Breaking down walls of L.A.’s old jail

Dec. 3, 1929: Sheriff’s Capt. Clem Peoples and Los Angeles Police Officer Ray Cottle used pickaxes to expose “jail doors that clanged on Los Angeles prisoners more than half a century ago, and which have been buried in partition walls 35 years,” The Times reported

They also exposed the “ancient iron bars” that prisoners once looked through at the old city jail at 211 W. 2nd St.

“The Miller Desk and Safe Co., whose expansion program recently caused the tearing down of walls, made the showing of the old bastille doors a feature of their opening,” the newspaper said.

An officer for 40 years and six months, Cottle, who wore Badge No. 1, was “the oldest man in the department,” The Times said. He said the jail had been built 53 years ago.

“The criminals of the old days were different,” he said. “If they had it in for you, they fought it out and did not shoot you in the back or take you for a ride.”

Cottle said one of the jail cells was called the “cooler” because of the pipes along its top. He told The Times that “if the prisoner inside did not shut up, the water was turned on and he was given a free bath.”