On this date in 1920, a Hindu, Salen Shonka, was arrested on a vagrancy charge because he walked about the streets of Seal Beach “at late and unusual hours without apparent reason,” according to the Santa Ana Register.
Mr. Shonka, who operated a fortune-telling booth in Seal Beach for several years and claimed to own property in town, pleaded not guilty the next day and demanded a jury trial via his lawyer, G. M. Spicer. Mr. Shonka was released under $50 bail and assigned a trial date of July 21.
Unfortunately, no follow-up story was printed, so Mr. Shonka’s fate remains a mystery.
– Michael Dobkins
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