Paul M. De Falla
Lantern in the Western Sky
The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly
Published By: University of California Press
Vol. 42, No. 1 and No. 2 1960
Paul M. De Falla was a Los Angeles historian. He was a founding member of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and the Los Angeles City Historical Society. His history of the Chinese Massacre, Lantern in the Western Sky, was published in The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly in 1960. This is not the first history based on research of the massacre, but it was more thorough than the previous work by C. P. Dorland. De Falla looks at how legislation, particularly Section 14 of An Act Concerning Crimes & Punishment, impacted the safety of the Chinese population.
De Falla employs an excessive amount of inference in a manner that appears to suit the narrative he wants to produce. Most of this inference is biased against the police. His history also contains a number of embellishments, fabrications, and errors. One error is particularly frustrating because it associates a fellow historian with a heinous crime. De Falla's history is one of the most cited sources, which unfortunately helps to perpetuate his mistakes. It is disappointing to see so much effort spoiled by so many flaws.
In October 1871, there were three different marriages of Chinese couples reported in the Los Angeles newspapers. De Falla associates one of these, the one on October 20, with Ya Hit (AKA Yut Ho). But Yut Ho was married eight months earlier on Tuesday March 7. The abduction and marriage of Yut Ho was major news for several weeks earlier in the year. Granted, De Falla did not have the benefit of a prior historian leaving bread crumbs for him to follow. But just the same, it was an incorrect assumption that the most recent marriage led to the conflict that followed. The name Ya Hit is a misnomer that appears to have been introduced by C. P. Dorland in 1894, and repeated by De Falla.
The store of Caswell and Ellis is incorrectly identified as Caswell and Wright, and incorrectly located at the southeast corner of Aliso and Los Angeles streets, it was on the Southwest corner. It had been Caswell, Ellis and Wright up until a few months before the massacre.
He describes the assassination attempt on Yo Hing as a "skirmish between the Nin Yung and Hong Chow companies" and describes it as "two warriors exchanged pistol shots in Negro Alley". However, it was more like an ambush as the Daily Star reported: "Yo was at the house of a Chinaman named Charley, in Negro Alley, yesterday morning, about half past 9 o'clock, when Ah Choy and Yu Tak opened fire on him with six-shooters. One ball passing through his clothes as above described, one smashing a clock hanging on the wall, and the others sloshing around loose. Yo was unarmed and ran, getting out of range and swearing out a warrant against the shootists, who were arrested by the police and lodged in jail." and the Daily News reported: "The steamer California brought with it on its last trip, four or five Chinamen belonging to the latter company, and yesterday morning they met Yo Hing at the upper end of Negro Alley. High words passed between them, resulting in the drawing of pistols. Three shots were fired, one passing through the clothing of Yo Hing, the rest depositing themselves harmlessly in the walls of the building."
When Ah Choy was released on bail, officer Emil Harris escorted him back to Negro Alley. De Falla implies that this would have been some sort of special favor that would have been "noticed" by Yo Hing and members of the Hong Chow company. He is trying to insinuate that Harris has some sort of affinity with Hong Chow, and he repeats same idea several more times.
Historians often
repeat De Falla’s inference that Jesus Bilderrain was drinking in
Higby's Saloon when the first shots were fired on October 24. This is
not substantiated by any reliable sources. Bilderrain himself stated
during testimony given during People vs Qong Wan and Ah Ying (Ah
Shaw et al), "while talking with Sanchez, at the corner of
Higby's, heard shots in the direction of Negro alley; was then on
horseback; road off to Negro alley, telling Sanchez to follow me".
The distance from Higby's to the Beaudry's building, where the
fighting started, was approximately 300 feet. Bilderrain arrived
there while the fighting was still taking place, and this was even
after he dropped his gun and had it handed back to him by D. W.
Moody. If Bilderrain and Sanchez were inside the saloon, it would
have taken much longer for them to arrive on the scene. Officer R. A. Hester was on Aliso Street, and arrived a minute or two after Bilderrain.
Next, it's suggested that since the only victim was a Nin Yung man (Ah Choy), Bilderrain should have pursued the Hong Chow men who ran into the Beaudry building. This is again insinuating that Bilderrain had some sort of allegiance to the Hong Chow company. But what De Falla is missing is that the Hong Chow company is the main occupant of the Beaudry building, while the Nin Yung company is located primarily across the street, at the Coronel building. It wouldn't be unreasonable for Bilderrain to have quickly deduced the Nin Yung company was once again the aggressor. De Falla also claims at this point that Bilderrain instructed Celis to capture the fleeing Chinese men. But Bilderrain's testimony at the Habeas Corpus hearing for Sam Yuen contradicts this assertion: "first saw Celis at the first shooting of the Chinaman; did not at any time run after the prisoner [Sam Yuen]; did not see him then that I remember; do not remember saying to Celis "Catch him," referring to the prisoner; did not see Celis running after the prisoner; may or may not have remembered how I chased the prisoner to the Coronel building with a pistol in my hand; did not chase any one there, saw a man run there - a Chinaman with a pistol in his hand; told Sanchez to catch him".
At this point in the Affray, the Nin Yung men are shooting indiscriminately from the porch of the Coronel building. De Falla states that the bullets struck "hangers-on standing near the Beaudry block on the east side of Negro Alley, wounding them superficially." There were reports of a man named Joe being shot in the hip, and a boy named Juan Jose Mendible shot in the leg. But these injuries were sustained later, after Bilderrain was shot and stumbled from the Coronel building. Then De Falla states that Estevan Sanchez arrived on the scene simultaneous with Robert Thompson, and that Bilderrain had left him at Higby's. This is contradicted in testimony from both Bilderrain and Sanchez. Sanchez testified during the trial of Ah Shaw et al; "was at Negro alley on the afternoon of that day; went with Bilderrain at his request; when I arrived there, saw several Chinamen with pistols; Bilderrain told me to seize a Chinaman; did not know what particular Chinaman, as there were many there".
After the Nin Yung men retreated into the Coronel Adobe, Bilderrain, Sanchez, and a civilian named Cyrus Lyons entered the building through different doors. Bilderrain attempted to follow a man into the Wing Chung store facing Arcadia Street, but the man closed the door and locked it. So Bilderrain entered through the next door. Sanchez and Lyons entered through different doorways facing Negro alley. All three men made their way to the corral in the back of the Adobe. Bilderrain found his man and was shot in the shoulder while attempting to make an arrest. He escaped through the same door he entered. Sanchez and Lyons were also fired upon by a large group of Chinese men and they too retreated. In De Falla's history, Sanchez and Lyons don't enter the corral until after Bilderrain and Thompson were both already shot.
When Bob Thompson
arrived on scene, Estevan Sanchez was already standing at the doorway
of the Wing Chung store, and had already exchanged gunfire with Sam
Yuen who was inside with others. Sanchez told Thompson to go away.
It was apparent he did not expect Thompson’s help, nor did he want
his assistance. During the Habeas Corpus hearing for Sam Yuen,
Sanchez was reported as having stated: "I went to the door,
however, and saw the prisoner [Sam Yuen] inside; when I was on the
point of speaking to him he raised his pistol and I did likewise both
firing simultaneously; others fired from the inside also; it was then
Bob Thompson came to the doorway and moved his pistol to and fro,
having it pointed toward the interior; I told him go away; as they
were firing from the inside of the door; then told Bob that I was
going to load my pistol, and would return in a moment; I want to an
adjoining house and they gave me a loaded pistol." But in De
Falla's account: "After a brief conference with the wounded
Bilderrain, who was preparing to leave the scene to get medical
attention, citizen Thompson and policeman Sanchez began to pour
pistol shots into the houses in the Coronel Block. Officer Sanchez,
however, who was apparently off duty at the time, soon ran out of
ammunition, and hurried away to get more, leaving Robert Thompson to
pepper away at the Chinese houses." There are different witness accounts concerning Thompson's actions, all agree he fired either one or two shots into San Yuen's store; he did not "pepper away at the Chinese houses".
De Falla takes some creative liberties when describing the events surrounding Ah Wing. For starters, he calls Ah Wing "Wong Tuck", a name that does not appear in any prior record. And he describes a scenario in which Marshal Baker supposedly releases this man back to the "excited crowd": "After briefly examining Wong Tuck on the spot and taking away his pistol, Marshal Baker released the Oriental - and himself walked away from the excited crowd which had seized the fleeing Chinese and did not return to Negro Alley for several hours. He had decamped from the vicinity. In the meantime, after having been so unexpectedly and suddenly released by the marshal, Wong Tuck quickly made a run for his house in the Beaudry Block, managing to get inside his quarters just ahead of several shots fired at him by members of the crowd that had just seized him. If Marshal Baker heard the shots as he walked away, he did not show any signs of it." While it is true that five or six men attempted to leave the Beaudry building and were forced to turn back, none of the testimony makes mention of the crowd firing at any men in that locale. Keep in mind, The Beaudry building is where Ah Choy (the Nin Yung man) was shot, but is home to members of the the Hong Chow Company. It's possible, Ah Wing was one of the Nin Yung assassins, and was desperately trying to escape from the vicinity of his enemies. I should also point out that the insinuation Burns "decamped from the vicinity" is false. Various testimony places Burns on Arcadia, Main and Temple streets throughout the night. Additionally, testimony from from both S. C. Foy and Morris Levine confirm Sheriff Burns escorted Chinese to the Jail with the assistance of a Mr. Austin, later that evening.
De Falla continues with irrelevant and unsubstantiated criticism of the police force. He claims Sanchez disappeared from the scene, "And at about this time, policeman Estevan Sanchez also decamped from the area, not to be seen around there any more that day.", which may or may not be true. But without some some sort of positive confirmation that he was elsewhere, it doesn't confirm he was not present. Likewise, De Falla criticizes the other officers: "Meanwhile, other officers of the law began to make their casual appearance near the south end of Negro Alley, where Los Angeles Street came to a dead-end at Arcadia Street. They were police officers Emil Harris and George Gard - as well as the constable of the county, Richard Kerren. These officers, however, also made no effort to enter the Coronel Block to investigate if the shooters who had wounded Bilderrain and Thompson were still in the building, nor did they attempt to disperse the excited crowd gathering in the vicinity of the Chinese quarters - a mob that was becoming larger and more bellicose by the minute. Instead, the officers merely loitered across the street from the south end of Negro Alley, near the hay scales at the southwest corner of Los Angeles Street and Arcadia Street." To suggest that these officers did not search the Coronel Block is irrelevant since it was already dark and the established plan was to secure the site until morning. As for suggesting they should have dispersed the crowd and describing it as a "mob that becoming larger and more bellicose" is specious. We don't have an accurate and detailed timeline. But we know a large crowd was initially at Wollweber's apothecary on Main Street until Thompson’s death, when people left that location and started for Negro Alley. So it’s likely the crowd on Negro Alley was manageable until suddenly it was not. As P. S. Dorney wrote: "About eight o'clock the death of Thompson was announced. The announcement was received in sullen silence, but in a moment the crowd melted away, and Main Street was deserted. In another moment, armed men were seen hastening, singly and in clusters, from every street and avenue, all heading toward Chinatown. The whole city seemed moved by one grim and tacit purpose -- men stream down from the hills and swarmed from the suburbs, while "Sonora" poured forth a horde of swarthy avengers. Business men closed their shops and joined the gathering clans, and in less than fifteen minutes after the announcement of "Bob" Thompson's death, the cracking of rifles, the roar of shotguns, and the rattle of small arms, proclaimed the investment of Chinatown."
The encounter between Yo Hing and Councilman George Fall is written to appear as if George Fall attacked a random Chinese man: "On his way to the scene of the shootings, Councilman Fall encountered a Chinese stealthily scurrying south on Main Street; a "Celestial" obviously meaning to put as much distance between himself and Negro Alley as he could. Councilman Fall then picked up a loose plank from the board sidewalk and hit the Chinese over the head with it, chasing the Oriental into the Blue Saloon where he lost him." But during the Coroner's Inquest, Fall explained his rationale for attacking Hing: “[I] saw Yo Hing in front of Alec's barber shop just after Thompson was shot; he went through the Blue Wing saloon with a brick after him fired by me;” and "[I] threw the brick at Yo Hing for the reason that last December a deputy sheriff came down from Santa Barbara with a warrant and an order for me to furnish private transportation as far as the Eight Mile House; I let him have my carriage team; after the arrest had been made and the parties were in the carriage, Yo Hing smashed in the front of the carriage; they fired two shots into the carriage; shot a Chinaman inside in the back, and killed a horse; Jake Metzker was driving; the horse died about a mile and & half from town." It's appears De Falla was attempting paint Fall in the most negative light by omitting these more nuanced details. And for context, a horse in 1871 cost nearly as much as a small house.
This next section regarding George Fall is just a blatant lie. "Councilman Fall ... was prevailed upon by some ingenious members of the crowd surging around the Coronel Block to let the city fire hose be used in an attempt to drown out the Chinese from their quarters in the Coronel Block. Councilman Fall agreed to let the fire hose be used by the mob for the purpose explained to him, subsequently justifying his actions by stating that he had wanted the fire-fighting equipment be on hand around Negro Alley in case some one in the mob decided to fire the building in which the Chinese were penned." These "ingenious members of the crowd" just so happen to be Prudent Beaudry, owner of a building on the East side of Negro Alley, Antonio Coronel, owner of the Coronel building, and one Sotello, a member of the Lugo family who’s house is on the opposite end of Negro Alley. In Fall's testimony: "[I] was sitting in my office, and Mr. Prudent Beaudry called on me for hose, to wash out the block where the Chinamen were; told him withal I would not lend assistance to anything of the kind." Then later in the evening "Messrs. Ferguson, Coronel and Sotello informed me that they had threatened to fire the block and then attach the hose to the hydrant and appointed a party to take charge of the hose; after the excitement had subsided, I, ordered the hose put away."
De Falla convolutes some of the details surrounding Ah Wing's capture. He says, "... the once-captured and once-released Wong Tuck made an other try to get away from his house in the Beaudry Block across the Alley from the Coronel Block. This time Wong Tuck had a hatchet with him, but was quickly overpowered by a man named Ramon Sortorel. While Sortorel and Wong Tuck were struggling, another member of the mob ran up to Tuck and attempted to plunge a two-foot-long piece of broken sword into him, crying; "Oh you Chinaman, you had a gun!" De Falla completely fabricated the man with the sword. This man never existed in any prior history or primary source. He also neglects to state Sortorel was severely cut by Ah Wing (Wong Tuck). It is very likely that Ah Wing was one of the assassins that came from San Francisco to kill Yo Hing, as he was the only victim who did not have a name on his casket, and had no mourners at the cemetery. Ah Wing also very likely triggered the massacre too, since the there had been no violence up to the point of his second arrest. DeFalla mis-attributed the quote about his gun. That quote was spoken later in the evening by a man who was identified by R. M. Widney as someone he saw in "Dr. Gelcich's drug store", and the line spoken was, "Oh, you damned Chinese, you had a pistol."
When Ah Wing is taken from the police to be hanged, De Falla misidentifies the store where the rope came from, and even lies to say that it was the store owners that provided the rope:"A rope was quickly furnished the crowd by the owners of Broderick & Reilly's book store near the corner of Main and Temple streets..." But according to William Widney: "[I] saw Johnson, the shoemaker, go to Burdick's store for a rope; saw a man, named Scott, come out of Burdick's with rope in hand saying "Here's a rope," heard Johnson shout "Bully, bully" and carry off the rope." The Scott in Question was carpenter J. G. Scott who was indicted for murder, but later discharged. He was not the owner of Burdick’s, nor was he the owner of Broderick’s.
I am going to bring up this next item because it's an embellishment that annoys me. De Falla writes: "the City Marshal, was not only a dog catcher, but also the city tax collector." This is another issue I have with De Falla because it's an false statement that has been repeated by subsequent historians. The City of Los Angeles did have a pound at this time, but that pound was not for dogs. The pound was for horses, cows and mules that would occasionally stray from their owners. The newspapers frequently contained advertisements offering rewards for missing horses and mules. Dogs, on the other hand, were allowed to roam wild, and the only effort to control their population was the occasional strychnine laced meat left in the street by an annoyed citizen. It wasn't until 1872 that a municipal ordinance was approved that directed the city Marshall to register and license dogs.
A small fire broke
out inside the Coronel building when a piece of cloth came into
contact with a lantern. This happened in a top bunk, where rioters
were cutting a hole in the roof. Harris and Gard went on the root to
help suppress the fire. George Gard handed his shotgun to Curley
Crenshaw so that he could carry a bucket of water to the where the
fire was burning. After the fire was over he took his gun back. De
Falla insinuates Crenshaw used the gun to shoot at the Chinese, and
that George Gard lied during the trial to protect Crenshaw: "Crenshaw
was accused of having fired with this weapon upon some Chinese
huddled in the corral among some horses at the back of the Coronel
Block, a charge which officer Gard helped Crenshaw disprove by
testifying that the shotgun he had let Crenshaw hold was as fully
loaded when he got it back from the young man as when he had first
let Crenshaw hold it." It's true that George Gard asked Crenshaw
to hold his shotgun. During Crenshaw's trial, he was accused of shooting at men in the corral while on the roof. But he was also identified by Benjamin MacLaughlin as having a pistol in his hand when he mounted the roof. While it's possible that he could have discharged George Gard's shotgun, there is no reason to suspect Gard was complicit in any act of violence.
Then De Falla makes a confused attempt to describe the breaching of the Coronel Adobe. "Then two daring hoodlums found a large rock on Requena Street which had fallen off a wagon earlier in the day, and using it as a battering ram, broke down one of the doors in the Coronel building. The mobsters quickly ran off the porch after breaking the door down, remembering what had happened to the lion-hearted Robert Thompson... But the Chinese inside the apartments made not a move or a sound, and this emboldened a carpenter named Charles Cox, who fashioned some kind of fire-ball and threw it inside the apartment through the opening made with the rock. This maneuver on the part of the carpenter brought an immediate response from police officer Emil Harris, who was also a prominent member of the brand new volunteer fire department organized just the month before. The officer ordered Mr. Cox to enter the building and retrieve his fire-ball, and when the carpenter refused to go inside the building alone, officer Harris went in with him." The first entrance into the Adobe came around 9:00, when a door opened and a Chinese man attempted to escape. This would be the second attempt by somebody to escape the Adobe. Ah Cut, a liquor maker was gunned down trying to escape moments earlier. A volley was fired at the second man, who was hit and crawled back into to the house. The crowd continued to shoot at the open door. Jacob C. Cox, a plasterer (not a carpenter), was on guard with Officer Billy Sands on Negro Alley and volunteered to go in and get the man out. Cox obtained a ball dipped in alcohol, lit it, and threw it into the room, in order to see in the dark. He then proceeded into the room, and carried the wounded man back across the street. The wounded man was still alive. Charles Avery assisted Cox and gave the wounded man water. A large American man then came to their location wanting to kill wounded man, but Cox pointed his gun at the American and said “when you pull, I’ll pull”. Officer Harris did not enter with Cox. And it was only after this sequence of events that the crowd broke down a door on the far north end of the Coronel Block.
De Falla adds, "At this time some of the mobsters cut off the queue of some of the Chinese victims for souvenirs." This desecration most likely happened after the massacre, in the Jail Yard, as the victim's bodies were being collected.
After the mob made entry into the Adobe, De Falla says: "Meanwhile, somewhere else in the Coronel Block, officer Emil Harris was busy personally turning Chinese males over to the mob, instructing the eager hoodlums to take the Orientals to jail - whereupon all the Chinese handed over to the crowd by officer Harris were summarily hanged within sight of the south entrance to Negro Alley." First Harris did not hand over Chinese to the crowd. In his own words: "...about this time a party of men succeeded in entering the building on Negro Alley, they went through the house; I stood on the outside, they brought two or three out of that building one was left on the ground and reported dead; the live ones I asked them to take to jail they went down Los Angeles street, towards the jail; the next house or room was entered, and all the Chinamen found in there were brought out and taken towards the jail, so it proceeded until they reached Los Angeles street, when the excited crowd forced their way into the Chinese Dr.'s shop, found the Doctor and one Chinese woman in there alive and brought them out separately, my impression was that they proceeded to jail with them; the next entrance was in the store; a dead Chinaman was thrown into the street and another which I supposed to be not quite dead was then brought out and thrown also into the street; I and Gard prevailed upon the crowd not to fire any more as these Chinamen were innocent." Second, the ability to see from Negro Alley to Goller's shop may seem plausible, but it was after 9 o’clock on an overcast night, in a city with only a handful of gas street lights. Henry Hazard, who was standing on top of Beaudry building at this time, could not see Goller's shop, he testified: "[I] heard a noise in the direction of Goller's shop; thought previously that they were taking them to jail; the pepper trees growing along the building prevented my seeing where the Chinaman were taken; got down from the building to Goller's shop where the crowd was stationed; then learned for the first time that they were hanging the Chinamen."
"Among the hoodlums to whom doctor "Gene" Tong was entrusted by policeman Harris was the ubiquitous "Curly" Crenshaw." I am not sure where De Falla came up with this detail, but it's not in any record that I know of.
"Goller, an ex city councilman who lived over his shop, objected bitterly to the actions of the mob, but his objections were silenced very effectively when a tall teamster with a rifle told him to shut up or he would get it too." Not that this is worth debating, but there were two teamsters, Charles Austin, and Curley Crenshaw. It's doubtful that either of the men were the one that threatened Goller. Nor was the man who threatened Goller ever identified as a teamster.
"During the hangings, a mobster who had climbed on the roof of the porch to help haul the Chinese up on ropes, danced a jig on his perch and sang out: "Come on, boys, patronize home trade!" obviously trying to compete with the men who were hanging Chinese to the sides of some prairie schooners parked in the street around the corner on Commercial Street; wagons that were from out of town and therefore not "home" establishments as Goller's shop was." This event did happen as stated, however the explanation for the comment about "patronizing home trade" is an unnecessary fabrication.
De Falla makes the
following snarky comment about the marshal, "While the hangings
were going on, none other than Marshal Baker returned to Negro Alley,
where he at once set about the task of trying to make the looters at
work there disgorge their booty." Marshal Baker had been
guarding the Plaza side of the block. In his own words: "The
Sheriff and officers Harris and Gard then had charge of the front of
Coronel's building, and I went back and took charge of the guard on
the corner of the Plaza, where I stood until parties had gotten in at
the roof, and the shooting was over." Baker would not have known yet that lynchings were taking place several block away.
"At approximately the same time that Marshal Baker returned to Negro Alley, so did Sheriff James F. Burns, who immediately attempted to intercede on behalf of the Chinese - at one time making a speech to the rioters asking them to stop their depredations. He made his plea while standing on top of a barrel, and his speech suddenly came to an end when the top of the barrel gave way, plunging the sheriff to the ground amidst the delighted hoots of the mob." It is my understanding that the barrel incident took place on Main Street. But that is just my inference from the fact that testimony and previously written accounts state the marshal made his speech after escorting a group of Chinese to the jail and before leading a group "back" to Negro Alley.
"Robert M. Widney, upon being notified by a friend that a crowd was murdering Chinese wholesale around Negro Alley, obtained a pistol from his brother and went to the scene of the killings where he waded into a group of mobsters and rescued four Chinese from its clutches." Robert Widney was already at the scene and was mostly helpless to do anything about the violence until his brother William retrieved a gun and gave it to him. In Roberts words: "I was unarmed at the time, and made no attempt to stop the proceedings; I then returned; when we got to the corner of Temple and Spring streets, we saw two or three groups coming with Chinamen; John Lazzarovich, I and others were standing together; John said he would help, and he and I took hold of a Chinaman, and pulled to get him away; my brother came up, and I got my pistol from him; the Irishman I before alluded to was one of the parties; I took hold of and jerked him back, put my pistol to his face, and told him he couldn’t do any more hanging, that the rest of the Chinamen must go to jail; the others were threatening Lazzarovich; I stepped between them, put my pistol up, and stopped them; another crowd were then trying to take one up Temple street; it was only by leveling my pistol that we could save the Chinaman, got him off and sent him down Spring street to jail; they made two attempts to recover him, but failed; we sent up four, all we met from that time on."
Again, De Falla
tries to connect Constable Kerren with the mob but with zero
evidence. "Young Hazard had witnessed the Chinese quarters being
broken into with the rock, and saw carpenter Cox throw his fire-ball
into the open apartment - and subsequently, overtook three mobsters
who were dragging an Oriental to his doom at Goller's wagon shop and
prevailed upon them to let the Chinese go. There is a slight hint in
the records to the effect that one of these mobsters was Constable
Kerren, who, upon realizing that he had been recognized by attorney
Hazard, was probably only too glad to set his Oriental victim free."
This is the relevant part of Hazard's testimony: "after getting
down from the building and in going toward the place of hanging
overtook three persons pushing a Chinaman along - one a tall Spaniard
whom I know when I see; the second was Ramon Dominguez, the third I
did not recognize; I told them they would not hang that Chinaman, and
I believe he then let go; don’t know what became of the Chinaman." Kerren was not named by Hazard. And the only testimony concerning Kerren was from Benjamin McLaughlin and concerned events that took place before the Coronel Adobe was breached.
De Falla mimics Dorney in claiming one of the victims was a child: "But all of the Chinese males whom the crowd had managed to ferret out in the Coronel Block in Negro Alley were hanged, including in a fourteen year old boy..." I don't know if this is an appeal to emotion or meant to illicit anger, but it's simply not true. The youngest of the victims were described by the Daily Star as “boys of eighteen or nineteen years”.
---------------------- PART TWO ----------------------------
De Falla: "Yo Hing told the world through the Los Angeles Star that the quarrel with the Nin Yung faction had started when a Nin Yung man had attempted to extort some money from a Hong Chow man who was keeping a store in the Beaudry Block by trying to make him pay $50.00 a month for the privilege of being allow to do business in Negro Alley." Here are Yo Hing’s actual comments: "One of the Yang Wu Company leased the Beaudry buildings on Negro Alley, about twelve houses, for $160. One of my company had been renting a house for provision and Chinese store from Mr. Beaudry for $15 a month and this man wanted to make him pay $50 a month; wanted to make him stop keeping store there and break up his business. I told him to pay no more than he had paid Beaudry. I am the agent for my company, and the man came to me for advice. The Yung-Wo man quarrelled (sic) with my men and said he would put them out of the house, but knew that I would protect them with the law, and wanted to get me out of the way because he knew that I knew the law and would appeal to it when any of my people were imposed on or cheated."
De Falla being a
Monday Morning Quarterback: "Still, according to Policeman
Bilderrain's own testimony in court later, immediately upon arriving
at Negro Alley, and before Sam Yuen began to fire at him, he charged
upon the leader of the Nin Yung Company, gun in hand, calling upon
civilians to help him capture the Oriental - when it should have been
the leader of the Hong Chow group, Yo Hing, whom he should have been
looking for - as there was a Nin Yung man, Ah Choy, stretched out in
the alley seriously wounded." As I stated previously, the Nin Yung men
were running away from the Hong Chow location. It would have been
obvious to Bilderrain that Nin Yung instigated the violence that day. Bilderain also testified to NOT seeing Sam Yuen that day.
De Falla tries to concoct some notion that half the police force was in the pocket of Nin Yung and the other half in the pocket of Hong Chow. And that Sam Yung would have suspected Bilderrain of doing Yo Hing's bidding: "...it does not ring absurd to imagine that when Sam Yuen saw Officer Bilderrain charging upon him gun in hand at Negro Alley for no apparent reason on the day of the massacre, the leader of the Nin Yung Company should instantly surmise that this particular policeman was actually a Yo Hing man, bent on rendering the Hong Chow Company a service much as Officers Harris and Gard were wont to render the Ning Yung Company services." Clearly there was a cause and effect relationship between what was likely a second attempt to assassinate Yo Hing, and the presence of policemen on that day.
"Yes, Marshal Baker and Sheriff Burns had decamped from the vicinity of Negro Alley before the riot and had not returned there until after the Coronel Block had been successfully stormed by the mob." My comment above should make clear that this is another character assassination by De Falla.
Here, De Falla mixes
up the names of two different historians; one who was present at the
time of the riot, P. S. Dorney, and one who wrote a history in 1930, and likely wasn't even alive in 1871,
C. P. Dorland. This is a horrible mistake. "Also, when a man
named C. P. Dorland was asked at the inquest as to where he had
gotten a Chinese queue he had been observed thrusting under peoples'
noses after the riot, Mr. Dorland testified that he had gotten it
from a "Spaniard." At the time Mr. Dorland testified at the
inquest, he was clean-shaven, whereas on the night of the massacre,
he had been seen sporting a bushy beard. When he was asked if he had
shaved in an effort to avoid identification, Mr. Dorland said no;
explaining that he had been meaning to shave off his beard for a
long, long, time - and also explaining that during the night of the
riot he had been very, very, drunk." P.S. Dorney (De Orney) was identified by John Goller during the Coroner's Inquest as a man who was showing off the Chinese queue, not Dorland.
Again, another character assassination of constable Kerren: "The only reason posterity knows that Refugio Bottelo and Adolph Celis were indicted, is that it is a matter of public record that these two men were tried for the murder of Doctor Tong along with Curly Crenshaw et al, who had originally been arrested on a coroner's warrant. And as to Constable of the County Richard Kerren having been indicted also; we know it only because he admitted it during the trial of Crenshaw. The constable himself however, was never brought to trial on the basis of his indictment. In fact, it appears that he suffered no inconvenience at all as a consequence of his acts during the massacre." But Kerren was tried. In fact, his was the first trial. Here is the conclusion as reported by the Los Angeles Daily News on January 6 and January 7, 1871: "People vs. Richard Kerren; submitted to the jury and verdict of not guilty rendered." and "People vs. Richard Kerren; indictment, No. 13, for an assault with a deadly weapon; cased dismissed on the motion of the District Attorney, on the grounds that it would be impossible to obtain a conviction."
De Falla claims, "Widney came to the bench on January 2, 1872, a full four years before he was admitted to the bar in 1876." But according to Scott Zesch in The Chinatown War, "Local attorney Robert M.Widney, who had been admitted to the bar six years earlier and had just turned thirty-three…". So De Falla is off by ten years.
De Falla discussed the flaw in the indictment that would eventually lead to the convictions being overturned. His words make Widney look like an incompetent fool, he and claims that nobody except for Kewen was aware of the flaw. "What Colonel Kewen came to know was that the indictment against Curly Crenshaw and the rest of the rioters had in it a colossal flaw. That is, whereas the indictment charged Crenshaw with having helped murder Doctor Chien Lee Tong, this indictment failed to establish that the doctor had been murdered at all. In short, Crenshaw was about to be tried on charges of having helped murder a man who before the law was not alleged to have been murdered at all, however dead the doctor might have been after having been shot through the mouth and hanged on October 24. This flaw in the indictment was a technicality which had apparently escaped the notice of every one, including non-lawyer, six-weeks-on-the-bench Judge Robert Widney, and the district attorney, Cameron E. Thorn, a brother-Confederate of E. J. C. Kewen who left Los Angeles to fight with the boys in gray during the Civil War. Kewen, of course, said not a word about the fault in the indictment, and went on to see his client Crenshaw convicted of manslaughter by a jury of his peers." This flaw was in fact known and it was debated ad nauseam. Not only that, but the Daily News took the time to report on this legal wrangling and devoted way more ink than would have been normal. For reference, this debate appears in the Los Angeles Daily News, Volume 4, Number 34, 9 February 1872. Rather then boring anybody brave enough to read my mess, I will copy the most relevant portion here: "The indictment says that they "did feloniously, unlawfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, and of their malice aforethought, stand by, aid, abet, assist, advise, counsel and encourage, unknown persons, to feloniously, unlawfully, etc., to kill and murder one Gene Tong," etc. Does this allegation of the indictment show that Gene Tong is dead? Here we must invoke the aid of Section 245 of this Act, to wit; "The words used in an indictment shall be construed in the usual acceptance in common language, except such words and phrases as are defined by law, which are to be construed according to their legal meaning.""
The indictments
following the Grand Jury listed one Hundred and fifty names.
Twenty-five indictments were for the crime of murder and accessories,
another twenty-four indictments were for various felonies. De Falla
asks: "Why have these persons not been brought before the bar of
justice? The answer to this hypothetical question probably lies in
the fact that a great many people of consequence in Los Angeles were
probably included in the list of grand jury indictments, even
probably including a fellow-journalist: H. M. Mitchell of the Los
Angeles Star." But the sad reality was that there were probably
not enough eligible jurors in the County to conduct that many trials.
The People V. Mendel et al burned through a staggering 255 jurors,
and that was in a county with 5,000 residents. Jury selection was
also plagued by prospective jurors who were sympathetic to vigilance
committees, or even members of such organizations.
De Falla goes on to complain that San Yuen's trial was delayed because, "Sam Yuen apparently still had some powerful friends in the police department; and no particular effort was made to catch him. At this point, the News began to print editorials about "suspicious" negligence on the part of the police when it came to arresting Sam Yuen." But he neglects to mention that Sam Yeun had been in Sacramento for several months following the massacre, and when he returned to Los Angeles, he stayed out of public to avoid being caught. And even after he was eventually arrested, be posted bond and was allowed to travel to San Francisco until the time of his trial.
De Falla then swallows a load of Daily News garbage and regurgitates it for his readers. "Anyway, nobody in the Los Angeles police department could be found who would arrest Yuen, so matters went along in that fashion for a few weeks, with the News constantly harping about Sam Yuen running around loose while there was a warrant out for his arrest. Then, as fate would have it, Officer Estevan Sanchez, the mounted policeman who had run out of ammunition on the afternoon of the riot, resigned his post, and a young man named Macey Hartley was appointed to take his place. Here now was a brand-new officer on the Los Angeles police force; a man with whom Sam Yuen had not had time to cement a fast friendship - and within seventy two hours after having had his star pinned on his vest by the City Council Board of Police, Officer Hartley had the owner of the Wing Chung store in jail." Every police officer at that time was recognizable to pretty much every person in Chinatown. As reported in the Daily News,"As we have already reported, it was well known for several days [not weeks] past, that that Sam Yuen had returned to the city, but had successfully evaded capture by those having warrants for his arrest. Officer Hartley has not been long on the force, and the Chinaman accused of murdering Thompson was not known to him, as to the balance of the officers. He, however, stationed men who knew the accused at favorable points so as to ascertain the whereabouts of his hiding place. This was discovered yesterday morning, and the arrest was immediately made."
And finally, I should mention De Falla fails to credit officer Billy Sands with saving a Chinese man from a member of the mob named Antoine Silva.
De Falla’s work is a disappointing mess that should not be referenced without corroborating evidence.
1886 P. S. Dorney(AKA Patrick Sarsfield De Orny)
1894 C. P. Dorland
1916 Harris Newmark
1930 Horace Bell
2011 John JohnsonJr.
2012 Scott Zesch
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