A Bloody San Francisco Mayoral Race

The Story

SF Chronicle editor-in-chief accuses the racist labor mayoral candidate of adultery and his dad of sundry immoralities. Candidate fires back, “His mom ran a whorehouse.” Enraged editor shoots the candidate in the street, once in the chest, once as he ran away. Wounded candidate gets elected Mayor of SF. A few months later, the mayor’s son assassinates the editor in the Chronicle building.

All of this really happened, between August 1879 and April 1880.

The Cast

The characters in this real-life soap opera were our 18th mayor, Isaac Smith Kalloch; his son, Isaac; and SF Chronicle Editor-in-Chief Charles de Young (brother of Harry de Young, namesake of the de Young Museum).

Bullets Versus Field Game

True-crime-meets-politics stories like this make me grateful to do political work in today’s San Francisco. Our politics are thorny enough as it is. I’d hate to think I needed to pack heat just to do my job. Or worse, get strung up or end up floating in the Bay. Uppity Mexicans didn’t fare too well back then.

I’ll take a laptop and some door hangers over bullets any day.