Apr 16
A cowardly man with large ambition, weak ability and a large pile of explosives — stop me if you have heard this story before. It is almost always a man responsible. The story is more common than we care to admit. They slither out from under rocks every few decades, from anarchists in the 19th …
Apr 15
The other man to escape from the new San Luis Obispo County Jail atop the new courthouse was caught. James W. Webb had been at large since November 27, 1942 and he was captured in Sacramento. He was hiding out in a house with a rifle, shotgun and a large amount of jewelry.
Jan 26
The grand jury blamed shoddy welding as the cause of the escape from the county’s new jail. The story came out in the January 6, 1943 edition of the Telegram-Tribune. They placed responsibility at the feet of the courthouse architects, Walker and Eisen. The architects could have been found guilty of putting an ugly building …
Dec 16
Brief items from the Dec. 9, 1942 Telegram Tribune. The post office was taking on extended hours to handle the volume of Christmas mail. Both the holiday and growing military bases were straining the system. The state board of equalization was scheduled to enforce a midnight liquor curfew starting this evening. Twenty boys in Chicago …
Aug 18
The population of the county was exploding with war related construction and staffing at bases. On August 11, 1942 the Telegram-Tribune wrote about the new jail atop what we now call the old courthouse on Osos street. The previous jail had been in the basement of the 1873 era courthouse demolished by Alex Madonna. Prisoners …
Aug 10
We live in a different world today than the one of 70 years ago. Contrast the observations of two Pulitzer Prize winning authors. Just before America entered World War II the nation was woefully unprepared. President Franklin Roosevelt was afraid to get too far ahead of public opinion. In a nation recovering from the Great …
Oct 31
This ad from the pages of the Tribune May 21, 1907 bring a few random thoughts to mind. • Hard fought sheriff’s races have been going on since before we were born. • The town was so small that the ad didn’t include his name or specific address. No doubt you would hear the hammer …
Feb 15
Reader Matt Grant asked for information on a murder that took place in Shandon over 50 years ago and provided the date. He asked if the crime was ever solved but unfortunately our files before the digital era are only indexed by date of publication. The murder was front page news for three days in …
Oct 30
TRIAL RUN…Capt. Miles Sanders, left, is just pretending to pour that cup of coffee for sheriff Paul Merrick as son Randy looks on. Sanders conducted the sheriff and his boy on a final inspection tour of the soon-to-be-opened “honor camp” where most of the county jail inmates will soon be sent to serve their sentences. …
Jun 10
June 9, 1961 This week San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department marks a solemn anniversary, 48 years ago Deputy Sheriff Harvey Stahl, 40 of Paso Robles died in a struggle with a convict who had shot Creston man earlier in the day. Stahl was the second line-of-duty death since the department was created in 1850. …
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