him with attempted murder ... I have never head of the Wives of Spanking Husbands Club, but I can't believe it was on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, never mind the Daughters of Spanking Parents ... And the buffalo nickel is doomed!

On the jump, a judge halts formation of a grand jury in the Raymond case ... And the Los Angeles Fire and Police Protective League accuses Kynette of trying to wreck the union. I can't help but think 1938 must have been a fabulous year to be a reporter in Los Angeles.

 

Raymond bombing

You're reading this correctly: Police Chief Davis insists the LAPD had nothing to do with the Harry Raymond bombing, and Capt. Earle Kynette, who is out on bail on charges of wiretapping Raymond's home, says he'll have the culprits in custody quite soon ... An update from the Spanish Civil War ... And a racehorse owner denies being involved in a bookie operation at Santa Anita ...

 

Raymond bombing

Mayor Frank Shaw says he has the "utmost confidence" in the LAPD's investigation of the Harry Raymond bombing. He also says there is no evidence of police involvement in the blast ... Allegations of police corruption in Arcadia ... The U.S. Embassy in Nanking protests actions by Japanese soldiers--to no avail ... How to keep women happy ... And a man attempting suicide jumps from the eighth floor of the Pacific Electric Building, 610 S. Main, but is uninjured when his fall is broken by the wire mesh in a glass skylight.

Historic note: One of Mayor Fletcher Bowron's first acts after defeating Shaw in the 1938 recall election was to demand the resignation of more than 100 Shaw appointees.

 

Raymond bombing

Jan. 21, 1938
Los Angeles

The state attorney general's office steps into the bombing investigation and everyone in our cast of characters gets ready for the drama. (I love the front page photo of Police Capt. Earle Kynette). On the jump, a photo page gives a better idea of the relationship between Harry Raymond's house on Orme and the police surveillance post on 7th Street. Looks like the Daily Mirror will be making another field trip. I don't want to give too much of the story away, but keep your eye on Joe Shaw. In fact, watch everybody. (Also on the jump, two police officers are convicted of rolling drunks--the LAPD was incredibly corrupt during the Shaw era).

Also note (and I don't have time to do more than mention it) the Paul Wright murder case, which was one of Aggie Underwood's favorites, mostly because the newspapers had to sanitize what the victims were doing when they were killed. To vastly simplify a complicated case, Wright went to bed, leaving his wife and his best friend in the living room. Only he really didn't go to bed (I don't know how he could sleep, no matter how tanked he was, since she was supposedly playing the piano); as I recall from the files, he stayed up and spied on them using a full-length mirror on the bedroom door. He caught them in the act and shot them both with a Luger.

And yes, all of them had been "drinking heavily."

 

Paul Coates

Jan. 13, 1958

Juvenile terror has been a fact in this town for a long time. It's nothing new.

But there is something new about the latest series of outbreaks which hit the headlines over the last few days.

Take a look at the stories:

First, there was the 16-year-old honor student son of a Norwalk high school principal who went on a wild spree with some "model youth" friends and ended up firing three bullets into a liquor store clerk.

There there were the dozen boys from typical, conservative middle-class homes who filed into court last week to be sentenced for terrorizing the men, women and children of a quiet neighborhood in North Hollywood.

There was Barbara Burns, 19-year-old daughter of the late comic, Bob, and her young Hollywood society friends who became caught on their own doorsteps in a vicious web of narcotics.

And, over the weekend, there was the arrest of 14 young men, including five star Glendale college athletes, for some of the most senseless, destructive acts of vandalism reported here in years.

The young men, most of them 18 and 19, allegedly caused more than $15,000 worth of damage to some 40 parked cars by aimlessly attacking the empty vehicles with hatchets, crowbars and rocks.

In newspaper accounts of the above stories, there were some striking similarities.

In nearly ever case, the youths were reported to have been from "good families, from excellent environment."

In those cases involving robbery, the kids invariably were quoted as saying that they didn't do it for the money. They had money.

And when asked why they did what they did, they had other stock answers:

"I don't know... for kicks maybe... Nothing else to do."

I think that now might be a good time to emphasize the fact that none of these kids were from the so-called "underprivileged, gang-infested" Eastside of town.

In fact, when these stories were making black headlines, there were some stories about Eastside "kid gangs" buried much deeper in the news.

In case you didn't see them, they concerned Eastside "kid gang" activities like collecting food for poor families, like planning charity benefit dances.

Councilman Ed Roybal has griped for years that newspapers "protect" the delinquent kids of high income neighborhoods and repeatedly blow up juvenile disturbances on the Eastside into "gang wars" and "rat pack terrorism."

I don't agree with Roybal.

And I think police statistics will back me up. There has been much more juvenile trouble in low-income neighborhoods than in high-income ones.

But over the last 15 or 20 years, there has been quite a change in our Eastside.

Most of the slum areas are gone. Some vanished by edict of the city. But more disappeared simply as a result of the hard work and sincere effort by those who inhabited them to give their kids something a little better.

Eastside and Southside gang problems haven't been wiped out, by any means.

Still left is a lot of the fear and poverty which drives kids into bands of their own for protection and something called "status."

But those kid gangs which are still active aren't usually guilty of the same type of offense which we've been reading about for the last week. Gang members' strange code of honor allows them to maim and kill each other, but usually it spares the outsiders--the women and children.

This is by way of explanation, not excuse.

This weekend, I talked with a longtime Eastside social worker. I asked him for his analysis of Eastside teenagers and the so-called "more favored" ones.

"There's never been a lot of difference," he said. "Except that, on the whole, most of the other kids got off to a better start in life."

I asked him how, recently, the two groups seemed to be finding their positions somewhat reversed.

"Maybe," he answered me, "it's part of growing up. Kids are known rebels at certain ages.

"You take a kid, tell him he's not expected to amount to anything, then give him a little encouragement--and watch him fight to make good.

"Take another kid, give him everything, tell him he can't miss being successful with his background. Then offer him a little temptation--and watch him try to make a liar out of you."

L.A.'s got a problem--and it's not going to be solved by gawking bystanders.

       

Fatal rage

Oct. 6, 1957
Los Angeles

Joe and Ruby had four young children, but were treating them so badly that a warrant was issued on charges of neglect.

Juvenile Officers Roy Keene and Connie Kennedy went to the home at 1328 Concord St. Joe fought with Keene, who had managed to get one handcuff fastened. Joe swung the loose handcuff as a weapon, beating Keene in the face.

With John, 6, Steve, 5, Robert, 3, and Judy, 3 months, nearby, Officer Keene drew his pistol and shot Joe in the stomach.

In the meantime, officers had stopped Ruby at Temple and Figueroa on another matter and as she was being questioned, she heard the shooting reported over the police radio.

Transported to the Hollenbeck station, Ruby was told that Joe Verdin, 26, had died at General Hospital. She was arrested on the child neglect warrant and the children were turned over to the authorities.

Unfortunately, The Times didn't pursue this story, so we don't know what happened. According to the Social Security Death Index, a woman named Ruby Verdin died in 2006 in Salt Lake City at the age of 83. We can only hope for the best.

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Political prayers

Sept. 10-30, 1957
Los Angeles

I have only touched in passing on Arkansas Gov. Orville Faubus' fight to prevent the integration of Central High School in Little Rock. (Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to block federally ordered integration. In response to a request by Little Rock Mayor Woodrow Mann, President Eisenhower sent 1,000 troops from the 101st Airborne Division to maintain order).

But it is worth noting that the events in Little Rock weighed heavily on the congregations of Los Angeles, as reflected in this prayer, which was quoted in The Times:

Heavenly Father, we invoke thy blessing upon these beloved United States in an hour of grave domestic crisis. We pray divine guidance for the president, his counselors and advisers and for the governors and other officials of the several states. 

We pray that thou wilt implant racial harmony in the hearts of man, that no man may hate his brother in his heart or in his school, and that all men shall know that they are brothers, the children of one God. 

We pray for the speedy and just settlement of issues which assume the false doctrine of racial inequality. We pray that this just and loving resolution shall come with peace and not violence, with love and not force, and that right shall be established without recrimination or revenge.
 
This we pray, O Lord, for thou hast taught us since ancient days that in thy common fatherhood there can be no man-made distinctions introduced. May all men in these United States without regard to color or geographical distribution, repent before thee at this holy season the hatreds of the heart and make affirmation of the desire and the intent to work for a good future for all citizens of this land and of the world. 
 

And with that prayer, Rabbis Max Nussbaum and William Kramer of Hollywood's Temple Israel began the observance of Rosh Hashana, ushering in the year 5718.

Current events also figured in the prayer of Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin of Wilshire Boulevard Temple:

May it be a year of peace and not of war--not even a cold war. Somehow or other, by dint of intelligence or by some miracle coming from God Almighty, may the nations of the earth develop a greater spirit of cooperation. 

Let it be a year in which the trying problem of integration may resolve itself without bloodshed, strife, bitter words and the acid of hatred. 

May juvenile crime decrease and our youth appreciate the privilege of living in this great and beautiful country and avail themselves of its blessings. May the young be filled with loyalty to our country and devotion to the highest ideals. 

May religion spread its beneficent influence over our land and over the entire world. Let it come down like a bright and radiant beam of light into the hearts of men, women and children everywhere.

Magnin also presided over ceremonies at Home of Peace Memorial Park, 4334 Whittier Blvd., honoring the memories of those who had died in the past year.

 

He noted that Home of Peace was "the oldest Jewish burial ground in the city of Los Angeles, the resting place of the pioneer Jews of this great community. 

"Those who led in the creation of all things we as Jews enjoy today have been interred here. 

"Their memory lingers with us as a perpetual bequest. Every time we practice justice, every time we do what is good, we do it in the name and spirit of the great giver of the Ten Commandments. Thus Moses did not die, and cannot die, for his work and memory go on. 

"There are many ways of mourning one's loved ones besides shedding a tear and the best way is to carry out the ideals they believed in. Another is to share what we have with people who need our help, and to support good causes such as the arts, education and particularly religion. 

"Supporting a great religious institution and upholding the hands of its leaders is a more tender tribute than laying flowers on a grave."

Flashback: Yom Kippur as celebrated in 1947.

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Spanish blood

 

Aug. 1, 1957
Los Angeles

Maybe it's heat, maybe it's the smog (what would be a Stage 3 alert today), but The Times is full of odd crime news.

A rabid 2-year-old fox terrier mix went on a rampage starting at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, biting five people before a police officer shot it to death.

Stanley Papin, 49, a painter living at 9620 Anza Ave., Inglewood, followed the dog after being bitten on his right hand until Officer George Audet killed the animal.

Papin and four others were treated for dog bites at Central Receiving Hospital, including Ray Ratliff, 18, who left before being told that the dog was rabid so he didn't know he would need to undergo the Pasteur treatment.

Ratliff began hitchhiking to Sacramento, but returned to San Pedro after being  picked up by a driver, a Good Samaritan who told him he should return to Los Angeles for treatment.

Speaking of Good Samaritans, three people were in custody after 11-year-old Wayne Halford, a Times paperboy living at 3425 Military Ave., noticed them burglarizing a house and drew a picture of their car--including the license number: HCW 864. Police arrested Keith Nelson, 19; Johnny Godinez, 22; and Barbara A. Pope, 18, and recovered $2,000 in stolen jewelry.

Market owner Paul Gertz was not so fortunate during a holdup of his store at 436 S. Atlantic. Gertz told police that four customers were so distracted by a gorgeous woman shopping at the store that they didn't notice the robbery and couldn't provide descriptions to police.

Bonus fact: The first rabies case in California was reported in Los Angeles in 1898.

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A flurry of interest

UNEXPECTED THRILL--Romping in the snow was a surprising Easter treat for youngsters in the 4500 block of Yellowstone Street yesterday when a white blanket fell--not in the foothills--but just 1 1/2 miles from General Hospital. Enjoying a rare toboggan ride is Karen Louise Block, 6, with others waiting their turn.

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