The Formation of the Los Angeles Rangers, 1853, Part Two

In the late spring and early summer of 1853, a spate of robberies, murders and other crimes taking place in the Los Angeles region spurred a movement to combat the growing scourge.

The 16 July edition of the Los Angeles Star reported on "a large and highly respectable meeting" at the El Dorado Hotel at which "it was resolved to organize a mounted force for the purpose of protecting the public" from rampant crime.

Among the resolutions was the statement that this force be given the power of "arresting all suspicious persons wherever we may find them and ridding the community of the same in such manner as may be advisable."

Another addressed "all persons who have heretofore harbored robbers or assassins ot furnished them means of escape," warning them that such activities would "be punished with the greatest severity."

Then, there was a "three days warning to the whole vagrant class," including the taking of names and physical descriptions and that "their failure to leave the county in the specified time" would lead to their removal "at all hazards."

Finally, these resolutions concluded with the statement "that we continue the system here adopted until the peace and seciroty of the community are perfectly established."

The 16 July 1853 issue of the Los Angeles Star covered a meeting the previous evening at the El Dorado Hotel which led to the formation of an organization to use broad powers to seek the control of rampant crime in the county.

Whatever the exasperation felt by citizens at the seemingly unstoppable criminal activity taking place, there were many problems of due process involved in the resolutions, starting with the profiling of people who were deemed, without any criteria at all, to be "suspicious" and that their explusion could be "in such manner as may be advisable," which left the door open to any forms of violence those involved felt were "advisable."

Along a similar vein, what were the conditions applicable to punishing persons deemed to be assisting criminals and what would the "greatest severity" mean with respect to the punishment?

Vagrancy could, presimably, imply a wide variety of attributes imputed to someone deemed to be a "vagrant."  Was such a person unemployed or seasonally employed?  What other factors would be taken into account to determine vagrancy?  And, again, their removal from the county "at all hazards," implied that any sort of force would be available for use.

Finally, how would the community, or at least those taking it upon themselves to act for the community, know that there was a "perfectly established" sense of "peace and security," at which time the measures adopted at the meeting would be relaxed?

Notably, this addressing of vagrancy predated by two years the passage of a state law, titled “An Act to Punish Vagrants, Vagabonds, and Dangerous and Suspicious Persons,” that addressed all manner of miscreants, from prostitutes and drunks to "healthy beggars" and ordered that those "with no visible means of living" get a job within ten days and that "lewd and dissolute persons" as well as prostitutes and drunks serve up to 90 days at hard labor for their indiscretions.

Another result of the meeting was that "a company was then formed" to carry out the mandate ratified at the gathering.  Leadership of the organization was given to Benjamin D. Wilson, late mayor of Los Angeles and a future state senator, who had no subordinates.  Even though the meeting was held just the previous day, the Star reported that "some have already started out" on the work of protecting the county.

Meantime, it was said that sixteen men at El Monte organized at their own meeting to support Wilson's company and that Charles H. Wurden of that community was elected captain of that auxiliary.

The 8 June 1853 issue of the Star reported on the formation of the Los Angeles Guards, another organization intended to fight crime in the region.

This followed a slightly earlier effort from early June, in which a meeting held on the 7th led to the creation of an organization called the "Los Angeles Guards," featurng thirty members, led by David W. Alexander, a future sheriff, attorney and judge Myron Norton, future Southern Californian publisher John O. Wheeler, common council member and future state treasurer Antonio Franco Coronel, and Samuel K. Labatt.  The Star observed that "such an organization would be a great means of securing good order in our city."  A little more than two weeks later, a formal election of officers was held, with Wheeler named Captain, Norton first lieutenant, Alexander second lieutenant, and merchant Solomon Lazard elected as third lieutenant.  It was also reported that the member roll had doubled to sixty.

It is unclear how much actual crime-fighting was undertaken by the Guards and by Wilson's company, but the Los Angeles Rangers, which also organized during the summer, definitely had more activity.  The 6 August 1853 issue of the Star reported that there were 100 enrolled members and a quarter of them were deemed to be active.  Moreover, the paper continued, "their horses [are] to be furnished gratuitously [sic] by the rancheros, as a loan to the company, with other costs to be assumed by the county "and private subscription."  For example, the Board of Supervisors earmarked $1000 for arms and expected to be reimbursed for such by the state.

The 6 August edition of the Star listed members and the elected officers of the Los Angeles Rangers paramilitary group.  Note the article underneath announcing the supposed capture of the famed bandido Joaquin Murrieta (or, at least, someone said to have been the legendary criminal.)

Among the listed members were William Little (later killed as a member of Sheriff James Barton's posse, ambushed by bandits in today's Orange County in early 1857); Thomas Rand, brother of the former publisher of the Star; Alexander W. Hope, who'd been the chief of the short-lived 1851 police department covered earlier in this blog; marshal William C. Getman, later killed in his first month as sheriff in early 1858; future under-sheriffs Eli Smith and Edward C. Hale, and a young man identified only as H. Bell.  More on him later.

A little over a month later, the first major reported activity of the Rangers appeared in the Star.  More on that and other developments in a post coming soon.

Joaquin Murrieta and the Los Angeles Rangers

On this day in 1853, the Los Angeles Star newspaper had two articles of interest regarding crime and justice in early LA.

The first was about the recent formation of a citizen militia organized to defend the town and county against what was perceived as rampant, unmitigated, unchecked criminal activity.

The Rangers were formed at a time when, throughout the United States, citizen militias were very popular.  The captain was A.W. Hope, who was the first designated police chief, when a small force was created in 1851, during another time of grave concern about crime.  The treasurer and clerk was David W. Alexander, later a two-time sheriff (1856, 1876-77) of the county.

Part of a 6 August 1853 article in the Los Angeles Star newspaper discussing the recent formation of the citizen militia called the Los Angeles Rangers.

Members included Horace Bell, whose 1881 memoir Reminiscences of a Ranger was noted in the last post; William Little, a member of the posse led by Sheriff James Barton which was mowed down by Latino bandits in present-day Orange County in January 1857; William C. Getman, who was a city marshal and briefly sheriff before he was killed in the line of duty just a year after Barton; C.E. [listed as E.C.] Hale, who replaced Alexander as sheriff in 1856; Eli Smith, a future deputy sheriff; Octavius Morgan, who was publisher of the short-lived, but colorful (and vigilante supporting) newspaper, the Southern Californian; Thomas Rand, whose brother William was a founder of the Star and of the famed Rand McNally firm; and W.T.B. Sanford, whose brother-in-law Phineas Banning became one of the region's most prominent citizens and a vigilante.

There were quite a few citizen militias in Los Angeles through the 1870s, but the Rangers appeared to have been the most active by far, at least for a stretch there in the middle Fifties.  Bell's colorful and exaggerated book burnished and expanded the group's image significantly, but it is also fair to suggest that its presence was helful in trying to put a crimp on crime.  More on the Rangers in future posts.

Meantime, the other article of interest was one that reported on the supposed capture and extralegal execution of the famed and semi-legendary bandido Joaquin Murrieta.  The San Francisco Alta California, the week prior on 30 July, published a report stating Joaquin and six of his bandits were confronted by a militia called the California Rangers, led by Captain Harry Love, who was, however, absent when Joaquin was captured and killed.  The report continued that Love had returned with prisoners "and the head of Joaquin preserved in spirits."

Here's more on the membership and leaders of the Rangers, as well as an article about the purported capture of the semi-mythical bandido Joaquin Murrieta from the same issue of the Star.

According to some sources, it is unclear if there was one Murrieta or several. There have also been claims that Murrieta wasn't caught and that someone else was taken and killed instead.  Histories purporting to tell the story of the notorious bandit have been published, but have to be taken as largely imaginary, given that contemporary sources are sketchy and spotty at best.

Murrieta' s legend was enlarged significantly when it was reported that his picked head, said to have been long displayed in San Francisco, was reported destroyed in the great earthquake and fire of April 1906.

As for the Los Angeles area, it was said that Murrieta frequently appeared in town and, in one particular case, involving the murder of San Gabriel saloon keeper and Indian fighter Joshua Bean, he may have had a direct role.  More, too, on that in a subsequent post.