San Gabriel Valley – Page 2

Photos from the August 6 Pasadena Confidential Tour

Yesterday’s Pasadena Confidential Crime Bus Tour was a hoot, as we glided around the Crown City in our air conditioned murder bus with a happy coterie of grisly lookyloos. Here are a few photos snapped along the way…

Below, Crimebo honors the lucky Miss Cathy with a pre-birthday litany of all the horrors that happened on the day she was born.

Here, Crimebo and hosts Kim and Nathan take a mid-tour breather at Connal’s on Washington Boulevard, conveniently loated between the sites of a hammer murder and a bathtub suicide. Plus their malts is yummy!

And another view of that scary clown Crimebo… don’t you want him at your birthday party?!

Pasadena Weekly Puts Crimebo and Pals on its Cover

All the world loves a clown… especially a Crime clown! And when the editor of Pasadena Weekly heard about Crimebo, he upgraded Carl Kozlowski’s planned feature on the Pasadena Confidential tour from the arts section to the cover! Sneak a peek, online or in person, and don’t miss Matt Craig’s evocative photos.

Beer & Lemons

July 31, 1907
Whittier

Despite the pleadings of well-situated friends, Eugene Parks, Junior is bound to face a Superior Court judge and answer to the charge of attempted theft of nearly a whole wagonload of lemons from the Whittier Citrus Association’s railway siding. Parks and his pal Kirchner were caught in the act by Superintendent Greeley of the State School, and all the lemons were saved.

In court today, the youngsters begged the judge to accept as an extenuating circumstance the fact that they were looped to the gills on strong beer, half a dozen bottles a piece, and to recognize that they were at heart honest boys from good homes. But he would have none of it. For if a little beer would make thieves of them, then thieves they were, and only a higher court could determine an appropriate punishment.

Strange Recluse Spied in Santa Anita Canyon

April 19, 1907
north of Monrovia

It seems the rumors are true: there really is a wild man living in the remote reaches of Big Santa Anita Canyon! He was seen this week by two brave boys from Monrovia, Charles Crandall and Sherman Black, who climbed high into the hills, past the old Sturtevant camp, to the West Fork, then about two miles above Clam Shell Canon. It was there they encountered the living myth.

The wild man has long been rumored to live in the caves high above civilization, and to be insane. The creature the Monrovians spied was old and yellow skinned, with long claws on his hands, a wild beard and stooped figure. He was surprised in the doorway of his rude dwelling, a windowless concrete hut with live oak rafters, but slammed the door when they attempted to make conversation.

The young men of Monrovia are not to be so easily snubbed. Even now, an exploration party is being assembled, with the intention of learning more about what makes the wild man tick.