Posts Tagged ‘George Sears’

On Monday morning, July 22, 1935, San Diegans opened their morning newspaper to see a stunning headline: “AGUA CALIENTE PADLOCKED.” The closing of the lavish resort sent shudders across the border. . .

Would illegal gaming now grow in San Diego? Police Chief George Sears assured the public that “the gambling lid was on.” But the “lid” was teetering. . .

Click here for the story of San Diego’s War on Gambling.

In the early 1900s, few jobs were more tenuous than Chief of the San Diego Police Department.  The pressures of city politics kept careers short, averaging eleven months between 1927 and 1934.  The tenure of Chief Harry J. Raymond was briefer than most, and maybe the strangest.

Raymond became chief on June 5, 1933.  With more than twenty years of police experience, largely as an investigator for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office, he brought to the job a “reputation for efficiency in force management,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

 But his appointment to the $300 per month job by City Manager Fred Lockwood was instantly questioned . . .

Read the complete story of the rise and fall of Harry Raymond.