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. His presence in Sonoma County began fading when the auto dealership closed in 1925 and was all but forgotten by the time he moved to Los Angeles and became an oil broker. . The importance of this revelation will be discussed in a moment. The paper added there were rumors around town claiming both bodies were unburied but hidden. My God, no! said Hoyle when he was first informed of the lynching from The Press Democrat office at 2:30 this morning. (When told their brothers body was to be put on display along with the others they requested his face be covered with a cloth, which Welti did.) So great was the demand for the Santa Rosa paper that an hour after the first ones were received the Republican was sent a telegram asking for more, 11,000 COPIES OF PRESS DEMOCRAT SPREAD THE STORY. The lynching tree, as it became known all over the nation after the news of the hanging was broadcasted from Santa Rosa, was always a first attraction to visitors in Santa Rosa. Nine African-Americans were lynched in Santa Rosa County from 1884 to 1937. SANTA ROSA. 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. Barnard eagerly helped with the hanging, You have to drag him off the ground, see. Fred was absolutely no relation to Maynard Young; their common name is a coincidence.2 That Fred would be the mastermind ends this long story with an unexpected twist because he was such a surprising candidate to plan and lead the mission. It was not unexpected; after Sheriff Jim Petray's murder and the subsequent riot at the jail, the county was awash with rumors that a lynching was in the works. The significance of the business goes beyond the use of the premises (which by itself shows a high level of involvement with the scheme); several who worked there had ties to the martyred Sheriff Petray or other law enforcement officers in the county. The bodies were usually those of impoverished Blacks.3, Yes, major educational institutions were acquiring bodies, including brains, well into the mid-20th century a practice not considered illegal because it was Native Americans they were digging up. One of the lynching sites is just a block away from the college.. Before they left, Barnard recalled the Captain saying, If any one of you wants to back out, this is the time. They were brought to the county jail, where they gave their names and occupations as Walt Connors and F. Mulhall, masseurs at Burkes. While most lynchings involved hangings, lynchings include any premediated extrajudicial killing by a group. We shot [unintelligible] ourselves, and we had [to kill], and thats the way they operated in them days, and if it hadnt have, why, you know, there would be no law at all.. After the three gangsters were hung there were still loose threads to address and knots to untangle. As for the other two dozen (or so) vigilantes, search out the northern county newspapers, particularly editions from before he was elected sheriff in 1918. Ralph Cromwell, special writer for the Chronicle, who had covered the shooting of the peace officers Sunday, also covered the lynching story for the big daily. Those mysteries join a substantial list of what-if scenarios where something could have easily gone awry and many men from Healdsburg could have ended up arrested or even dead. 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. Following the sentence ot five to jail Monday not a drunk could be found in Santa Rosa Monday evening, and underground channels sent the information that several suspected bootleggers had quit their trade in the city. 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. On Thursday [sic] relatives of Fitts notified the coroner that they would claim his body. The vigilantes burst through the jailhouse door just a few minutes later which suggests Lattin and/or McMinn gave the green light to launch the assault. MyPSC Workday Help PirateQ eLearning. I helped pull on one of the ropes and it was quite a job to get him off the ground. All of those wordy introductions were necessary to provide context as to what happened at about 11:15 on the night of December 9, 1920, when three men from Healdsburg rang the doorbell at the county jail (heres a direct link to that part of the story to jog your memory). Mosley, along with fellow PSC colleague Tonie Anderson-Steele, are coalition researchers. It was two weeks to Christmas; there was shopping to do and dinners to plan. On that night Sunday, Dec. 5 a mob of up to 3,000 had attacked the jail to seize them but the sheriff and deputies, reinforced by the Santa Rosa police and fire departments, were able to repel the rioters. In 1876, the third lynching . San Francisco.Captain of Detectives Duncan Matheson last Saturday mailed a letter to G. W. Hoyle, District Attorney of Sonoma county, under the direction of chief of Police O'Brien, in which he sets forth that an investigation has been made and that he has established that no members of . I am just beginning my investigations today and until I have taken several statements I cant tell whether or not the grand jury will be called., Apparently the mystery which involved the identify of the avenging throng was still buried from officials and as no trace or inkling of the men who participated in the hanging has leaked out doubt exists in the many minds if an official investigation will yield results, No Grand Jury Probe Expected At Santa Rosa, There is little likelihood of a Grand Jury investigation into yesterdays triple lynching, District Attorney George W. Hoyle said today as he began his formal inquiry into the mob action. Phillips spent nearly an hour at the jail with the sheriff (probably joined by Welti) prior to heading for the cemetery. She agreed that the countywide rate of police killing has skyrocketed in tandem with 30 years of radical change in racial demographics, observing, Everybodys angry now. The letter states that the mother has not heard from the son for some time, and that she is anxious to get information regarding his whereabouts. MAYNARD YOUNG These community events are where we start the conversation.. There was no serious investigation by local authorities and the state did not intervene, although Governor Stephens grumbled there had better be some Sonoma County prosecutions. The three men were Maynard Young, Ray Lattin and Joe McMinn.1, They were, of course, unmasked, and did not reveal that one of them and quite likely all three were members of the vigilante party. 950 S. Wright Road Santa Rosa, CA 95407-6608 (707) 527-4229. 1920-Santa Rosa, CA A local guy named Terry Fitts, recently paroled from prison and hanging around with friends "Spanish" Charley Valento and George Boyd at Valento's home on San Francisco's Howard Street (Valento and Boyd were members of S.F.'s notorious "Howard Street Gang") became suspects in a violent kidnapping and sexual assault on a young woman said to have taken . This is the seventh chapter in the series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa, " Harry Patteson later became a five-term sheriff (1934-1958) as well as the Healdsburg Police Chief twice. Drink Napa Valley Wine. He is the son of a former supervisor, is a prominent business man and is very well known. Now they were buried, why continue the subterfuge? Instead, that morning they used the Supervisors chambers at the courthouse to hold the coroners inquest.1 But that didnt just focus on the lynching; testimony also covered the vigilante raid on the jail, details of the murder of the lawmen five days earlier and prior doings of the gangsters around Santa Rosa. He is in a measure responsible for the safe keeping of the bodies until such time as they are interred, the San Francisco Call reported after speaking with Phillips. Mr. Patteson is a well known mechanican [sic] and has had much experience in garages and machine works here. The earliest lynching case being investigated took place in 1884. 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. On his way home Mr. Young stopped at the country home of former Sheriff and Mrs. J. K. Smith at Knights Landing and found them comfortably installed in a nice home. B. B. There were over a hundred of these little poems in the Press Democrat, each three stanzas of charmingly awful doggerel, to wit: If you accept the echoed word of Mr. Maynard Young; youre sure to bite, the car is right, you simply cant be stung.). Planning for the clinic has taken several years and construction of the $12 million clinic began in 2020. The tree burst into national notice December 10, 1920, when an organized mob took George Boyd, Terry Fitts and Charlie Valento, slayers of Sheriff James A. Petray and two San Francisco detectives five days previously, from the county jail early in the morning, and hanged them to a horizontal limb of the tree. He reiterated what he had previously told her, adding names and details. Inquiries at the local cemeteries brought the response that the bodies had not been interred in any of them, and it was also said that the bodies were not shipped from Santa Rosa by train on either railroad line here. The pair, both masseurs at Burkes sanitarium, were jailed and fined $25 the next day. In addition, minority populations have increased. Fitts as a boy had played about the tree before he became the despair of a respectable family. As the three officers entered the home of the suspects to . Its likely many of the Healdsburg vigilantes were also on the scene and came away with the lesson that brute force was no guarantee of success. For a century the complex story of what happened here in December 1920 has been pared down to its bones. When You Visit Let Our List of 30 Things To Do Be Your Guide. Erick Gelhaus is the name of the deputy who killed Andy Lopez. Will California Save the Iconic Joshua Tree? (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. Though Santa Rosa is the main town in California's famous wine county, it's the nearby Napa Valley that gets a lot of the fame and fortune. The company will make a specialty of lathe work of every description, and will be equipped to make any part of an automobile or tractor. Charles . Holiday Inn Express Santa Rosa, an IHG Hotel. A great demonstration was made in Healdsburg by the returning lynchers. The tree in question, a towering locust, was planted many years ago. During WWI, Young was on the three-member draft board covering most of Sonoma county, a job he took very seriously; in 1918 he paid a condolence call on the family of a dead soldier. The company has a lease of the Hiatt garage, on West street and the machinery is being installed this week. The Petaluma Courier reported the hour and the place of [Fitts] burial was kept private. Welti announced both men had been buried but would not say where. ), Meanwhile, souvenir hunters continued to assail the hanging tree at the Rural Cemetery collecting and treasuring mementos of the murders. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Opinions do not die with him because they cant get out. And that is generally believed to be a social good as it protects the identity of whistleblowers and confidential sources and witnesses to crimes and misbehaviors by governments and corporations. (Complete article is transcribed in chapter seven), 15 MACHINES RUSH OFFICERS AVENGERS TO SANTA ROSA JAIL Asked if he would call a grand jury session to consider the hanging, Hoyle replied: I cant call a session until I have evidence to put before them. All credit for its success was given to the leader whom Barney called the Captain, and theres no dispute the mission was brilliantly planned and executed. 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. No interments took place in the potters field during the day, it was announced. 680 Sonoma Mtn. Valentos body was shipped to his mother, who lives in Howard street. Unfortunately, he was not so skilled at takeoffs; the ballpark where he landed was too short for the ungainly aircraft and he made the rookie mistake of trying to fly underneath telegraph lines. Three men: George Boyd, Terry Fitts, and Charles Valento, all members of. This edition was rushed to every town in the county, and in each and every instance all the papers sent out by our distributors were sold, and there was demand for more. Only a single person was ever prosecuted in connection with the gangsters ill-fated Santa Rosa sojurn: Domenico Casassa the 71 year-old wine maker who foolishly believed he saw a trace of goodness behind the cold, dead eyes of Terry Fitts. In 1915 Ned gave then-Deputy Sheriff James A. Petray a political boost by having him produce a series of Christmas benefits. 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. They drilled again on Wednesday night and made a final run-through on Thursday before leaving for the county jail in Santa Rosa. He had a salesmans type-A personality and was forceful in convincing others of his views. A full story of the lynching is told in the book, "Santa Rosa, a 20th Century Town," but Barnard's name does not appear. Coroner Phillips also had another reason to keep the location secret: He told the Call he wanted to make sure they did not fall into the hands of some medical college. His concern wasnt that the Fitts sisters and Boyds mom would sell their cadavers to Stanford Medical School most likely it would be pseudoscience enthusiasts hiring bodysnatchers. The Captain finished by telling the men to meet back at the same building. 112, s. 2022 mula sa Malacaang. The landing was made at Mather Field at 3:40 p. m. From there the photographs were rushed to the engravers by Howard Meiss on a motorcycle. She reported that an anonymous member of the lynching party, who was in his early 20s when he joined the group, had visited her office and confessed to the crime, because his conscience told him, not that the act was wrong, but that history should be made accurate.. Gov. LeBaron promised not to reveal the vigilantes identity until 10 years after his death, and she locked the tape recording in the vault of the Sonoma County Library. As it turned out, Clarence H. Barney Barnard lived to be 108, dying in 2008. It is said that the man cleared up $500 in the transaction. What's New in Santa Rosa County. Welcome. She repeatedly calls for her son and moans, My Boy, what have they done to you. She had not known he had been in trouble until notified of the death. Maynard was the subject of a Velvet Hammer profile, which was considered something of a badge of honor in the county. 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. Five days after the killings, on December 10, 1920, a group of about 30 masked vigilantes took the suspects from the jail and hanged them from a locust tree in the old Rural Cemetary on Franklin Avenue in Santa Rosa. The first edition was in the form of a comprehensive extra, giving a complete a complete account of the lynching. (Note to genealogists: If researching someone who lived around here in 1921-1922, hope they were mentioned in The Velvet Hammer by A. Its doubtful either man caught any further sleep that day; the Coroners Inquest was held later that morning and they still needed to suss out the dead gangsters next-of-kin. He is a county pioneer whom everybody knows, who does not wander far and fast with every wind that blows. Robinson declares as his belief that the tree should he preserved as an everlasting reminder that murders of police of officers like that in which Sheriff Petray and Detectives Jackson and Dorman did not go unpunished, even if such punishment be by mob action. District Attorney Hoyle spend the day in gathering statements relative to the summary executions of the three gangsters. Inman Family Wines. First Airplane to Visit This City, Piloted by Local Man. This piece first appeared in The Bohemian. By iseko. A photograph, festooned with pieces of the nooses, was the centerpiece of a display in the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office created shortly after the lynching, according to historical newspaper reports. Snyder mused, When a reporter stumbles across a crime, there is nothing keeping her from reporting it to law enforcement. 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