Children decorated school auditoriums with colorful bunting before performing holiday pageants. 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. He carried a rifle. Soon after the news was telephoned to San Francisco, of the lynching in Santa Rosa, machines carrying San Francisco newspaper men, were soon on their way to the scene. We could have had 500 men, if wed wanted them, Barney told Gaye in 1985. Captain Matheson Makes Inquiry and Finds Members Were on Duty. Lynched at Santa Rosa 1920." Negative, no. She then sent Coroner Phillips word that she would take care of the body. That of Fitts it is said was turned over to the relatives but not buried. At the cemetery the nooses were already knotted and securely anchored around the locust tree. The Santa Rosa is perfect for relaxed family holidays and now it . Should it become known that the graves were just a two minute stroll away, you can bet those same people would be adding handfuls of grave dirt to their ghoulish collections. on the back---it is an AZO card. AskUs@pensacolastate.edu The white tablecloth service, handsome wooden bar, and rose-heavy gardens add enchantment to the expected array of pastas and meat dishes sourced from all corners of Italy. 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. Barnard eagerly helped with the hanging, You have to drag him off the ground, see. 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. 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? Readers of this entire series will recall the Santa Rosa episode began when Fitts Sr. died, leaving the large family home on College Ave. unoccupied and conveniently just at a time when Terry and his criminal companions wanted a hideout from San Francisco police. Two elderly men who have lived in Santa Rosa for years both are said to have exclaimed on looking at Boyd, That is the Riley boy. Shops were deserted and business was virtually suspended. The boys were searched and more jewelry and silver coins were found on them. The gruesome work finished, the Healdsburg vigilantes drove home and began leaning on their car horns. He will retain his residence in Healdsburg while serving on the sheriffs force. (Name) died from being hanged from the neck by a lynching mob of unknown persons, who stormed the county jail, overpowering the peace officers and forcibly removing him for that purpose. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and Redwood Coast.It is the fifth most populous city in the Bay Area after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont; and the 25th most populous city in . His eyes big as saucers, he was just froze., And now in the transcript of the tape comes this curious passage: Everything was so well organized, everything went smooth the first group to go in got the keys from the sheriff, the acting sheriff, Erick Gelhaus.. Boyd recently, and providing the liquor for the men on their various visits, it is declared by the arresting officers. In fact, report says, they are being acclaimed as public heroes. One of her most oft-repeated stories revolves around the 1920 lynching in Santa Rosa of three prisoners by a vigilante force of cops and citizens. Do it now. In early February, a jury selected from registered voters voted to exonerate deputy sheriff Charles Blount, who, according to the coroner, bludgeoned, beat, terrified and murdered the unarmed, disoriented David Ward in 2019. Our hearts are still broken, Anderson-Steele said of the lynchings. Grim Hangmans Tree, Reminder Of Lynching In 1920, Is Laid Low By Ax. Snyder mused, When a reporter stumbles across a crime, there is nothing keeping her from reporting it to law enforcement. You picked up the Press Democrat on the doorstep planning to scan the ads for Christmas presents, but the astonishing headline dampened any enthusiasm for shopping. LeBaron: Did your parents know you went? These people, it is said, intend to keep the details secret. And I think the answer to that is no in many, but not all, circumstances.. Within minutes, the hapless trio were trucked to the cemetery. Since 2020, the names of the dead are Ricky Estrada, Douglas Thoreson, Salvador Jimenez, Michael Webber, Sean Bell, Donald Miller, Amber Marcotte, Gabriel Wibier, Jordan Pas and Benjamin Vega. She agreed to claim the body and it was driven to the city before nightfall. Erick Gelhaus is the name of the deputy who killed Andy Lopez. One of the most notorious Santa Rosa County lynchings was the March 14, 1919, murder of military veteran Bud Johnson. Snyder suggested that theNew York Timeswasnotethically compelled to volunteer Daniel Ellsbergs name to the FBI when he gave reporters top secret files purloined from the RAND Corporation, known as the Pentagon Papers. So off they went to Santa Rosa in a dozen (or so) cars with plans for all to convene at the Rural Cemetery. Fitts as a boy had played about the tree before he became the despair of a respectable family. Rumors flew. Unless exemptions apply, emails sent to City staff or Council members, any attachments, and any replies, are subject to disclosure upon request, and neither the sender nor any . When told nowadays it is a simple tale that begins with how a good man was murdered and ends when the bad men were punished, as the Press Democrat put it at the time, swinging from the ropes ends, swaying in the wind and washed by the rain. Santa Rosa played no part in it whatsoever; why, we cant even be sure if anyone was here at all that week. Since 1980, the California Constitution has shielded journalists who are subpoenaed by law enforcement to turn over unpublished information. 5 min read. Once they arrived he asked: Wouldnt they like to see the inside of a jail? 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. and the securing of an engraved plate, giving the date and details of the lynching, and the cause for the action, was R. D. Robinson, who contributed fifty cents as a starter for such a fund, and asked that the newspapers of Santa Rosa accommodate people of like opinion by receiving their contributions. Victims of the 1920 lynching in Santa Rosa, CA. Hundreds swooped down on the fallen tree to snag wood chips and other lynching keepsakes, while editor Finley used the occasion to wax nostalgic about the events of December 1920. For this reason, his many brother Knights and friends from other sections of the state, were especially interested in the collection. Within days, a remarkable confession by an octogenarian member of the lynching vigilantes led to a series of ethical missteps, during which LeBaron and her editors and publishers may have become accomplices after the fact to the crime of murder, according to California statutes and an attorney at a journalism ethics organization. Where was the Captain during all this? We Have Had Our Lesson; Shall We Profit by It? That three such men should have been laid low by a worthless human rat is worse than shocking; it is horrible, appalling. But LeBaron and the owners of thePress Democratwere not protecting a whistleblower producing incriminating evidence of governmental wrongdoings. Lebarons retelling of the lynching of George Boyd, Terry Fitts and Spanish Charley Valento was not in the least bit sympathetic toward the dead men, who appear to have been rather vicious criminals, members of the Howard Street gang in San Francisco, who reportedly raped two women the day before Thanksgiving. Other partners in the local coalition are the LEAP Committee of the Milton City Council; Milton First United Methodist Church Youth Group; Mt. So lets proceed here with the telling of what happened right after the Dec. 10 lynching before jumping ahead to discover what became of the hanging tree. A Santa Rosa County School Board candidate running against a longtime incumbent in the August primary publicly proclaimed that doctors who prescribe hormone . Besides standing in line for a gruesome eyeful of the bodies, there were large clusters of people downtown in front of the county jail and outside the Press Democrat and Republican on Fifth street. He is of interest because after Gaye LeBaron wrote her 1985 column about Barney Barnards confession, she received a letter stating Ray Lattin was also among the vigilantes and the stories he always told about the lynching matched the details provided by Barney (this letter can be found in the LeBaron archives at SSU). About 3,000 people (including children) queued outside the Welti mortuary on the corner of Fourth and E to see the bodies of the three gangsters lying in the cold room. Mather Field Ship Brings Picture of Lynching. Until such time as they are interred, he feels that it is his duty to give out no information on the subject what ever. In any case, news reports that listed the names of the deputies on jail duty that night did not include a Gelhaus. The LeBaron Collection contains a letter from a woman stating that her father, Ray Lattin, was the deputy who gladly handed over the keys to the vigilantes. The Captain anticipated there might be an attempt to capture them after the lynching via roadblocks, ordering some of the men to return via Coffey Lane or other roads; would a 40-something Alexander Valley farmer have maintained his composure if stopped by a patrolman and asked, why are you out this late with a shotgun in your car?. Planning for the clinic has taken several years and construction of the $12 million clinic began in 2020. When the news spread that the tree had been cut down crowds of people again visited the old cemetery and carried away fragments as souvenirs. By A. The mother is residing in Australia. This is not the place for such cattle to congregate. It is said that the man cleared up $500 in the transaction. The bodies of George Boyd and Terry Fitts were removed Saturday from the morgue where they had been since being brought in early Friday morning following the lynching, according to officials late Saturday night, who declined to give any further information relative to their disposal. By Press Democrat service the Associated Press was enabled to put out 2500 words on the telegraph wire before 2 oclock in the morning. But is there any evidence that universities and/or medical schools around 1920 were robbing graves in the name of science, pseudo or otherwise? The death certificates signed by Phillips on December 13 show they were indeed buried on the 11th in part of the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery. A few months later Phillips told the Press Democrat he was contacted by the supposed Australian mother of Boyd. [A version of this story appeared in the SF Chronicle Dec. 19 under the headline, BODIES OF TWO THUGS TAKEN FROM MORGUE]. Almost thirty years passed until July 1949, when staff writer Frank Herbert (he of sci-fi novel DUNE fame) penned a two-part feature on the murders and lynchings that somehow managed to get almost every single fact wrong. Of the mostly male victims, 45 were killed by police gunshot; 12 by police beatings; seven by suicide during law enforcement actions; six during police car chases; and 45 while in sheriffs custody. Believe it or not: Ray Lattins name still pops up in Today in History type newspaper columns because he was owner and trainer of King the wonder dog in the early 1940s. The arrest comes as a direct result of the harboring of Terry Fitts, Charles Valento and Geo. On Thursday [sic] relatives of Fitts notified the coroner that they would claim his body. B. This was no bitter, hotblooded revenge. He is a county pioneer whom everybody knows, who does not wander far and fast with every wind that blows. Sight-seeing Pythians, Wednesday, to the number of 200 or more, stormed the Sonoma county Jail, overwhelmed Douglas M. Bills, undersheriff, and almost broke into the barred section at the rear, so enamored were they with the beauty of the building. In the Dec. 1, 1985 Press Democrat, LeBaron regaled readers with a story about three murder suspects who were hustled out of the Santa Rosa jail around midnight and hanged in a cemetery on Dec. 10, 1920. The paper added there were rumors around town claiming both bodies were unburied but hidden. 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. When the officers arrived the man who had been standing in the highway started an argument with the other and started pursuing him, kicking him as he ran. LYNCHING 3 MEN SANTA ROSA CALIFORNIA GANG 1920 Description Original old flyer printed by the Santa Rosa Press Democrat shows Three Members of the Howard Street gang come to roost.In a Santa Rosa oa Petaluma Morning Courier, December 11 1920. Finally, there were related things that happened in the days (and years) that followed and must be mentioned to complete the history of these events. [End of transcript] As they were meeting right after the lynching, the Coroner and Sheriff Boyes might have heard some of the otherwise well-disciplined (and well-armed) vigilantes had to be talked out of shooting up the corpses as they swung at the end of ropes. The . Santa Rosa Junior College is a vibrant cultural center in Santa Rosa, California, offering exciting athletic events, concerts, lectures, culinary delights, and both music and theatre performances. On all sides were heard the remarks, They got what was coming to them, and Good riddance and a saving of money for their trial. All seemed to join in unanimous approval of the ghastly procedure. Kathleen's focus is minimal intervention winemaking, sustainable farming, and eco-friendly practices (including a . Bianchi Boy and Companion, Each 14 Years of Age, Arrested Once More; Pockets Are Found Full of Money and Jewelry. Inman Family Wines. 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