Bad boys get a taste of justice

Sept. 5, 1908: “More than a dozen bad little boys” faced a judge at the weekly session of Juvenile Court, The Times reported.

“Most of them admitted having done wrong and were repentant. The justice put them all on probation, when they had ‘crossed their hearts’ not to do wrong again,” the newspaper said.

Two boys in one gang had tied a boy from another gang to a telegraph pole and “beat him with a rope,” The Times reported, adding: “The leaders of both gangs were warned to behave or they would spend a long time in the Detention Home.”

Two other boys were charged with stealing bathing suits from the Eastlake baths. They told the judge that they wanted to enjoy a swimming hole in the Los Angeles River, near the 1st Street viaduct, but didn’t want “to pose in the ‘all together’ where people from the bridge might see them,” The Times said.

“Whereat a faraway look came into the eyes of the court. He remarked, after clearing his throat, that he knew all about the lure of a swimming hole and he allowed the culprits to go.”