Grave Sins

Thirty-Five Years Ago
There seems to be an increasing popularity of Renaissance-type music in this area. [I]s what I’ve been hearing historically authentic or just another quaint Southern California put-on?

Unfortunately, the general public has gained a false idea of the sonorities of early music since the instruments used by many performers have often been anachronistic. The troubadours of the 12th Century did not use the same instruments as the 16th Century Italian court musicians, and therefore playing all old music on the recorder, crumhorn, and rauschenpfeife is misleading to the modern ear.
— STRAIGHT FROM THE HIP, Matthew Alice, March 6, 1975

Thirty Years Ago
[V]isitors at city-owned Mount Hope Cemetery noticed something slightly amiss near one of the larger tombs in the older section of the 150-year-old graveyard...one of the more gruesome scenes they are ever likely to see: a decayed corpse spread on the lawn outside the above-ground crypt; the body’s head was gone.

On Sunday, less than 24 hours later, San Diego police received a call informing them that a guest at the downtown Pickwick Hotel complained of seeing a skull resting on a front ledge.
— CITY LIGHTS: “GRAVE SINS,” Mark Orwoll, March 6, 1980

Twenty-Five Years Ago
The Fox will soon undergo the refurbishments that will transform it into an exclusive home for the local symphony, and so the weekend concert featuring rhythm-and-blues stars Teena Marie and Billy Ocean served to salute the old-timer’s retirement as a pop palace. In retrospect, the theater may have been better off getting a gold watch.
— “DOUBLE DOZE,” John D’Agostino, March 7, 1985

Twenty Years Ago
A February 15 letter to the Reader accused me of opposing a proposed 1400-room hotel on DeAnza Point in Mission Bay (true). The letter also accused me of blocking a 174-room hotel in Pacific Beach (also true).

Finally, the letter says I want to turn bayfront open space near Fiesta Island into a “parking garage.” This last charge is not true. This property was slated for a 600-room Ramada Inn project when I took office in 1987. At my request, the city council canceled that proposal and designated the 33-acre parcel as a future “Traffic Reduction Center.”
— LETTERS: “TAKE OUT AUTOS,” Bruce Henderson, Councilman, Sixth District, March 8, 1990

Fifteen Years Ago
She returned home from a half day of school on Thursday, October 3, 1991. She dropped off her backpack full of school books and changed her clothes. She left her North Park apartment, rode her lavender-and-pink Huffy bicycle down Landis Street, and disappeared. Eleven days later, she was found in the bottom of a canyon at 32nd Street and Redwood, wrapped in a blanket, murdered at the age of nine.

Three years later, her killer is still at large.
— “SOMETHING OF AN ANGEL,” John Brizzolara, March 2, 1995

Ten Years Ago
This morning’s news flash states that bridge will be a demonstration sport at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Those pointy-headed Olympic bureaucrats obviously don’t understand that tournament bridge is a contact competition.

While playing bridge I have seen people slapped, screamed at, even had drinks thrown on them.
— SPORTING BOX: “A LESSON FOR US ALL,” Patrick Daugherty, March 2, 2000

Five Years Ago
A 36-year-old male was sleeping in a black bedroll on the grass of McDonald’s. When the sprinkler system turned on, he moved the bedroll to a parking space right next to the drive-through. An unknown type of vehicle entered the parking lot and ran over the victim’s chest and abdomen area. It is unknown how long he continued to lay in the parking lot before someone saw him and called police. The victim suffered ten fractured ribs, a fractured clavicle, and a possible fractured pelvis.
— IT’S A CRIME: “HIT AND RUN,” Michael Hemmingson, March 3, 2005