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Defending the Public Defender
Frank Egan, Vincent Hallinan
Frank Egan (center) with Attorney Brown (left) and Attorney Vincent Hallinan (right) after prison / Courtesy San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

The most famous murder in Ingleside history

In 1913, to attract buyers to the new Ingleside Terrace development, the “world’s largest sundial” was built near the middle of the old Ingleside racetrack. The site of the racetrack is now Urbano Drive.

It was not the ideal location for a device that depends on sunshine to be built in one of the foggiest parts of San Francisco. It does have one unusual feature. From the top of this sundial you can see the houses of the victim and perpetrator of the most famous murder in Ingleside history.

The Murder

As Warren and Verna Louw walked home from the El Rey Theater on Ocean Avenue at 9:45 p.m. toward their Kenwood Avenue home, they noticed a suspicious looking automobile circling the area.

Thinking the occupants might be robbers, the Louws stepped into a recessed doorway and watched as the auto appeared and reappeared several times before racing off with its lights out. The couple continued up Kenwood, where they came upon the crumpled body of a woman lying on the pavement near the curb in front of 150 Kenwood

At first, it was thought that the victim had been struck by a hit and run driver, but responding detectives noticed that the woman had no purse, coat or hat on, though the night was chilly. She was soon identified by a neighbor as Jessie Scott Hughes, a 59-year-old widow who lived alone at 41 Lakewood Street. Public Defender Frank Egan could tell them more, the man said, for he was a close friend of Mrs. Hughes and managed her financial affairs.

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as the grand jury was about to take up the matter, the case broke wide-open. Verne Doran, Egan’s chauffeur, who faced fifteen years on his parole violation, and still more time if convicted of a recent garage hold-up for which he was charged, decided to make a clean breast of it. Doran laid out the whole case for the authorities in gruesome detail.”

The Public Defender

The 50-year-old Egan was a well-respected figure in San Francisc’s political and criminal justice circles. A former city police officer who had passed the bar and established a private law practice in 1914, he had been appointed the city’s first Public Defender in 1918 and had been reelected continuously thereafter. Later that Saturday morning, Egan himself showed up at the Coroner’s office. In answer to routine questioning he said that he was indeed in charge of Mrs. Hughes’ affairs, and mentioned that she had an insurance policy listing him as the beneficiary.

Egan said that his client had been in the habit of going on night hikes without a hat or coat, a practice he had warned her about repeatedly. Egan volunteered that he had attended the fights that night at Dreamland Auditorium at the time of Mrs. Hughes’ death, in company with Dr. Nathan Houseman, his physician and friend.

Lincoln Phaeton
1925 Lincoln Phaeton / Courtesy classic.com

The car cited by the witnesses as suspicious, a blue 1925 Lincoln Phaeton, was located. It had been borrowed by Verne Doran, 23, a convicted burglar. Doran worked as a chauffeur for Public Defender Frank Egan, who had obtained his release on parole. Detectives learned that Doran was often in the company of Albert Tinnin, another ex-con who had been paroled through the intercession of the kindly public defender, Frank Egan. But neither Doran nor Tinnin could be located.

On Monday night, the case took a stranger turn. At 9 pm Captain Dullea received a telephone call from Egan, who said that he had been kidnapped. Yet an hour later he was seen at Powell and Geary streets by a hotel clerk and a police officer behaving in an unkidnapped manner. Egan then dropped from sight as well.

Frank Egan Headline

From the start, the case commanded front-page attention as enterprising reporters dug into every aspect of Egan’s past and police scurried around the state in response to reports of sightings of the fugitives. As in other celebrated cases, once the story broke, witnesses to unusual behavior came forward. For one thing, it soon became evident that despite outward trappings of affluence, Egan’s finances were in a sorry state. A bank had started foreclosure proceedings on the Egan home at 225 Urbano Drive to recover a $9000 mortgage that had gone unpaid.

Jesse Scott Hughes
Jesse Hughes

The Victim

 

Dr. Alexander Keenan, who had treated Mrs. Hughes several months earlier, said that when he had presented her bill to Egan for payment as the patient suggested, the Public Defender told him that her funds had been exhausted. According to Dr. Keenan, Mrs. Hughes seemed surprised when that comment was relayed to her. Mrs. Hughes was not the only older woman of means connected to Egan. At least three other women had their estates dwindle dramatically under Egan’s care.

On the Thursday following his disappearance in the Hughes case, Egan turned up in a private sanatorium on Steiner Street where, according to his spokesman and attorney, the legendary Vincent Hallinan, he was recovering from a nervous breakdown. Egan, Hallinan said, couldn't remember anything that had occurred since the preceding Saturday. The following Monday, it was revealed that Tinnin had been in police custody since Wednesday, May 4, held incommunicado at the Whitcomb Hotel, where he was questioned by police. Soon afterwards, as the authorities were closing in on him, Doran turned himself in to the police. Both ex-cons were held on parole violations; Doran was sent to San Quentin and Tinnin was lodged at the County jail.

As the web of circumstantial evidence drew around Egan and his two suspected accomplices, Egan's defenders rallied to his cause. It was all a frame-up, Attorney Hallinan and others charged, engineered to abolish the office of Public Defender. The 1916 murder frame-up of Tom Mooney a radical labor activist, by the utility companies and the District Attorney was still fresh in the public mind.

The Case Breaks Wide-open

...
Egan (right) registers for his room

On June 4, as the grand jury was about to take up the matter, the case broke wide-open. Verne Doran, Egan’s chauffeur, who faced fifteen years on his parole violation, and still more time if convicted of a recent garage hold-up for which he was charged, decided to make a clean breast of it. Doran laid out the whole case for the authorities in gruesome detail. He and Tinnin had done the killing, he admitted, at the urging of Frank Egan. Egan had told him, Doran said, that Mrs. Hughes had been pressing him for money and threatening to take him before the Bar Association. Doran went along with the plan, he said, because he was afraid that Egan would send him back to San Quentin on some technical violation.

Assistent District Attorney Isadore Golden opened the prosecution by eliciting testimony from several witnesses describing how Egan had cozened Mrs. Hughes out of a house on Moultrie Street and used another woman to set up a dummy bank account through which he laundered Mrs. Weber’s money. Other witnesses established the fact that Mrs. Hughes had almost $15,000 in life insurance with Egan as the beneficiary. Doran was the star witness for the prosecution, repeating in detail the story of how he and Tinnin had killed Mrs. Hughes at Egan’s request. There followed a string of corroborative witnesses.

Police  criminologist Frank Latulippe tied the physical evidence together, and Warren Louw described what he had seen on the night of the murder. The final and somewhat reluctant witness was Egan’s stenographer, Marion Lambert, who testified that Mrs. Hughes had frequently called Egan at his office and that two days before her death she had come in and made a pest of herself.

The defense presented a cohesive case that rebutted the prosecution’s case — if one chose to believe their witnesses. To counter the charge that Egan had milked Mrs. Hughes’ accounts, the defense brought out that, on many occasions, Egan had made payments for her expenses.

After rebuttal witnesses refuted Mrs. Egan’s testimony and that of Doran’s cellmate, the testimony came to an end. Attorney Hallinan had mounted his customary spirited defense throughout, and finished off by going to jail, not for the last time, on a charge of contempt, for interrupting Prosecutor Golden during his closing arguments.

The Outcome

On September 3,1932 the case went to the jury and three days later they returned a verdict of guilty of first degree murder against both Egan and Tinnin. Their sentence was to be life in prison.

Doran went to prison on a manslaughter conviction and was paroled two years later. Tinnin and Egan were to wait more than twenty-five years for their release. In 1957, Tinnin finally broke down and admitted that he had in fact committed the murder with Doran at Egan’s bidding. It was Doran who knocked out Mrs. Hughes, he said. Otherwise his crime companion’s story was correct. Shortly afterward, Tinnin was granted parole.

Egan never did admit to the crime and claimed that Tinnin had confessed only to expedite his own release. Over the years, Egan made several futile attempts to seek an executive pardon and was finally paroled in October 1957. His object, he said in a post-release interview, was to clear his name. He died four years later still protesting his innocence.

      Former SFPD Deputy Police Chief Kevin Mullen interviewed Vincent Hallinan in the early 1990s, more than half a century after the most famous San Francisco murder of the early 1930’s. When Chief Kevin asked about Egan’s claim of innocence, which some still claimed to support, Hallinan just smiled and rolled his eyes.

 

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

April 2021

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The Utility Criminal — Sydney A. Long
Long and York photos
Sydney Long and his wife, Patricia York

In baseball the term utility player refers to a person who can play several positions competently, such as second base, outfield and first base. Sidney A. Long was a utility criminal. He could commit a variety of crimes under a multiplicity of names, in an assortment of places. Sidney was a walking game of clue. Instead of “Col Mustard, with a knife, in the library,” it was “Richard Lewis burgling fine jewels and fur coats from a mansion in San Francisco.” Or “Darcel of India swindling a widow out of $7,000 in Florida.” Or “Dr. Vanderbilt cashing forged checks in Los Angeles.”

A Versatile Thief for All Occasions

Born in 1920, he was one of three men convicted of armed robbery in west Palm Beach, Florida in 1943. By 1950 he had expanding his criminal repertoire by hypnotizing Mrs. Gladys Williams as part of his “psychogenic health” program in Oregon and swindled her out of $7,500. In Los Angeles, Long posed as a swami and psychiatrist under the names of Mana Roma, Nana Rona, and Carleton Chandler Worth.

In 1952 Sidney was arrested for “Child Stealing” in Arizona, when he eloped with a 16 year-old California girl. Long’s photograph, appearing in the newspapers, led to a disastrous series of events. Mrs. Florence Riggi, an ex-girlfriend of Long’s, noticed that an elaborate ring on his hand in the photo matched a ring missing from her apartment. Police seized the ring, valued at $5,000 and held a hearing to determine the rightful owner. Riggi testified that her mother had given her the ring and her mother confirmed this. Sidney swore that his late mother had given him the ring. Other testimony conflicted with Long’s and the judge ruled for Mrs. Riggi and commented that Long’s testimony was “some of the most deliberate perjury I have ever heard.”

When police arrested Long for perjury they found an automatic pistol in a nightstand, so he received another charge for owning a gun as a felon. Long bailed himself out and then disappeared. He was arrested in 1954 for armed robbery of a supermarket in Reno.

When not engaged in larceny, Long worked as a salesman. His persuasive skills made him a top salesperson and he won numerous awards and trips for his skills. But the lure of the dishonest dollar proved too strong for him.

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When not engaged in larceny, Long worked as a salesman. His persuasive skills made him a top salesperson and he won numerous awards and trips for his skills. But the lure of the dishonest dollar proved too strong for him.”

In the early 1960s, police in San Francisco were baffled by a series of lucrative robberies of the homes of wealthy people in Sea Cliff and Pacific Heights. In  January  1963, a maid stumbled across the answer. Trucking executive Thomas Dwyer and his wife, who were attending the Bing Crosby Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach, asked their maid to pick up the mail from their Pacific Heights mansion. The maid found the front door latched by an inside chain and a small hole drilled through the door. She called police who found Long (now posing as Richard Lewis,) and his wife Patricia York inside. They also found jewelry, furs and clothes packed for removal. Miss York’s purse contained an 18-inch brace, putty knife, screwdriver, razor tipped knife, two pieces of wire, hat pin, and strips of celluloid. The couple was arrested and released on $1365 bail and then disappeared. The address they gave was false.

But the felonious pair had reckoned without the sharp-eyed denizens of Pacifica. Robert Fetzer and his wife spotted the pair’s picture in the newspaper, recognized them as his next door neighbors, and called police. Even before the arrests, the Longs had attracted the suspicion of their sagacious neighbor. “I rather resented the fact that they took very little care of their grounds. Once in a while I would even water their flower patches,” said Mrs. Fetzer. Locals also noticed that they were exceptionally well dressed when they went shopping. A local grocer commented that Mrs. Lewis “would often come in wearing a fur stole — the most gorgeous stole I ever saw.”

Police arrived just in time. “If we had gotten there just 15 minutes later they would have been gone.” Patricia York, Long’s wife, stalled them for five minutes. Then Patrolman Mel Nelson shouted ‘Hey, the guy’s making a break — out the window.”  When Lewis (Long) was caught a few minutes later, he had $23,000 in cash in his pockets. In their home were $200,000 in furs, jewels, clothing and electronics. Police also found dozens of license plates, ID cards, and a printing press capable of producing checks, credit cards, and identification books. Police had been searching for Long for cashing forged checks for over $100,000.

Most wanted bad check artist

Police also found the blueprint for the thefts, a well-thumbed copy of the Social Register. The register was annotated with notes about when people would be away from their house, due to trips or social functions. With bail set at $100,000, Long stayed in jail through the trial. He was convicted and sent to San Quentin.

Sidney faded away and is long gone today, but one spiritual question remains in my mind. I wonder if there is a Social Register in the hereafter?

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

February 2021

The McWhirter Murder

Political Intrigue, Yellow Journalism and Murder...

Tanko and Hall mugshots
Louis McWhirter

When prominent attorney, and editor, Louis McWhirter was shot to death outside his Fresno house on August 29th 1892 all people were shocked, but few were surprised. McWhirter was the leader of the reform Democrats and he had written many articles revealing the corruption of the “Triangle” faction of Democrats, who were in power. Because of the many threats on his life McWhirter bought $60,000 in life insurance and always carried a gun. At three in the morning McWhirter heard suspicious noises outside his house, took his gun and went out to investigate. A few moments later he was shot three times, once in his heart. After the killing Fresno quickly formed a formed a vigilance committee and raised a $25,000 reward. Two competing theories, assassination and suicide, were given for McWhirter’s death.

The most likely theory was that McWhirter was assassinated by men hired by his political enemies. In 1893 Richard Heath, Frederick Polley and another man, known only as “John Doe” were indicted for the murder. Heath was a foreman and frequent bar room habitue. Polley was a carpet layer, and “John Doe” was never identified. Mrs. McWhirter’s attorney said he was not surprised at the arrests. “These men are but cat’s paws of others more powerful, and I expect to see political and financial reputations in this State shattered in a very short time.”

There were millions of reasons to explain Louis McWhirter committing suicide. $60,000 in 1892 money is $1,800,000 today. Most of the insurance companies paid up, but, in an extreme case of “blaming the victim,” Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance claimed that McWhirter, who was purportedly deep in debt, had killed himself to collect the insurance for his family.

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Before movies, television, and the internet, newspapers covered crime extensively, often using their own investigators and reporters to find evidence. Rather than just reporting, newspapers often advocated for the prosecution or defense. Prior to his death, McWhirter’s articles were often printed in the San Francisco Examiner, so the Examiner took a strong prosecutorial view in the trials. The San Francisco Chronicle took the defense’s part.”

Suicide would have been a very convenient verdict for the defendants and for Connecticut Life Insurance. But without any solid evidence, no judge or jury would reach such a verdict and Mrs. McWhirter won her case.

Before movies, television, and the internet, newspapers covered crime extensively, often using their own investigators and reporters to find evidence. Rather than just reporting, newspapers often advocated for the prosecution or defense. Prior to his death, McWhirter’s articles were often printed in the San Francisco Examiner, so the Examiner took a strong prosecutorial view in the trials. The San Francisco Chronicle took the defense’s part.

...
The Scene of the Nocturnal Tragedy
[The cross indicates where McWhirter fell. A, Bullet holes found in the fence. B where boards were pulled off making an exit for the assassins. From a sketch made by an "Examiner" artist.]

In the 1893 first trial the defense presented a novel theory, jury was deadlocked, with 11-1 for conviction. In the 1894 second trial, with only Heath accused, the jury was again hung, this time 10-2 for conviction.

After two trials the city of Fresno was $100,000 poorer. Fresno could not afford another hung jury, so charges against Heath were dropped.

But if the courts were finished with Heath, Heath was not finished with the courts. In 1894 Heath sued the San Francisco Examiner for $10,000 for libel. The Examiner had published a story stating that Heath had been involved in a bar room fight at the Grand Hotel. According to the article “after several blows had been struck the disputants quieted down, forgot their wrath and drowned the bitter memory of the fight in the flowing bowl.”

Heath was able to show that he was in his mother’s house on the night in question and that he had not tasted liquor since he had taken the Keeley Cure for alcoholism,18 months prior.

The Examiner admitted that their story was incorrect, but they brought in numerous witnesses to testify that Heath had a reputation for drinking and fighting in bar rooms.The “we were wrong this time, but Heath is a drunken bum” defense did not impress the judge and Heath was awarded $2,500. His legal victory did not presage a long life.  In 1904 Heath committed suicide by inhaling gas. “ Despondency caused by extensive drinking, precipitated his suicide,” said the papers.

In 1905, J. P. Sevener, convicted murderer, was executed in Carson Nevada. Before his execution he confessed to the murder of Louis B. McWhirter in 1892. Sevener fits the general description of “John Doe” seen running from the murder.

In the end the McWhirter case was officially unsolved. But if Louis’ name began to fade in human history it rose in equine circles. A horse named Louis B. McWhirter, running at 30 – 1, won the fourth race for 2 year-olds at the Oakland Race Track in 1899. LB McWhirter was named best stallion at the Modesto Fair in 1902.

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

April 2015

Manhunt!

“Tanko Invades City, Spreading Terror!"

Joe Tanko, murderer and terrorist, who, eluding hundreds of Sacramento man hunters last night, continued his spectacular holdups of Motorists in a desperate bid for freedom.

Tanko and Hall mugshots

There is nothing more exciting than a good manhunt! A notorious criminal is on the run! His picture stares out from the front page of the newspapers with a large reward attached. A frisson of excitement runs through the city. At any moment this desperado could appear, die in a shoot out with police or escape again into the shadows. When it came to being hunted, there was no man better than Joe Tanko.

It all began in September 1923 when 24-year-old Tanko and his 21-year-old crime partner, Floyd Hall, fatally shot San Bruno Police Chief Arthur G. Meehan. They were caught a few weeks later when a letter from Tanko to his brother, in which he admitted to 40 robberies and to killing Meehan, was given to police. Because of their youth and their guilty plea Tanko and Hall were spared the death penalty and received a life sentence instead.

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It seems that Hall, who was paroled in the late 1960s, received a full pardon in 1972 with the help of a lobbyist who fell under his charm. “They took him to the Brass Rail, a lobbyist and legislative hangout, and Hall got acquainted with everyone within an hour. He was very personable.”

While being transported to San Quentin the crime partners made their first escape attempt but they were foiled by an alert sheriff. A year later, on April 7, 1925, Tanko and Hall broke out of San Quentin by picking a lock and sliding down a jute rope. While police and armed posses searched for them, Tanko and Hall provisioned themselves with food, supplies, and firearms from store burglaries in Petaluma and Healdsburg. The pair then embarked on a spectacular crime spree.

On April 12th they carjacked a Santa Rosa rancher, on April 14th they held up a Sacramento cab driver and escaped after a shoot out with Sacramento Police.

Tanko robbery coverage

A few days later, while police staked out the highways around Sacramento, Tanko and Hall robbed Harry Litzberg’s Sacramento store, killing him in the process.

Police from neighboring communities flooded into the capital city to aid the search, to no avail. On April 21st Tanko and Hall continued their depredations by robbing two cab drivers and taking their cars. Two days later, at 17th and Q Street, they entered the car where Frank Harlow and his four year old daughter were sitting and forced Harlow to drive them out of town. As police chased them, Tanko fired into the pursuing car, severely wounding police officer Clyde Nunn. The fugitives drove on until the car ran out of gas, and then they fled on foot. They were reported to be in Auburn, then in Grass Valley. A massive manhunt pursued them; posses searched the surrounding swamps, and riverbanks without success.

On May 5th the pair commandeered a U.S. Mail truck in the town of Gold Run and made a wild drive down the mountain towards Sacramento. A flat tire caused them to abandon the truck and they disappeared into the mountain area. Over 200 deputies surrounded the area but Tanko and Hall slipped through the dragnet, stole a car and re-entered Sacramento on May 14th. A reward of $1000 was placed on their heads.

At this point Hall and Tanko decided that their chances were better if they separated. Hall was arrested the next day when an ex-con in whose room he was hiding turned him in to police for the reward money. Tanko disappeared.

By this time both men had achieved near mythic status. Hall was treated like a celebrity by a fawning press, “Captured desperado sobs at mention of his family,” was the subhead of the SF Examiner article.

While hundreds of armed men searched every rooming house in Sacramento, Tanko was reported heading for the Bay Area. On May 19th as accountant C.O. Buntly drove slowly through Golden Gate Park, a man entered his car and stuck a gun into his side. It was Joe Tanko. “Drive like hell! I don’t care where to,” he commanded. Buntly drove to North Beach and when the car became stuck in traffic on Kearny Street Tanko jumped out and escaped.

While Tanko was still at large, Hall was indicted for the murder of Litzberg and the shooting of Officer Nunn. He was convicted and sentenced to death, but the case was reversed on appeal and a second trial was scheduled. Hall was the ultimate “bad boy”- fearless, charming, and photogenic. In 1926, despite eyewitness testimony, Hall was acquitted of the shooting of Nunn. His courtroom groupies cheered mightily. After a second trial on the Litzberg murder proved inconclusive, authorities decided not to retry him, since he was already serving a life sentence for the murder of Police Chief Mehan.

Where was Tanko? For most of the next 18 months Tanko lived in Denver, supporting himself through robberies and other criminal activities. He kept his identity a secret and told his girlfriend he was a San Francisco businessman. He returned to San Francisco in October 1926 to see his other girlfriend, who knew his real identity.

On November 13th SFPD Sergeant Vernon Van Matre stood outside a basement apartment at 1373 McAllister Street preparing to arrest Willie De Bardalaben and his gang for an assault on a man and his wife. Van Matre did not expect trouble but he brought along three other policemen to block the other exits in case Willie decided to make a run for it. Sergeant Van Matre raised an outside window and saw De Bardelaben stretched out on a bed. He called out to Willie telling him that the building was surrounded and that he should come out with his hands up.

1373 McAllister
1373 McAllister -then
1373 McAllister now
1373 Mcallister Now

The suspect rose with his hands up and backed away from the officer saying, “I can’t. He’s got me covered.” As Van Matre shoved aside the screen to enter the room he was shot in the groin by Joe Tanko, who had been hiding out in the apartment. Tanko took the stairway leading to rooms above.

As he ascended the stairs, Tanko came face to face with Detective Sergeant Roney, who asked him to surrender. Tanko fired first, hitting Roney in the stomach. Though wounded seriously, Roney fired back five times, killing Tanko instantly.

When news of the shooting got out, crowds filled McAllister Street reveling vicariously in the recent drama. Almost 20,000 people visited the Coroner’s office over the few days to view the corpse of the man who had terrified Northern California. “He’s smaller than I thought he’d be” was the most popular observation.

Tanko was buried in Potter’s field in San Mateo.

So, with Tanko dead and Hall in prison for life it looked like the story was over. But that wasn’t the case.

While going through the late Kevin Mullen’s files (Kevin was a SFPD Deputy Police Chief and noted crime historian) I found a letter from a retired Sacramento attorney with an interesting story about Floyd Hall, Tanko’s partner. It seems that Hall, who was paroled in the late 1960s, received a full pardon in 1972 with the help of a lobbyist who fell under his charm. “They took him to the Brass Rail, a lobbyist and legislative hangout, and Hall got acquainted with everyone within an hour. He was very personable.”

“I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. If the rascal has not given me medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged.” William Shakespeare

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

April 2015

Bloody Monday
Three Murders Headline

There must have been something in the air on Bloody Monday, October 1st, 1951

Two of the murders occurred in the Richmond District. They both involved a marital dispute, another man, and a touch of the macabre.

Dolls in boxes

Murder on the 19th Hole

The circumstances of this case can be best understood by liberally quoting from the October 2, 1951 article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“When police called at a stately old home, at 335 Thirty First Avenue yesterday they found that Alex Craig, 54, had ended a round of golf by killing his wife. He had feared for weeks that his wife of thirty-one years was planning to leave him.

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He carefully unpacked the three dolls that his wife had bought them for Christmas and arranged them on a bed upstairs, leaving individual notes that said “We both loved you.”

On the eighteenth hole he reached a fateful decision. Then he and his wife went home...After exchanging heated words in the kitchen Craig snatched an ivory handled steak knife and plunged it into Mrs. Craig’s back...

He propped his wife’s body against the wall in a sitting position. He stepped outside and plucked a pink geranium and placed it at the throat of her housecoat. Then he located a snapshot of himself and his wife in happier days, soon after their marriage. He placed this picture in Mrs. Craig’s lap.He decided to commit suicide by drowning himself in the bathtub and filled the bathtub with water.

He did not want to be interrupted while he was drowning so he nailed the front and rear doors shut.But before he did this he decided to leave some mementos to his grandchildren. He carefully unpacked the three dolls that his wife had bought them for Christmas and arranged them on a bed upstairs, leaving individual notes that said “We both loved you.”

Then he arranged all the financial papers in a neat pile on the kitchen table. His bankbook showed a balance of exactly $1. Next he began to write notes to family members. While he was writing he began to drink from a bottle of whiskey.
Somehow all of Sunday night passed without Craig climbing into the bathtub of water. Yesterday morning Craig’s son William became alarmed and called at the home. When he found the front door nailed shut he pounded on the garage door. His father let him in. Homicide officers called to the house said the elder Craig was too drunk to tell a coherent story.

The son said Craig had been jealous and brooding in recent weeks believing that his wife was going to leave him for another man- a fellow employee at the department store. Police booked Craig on suspicion of murder.”

Peephole Murder

The Peephole Murder Case

The Peephole murder began with a mystery. Albert Friedman, President of Atlas Paper Company, was found alone, lying in his hallway at 1597 17th Avenue. There was no obvious sign of foul play. The autopsy, however, revealed that he had been shot through the eyeball with a .22 caliber bullet as he looked through the front door peephole.

Friedman had been living in fear since his wife had left and filed for divorce in June. Police found a note in Friedman’s handwriting that said, ”Belote called 9:52 Saturday Night.” Friedman also kept a diary in which he described in detail a relationship between Ray Belote and Friedman’s estranged wife, Blanche.

Police located Blanche at the family’s cabin in Guerneville. It was clear there was no love lost between husband and wife. Blanche, who had been drinking heavily, said she didn’t know anyone who might have killed Friedman, but added that everyone she knew would have enjoyed ending his life.

Police found Ray Belote hiding under her bed. Blanche claimed that she and Belote were just companions. “We just have a lot in common,” she said.

Belote admitted borrowing a 22 rifle but he said that he had been hunting at Skunk Hollow in the Russian River and had not been in San Francisco when the murder occurred. He claimed that the rifle had been stolen from his car.

Although police were suspicious they had no solid evidence. Inspector (and future Police Chief) Al Nelder was about to release Belote when new witnesses stepped forward and turned the case around.

The owners of the Willow Brook Inn, located on route 101 near Petaluma, identified Belote as the man who stopped in for drinks on the night of the murder and told them he was driving back from San Francisco.

Confronted with this evidence, Belote confessed. “I killed him because I loved his wife,” said Belote, and he denied that Blanche was involved. The coroner’s jury was suspicious but there was not enough evidence to indict Mrs. Friedman. Blanche received $75,000 from Friedman’s estate, $8,000 of which went to pay for Ray Belote’s defense.

During the trial Belote testified that Albert Friedman had no objection to his affair with Friedman’s wife. Ray also claimed that he shot through the keyhole to “scare” Friedman. The jury disagreed. Belote was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

March 2015

Barbosa mugshot
Joe Barboza, “the Animal” Shot Dead at 25th & Moraga

On February 11, 1976, when Joe Barboza was shot to death on Moraga and 25th Ave., there was little speculation about who did it or why. It was more “why did it take so long?”

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He became the first participant in the Federal Witness Protection Program and there was nothing a grateful FBI would not do for Joe. Although Joe admitted killing 26 people, he was given a sentence of one year, including time served.”

Joe Barbosa

Nicknamed “The Animal,” Barboza was described by the FBI as “The most vicious criminal in New England.” His own lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, described him as “one of the worst men on the face of the earth.” Joe had been a top enforcer for the New England Mafia, but lost favor and was abandoned by the mob when he was arrested on a weapons charge in 1966.

Where Barboza was killed

He became the first participant in the Federal Witness Protection Program and there was nothing a grateful FBI would not do for Joe. Although Joe admitted killing 26 people, he was given a sentence of one year, including time served. The FBI agents he worked with also overlooked another of Joe’s foibles – five of the six people his testimony convicted in the Deagon case were actually innocent. Joe admitted later that “the Mafia screwed me and I’m going to screw as many of them as possible.”

Twenty five years later the true facts came out and led to the disgrace and conviction of FBI agents Paul Rico and Dennis Conden.

Barbosa at trial
Would you buy a used verdict from this man?

Meanwhile, Joe was paroled in March 1969 and told to leave Massachusetts forever.

He was resettled in Santa Rosa by the Witness Protection program under the name of Joe Bentley and enrolled in a cooking school. He gave up cooking and went back to his favorite occupation, homicide, killing a local criminal named Clay Wilson.

Barbosa and lawyer

Although the FBI did everything they could to get Barboza off, he was convicted of 2nd degree murder and served 5 years in a California prison. He was released with a new name, Joe Donati, and lived with a girlfriend at an apartment at 1250 La Playa Street.

Two months later Barboza was murdered outside the apartment of Ted Sharliss, a fellow ex-con, who later pleaded guilty to helping to set up the murder. In 1992 Joe Russo, a notorious hit man from Boston, plead guilty to the murder. By the time of his death Barboza’s stature in the world had gotten somewhat classier. His nickname had changed from “The Animal” to “The Baron.”

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

February 2015

The Moskowitz Kidnapping
Bus shelter

This non-descript bus stop, located next to wealthy St Francis Woods, provided the climax to one of the most spectacular crimes of the 1950s. On the morning of January 16, 1954, realtor Leonard Moskovitz went to meet with a prospective buyer and then disappeared. By late afternoon his worried family contacted the police. Then Leonard’s father Maurice Moskovitz, the wealthy founder of the clothing store Rochester Big & Tall, received a ransom note from the kidnappers.

“Dear Dad,” Leonard wrote, “I am being held prisoner by some men. They want $500,000 ... get it for them right away or you won’t see me again. Do not let police or authorities know or they’ll kill me now if it comes out in the newspapers.”

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“I am being held prisoner by some men. They want $500,000 ... get it for them right away or you won’t see me again. Do not let police or authorities know ...”

The newspapers soon knew the story but at the request of the police, they kept silent. “Not a line was printed, not a word spoken about the city’s most sensational crime in many years,” The Chronicle wrote later. This press secrecy was a once in a lifetime event and would be impossible in today’s news world.

News account

The family negotiated with the kidnappers in the personal ads in the paper. After three nail- biting days, replete with false tips and dead ends, the case suddenly broke open.

On Tuesday at 2:45 AM one of the kidnappers called Alfred Moskovitz, Leonard’s twin brother. Alfred managed to keep the kidnapper on the phone long enough for police to track the call to a phone booth in the St Francis Circle bus stop.

Police Inspector Al Nelder was in the area when he saw movement in the phone booth. He jumped out of his car and caught Joseph Lear, one of the kidnappers. Lear led them to a house at 167 Arbor Street in Glen Park where they rescued Moskowitz and arrested Harold Jackson, the ringleader of the kidnap plot.

Jackson had an unlikely background for a kidnapper. He had once owned a private detective agency and had often worked with the police. But after two failed businesses he was desperate for money. He decided to abduct Moskowitz after reading about Leonard’s real estate company and his family’s wealth.

The story of the Moskowitz kidnapping and rescue dominated all the San Francisco papers for weeks. The Moskowitz family and the police gratefully made themselves available to the press. Leonard even wrote a first person account of his kidnapping for the newspapers.

Moskewitz Ransom Note

Jackson and Lear were tried in May, only four months after the crime. Both got the death penalty, but the sentences were changed to life in prison. Both men died in San Quentin. The case sky rocketed Al Nelder ‘s career and he became San Francisco ‘s Police Chief in 1970. Leonard Moskowitz returned to a successful business career and died in 2008 at the age of 90.

The link below is to a 1950s newsreel report on this case, narrated by the inimitable Ed Herlihy.

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

December 2014

The Death of Cornelius Stagg
Cornelius Stagg

Up until the early 1900s there was no good reason to be in the Ingleside or Sunset Districts. There were plenty of bad reasons, though. Its remote location and distance from legal oversight made it a popular place for gambling, drinking and carousing.

The most popular activity was horse racing, the sport of kings. And the titan of the turf was Cornelius Stagg, who opened the Ocean Course race Track in 1865 and ran the Ocean House. For decades, his hotel became a favored destination for prominent celebrities, politicians, and even kings.

His murder thirty years later shocked and saddened San Francisco. It was as if an old, charming but slightly disreputable uncle had died. He may not have represented the best of old San Francisco, but he certainly exemplified the most interesting.

Cornelius Stagg was born in 1829 to one of the oldest families in New York and grew up with a taste for of adventure that could not be satisfied in his home state.

Stagg came to San Francisco in 1851 and quickly made an impression on the city’s movers and shakers. His friends included theatrical producers, politicians and gamblers. Through his friendship with Senator David Broderick, Cornelius became a skilled political operative and was given the lucrative position of Inspector of Weights and Measures by the state legislature.

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Over 20,000 people flocked to the Ocean Race Track to see California’s Thad Stevens defeat Kentucky’s True Blue, proving that California thoroughbreds were as good as Eastern horses. Famous guests such as President Ulysses Grant, Buffalo Bill, and Emperor Don Pedro of Brazil visited, and the Ocean House rivaled the Cliff House for attracting wealthy sporting men.”

But there was another side to Stagg. In the 1850s Cornelius worked as an undercover detective for Mayor Garrison and reported to Detective Captain Isaiah Lees. He also served as a confidential agent for the legendary Mexican President Benito Juarez. In the 1860s, Stagg was a special federal agent in New York and went undercover to arrest illegal whiskey distillers (government taxes on alcohol were one of the main sources of federal revenue at that time). His activities made him a wealthy man, and to celebrate, he bought a pair of thoroughbred horses for $10,000 and had them shipped to San Francisco. Stagg returned to San Francisco in 1872 with a beautiful wife and a sizable bankroll.

Ingleside Race Track

In 1872, Cornelius bought the Ocean House resort, located near Eucalyptus Drive and 25th Avenue and started the Ocean Race Track. This track quickly became Ocean Beach’s top attraction and was the scene of California’s most famous race. Over 20,000 people flocked to the Ocean Race Track to see California’s Thad Stevens defeat Kentucky’s True Blue, proving that California thoroughbreds were as good as Eastern horses. Famous guests such as President Ulysses Grant, Buffalo Bill, and Emperor Don Pedro of Brazil visited, and the Ocean House rivaled the Cliff House for attracting wealthy sporting men.

But Stagg’s gambling acumen was overshadowed by his matrimonial woes. His wife was unhappy at the Ocean House. She spent Stagg’s money lavishly and eventually ran off to Philadelphia with one of Stagg’s guests, a wealthy Englishman.

It was a blow from which Cornelius never recovered. He closed Ocean Race Track, which had become unprofitable. The Ocean House mysteriously burned down on Christmas Eve 1888. He then took over the Ingleside House, located at what is now Ocean Avenue and Junipero Serra. By 1895, few visitors came to the Ingleside House and Stagg was almost bankrupt.

The last plea of Cornelius Stagg

At 10:00 Saturday night, March 16, 1895, just a handful of regulars were sitting around the bar playing liars dice at the Ingleside House when three masked men entered, all wearing long linen coats. The lead bandit entered the room and stood behind Cornelius, who was talking with an old friend. When the man demanded money, Stagg thought it was a joke and laughed. Though Stagg had lost his money he had retained his nerve. He had single-handedly fought off many previous robbery attempts on his bar. Enraged, the bandit smashed his pistol down on Stagg’s head. A few seconds later, two bullets followed and Stagg lay dead on the floor. The robbers escaped with a total of four dollars. The next day scores of San Francisco’s founders were among the hundreds of people who came to the Ingleside House to mourn his death, to celebrate his life, and to remember their youth.

Stagg’s old boss, Captain of Detectives Isaiah Lees, put every man available on the case. In the two weeks following the crime three different gangs were arrested, accused of the murder, and then later released. In the end, the leads petered out and the case remained unsolved.

Had Cornelius lived just a few months more, his fortunes would have been restored. For on November 28, 1895, The Ingleside Racetrack opened, just a few blocks from the Ingleside House. The racetrack, occupying today’s Ingleside Terraces development, brought thousands of people to the area and would have made the Ingleside House a profitable and valuable property.

Paul Drexler is a crime historian, his book, San Francisco Notorious: True tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder was published by R.J. Parker Publications in June 2019. He founded Crooks Tours of San Francisco.

November 2014



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