Racketeers in Huntington Beach

JERRY PERSON

When we picture gangsters and racketeers of the late 1920s and early

1930s, we have this image of cutthroats killing each other with

machine guns in cities like Chicago or Kansas City. There may have

been gangsters in Los Angeles at that time, but we never heard very

much about them in the newspapers.

I’m certain their ilk never thought they’d be caught in Huntington

Beach, but that is just what happened to three villainous big city

gangsters. These three men had paid their dues in such cities as St.

Louis, East Kansas City, Chicago and Corpus Christi, Texas before

coming to Los Angeles, Long Beach and the waterfront town of San

Pedro.

The men -- Harry Moran, John “Tex” Wallace and Angelo Freni --

were no strangers to the jails in those cities. These were as tough

and dangerous as any men ever to come to Southern California. For two

years they followed a career of holdups and other despicable deeds

from San Pedro to Costa Mesa. But these men didn’t reckon they would

ever be caught, especially by hick cops from Huntington Beach.

Our story begins on Tuesday, March 25, 1930 as three men are

sitting in Freni’s brown Chrysler coupe in front of the Costa Mesa

theater casing their next job.

Little did Freni know, that the other two men were plotting to

murder their pal and take his car to Texas. The two figured Freni

knew too much and if caught would squeal on them to the cops. They

also disliked Freni because be cheated them out of their full share

in other robberies.

The three next drove over to Yeargen dairy in Costa Mesa to borrow

a shovel to dig up some “loot,” or so Freni thought. His companions,

however, were going to take him for a ride back to Huntington Beach.

Moran planned to move to Huntington Beach as he was under suspicion

by police in other coastal towns.

The three drove over to our city dump at Beach Boulevard and

Pacific Coast Highway. The men got out of the car on the pretext of

digging up some loot in a remote section of the dump. Moran was the

first to strike Freni with a crowbar and then Wallace struck him into

unconsciousness.

Moran and Wallace, thinking Freni dead, dug a shallow grave, and

after removing Freni’s clothing, threw him into the murky hole. They

piled dirt, palm leaves and rubbish on top of Freni’s seemingly

lifeless body before driving away to return the borrowed shovel.

A little while later, Freni recovered consciousness and began to

claw his way out of his grave. Broken glass cut his feet and thorns

stuck his naked skin, but he was able to crawl 200 yards to Pacific

Coast Highway.

A lady from Long Beach happened to be driving along and spotted

him. She drove to the nearest telephone to summon our police.

Huntington Beach Police Officers Shaffer and Parker arrived at the

scene and had Freni taken to Dr. Ralph Hawes’ office for treatment

and was then placed under arrest after learning that Freni was a

wanted man.

Meanwhile, Wallace and Moran had parked on Lake Street to wait for

night so they could blow the Costa Mesa theater safe.

Former police officer Jack Tinsley thought the brown coupe parked

there looked suspicious and went over to investigate. The two

gangsters told Tinsley their headlights wouldn’t work and he noticed

one of the men throwing a bundle out of the car. He became suspicious

and took down the license number.

Tinsley phoned police headquarters and gave them the license

number, which proved to be registered to Freni. Several armed

Huntington Beach police officers rushed to the scene, but the two had

moved away. They found the car on Seventeenth Street and with Police

Chief Steward and several of our officers, arrested Moran and

Wallace. Tinsley went back to Lake Street to find the bundle the

gangsters had thrown out of the car. He found it and inside was

Freni’s clothes, a 38-caliber pistol and 50-pound rock. The bundle

was tied with a long strong cord.

Back at the police station, City Atty. Lewis Blodget questioned

Wallace and Moran, and like good gangsters, they blamed each other.

Wallace told police that they knew Freni was only stunned and were

planning to tie that 50 pound rock to Freni and toss him into the

ocean. Freni recovered from his wounds and all three were given

permanent residency at San Quentin prison.

So, because of the suspicions of Tinsley and the good work of our

police officers, these admitted bootleggers, check forgers, safe

crackers, dope peddlers, stickup gangsters were taken down, never to

see Huntington Beach again.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.