re: #57 sagehen

I was 9 years old, 30 miles inland, and it was HUGE. It was absolutely the most terrifying thing that had ever happened in LA. More than earthquakes, more than wildfires, more than the Watts riots a few years earlier, more than the Rodney King riots 20-some years later.

And once they found who did it and the trial dragged on… it got scarier and scarier every day.

That’s the sense I got hearing about it later in life from people who were adults when that went down. Practically the whole city was basically freaking out and paranoia went through the roof.

Like I said, it brought an abrupt and violent end to the ’60s. I think Joan Didion later commented “the ’60s died on August 9th, 1969” or something to that effect.