A distant relative through long-time missing great grandfather Johan Adolf Abrahamsson moved to Spreckels, Calif. in the 1890s to work on the sugar factory that dominated the town back then.
Spreckels is still agricultural. And Central California is very pretty.
And, as we know, better with Coke.
This is George Victor Johnson, born in Alameda, Contra Costa Co., Calif. on Dec. 11, 1911, to Agnes Judith Hanson and Gotlin Alfred Johnson. His father was an immigrant from Norway. His mother was from Sweden, related to me through my previously unknown great grandfather.
George was known as a one-armed robber, and the ringleader for a 1930s band of East Bay boy bandits. In 1933 he was given a sentence of 5 years to life, and sent to San Quentin. The photo is in the prison paperwork, and available online.
If I’ve done the math correctly George and my father were 3rd cousins.