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| Above, the Los Angeles Times front page coverage of the murders. |
The crime was called the "biggest mass-murder" in Los Angeles at the time. Some would say that the crime is "tame" by today's standards. Perhaps. But it was a shocker to the city's residents at the time, including members of my family.
Club Mecca was a small neighborhood bar located at 5841 S. Normandie Ave. About 21 people were inside the bar on the night of April 4, 1957. The bar, 25 feet square, exploded in flames when four men entered shortly before midnight, angry for being ejected from the bar earlier, with a can of gasoline and a match. The result was a fiery holocaust.
Five men and one woman died, and the others survived. One of those killed was Anthony M. “Tony” Smaldino, 27, an assistant pressman, Korean War veteran and former Golden Gloves contender.
Smaldino was a friend of my dad, aunts and uncles. Back in the 1950s, they all hung out together at Los Angeles boxing gyms. My dad boxed in the Army during the Korean War. Although Los Angeles was a large city, the boxing/wrestling/judo enthusiast community was tight-knit and everyone knew everyone. [My dad met television's Superman, George Reeves at a gym. Reeves was keeping in shape for the show by practicing judo.] My uncle Tony was also a boxer. Through them, my aunts also became friends with Smaldino.
Smaldino's funeral was held at St. Brigid's Catholic Church, with 300 people attending. Smaldino was buried at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.
The killers were caught and brought to justice. Those who were given death sentences later had their sentences commuted to life in prison by Gov. Edmund G. "Pat" Brown.
Today, Smaldino's name occasionally comes up at family gatherings. The former location of Club Mecca is now a vacant lot.
Below, a memorial ad that was placed in the Los Angeles Times last April.
