Smuggling drugs into Los Angeles, then and now, is a risky profession. Ask Main street resident, Charles Whittaker, whom police busted for dealing morphine and other narcotics in April 1919. Police Detectives Canto, Vernand, Winn and O’Brien caught Whittaker with a small box, containing 1000 morphine tablets valued at $1000, in his possession. According to police, a drug ring in San Francisco had been mailing packages of narcotics to Whittaker at his 410 South Main Street residence. Investigators told the Los Angeles Times that four packages of 1000 tablets each had been delivered to Whittaker a month for the past year. Whittaker, a grocery salesman, claimed he had no knowledge of what was in the package in his possession and did not know the senders. Perhaps he was just holding it for a friend who had ducked into Marks-Fram Co. next door at 412 S. Main Street (pictured above) to pick up a few postcards. Illustration credit: Brent C. Dickerson’s A Visit to Old Los Angeles site
