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.

Crimebo the Crime Clown reads to Cathy

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!

1947project Crime Bus hosts Kim and Nathan with Crimebo the Crime Clown

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

 

Crimebo the Crime Clown reads from his Big Book of Crime

Blind Justice


Aug. 7, 1907
Los Angeles


He swore at her and told her to go to hell. He rarely worked and only helped her run their boarding house when he felt like it. She hid all the butcher knives to keep him from killing her and their little girl. She hid his pistol in a bag of rags and sold it. She threw his razor down between two houses.

Finally, she sought a divorce after he came home drunk Feb. 22, 1907, and began hammering on the doors, threatening to break them down, and promising to kill her and their daughter, who had sought refuge with one of the lodgers in their boarding house.

Paul J. and Kate A. Conrad had known each other for 18 years, according to testimony, and although she detested being with him, she said:

LA Event: Brown Derby Tribute, August 19

The Southern California Restaurant Historical Society is holding a "Brown Derby Tribute", with speakers Jack Lane, Master caricaturist from the Hollywood Brown Derby, Mark Willems, author, "The Brown Derby: A Hollywood Legend" and Rebecca Goodman, of Save the Derby Coalition. It will be held at the former Brown Derby Drive In Building, now "The Derby" and Louise’s Trattoria, at 4500 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles on August 19 10am-Noon. Official flyer below SCRHS Brown Derby Tribute Flyer

and in more preservation news (we hope!), see Michael Linder’s brave attempts to unravel the haps at Columbia Square. Will the Old Spaghetti Factory survive? Sommmmmebody knows… 

One Name in Many Accents: America


Aug. 4, 1907
Galveston, Texas

The Times reports on the Jewish Territorial Organization headed by author and playwright Israel Zangwill and banker Jacob Schiff to help Jews fleeing persecution in Russia.


In July, the first group of 50 immigrants arrived in Galveston to be hosted and then dispersed throughout the American Southwest.

Scourge of Sonoratown

sonoradrug

August 3, 1907
Sonoratown

Beware the Plaza.  Patrolmen do their best to beat down and drag away human fiends, filled as they are with a new drug menace and the awful blood-lust it produces. 

In the labyrinths and dens of Sonoratown, violent outbreaks have become commonplace, as Mexicans of the lower caste have been frequenting drug stores to purchase a substance said to be more harmful in its effects than cocaine, morphine, or even opium.  Victims of the powerful narcotic—its scientific name, Cannabis Indica—are helpless to control their need for it, or the frenzy it produces.  An effort will now be made to regulate the sale of this poison.

The initial effects of Cannabis pellets, called “Hashish,” consist of mad exhilaration (especially, it is noted, involving one’s mistaken ability to lift heavy objects) and a distortion of the optic nerve, wherein men of ordinary size appear to be giants.

After its use for any length of time, a homicidal mania manifests itself, as under its influence, the desire to shed blood is uppermost in the mind.  According to Police Surgeon J. Sumner Quint, much of the crime in the Mexican community is due to its use.

This writer urges all readers to steer clear from this terrible peril and its attendant misery!

Pasadena Weekly Puts Crimebo and Pals on its Cover

1947project on the Pasadena Weekly 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.

1947project in the Pasadena Weekly interior

Crimebo on The Don & Mike Show – today!

Newsflash: I have just learned that our popular Crime Clown Crimebo will be interviewed on The Don & Mike Show at 2:30pm Pacific Time today. Tune in online to hear Crimebo share a special tale from August 2, 2002, involving a teenage vampire and his 90-year-old neighbor. You just know with a cast of characters like that, it’s either going to be a love story or… well, let’s just say it is not a love story.

Click LISTEN LIVE on the upper left of their webpage for your daily dose of Crimebo. 

The Frustrations of Research


Aug. 2, 1907
Los AngelesThe Times reports the death of Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown, a prominent woman physician who was active in the Red Cross. Although we know where she lived (Vermont and 30th Street), we have no idea where she went to school, her age or whether she had any survivors. Nor are we told why she was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., rather than Los Angeles.A Google search reveals that Hall-Brown was a frequent correspondent with Clara Barton, but not much more.

Still, it