In 1925, fast-talking con man shook up San Jacinto

You probably won’t find Stanley M. Reinhardt mentioned in any history of San Jacinto, but in 1925 he gave that town its biggest jolt since the earthquake that nearly flattened the place a quarter-century earlier.

It’s still a bit puzzling what motivated this apparent con man to buy properties and businesses at inflated prices after he burst into town in March 1925.

“Pop-eyed Populace Gasps at Promised San Jacinto Boom,” was the front page headline for the Hemet News on March 6, 1925. The article tried to give some meaning to the chaos of the previous few days.

After arriving in town, Reinhardt immediately bought San Jacinto’s drug store and followed that with a deal to secure the grocery store. Then he tried to purchase an interest in the First National Bank but was turned down. He also made offers to other businesses or even large ranches outside town.

“Leaving in his wake wherever he moved about town a trail of popping eyes and fast hardening arteries, Stanley Reinhardt, former Los Angeles jewelry broker and supposed confidential agent of millionaires, has for the past week kept San Jacinto on the qui vive of expectancy,” wrote the News.

Reinhardt claimed to represent the State Securities Co., a Los Angeles holding company. He hinted that firm was affiliated with a coal and coke company in Colorado, which might build a big factory in San Jacinto.

It wasn’t all rosy, especially when he failed to purchase the bank in town. Reinhardt briefly threatened to end his buying spree if the city didn’t give him more cooperation. “If the provincial people here don’t wake up to what I want to do for them, I will get in my automobile and all I will leave behind is dust,” he told the News.

Despite his threat, Reinhardt’s bold purchases and lofty promises filled the minds of leaders of the town of 1,400 with visions of future riches. The big picture would come clear soon, said Reinhardt, noting that he would explain everything at a meeting of the Hemet-san Jacinto Chamber of Commerce.

But that’s when the bubble started to deflate. Reality set in when Reinhardt failed to appear at the Chamber of Commerce.

Those who had accepted his deals then noticed their checks were post-dated 30 days. The small print in their bills of sale also indicated the checks could not be cashed if Reinhardt’s investors didn’t agree to his deals. When asked, the Los Angeles bank on which his checks were written reported his account was insufficient to cover even one of his purchases.

“San Jacinto rubbed its eyes, real estate men put on their Sunday clothes, prices of business houses and real estate soared sky high, but after the town’s two days of excitement, a ‘showdown’ was demanded,” wrote the San Bernardino Sun on March 6.

Meetings in town produced no real clarity as to what his purchases were all about. The Riverside Daily Press tracked down Reinhardt at Soboba Hot Springs. “And he talked freely — and admitted nothing,” said a March 5 article.

Then just as quickly as he arrived, Reinhardt, and an associated investor Thackston Thomas of Riverside, simply disappeared, leaving in their wake nary a clue as to the reason for this spurious exercise. None of his purchases went through nor were any of his checks cashed.

The last word about Reinhardt came from Pomona, where he was nabbed for speeding, perhaps making a quick escape from San Jacinto. The Pomona Progress on March 10 said the fasttalking Reinhardt did convince Judge E.H. Bowen to drop the charges after he made a $10 donation to a city charity.

This would-be benefactor of San Jacinto turned up in Martinez in Northern California a year later when he was arrested for — not surprisingly — writing bum checks.

As it was apparently not his first arrest up north for “issuing fictitious checks,” Reinhardt was sent to San Quentin prison on Sept. 21, 1926. He completed 3½ years of his 5-year sentence and was released on parole in April 1930.

Cause for celebration

On Oct. 10, 1913, America let everyone know its pride in the role the country played in completing the Panama Canal. And the Inland Empire helped celebrate.

The American project to complete “the joining of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans” was marked nationwide at 11:04 a.m., local time, when President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button blowing up the last remaining obstruction in the canal route. Once completed, the canal would open a greatly shortened sea route between the East Coast and California.

Every community was urged to join in the demonstration. In Pomona, word of Wilson’s action was received in the Progress newspaper office which in turn alerted two city laundries, whose steam whistle and siren bellowed out for some time.

“The sound of the whistles gave notice to hundreds of automobile owners, and the tooting of auto horns occurred in the streets,” wrote the Progress that afternoon.

In San Bernardino, the Santa Fe Railroad shop blasted its whistle heard for 12 miles in all directions, joining the city’s fire sirens. Ontario factories set off whistles while its church and school bells tolled.

Riverside’s Girls High School held an assembly in which students proclaimed the news of the canal’s completion in eight languages: German, Latin, French, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese, Indian and English, reported the Colton Daily News on Oct. 12.

Honest man

Judge Edward Wall in San Bernardino finally found a truly honest man, reported the Sun on Feb. 19, 1921.

A latter-day Diogenes by the name of Johnson, arrested for riding a train without paying, was asked by the judge if he ever worked. “Not if I can help it,” said the man.

An immigrant from Sweden, he said he spent his time bumming around and often landing in jail. And he admitted that the comforts behind bars were, well, comfortable.

Would he go to work if released, asked Judge Wall. “Oh, if I could get a job as a dishwasher I might work a few days,” he said. But, “I don’t believe in working.”

Judge Wall made a point by allowing Johnson to adhere to his beliefs. He sentenced him to 90 days in the comforts of the county jail.

Tours Sunday

The Historical Society of the Pomona Valley will conduct four tours of its Casa Primera, 1569 N. Park Ave., Pomona, between 2 and 5 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 4.

Tickets, at $5, must be purchased in advance through www.pomonahistorical.org.

Additionally, the society’s Ebell Clubhouse and Museum is open to the public on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 5 p.m. The museum, 585 E. Holt Ave., Pomona, offers many interesting relics of the city and its Mexican heritage.