Knox Bronson

FRISCO—The Secret History

True Crime EN ↓ 33 episodes

Join us on a cinematic journey through the last wild years when San Francisco was still wide-open. The cops ran the town in the Thirties and Bones Remmer ran the town in the Forties. Battles raged between the factions of dark and light in the hidden realms of San Francisco’s power elite, behind the headlines, from the celestial dominions of Nob Hill eateries and private clubs down to the nether depths of the dive bars in the heart of the Tenderloin, up to the Barbary Coast and jazz joints of North Beach and over to the banks and brokerages in the Financial District … FRISCO will bring alive th...

Author

Knox Bronson

Episodes

Ep. 4—The Story of Johnny Ochsner, The Rich Kid Romeo, and the Lovesick Stowaways 21.07.2025 45:47

The episode chronicles the romantic life of Johnny Ochsner , a young Oakland oil heir whose escapades in the 1940s became international news. Marguerite Faye Human and Teresa Briston, separately stowawayed across the Pacific in pursuit of Johnny, driven by dreams of marriage. The story involves underage sex, a high-seas burglary, and the intervention of the FBI, naval officers, juvenile court, as...

Bonus Episode 3—When Sally Stanford Kicked Humphrey Bogart Out Of Her Flagship Pleasure Palace At 1144 Pine Street In 1941 05.07.2025 43:29

This bonus episode of "The Secret History of Frisco" podcast delves into the scandalous lives intertwined with San Francisco's notorious madam, Sally Stanford . Born Mabel Busby in 1903, Stanford's early life of poverty and a wrongful imprisonment for cashing stolen checks fueled her determination to achieve financial independence. By 21, she opened her first brothel in San Fra...

Ep. 3—The Secret Life of Bob Patterson, The Charming Ex-Con Who Terrrorized High Society With His Column, "Freddie Francisco Observes" In The 1940s 23.06.2025 43:28

The Secret Life of Freddie Francisco: A Rogue's Rise and Fall This episode of "The Secret History of Frisco" delves into the captivating, often scandalous, life of Bob Patterson , a writer of prodigious talent and even more prodigious roguishness. Under the pen name Freddie Francisco , Patterson became Northern California's most powerful newspaper columnist in the 1940s for the...

Bonus Episode No. 2—Interview with Paul Drexler, Author of "Notorious San Francisco: True Tales of Crime, Passion, and Murder" 17.06.2025 52:39

In this episode, I talk to author and historian Paul Drexler about the crime and vice rooted in the very birth of San Francisco and their evolution and influence in the city for the next hundred years. People and groups discussed in the episode include the Sydney Ducks, the Hounds, the San Francisco Police Department, Donna Fine, Sally Stanford, Bones Remmer and his mafia connections, including o...

Ep. 2 ~ The Hawaiian Princess Who Wanted To Sing 30.05.2025 37:13

I have a wonderful episode for you today, the story of the Hawaiian princess who came to San Francisco to open a nightclub where she could sing. We will again encounter lawyer Jake Ehrlich, of course. The McDonough Brothers, who controlled all the vice in the city, Chief of Police William Quinn and his corrupt Captain Fred Lemon at Central Station, also make appearances. The Princess came to Calif...

Bonus Episode No. 1—Call It Frisco! 11.05.2025 26:14

This episode explores the long and often contentious history of the nickname "Frisco" for San Francisco. Despite the strong disapproval of many, including Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, the term has deep roots stretching back to the Gold Rush era. We delve into the earliest documented uses of "Frisco" in the mid-19th century, finding it in letters from 1849 and newspapers like...

Episode 1: Vice Defined San Francisco's DNA At Its Inception 04.05.2025 45:00

Welcome to The Secret History of Frisco, a podcast peeling back the layers of San Francisco's vibrant and often illicit past during its last wide-open era, 1934 to 1953. Join host Knox Bronson as we journey through the city's smoky backrooms, bustling waterfronts, and glittering nightlife, where fortunes were made and lost, and a unique live-and-let-live ethos reigned supreme, naturally...

When Gamblers and Newspapermen Ruled The Cool Grey City of Love 20.03.2025 10:14

Ever wondered who really pulled the strings in San Francisco during its post-war golden age? It wasn't the mayor or the board of supervisors. When the war ended in 1946, San Francisco experienced an unprecedented boom. Servicemen who'd fallen in love with the city returned to stay, nightlife flourished, and business thrived in what appeared to be a model American city. But beneath this p...