And much of that official history is sourced from LeBarons writings, echoing her attitude that in retrospect, a series of county lynchings were culturally understandable acts of justice. Freds father was long the towns mortician and when he died at the close of 1919, Fred inherited the funeral home and the job. 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. They went along but once inside, one of the boys poked a hole in his trousers pocket and a gold ring fell out as they were walking down a corridor. With Patteson as bailiff of the superior court, Marvin Robinson will be freed for general work throughout the county. What are some spooky and fun things to do around Halloween time? The dog once selected a beauty queen and after the U.S. joined WWII, entertained enlisted men by playing dead after being asked to show what he would do to enemy soldiers. When the first chapter in this series was posted several people immediately contacted me via social media and email asking about a list containing the names of all the vigilantes. But just as he reached the point of making the dive, one of the wings of the plane collided with the top of a small oak tree. He knew Sheriffs Petray and Smith personally. From these two angles it appears today that Boyd also might have been a former Santa Rosa boy. With the appointment of Harry Patteson of Healdsburg as deputy sheriff to be detailed as bailiff in department one of the superior court, Sonoma county has one of the best organised sheriff systems in the state, Patteson took up his duties as deputy yesterday. Reports circulated in Sonoma County today that among the members of the mob, all masked, were San Francisco policemen. He will retain his residence in Healdsburg while serving on the sheriffs force. Mr. Patteson is a well known mechanican [sic] and has had much experience in garages and machine works here. The following petition addressed to the editor of the Call explains itself, and accounts for the . A fund was started to preserve the tree and install a plaque so that it will be a perpetual reminder to desperadoes, gangsters and gunmen that death is a certain penalty for such murderous attacks.. The lynching crew did not want to find deputies and policemen guarding the jail door, as happened at the Sunday night riot. . Russian River Brewery and Third St. Aleworks are two of the city's big breweries, both located in the downtown district, and locals line up, sometimes down the street, for their specialty crafted brews. But it still seems unusual for a tiny company such as Standard Machine Works to have so many ties specifically to the sheriffs office going beyond friend-of-a-friend links; there were multiple personal and professional relationships with not only Petray but Sheriffs Jack Smith (before Petray) and Boyes (after Petray). We were a small rural county; Santa Rosas population was 8,758, almost exactly the size of Cloverdale today (2021). But no matter; the jury stuck to its simple mission of determining the causes of death for the officers and the lynched men. 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. He was also considered another possible candidate to fill out the term. While not done under the banner of eugenics (usually), some of the anthropologists shared the same racist agendas, such as using head measurements to determine the exact degree of a living persons Indian-ness.4. She said that a lawyer for theNew York Times, which owned thePress Democrat, told her to go ahead with the story since a 86-year-old man was not likely to be prosecuted for a 65-year-old crime of that nature. A crowd was assembled in front of The Press Democrat office all day long, reading the bulletins and extras posted on the plate glass windows and examining the mementos of the occasion that had been placed on display, while two people were kept busy at the telephone almost the entire day answering inquiries and giving out information relative to the sensational event with which the day had been ushered in. 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. In the Dec. 1, 1985Press 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 arrest comes as a direct result of the harboring of Terry Fitts, Charles Valento and Geo. That it didnt happen is historys loss; the District Attorney said the day before that he would be revealing new bombshell charges at the arraignments. [A version of this story appeared in the SF Chronicle Dec. 19 under the headline, BODIES OF TWO THUGS TAKEN FROM MORGUE]. Secretary Frank Welti tendered his resignation as secretary of the Rural cemetery association at a meeting held Wednesday evening. It is also said that relatives of Fitts intended to claim his body and give it interment. Grim Hangmans Tree, Reminder Of Lynching In 1920, Is Laid Low By Ax. As he drove to Santa Rosa he passed around a dozen cars on the highway headed south, which seemed unusual for that time of night. Without questioning the lads. City Recorder C. N. Collins has already started action so far as his court is concerned by inflicting jail sentences for drunkenness. The number of wounds varied between 7-16, depending on who was telling the story. The tree, itself as if to give justification to the deed, burst through the shackles of the tradition which had decreed that a hangmans tree must die, and broke into new foliage early in the spring which followed the lynching. 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. REPUBLICANS WITH LYNCH STORY HAVE BIG SALE IN S. F. The first word of the summary action taken by the men who hanged Fitts, Boyd and Valento yesterday was sent out by the Santa Rosa Republican which tipped off the majority of the San Francisco papers and which kept them supplied with the news of developments. 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. I asked LeBaron why she had not turned Barnard over to law enforcement. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation status of Pensacola State College or if there is evidence that appears to support Pensacola State Colleges significant non-compliance with a requirement or standard. That of Fitts it is said was turned over to the relatives but not buried. (She supposedly slept through all the yelling and other commotion at the jail while they were being hauled away by the vigilantes.). [End of transcript] 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. I handled the controls some, says Fred. Since then it has been visited by thousands of tourists who had heard of the revenge meted out to the three men, said to have been connected with the outrages ol the Howard street gang in San Francisco. Presumably he was deputized in other Smith posses as well. The Sacramento Bee sent an airplane from Sacramento to Santa Rosa yesterday to secure a photograph of the lynching scene. This is a postscript to the series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa, THERE WILL BE PRICES PAID and covers one of the conspiracies of silence following the murder of the gangsters: The mystery of what happened to their bodies. The car was injured beyond repair except at its home workshops, and it will be shipped to Riverside by rail. By Press Democrat service the Associated Press was enabled to put out 2500 words on the telegraph wire before 2 oclock in the morning. The Captain finished by telling the men to meet back at the same building. The company has a lease of the Hiatt garage, on West street and the machinery is being installed this week. The mob that took from the Sonoma County jail the trio of gangsters arrested Sunday after the murder of three peace officers was drawn from a wide area of the north of bay region, as well as San Francisco. The identity of the Captain and (most) of the vigilantes will never be known for certain. A dozen automobiles, before daylight, circled the Plaza, tooting horns, blowing sirens and making a huge racket which woke up the town. Perfect crimes are rare, particularly when they are this serious and have so many people involved, both actively and passively, that you can compare the lynching to The Murder on the Orient Express, where everyone on the train played some role in the murder. There seemed little likelihood of any evidence being secured to identify members of the mob, and without such Identification grand jury action would be improbable. 501. Cassassa [sic] is a pioneer grape-grower and winemaker of Sonoma county and is well to do. There have been various rumors relative to the final disposal of the bodies of the gangsters. 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. Keep in mind this was 1920 and in that era Americans did not shy from all things morbid or gruesome, particularly when it came to dead outlaws. In 2008, Lebaron praised the late Barnard as the last of a generation of north country pioneers guardian of an 88-year-old secret involving frontier justice. Bernard had said that the lynching was the right thing I just cant believe it was wrong. Also incorporated were later comments by Clarence H. Barney Barnard, the only member of the vigilantes to talk about it. Hoboes, yeggs, idlers and hangers-on about the city are to be arrested and given the stiffest sentence that the law will allow, said Chief Matthews Tuesday. It was even planned where each car was to park. 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. 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