{"id":5250,"date":"2014-11-10T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T19:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5250"},"modified":"2019-01-05T13:58:26","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T19:58:26","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-november-10-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5250","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for November 10, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Today’s Mobbed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Henry de Forrest was excited about his new life in California. \u00a0The sixty-two-year-old carpenter had left his wife and young children in Maine while he looked for opportunities in the Golden State. \u00a0He quickly found employment in his trade at the Powder Mill wharf operation in Santa Cruz, and he was excited about sending for his family.<\/p>\n

On April 29, 1877 de Forrest was walking along River Street near the present Farmers Exchange when he was accosted by ex-cons Francisco Arias and Jose Chamales. \u00a0Arias shot de Forrest in the chest with a large-caliber revolver, and the two men dragged him fifty feet off the street into the brush, where they went through his pockets for money. \u00a0They then went to a saloon and spent the dead man’s money.<\/p>\n

In the morning, a passerby discovered de Forrest’s lifeless body and ran for the police. \u00a0The sheriff had barely started his investigation when a Californio came forward and told him about a frightening encounter that he had the night before. \u00a0Before Arias and Chamales attacked de Forrest, the bandits stopped the Californio at the same spot where De Forrest was murdered and robbed. \u00a0The man was from a Native American village located a mile north of Santa Cruz and the bandits recognized him and decided not to rob him.<\/p>\n

Francisco Arias had murdered before. \u00a0He had killed a sheepherder and was sent to San Quentin. \u00a0Most sheepherders in the early history of California were either Mexican or Native American, which is probably why Arias didn’t get the death penalty. \u00a0At twenty-one years of age, Jose Chamales was already a veteran of the San Quentin prison. \u00a0Robbery was second nature to the Santa Cruz native.<\/p>\n

Armed with the information provided by the Californio, the sheriff’s deputies tracked down Chamales in Watsonville and Arias camped out near San Juan Bautista. They were taken to the Santa Cruz jail.<\/p>\n

The next night, May 3, 1877, somewhere between forty and three hundred masked men descended on the jail and easily convinced the two guards to release the bandits into their care. \u00a0The frightened criminals were marched to the Water Street bridge over the San Lorenzo River and nooses were placed around their necks. \u00a0They were given a shot of whiskey and were allowed to say a few last words. \u00a0What they said was never written down, except it was noted that they spoke in Spanish. \u00a0They were then hoisted up and left hanging until they were discovered the next morning. \u00a0When they were cut down in mid-morning, the ropes were divided into foot-long sections and given away as souvenirs.<\/p>\n

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Culled from:\u00a0California Justice: Shootouts, Lynchings and Assassinations in the Golden State\"\"\u00a0by David Kulczyk<\/p>\n

Somewhere between 40 and 300? \u00a0That’s quite a range! \u00a0I’m gonna guess it was more like 40 than 300 because how many people can be bothered to put on a mask and go out on a work night?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Morbid Sightseeing!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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So a few years back – okay, more than few now – I went to the Hinckley Fire Museum in Hinckley, Minnesota. Here’s a summary of the tragedy at Hinckley from my travelogue:<\/p>\n

“On September 1, 1894 a fire raged through the town of Hinckley, Minnesota. A combination of intense drought, high winds, and dry kindling left behind by sloppy loggers resulted in an enormous firestorm that literally engulfed the town. The cyclone shot flames miles into the air and temperatures reached 1000 degrees (F). Survival was haphazard: over 100 people safely rode out the storm in a soggy gravel pit in the middle of town, while 127 people died seeking refuge in a swamp. In four hours the fire burned out 400 square miles and killed more than 400 people.”<\/p>\n

Recently Debbers<\/strong> sent me the following update:
\n“Hello, I found out that my great-great-grandparents were one of the Russian families living in Hinckley.\u00a0My great-great-grandma took her two boys to that gravel pit. But, my family states the two year old died there. He drowned. My great-grandpa was four; he lived, but his legs were badly burned.”<\/p>\n

If you’d like to read my travelogue, here it is in all its 2002 glory!<\/p>\n

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Great Fire!<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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European DeSpair, Part 3!<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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I finished another episode of the travelogue of my trip to Europe this summer. Hope you enjoy Part 3 of European DeSpair.<\/p>\n

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European DeSpair, Part 3: Berlin Bust!<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Mobbed Yet Truly Morbid Fact! Henry de Forrest was excited about his new life in California. \u00a0The sixty-two-year-old carpenter had left his wife and young children in Maine while he looked for opportunities in the Golden State. \u00a0He quickly found employment in his trade at the Powder Mill wharf operation in Santa Cruz, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,18,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-photography","category-sightseer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7214,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/7214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}