September 8 - Sept 13, 2023 Central California/San Francisco (Chinatown Squad Part 1)

September 8, 2023 12:01 a.m. Central California

In April 1978, the special police system in Chinatown was abolished, and a provision was made for the ultimate establishment of a police unit of police officers, reporting directly to the chief of police who would be charged with enforcing the law and keeping the peace in Chinatown: The Chinatown Squad.

Kevin J Mullen

I took three walks today and photographed various fruit trees. I stopped and gazed at a stream and saw minnows and then realized they were tadpoles. I collected tadpoles from my aunt and uncle's farm in Ohio when I was a kid. They spawned in a giant cement tub-like thing with flies buzzing all around. Sometimes the tadpoles were fat with tiny hind-legs.

I'd bring the tadpoles back to our home in Massillon and put them in an aquarium and raise them into frogs. Sometimes they'd die and become sluggy and sticky. I don't remember what I did with the dead ones. I probably flushed them down the toilet.

It's beautiful here. The grass and fields are dry-dirt brown and the trees are various shades of green, making the occasional pink lilies pop out like naked ladies. The crepe myrtles are in full bloom; their flowers bursting like cotton candy.

I'm still reading Chinatown Squad about the early days of Chinatown, but fast forwarded a bit and watched a documentary about the Golden Dragon Massacre of 1977. I had no idea that the guys who were convicted were seventeen years' old during the time of the massacre. Some of them went to a high school down right down the hill at Galileo High. The Dragon Restaurant Massacre happened when I was ten years old. Huge national news, back when a mass shooting had shelf life. That hit, from what I can tell, was over a fireworks racket. I can't fathom bloodbaths happening over fireworks. My main association with fireworks is touring through the south and seeing them for sale along the highways.

September 9, 2023 - 12:34 pm Central California

Caroline and I had lunch today. She must have been reading my mind when, when she said, Do you want to go to the river today?

We went back to the house and I got a towel and a bottle of water and off we went to Coloma, where gold was discovered on January 24, 1848. There's a little spot there along the American River where I love to swim. I waded around in the freezing cold water while Caroline sat on the bank, looking like a goddess. I took photos of raspberries, cherry trees and the river. The river water is so clear and fresh that I don't bath in city water for a few days after swimming there.

Ever since an enormous tree fell in my yard, I keep noticing trees in ways I've never noticed. Which is a redwood? Which is a cedar? Which is a sequoia? At 56, for the first time in my life, I'm interested in trees. Caroline and I walk past all of these trees and I think, Why did that one fall? Why did that one not fall? Is that tree stronger than the others? During the winters, the tree was what made Christmas, Christmas. I'd look out the window and see its long branches covered in snow. Those Christmases were some of the most enchanting of my life. Caroline, me, and her dog. Then later, her cat. Then her cat passed. We'll spend next Christmas with her new cats. My mom calls pets ‘a contract of sorrow’ because they always pass. My mom had a cat that lived to be about twenty. One of the best times I had out here, was Thanksgiving with Caroline, Butch and Nathan. We watched Drugstore Cowboy. A few years later Butch died in his sleep at 60. I’ll never watch Drugstore Cowboy again. I prefer my last memory of watching it to be that Thanksgiving with Butch.

September 9, 2023 1:27 pm Central California

While walking along the shops in Nevada City last night, Caroline pointed out a quilt she liked in a storefront; a store that was closed. A friend drove me out there today to buy it for Caroline, as surprise. When we arrived, the woman working there said that the quilt had to be raffled.

But I'm here now. I've got cash. How much is it?

Sorry, it's raffle only.

It's Ok. I'll buy her a gift somewhere else. Best of luck with your raffle.

When we left, I looked back, and there she stood, in the empty store; the quilt collecting dust in the window. I don’t understand people. I’ll never forget San Francisco, during covid 2020, not accepting cash. Not accepting cash, in the homeless capitol of the USA is cold. I get it. It was covid. People were dying. But San Francisco is particularly uppity, elitist, and straight-up delusional, regarding homelessness. It wasn’t always like that. Now, people with 2.8 million dollar homes call the newspapers every time a homeless person pees in their yard. Moving to San Francisco and having issues with homeless people, is the definition of insanity. It would be like moving to Orlando, Florida and having issues with Disneyworld. If you didn’t get the memo, San Francisco is in the top 10 homeless capitols of the United States; one of six California cities in the top 10.

We're heading back to San Francisco tonight or tomorrow.

September 11, 2023 2:48 pm. San Francisco

Met Caroline at Molinari. I had a nice walk down there and took a photo of 819 Washington Street. Little Pete from the Sam Yups was shot and killed there by a member of the See Yups for ratting See Yup members out, regarding 'graft sack' issues. Grafting was when cops or gangs got paid off by the illegal trades happening in Chinatown; gambling, racketeering, brothels, the opium trade; wherever cash is flowing. I walked around Chinatown taking photos until my legs felt like they were going to fall off.

I'm back at my apartment now - same place I was when September 11 happened. I fell asleep on my couch at 4:00 a.m. that morning watching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At around 9 a.m. my phone kept ringing. I finally got up and walked to my hallway and answered the phone. Maria said ‘turn on the TV’ and hung up.

I turned on the TV, saw the towers going down, then I looked out my window and saw people in other apartments gathered around TV sets. I fell into a depression-induced spell and walked all the way to The Mission District to get some material for the chair I'm sitting in now, then walked over to Maria's. Her roommate and his girlfriend were in the living room, watching TV, white as ghosts. I didn't bother them. I felt numb and scared. I had a tour scheduled for Europe later that month - a few dates in Portugal - and I can't remember where else. I called Monica, my Portuguese tour-contact, the next day, and explained that I had to cancel. She begged me to please get on the plane, that the shows were sold out. I told her that I was sorry, but no way was I getting on a plane. I didn't get on a plane again until the following April 2002 when I did a west coast tour with the band The Church. What a funny camp those guys were; each bandmember had their own T-shirt and solo album, as if they were KISS.

September 12, 2023 9:01 pm San Francisco

Went to bed watching Warrior, the HBO series based on Bruce Lee’s fiction. Cool series, but for some reason I doubt Bruce Lee wrote the bulk of these scenes. The modern TV guide-lined take on the Chinatown 150 years ago is interesting, but I don’t recall episodes like this in Kung Fu (1972- 1975), which were apparently written by the same man.

At 100 pages into Chinatown Squad, a white woman enters the streets of Chinatown. Donaldina Cameron, from New Zealand, came to San Francisco to rescue Chinese sex workers. The book says that a building at 920 Sacramento Street was named after her. I took a photo of the address on my walk to Caroline’s earlier today. Though the book (2008 Noir Publications) says the building is named after her, as of now, this is what the building is called.

A guy named William Biggy was an on/off man-in-charge of the Chinatown Squad. One year he was the top dog. The next year, he’d be replaced by another lieutenant for pushing his weight around in the graft game. One thing leads to another and he ends up with more enemies than friends and drowns while being transported from San Francisco to ‘the state mental hospital’ (wherever that was). Nobody knows whether someone threw him off the boat of if he committed suicide. He died in 1908.

The number of white guys employed to be chief of the squad and then taken off the squad and then put back on the squad is mind boggling. I’m making play-by-play notes about the perpetually revolving door of guys who were in charge of the Chinatown Squad, but won’t bore you, except to say that some of them had no police experience. At some point a saloon owner named Harry Flannery was put in charge. In no time, Flannery sends a telegram to a guy named Joe Abbott in Seattle, telling him to come down to San Francisco so the two of them can take over Chinatown. Joe Abbott sells him out, Flannery goes to trial. He’s acquitted, but never works for the police again.

The fires of 1906 were a turning point for many facing charges before the earthquake. Many documents burned and many who were charged, fled. By 1907 most were back in San Francisco facing the charges they’d temporarily evaded.

September 13, 2023 12:31 pm San Francisco

While at dinner earlier tonight with Caroline, I was trying hard to remember the waiter’s name, when he said, Giorgio. I told him, I’ll always remember it. I’ll think of Papagiorgio in National Lampoon’s Las Vegas Vacation. Caroline didn’t remember the movie very well, so we watched it before bed. While watching the movie, we noticed the casino scene with Chevy Chase and Wallace Stevens, who plays the blackjack dealer. Caroline asked, ‘Does the dealer’s nametag say Massillon, Ohio?’

We paused the movie and I took a photo. His nametag did read: Massillon, Ohio, though it was misspelled. Caroline looked it up on some website called Movie Mistakes or something and found this information:

Factual error: On Marty the blackjack dealer's name tag, his hometown is spelled out 'Masellon, OH'. It should be 'Massillon'.

September 13, 2023 4:02 pm San Francisco

Caroline and I went searching for 855 Washington Steet today. I read that Jung Fong, a member of the Suey Sings, was murdered at a restaurant there by a member of the Hop Sings, over a dispute regarding a ‘Chinatown Corruption Fund.’ The address now looks to be a closed down hair salon. From there we walked to Molinari where I had a Joe’s Special and Caroline had a Renzo’s Special. From there I walked and got a black and white disposable camera on Sutter Street, then bought groceries at California and Polk. I’m going to have scrambled eggs and potatoes for dinner tonight. Keeping it simple before my trip to Los Angeles tomorrow.