CHRIS MACDONALD NEWS January 3, 2021

2021 Newsletters

More 2021 Huntington Beach Happenings

Hello Friends,

From Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Barbara Delgleize:
An update from our HB Public Works Department, Sean Crumby, who is our Public Works Director, has introduced "In the Works" a very informative quarterly newsletter on all things Public Works. If you would like to sign up for notifications on the City website: huntingtonbeachca.gov. Two of the City's 27 sewer lift stations are currently under construction. The Slater Lift Station, (which is located at the intersection of Saybrook and Heil. Both projects are being funded by Sewer User and Development Fees at a cists if approximately $9.5 million. Many of the City's lift stations are nearing their design life and the City has been aggressively replacing, on average, one lift station per year.
Our last City Council meeting was held virtually for all participants considering how many items were discussed. Assistant City Manager, Travis Hopkins gave an update on Ascon Landfill Site, City Manager, Oliver Chi, gave an update on the City COVID-19 Response Plan and Vaccination distribution. The City Council passed the Planning Commission Recommendation: Certify Environmental Impact Report N. 17-001 as adequate and complete in accordance with CEQA requirements and adopt Resolution No. 20121-01, "A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Huntington Beach Certifying the Final Environmental Impact Report (SCH#2017101041) for the Magnolia Tank Farm Project" .

As new 2021 State Laws kick in, the city council voted to increase Residential Trash Rates effective February 1, 2021 and Ratifying the Methodology for Future Rate Adjustments. Mayor Carr submitted a requests to direct the City Manager to develop and bring back for formal City Council review the protocols and procedures necessary to change our City Council meeting days to the first and third Tuesday of each month starting June 1, 2021. The City Council Reaffirmed the City's Commitment to the Declaration of Policy about Human Dignity and direct the Human Relations Task Force to develop and submit for City Council consideration an outreach plan through which the City can continuously share details regarding our commitment to the Declaration of Policy about Human Dignity.

Mayor Carr kicked of a first of many Townhall meetings regarding COVID-19 factual information on how you can get a vaccine, the pros and cons of the vaccines using the County of Orange app for scheduling Othena.com. The Mayor's next virtual meeting will be February 3, 2021 at 7pm. These informative meetings will be continuing at least for now every other Wednesday evening until the end of April 2021. More subjects will be forth coming. Council Member Mike Posey will be hosting a townhall meeting on (CCE) Community Choice Energy, Monday January 25th at a TBD.
 Be well, Barbara.

Huntington Beach City Clerk Robin Estanislau Said: The public has a number of options to view Huntington Beach City Council meetings live, or on-demand: HBTV Channel 3, live or archived video via Legistar, live via Zoom Webinar (entrance information published on agenda cover), or from any Roku or Apple device by downloading the Cablecast Screenweave App and searching for the City of Huntington Beach channel.

From Patrick Brenden, Bolsa Chica Conservancy CEO...
Need a new car? Short of cash? Well, now's your chance to WIN A CAR and support the Golden West College Foundation and the Huntington Beach Kiwanis Club all at once! Thanks to the generosity of Pete Shaver of Huntington Beach Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, you can enter a drawing by purchasing tickets for $100 each or $250 for three. The drawing will take place on May 2, 2021 and the winner will have three brand new cars to choose from: Buick Encore GX, Jeep Renegade Latitude, Hyundai Tucson Value. Order tickets at Huntington Beach - Kiwanis International. And, thank you for supporting great local causes.

Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person Presents Remembering When:

Big City Racketeers in Huntington Beach

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 the same time, but we never heard very much about them in the newspapers. But they would certainly never be caught in Huntington Beach, but that is just what happened to three villainous big city gangsters.

These three men had paid their crime dues in such cities as St. Louis, East Kansas City, Chicago, 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 tough and dangerous men as ever to come to Southern California. For two year 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 of crime begins on Tuesday, March 25, 1930 as the three men were sitting in Freni's brown Chrysler coupe in front of the Costa Mesa theater casing their next job.

Little did Freni know, but 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 he 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 that is what Freni thought. Little did Freni know that his companions were going to take him for a "ride" back to Huntington Beach.

Moran had planned to move to Huntington Beach as he was under suspicion by police in other coastal towns, so he knew our area and where to take Freni.

The three drove over to our city dump at Beach Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway. The men got out of the car on the pretext of digging up the loot.

In a remote section of the city dump, Moran was the first to strike Freni to the ground with a crowbar and then Wallace struck Freni also 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 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 of broken glass that cut his feet and thorns that stuck his naked skin, but he was able to crawl 200 yards to the highway.

A lady from Long Beach just happened to be driving along and spotted Freni and 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 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's safe.

Former police officer Jack Tinsley thought the parked brown coupe 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.

Tinsley became suspicious and took down the license number, he 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 left the scene.

Police found the car and the two suspects on Seventeenth Street and with the help from Police Chief Steward and several of our officers, arrested Moran and Wallace.

Tinsley went back to Lake Street and found the bundle the gangsters had thrown out of the car. Inside was Freni's clothes, a 38-caliber pistol and a 50 pound rock. The bundle was tied with a long strong cord.

Back at police station, City Attorney Lewis Blodget questioned Wallace and Moran and like good gangsters they ratted on 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 Officer Tinsley and the good work of our police force, these three admitted bootleggers, check forgers, safe crackers, dope peddlers, and stickup gangsters were "taken out," never to see Huntington Beach again. 

Many Thanks for reading this Newsletter,

Chris MacDonald

Website: calcoasthomes.com

E-Mail: justlisted@yahoo.com