Reminder: I will do an Ask Me Anything on George Hodel and Steve Hodel next Tuesday, December 16, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on YouTube. Have questions? Leave them in the comments.

December 9, 1907: Mayor Harper has restored E.J. Bowen to his old job in the Fire Department after the rookie police officer was fired for allegedly being a coward—a charge that Bowen, who is Black, blames on racism.

Mary Mallory has suggestions for holiday books for film fans.

December 8, 1941: The FBI begins rounding up 200 "alien Japanese suspected of subversive activities." Several truckloads of Japanese were seen passing through Brea toward Pomona, police said, and orders to stop all cars bearing Japanese and to confiscate maps and binoculars or radios were seized.

In our exploration of "unsuitable" movies, we have the most "unsuitable" one yet, as in extremely "unsuitable."

December 8, 1907: Three members of the Schiffman family who are Jewish refugees from Russia: Sigmund, the father; Benjamin, 15; and Emella [or Emelia], 10. They have been brought to Los Angeles in the Galveston Plan, when Jews were taken to Galveston, Texas, for dispersal throughout the West.

A Firsthand History Lesson on Pearl Harbor My seventh-grade history teacher, Rene Humbert, was at Pearl Harbor and the anniversary told the class about his experiences. This is his memoir.

December 3, 1941: To reduce the welfare rolls, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approves paying $100 [$1,441.19 USD 2009] to immigrants to move back to Mexico.

December 5, 1907: A Los Angeles couple have a novel way of making money: Antonio Thompson and his wife sell their daughter Marie to the Gypsies, then go to court to get her back. According to statements taken in St. Louis, Marie has been sold off several times as a Gypsy princess.

December 4,1959: Matt Weinstock looks at the public relations industry's attempts to improve its image.

December 4, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of Roger "The Terrible" Touhy, Prohibition gangland boss who was finally released from prison.

December 4, 1959: Mickey Cohen is arrested in the cafe slaying of Jack "The Enforcer" Whalen. Cohen is a "perfect gentleman," says companion Sandy Hashagen, 18.

Historian of eugenics here. I don't normally like to retweet bad arguments, but this is such a fundamental misunderstanding of eugenics, I think it's important to point out. I don't have time to debunk all of the ways this is inaccurate, but I'll highlight a few things and then recommend some books🧵

December 4, 1911: Clarence Westfall, 22, is arrested for masquerading in female attire when the boat from San Diego docks in San Pedro.

December 4, 1907: Shooting on Lucky Baldwin's ranch raises tensions between Chinese and Latino workers.

December 3,1907: Daniel Meskil kills LAPD Officer Patrick Lyons, who was trying to arrest Meskil and his companion, Rolla Robe. Meskil was sentenced to be hanged at San Quentin, but died of injuries from jumping off a roof during an escape attempt.

December 2, 1958: Model Charlotte Trosper is found stabbed to death in a clump of bushes off Angeles Crest Highway. Boyfriend Gerald Feasby was convicted in the killing.

College head football coach annual salaries: Kirby Smart, Georgia: $13.2 million Ryan Day, Ohio State: $12.5 million Lincoln Riley, USC: $11.5 million Dabo Swinney, Clemson: $11.4 million Steve Sarkisian, Texas: $10.8 million sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salarie...

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This month's Ask Me Anything on the Black Dahlia case includes a progress report on Heaven Is HERE! and a brief introduction to the Black Dahlia case.

Item: USC football coach Lincoln Riley earns $11.5 million a year, making it a football team with a university rather than a university with a football team. www.si.com/college-foot...

December 2, 1958: Fire sweeps through Our Lady of the Angels school in Chicago, killing 92 children and three nuns.

A Daily Mirror gift suggestion: Mary Mallory's latest: First Women of Hollywood.

December 1, 1959: Matt Weinstock writes about Los Angeles Times columnist Lee Shippey and discusses Shippey's blindness.

December 1, 1959: Jerry Lewis is a strange guy, Paul Coates writes, but this time the comedian is going to the aid of actor Jay Robinson, "Hollywood's forgotten man.:

December 1, 1938: California prepares to use the new gas chamber for two executions rather than the previous method of hanging.

L.A. Daily Mirror Retro Shopping Guide Note: This is a repost from 2013. True style never goes out of date, after all. We are being bombarded by stories about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with videos of long lines at stores and the attendant consumer frenzy. The L.A. Daily Mirror prefers a more…

In this week's exploration of "unsuitable" mystery movies, we have an especially "unsuitable" film, with this "unsuitable" mystery guest.

To mark the opening of Christmas Tree lane, we have Mary Mallory's encore post from 2012.

December 1, 1907: The Times notes a new serial "The Smoky God," by Willis Emerson, based on the papers of Olaf Jansen, who claimed to have explored the North Pole and met the inhabitants of the Earth's interior. "A classic in Hollow Earth Literature!"

November 30, 1959: The mother of a middle school student tells Matt Weinstock: "You would be surprised at the number of students at this school who are being tutored just to make a C." One girl is taking tranquilizers because she can't keep up.

November 30, 1959: An author claims that Charles Dickens and actress Ellen Ternan had an illegitimate child, and Paul Coates has the story.

November 30, 1958: A former deputy strangles his wife and kills himself. A pitch-perfect story from 1958.

Some "architectural rambling" photos I took in 2006 for a blog post on historic structures.

November 30, 1907: A closely guarded witness in the trial of the Mexican revolutionaries goes into convulsions after being allowed to have lunch at a local cafe.

When someone randomly cuts through a street tree. Because why?

November 27, 1968: O.J. Simpson wins the Heisman Trophy after a remarkable two-year career at USC.

November 27, 1964: Joyce Walker is found stabbed 50 times on Thanksgiving Day, apparently raped and killed by a man who helped her after her car became disabled on the way home from a party. Two Manhattan police officers offered assistance but Walker and the suspect said everything was fine.

November 27, 1941: The Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railways ask the City Council to repeal a ban against buses operating in downtown Los Angeles.

Thanksgiving 1943: A wartime Thanksgiving in Los Angeles, with many service personnel welcomed into people’s homes for a holiday meal.

November 27, 1907: A shadowy, global conspiracy of anarchists is being described in the trial of revolutionaries Ricardo Flores Magon, Antonio Villareal and Librado Rivera in federal court. The fourth defendant, L. Gutierrez De Lara, was charged separately with committing larceny in Sonora, Mexico.

Here’s a traditional roast turkey recipe from the “Every-Day Cook-Book and Family Compendium," written about 1890 by Miss E. Neill. Be sure your fire is bright and clear and watch out for the gall-bag.

Mary Mallory takes a look at the offerings from the recently concluded San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

November 26, 1959: Matt Weinstock has the story of robbery Detective Dalton Patton, a man with a long memory who finally gets his safe-cracker.

November 26, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of E.B. (Jet) Simrell, a former market owner wanted by the FBI for threatening the lives of seven judges. Simrell is waging a crusade against the "un-feminine, all-powerful American woman."

November 26, 1958: The LAPD posthumously honors Sgt. Gene Nash with a Medal of Valor after he died following a shootout with robbery suspects.

November 26, 1941: George F. Harrington says owning his dog, named Kitty, is a constitutional right and he refuses to pay for a license, taking the fight to the Supreme Court.

November 24, 1906: No, this isn't a flying saucer on a stick. It's an early attempt at carbon arc street lighting.

November 25, 1959: The health department says the Fern Dell water hole, fed by a mountain spring, is unsafe to use because of pollution, Matt Weinstock says.

November 25, 1959: Paul Coates has the story of a desperate young mother, her husband in jail and her children going hungry, rejected by all welfare and assistance programs, who abandons her children in a church.