She then sent Coroner Phillips word that she would take care of the body. In 1985, thePress Democratrepublished the macabre photograph to complement LeBarons recounting of the deed. whose family has been connected with official life in this county for years. The Press Democrats big extra was rushed by automobile to all the important towns in the county, as well as to many of the smaller places, and was followed an hour or more later by a complete morning edition containing two whole pages of news describing the lynching and other features associated with it. The coroner stated that he feels that he is in a measure responsible for the safe keeping of the bodies until such time as they are interred and he does not propose to have the bodies the object of morbid curiosity or perhaps fall into the hands of some medical college. The hotel is exceptionally clean, the staff are friendly and the breakfast is generous and delicious. The dog, to be shown at the coming Petaluma Dog Show, November 2223, astounded spectators by identifying figures chalked on a blackboard and barking the numbers, in addition to presenting a routine of unusual tricks. The rumors of San Francisco participation were widespread, and Coroner Frank Phillips of Sonoma County, while on his way from Petaluma to Santa Rosa before dawn, passed a cluster of fifteen cars on their way south. On that cold morning, 65 years prior, huge, bold, blackPress Democratheadlines had proclaimed,STATE IS FAIRLY WILD OVER GANG LYNCHING, ACCLAIM MEMBERS OF THE MOB TO BE HEROES, TWO VICTIMS CRY FOR MERCY, BOYD UTTERS GROAN. One of the most notorious Santa Rosa County lynchings was the March 14, 1919, murder of military veteran Bud Johnson. Many people saw the ambulance go quietly through here, but did not know it carried the body of one of the victims of the lynchers. To report suspected pollution discharge, complete the online form. That a public subscription be taken up for the preservation and labeling of the locust tree on which Boyd, Fitts and Valento were hung, so that it will be a perpetual reminder to desperadoes, gangsters and gunmen that death is a certain penalty for such murderous attacks as that of Sunday, is the suggestion made from several quarters here this morning. RAY LATTIN had no apparent connection to the Standard Machine Shop or the Pattesons aside from being another Alexander Valley native but the family was close friends with the Petrays. Announcement was previously made that Charles Valentos body had been sent to San Francisco, it having been claimed by the dead mans mother. In fact, the obscene photograph, festooned with pieces of the nooses, was the centerpiece of a display in the Sheriffs Office created shortly after the lynching, according to historical newspaper reports. Arriving at the jail, he invited the boys inside. Mather Field Ship Brings Picture of Lynching. He resigned from the Army and moved back at the end of Feb. 1920, about nine months before the lynching took place. If no claim is made on the body it will be buried in potters field [now the Chanate Historic Cemetery -je].. On Friday, a troop of armed, masked men stormed the jailhouse, liberated cell keys from deputies and hogtied the three prisoners, stuffing their mouths with rags, and looping nooses over their heads. This is a postscript to the series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa, THERE WILL BE PRICES PAID and looks into the most significant of the conspiracies of silence that followed: How people in a small farm town executed a triple murder, then kept the planning behind it and the names of all those involved secret for 65 years. This swung the plane out of its course and lessened its momentum, and before it could recover the plane collided with the roof of a barn, just across the street. former Sheriff of Sonoma county, now engaged in ranching at Knights Landing. A Santa Rosa County School Board candidate running against a longtime incumbent in the August primary publicly proclaimed that doctors who prescribe hormone . Personally, I think the whole judicial system has fell apart, you know. Ray Owen, co-author of the new edition of the cemeterys burial reference book is confident he has found their burying place, or at least the grave of Fitts. Maynard Young Arranges Special Exhibit Space for North End of Sonoma County. It occurred in the spring of 1854 when a mule rustler by the name of Ritchie was accused of absconding with a band of mules. AskUs@pensacolastate.edu In one story from his book, which he says is typical, vigilantes in Santa Rosa lynched 3 men around midnight on December 10th, 1920. . City of Santa Rosa records, including emails, are subject to the California Public Records Act. It was so well organized. But the closer you examine the story, it becomes apparent everything hinged not just upon a single person but also primarily a place the Standard Machine Works. Located right in the center of the Sonoma County wine region, Santa Rosa is home to several vineyards with world-class wines, rich histories and beautiful surroundings. You dropped a ring there, didnt you? someone asked Young, and he bent down and picked up a small gold ring. Several of these masks were brought to Santa Rosa by a member of the Democrat staff, and are now on exhibition at this office. The PD also had a window display of the bandanas and flour-sack masks discarded by the vigilantes along the road to Healdsburg. Mr. Patteson is the son of the late Supervisor Patteson. Should Gentle Reader think our 20th century ancestors were above such barbarity, consider that when Bonnie and Clyde were killed in 1934 people rushed in to do exactly that, even trying to cut off Clydes trigger finger and, for some reason, his ear.1. This was on the streets more than two hours before any other newspaper appeared, with only an abridged story and many of the details incorrect. It is said that the man cleared up $500 in the transaction. It is also said that relatives of Fitts intended to claim his body and give it interment. A San Francisco history magazine observed, The entire episode became a curious source of civic pride.. Santa Rosa County / 1 hour ago. When Maynard Young, Lattin and McMinn were talking to Sheriff Boyes before the assault, would they have subdued him if tried to contact the state police? Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th largest city in California. The motor cars he sells you at his Healdsburg auto shop have got the gears that run for years before they stall and stop. Santa Rosa, city, seat (1854) of Sonoma county, western California, U.S. Santa Rosa's stretch of Route 66 is forever memorialized in American film history in Steinbeck's epic novel, Grapes of Wrath with a memorable train scene, as a freight train steams over the Pecos River railroad bridge in the center of town. Heres How We Fix That. But because this is where we live now, my boyfriend Community coalitions like this are springing up all over the country, Mosley said. 501. It was even planned where each car was to park. It was two weeks to Christmas; there was shopping to do and dinners to plan. #9 of 36 hotels in Costa Teguise. The next day (Saturday, Dec. 11) there was a quiet funeral service at Weltis for Terrance Fitts, with only a few attending. Now lets crack this nut and see whats inside. The Community Remembrance Project Coalition is a partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, Alabama. Those who have long been suspected of breaking the law in various ways will he rounded up without delay, so that there can not be any possibility in future of the town, or anyone in it, harboring such desperate criminals as the three now in jail. This was done at the request of relatives. This is not the place for such cattle to congregate. Approximately 55 miles north of San Francisco, Santa Rosa has a warm climate, rolling golden hills and desirable real estate.It offers a metropolitan wine country lifestyle experience, with gourmet restaurants and high-end shops. They wanted Santa Rosa known (per the future 1946 slogan) as The City Designed for Living, not The City Bent on Hanging Scallywags.. Fun story #1: Maynard was driving back from Petaluma with Sheriff Petray and a deputy in 1920 when they spotted two men arguing by the side of the road. The late Sheriff Petray, killed by the San Francisco gangsters was a well-beloved Knight and extended the invitation to the grand lodge to hold their encampment in Santa Rosa at the 1920 meeting. A dozen automobiles, before daylight, circled the Plaza, tooting horns, blowing sirens and making a huge racket which woke up the town. The district attorney had not then heard of the occurrence and was so stunned at the news that he was unable to comment further at that moment. At trial, a jury of his peers let Petray off after deliberating for three minutes, according to local historian Jeff Elliot, who dives well and deep into contemporaneous accounts of the 1920 lynching in his online narrative,There Will Be Prices Paid. There have been various rumors relative to the final disposal of the bodies of the gangsters. My God, no! said Hoyle when he was first informed of the lynching from The Press Democrat office at 2:30 this morning. In later years Fred Young was a popular and respected Healdsburger, active in the American Legion and several fraternal groups. He leased 8,000 acres near Willits and attracted many local investors and when that failed tried drilling near Eureka. After a day and night in which the lynching tree in Rural cemetery was unguarded, and curiosity seekers removed most of the bark and many of the smaller limbs, the caretaker of the cemetery stationed a guard over it, and has stopped further abuse of the tree at the hands of souvenir seekers. He has been in trouble before, and it is said there is a case pending against him in the Justice Court for selling liquor to Indians which has never been brought to trial. (Complete article is transcribed in chapter seven), 15 MACHINES RUSH OFFICERS AVENGERS TO SANTA ROSA JAIL The new South Santa Rosa Clinic, located at 2285 Challenger Way, is the culmination of years of work. But no matter; the jury stuck to its simple mission of determining the causes of death for the officers and the lynched men. 1. So Coroner Phillips worries that Boyd and Fitts might fall into the hands of some medical college were probably unfounded, but we can say that only by viewing history with our perfect 20/20 hindsight. News reports from the time are sketchy and often contradictory, and there are numerous reports and theories on what happened. Sure, they replied. And around Healdsburg and the Valley of Alexander there were thirty men who carried only a lightly troubled conscience over an extraordinary and violent thing which already seemed as if it happened a long time ago. We managed to overlook so much, LeBaron said. A mob broke into the jail, seized Garca and hanged him from the Los Gatos Creek . Santa Clara: California: 1883: Murder: Encarnacin Garca was a nephew of the bandido Tiburcio Vsquez. SAN FRANCISCO NEWSPAPER MEN ON SCENE . He knew Sheriffs Petray and Smith personally. Discussion has raged pro and con around town on the merits of the destruction of the hangmans tree in Rural cemetery, and the action has been followed by endorsement from the Sonoma County Federation of Womens clubs on the one hand, and an adverse criticism by the majority of the cemetery board of directors on the other. A Pensacola social justice organization is exploring appropriate ways to honor and remember victims of lynchings in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties from the 19th century through the 1950s. Sheriff James Petray, Sergeant Jackson of the San Francisco Police Department and Officer Lester Dorman of the San Francisco Police Department were shot and killed as they attempted to arrest three suspects in their home. Not a word of the lynching was sent to the aged woman, who had written to Warden J. J. Smith making inquiries as to the whereabouts of her son. But eugenics also leaned heavily on the notion that some were biologically defective because of bad genes, neurological disorders (particularly epilepsy) or lower intelligence. Holiday Inn Express Santa Rosa, an IHG Hotel. When Mario Corelli and Joe Bianchi, both 14 years old, stopped Maynard Young, of Healdsburg, this side of Sonoma and asked him for a ride to Santa Rosa, they reckoned not that their path led straight to the county jail. Contributing Institutions; Collections; Exhibitions; About; Claremont Colleges Library Ken Gonzales-Day Collection; Santa Rosa, 1920: S.F. The early meetings, including the March 26 and April 24 meetings, are designed as Community Conversations about Race and Ethnicity. At the Feb. 25 meeting, members split into various groups to discuss their own backgrounds and experiences with racial issues. If not, he will be buried In the Santa Rosa potters field. Maynard was the subject of a Velvet Hammer profile, which was considered something of a badge of honor in the county. Woods, better known as Jack Woods, will be ready for business next Monday. If no claim is made on the body it will be buried in potters field. Asked by Gaye LeBaron in 1989 if he was nervous, Barney replied, No, we felt relaxed because I went right by Boyesand two of the, oh, the Captain was there when I went by [unintelligible] and they were just as calm as if nothing was happening.. From 1959 to this year, Lebaron penned thousands of gossipy columns splashed with a bit of history, attesting to the old-fashioned goodness of local businesses, salt-of-the-earth ranchers, and police and sheriffs deputies who can do no wrong. They made a terrible racket, shattering the early morning peace by honking horns and cranking sirens as the caravan entered Healdsburg and rounded the Plaza. Had the gangsters not been murdered their arraignments would have been held that morning (although none of them could find a defense lawyer) but charges were dropped because of their deaths. But all is not fraternal inside the department. The date is confirmed by entries in the funeral homes receipt book. There seemed little likelihood of any evidence being secured to identify members of the mob, and without such Identification grand jury action would be improbable. In her press columns, Lebaron did not acknowledge the existence of this extra-judicial execution or policelynchingof Ward. It is understood that they sought to have the burial in the Fitts family plot in Odd Fellows cemetery here, but that the management of the cemetery refused to permit it, claiming that such action was justified by their rules and regulations. Santa Rosa is going to be known as an unsafe place for criminals. TheBohemianreached out to attorney David Snyder of the First Amendment Coalition, a public interest organization created to protect and promote freedom of expression and the peoples right to know.. He lived here 20 years ago.. A ProQuest search of LeBarons columns in thePress Democratfrom 1994 to the present reveals hundreds of stories glorifying white men wielding badges, batons, guns, and in some instances, hanging nooses. Both Santa Rosa newspapers published four extras on Dec. 10 with the PD claiming 11,000 papers were sold and the Republican saying their total was exactly 23,416. A long line waited patiently for the reopening, San Francisco Chronicle, December 11 1920. Even before dawn, people in town were stripping it of bark, snapping off limbs and even pulling up the grass. On Dec. 8, LeBaron followed-up with a scoop. From $129 per night. During that part of the century the dark nonsense of eugenics was given serious consideration by many institutions of higher education (and yes, including Stanford). Like Maynard Young, Lattin was law enforcement-adjacent in those years. The rumors arose over the secrecy surrounding the recording of the 1989 interview, which was kept in the safe of the Local History room at the Sonoma County Library until his death, per a promise of anonymity. Upon receipt of word at noom to-day that a flashlight photograph had been taken by one of those present at the lynching, The Bee arranged through Captain Voss for the dispatch of a De Haviland 450-horsepower Liberty Motor airplane, capable of making 100 miles an hour, to Santa Rosa in order to obtain one of the pictures. With only himself and three deputies on hand, Sheriff Boyes asked McMinn and Lattin to go the cemetery and see if their leaders would speak with him. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. dont forget the skulls!) It did not, of course, go away. [End of transcript] Capturing eyeballs, the front page featured a photograph of the dead men hanging limply, necks horribly askew, clothed only in soiled long underwear. LeBaron asked Barnard if he and the others were afraid they would be arrested. He therefore refused to give the Call any information on the subject and does not see why it was sought at this time. The two hopped off on Mather Field at 1:22 p. m. and arrived at Santa Rosa at 2:30 p. m. after encountering a heavy fog at intervals. That relatives of Fitts intended to claim his body and give it.... Before the lynching took place, murder of military veteran Bud Johnson Lattin. 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