Special Offer: we have reduced the price of this $50 walking tour to a symbolic $5/person in recognition of the near death experience described in our November 4 newsletter. Please bring a friend and join us in a spirit of good fellowship, and buy one of Detective Digby’s books. As for us, tips are welcome, but not required. This is our gift to you.

Join Esotouric for a very special guest hosted tour, as retired LASD Detective Bomb Technician Mike Digby takes us on a scrupulously researched journey through early Los Angeles, bringing one of the nation’s most notorious criminal conspiracies alive at the actual scenes of the crime.

Detective Digby has adapted the 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times and its aftermath into a curriculum for arson investigators. This is a rare opportunity for the general public to get a taste of actual law enforcement training and learn from an esteemed investigator and historian.

On this walking tour through the Historic Core and Civic Center of Downtown Los Angeles, Mike will trace the forensic leads and discuss how the L.A. Times bombing case was cracked in a year-long nationwide manhunt, comparing this work to modern crime scene analysis tools which were not available to investigators in the early 20th century.

The explosion of the timed “infernal device” in the Ink Alley section of the Los Angeles Times building was just one incident in a lengthy campaign of industrial sabotage and terror, spearheaded by radical and conspiratorial elements within the national labor movement. It was their intention to bring union-resistant Los Angeles to its knees through fear and destruction– but not necessarily through bloodshed.

But this bombing was different. The blast triggered an enormous natural gas explosion, bringing down a large section of the building and killing 21 workers. The crime and its prosecution, and particularly the bombshell accusation of jury tampering, as well as the hardline response by local business interests, would change the course of history in several remarkable ways.

Come get to know the fascinating characters locked in a dogged fight to determine the future of Los Angeles, including newspaper publisher Harrison Gray Otis, defense attorneys Clarence Darrow and Job Harriman (also a leading Socialist candidate for Mayor, until the case blew up in his face), co-conspirators the McNamara Brothers, famous detective William J. Burns and key witness Ortie McManigal, a complex and conflicted soul whose tale will haunt you.

On this tour, Detective Digby is joined by special guest legal historian Bob Wolfe to explore the dramatic courtroom shenanigans that kept this terrible crime in the headlines nationwide.

Spectrum News 1 video: Tag along on Detective Mike Digby’s 2019 bus tour about the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times, and the sprawling nationwide investigation that changed labor, California and the newspaper forever. (Note that the bus tour has now been adapted into a walk.)

ABOUT OUR GUEST HOST: After serving seven years in the United States Army, Mike Digby joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department where he served proudly for more than 34 years. For the last seventeen years, he was assigned as a Detective Bomb Technician in the Arson/Bomb Squad where his duties included rendering safe and disassembling improvised explosive devices, examining and disposing of military ordnance and conducting post-blast investigations. A self-proclaimed “bomb nerd” and decorated detective, Mike has spent years studying the motives of bombers, their methods of attack and the bombs that they built. He has served as technical advisor on BBC and Discovery Channel programs. In December 2016, Mike published “The Bombs, Bombers and Bombings of Los Angeles,” a book which documents several dozen bombing events that took place in the Los Angeles area over the past hundred years.

MEETING INSTRUCTIONS:

Tour begins at 10:30am sharp, with check-in time 10am at the patio outside Grand Central Market in front of Maple Block BBQ at 324 S Hill St, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Please arrive on time and proceed to the check in table to get signed in and logged in to the smartphone slideshow. Scroll down for tour rules and recommendations.

Parking & Public Transit:

There are numerous paid public parking lots around Grand Central Market, including GCM’s multi-level lot at 308 South Hill Street Los Angeles, California 90013.  The nearest Metro stations are Civic Center/Grand Park and Pershing Square. If using public transit, this link can help you plan your trip:

TOUR RULES & RECOMMENDATIONS:

BE PREPARED: This is a walking hour lasting approximately 3 hours, moving at a casual pace. Wear comfortable walking shoes, sunscreen and a hat. Bring your smartphone so you can view the tour slide show. We will have a cooler with cold water, and you’re encouraged to bring a full water bottle. A restroom will be available at the start, middle and end of the tour. If you need more information about what to expect, please email us.

COVID SAFETY: At this time, we no longer require that masks be worn on walking tours.

CAMERA POLICY: No video- or audio-taping unless it has been pre-cleared with us, please. Still cameras and sketchbooks are fine.

CANCELLATION / REFUND POLICY:

If you’re sick, please do not attend the tour. Get some rest, and let us know not to expect you. If notified at least 72 hours before tour departure, we can refund or reschedule your booking. As long as you contact us before the tour begins, we are happy to move your reservation to a future tour date. You may also gift your ticket to someone else—we will need their name, email address and phone number to make this switch.

CONTACTING US ON OR BEFORE TOUR DAY:

Emailing is the best way to communicate with us, but after 8am on tour day you can call or text Richard on his mobile phone, 213-915-8687.