The Magnificent Rogues of San Francisco

Historian Charles F. Adams brings each personality to vivid life, describing in fascinating detail their strange contributions to the first century of San Francisco’s history.

These men and women either lived lives of profound rascality or, in notable lapses from propriety, committed reprehensible acts inconsistent with their more sedate reputations.

They include:

• Talbot Green, the man who gave a street the wrong name.
• Shanghai Kelly, who supplied many a ship with a crew.
• Joshua Norton, the madman who became emperor.
• Harry Meiggs, the speculator who invented North Beach.
• The “notorious” Isaiah C. Woods.
• The reclusive philanthropist James Lick.
• William C. Ralston, the banker who went for a swim.
• Charles Crocker, who tried to fence out his neighbor.
• David Terry, the judge who shot a senator.
• Charles de Young, the publisher who shot a preacher.
• Charles E. Boles, the gentleman who became Black Bart.
• Little Pete, the evil king of Chinatown.
• The conniving Mammy Pleasant and her “house of mystery.”
• Ambrose Bierce, the writer everyone loved to hate.
• “Firebelle” Lillie Coit.
• Boss Abe Ruef.
• Albert Abrams, “the father of electronic medicine.”
• The beautiful, but scandalous Amy Crocker.
• James Flood and his secret.
• Sally Stanford, the famous madam who later became a mayor.

Each, in his or her way, added to the patina of notoriety enjoyed worldwide by the City by the Bay.