Centennial Book Speaks of Diverse San Marino History

The San Marino Centennial takes place in 2013 but the celebration kicks off this year with activities and the much-anticipated book, San Marino: A Centennial History.

“People might be surprised that San Marino--former headquarters of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society--has so much diversity in its past,” San Marino Centennial Book Committee Chairwoman Ave Bortz told the Pasadena Star-News in an article Tuesday.

Bortz and committee members for the book due out in September mentioned aspects such as water attracting the Tongva, or Gabrielinos, to the region, the evolution of , growth of the and, of course, the connection with .

Read about Tongva history in San Marino in a three-part Patch series here.

San Marino’s Strangest Case

Centennial book author , detailed San Marino’s sketchier side in the Star-News piece, since there will be a "Crimes and Misdeeds in San Marino" chapter of the book.



Despite colorful incidents like an extortion plot with death threats that lead to a shoot out in 1935, Pomeroy told the Star-News the case of the is definitely San Marino’s “strangest case.”

Read more of Pomeroy’s reflections in the Star-News piece.
 
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who went by Christopher Chichester in San Marino in the 1980s and later Clark Rockefeller on the East Coast, disappeared from town a few months after couple John and Linda Sohus went missing in 1985.

John Sohus’s bones were found in 1994 in the backyard of the Lorain Road home he lived in with Linda—“Chichester” rented a guest house on the property—but Linda has never been found.

Gerhartsreiter was .

Read more about the phony Rockefeller, from the murder charge to the recent preliminary hearing, in this Patch coverage.

What aspects of San Marino history are you most interested in? Will you purchase the Centennial book?