Greg Hill & Associates

This Day in California Criminal History: On June 20, 1947, Bugsy Siegel was shot dead at his girlfriend’s Beverly Hills mansion. Mob associates, angry over soaring costs of Siegel’s Flamingo resort in Las Vegas, ordered his murder. Bugsy Siegel was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel not only was influential within the Jewish mob, but along with his friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, also held significant ...influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters. Siegel was one of the founders and leaders of Murder, Inc. and became a bootlegger during Prohibition. After the Twenty-first Amendment was passed repealing Prohibition in 1933, he turned to gambling. In 1936, he left New York and moved to California. His time as a mobster during this period was mainly as a hitman and for muscle, as he was noted for his prowess with guns and violence. In 1939, Siegel was tried for the murder of fellow mobster Harry Greenberg, but was acquitted in 1942. Siegel traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he handled and financed some of the original casinos. He assisted developer William R. Wilkerson's Flamingo Hotel after Wilkerson ran out of funds. Siegel took over the project and managed the final stages of construction. The Flamingo opened on December 26, 1946, to poor reception and soon closed. It reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel. Three months later, on June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot dead at the home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill, in Beverly Hills.

This Day in California History: On June 19, 1964, Carol Doda, an erotic dancer, wore a topless bathing suit at the San Francisco Condor Club. After breast implants, her bust became known as Doda’s Twin-44s. The club erected a neon sign with blinking nipples that some say was in her likeness that lasted until 1991.

This Day in U.S. Criminal History 25 Years Ago: On June 18, 1996, federal prosecutors charged Theodor J. Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, with four attacks, including two killings in Sacramento. Some may reflect on this post by saying, "So what?" My response is that the filing demonstrates how such conduct by Kaczynski finally met justice (or was about to meet justice), largely due to the fortuitous recognition by Kaczynski's brother of the Unabomber's writing in his manifesto as that of his brother. The brother then came forward to authorities, Kaczynski was arrested and the charges filed.

This Day in Southern California Criminal History: On June 17, 1994, O.J. Simpson, following a televised low-speed highway chase along the 405 Freeway, was arrested for murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q81YMJ4W-s

This Day in California History: On June 16, 2008, California clerks began issuing marriage certificates to same-sex couples, making California the second state in the United States to do so.

On this Day in U.S. Traffic Law History: On January 2, 1974. U.S. President Richard M. Nixon signed a bill requiring all states to lower the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH. The law was intended to conserve gasoline supplies during an embargo imposed by Arab oil-producing countries. Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.

On this Day in California Criminal History: On January 1, 1958, Johnny Cash played his famous concert at San Quentin Prison. However, it was Folsom Prison Blues that gave Johnny Cash his first top-10 country hit in 1956, and his live concert performance at Folsomdramatized memorably in the film Walk The Linegave his flagging career a critical jump-start in 1968. But the prison with which Johnny Cash was most closely associated was not Folsom. It was San Quentin, a max...imum-security penitentiary just outside of San Francisco. San Quentin is where Cash played his first-ever prison concert on January 1, 1958a concert that helped set Merle Haggard, then a 20-year-old San Quentin inmate, on the path toward becoming a country music legend. Haggard was a product of Bakersfield, California, a hard-bitten Central Valley town that was the final stop for tens of thousands of poor, white farmers and laborers who migrated west during the 1930s, 40s and 50s seeking work in the factories, farm fields and oilfields of California. These Oklahomans, Texans and others referred to by the blanket term Okies brought with them a love of country music, and not just any country music, but Loud music that plays until all hours, as Wynn Stewart sang in his 1962 country hit How the Other Half Lives. Merle Haggard would eventually become an architect of the hard-driving, no-frills Bakersfield Sound, which shook the Nashville establishment in the 1960s. But not before he ran afoul of the legal establishment in ways that most country singers only sing about. Haggard did his first stint in jail at age 11, when his mother turned him over to the juvenile authorities as incorrigible. As a teenager, Haggard went into jail at least three more times, and went out via escape at least once. In 1957, at the age of 18, Haggard was arrested on a burglary charge and sentenced to 15 years in San Quentin. He ended up serving only two years of that sentence, though, and he credits Cash with giving him the inspiration to launch a career after prison that included 38 #1 hits on the country charts, including Sing Me Back Home, Okie From Muskogee and Today I Started Loving You Again. Of Johnny Cash’s prison debut, Haggard said this: He had the right attitude. He chewed gum, looked arrogant and flipped the bird to the guardshe did everything the prisoners wanted to do. He was a mean mother from the South who was there because he loved us. When he walked away, everyone in that place had become a Johnny Cash fan.

Judge George F. Bird, Jr., is transferring out of Torrance Superior Court to, the rumor mill has it, CCB. It will certainly be interesting to see who fills in at Torrance Court for him in Department P.

On this Day in World History: On December 31, 1946, President Harry S. Truman officially declares the end of World War II. This declaration would start an economic and population boom never seen before in the United States and due to racism and sexism, exacerbate inequalities, leading to many social ills our country experiences today, among them, but not limited to, the rise of criminal street gangs, new controlled substances being introduced and abused, and economic stress resulting in crime and, thankfully, criminal justice reform.

On this Day in Los Angeles History: On December 30, 1967, the Great Western Forum opened in Inglewood. Later, it would become the home of the Lakers in their "Showtime" era and a hotbed of criminal street gang activity, including even shootings in the Forum parking lot, especially in the 1980’s with the proliferation of crack cocaine as a major economic stimulus to criminal street gang survival.

This Day in California Criminal History: On October 30, 2007, Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona was indicted on conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering. He and others allegedly accepted bribes in exchange for political favors. In 2009 a jury convicted him of witness-tampering but acquitted him of bribery. He gained national prominence during the hunt for the killer of Samantha Runnion. After the quick capture of her murderer, Alejandro Avila, late night television ...host Larry King dubbed him "America's Sheriff" during an interview. In late 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Carona, his wife, and his alleged longtime mistress on corruption charges. He resigned effective January 14, 2008, and was convicted on one count of witness tampering, a year later. He was sentenced to 66 months in prison and on January 25, 2011, turned himself in to a federal prison in Colorado to start serving time on the conviction. In May 2015, he was released to his Orange, California, home for home confinement after being released from Federal Medical Center, Lexington and spending time at a halfway house in Los Angeles County.

On this Day in California History: On October 29, 2006, the Esperanza fire started, driven by wind-driven air and started by an arsonist, Raymond Lee Oyler, near Palm Springs. The fire would consume over 61 square miles of land. Five firefighters were killed in battling the massive fire. Thirty-four homes were destroyed. The Riverside County Sheriff Department's Central Homicide Unit arrested Oyler, a mechanic from Beaumont, on October 31, 2006, for setting two wildfires ...in the summer of 2006. Inside his car, authorities found a wig, latex gloves, cigarettes, black spray paint and a partially burned slingshot that was used to launch incendiary devices into the brush. His DNA was found on two cigarette butts used in other nearby wildfires. Oyler's girlfriend told police that he had bragged about setting fires and had complained that they weren't big enough. She threatened to leave him if he didn't stop, so he quit for six months, Hestrin said." The Riverside County Sheriff's Department announced on November 2, 2006, that Oyler also was charged for his involvement with the Esperanza Fire. Overall, he was charged with almost two dozen counts of arson and 17 counts of setting fires with an incendiary device. Prosecutors alleged that Oyler had set as many as 25 fires throughout the San Gorgonio Pass during the summer of 2006. The fires combined and became more difficult to extinguish. He used a combination of matches and cigarettes to start a fire in Cabazon at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. "The defense conceded that Oyler set 11 fires, just not the 2006 Esperanza fire that killed five firefighters." On November 11, 2006, it was announced that Oyler was also a suspect in the 2003 Old Fire. However, another person was later convicted of setting that fire. After a week of deliberation, a Riverside jury on March 6, 2009, found Oyler guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of the five firefighters killed in the Esperanza fire. On May 9, 2007, Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said that he planned to seek the death penalty against Oyler. On June 5, 2009, Oyler was sentenced to death for starting the 2006 Esperanza fire. The fire was so big it could be seen from space.

This Day in U.S. History: On October 28, 1962, after the United States had publicized its finding of long-range missiles from the Soviet Union on Cuba (only 90 miles away from the U.S., or within striking distance of the U.S.), U.S. President John F. Kennedy received a letter from Soviet Leader Khrushchev suggesting agreement on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

On This Day in California Criminal History: On October 27, 1890, the first signal box for the San Francisco Police Department went into operation.

On this Day in Los Angeles History: On October 26, 1869, the Los Angeles & San Pedro Railroad opened. This 21-mile line connected L.A. with the San Pedro Bay shipping harbor.

This Day in California Criminal History: On October 25, 2011, Democratic Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi of Castro Valley, but born in South Korea in 1967, was stopped by a security detail at San Francisco’s Nieman Marcus after she left the store with unpaid items worth $2,450. Prosecutors said that Hayashi had taken the items into a dressing room, put them in a shopping bag, and walked out of the store. Her attorney stated that she intended to pay for the items but became dist...racted by a cellphone call and a snack at the cafe and inadvertently left the store without paying. During her 2014 senate campaign, Hayashi denied that she was responsible for the shoplifting incident, citing a medical condition and distraction. Hayashi subsequently pleaded no contest to charges of shoplifting. She was sentenced to an $180 fine and three years probation and was ordered to stay more than 50 feet from the store. Her attorney suggested her actions may have been the result of a benign brain tumor.

This Day in California History: On October 24, 1871, a group of white men in Los Angeles lynched 18 Chinese immigrants, the largest mass lynching in U.S. history. The mob gathered after hearing that a policeman had been shot and a rancher killed by Chinese. A mob of about 500 White and Hispanics went into Chinatown and selected certain victims. The massacre took place on Calle de los Negros also referred to as "Negro Alley." By the end of the riot, The dead Chinese in... Los Angeles were hanging at three places near the heart of the downtown business section of the city; from the wooden awning over the sidewalk in front of a carriage shop; from the sides of two "prairie schooners" parked on the street around the corner from the carriage shop; and from the cross-beam of a wide gate leading into a lumberyard a few blocks away from the other two locations. One of the victims was hanged without his trousers and minus a finger on his left hand. Historian Paul de Falla wrote that the trousers were taken to get to his money, and his finger was cut to take a diamond ring. The mob ransacked practically every Chinese-occupied building on the block and attacked or robbed nearly every resident. A total of 17 to 20 Chinese immigrant men were hanged by the mob. Ten men of the mob were prosecuted and eight were convicted of manslaughter in these deaths. The convictions were overturned on appeal due to technicalities.

On This Day in U.S. History: On October 23, 1915, an estimated 25,000 supporters marched in a women’s suffrage on New York’s Fifth Avenue, led by Dr. Anna Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, head of the League of Women’s Voters. The marchers were dressed mostly in white, some holding signs saying, You trust us with your children. Now trust us with our vote. Some may say that the march ultimately failed and women in the state were not granted the right to vote until two years later in 1917. Nationally American women did not receive the vote until the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1919.

On October 22, 1975, the Eastside Playboys criminal street gang started at 48th Street in South Central Los Angeles. The gang grew and by 1982, a separate gang called the Southside Playboys started in Bell Gardens and Southgate. The combination of these groups is known as the Playboys 13 Gang, also known by the short name PBS13. It is a violent, predominantly Hispanic street gang in West and South and East Los Angeles, California. They sometimes use the name Conejo or Rab...Continue reading

This Day in Criminal History: On October 21, 2008, Operation Black Rain, an operation by the ATF to stop alleged criminal activity within the Mongols Motorcycle Club, resulted in the arrest of 38 Mongols members, including Mongols president Ruben "Doc" Cavazos, were taken into federal custody after four ATF agents infiltrated the group for a second time, becoming full patch members. 110 arrest warrants and 160 search warrants were issued in California, Ohio, Colorado, Nevad...a, Washington, and Oregon. The Mongols Motorcycle Club, sometimes called the Mongols Nation or Mongol Brotherhood, is a "one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club. The club is headquartered in Southern California and was originally formed in Montebello, California. In 1969, law enforcement officials estimate approximately 2,000 full-patched members are in the club. The Mongols' main presence lies in Southern California, but they also have chapters nationwide in 14 states and internationally in 10 countries. On October 23, 2008, as follow up to Operation Black Rain, US District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper (who I have appeared before in federal court) granted an injunction that prohibits club members, their family members and associates from wearing, licensing, selling, or distributing the Mongols logo, which typically depicts the profile of a Mongolian warrior wearing sunglasses, because according to the police, they use the logo and names as an identity and as a form of intimidation to fulfill their goals. Prosecutors requested the injunction after authorities arrested dozens of Mongols under a racketeering indictment. The club president Ruben Cavazos and others pleaded guilty to the racketeering charge, and Cavazos was sentenced to serve 14 years in federal prison. In the same year (2008), a planned weekend meeting in Lancaster, California, expected to draw 800 Mongols and their families, was blocked after city officials shut down and fenced off the hotel they had booked for the event, which coincided with the "Celebrate Downtown Lancaster" festival. The mayor had previously threatened to shut down the hotel over unpaid taxes if the agreement to host the Mongols was not canceled. An attorney for the Mongols said he planned to sue the city and the mayor, potentially for civil rights violations, after previously threatening to sue the hotel for breach of contract should they comply with the mayor's demands. Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said he wants to keep the Mongols out because they "are engaged in domestic terrorism...and they kill our children." The television show America's Most Wanted had exclusive access to the operation, and broadcast behind-the-scenes footage of the many arrests.

This Day in California Criminal History: On October 20, 1973, the San Francisco Zebra murders began and lasted for 179 days. Sixteen people were killed and eight wounded by a gang of racial extremists. Four men were convicted in 1976. All victims were white and all the suspects were members of a militant African American Muslim group known as the Death Angels and to gain membership, a candidate had to murder a white person. All the victims appeared to be randomly chosen a...nd some were mutilated and decapitated. One night, five people were shot in two hours. The City of San Francisco was accused of civil rights abuses by its decision to stop suspects meeting the description of a male African American between 20 and 30 years old and five feet, nine inches to six feet tall. A federal court intervened to stop such racial profiling. The murders today remain too racially sensitive for many to discuss. Source - theweekincaliforniahistory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgY3roeHOc0

This Day in Criminal Law History: On October 19, 1982, John DeLorean was arrested and charged with trafficking of cocaine following a videotaped sting operation in which he was recorded by undercover federal agents agreeing to bankroll a cocaine smuggling operation. The FBI set him up with more than 59 lb (27 kg) of cocaine (worth about US $6.5 million) in a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport after arriving from New York, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation st...Continue reading

This Day in Criminal History: On October 18, 2005, a U.S. District Court in San Francisco sentenced Victor Conte, founder of BALCO lab in Burlingame, to federal prison and house arrest for conspiracy to distribute steroids to professional athletes, including San Francisco Giants baseball superstar Barry Bonds. His distribution of steroids was discovered by Scott Reid, a Palos Verdes Estates resident (and all-around good guy), while working for the Orange County Register. Pu...rsuant to a plea bargain struck with prosecutors, he entered guilty pleas in July 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a portion of a check. He was sentenced in October to spend four months in the federal Taft Correctional Institution in Taft, California, and another four on house arrest. In December 2004, he participated in an interview with Martin Bashir on ABC's 20/20 program, where he admitted to running doping programs, which have broken Olympic records, as well as revealing that: "The whole history of the games is just full of corruption, cover-up, performance-enhancing drug use." In the interview he implicated, among others, five-time Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones and her partner Tim Montgomery, Kelli White (who later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs), British athlete Dwain Chambers, and NFL player Bill Romanowski.