History of the Riverbottom Bar

Whether a hangout for Marines, Bikers, or thirsty locals in general, the Riverbottom Bar in the San Luis Rey Valley may have dated back to the 1870s. The bar was located in what was once the San Luis Rey Township, a rural but well established community by the 1860s.

Named because of its proximity to the Mission San Luis Rey, the township existed nearly two decades before the city of Oceanside was established in 1883. Residents in the valley came to the small village area because it offered a stage stop, Freeman’s blacksmith shop, Simon Goldbaum’s store, a post office and a school. San Luis Rey was featured in its own column in the San Diego Union newspaper, providing information on weather, crops and local happenings. Frank Whaley of San Diego’s Old Town eventually published a small newspaper called the San Luis Rey Star.

Early Map of the San Luis Rey Township in 1873. (Filed as Map 0076).
In 1920 the County would build a road through the north half of Block 2, eliminating lots 1 through 7.

In 1873 E. G. Locke, who had been appointed postmaster in 1870, filed an official map of the township, of which he was listed as the proprietor. The township of San Luis Rey consisted of ten blocks and 7 streets. The street names no longer exist but were as follows: Main Street, San Luis Avenue, Broadway, Spring Avenue, University, Mission Avenue (not to be confused with the present-day road) and Locke Avenue, named after Elbridge G. Locke himself.

Locke partnered with local rancher William Wallace, operating a store as well as a hotel together. Wallace married Locke’s daughter, Alice on July 9, 1874.

In 1876 Locke erected a new hotel at San Luis Rey, which he named the Locke Hotel. After the new town of Oceanside was established, several businesses in San Luis Rey relocated there, including the San Luis Rey Star newspaper which then became the Oceanside Star. The Locke Hotel was to Oceanside and became one of its earliest hotels.

The Tremont Hotel on the 300 block of North Cleveland Street was once the Locke Hotel and located in San Luis Rey.

William Wallace, Locke’s one time partner, died in 1892. His widow Alice Locke Wallace owned a strip of land which is present day North El Camino Real (east of Douglas Drive). She served as postmistress in San Luis Rey from 1893 to 1908 and her son Lee Wallace followed her in the position until 1912.

On January 13, 1912 it was announced that “Lee Wallace has resigned as postmaster at San Luis Rey, and a petition is being circulated for the appointment of John W. Bradley.”

John Bradley then became postmaster, and the new owner of the Mission Store where the post office was located. In 1915 Crutcher Morris purchased the Mission Store and was subsequently appointed postmaster in 1916. William P. Jensen acquired the Mission Store and served as the postmaster of San Luis Rey from 1917 to 1932.

In 1932 Roy and Marian Sager purchased several lots in the township including Lots 8 through 13 in Block 2 from William Jensen. In 1933 Marian Sager was confirmed as postmistress of San Luis Rey. She then applied for a new location for the post office, just across the street.

In 1942 Roy and Marion Sager, father and son, announced their intention to sell their interest in their “grocery and meat market business consisting of merchandise and stock in trade known as the Mission store” which was “situated” on Lots 11, 12 and 13 of Block 2. While the Sagers maintained ownership of the real property, they sold the Mission Store business to Phyllis Goggin and C. Shaw.

Phyllis Mary Goggin was the widow of Daryl Henry Goggin, who was killed during the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. His is listed as one of the approximately 390 “unknowns” from the USS Oklahoma at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Phyllis Goggin died just two years later at the age of 38 in 1943.

The newly opened San Luis Rey Inn in 1946

By 1946/47 the building owned by the Sagers was leased to Andrew and Marguerite Weir and would become a restaurant called the San Luis Rey Inn.

The San Luis Rey Inn had a flat roof, but the front façade and a portion of the west elevation featured a shed roof covered in clay tile. The front of building included five arched bays that resembled garage doors (an additional “bay” was also on the west end.)

A closer look at the building in several photos reveals a house on the west end, its sunken roof exposed to the elements, which was sometimes obscured from view by the leaves of the large Pepper Tree planted next door. (This structure is also clearly visible in Google Maps View from 2008 to 2019).

The San Luis Rey Inn building is similar in size and length to that of the Goldbaum Store and Hotel, once located in the San Luis Rey Township. A photo of Goldbaum’s store clearly depicts a house behind what is a “western store front”. This storefront could have easily been removed, along with the wooden parapet and then the porch enclosed. Even the name “San Luis Rey Inn” appears to be homage to Goldbaum’s San Luis Rey Hotel. As late as 1919 the building was used as polling place and believed to be used as the post office and store in the township in the 1920s.

Simon Goldbaum’s Hotel and Store in San Luis Rey. Simon is standing on the porch roof.

Simon Goldbaum was born in 1848 in Grabow, Prussia (now Germany). As a young man of about 18 he came to America. By 1868 he was living in San Francisco, but soon after moved to Los Angeles where he clerked at a general store.

Goldbaum became a Naturalized Citizen in 1871 and that year purchased a general store at Monserate (near Fallbrook). By 1873 Goldbaum moved to the San Luis Rey Township where he purchased a store and hotel building.

Simon had four brothers, William, Louis, Max and Albert who would all settle in San Diego County, namely San Luis Rey and the new town of Oceanside.

The Goldbaum his hotel and store was a social gathering spot with dances and other events held there. 1878 Simon Goldbaum was appointed postmaster of San Luis Rey and his hotel/general store would have housed the post office as was customary. He was appointed postmaster again in 1883 and 1885. He was so well known and liked, Goldbaum was called the Mayor of San Luis Rey.

He married Margaret Marks in 1886 and they had two daughters, Pearl and Helen. Pearl died in 1904 at the age of 16 due to pneumonia.

In 1901 Goldbaum was granted a license to sell alcohol at this San Luis Rey Store. He sold his business in 1907 and moved to San Diego. However, he still maintained ownership of nearly 1,000 acres of farmland in the San Luis Rey Valley. Simon Goldbaum died in 1915 at the age of 69.

If the Riverbottom Bar building was in fact the Goldbaum building, it certainly followed the historical trend as store, post office, hotel (of sorts) and saloon remodeled and transformed as the San Luis Rey Inn.

In 1947 the San Luis Rey Inn was owned by Andrew Weir and his wife Marguerite, who provided patrons food and drinks along with the opportunity to join in a community dance at what was referred to as a “Hoedown”. An ad from the 1947 Oceanside Blade Tribune read:

“Big Okie Hoedown at the San Luis Rey Inn. Dance to the music of the Okie Hoedown. Hours from six to midnight.”

The San Luis Rey Inn was frequented by both locals and Marines from the nearby military base, Camp Pendleton, established in 1942. Although it was considered “out of the way” for Oceanside residents, it was a popular nightspot beckoning customers with the romance of “Mission Days”….

“Tonight and every night in old Spanish settings, dining and dance at San Luis Rey” … “All lit up in neon and next to the large Texaco station.”

Betty Lanpher Miranda, born and raised in the San Luis Rey Valley, remembers as a child that the owner of the restaurant kept a monkey in the large, old Pepper Tree. It startled her one day as she was standing outside, but she also recalled it was tethered in some manner so as not to run away.

Owner Andrew Weir died suddenly of a heart attack in 1948, however, and wife Marguerite put the establishment up for sale by placing a classified ad in the local newspaper:

“Must be sold San Luis Rey Inn. Beer, Cafe, party or club room. Living quarters, lease and equipment. Best offer takes.” (It is noteworthy that “living quarters” is mentioned in this ad, in what may have been the Goldbaum hotel.)

The following year the San Luis Rey Inn was under new management. New owners “Johnny and Nell” (Doris M. Danforth and Nellie Burdick) offered their clientele “home-cooked foods and Coors beer on tap.”

Richard Miranda, who came to Oceanside at a young age in the 1930s, remembered that he and his friends were sold beers by the bartender when they were still in high school. However, they were not allowed to stay and had to take their beers outside and drink elsewhere as they were underage!

Interior shot of the bar in early 1950s. Helen Burgess to the far left. Owner is on far right (perhaps Nellie Burdick).
Photo courtesy Tom Burgess

Helen Burgess worked at the bar/restaurant in the early 1950s. A “Spanish plate” was just 95 cents and chili beans were 35 cents. Her four children attended school at the one-room schoolhouse located nearby on the grounds of the San Luis Ret Mission. Tom Burgess and his siblings remember the establishment as “Mom’s Place.”

The San Luis Rey Inn remained a popular eatery in the 1950s offering customers “specialty steak and one dollar Spanish plates” of “tacos, tamales enchiladas at reasonable prices.”

The small township benefited from increased traffic from the “Camp Pendleton Road” as Marines and farm workers traveled through. Its small business “district” expanded including Webster & Light Radiator Repair, Brandt’s Cut Rate Rocket Station and Rudy’s Auto Wrecking.

The town of San Luis Rey in 1958. (looking east)

In 1958 Nellie Burdick sold the San Luis Rey Inn to Gene and Ethel Weaver. A legal notice read:

“All stock in trade, fixtures, equipment and good will of a certain cafe business known as SAN LUIS REY INN and located at across from the Post Office, Mission Road street, in the City of San Luis Rey, County of San Diego.”

The Weavers also owned the Base Café on North Hill Street (Coast Highway). They renamed their newly acquired establishment “Ethel’s Bar & Grill.” On February 13 1959, Tommy Duncan, a well known Western singer/songwriter performed at Ethel’s.

But the following month, in March 1959, a shooting occurred at Ethel’s and may have been the beginning of the establishment’s “reputation.”

Robert Abilez, a resident of Vista, entered the bar and asked fellow patrons to help him engage in a fight. When they refused Abilez pulled a .38 caliber revolver from his pocket but then dropped it on the floor. After picking up his weapon he sat next to two men, Almarez Vidales and Contreras Sanchez. As they drank their beers, Abilez insisted that the men go with him to fight. When they refused he drew the revolver again and fired. Sanchez stepped back and the bullet grazed his heavy leather jacket, and hit Vidales in the forearm. Lawrence Harris, the bartender, disarmed Abilez and held him while Ethel Weaver called the sheriff’s office.

The San Luis Rey Inn in 1958 before name change to Ethel’s.

Later Ethel’s would move to a location closer to the “back gate” of Camp Pendleton, and what was once known as the San Luis Rey Inn was renamed the Riverbottom Bar.

Even as Oceanside city limits expanded eastward, San Luis Rey remained a separate township, although the city of Oceanside limits surrounded it by the 1960s. It was even given its own zip code – 92068. By the 1970s it was annexed to the City. The Riverbottom Bar was given a new address of 473 North El Camino Real.

1969 Thomas Guide showing that the town of San Luis Rey and the Mission were part of the County and not city limits.

Roy Sager maintained ownership of the land that the Riverbottom and other businesses were located upon, (a total of 3 and half acres). In 1970 he sold Lots 8 through 13 in Block 2 and lots 1 through 7 in Block 3 to Roland House.

Bob Olsen, a resident of San Luis Rey, operated the bar in the early 1970’s, but records are not easy to find or determine.

One of the only pieces of memorabilia – a matchbook from Bob Olsen’s Riverbottom Bar circa 1973

In 1976 William and Donna Justus, owners of Auto Parts and Salvage Inc. purchased the 3.5 acre property but continued to lease the building to various bar owners. In the 1980s Suzanne Ochoa owned the Riverbottom Bar. Her mother Eunice Walker ran the Long Branch Saloon in downtown Oceanside before it was demolished in 1982.

In July 1997 Charles and Patricia Baker became owners of the Riverbottom and ran it for several years.

It was both a favorite “hole in the wall” to some and a dump to others. One loyal customer wrote a review in 2013 and shared its long association with Marines:

“Yes, it’s a dive bar. [It] has been here since roughly 1927. You grunts in Horno, cannon cockers in Las Pulgas, and grunts in San Mateo, ever heard of Iron Mike Hill? Well, he is real and he drinks here STILL! If you want off mainstream to have a blast come here!”

Riverbottom Bar, 473 North El Camino Real (Google view 2011)

Another reviewer in 2014 did their best in describing the Riverbottom Bar, while trying to keep expectations low:

“This place is good. This place is a true dive. Dives aren’t glitzy, cutesy or thematic, despite what hipsters like to think. You don’t hang out there to pick up women; it’s not where the “crowd” hangs out. Your standard clientele are older Marines; you’ll get some Bikers and off duty Law Enforcement on some nights. It’s one of the older buildings in the area; it was built in the 1920s as a post office. It serves beer and bar snacks, nothing too special. I used to drink here with my grandpa (retired Marine). I always had a nice time there. If you behave yourself and keep your standards and expectations low you’ll have a nice time.”

The Riverbottom Bar with its uneven floors, crumbling walls, aging booths and bar remained “unremarkable” and “unpretentious.” It was described as a hideaway, a low-budget watering hole and a “local artifact.” (Perhaps over 140 years old!)

Eventually the Riverbottom closed its doors. There were plans to reopen but it never happened. One day in 2020, the old building and its Pepper Tree were bulldozed. No one noticed as it happened during the pandemic, but a piece of history, perhaps dating back to the 1870s in the small Township of San Luis Rey, quietly disappeared.

Defenseless

On a quiet morning on an isolated beach, a double homicide was committed north of Oceanside that shook all of Southern California. On September 10, 1895, the bodies of Harriet Stiles and John D. Borden were discovered by Harriet’s husband, Leroy Stiles. They had both been shot twice, and each in the face. There appeared to be no motive and the two were unarmed and defenseless.

Leroy and Harriet Stiles had been camping on the coast near the mussel beds north of Las Flores. They were accompanied by Harriet’s 86 year-old father, John B. Borden, who came to visit his daughter from Michigan and was looking forward to “an outing on the beach.” The Stiles were residents of Fallbrook, and had visited the spot before to escape the inland heat, enjoy the cool ocean breeze and do some fishing.

The trio set up camp in a tent on the remote beach and had the area all to themselves to enjoy. Las Flores was about two miles south of their spot; the small town of Oceanside was another 7 to 8 miles further. They likely saw no one else except an occasional train.

Map of the Las Flores area near where the Stiles beach camp was situated.

On the morning of the murders, Leroy and John walked from camp about a mile north to a spot at which to fish, while Harriet stayed behind. Leroy spotted two men in the distance walking south along the railroad track. Perhaps something about the men caused him to be uneasy. Their presence prompted Stiles to instruct his father-in-law to walk back to the tent to inform Harriet that two men may be approaching their campsite. Leroy would later tell law enforcement he simply did not want Harriet to be alarmed by the two male passersby.

John Borden walked back to the camp while Leroy proceeded to fish. Leroy likely assumed that his father-in-law, at age 86, was too tired to make the trek back and that he decided to stay with Harriet.

At about 10:30 am Leroy Stiles returned to his camp. Upon entering the tent he came upon a horrific site. His wife had been shot dead, as well as his father-in-law, the tent floor covered in blood. Stiles swung into action and immediately set for Oceanside on a horse and wagon to notify authorities. On the way south Stiles was stopped by a man he described as a “half-breed” who asked him for a ride. Stiles, who was unarmed, refused the request and afterwards said he believed the man was one of the two individuals he spotted walking towards his camp that morning and believe the man intended to kill him. He would later describe the man as a “negro of rather light complexion, good size and dressed in blue clothes or overalls.”

Stiles met a rancher on the way to Oceanside, who in turn went to reach law enforcement. Returning to camp alone, Stiles waited with the dead bodies of his family members. He later broke down in tears, overcome with emotion, when he told the first arriving lawmen that he and his wife were married forty years.

Leroy and Harriet Stiles (courtesy Nedra Fortune)

The early newspaper accounts of the murders said that Harriet had been sexually assaulted and that there were three deceased, not two. (Harriet in fact had not been raped. Her clothes were not disheveled or removed and her glasses were still on her face.) Nothing of value was missing from the camp, except a package of Durham tobacco, described by Stiles as “half full, the sack being the smallest size, just two ounces.”

One initial theory is that the two were murdered by Isidor Renterias, a known outlaw who had served jail time for horse stealing and murder. On September 6th, just a few days before the murder of Stiles and Borden, Renterias had shot and killed Ramon Araiza in San Luis Rey. Renterias operated a restaurant near the Mission San Luis Rey, wherein he had his wife by the hair and was beating her. Ramon Araiza’s wife was the daughter of the woman being beaten and Araiza came to her defense. Renterias then focused his rage on Araiza, picked up a rifle and shot him dead. He then fled while a posse led by Constable Ben Hubbert, who was still trying to track him down when the double murdered occurred on September 10th. (Renterias would later die in a shootout but not until he shot and killed a deputy by the name of Juan Castro.)

Deputy Sheriff Fred Jennings and a posse, traveled to the Stiles/Borden murder scene to hold an inquest. Railroad section men in the area were questioned and they informed law enforcement on the morning of the murders that two men had approached them. They shared breakfast with the strangers and talked to them at length. They provided a description of the two men, one was “a man six feet high, dark complexion, possibly “mulatto” and the other was “a smaller man, light hair and had a small hand valise.” The witnesses also noted that the pair had separated at some point as the smaller man went in a different direction.

Based on witness descriptions the “smaller man”, who would later be identified as Jay Allison Garges, was arrested at Fallbrook. He told deputies that he and the other suspect, Joseph J. Ebanks, were traveling together but had parted ways at the train trestle. Garges said that about two hours later he encountered Ebanks again, who had a new male traveling companion, a German immigrant. They two talked about “meeting so unexpectedly” once more and Garges noted that Ebanks was in possession of tobacco that he had not had earlier. It was in a small, two-ounce Durham tobacco sack, which was the very thing that had been reported by Leroy Stiles as missing from the tent. Garges noted that Ebanks no longer had a sack that he had carried with him for the length of their trip which began near El Toro.

While the unidentified German departed, Ebanks and Garges trekked south towards Oceanside, and eventually parted at the Fallbrook Junction. Garges made his way to Fallbrook where he was eventually apprehended. He was charged with complicity in the murder, and was held at Oceanside until taken to San Diego. Garges, a traveling “watch tinker” would later be eliminated as a suspect and became a witness for the prosecution.

Joseph Ebanks was born in England in about 1865. His father was from the West Indies and his mother a white woman. Ebanks arrived in New York’s Ellis Island from Liverpool, England on May 15, 1893 traveling on the Aurania, a British ocean liner. He gave differing accounts as to his arrival in California.

Ebanks was caught on September 14th by Deputy Sheriff Ward. Ebanks had traveled to San Luis Rey, then on to Vista. The following day he continued southward and spent a night in Mission Valley before hitching a ride on a wagon leaving for Rancho Bernardo. After he arrived near Poway, he left the main road and traveled through thick brush and steep terrain in an apparent effort to elude authorities. Ward eventually tracked him to a cabin where he was arrested and taken to jail in San Diego. One of the first questions Ebanks asked was for something to eat. It was reported he was cheerful and talkative.

When questioned, much of his story corroborated that of his traveling companion; that the two parted ways at the trestle where they had stopped to get water to drink out of some barrels. Garges walked south along the railroad and Ebanks walked along a wagon road. He admitted that he was the one who had tried to flag down Leroy Stiles for a ride, but that Stiles passed him “at a rapid gait.” He continued walking and met up with the German man and the two eventually met up again with Garges.

Ebanks said he had no firearm with which to shoot anyone and declared his innocence in the matter. He said he spotted a woman near a camp who appeared to be swimming, and he want to take a swim in the ocean as well, but had determined the bluff too steep to negotiate and decided against it.

Upon his arrest, one newspaper made an overtly racially prejudiced statement: “[Ebanks’] appearance is against him, as he is a West Indian Negro, with heavy cheekbones, thick lips, small, shrewd eye and a generally sensual face. He speaks with a queer half-French and half-Negro accent, and uses nautical terms in his speech.”

The hunt began for Ebanks’ sack, in which it was believed a firearm was kept. It was eventually brought to light that Ebanks had stolen two guns in Fullerton. One was a white handled Colt 45, along with a belt loaded with ammunition. Several railroad men, including Arthur Steele, section foreman, testified they saw Ebanks carrying a sack, when they saw him and Garges the morning of the murders.

The pistol was found in a canyon near the Stiles campsite and delivered to Constable Ben Hubbert of San Luis Rey. It was wrapped in a shirt with the marking of R.F.G, who was the rightful owner of the two firearms allegedly stolen by Ebanks. Four empty shell cartridges were also found. Even more damning, when Ebanks was captured he was wearing another shirt with the same initials. One additional piece of evidence in the sack was a “ladies’ journal” which had been given to Ebanks by a woman at ranch house he had visited in Orange County.

Constable Ben Hubbert (Courtesy Oceanside Historical Society)

The murder trial began on January 4, 1896 in San Diego. Newspapers from San Diego, to San Francisco, Sacramento and Reno published daily or weekly coverage. The trial lasted more than 20 days, at a cost of $2,000, which far exceeded the cost of other similar court cases. During the trial Ebanks was described as being impassive but at times “happy and indifferent.”

There was a lot of interest in the trial and Ebanks in particular. The San Diego Bee reported: “There was a larger attendance of spectators yesterday than on any preceding day of the trial of Ebanks, the West Indian mulatto who is on trial before Judge Pierce and a jury for the murder of Mrs. Stiles and her father, John D. Borden. There has been a perceptible increase each day in the number of women in attendance on the trial, and yesterday most of the chairs inside the railing except those used by the jury and counsel, were occupied by women young and old, who evidently enjoyed the testimony.”

R. F. Gibson of Fullerton testified that the white-handled revolver that Ebanks used in the murder was stolen from his room, along with another gun. Both were found in the sack several witnesses had described Ebanks as carrying. Gibson also testified that the shirts, one of which Ebanks was wearing at the time of his arrest, belonged to him and were marked with the letters “R F. G.”

Simon Goldbaum of San Luis Rey testified that Ebanks came to his store on the afternoon of September 10th, the day of the murders and bought lunch. Goldbaum asked the tall stranger if he had beard of the murders at the mussel beds. According to Goldbaum, Ebanks looked down “at the mention of the crime”. Then, inexplicably “looked up and laughed, and replied that he had not heard of the murders.”

Simon Goldbaum’s Store in San Luis Rey, where Ebanks stopped for lunch after the murders
(courtesy Oceanside Historical Society)

William McCrea, testified that he was baling hay at Vista the day of the murders, and that Ebanks came “to his camp between 11 and 12 o’clock at night and asked for work.” He stayed the night with the crew, but left in the morning “without any breakfast in the direction of Escondido.”

Garges, who had no longer been considered a suspect, was detained in San Diego as a witness until late February of 1896. During that time his satchel which contained his watch tools was also taken into evidence. (He was detained 143 days after which he filed a claim against the county for $214.50 at the rate of $1.50 a day. The county instead agreed to pay him just $114.15.)

Garges testified as they were walking south they saw two men fishing in the surf a few hundred feet from the railroad. About a mile farther down they spotted a woman near a tent on the beach. They continued walking about one-fifth of a mile, and came to a trestle where they sat down to rest. Garges said he was anxious to “hurry along”, and left Ebanks sitting on the bridge.

With Garges out of sight, Ebanks want back along the track to a bridge spanning a canyon which opened out on the beach near the tent, and made his way with some difficulty down into the canyon and to the tent. The prosecutor believed that Ebanks’ intention was to assault Harriet Stiles, but her father had returned to the camp by that time. The San Diego Bee reported: “It will never be known just what transpired, for Ebanks in his numerous confessions of the crime never told the story twice the same way. But he could have been at the tent but a moment when he shot Mr. Borden, who fell dead. Ebanks claimed that he was at first inclined to flee without [killing] Mrs. Stiles, but decided that he must take her life if he would himself escape.”

The prosecution had the last word and despite the testimony of 53 witnesses and damning evidence he instead focused the jury on Ebanks looks:

“It has been said that he could have had no motive for killing that poor woman who was alone and defenseless in the little tent—no motive for taking her life as she stood with hands upheld to her God, her last words tremulous in supplication and with a realization that a fiend incarnate stood ready and determined to send into her sick brain the leaden messengers that would sever the tie which bound her to this life. No motive for this hellish deed! Can you not read the motive on his face? Look in his treacherous eyes and on his brow, which bears the curse of his maker as plainly as it was ever born by Cain!”

After the trial concluded, and the jury began its deliberation, The San Diego Union wrote this openly racist account: “While the jury was out deciding his fate, the happy-go-lucky mulatto, who is more animal than man, whiled away the time by playing cards with a Mexican and negro in the jail rooms. When the jury came in and Ebanks was taken before them to hear the verdict of murder in the first degree, he took his seat and twirled his thumbs while everyone in the room fixed their gaze upon him.”

The jury deliberated just three hours. Leroy Stiles, who had sat through the daily testimony, waited in the courtroom into the evening to hear the verdict. Ebanks was found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death. An immediate appeal was filed.

While awaiting appeal Ebanks actually confessed to the murder of Harriet Stiles and her father. He stated he wanted to clear his conscious and remove any doubt of his guilt. Ebanks’ confession in various versions was published in newspapers across the country from Nebraska to New Jersey.

Ebanks said while walking along the railroad track with Garges, they spotted the tent on the beach. Earlier he had found an orange, ate it and became sick. He went to the tent without Garges to see if he could “get some medicine.” He encountered Mr. Borden and his daughter Harriett and said, “I’m sick; give me something. I feel as if I was dying.”

Ebanks said Mr. Borden noticed that the muzzle of a revolver was showing out of the flour sack he was carrying. Borden walked toward the back of the cot and said he would get something “to relieve” him.

“I do not know that I said anything to the man at all, but it was only just my opinion that the man was then looking for something possibly to shoot me with. He walked away toward the cot and I did not know what he was doing behind the cot. I sat then in the chair and fired at him and I shot the old gentleman. I did not know at that time where I had hit him, but he fell. Then the old lady sung out to me, “My God, he had no gun.” I sat there and I looked at him and I looked at her and I begged her to hitch a team and go away and let me get away. I was sorry for what I had done.

“The woman said to me — I do not just remember the first words that were spoken — but anyway, I said to her, says I, ‘Now I am awful sorry for what I have done, and his own foolishness caused it’; now, says I, ‘what is I going to do about it to get rid of this? The only way out now for me’ — says I — ‘I know your life is sweet and mine is sweet and we all thinks that your life is sweeter to you than mine is to me. I suppose you think so, and says I, ‘I think about the same, I suppose, but the only way out of this for me is to kill you along with him, and for me to make my escape.’

“And I said to the woman, ‘I suppose I ain’t got much time to think this matter over. The best thing for you to do is get to praying for yourself; I may possibly have to shoot you.’

“The woman knelt down by the cot and she stayed there and I dropped tears over that woman; but I thought the only refuge for myself was to shoot that woman. After the woman raised from her knees and turned around, she looked at me and she did not say anything. I held the gun laying across my lap and I shot her; where, I do not know, up until today. She kind of fell back on the cot against something, but I saw she was just in misery. The wound did not kill her–it did not look like it to me–and I shot the woman the second time.

“With that I walked over to the cot where this man was laying to see and to be certain that there was no weapon there that he was looking for to injure me. After examining behind the cot and around the cot and seeing that there was no weapon there, before God I felt worse.

“I walked back to the door and I tried that gun three times in succession to my own breast, but she refused to go. I then turned around, and the old gentleman had some movement in some part of his body, or made me think that he suffered, and I tried it the fourth time on him and she went off, and I think that was the shot that was through his body.”

After his confession he stated his desire to see his family who were living in the West Indies. He then asked that his appeal to be withdrawn and that he was ready to “die any time.”

Notwithstanding his lengthy and detailed confession, Ebanks’ defense team filed three additional appeals, each of which was denied.

His appeals exhausted Ebanks was sentenced once again to die and to be delivered to San Quentin for hanging. Before he was transported from San Diego, it was reported that Ebanks, who had converted to Christianity while in custody, “delivered a sermon to the other prisoners confined in the county jail, and sang and prayed with them. He admonished the men to reform when they were released and lead an upright life. He later made a request for a minister in order that he might be baptized. He was taken north on the Santa Rosa last night by Deputy Sheriff F. M. Jennings and T. H. Scoby.”

On May 27, 1898 Joseph Japhet Ebanks was led from his cell to the gallows. The evening before, he had written a statement declaring his innocence, having retracted his detailed confession in which he had given Mrs. Stiles but a minute to pray for her soul. Yet he resigned himself to die “a brave man”. Ebanks was described as calm when he was readied for execution at 10:30 am. He offered no comment of any kind before he was hanged. The trap floor dropped, the force breaking his neck. Ebanks was pronounced dead 10 minutes later although the newspaper described his death as “instantaneous”. His body was buried in the prison cemetery. Ebanks was one of nine state prisoners executed in California that year.

After the murder of his wife, Leroy R. Stiles went to live with his married daughter in Long Beach. He died in 1913 at the age of 83. He was buried in the same cemetery in Fallbrook with his beloved wife Harriet and her father John. As is sadly the case today, there was more attention placed on the salacious murders than paid to the victims themselves. Little detail was provided about the lives of Harriet Stiles and John Borden but they were truly innocent victims enjoying an idyllic day on a quiet beach when their lives were abruptly and brutally taken.

Kristi S. Hawthorne, historiesandmysteries.blog “Defenseless”, 2020. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express consent and written permission from the author and owner is strictly prohibited. Links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author Kristi S. Hawthorne and historiesandmysteries.blog “Defenseless”, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.