ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFFS ARCHIVE

Above is the molded likeness of a young girl who was murdered and no one reported her missing. It took detectives months of searching to find out who she was and who killed her. Her sad story is part of the Archive.

 The Alameda County Sheriffs Archive is run by volunteers. Last Tuesday, we had Vic Agapalo, an expert on Police Olympics, Donna Boyer, who knows EVERYONE in the department and can identify people in pictures for us. Al Ianarelli, a published writer, who organizes career books for us, Jim Knudsen, also a master book maker and historian, Gary Lindsey jails expert and archive coordinator, and myself. A talented crew. In our workroom above, we have the old neon sign that once hung at Eden Township Substation in Hayward that Bud Harlan, who was absent Tuesday, had refurbished for us.

Donna was NOT identifying the above gents who were once incarcerated at San Quentin. In the 1920's and 1930's most men wore hats. Thus someone decided that every man should have his mug shot taken wearing a hat. Those that didn't have a hat were given one, whether it fit properly or not. His crime and sentence were handwritten on the front of his picture.

While crime was mostly the enterprise of men, a few women were active such as this fancy dame whose specialty was GUN MOLL.

And this SHORT CHANGE ARTIST.
In the books, an occasional woman was arrested mostly for killing her husband (who probably mistreated her) or for prostitution, which was one of the only jobs open to her that paid decent money. The jail history reflected society then,  just as it does today.Its an interesting place.

 Working Deputy, Bill Rhodes, stopped by to make sure we all knew about the ACSO/DSA 2010 Reunion he has planned for many months to be held at he Nugget Hotel/Casino in Sparks, Nevada Friday Oct. 8th through Sunday, Oct. 10. Many pictures and artifacts from the archive will be on display at this event. Reservations can be made online at www.acsodsa.org and clicking on the Nugget Hotel Casino link.
 

FLAVEL HOUSE AND HERITAGE MUSEUM

The Astoria Heritage Museum was built as the City Hall and Police Department. Next it served as the Clatsop County Library. During the WWII it served as a USO Club for servicemen and later housed the Columbia Maritime Museum. It has a wonderful interpretive area about the local indian tribes. It covers settlers, maritime events, logging, lumbering and fishing. But, the most interesting part is the disreputable, wiley cheats, slavers, dishonest politicians, gambling, bordellos, hangings, bootlegging, shanghaiing, and wide open exploitation of the people by their own governing officials.
Astoria had the reputation for being the seediest, roughest town on the Pacific Coast. Men floated into town with pockets full of money and wanted wine, women and song. Entreprenuers without morals provided. Men looking for work, found it, as long as they were willing to look the other way when things weren't on the up-and-up. Shanghaiing sailors was a huge business, as was prostitution, participated in by otherwise upstanding business people. Often their wives knew nothing of their husband's real activities in business. For some years, Astoria even had an active Klan. Bribing judges, jurors, councilmen, senators and lawyers was brazenly commonplace. It is a fact of human nature that the many stories of individual shiesters, shady ladies, and ear biting bad guys was the most interesting part of the museum. I mean, the Chief of police sold bootleg whiskey in milk bottles painted white. I couldn't help being fascinated.

Now, listed on the National Register of historical buildings, it is owned by the Clatsop County Historical Society. Its kind of ironic that it was built as a city hall and maligns the very people who "served" as city officials and business leaders of the community.


At a later time in the history of Astoria, (mid 1800's,) Captain George Flavel was an innovative entrepreneur who bypassed opportunities in San Francisco and chose Astoria instead. He realized the potential to make money by becoming a river bar pilot, the first, in fact, licensed on the Columbia.
Money, of course, begets money and he eventually had his fingers in farms, other businesses, property, banking- you name it. An upstanding citizen, charitable and influential, as was his frugal wife, the family built this 11,600 sq. ft. house, now a museum. The back of the house, left is more beautiful than the front of the house. I could happily find enough space to live in their carriage house. My favorite spot, though, was under the huge old growth tree in their front yard. These buildings are close to each other and both worth visiting.

PRISON TERRITORIAL STYLE

Being a jail oriented person,( shucks, I even met my husband in jail,) not too many people can say that. But, the Santa Rita Jail that I know and the Yuma Territorial Prison were very different places. These Iron bunks were made to alleviate bed bug problems. The prison was located in the wilds of Yuma because it was said the heat there could melt the wings off mosquitos. The Indians covered themselves in mud and crawled into their mud huts during the heat of the day and white guys stayed in the river and drank whiskey until it was sane to move about. Surely, this would be a great place to put a prison. No one could escape because the rivers were wild, the desert surround was savage, and mosquitos vicious. Unfortunately, it didn't prove to be true. Convicts escaped on a regular basis because the tin roof of the prison cooked them alive. Many died from heat alone. It was open for a short 33 years. All that said, I thought the most interesting thing about Yuma was the types of crimes people were punished for. For instance: Morman Polygamists and Bigamists were severely punished despite the promise of freedom of religion. One man was jailed for talking disrespectfully in public to a Yuma Statesman. Fighting and drunkeness and the usual crimes of murder, prostitution, theft and cattle rustling were all represented here as were 68 different ethnic groups/countries. I wish our archives had the funding that this interesting place has. More later.