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TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Frisco the. Secret History Podcast. I’m your host, Knox Bronson.
This is a bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. It’s my first bonus episode for Patreon subscribers. You can find Frisco on Patreon at www.Patreon.com/Frisco. All main episodes of Frisco, The Secret History will always be free.
The big movies at the end of 1928 were The Singing Fool, starring Al Jolson. The Circus, a silent comedy film by Charlie Chaplin, and Street Angel, a silent romantic drama. All were among the top grossing films of the year.
It was the release of Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie,” introducing Mickey Mouse to the world, that really caught the public’s fancy. It was the first ever animated cartoon with a film score and sound effects synchronized to the on-screen action. And everybody loved Mickey Mouse.
The top headline on December 21, 1928 read, “DESTITUTE FAMILY FORCED TO EAT CHILDREN’S PETS
LAST RABBITS FACE DEATH IN STEW POT
No Matter What Happens They Won’t Eat Cottontail That Belongs to Little Katie May
By SAM GOODHEART
No matter what happens, they won’t eat the little brush rabbit.
“Pinkie,” the big white one that was Michael’s pet, was killed last Sunday for dinner. *Fluffy’ went into the stew pot a week before that, while a certain small boy sat silent at the table, his lip trembling.
“No, mother, I ain’t hungry !”
Now the only two left in the rabbit hutch are the big black fellow that belongs to Jerry and the tiny cotton tail they caught over by Lake Merced, the one that Katie May treasures with all the love that is stored up in the heart of a tiny miss of three.
We found them yesterday morning. this family of eight children and their parents, living in a poor little shack that they have done their best to keep from fulling apart.
They were seated about an oilcloth covered table in the kitchen and their only food was coffee and bread. “Bread and coffee-coffee and bread.” laughed the mother with a brave attempt at cheerfulness. “But we cannot bring ourselves to eat the guinea pigs, and one thing we will never do-we will never kill Katie May’s cottontail.”
Other stories on the front page that day was a history of the refineries on Contra Costa County’s Oil Coast, stretching from Richmond to Martinez, announcements of a live Yuletide concert on radio station KYA, tree lightings, Christmas charities, and the strange case where the paper tracked down the identity of a female jaywalker who had been arrested a couple days earlier and interviewed her.
The headline said, Jaywalking Blonde’s Identity Established and the story read, “Still blonde, still indignant the mysterious jaywalker who would have no traffic with police officers was located yesterday by The Examiner.”
Her name is Mrs. Laura Wallet and she lives at 755 O’Farrell street.
(Can you believe how the paper published her address? This was common practice in that era.)
And she still has very uncomplimentary opinions of Police Officer James Clooney, who put her in the ding-dang wagon Tuesday night because she refused to come back after ignoring a traffic signal.
To hear the rest of this bonus Frisco: The Secret History episode, please make your way to Patreon.com/Frisco and sign up for the $5 a month “Cooking With Gas” membership tier. Of course you may signup for more expensive tiers which offer more perks.
The mystery of the strange name and address she gave police Tuesday night was also cleared up yesterday.
“It got awfully cold in that jail and I decided it was best to go home and turn on the radiator and the radio,” she said. “Some very nice officer asked me my name and I said didn’t want to give it. He said to give any name, so I called myself Mrs. Lee Forsythe of the Palace Hotel. I think that sounds pretty good. When the officer blew his whistle at me, I was almost across the street and late for an appointment. He ordered me to come back. but there was great big truck starting across the street, and who am to risk my life for a police officer?”
Mrs. Wallet 1s the wife of Mal Wallet, a radio salesman. She is a former modiste of Seattle, where she was in business for a number of years. Modiste being an outmoded term for a women’s clothing designer.
There were no further gang-related murders in San Francisco that year.
There are a lot of conflicting stories about the La Cosa Nostra presence in San Francisco, local legends like Giuseppe Alioto’s partnership with Lanza in Fisherman’s Wharf and the motives and fallout from the four year murder span. I asked local historian Matteo Galante for his take on that particular slice of San Francisco history.
This is what Matteo wrote:
I don’t think Lanza necessarily had an ascension in the SF underworld. I think it was more like he was dispatched from New York to be the boss – to organize the mafiosi among the black handers – and was recognized as such by the mafiosi due to his underworld stature (though not everyone liked it, like the number two man, Joe Piazza). Sam Lima was also already a boss in Ohio a decade before he came to SF around the same time as Lanza, so they were two powerful figures that were already known for organizing criminals. Alioto was powerful on the wharf in his own right, but was not safe from the mafia.
At the start of Prohibition, Lanza’s focus was legitimate business. He was successful and already wealthy. Lanza didn’t need to shake down residents or businesses, and I think that helped keep him more underground while the younger racketeers were extorting everyone and getting arrested or killed.
The underworld was a game of chess, and the Lanza/Lima combination knew their moves, while the Ferri/Malvese duo played a sloppy game of checkers. For example, I have not read anything about anyone from the Ferri gang who was in the grape or olive oil or insurance or real estate business; In other words, they made no attempt at legitimacy and stuck to being simple gangsters, extortionists, bootleggers, hijackers, gun runners, occasionally owning a cafe to launder money.
Now to circle back to the beginning. Lanza arrived shortly after Ingrassia and Mariano Alioto were killed by the Pedone-LaFata gang, predating any organizing of a San Francisco family structure.
Between two of his family members being killed and fishermen being extorted, like Alioto’s old boss, and Alioto himself targeted in the 20s by Piazza, I believe this is the reason for the Alioto-Lanza partnership, to have the protection of the family from being extorted and physical threat. Alioto also recognized Lanza an aggressive businessman.
Lanza’s relationship with the Aliotos included a one year partnership in the Consolidated Fishing Company. Together, they built the Exposition Fish Grotto, beginning in 1935 and finishing in 1937, shortly before Lanza died. The Lanza boys, James and Anthony, sold their interest in the restaurant shortly after Frank died. That is the extent of the Alioto-Lanza partnership as far as I’ve been able to uncover, but it seems to have been enough to keep Alioto in a respectable standing with the underworld.
[Intermezzo]
Be sure to listen to the Bones Remmer Part One episode for more on the Mafia’s discreet presence in San Francisco through the years.
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Once again, I’m your host, Knox Bronson.
Thank you for listening. Until next time, please get a little crazy and call it Frisco.