![New plaque commemorates deadly ambush of first L.A. Sheriff killed in line of duty](https://behindthebadge.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/230401-BTB-Barton-Mound-01-SJG-702x497.jpg)
New plaque commemorates deadly ambush of first L.A. Sheriff killed in line of duty
0On a sunny morning in the Irvine Spectrum area, it’s hard to believe anything bad happened here. Before being taken over by master-planned communities and upscale malls, or even its eponymous orange groves, Orange County was an untamed lawless land. Before it was bespeckled by Irvine Corporation projects, it was the definition of the Wild West. Infamous gangsters roamed or were pursued by similarly unchecked vigilantes through the canyons and arroyos of Los Angeles and later Orange County. At a hillock, across the I-405 freeway from the Irvine Spectrum, one of the early, deadly ambush battles between lawmen and robbers…
![Fire burns historic wooden Tustin hangar](https://behindthebadge.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/231107-BTB-Hangar-Fire-04-SJG-351x185.jpg)
Fire continues to burn at one of the two historic wooden hangars in Tustin. The hangars, built in 1942, are…
![International terror, violence warns us to prepare at home](https://behindthebadge.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Untitled-design-351x185.png)
The aftermath of the shocking attack by Hamas and Palestinian militants on Israel and the response in Gaza are grim…
![Fallen Manhattan Beach police officer was a ‘real-life hero’](https://behindthebadge.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/231018-BTB-Swanson-01-351x185.jpg)
Hailey Swanson described her husband, fallen Manhattan Beach Police Officer Chad Swanson, as being “fearless, strong, loud, decisive, confident, devoted,…
![Halloween can be ghoulishly great, as long as everyone is safe](https://behindthebadge.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/pexels-yaroslav-shuraev-5604241-351x185.jpg)
Halloween: ghosts and goblins, witches and warlocks, and, this year especially, Barbies and Kens. And while trick-or-treating is evolving, estimates…