Powerless Press Podcast

Discover the shocking truth behind San Francisco’s V-J Day riot in, “The Dark Side of Victory: When Heroes Turned Villains in San Francisco.” While America celebrated the end of World War II, returning soldiers—our celebrated heroes—unleashed a violent rampage on their own streets, killing 13, injuring over 1,000, and committing heinous acts against fellow citizens. Unlike the joyous scenes in New...

Dive into the dark and dangerous life of Béla Marko, the notorious "Gangster of Budapest," whose reign of crime and charisma stretched from the heart of Hungary to the neon-lit streets of Los Angeles. With a stature that commanded fear and a lifestyle of luxury and vice, Marko's journey from a sophisticated burglary mastermind and hitman to an FBI informant is riddled with betrayal, murder, and a...

Listen to the harrowing yet ultimately redemptive tale of Chol Soo Lee, a young Korean immigrant wrongfully convicted in a chilling example of legal betrayal in the city of San Francisco. On an unsuspecting day in 1973, Lee was catapulted into a nightmare of legal injustice, manufactured by a corrupt system with no regard for truth or integrity. From the moment of his arrest, his fate was sealed a...

In San Francisco, it has always been hard to tell the cops from the robbers. From the gold-rush days when Chief Malachi Fallon's badge-wearing bandits roamed the streets to the turn of the century when the SFPD's Hall of Justice stood as a monument to corruption before falling to pieces in the great quake of '06, the city's law enforcement has been a tale of duality. Mark Twain's ink flowed freely...

In a tale laced with intrigue and corruption, Lester Garnier, a young vice cop with the San Francisco Police Department, was found shot to death in his new Corvette in 1988. The execution-style hit whispered of deep-seated corruption within the ranks. As the SFPD quickly passed the investigation to the smaller and understaffed Walnut Creek police, eyebrows raised at the apparent lack of interest i...

This story recounts the mysterious circumstances surrounding the 1966 death of Charles Sullivan, a successful black concert promoter in San Francisco, and the alleged involvement of legendary promoter Bill Graham. Stevie Nicks recalled a 1966 incident at the Fillmore Auditorium where Graham threatened to kill a heckler if he ever saw him again, illustrating his reputation for using mob-like tactic...

In the shadowy alleyways of 1880s San Francisco's Chinatown, a dark world of exploitation thrived where young Chinese girls were condemned to a life of brutal servitude, with death as their only reprieve. But from this despair, a beacon of hope emerged in the form of Donaldina Cameron, a fearless missionary with a sledgehammer and an unwavering resolve. At just 25, Donaldina took charge of the Pre...