Content area
Full Text
William Mulholland knew what it was like to lead a big bureaucracy, having overseen construction of the great aqueduct that brought water -- and development -- to Los Angeles in 1913.
So when asked what he thought of the city's top job, Mulholland is said to have wryly replied, "Gentlemen, I would rather give birth to a porcupine backwards than be mayor of Los Angeles."
Yet, for several of the 40 men elected mayor since the city incorporated in 1850, the difficulty of the job wasn't what complicated their lives; they were discredited or done in by more personal failings.
Consider the little-known Bernard Cohn, who maintained two families in different parts of town. Or Charles E. Sebastian, who was shamed into resigning as a result of an adulterous affair.
As incumbent Mayor James K. Hahn prepares for the May 17 runoff against City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, we look back at the fortunes -- and misfortunes -- of some of those who have gone before.
*
Damien Marchessault
1859-60, 1861-65
Of French-Canadian ancestry, Marchessault was a carousing former New Orleans gambler before guiding the city during the Civil War.
He was twice elected mayor, but it was the job he held afterward, overseeing the city's water supply, that led to his undoing, according to "Los Angeles A to Z, an Encyclopedia of the City and County," by Leonard and Dale Pitt.
He and a partner had laid wooden water pipes -- hollowed-out logs from the San Bernardino Mountains -- that were always bursting at the joints and turning the streets into sinkholes.
With that and personal problems mounting, he could take it no more. On the morning of Jan. 20, 1868, he slipped into an empty City Council chamber and shot himself to death.
A note on the table near his body begged his wife's forgiveness for his business debts, his drinking and gambling, and...