Author: Kim Cooper

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric’s popular crime bus tours, including The Real Black Dahlia. She is the author of The Kept Girl, the acclaimed historical mystery starring the young Raymond Chandler and the real-life Philip Marlowe, and of The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons and forensic science seminars of LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn’t combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer’s homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of Scram, a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of Neutral Milk Hotel.

Nightmares of Bunker Hill – June 10

Gentle riders,

Won’t you please join us on Saturday June 10th, for our second tour of the downtown area to explore some of the weirdest criminal and spectral happenings of the past century?

Each ticket costs $47, and entitles the bearer to a 5-hour guided tour on a n air-conditioned luxury coach, snacks, beverages and the fascinating company of fifty-some fellow crime and social history buffs.

Tickets may be purchased here, via paypal:
https://www.dumplinglab.com/crimebus/

Or if you prefer to pay by check, just get in touch and we will hold your seat.

best regards,
Kim

Avoid The Rush, Get On The Crime Bus

Tomorrow, at 10am, 10:40am and 11:20am, you can tune in to KFWB radio 980-AM to hear several different features on the upcoming Nightmares of Bunker Hill Crime Bus Tour, Sunday April 16 (Easter), noon-5pm.

If you were holding off reserving your seat, we suggest you email me promptly to reserve, because the radio spots might well cause the Easter bus to sell out. We will run this tour again soon if demand so indicates.

best regards,
Kim

Note From One-Time Suitor Spoils Honeymoon

March 30, 1907
Los Angeles 

Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Paul Solf, a couple from Denver who have been honeymooning at the Estelle at 312 1/2 West First Street, paid a visit to the police this evening at the insistence of the lady.

Paul Solf told the desk sergeant that he had returned to their room earlier, to find his wife reading a letter from a former admirer. As he snatched it away, a photograph fell out, and the pair commenced to arguing. After a time, Mrs. Solf said that if he did not accompany her to the police station, she would call for them herself. Thinking she was bluffing, he joined her in a perambulation towards Central Station.

Upon entering, Mrs. Solf declared that Paul Solf had threatened her with a revolver. He denied this, but a quick search revealed a heavy revolver on his person. Solf was locked up, while officers determined that he had a letter for $5000 credit from a Denver bank, and nearly as much in cash. On reflection, Mrs. Solf decided she didn’t wish to prosecute, but officers still plan to charge him for carrying a concealed weapon.

Solf is a race horse man, and his bride a bit of a gambler. 

White Wife of Celestial Deports Self

March 27, 1907
Los Angeles 

After visiting her Chinese husband in the County Jail, Mrs. Yee Lung (also called Mrs. Frank Chew) spoke of her intention to join her beloved as he was deported, and to travel with him in the train car packed with forty other Chinese deportees for the trip up to San Francisco.

Special permission has been granted by the U.S. Marshall for her to ride with her husband. They will immediately board a boat to Hong Kong, and the woman may never again see her white friends relatives in this country.

Mrs. Lung’s friends have pleaded with her to reconsider, but she insists "I trust my husband implicitly… he wouldn’t go without me, and I wouldn’t be so cruel as to ask him to."

Degeneracy Down In Europe

Spring 1907

In France, the temperence society Le Croix Bleue works gathering nearly half a million signatures on its petition proclaiming that "Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country."

Trolley vs Ruminant

March 22, 1907
Pasadena 

A special correspondent follows up on the distressing report of a cow gravely injured when struck by an electric car near Lamanda Park. Bossy was found happily chewing her cud with no sign of injury. As near as can be figured, the trolley ran over the cow’s tether, pulling it taut and forcing the reluctant acrobat to turn a dramatic aerial flip. She seems to have landed safely and forgotten all about her wild adventure, until the cries of do-gooders to the Humane Society roused an interest in her case.

Virtue Stolen, Innocence Lost

March 20, 1907
Los Angeles 

Revealed today, with the arrest of M.M. Martinez, proprietor of the Esmeralda Club at Amelia and Ducommon Streets, is a terrible tale of innocence stolen. Several young girls are willing to testify that their virtue was taken from them by Martinez and club regulars following the introduction of drugged champagne into their tender mouths.

Inside the walls of this vile palace of sin unfolded the debauchery of Miss Nellie McCarthy, 668 Date Street, and Miss Julia Wood, 812 South Wall Street. Both girls are just 17 years old, and are telling their stories to Proscecuting Attorney Adcock, and are willing to repeat these horrors for a jury. The girls are being "sent to Whittier" because their parents do not know what to do with them.

Martinez’ arrest came about at the insistence of the mothers of the broken blossoms, who declared their children were pure and lovely in character before they began attending social events at the noisome venue.  

 

Editrix’ note: "sent to Whittier" is a euphemism that was apparently familiar enough to the readers of the 1907 newspapers to require no further elaboration. By reading numerous c. 1900 stories that included the phrase, most dealing with delinquent and sexually promiscuous youths, I discovered that Whittier was the location of the State Reformatory (above), opened in 1891; it operated as the Fred C. Nelles School through 2004, and is currently being redeveloped as a residential/commercial project. Henceforth I will threaten Nathan that he will be "sent to Whittier" should he misbehave.

No More Tamales

March 19, 1907
Los Angeles 

For the past two years, Mrs. C.M. Gray, elderly owner of the Hotel Gray at Third and Main Streets, has received a $15 monthly rental from a tamale vendor who sold his wares on her front walk. This illegal commerce has been stopped, and Mrs. Gray convicted and fined $50. Just the cost of doing business…

Wounded Man Blows Up Like Balloon, Terrible Injury Causes Weird Effect

March 18, 1907
Los Angeles 

Carlos Perez, an unarmed man shot by an Olvera Street nightwatchman as he walked towards his home on Macy Street last evening, lies tonight in County Hospital, gravely wounded with a bullet puncuring his lung. A gruesome side effect of his injury is that air is seeping beneath his skin, inflating his body like a fleshy balloon. Doctors can press gently on the man’s hands, eyelids and ribcage, causing him to briefly deflate, though he quickly swells up again. 

Dr. Barber, the hospital superintendent, says that he has seen victims who suffer minor inflation around their injuries, but never someone whose entire body becomes so like a balloon. Doctors hesitate to puncture Perez’ skin for fear of introducing an infection, and so the poor man suffers the strange sensation of constant pressure from within. His outlook is uncertain.

Richard D. Birch, nightwatchman for the Merchant’s Fire Dispatch, has given conflicting statements regarding the shooting, and will surely face manslaughter charges should his victim perish.

Below, Olvera Street circa 1890 

 

Welcome To Our Old House. Feel Free To Poke Around.

On March 13, 2006, 1947project completed its mission to spend one year documenting the offbeat and criminal history of 1947 Los Angeles. You’ve found our archive site.

Today you’ll find us exploring 1927 at 1947project.com, where we previously spent a year immersed in 1907. Please stop by for all your early Los Angeles history needs.

yours sincerely,
the history fiends of 1947project