The herald., 1895-02-24


The erection several years years ago OF
the Phillips Block, at the corner Of
Spring and Franklin streets, nearly obs
liberated one of Los Angeles most strik-
ing ante boom landmarks, the scene OF
many exciting dramas that could be re-
lated by oldtimers, of the days when
lynch law often was called into operation.
The landmark was the County Jail. 1t
consisted of a small, two-story building
in the middle of good-sized yard, en-
closed in an unsightly, worm-eaten fence,
through the cracks and crevices of which
everything that went on in the corral
could be seen plainly.
Now that building is being erected
for the use of an abstract OF title COM
pany at the back of the Phillips
Block, Immediately opposite The Her
aid editorial rooms, on New High
street, there will soon be nothing left
by which the old prison may be
remembered. 1t was in the southeast
corner of the new building, between it
and the back of the Phillips block proper,
that the last three executions took place
in Los Angeles. There would have been
two more subsequently, but that the con-
demned men cheated the gallows by TAX
ing their own lives. One was John Fred
erick Anschlag, human monster and a
born butcher, who killed a whole family
at Garden Grove and committed suicide
by swallowing strychnine, conveyed to
him in plug of tobacco on the night be-
TO e the hanging. The other was miser-
able wretch OF u Chinaman who strung
himself up to the bars of his cell on the
4 Al. L.. A.
penalty for having strangled little Mex
lean waif in Chinatown under revolving
circumstances. These two events hap
pened before the law was passed which
directs that the execution of death sent
ences shall take place in the state peni-
tentiares.
But to revert to the last three hangings
by law. Two OF them took place stimuli
taneously on the Goth of March, 1885, the
other one on November II, 1886. The
story of the crimes for which the cul-
prits suffered death, and of their expia-
tion on the scaffold, is sufficiently inter-
esting to be given again to the readers of
The Herald, now that there will soon be
nothing left to remind us of the place
where stood the scaffold which had been
fornia for nearly fourteen years.
An old Mexican named Chaves, who had
Just quit a job as driver for a butcher
wagon belonging to Charley Gassen, was
found dead one morning in June, 1884, in
the Nerdugo canyon, few miles from the
city. He had been shot through the body;
his pockets turned inside out showed sutfi-
GENTLY what had been the motive for the
crime. The Coroner who was then DR..
Nadeau, and his deputy went out to in
, vestigate the case, and learned from a
rancher named f. j. Mcclellan that he
had heard a shot at O'Clock the night
before. The Deputy Coroner remained in
the canyon for some time, and became
convinced that a Yaqui Indian named
Martinez, a woodchopper, had done the
deed. He came back to town, obtained a
warrant from r. A. Ling, who was then
Justice of the Peace, and in company
with Deputy Constable Berry, now de-
ceased, returned to the Verdugo. Mar
tinez was caught as he was cutting the
traces of one of the horses from his wood
wagon, preparatory to jumping on it and
escaping into the Tejunga. He had just
previously been warned by a friend that
officers were looking for him.
After being handcuffed he was placed
between the men in the buggy and driven
toward town. AS the spot was being
neared where Chaves had been found,
Martinez became very i'll at ease and ner-
vous, but he recovered considerably when
he found the body gone. One of his cap
tors said:
THAT red bearded rancher, Mcclellan,
told us he heard three shots fired.
''Son mentirasl 1t is false!' answered
Martinez fiercely, 81 fired but once!"
And that was how he gave himself
away. After that he confessed the muir
der in court but never would admit any