#25 Bones Remmer Bribe Attempt Refused!—Freddie Says No To Gambler's Cash

In this episode, I talk about the time well-known grifter, Charles Auberguy, he of the Frisco netherworld and serial inheritance scams, contacted San Francisco Examiner columnist Freddie Francisco, ex-con and brilliant chronicler of high society foibles and underworld gossip, with a lucrative bribe offer, $500 a month, for laying off Chin Lim Mow, aka The Chinaman, gambling boss of San Mateo County.Freddie played along and invited Auberguy to come visit him at his luxury apartment atop Nob Hill, replete with butler, the following week.Immediately, Examiner Editor Bill Wren, Freddie, reporters Ernie Lenn and Ed Montgomery decided to capture the whole thing on tape, and laid out the plan. A few hours before the appointed time, they wired Freddie's plush digs for sound.Auberguy showed up right on time and tossed some carefully folded bills on the table. Freddie maneuvered him over to the stereo where the microphone was hidden and drilled him for details about the who what when and the how much he was going to make each month. We have a transciption of that conversation in the episode..When Freddie spoke the agreed upon phrase, the two reporters, the sound man and the photographer, burst out of the back room, flash bulbs popping.Auberguy didn't protest. He smiled sheepishly, picked up his cash, and walked out into the night.There was a fair amount of fallout. A sledgehammer raid at The Chinaman's 101 Club south of the city. Police blockades at Bone's Club on Turk and Ed Sahati's joint at the Hotel Somerton on Geary.A lot of sound and fury, but nothing really changed in Frisco. That would take a few more years.Come to think of it, that might have been the first payoff Freddie Francisco ever turned down.