Event
date: Wednesday,
January 28
Event
place: REDLANDS
MUSEUM
LECTURE INVESTIGATES COLD CASE FILES
"Cold
Case Files: court files and criminal justice in the Los Angeles
area between 1850 and 1875" is the title of the guest lecture
at the San Bernardino County Museum on Wednesday, January 28,
at 7:30 p.m. The talk, given by Paul Spitzzeri as part of the
county museum's free guest lecture series, is offered at no
charge.
Paul
Spitzzeri has analyzed more than 1,200 criminal court cases
in Los Angeles County from 1850 to 1875. "The
traditional view of early Los Angeles is hardly that of a 'city
of the angels,'" said Spitzzeri. "But was it really
a lawless community, rife with racism, with weak and ineffective
courts? My research has provided some surprising findings."
Spitzzeri
is collections manager at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead
Museum in the City of Industry, where he has worked since 1988.
He received his B.A. and M.A. in History from California State
University, Fullerton and specializes in Los Angeles area history
from 1830 to 1930. Overland emigration, citizenship for Californios,
railroad development and regulation, women and crime, and vigilantism
are among the topics of articles he has published in the
Journal of the West, Southern California Quarterly, The
Branding Iron, Law in the Western United States and
Brand Book 22 of the Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners.
The
San Bernardino County Museum's free guest lecture series was
organized to bring experts in cultural and natural history to
the museum to share their research with the public. The museum
is at the California Street exit from Interstate 10 in Redlands.
Parking is free, and the facility is handicapped-accessible.
For more information, visit www.sbcountymuseum.org
or call (909) 307-2669 / TDD/TTY: (909) 792-1462.