1 Hawkins Son Misses Dinner Again This Year

On Thanksgiving Day, more than just a generation separated James Hawkins Sr. from his first-born son and namesake.

On Thursday, Hawkins Sr. was working as usual, tending the store behind his hamburger stand in Watts, where he opened for business more than 30 years ago. In the small house out back, his wife, Elsie, basted the 50-pound turkey that would feed the three score friends and relatives expected for dinner.

But James Hawkins Jr., the eldest of the Hawkinses’ 14 children, would be missing from the table in the bungalow where they grew up, where the living-room wall is covered with plaques and proclamations honoring other Hawkins children, and the elder Hawkins himself. For months, Hawkins Sr. was a local celebrity, praised for fending off street crime, and for spending time and money to help kids in this rough Watts neighborhood.

Last Thanksgiving, Hawkins Jr., 41, did not join them, either, his father says. He was in jail, awaiting trial on charges of murdering one of the gang members who the family claimed had tormented them and their customers even before the killing.

And this Thanksgiving, Hawkins Jr., convicted of manslaughter and facing a 28-year prison sentence on that, and a trial on two other killings, was at large somewhere, classified by law enforcement as possibly armed and definitely dangerous.

Sheriff’s deputies, fugitive investigators and Los Angeles police officers spent Thanksgiving searching the streets for Hawkins, and a Teletype, photographs and descriptions were sent out to every law enforcement agency in California, said Sheriff’s Deputy Rick Adams.

Hawkins Jr. had broken out of custody the day before the holiday. Deputies say he and a fellow inmate--Jesus Gonzalez, 24, a convicted murderer--were both dressed in street clothes for court appearances in the downtown Criminal Courts Building when they smashed the window in a temporary holding cell and the wooden door beyond and fled down the fire escape past 14 floors to disappear into the rush-hour crowds. A third man, a parolee, fled with them, but passers-by who noticed his shackled legs and jail house coveralls captured him right away.

However, no one has reported seeing Hawkins.

“I want him to turn himself in. That’s what I’m begging--turn yourself in,” said the elder Hawkins, making change for a boy buying banana-flavored candy. “We’re pretty afraid of something happening to him,” especially from gang members perhaps wanting quicker revenge than a prison term for a man convicted of killing one of their own, he said. Seventeen gang members were convicted for crimes involving the Hawkins family.

“He wouldn’t call, he definitely wouldn’t come here,” said Hawkins Sr., who has told authorities he will cooperate with them. “He knows we don’t approve of him doing this. I’m really upset, I just can’t stand it.”

Thanksgiving Eve was not the first sleepless night that his family has spent worrying about him. Hawkins Jr.’s record includes armed robbery convictions, and a bank robbery and assault with a deadly weapon conviction and almost as many escape attempts.

His father tries to be philosophical.

The family believes “he was railroaded when what he done was try to help the community,” the elder Hawkins sighed Thursday. But, he added: “You just always have a bad apple, you know, in the bunch. I did all I know to do, I did everything there was to raise ‘em. I have 14 of them and never been on the county (welfare). He’s the one who’s given us all the trouble.”

His younger brother, Otis, 35, said he had talked to his brother not long after he was sentenced. “Twenty-eight years, he says he’s like a walking dead man.” But “you just gotta be patient, wait for his appeal. I’m sure the second justice would be more fair than this first justice--that was totally unfair. If he stays out, there may not be no second chance.”

The Hawkinses have provided a free holiday bounty in their neighborhood each year: hams at Easter, several thousand frozen turkeys at Thanksgiving and Christmas. But last Thanksgiving, said Hawkins Sr., people surrounded a truck bringing the turkeys and wouldn’t let it pass. So he’s pretty much skipping this Thanksgiving.

Still, he gave out several dozen turkeys this week, and some free burgers and little turkey dinners on Thursday. “We gotta give them something,” he says.

Sheriff’s deputies in a cruiser that drove past the Slater Street business were surprised. “I expected to see a lot of people here today,” said Deputy Rob Townley. “There’s usually a big crowd; it backs up to Central,” said his partner, James Mair.

The ones who came Thursday were paying customers, regulars like Adrian L. Williams, who lives across the street in the Nickerson Gardens housing project, and who, at 30 and the mother of four, says she has outgrown her own gang name and her gang ways and is glad to have the Hawkinses around.

“He sure is a good one,” she said, patting Hawkins Sr. on his back as she made her purchase--a bottle of beer to celebrate the holiday and the new job she starts Monday.

Steven B. Shofner came for his breakfast burger. “Best in town,” he said. Shofner had heard about the escape, and although the closest he ever came to prison himself was being arrested for an unpaid jaywalking ticket, he said he can understand how Hawkins Jr. must feel at the prospect of 28 years “in an animal cage.”

“Maybe he figures he’ll get caught and shot and die,” says Shofner, “and get it all over with.”