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In 1861, near the intersection of what’s now Alameda and Aliso streets, a mob dragged, stabbed, then hanged 15-year-old Francisco Cota for allegedly killing a shopkeeper. Two years later, a crowd killed Charles Wilkins three blocks away, on the present-day corner of Aliso and Spring streets, right after a judge had found him guilty of murder.
Up Temple, over to Hill Street, next to City Hall, down to La Plaza downtown L.A. hosts multiple sites where at least 35 men met what 19th century chroniclers euphemistically called “Judge Lynch.” But there was nearly no trace of this bloody past when I visited these spots on a Saturday morning. I instead saw homeless people, cyclists on an early sprint, cars looking for the 101 Freeway.