The Laughing Gorilla

by Robert Graysmith

  “You see, officers, I just couldn’t get autopsies out of my mind.”

  Dullea stood looking at the Gorilla Man under the naked bulb. He had got it—finally. It came to him now like a ghostly touch on his shoulder, the invisible clue that had been there all along, but hidden away in his subconscious like a fingerprint inside a radio. He had known the name of the Gorilla Man from the very beginning. Harry Gordon and Wilhelm Johannsen were only two of the Gorilla Man’s names. At long last he had found Mrs. Johnston’s missing husband.

  Acknowledgments

  This six-year project was made effortless through the moral support and encouragement of Dr. Derek Penn, Dr. Elizabeth Nubla-Penn, J. D. Lester, Diane Nelson, Annie Yuen, Aaron Smith, David Smith, Margot Graysmith, Wilialak “Sow” Prakhe Smith, Rayluk Addison Smith, Harmony Manao Smith, Zoe Briao Smith, Larry and Lillian Abrusci, Steve Mortenson, Mike “Murph” Murphy, Harvey Hodgerney, Melanie Graysmith, Gary Fong, Victor Santos, Andry Muljadi, Kevin Fagan, Rick Romagosa, Brad Garrett, Maria Mendoza, the gang at Kayo Books, Kevin J. Mullen and those at the Penguin Group who made this book a tangible reality: Judy Murello, Crissie Johnson, and Julia Fleischaker.

  Most especially I want to thank the professional guides who helped me track the loping stride of the Laughing Gorilla along the path of this thrilling adventure: Jaime Wolf for sage legal guidance, Candace B. Levy for amazing copyediting, Joel Gotler, the most extraordinary agent in America in both film and book, and my brilliant editors Michelle Vega, whom I could listen to all day, and Natalee Rosenstein, who has the vision and imagination of a true artist.

  Author’s Note

  Whenever I choose a story, or more precisely when a story chooses me, I immerse myself in the time period and visit all the sites in the narrative. Sometimes I move to where the crime took place. In the six years it took to write the history of The Laughing Gorilla, I moved to within nine blocks of Jessie Hughes’ San Francisco home, close to the former Urbano Drive home of murderous public defender Frank Egan. As I write this, I can see the El Rey Theatre from my window. In April 1932, a young couple left that movie palace to find the crumpled body of Egan’s benefactor. This grim find eventually led to Captain Dullea recognizing the deep corruption within the SFPD, prosecuting the crooked cops, and beginning his battle to become the new chief of police. I still haunt the Ferry Building, which has been restored to its former greatness, and stop at the bulkhead of Piers 26 and 28 nearby where Dullea’s friend, Officer Malcolm, was gunned down. I lunch at the park that replaced the Bay Hotel and have visited Dr. Housman’s former office on an upper story of the Flood Building.

  I worked at the San Francisco Chronicle for fifteen years where old-timers told me stories of the Depression era and the crooked cops and officials who once ran the city. In composing this never-before-told tale, I consulted blueprints of the Ferry Building and the Chronicle, studied streetcar and ferry schedules, daily weather conditions, stock market activity of 1935, city protocol, and a 1935 handbook for the St. Francis Hotel staff. I pored over period photos, books, vintage fashion books and listened to radio drama and commercials of the thirties. I consulted autopsy and police reports, court records, and the 1937 Atherton Report on Graft within the SFPD. For years I attended the Embassy Theatre on Market where Mrs. Hughes went and played Ten-O-Win games with the audience on the same wheel the Embassy used in 1928. The story of the Laughing Gorilla, never before told, is constructed in threes: the three betrayals Captain Dullea endured, the three murder suspects, and the three seemingly impossible tasks he faced: to clean up the corrupt police force, to depose Chief Quinn, and to capture the Gorilla Man.

  Selected References

  BOOKS:

  Badal, James Jessen. In the Wake of the Butcher. Cleveland’s Torso Murders. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2001. An excellent case study.

  Bassett, Burton (featuring Sheriff James J. McGrath). “The Case of the Laughing Killer.” American Detective Fact Cases (1936), 6, No. 7.

  Bayer, Oliver Weld. Cleveland Murders. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947.

  Browne, Douglas G., and E. V. Tullett. The Scalpel of Scotland Yard. New York: Dutton, 1952.

  Burchill, Detective Sergeant John. Winnipeg Police Service, History and Museum. Winnipeg Police Historic Files.

  Crimes and Punishment. Vol. 20. Westport, CT: Stuttman, 1994.

  De River, J. Paul. The Sexual Criminal. Burbank, CA: Bloat, 2000.

  Diefendorf, Fred. “Snaring California’s Sex-crazed ‘Jack The Ripper.’” Headline Detective 3, no. 6 (1940). May 13, 1939. An important source.

  Dullea, Captain Charles, and Harold J. Fitzgerald. “San Francisco’s Dictograph Death Plot.” Startling Detective 9, no. 53 (1932).

  Flamm, Jerry. Good Life in Hard Times. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.

  Forgy, M. Lee. “Passion Slaying of the Nude Red Head.” Detective World, Mar. 25, 1950, p. 30.

  Fox, Richard H., and Carl L. Cunningham. Crime Scene Search and Physical Evidence Handbook. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1973.

  Fraley, Oscar. 4 Against the Mob. New York: Popular Library, 1961.

  Garvey, John. San Francisco Police Department. San Francisco: Arcadia, 2004.

  Gilliam, Harold. San Francisco Bay. New York: Doubleday, 1957.

  Grey, Wilton. “Cleveland’s Headless Six.” American Detective Fact Cases 6, no. 1 (1936).

  Gribben, Mark. Earle Leonard Nelson. Court TV’s Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods, 2004.

  Harper, Hugh D. Letter to Holland Rush. July 17, 1935.

  Holland, Rush L. Letter to Hugh Harper. July 15, 1935.

  Hoover, J. Edgar. Letter to John Shuttleworth. Aug. 20, 1935. Reprinted American Detective Fact Cases, 4, no.6 (1936).

  Jackson, Joseph Henry. San Francisco Crimes: The Laughing Killer of the Woodside Glens. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947. An important source.

  Kemble, John Haskell. San Francisco Bay, A Pictorial Maritime History. Cambridge, MD: Cornell Maritime Press, 1957.

  Lewis, Oscar. San Francisco: Mission to Metropolis. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books, 1966.

  Lehman, David. The Perfect Murder, A Study in Detection. New York: Free Press, 1989.

  Long, Sheriff Ray, and Frank H. Ward. “Hunting Down Ohio’s Gorilla Man.” The Master Detective 12, no. 4 (1935).

  Masters, R. E. L., and Eduard Lea. Perverse Crimes in History. New York: Julian Press, 1963.

  Martin, John Bartlow. Butcher’s Dozen. New York, 1949. An outstanding book.

  McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression. New York: Times Books, 1994.

  McMahon, Inspector William, and Jack De Witt. “The Mystery of the Missing Beauty.” American Detective 4, no. 6 (1936).

  Morland, Nigel. An Outline of Sexual Criminology. New York: Hart, 1967.

  Malloy, Lieutenant James (as told to Bennett L. Williams). “How We Solved San Francisco’s Most Sensational Crime.” Famous Detective Cases 3, no. 4 (1936).

  Mull, Sheriff Brover C. (as told to Bob McLean). “California’s Music Murder.” American Detective Fact Cases 6, no. 1 (1936).

  Mullen, Kevin J. The Toughest Gang in Town. Novato: Noir, 2005.

  Nash, Robert. Murder, America. Homicide in the U.S. from the Revolution to the Present. London: Harrap, 1980.

  ———. Bloodletters and Badmen. New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1975.

  Ness, Eliot, and Oscar Fraley. The Untouchables. New York: Julian Messner, 1957.

  Newsom, Ted. “Confessions of a Hollywood Gorilla.” Filmfax 16 (Aug. 1989): 30. The source for Corrigan’s gorilla suit story.

  Olmsted, Nancy. The Ferry Building. Berkley, CA: Heyday Books, 1998.

  Pezet, A. W. Greatest Crimes of the Century. New York: Rainbow Books, 1954.

  Proctor, Jacqueline. San Francisco’s West of Twin Peaks. San Francisco: Ardcadia, 2006.

  Redmond, Ian. Gorilla. New York: Knopf, 1995.

  Rules and Procedures: Police Department. City and County of San Francisco.
1930, 1940, 1965, 1971.

  San Francisco Committee on Crime. A Report on the San Francisco Police Department , Parts I-II. Berkeley, CA: Western Star Press, 1971.

  Schechter, Harold. Bestial. New York: Pocket Books, 1998.

  Sifakis, Carl. America’s Most Vicious Criminals. New York: Checkmark Books, 2002.

  Smith, Bruce Jr. “Report of a Survey of the San Francisco California Police Department.” 1957.

  Starr, Kevin. Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Source for the McCarty/Quinn conversation.

  Tatham, Inspector Richmond (as told to Dean S. Jennings). “The Man in the White Mask.” True Detective Mysteries, Feb. 1936, pp. 14-19, 66-78.

  “The 1937 Atherton Report on Graft within the San Francisco Police Department.” Compiled by the Mayor’s Commission headed by Edwin Atherton, The San Francisco Grand Jury, Assistant District Attorney Leslie Gillan.

  Time-Life editors. Our American Century: Hard Times: The 30s. New York: Time-Life, 1968-1998.

  True Crime: Compulsion to Kill. Time-Life Books.

  Wilson, Colin, and Seaman, Donald. The Serial Killers, A Study in the Psychology of Violence. New York: Carol Publishing Group.

  Wilson, Colin, Written in Blood. Books I-III. New York: Warner Books, 1989.

  NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

  “Another big shakeup due next week,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 1940, p. 1.

  “Bandits make off with Market Street Railway strong box,” San Francisco Examiner , January 28, 1933, p. 4.

  “Board fires 11 police, puts off action on trio as Roche set shakeup,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 4, 1936. p. 1.

  “Cameras to catch rare sky drama, Scientists set to ‘trap’ eclipse today,” San Francisco Examiner, April 28, 1930, p. 1.

  “Captain Bunner’s $110,000 wealth,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1936, p.1.

  “Car believed used to crush body of Mrs. Hughes found,” San Francisco Examiner, May 13, 1932, p. 1.

  “Cases against 12 police completed, row livens trial,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 2, 1936, p. 8.

  “Chilly mountaintop Mecca, Dullea attends Easter celebration on Mount Davidson,” San Francisco Examiner, April 21, 1935, p. 20.

  “City may sue graft cops for back wages, loss of pension looms,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1936, p. 1.

  “City to have flying squad,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 10, 1929, p. 6.

  “City will postpone replacing ex-cops,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 8, 1936, p. 6.

  “‘Conscience? I haven’t any,’ Selz says,” “Flattery wrung death stories from Selz, says detective,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 1936, p. 8.

  “Cops map court fight to evade trial, Board upholds right as Jury,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 1936, p. 1.

  “[Cops] On their way to sheriff’s office,” “Roche explains Commission delay,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 4, 1936, p. 4.

  “Death suspect linked to hotel killing,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 11, 1936, p. 1.

  “Defender turned defendant,” San Francisco Examiner, June 9, 1932, p. 9.

  “Defiant witnesses refuse to talk in police graft quiz; Silent Shannon thrown out,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 7, 1936, p. 1.

  “Doran admits Egan called him,” San Francisco Examiner, June 4, 1932, p. 1.

  “Doran who drove Egan gives up,” San Francisco Examiner, June 14, 1932, p. 1.

  “Dr. Shumate, son face Graft Jury summons, McDonoughs, bail bond brokers, also expected to be called,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 26, 1936, p.1.

  “Dullea chief,” San Francisco Examiner, February 15, 1940, p. 1.

  “Dullea, the new chief happy as a kid when he changes offices, Former chief may enter radio work,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 1940, p.8.

  “Egan and 2 others will make murder charge plea today,” San Francisco Examiner, June 14, 1932, extra, p. 1.

  “Egan case brings order for arrest of 2 ex-convicts,” San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 1932, p. 1.

  “Egan case ruling, Mayor’s suspension of official set precedent, parallel seen as police refuse to testify,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 1936, p. 5.

  “Egan ruled in contempt,” San Francisco Examiner, June 10, 1932, p. 6.

  “Egan’s money woes,” “Egan search extended,” San Francisco Examiner, May 5, 1932, p. 1.

  “$800,000 officer shows accounts in new jury quiz,”San Francisco Chronicle, June 4, 1936, p. 1.

  “Farrell, cop indicted in burglary, jailed for slugging Capt. Skelly,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 15, 1936, p. 1.

  “$56,822 riches bared by Inspector Gallivan,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 6, 1936, p. 4.

  “Fingerprints may link Selz to Richmond murder,” San Francisco News-Call, March 12, 1936, p. 8.

  “4 ex-G-men chosen to aid probe police, $50,000 appropriation for costs up today,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 1936, p. 1.

  “Fourteen silent police will know fate today,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 3, 1936, p. 1.

  “Frank Egan found in hospital here, guarded by police,” San Francisco Examiner, May 7, 1932, p. 1.

  “Frank Egan ‘taken for ride,’ mystery man informs wife,” San Francisco Examiner, May 4, 1932, p. 1.

  “‘Get police slayer,’ orders chief,” San Francisco Examiner, April 30, 1930, p. 1.

  “Girl identifies ‘Harry,’” San Francisco Examiner, solving of hotel murder bares killing of first wife in N. Y. July 9, 1940, p. 4.

  “Graft quiz results in shakeup,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 1936, p. 6.

  “Hassing indicted in burglary,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 20, 1935, p.1.

  “Housman, guilty on 3 dope counts,” San Francisco Examiner, February 18, 1940, p. 1.

  “Housman jury locked up,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 17, 1940, p. 6.

  “Housman trial lawyers square off for fist fight,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 16, 1940, p. 8.

  “How can police board keep any of the men found guilty and face the people?” San Francisco Examiner, July 6, 1936, editorial page.

  “Jury indicts four S. F. policemen,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 1936, p. 1.

  “Killer brags of travel,” San Francisco Chronicle, March 2, 1936, p.6.

  “Laugh slayer says he saw world by being kicked around,” San Francisco News-Call , March 12, 1936, p. 8.

  “Laws that aid criminal,” Captain Dullea interview, San Francisco Examiner, May 17, 1932, p. 8.

  “Lewis Lapham, Along the Waterfront,” San Francisco Examiner, November 18, 1934, p. 6.

  “Lieut. Fogarty tells of $44,000 fortune; Hoertkorns still silent,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 25, 1936, p. 1.

  “Mayor backs up Roche in trial of cops,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 30, 1936, p. 1.

  “Monk clue fizzle, suspect denies he’s Shannon’s pal,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 4, 1936, Financial section, p. 1.

  “More funds demanded to probe police graft,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 6, 1936, p. 1.

  “Mrs. Hughes alive when hit by auto,” San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1932, p. 1.

  “Mum police will face legal blast of 3 fronts today,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 18, 1936, p. 8.

  “Murder verdict in Hughes death; hold Egan and Doran, Jury asks,” San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1932, p. 1.

  “Officer Madden bares $834,000 in bank deposits,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 2, 1936, p. 1.

  “Officer’s case goes to Grand Jury tonight,” San Francisco Examiner, November 19, 1934, p. 1.

  “Police board member Traung dies,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 6, 1940, p. 1.

  “Police killer man-hunt,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1930, p. l.

  “Policeman slain in payroll holdup,” San Francisco Examiner, April 30, 1930, p. 1.

  “Police Shakeup,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 15, 1940, p. 1.


  “Police Shakeup, Dullea sworn in as chief, orders drastic changes,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 16, 1940, p. 1.

  “Police tales as to wealth questioned,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 1936, p.1.

  “Police wife ill, misses Jury quiz,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 1936, p. 1.

  “Quinn’s order affects five lieutenants, The Chief exiles the opposition to him in the SFPD,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 10, 1930, p. 1.

  “Quinn suspends 4 more police,” San Francisco Call-Bulletin, May 16, 1936, p. 1.

  “Roche, assailed in trial of cops, offers to resign,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 1936, p. 1.

  “Rossi choice expected to end deadlock,” San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 1940, p. 1.

  “Scores see thugs murder officer, flee with payroll,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1930, p. l.

  “Seaman admits slaying 2 women,”: “I don’t know why I did it, ‘Blue haze came over me,’” San Francisco Examiner, July 9, 1940, p. 4.

  “Sergeant seized, freed at crime scene, jury told,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 20, 1935, p. 1.

  “Selz bares plot to poison 2,” San Francisco News-Call, March 12, 1936, p. 8.

  “Selz girl pal called tough proposition,” San Francisco News-Call, March 12, 1936, p. 8.

  “Selz given life; Poker slayer pleads guilty in surprise move,” San Francisco Chronicle , April 13, 1936, p. 1.

  “Selz linked to 4th murder,” San Francisco Examiner, March 12, 1936, p. 8.

  “S.F. cop hid $25,000 in woodpile, he says,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 1, 1936, p. 8.

  “S. F. priest swept to sea off beach,” San Francisco Call-Bulletin, May 16, 1936, p. 1.

  “S.F. sergeant is arrested as safe cracker,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 11, 1934, p. 1.

  “7 officers file report on extra cash,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 6, 1936, p. 6.

  “Sex murderer scoffs at prospect of death,” “Tells how he slew 3,” (photo caption)” Claiming he is ready to go to the gas chamber, Harry Gordon, seaman, yesterday told to all who would listen how he murdered three women,” San Francisco Examiner, June 10, 1940, p. 4.