The Los Angeles Common Council and Criminal Justice, 1850: Part Two

As the first Los Angeles Common (later, City) Council enacted the town's original set of ordinances, it had to reconsider some of its positions upon reflection.

At its 16 August 1850 meeting, the council's Police Committee, consisting of council members Alexander Bell and Manuel Requena, resubmitted its report, claiming that the second and third articles proposing a prohibition on the carrying and discharge of firearms, which clearly was a problem in Los Angeles and would only get worse, should be scrapped as being impossible to enforce.

Manuel Requena (1802-1876) came to Los Angeles with the Hijar-Padres colony that included Agustín Olvera and the Coronels (Ignacio, Manuel and Antonio Franco), all of whom became prominent political and/or legal figures in Los Angeles.  Requena was twice alcalde (roughly akin to mayor) in 1836, during which time the town's first vigilance committee was formed, and in 1844.  He was a Common Council member for several terms in the years 1850-67, on the first county Board of Supervisors, and in other positions of responsibility.  He was a merchant and vintner, as well.  From the California Historical Society Collection, University of Southern California Libraries, U.S.C. Digital Library.

In their stead, Requena and Bell recommended a new second article requiring that "all City prisoners must be sentenced within two days" on any conviction for violation of ordinances and that the third would manadate that when the city did not have work for the chain gang, prisoners could be turned over to the public on the highest bid not less than the sum of their fine "and for double the time which they were to serve out at hard labor."  Although this was generally expressed, it became clear that the majority of those affected by what became a vicious cycle of enforced manual labor were native Indians--a point raised in this blog before.

Four additional ordinances were suggested by the committee.  First, the recorder was to be empowered to enforce penalties and collect fines, turning these monies over to the city treasurer every eight days.  Second, the recorder was to present a monthly report concerning prisoners arrested, those convicted, what the fine paid was and providing a list of those who served their sentences on the chain hang.  Then, another was that only those arrested for infractions of ordinances were to be city prisoners, "but criminals, apprehanded by the officers of the City, shall be held at the disposition of the County Judges."  Finally, the marshal would be required to enforce ordinances and report to the recorder those persons who were arrested, as well as "any important news that may transpire."

As the council deliberated upon the revised report, the new second and third articles were quickly approved, as was one about the banning of card playing in public.  On the fifteenth article concerning sentences and fines, Morris Goodman moved that article ten's limit on operating hours of retail establishments allow for a variance for those who lived in their shops, but this was denied by the council.  The body did, however, amend that article so that "no spiritous liquors shall be sold after the hour of eight p.m. in winter and after nine p.m. in summer."

Further discussion was had about the severer sentence and fines for those who polluted the town's zanjas (water ditches) and who allowed cattle to roam untied, with Casildo Aguilar suggesting a much lower sentence of rought half the jail time or fine, but this was rejected.

The listing for Manuel Requena in the 1850 federal census, actually taken on 18 January 1851.  He listed no occupation, but was shown in later censuses as a retired merchant and a vintner.  His self-declared property value of $14,500 was substantial.  Notably, betwen 1860 and 1870, when so many residents of Los Angeles, especially Spanish speakers, saw declines in wealth during a period of floor, drought and economic instability, his declared wealth remained consistently in the low $20,000 range, indicating that Requena was still quite prosperous.

At this and without considering the four new articles, council president Requena asked for a roll call and the vote was 4-2, with Jonathan Temple abstaining and then requesting an adjournment, but Requena, perhaps hoping Temple would change his mind and vote, asked for another call--but, again, Temple abstained and the vote was the same.

The next meeting, on 30 August, included Requena and Bell's request for an amendment to the sentencing, so that jail time would be no longer than 10 days in any case and this was approved, giving half of what Aguilar had requested two weeks prior.

The first two of the added ordinances regarding the recorder's responsibilities were approved, but the third was amended so that any reference to the disposition of criminals by county judges was stricken, presumably because there would be cases in which this was not so, whether to the town's justice of the peace or to the District Court.  The last of the ordinances specifying the marshal's duties was also approved.

Los Angeles's first ordinances were then established, although the eternal conflict between the making and the enforcing of laws would, naturally, ensue in short order, especially in the battle of limiting the hours of selling liquor, disturbing the peace, "furious" horse riding, keeping the zanjas clean, and others.

At this, a major change in the council's demographics was effected by the resignations, for reasons not recorded, of Casildo Aguilar and Julian Chavez.  The council then called for a special election on 9 September at El Palacio (The Palace), the substantial adobe residence of prominent merchant Abel Stearns.

Two days after the election, the council gathered on the 11th of September and the replacements of Aguilar and Chavez were sworn in, these being Wilson Jones and Benjamin D. Wilson.  Interestingly, Wilson was also county clerk and there was discussion about a potential conflict of interest, though the city attorney, Benjamin Hayes, determined that there was none.

The election results meant that, instead of an ethnically-balanced council, the body was now composed of six Americans and one Californio, this being president Requena.  The meeting concluded with a call for a special meeting two nights later at the home of Alexander Bell.  The next post will follow the activities of the council from there.

The Los Angeles Common Council and Criminal Justice, 1850

While Congress debated and dithered about what to do with the newly-conquered possession of California, residents took matters into their own hands and adopted a constitution in late 1849 and set elections for April to get the machinery of government going in newly established counties.

The spring 1850 elections included a seven-member "Common Council" for Los Angeles--incidentally, the "Common Council" existed for nearly forty years until a new city charter was adopted and the term "City Council" was employed starting in 1889.

The first council members, who began their work at an inaugural meeting on 3 July 1850, included:

• President David W. Alexander, who hailed from Ireland and came to Los Angeles from New Mexico in 1842, working as a merchant; 
• Cristobal Aguilar, a native Californio who held offices in the Mexican era and went on to serve several terms as a council member, mayor and county supervisor; 
• Alexander Bell, an American merchant whose nephew Horace has been often discussed in this blog; 
• Julián Chavez, a native of New Mexico who came to Los Angeles in the 1830s, also holding office in the Mexican era, and was a council member and county supervisor at various points into the 1870s, as well as being the namesake of Chavez Ravine; 
• Morris Goodman, the first Jew to serve in an official capacity in Los Angeles, was a council member for four years and was later a deputy sheriff and briefly a county supervisor.  Later, he was a merchant in Anaheim;
• Manuel Requena, a native of Mexico who came to Los Angeles in 1834, was alcalde (equivalent to a mayor) shortly after his arrival, but also was a long-time council member and supervisor; and
• Jonathan Temple, the second American or European to live in Los Angeles, arriving in 1828, and who served on the ayuntamiento (council) and was a treasurer during the Mexican era.  Temple's political involvement in the American era was limited, however, and he was a merchant and rancher with a great deal of property and wealth.

In its first meetings, the council was concerned with finding suitable and affordable quarters for city business, with Temple offering an adobe building for county use.  This would be considered a conflict of interest now, but the looser standards of the time applied and the structure was leased from him.

Salaries for city officials were established, including a $2000 salary for the mayor, $500 for the city attorney (who, however, collected fees for elements of his work), $600 for the council secretary, and $600 for the city marshal, who originally was going to be paid strictly in fees for the processes he served.

Another early item of business was negotiation with the county on a better jail.  At the time, the administration of county affairs was with the three-member Court of Sessions, composed of county judge Agustín Olvera and two associate justices from townships in the county (the Board of Supervisors was established in 1852 when having the court try to manage the county's business and maintain a busy criminal and civil court calendar was just too much).  

The Sessions court requested some lots and a $2000 city subsidy for a jail and Temple and Requena were appointed to conduct negotiations.  On 20 July, the duo recommended that the city provide a lot for a jail, so long as the city could make use of the facility, and for no charges to the city except for maintenance of prisoners sentenced under order of city officers.  However, they advised the council to send its regrets that there was no possibility of ponying up the $2000 requested by the court.

By the end of July, the council worked on proposed rules for its operation, including the creation of several committees, one of these titled the "Police" committee, though this really meant, "to attend to everything touching the comfort, health and adornment of the city," rather than crime.  Requena and Bell were the first members of this committee and, on the last day of the month, were asked to report at the next meeting on a draft ordinance of "Police Regulations."

Here's an early view of the Plaza Church, built in 1822 and still standing on Main Street across from the Plaza.  To the north is a portion of "Sonoratown" and, in the distance, a piece of white-fenced Calvary Cemetery, now the site of Cathedral High School (New Calvary was moved to East Los Angeles later).

At the 7 August meeting, Bell and Requena made their suggestions.  The first was that "the city's prisoners shall be formed in a chain-gang, and occupied in public works."   This system, in effect for years, was highly controversial, mainly because of the vicious cycle perpetrated on native Indians, who were generally paid in alcohol at the end of the week, got drunk and were arrested and jailed, and then sent out to work off their fines, because they weren't paid in money.  The next weekend, the situation was repeated and it was a blight on the city's operation.

The second recommendation concerned a proposed prohibition on carrying guns, except by those "whose occupation makes its use necessary," presumably the marshal, constables, sheriff and deputy sheriffs, although this was not specified.

Another questionable suggestion was:

the police shall gather in the vagrants of both sexes, putting them under arrest, and the Recorder [a short-lived position in government] shall assign them to serve private parties under proper and just conditions.  Those who relapse into vagrancy, shall be confined in the chain-gang, until they produce a bondsman prepared to give a pecuniary security, at the Recorder's option, guaranteeing the vagrant shall in future be engaged in some useful occupation or leave the City limits.

Just how it was proposed to properly enforce this ordinance, defined "proper and just conditions" for what was essentially penal servitude, and guarantee a vagrant's "useful occupation" and a few of the key questions to be asked about this strange recommendation.

Other suggestions included allowing no pits in city limits, requiring each householder to clean the front of his residence to the center of the street, keeping filth, clothes washing and the slaughtering of cattle away from streets and zanjas (common water ditches), and mandating that all cattle had to be tied to tame oxen.

Recognizing the problem Los Angeles had with dozens of drinking houses, Requena and Bell proposed that every shop or tavern owner as well as anyone who had a structure of two or more rooms "shall put a light at the door during the first two hours of every dark night."  Shop and tavern proprietors were to close at 8 p.m. in the winter and 9 p.m.in the summer.

Curious proposals continued, including the proposed prohibition against riding horses or other animals at a "furious rate" and a proscription for those walking the street "in a scandalous manner" who would "molest the neighbors with yells or in any other manner" if it was later or if "the offender be intoxicated."  In these latter cases, the Recorder was to be empowered to fine the offender $10-25 and impose a chain gang sentence of 10-25 days.  This punishment was also recommended to anyone who played cards in the streets "regardless of the kind of game" or any game that was played in gambling houses taxed for the privilege of allowing gambling.

After discussion, there were amendments and approvals for all, with one notable change coming concerning a different sentence for public disturbance for native Indians: "If he be an Indian, he shall pay a fine of three to five dollars or be imprisoned eight days in the chain-gang."  When Requena requested a roll call, the vote was 5-2 to accept the ordinances as amended.

By mid-August, however, it was realized that portions of the ordinances were just unrealistic--this will be picked up at the next post!

Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature"

This book was purchased at the local library's bookstore for $1 in early February and has proven to be a real eye-opener on the subject of this blog, in terms of the broad context of violence.

Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Pyschology at Harvard University, has been named one the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, as well as one the top 100 global thinkers by the journal Foreign Policy (his The Stuff of Thought is now in reading mix right now).

The Better Angels of Our Nature, which appeared in 2011, is massive, at a weighty 700 pages of text, but it takes on a large context of violence towards gays, ethnic minorities women, and animals and looks at the deep psychological aspects of violent behavior, including predatory, dominant, vengeful, sadistic and ideological motivations.

 
It looks how empathy, self-control, morality and reason are measured in comparison and contrast to what is referred to as the "civilizing process," as adapted from the work of Norbert Elias.  The thrust of the book is that, despite the millions of deaths caused by the two World Wars, genocidal actions by Turkey, the Nazis, and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, and other atrocities, violence has actually declined significantly over time and, in recent decades, has lead to what Pinker calls "the Long Peace."

Pinker is careful to say that he is not suggesting that the trends in the decline of violence will continue as they have been or that there won't be large-scale atrocities in our future, but is compelling in working with an array of studies that show just how much violent behavior has been mitigated of late.

In his third chapter, Pinker discusses violence in the American South and its "culture of honor," in which violent actions were part of a masculine code of "self-help justice" and a denial of allowing government "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force."  He quotes Eric Monkonnen, whose work has been alluded to in this blog relating to homicide statistics, and his statement that "the South had a deliberately weak state, eschewing things such as pentitentiaries in favor of local, personal violence."

For Southerners, "self-help justice depends on the credibility of one's prowess and resolve" and "an obsession with credible deterrence, otherwise known as a culture of honor."  That is, men in the South codified the idea that violence was legitimate "after an insult or other mistreatment."  Northerners were more likely to commit murder during robberies, but Southerners "in those sparked by quarrels" and "to protect home and family."

Notably, Pinker alludes to the fact that the Southern colonies were populated by large numbers of Scots-Irish "who hailed from the mountainous periphery of the British Isles beyond the reach of the central government" and that many came from a sheepherding economy, which may have facilitated the development of the "code of honor."  He notes that "herders all over the world cultivate a hairtrigger for violent retaliation."

Even if later Southerners were no longer heders, he continues, "cultural mores can persist long after the ecological circumstances that gave rise to them are gone."  He does note, though, that "the immediate trigger for self-help justice, then, is anarchy" in the absence of effective legal institutions or the acceptance of them.  Moreover, "honor has staying power because the first man who dares to abjure it would be heaped with contempt for cowardice and treated as an easy mark."

The discussion then turns to the American West and the fact that, even more than the South, it "was a zone of anarchy until well into the 20th century." Here the sheepherder is manifested as the cowboy with the culture of honor transplanted to the wide-open spaces of the western states and territories.  The self-help attitude based on honor also involved "drinking, gambling, whoring, and brawling."

Pinker writes that "in the American Wild West, annual homicide rates were fifty to several hundred times higher than those of eastern cities and midwestern farming regions."  More germane to the subject of this blog, "the criminal justice system was underfunded, inept, and often corrupt."

In this context, "self-help justice was the only way to deter horse thieves, cattle rustlers, highwaymen, and other brigands" and "the guarantor of its deterrent threat was a reputation for resolve that had to be defended at all costs."

Gold Rush California, Pinker continues, citing David Courtright's Violent Land, had "an average annual homicide rate at the time of 83 per 100,000."  An accompanying figure built on statistics from Randolph Roth's American Homicide showed that rates peaked in California at over 100 per 100,000 and then began a long decline that can be attributed largely to the "civilizing process."

A figure from Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature, adapted from American Homicide by Randolph Ross shows the peaking astronomical rate of homicide in California during the Gold Rush years of the 1850s and the dramatic decline since.

Meantime, as Courtwright noted, the staggering violence of the Gold Rush era "was exacerbated by a combination of demography and evolutionary psychology."  Significantly,

these regions were peopled by young, single men who had fled impoverished farms and urban ghettoes to seek their fortune in the harsh frontier.  The one great universal in the study of violence is that most of it is committed by fifteen-to-thirty-year-old men.

There is also the matter of having some mitigation by the presence of women, be they mothers, sisters, aunts, or wives and the latter become especially important as Pinker highlights the concept of "cads versus dads."  That is, as young men marry and have families, they distance themselves from the competition from other males that leads to so much violent confrontation.

Then comes neurobiology through the pervasive influence of liquor on the weakening of self-control and Pinker observes that "many studies have shown that people with a tendency toward violence are more likely to act on it when they are under the influence of alcohol."

One element Pinker did not discuss was the technological advances in weaponry, specifically the introduction, just in time for the Gold Rush, of the Colt revolver in 1849.  Elsewhere in the book, though, he suggested that the weapon was not so much a factor in increase or decline of violence as the human characteristics that led to the decision to engage in or step back from violent activity.  It is true that among Spanish-speaking Californians, the weapon of choice was often more likely to be a knife or a sword, but the growing inventory of guns is certainly a factor in the prevasivenes of violence.

Pinker, despite the opportunity to play off the title of his book, did not mention Los Angeles in his book, but, clearly, many of the conditions that he discussed applied to this brawling little village as well as to other frontier communities he referenced including Abilene, Dodge City, Wichita, Leadville, Bodie and others.

Los Angeles from the 1850s to the 1870s had plenty of the saloons and grog shops, gambling dens, brothels and other institutions that fomented so much of the staggering levels of violence that wracked the town for so long.

It also, which would have played well to his other point about the "code of honor," as the region had a large proportion of Southerners in its populace.  As will be discussed in this blog in future posts, there was no shortage of incidents involving Southern men defending their honor through duels, brawls and gunfights.

El Monte, settled mainly by families from southern states who migrated over in the early 1850s and onward, was ground zero for much of this, whether it meant family feuds that happened in that community or elsewhere.  These included the King-Johnson feud of 1855 and the King-Carlisle gunbattle in Los Angeles a decade later.

However, it is worth noting that there was a change by the 1870s.  For example, the township of Los Nietos, straddling the San Gabriel River where today's cities of Downey, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier and Pico Rivera are located, saw a significant influx of Southerners by 1870--to the extent that the English-surnamed population leapt from two dozen in 1860 to over 1,100 a decade later, most of them from southern states.

Yet, there is little indication that violence there was anywhere close to what was experienced in El Monte or among its population, twenty or so years before.  Perhaps the anarchic conditions of the Gold Rush era had been replaced enough by the "civilizing process" so that its results could already be witnessed in Los Nietos.  Schools, churches, a greater proportion of women--these could be among a range of factors that were involved.

In any case, Pinker's book was a revelation when it came to thinking about the big picture dynamics of how violence has declined over the centuries.  For anyone who wants to know more about the role of violent behavior over time, though it will take a while, The Better Angels of Our Nature is definitely worth checking out.

The Remarkable Story of Atanacio Moreno

Even for the incredibly violent years of the first half of the 1850s in Gold Rush-era Los Angeles, the story of Atanacio (sometimes given as Anastacio) Moreno stands out.  His tale, though, is one that is part factual and part suppositional, though all of it is interesting.

Moreno, a native of Sonora, Mexico, came to Los Angeles at an unknown date and established himself as a merchant.  According to Horace Bell, whose memoirs Reminiscences of a Ranger and the posthumous On the Old West Coast, have to be taken with many grains of salt, Moreno went bankrupt in August 1853.

Meanwhile, in late July, it was alleged that the famed and feared bandido, Joaquin Murrieta, was killed by a posse in San Benito County in the north.  According to two accounts of the semi-mythical Murrieta, the early months of 1853 found the bandit chieftain and his henchmen committing a series of robberies and murders in Calaveras County in the heart of California's gold fields.

At Yaqui Camp, near the town of San Andreas, an attempt was made in mid-January 1853 to round up a posse to capture Murrieta and his gang, led by Charles H. Ellis, said to have been the deputy sheriff of the county.  According to The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit, a fanciful account published in 1854 and penned by Yellow Bird (John Rollin Ridge), Ellis (spelled Ellas in the book) only had a single volunteer

He found no one at all prepared to accompany him but a Mexican merchant in the place named Atanacio Moreno, a man who was worth money, and stood well in the community.  Unsuspected by Ellas, the man secretly belonged to the band of Joaquin Murieta, or I should rather say, to the tremendous organization that that bold chieftain had established throughout the country.  

Yellow Bird went on to state that Moreno had assisted Ellis in capturing a horse thief and supplied him with information and men and horses in other posse activities, though this was, evidently, only because Moreno had conflicts with those who were pursued.  The account went on to say that, after Moreno's assistance led to no results when it came to finding Murrieta

It became known before a great while, for a certainty, that this man was a scoundrel, and leaving the country in a few weeks after his connection with Joaquin was discovered, he joined Sena [Senate], a petty robber of some note in the south.

Meanwhile, a later account, Walter Noble Burns' The Robin Hood of El Dorado, which appeared in 1899, stated the situation with Moreno in Yaqui Camp a little differently.  While noting that Moreno was supposedly the only one to respond to Ellis' call for assistance, Burns offered some details on him:

He was an impressive looking man, tall and rather stout, a smooth and voluble talker, and of manners suave and ingratiating.  This obliging person came forward with an offer to guide the deputy sheriff to the exact spot at which Murrieta could be found.  The offer surprised Ellis but he could not doubt the good faith of so distinguished a citizen.

Burns wrote that Murrieta was standing just a few feet away incognito, while Moreno offered his assistance to Ellis and went on to note that, "Atanacio Moreno was a merchant and quite prosperous.  Also he was Murrieta's spy and secret agent and at times took personal part in the murderous crimes of the outlaws."

What followed in the account was dialogue purportedly uttered by Moreno and Ellis regarding the assistance offered by the former to the latter.  After slogging through mountains and forests for some forty miles, however, Murrieta was nowhere to be found and only then, apparently, did Ellis realize that "Moreno had made fools of them."  Evidently, Burns went on,

Moreno had need of all his eloquence and adroitness to argue them out of stringing him up to a tree, but, in the end, they gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him off with his life.  Upon his return to Yaqui Camp, Moreno hurriedly packed his effects and left for parts unknown, and was never seen in that region again.

Bell, meanwhile, only stated that Moreno's store was "the first commercial failure in Los Angeles" but does not indicate when he arrived in Los Angeles to set up shop.  Bell did write that, "Moreno was a tall, straight, fine appearing white man, belonged to the best blood of Sonora, and up to the time of his disappearance stood well in society, and was highly respected."  But, after his store collapsed, Moreno vanished.

According to Bell, a crime wave washed through Los Angeles in the last part of 1853 and that, after news of Murrieta's death reached town, fears were stoked "that the frightened bandits [from Murrieta's gang] were making their way southward."  Moreover, the animated chronicler continued, "the excitement and alarm was fearful, the city was actually in a state of siege, business was at a standstill, and so October passed and November set in."

On the evening of 7 December, Los Angeles constable (Bell wrote that he was the city marshal and indicated the incident happened months before in August) John "Jack" Wheelan, a veteran of the Mexican-American War who came to California with Stevenson's New York Regiment of volunteers and who was just elected to his position in September, went to what was called the "Sonora camp" near the zanja, or water ditch--this was almost certainly what became Sonoratown on the north end of town--to serve a warrant on the charge of murder against Gabriel (a.k.a. Jesús) Senate.  Senate stabbed Wheelan through the heart, killing the constable.

Despite a search by Sheriff James Barton, the Los Angeles Rangers citizen militia and others, Senate escaped.  The 10 December edition of the Los Angeles Star observed that "the assertion has often been made, that Sonorean thieves and murderers are harbored and assisted in our midst" and the paper charged that "circumstantial complicity" was manifested by some twenty others who stood by as Senate killed Wheelan.

The paper also reported that there was so much anger and excitement generated by Wheelam's death that there was talk of attacking "the whole mixed race" among the Sonorans, but that cooler heads prevailed, even if "a single word" might set off a mob offensive.  Typically, Horace Bell claimed that any vigilante committee action was halted because“the bad characters were evidently in the majority, and might turn out and banish the committee and their backers.”

In that same issue of 10 December, Sheriff Barton advertised for a $500 reward was offered for the delivery of Senate, either alive and brought to the county jail, "or the same price for his head, if killed, by any person attempting to arrest him."  In a 1929 book of selected diary entries of District Court Judge Benjamin Hayes, the jurist tried to prevent Barton from advertising the reward because he was concerned about vigilantes taking advantage of the situation.

A short article about the robbery and rape committed at the home of Martin and Josefa Lelong from the 28 January 1854 edition of the Los Angeles Star as reprinted in the San Francisco Alta Calfornia on 5 February.  Retrieved from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside. Click on any image to see them in enlarged views in a new window.

Still, weeks went by with no sign of Senate.  On 20 January 1854, a gang of "six Mexicans" robbed Martin Lelong of a little more than $50, as well as rings, earrings, two watches, a horse and other personal property and then raped Lelong's Californio wife, Josefa Alanís.  According to Horace Bell, who only referred to the victim as a "Frenchman" and his wife, this happened the prior November just after the robbing of the "grand opening ball" of the first brothel opened by outsiders--these being "fair and frail sisters from San Francisco."  Bell also claimed the number of robbers was a dozen, so his accuracy, as noted in this blog several times before, is to be questioned.

In any case, on the 25th, shock, surprise and delight greeted the news that Senate and Juan Burgos, alleged to have bragged that he was Joaquin Murrieta (others evidently did so throughout California), had been killed, their corpses delivered to Sheriff Barton and the bodies quickly buried.  The Star's edition of the 28th, however, noted that, while some of the story it related could be corroborated, some of it "lacks confirmation."

What then followed was the statement that Senate and Burgos, accompanied by several other men, invited four young men to join them at a dance, but actually perpetrated the outrage at Lelong's house.  After decamping to a nearby rancho, part of the gang left for other locales, leaving the four youths with Senate and Burgos.  When the latter proposed killing two Americans at the ranch, the quartet balked and, according to the story, "the four referred to, finally killed Senate and Burgos."

The response in Los Angeles was that "the death of these two villains caused universal joy to our citizens."  The paper concluded by noting that Senate and Burgos were "desirous of emulating the exploits of Joaquin."  Only later did it emerge that Atanacio Moreno was involved to the extent that he drove the wagon into town with the bodies of Senate and Burgos and claimed he had killed them—and then claimed his reward.

According to Bell, Moreno claimed he had been kidnapped by the two and that he killed them in the course of escaping.  Bell also stated that the reward was $1500, not the $500 that Barton actually advertised.

Judge Hayes, in his diary of 25 January, wrote "To-day Senate and Borghias, two assassins, are brought in dead . . . they were killed by one of their companions in the late robbery of Lelong, Atanacio Moreno, a bankrupt merchant who joined the remnants of the Murrieta gang . . . they were delivered at the jail by the stepfather of Manuel Marquez, and the reward paid."

Then, on 8 February, Moreno was arrested, as reported in the Star three days later:

Atanacio Moreno, the man who killed Senate, was arrested in this city . . . on Wednesday, he was in the act of trading in a watch, which was recognized as the one recently sold to Mr. Lelong.  Atanacio was taken before Justice Dimmick, where Mr. Lelong identified the watch, and also the shirt the prisoner had on, as the property taken by the robbers in the recent attack upon his house.  He also testified that Atanacio was a leader in that affair—that he threatened him with a drawn sword, if he made any noise, and took the watch with his own hands.

Moreno was indicted in February, remained in jail for about two months until his trial on 5 April on two indictments, one for the robbery against Lelong and another for grand larceny in the theft of a horse from the Los Angeles Rangers.  This case is one of the few in the surviving court records of the era that has a great deal of material remaining in the folder, including testimony offered at trial.  Moreno was convicted on both counts and sentenced to 10 years for the Lelong robbery and 5 years for the Rangers grand larceny.

Judge Hayes had a notable statement to make in his scrapbooks, which now reside at the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley, about Moreno:

No courts and juries may have charity for one they believe to be a criminal.  But, charity is a Heavenly feeling that cannot approve iniquity.  We may lament the fate of one who has forfeited the noble privileges of the citizen.  While we pity him in his fallen condition, we must not forget, that the interests of society need also our sympathy and our care and that they depend, for their preservation, less even upon the character of our laws, than upon the fidelity with which they are administered.

When Hayes imposed sentence on the convicted man, the judge recorded in his diary on the 5th that "he took the sentence with perfect composure."

Atanacio Moreno's registration at San Quentin State Prison, 10 April 1854.  Retrieved from Ancestry.com

On the 10th, Moreno arrived at San Quentin and was registered as prisoner 362.  The 24-year old convict listed himself as a merchant, though one indication of his other profession was indicated by the fact that he had a "scar on right leg from Gun Shot."

Yet, Moreno proved to be a model prisoner in what was nothing less than a hellhole.  In his 1859 state of the state address to the legislature, Governor John Weller had much to say about San Quentin, in terms that are not much different than what is often sad today about California's penal system and large prison popluation.

First, he noted there were nearly 600 prisoners in a facility that was built to hold half or less, stating that  "until additional buildings are provided, so as to separate these convicts and classify them, that institution must stand a disgrace to the State—a disgrace to humanity."  Moreover, he continued,

Unless something is done speedily to provide for the accommodation of this army of convicts, the Executive may be compelled to pardon some of them, with a view to their transportation beyond the State.  The law of self-preservation may compel me to throw them upon other communities.

As for pardons, Weller stated that "these petitions are oftentimes numerously signed by respectable citizens, and occasionally pressed by the streaming tears of broken-hearted kindred."  He added that he turned down 20 such cases in the past year, as well as all four of the petitions for commutations of death sentences.  Although not required to, the governor stated his reasons for using his power of the pardon, highlighting "the record in each case, closely examined, and the facts, rather than the character or number of the petitioners . . . I have neither stopped to count the number or consult public sentiment."

In these lights, Weller decided to pardon Moreno in May 1858, noting that

during that time [of incarceration--about 4 years] the officers certify that he had behaved with great propriety, and given evidence of reformation.  His conduct, prior to conviction, was bad.  I therefore pardon him, however, upon the express conditions 1. That he be placed on a vessel immediately bound for Mexico, and never return to this State. 2.  That if he land in California after he is placed on the vessel, he shall forfeit all the privileges and immunities conferred by the pardon. 3. That his friends shall execute and deliver a satisfactory bond in the sum of $3000, for the performance of these conditions . . .

The governor also noted that the petitioners claimed that the "term of conviction being extraordinary, for such an offence.  That the time of conviction was at a period when prejudice ran high, and sentences were no commensurate with offences."  It was also stated that Moreno was only 20 when sent up to prison (again, his registration shows him as 24), but that "his confinement, which has already lasted four years is, in the opinion of your petitioners, reason sufficient for the exercise of Executive clemency."

The petitioners included two trial jurors, R.D. Sheldon and Antonio Franco Coronel, Los Angeles mayor in 1853 and later a legislator and state treasurer, as well as Sanford Lyon, J.W. Halsey, Timothy Wolfskill and Francisco P. Ramirez, then proprietor of El Clamor Público, Los Angeles' Spanish-language newspaper.  Judge Hayes wrote in his diary that Moreno's mother started the petition and perhaps she lobbied for it from Mexico and had parties in Los Angeles take up her cause.

Yet, within five years of his pardon, presuming he did go to Mexico as ordered by Weller, Moreno made his way back to Los Angeles.  If his "propriety" and "evidence of reformation", as cited by the governor, were legitimate, they were not long lasting.

On 5 December 1863, during a flurry of criminal activity and a corresponding "cleaning of the calaboose" by vigilantes, who hung several men during November and December, Moreno was tried and convicted in the Court of Sessions (renamed the County Court the following year) on a charge of grand larceny for stealing a horse from Jesse Stark.  He received a sentence of ten years at San Quentin and checked in there on the 11th as prisoner 2651.  Notably, he was listed as being 39 years old, though if his age during his first term was correct, he should have been 33.

Moreno's second registration at San Quentin, 11 December 1863.  Also from Ancestry.com.

While Horace Bell wrote that Moreno was again pardoned in 1867, this was not true.  His second San Quentin registration shows that Moreno was discharged in February 1872, after serving a little over 8 years.

Not long after Moreno's release from his second stint in prison, Star publisher Benjamin C. Truman wrote of early Los Angeles crimes and told a version of the Moreno story that may have been fed to him by Bell or vice-versa.  As reprinted in an 1889 Los Angeles County history, Truman's version stated that "Luis Bulvia [Burgos]" was a lieutenant of Murrieta, who drifted south after Joaquin was killed and brought "a remnant of Murrietta's gang."  In Los Angeles, then "they were joined by Atanacio Moreno, a bankrupt merchant, who in the reorganization of the party was elected captain, Senati being a member of the same."

Truman repeated the story of the migrant prostitutes and their party, though he wrote that it was in 1854, which would square with the Lelong incident.  In Truman's telling, though, "Moreno, with his gang, numbering eighteen men, swopped down upon the scene . . . and relieved every man and woman of all the valuables they had about them."  They then proceeded to Lelong's house "and robbed it of the most thorough and systematic manner; after which they committed an outrage too horrible for recital."

Truman added more robberies of "several houses" and claimed the gang "carried off a number of Mexican girls," incidents not stated at the time.  Then "a deputy city marshal" was killed by "Senati" and a $1500 reward offered for the murderer, dead or alive.  Later, the city jailer was greeted by Moreno with the dead bodies of "Bulvia" and "Senati," though again, the reports in the paper stated that it was another man who delivered the corpses.

But, then, after Moreno received the reward, this account continued, Moreno "was the lion of the town, and lived royally upon his blood-money."  When he went to the store of Charles Ducommun, however,and tried to sell Lelong's watch, the merchant went to the Los Angeles Rangers and Moreno was arrested by Marshal William Getman.

Truman then offered details not previously reported about how Moreno killed Burgos and Senate, stating that "he and Senati were left along in camp, all the other members of the gang having left on a scout.  While Senati was cleaning his saddle, Moreno blew his brains out."  Before Moreno could get Senate's corpse ready for transport to Los Angeles, Burgos heard the short and "returned to camp and asked the meaning of it.  Moreno told him that Senati's pistol had gone off accidentally."  When Burgos asked where Senate was and Moreno informed him that Senate was asleep, Burgos lifted a blanket covering the dead man's face, at which "Moreno completed his murderous work by plunging a sword blade through his heart!"

Another interesting tidbit offered in the 1889 history was that "the bodies of Senati and Bulvia were buried on Mariposa Hill, where they were disinterred in 1886 when exacavations were made for the present county jail.  Their bones were carted to the city's dumping grounds."

Horace Bell, however, claimed that Moreno was "tempted by cupidity," whatever that means, and that Senate was killed first by the sword and then Burgos shot.  The noise brought three other gang members to the camp were they were "treacherously murdered in detail," though Bell left out those details!  He also claimed that Moreno confessed to being the captain of the bandit band, with Senate and Burgos being his lieutenants and that he led the raids on the brothel and the home of the Lelongs.  Moreover, Bell asserted that Moreno attempted an escape from San Quentin with a San Francisco forger "but disgracefully failed, and [they] were severely punished."

Not only are these statements totally uncorroborated or false--Governor Weller's pardon makes it clear that Moreno was well-behaved while behind bars at San Quentin.  If there had been any escape attempt in 1855, a pardon three years or less from then would clearly have been impossible.  And, of course, Bell's assertion that Moreno received a second pardon in 1867 is another indication of how Bell's talent for a good story has to be measured by what else can be learned about the stories!

As for Moreno, he disappeared after his second release from prison in early 1872 and was lost to history, but his tale is one of the more interesting ones in a fascinating era of early American-era Los Angeles' criminal justice history.