Because little boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails they get into mischief. And if you put a group of five year old boys together the end result can be mayhem.
Fifteen year old Elizabeth Lowe was walking through Echo Park near the lake on an October day in 1920 when she was set upon by several small boys who pelted her with stones.
Elizabeth quickly decided that she was not going to be a passive target for a gang of diminutive thugs. She grabbed her nearest tormentor, five year old Danny Lewis, and hurled him into the lake. Danny was rescued when his cries were heard by some men who were nearby enjoying the park.
Elizabeth later told police that she hadn’t intended to drown Danny she just wanted him, and the other boys, to stop throwing stones and leave her alone. Of course the cops quizzed Danny, who, in the manner of tiny terrors confronted with a misdeed, probably had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said that he’d never throw stones at a girl.
Police decided to hold Elizabeth in Juvenile Hall, which was just fine with Danny — he told the cops that the girl was deranged.
Sounds like something I would do back in the day. I once beat up a kid because he was telling the little ones that there was no Santa Clause! I didn’t take any crap off of them.
Don’t you love how the cops took the fifteen year old girl to juvie and let the five year old boy go on his merry way?
Sometimes you just have to take a stand for Santa!
Them Deranged L.A. Girls…
And so it goes… Thanks for reading!
I don’t know….too many unanswered questions here. I mean, five year old kids are pretty small. If she threw this kid into deep water and then calmly walked away then she might very well be a young lady with a bit of a problem. On the other hand, he may have been “rescued” from water that only came up to his knees. I had a niece like that. Scared to death of water and we just couldn’t convince her that all she had to do was stand up. (Loves it now!)
I just have to suspect that there is more to this story than we’re getting. In my experience the police wouldn’t want to do all the paperwork associated with something like this unless there was a pretty good reason. Normally they would just hand things over to the parents and let them handle it. I wonder if, perhaps, they felt that Ms Lowes homelife was so suspect that a trip to Juvenile Hall was in her best interests?
You’re so right, many unanswered questions. Typical of the time these little human interest stories, or whatever they may have been
called, skew the facts and spin the tale in whatever way the newspaper wishes. I’m with you, there’s more to the story than we can
access. LAPD was accustomed to coping with wayward as well as abused juveniles, they may have, as you suggested, taken Lowe to Juvie
for her own good. Wish we knew more.