San Gabriel Left a Mark on Roy Bean

Long before he became a 19th century folk hero as Texas’ “Law West of the Pecos,” Judge Roy Bean--gambler, con man, boozer and bigot--reshaped a bit of Los Angeles’ history in his own irascible image.

Books, magazine articles and movies starring Walter Brennan and Paul Newman have recounted the escapades of the crusty old judge and the whiskey-flavored justice he dispensed from the porch of his saloon, the Jersey Lily. But few have ever told of how Bean rode to fame dressed in caballero costume, hanging onto the coattails of his brother the general.

As the proprietor of the Headquarters Saloon--San Gabriel’s version of the OK Corral--Bean shot first and argued later.

Roy Bean--born Phantly Bean in Kentucky--left home in 1848 and headed to Mexico, where his older brother Sam had set up a trading post. When a Mexican bandit challenged Phantly to a gunfight, the future judge shot him between the eyes. Barely escaping with their lives, the brothers rode north; Phantly left Sam in New Mexico and headed west for San Diego. There, another older brother, Maj. Gen. Joshua Bean of the state militia, the town’s first mayor, welcomed him with open arms.

Propelled into the limelight by the fame of his brother “Gen. Frijoles,” as he was known to his Spanish-speaking friends, Phantly enjoyed the power and influence that then constituted California’s good life: gambling, fandangos, horse racing and pretty senoritas. But it all came to an abrupt end after his brother left town for San Gabriel.

Armed with two six-shooters and a spirited steed, Phantly couldn’t resist the challenge of a duel on horseback with a cocky San Diego gunslinger. Quick to pull the trigger, Bean shot his opponent in the leg and his horse out from under him. Jailed, he escaped two months later, saddled up and disappeared. Shortly afterward, he appeared in Los Angeles with a new name: Roy Bean.

Nine miles away, Joshua Bean--who had just returned from escorting Chief Antonio Garra of San Diego County’s Cupeno Indians to his execution by firing squad--was tending bar at his newly whitewashed Headquarters Saloon among the mean streets and alleys outside the San Gabriel Mission. While stagecoach robbers, highwaymen and murderers poured whiskey down their throats and bet on cockfights and horse races, prayers for lost souls were offered up across the street at the mission church.

The lively saloon--at what is now the intersection of Santa Anita Street and Mission Drive--was conveniently located near the stagecoach line, also operated by the Beans. It was the largest and most popular of the village’s three bars and a hangout for the notorious Mexican vaquero Joaquin Murrieta, whose sister lived at the mission.

In November 1852, as Roy tended bar, Joshua arrived home in the dark. Two shots were fired, hitting him in the chest. Falling from his horse, he drew his pistol and aimlessly fired three times. He died the next day.

Eager for revenge, Roy Bean joined the Los Angeles Rangers, a vigilante committee. After they rounded up several “cutthroats” accused of murdering the general, a seven-day trial was held. One defendant, the village cobbler, Cipriano Sandoval, admitted that he heard five shots ring out and saw Felipe Reid, Murrieta’s right-hand man and the son of Victoria and Hugo Reid, running down the alley toward him. Reid, he said, had paid him $5 to keep his mouth shut.

The historical record is unclear, but Reid apparently shot the general for fooling around with a woman who was either his mistress or Murrieta’s sweetheart.

Reid was never prosecuted. Sandoval and two other men were convicted and hanged.

Inheriting his dead brother’s saloon, Bean cut quite a figure dressed in his expensive Mexican costume and $50 hat, handing out whiskey and advice from behind the bar.

He spent the next several years tending bar and avoiding bullets and the hangman.

In 1857 he came to the aid of a pretty girl unwillingly engaged to a Mexican officer, and then claimed her for himself. But when the officer challenged him to a duel and Bean shot and killed him, an enraged mob slipped a noose around the barkeeper’s neck and hanged him from the nearest tree. Fortunately for Bean, the rope stretched, enabling him to stand on tiptoe until the girl cut him free.

Bankruptcy followed and Bean fled San Gabriel, leaving behind the girl but taking with him the stiff, rope-burned neck that plagued him for the rest of his life.

In New Mexico he found his brother Sam, who put a roof over his head and gave him a job. But when the Civil War broke out and business declined, Roy Bean broke into his brother’s safe, stole his horse and took off to help organize a company of Confederate sympathizers.

After the war, the 40-year-old Bean settled in Texas and married 18-year-old Virginia Chavez. Even before their first anniversary, Bean found himself in court on charges of assaulting her. But the bumpy marriage lasted long enough to produce four children before she left him for good.

By then, the once-handsome Bean was a fat, hairy, cantankerous old codger who seldom bathed, but he was about to carve his own niche in Texas history. Even before his judicial appointment was official in August 1882, Bean erected his “Law West of the Pecos” sign and began holding court.

Suffering a schoolboy crush on Lily Langtry, an actress from Britain’s Isle of Jersey, he built a shrine in the form of a town he called Langtry. There, he constructed a courtroom-saloon near the train depot to exploit thirsty passengers and named it the Jersey Lily.

With his great appetite for publicity and equal knack for achieving it, Bean got himself a 650-pound black bear he named Bruno. Every time a train pulled into town, Bean enticed passengers who watched Bruno guzzling a bottle of beer. Langtry had no jail, so Bean deemed all crimes punishable by fines, with most if not all of the money trickling into his own hands. He once fined a dead man $40 for loitering.

Less than a year after Bean died in 1903, Langtry visited the town.

San Gabriel has no monument to Bean, but for almost half a century Bean had a ring around his neck to help him recall the town.