For more information see, Lynching in the West: 1850-1935 (Duke, 2006) Skip to main content. Im prouder of you than if youd gone to France and killed a hundred Germans, cried one Healdsburg woman as she greeted her husband on the street after his return from Santa Rosa, and as she spoke she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. 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. What emerges is that he and his family seemed to spend time with others who likewise came from Alexander Valley. 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. It was believed Boyd confessed they plotted to ambush the San Francisco detectives who were pursuing them. Cassassa [sic] is a pioneer grape-grower and winemaker of Sonoma county and is well to do. When asked where their riches came from, they claimed, Just find it in the street, thats all, lyin right there in the street.. He was also . Practically the entire day was spent in this manner and Hoyle said it was the first step he would make in carrying out his official duties in connection with the case. If you are confessing to a crime, we are obligated to report it. But, they chose instead to commercialize the sensational confession, and county law enforcers did nothing in response after the story was published. Lebarons retelling of the lynching of George Boyd, Terry Fitts and Spanish Charley Valento was not in the least bit sympathetic toward the dead men, who appear to have been rather vicious criminals, members of the Howard Street gang in San Francisco, who reportedly raped two women the day before Thanksgiving. Like Maynard Young, Lattin was law enforcement-adjacent in those years. This was done at the request of relatives. The PD printed an item on this pilots derring-do flight but editor Ernest Finley, ever the churl, did not mention this was for his rival newspaper. Type image Format Photographs. Maynard Young, who a short time since disposed of his ranch interests in Alexander valley and moved into Heaidsburg to reside is now the agent in this section of the state for the Stephens Salient Six car, one of the classiest of automobiles and a good seller. He lived here 20 years ago.. The tree in question, a towering locust, was planted many years ago. As Barnard told LeBaron, besides all of the vigilantes being from the area we were all friends of Jim Petrays. In the 1989 interview he added, some of them was his close relatives. During the Sunday night riot Petray brothers Edward and Frank were inside the jail and vowing to kill the gangsters on the spot, so surely they were among the avengers along with Ray Lattin, Barney and his dad. 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. In addition to wiring and telephoning in the news the Santa Rosa Republican rushed 100 copies of the extra editions to the United News Agents, San Francisco. B. And with that, the mystery of what happened to their bodies begins. BOYDS MOTHER SEEKS INFORMATION REGARDING SON. St. Augustine ( Photos) Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how Callahan end up as the most racist place in Florida. The Matanzas Creek Winery offers June and July visitors a chance to enjoy its aromatic fields of blooming lavender, but its Estate Gardens and spectacular scenery are tourist . Now lets crack this nut and see whats inside. Around 3AM Phillips and Welti lowered the bodies to the ground and loaded them into the ambulance wagon. He is of interest because after Gaye LeBaron wrote her 1985 column about Barney Barnards confession, she received a letter stating Ray Lattin was also among the vigilantes and the stories he always told about the lynching matched the details provided by Barney (this letter can be found in the LeBaron archives at SSU). As Barney Barnard said in 1989, everything worked just like a clock. The three men, Terry Fitts, George Boyd, and Charles Val The town centre is only 1 km away, the capital in 6 km and to the airport only 12 km. A Santa Rosa boy, critically injured when he was struck by a vehicle on his way to school last week, remained . Mrs. Elizabeth Barron of Sydney. (And for that matter, were they secretly armed?) Young, and by his wife, who had come to Healdsburg to be present when he arrived. Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country. Once they arrived he asked: Wouldnt they like to see the inside of a jail? No interments took place in the potters field during the day, it was announced. At trial, a jury of his peers let Petray off after deliberating for three minutes, according to local historian Jeff Elliot, who dives well and deep into contemporaneous accounts of the 1920 lynching in his online narrative,There Will Be Prices Paid. Step back in time with a visit to Historic Railroad Square. All that remained was to slip the ropes around their necks and hoist them up. 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. 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. (The 1900 census shows a Mary Riley living at 856 Second St. with her son Victor, who was the same age as Boyd. We exonerate the sheriff and his deputies from any blame therewith. Do it now. On Friday, a troop of armed, masked men stormed the jailhouse, liberated cell keys from deputies and hogtied the three prisoners, stuffing their mouths with rags, and looping nooses over their heads. The plane was not here more than quarter of an hour and made the round trip in record time. and the securing of an engraved plate, giving the date and details of the lynching, and the cause for the action, was R. D. Robinson, who contributed fifty cents as a starter for such a fund, and asked that the newspapers of Santa Rosa accommodate people of like opinion by receiving their contributions. Charles Schulz was a man destined to create comic strips and animated cartoons and the Charles Schulz Museum uncovers. Santa Rosa; Santa Rosa Real Estate Facts. In 1876, nightriders broke into county jail and hanged murder suspect, Charles Henley. He carried a rifle. He is the son of a former supervisor, is a prominent business man and is very well known. He will retain his residence in Healdsburg while serving on the sheriffs force. Today we associate eugenics mostly with racism Nazi-ish claims that whites (and usually some very specific European flavor) were by birthright the bestest people ever made and everyone else should just give up and admit they were inferior. Santa Rosa is the perfect mid-trip stopping point between Dallas and Phoenix. Petaluma Campus. You dropped a ring there, didnt you? someone asked Young, and he bent down and picked up a small gold ring. 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. Listening to the hissy tape, the name is unclear, but it was probably jail house. Perhaps the transcriber had a sense of the uncanny. 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 . THE BEE GETS PHOTO BY AIRPLANE He leased 8,000 acres near Willits and attracted many local investors and when that failed tried drilling near Eureka. Phillips spent nearly an hour at the jail with the sheriff (probably joined by Welti) prior to heading for the cemetery. Theres more discussion of this (and how our county became a leader in espousing such bullshit) in SONOMA COUNTY AND EUGENICS.2. As the three officers entered the home of the suspects to . A few hours past dawn in the Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery, John Dennison stood beneath a cluster of oak trees with the rest of the Tombstone Trio fellow. 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. Freds father was long the towns mortician and when he died at the close of 1919, Fred inherited the funeral home and the job. Before they left, Barnard recalled the Captain saying, If any one of you wants to back out, this is the time. In 1854, vigilantes led by pioneer James Bennet hanged a man named Ritchie for supposedly rustling mules. Understand []. We now know that Coroner Phillips had lied to the reporter. The boys were searched and more jewelry and silver coins were found on them. They made a terrible racket, shattering the early morning peace by honking horns and cranking sirens as the caravan entered Healdsburg and rounded the Plaza. NO S. F. POLICE AT SANTA ROSA LYNCHING. They then tied Johnson to a tree trunk and burned him alive, according to the deposition. The Santa Rosa Community Remembrance Coalition meets in the Student Center on the PSC Milton campus. It features a bar and restaurant offering outdoor dining. This is the eighth and final chapter in the series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa, THERE WILL BE PRICES PAID, which is not a simple story to wrap up. 2,718 reviews. Within days, a remarkable confession by an octogenarian member of the lynching vigilantes led to a series of ethical missteps, during which LeBaron and her editors and publishers may have become accomplices after the fact to the crime of murder, according to California statutes and an attorney at a journalism ethics organization. Young promised that an exhibit would be brought here that would open the eyes of Sonoma countv people. 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. There is not a mention of the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez on Oct. 22, 2013 by Deputy Sheriff Erick Gelhaus. Santa Rosa Republican as reprinted in the Sacramento Bee, December 10, 1920. In less than two hours he was on his way home, bearing the finished cut, and the first and only picture of the lynching to be printed here in any newspaper came out in the noon edition of The Press Democrat, making a big sensation. Victims of the 1920 lynching in Santa Rosa, CA. Petray was portrayed by LeBaron as enormously popular among the citizens of the county a category which seemingly did not include Blacks, Chinese, Mexicans and Indians or lower caste whites who may have held more jaundiced views. Tell Me When Systemic Racism Ended? The hotel is exceptionally clean, the staff are friendly and the breakfast is generous and delicious. Personally, I think the whole judicial system has fell apart, you know. Search over two million items. Submit illicit discharge form. BOYDS BODY HERE He was confident enough in his crew that he stayed among those in the office with the sheriff. Napa Valley is world famous for its wine. Don came from an Alexander prune growing family like the Petrays, Youngs and Lattins discussed in this story. 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.. That Boyd might be an alias of the slayer developed yesterday when the crowd were passing through the morgue. A Santa Rosa County School Board candidate running against a longtime incumbent in the August primary publicly proclaimed that doctors who prescribe hormone . T' Timomy Bakw TTIew locust tree grown from the stump of the 1920 'Hanging Tree' in Rural Cemetery arking up the wrong tree . The importance of this revelation will be discussed in a moment. Long lines of curious citizens passed through the morgue, where the three dead men lay on plain marble slabs. He began his hearing with a program calling for the testimony of county jail officials and any witnesses who might be found, to tell of the actual lynching of George Boyd, Terence Fitts and Charles Valento. Interviewed by the San Francisco Call, Phillips made the waters even murkier by saying neither Boyd nor Fitts had been buried to his knowledge. And, as if still proud, again this year it threw out new green leaves, and was in the full flower of spring bloom when laid low by the ax. At noon the morgue was closed until 2 oclock in the afternoon. Ha helped us win the recent war with services of weight (a member of the draft board, we specifically state). The grim reminder of Sonoma county retributive justice the cemetery locust tree to which on December 10, 1920 a mob hanged the three slayers of Sheriff James A. Petray and two San Francisco detectives has passed into history. MAYNARD YOUNG Soon after the news was telephoned to San Francisco, of the lynching in Santa Rosa, machines carrying San Francisco newspaper men, were soon on their way to the scene. It was so well organized. But the closer you examine the story, it becomes apparent everything hinged not just upon a single person but also primarily a place the Standard Machine Works. Then a veritable shower of jewelry occurred. FITTS FUNERAL HELD PRIVATE This is the seventh chapter in the series on the 1920 lynchings in Santa Rosa, " HARRY PATTESON was a younger brother of Don. dont forget the skulls!) District Attorney Hoyle spend the day in gathering statements relative to the summary executions of the three gangsters. . And we still need to face that horrible history, no matter how horrible and traumatic it is. At the cemetery the nooses were already knotted and securely anchored around the locust tree. In the petition another sister, Mrs. Cecil Riley of Santa Rosa, joined, and Fitts face was covered while a crowd of 3000, including women with babies in arms, viewed his body and those of George Boyd and Charles Valento. It was a lie. Boyd recently, and providing the liquor for the men on their various visits, it is declared by the arresting officers. The funeral of the late Terry Fitts took place yesterday from Weltis funeral parlors, Santa Rosa, and was attended by a few people. The Call of the 26th publishes the following further testimony in this case. Yesterday morning, acting on the orders of a woman, Mrs. Frank C. Newman, president of the board of directors of the Rural Cemetery Association, the ax was laid to the roots of the tree. By A. They are going to be stopped, he declares, once and for all time. Reports circulated in Sonoma County today that among the members of the mob, all masked, were San Francisco policemen. Phillips said nothing further about the graves and was never confronted about why he kept it secret. 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. Kathleen's focus is minimal intervention winemaking, sustainable farming, and eco-friendly practices (including a . She made the decision on her own without consulting other directors of the cemeterys board, and all of the other members said they would not have approved of the action. For this reason, his many brother Knights and friends from other sections of the state, were especially interested in the collection. It was expected that inquiry would be made in San Francisco to determine the basis of this report. The courtroom appearance of the men including Boyd on a stretcher likely would have been a circus, similar to the scene in San Francisco where crowds fought to watch the arraignments of other Howard street gangsters. Maynard Young, who returned from a visit to his Colusa County ranch on Friday night, was here on business Saturday. She said members of the Grand Army had requested its removal and had urged this in a letter she had received. So there was actually a third conspiracy of silence at work, this one to not only downplay the lynching itself but to particularly forget Santa Rosas complicity and ghoulish misbehavior. Coroner F. H. Phillips of Sonoma county when flatly cornered by a Call man over the telephone today, finally admitted that the bodies of Boyd and Fitts have not as yet been buried to his knowledge, but he refused to state where they were, further than to admit that they have not been removed from the county. Home Values By City. Ranchers thronged through the streets as if the event were one of carnival nature. He said, no, it worked out so nice. Barnard explained that the vigilantes were afraid that the court trial would be a long drawn out deal. This was no bitter, hotblooded revenge. It is worth diving into the transcript of Bernards tape recording, including the parts of his testimony that LeBaron didnotpublish in her lynching columns. Petaluma Daily Morning Courier, December 12, 1920. Founded in 1833 by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and named for St. Rose of Lima, it developed as a processing-shipping centre for agricultural produce of the Sonoma Valley. gang came to Santa Rosa. In one story from his book, which he says is typical, vigilantes in Santa Rosa lynched 3 men around midnight on December 10th, 1920. . Sure, they replied. It was even planned where each car was to park. Community coalitions like this are springing up all over the country, Mosley said. In January 1986, LeBaron published another follow up, focused on whether the hanging tree was perhaps an oak and not a locust. We Have Had Our Lesson; Shall We Profit by It? Mosley, along with fellow PSC colleague Tonie Anderson-Steele, are coalition researchers. Should it become known that the graves were just a two minute stroll away, you can bet those same people would be adding handfuls of grave dirt to their ghoulish collections. asking for its removal (she never produced the letter) and that she had the approval of all the womens clubs in Santa Rosa; the tree was a reminder of an episode which it were best for our community that we and the world quickly forget, the federation of the clubs wrote. Because this was not an actual trial there was no cross-examination, so Sheriff Boyes wasnt asked why he didnt call the Santa Rosa police chief after he knew the vigilantes were coming, or why he left the front door to the jail unlocked. Upon receipt of word at noom to-day that a flashlight photograph had been taken by one of those present at the lynching, The Bee arranged through Captain Voss for the dispatch of a De Haviland 450-horsepower Liberty Motor airplane, capable of making 100 miles an hour, to Santa Rosa in order to obtain one of the pictures. 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 an instant it was a wreck. After the dead gangsters were cut down they would be taken to the Welti mortuary at 795 Fourth street, which doubled as the town morgue. The lawlessness of the thing is what appalls me, was District Attorney George W. Hoyles statement early this morning when informed of the lynching. law enforcement officers shot and killed eight citizens Demographically, Sonoma County is undergoing dramatic change which affects its agrarian, small town atmosphere. Heres How We Fix That. He and Welti must have hoped reporters would tire of asking, which they did; by the end of the month the San Francisco newspapers rarely mentioned the lynching except to say it caused the police to beef up security when the other Howard street gangsters went on trial. The Standard Machine Works opened while he was away in the service so he never worked there; if he had been inside previously it would have been as a guy who walked in because he needed his magneto fixed or something. (Even Johnsons military background is unclear; some reports state that he was a World War I veteran, yet he entered the military less than two months from wars end.). When he was arrested for running a speakeasy that day he was told it was specifically because he had welcomed Fitts and the others at his place on Guerneville Road. This would seem to reference the report that the party came from San Francisco and may have stopped in Petaluma for something to eat or for gasoline and oil for cars, giving rise to the report. He reiterated what he had previously told her, adding names and details. Where was the Captain during all this? [A version of this story appeared in the SF Chronicle Dec. 19 under the headline, BODIES OF TWO THUGS TAKEN FROM MORGUE]. He has a large family, including grandchildren, and it is said his conduct in connection with the San Francisco gangsters has not met with the approval of his family, who it is declared have strenuously protested but to no avail, nearly breached the fortress-like county jail, archive of the American Eugenics Movement, plotted to ambush the San Francisco detectives, ROAD TO THE MALL: THE BIG BOOK OF RED FLAGS. The lynching was done on Friday but vandalism on the tree continued unabated through the weekend and to such an extent that an expert was asked if it would survive. My grandparents come across the plains, and thats the way it was. Barnard bragged about terrorizing Valento, who was a dark-skinned man of Latino descent, saying, he just reared back against the bars and on the side. Boyd admitted to the officers that he had a sister living in this city many years ago by the name of Riley and that he had visited her several times. . 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