Print In 1861, near the intersection of what’s now Alameda and Aliso streets, a mob dragged, stabbed, then hanged 15-year-old Francisco Cota for allegedly killing a shopkeeper. Two years later, a crowd killed Charles Wilkins three blocks away, on the present-day corner of Aliso and Spring streets, right after a judge had found him guilty of murder. Up Temple, over to Hill Street, next to City Hall, down to La Plaza — downtown L.A. hosts multiple sites where at least 35 men met what 19th century chroniclers euphemistically called “Judge Lynch.” But there was nearly no trace of this blo...