Felix Signoret
Felix Signoret was a member of the Common Council, the governing body of the city of Los Angeles, and also of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in the 19th century. He was the leader of a vigilante gang that carried out a lynching of a reputed murderer in 1863.
Early life
Signoret was born in France on June 9, 1825, living in Marseille before he came to the United States.Career
Signoret built a new hotel at Main and Turner streets, north of Arcadia Street and "opposite the Pico House," with a Mansard pitch in 1874.Signoret was elected to the Los Angeles Common Council, the governing body of the city, serving from May 9, 1863, to May 5, 1864. He was also a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1866.
Lynching
Signoret was the leader of the lynching take took place in Los Angeles, in 1863—that of "a Frenchman named Lachenais"—who was suspected of killing a neighbor, Jacob Bell. Contemporary writer Harris Newmark recounted that:An article by Steve Harvey in the San Diego edition of the Los Angeles Times on September 5, 1984, stated that Signoret "led a lynch mob that hanged five people in Los Angeles in 1869–70 in the aftermath of a murder resulting from 'offensive remarks about the newly organized French Benevolent Society.
Personal life and death
Signoret was married to Catherine Pagen, also of France. Their children were P. Josephine, Rose, Anna and Caroline, and possibly Louise and Felix P. By trade he was a barber, later an apartment owner. The Signorets bought a parcel of land at 125 Aliso Street in 1871 and built a "substantial brick house" about thirty feet wide with an area of nearly 1,800 square feet; the roof was "hipped on all four sides in mimicry of the fashionable Mansard shape.... By 1888 the Signorets... were long gone, and their genteel house was used as a brothel."Signoret died on July 28, 1878, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles.