Carl and Dorothea – Defiled

I found this article yesterday. I will not say who wrote it. There is no date. It seems there was more of it – that could have been removed. The title of the two page article is….

Carl and Dorothea Janke
By:

The headline does not read

RAPE, MURDER, VANDALISM. AND REVENGE

Pointing out they are German – is of primary importance. How much contested land is involved? Does the author know about Carl and Dorothea Janke being dug up in the middle of the night? There is a old pic of a Court House, and a photo of the Ferris wheel – and children.

“Carl August Janke was a native of Hamburg, Germany, as was Dorothea; they left
Germany in late 1848 and sailed to San Francisco arriving in 1860 following a brief
trip to the gold country. They spent little time in San Francisco, finding the
climate more to their liking in Belmont, San Mateo County.
Carl built the well known Belmont Picnic Grounds in the vicinity of today’s
Twin Pines Park. The grounds became well known in
San Francisco and when the railroad became well
established in the mid 1860s the well intentioned and
sometimes the not so well intentioned citizens of the
great city took the train to Belmont. Good citizens of
San Mateo County also enjoyed the good imported
German beer and the dancing to the German band.
One of the problems for the San Francisco and
San Jose Railroad that serviced Belmont and the San
Mateo County Peninsula was that the trip back to the
city often resulted in a great number of broken
windows. The railroad solved that problem by increasing the toll for the trip to
Belmont to cover the cost of replacing the windows. Thus everybody had to pay
for the misdeeds a few.

On one occasion one of the less than gentlemanly males from San
Francisco, thinking himself a playboy, took affection to a teen age young lady
from Belmont. After a dance or two he took her for a walk in the nearby field and
raped her.

The Belmont Picnic
Grounds

The young lady reported the incident to her mother who, in turn, reported
it to the Sheriff’s Office. The rapist, of course, disappeared in the crowed but the
Deputy along with others took the young
lady, one to the front of the train and the
other to the back of the train and they
worked their way toward each other until
they located the suspect who was arrested
and taken to the Jail in Redwood City.
A trial was held in the courtroom in
Redwood City and during the process of that
trial the suspect rose and walked forward to
testify. The father of the victim rose and fired
two shots into the suspect killing him
instantly. The newspapers were blatant about
the suspect got what he deserved and the father pleaded he went crazy after the
rape. Several people testified to that fact. The father, having regained his sanity
while waiting for his day in court, walked out of court a free man. This seems to
fully agree with the newspapers, it’s nice to see justice served.
This is the only murder in a San Mateo County courtroom”